Electric cars.

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Another early EV - apparently in February, 1922.

247277113_10159458619313363_8392348706189932812_n.jpg


There is some evidence of emissions from a vehicle using an earlier technology on the road surface.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I drove an EV once. Clover dairies milk float on the Stone Road back in the late 60's during a student summer job. Two pedals, a goer and a stopper and a large curved metal bar to steer it by. The batteries were a large bank of lead acid accumulators sitting under the platform at the back.
Carried a fair bit of weight when it was fully loaded up. Each night the floats would be parked and plugged into chargers outside in the yard, now all long gone and covered in houses. I didn't have a car licence at the time but as they were three wheelers I was allowed to drive it on a bike licence (I'm still not sure if that was legal as there was an unladen weight restriction, I think of 8 cwt on that. While a Reliant was OK, all those batteries on a milk float might have pushed them over the top.)

Still the cops were hardly likely to get into a high speed pursuit with a milk float (I remember some motorway cops were driving around in Daimler Darts back then.)

Well I've milked that post for all it's worth ARF ARF !! :rofl:(Do ya get it ..... :heyhey: ..... I should get paid for this shit.) 🥛🥛
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I drove an EV once. Clover dairies milk float on the Stone Road back in the late 60's during a student summer job. Two pedals, a goer and a stopper and a large curved metal bar to steer it by. The batteries were a large bank of lead acid accumulators sitting under the platform at the back.
Carried a fair bit of weight when it was fully loaded up. Each night the floats would be parked and plugged into chargers outside in the yard, now all long gone and covered in houses. I didn't have a car licence at the time but as they were three wheelers I was allowed to drive it on a bike licence (I'm still not sure if that was legal as there was an unladen weight restriction, I think of 8 cwt on that. While a Reliant was OK, all those batteries on a milk float might have pushed them over the top.)

Still the cops were hardly likely to get into a high speed pursuit with a milk float (I remember some motorway cops were driving around in Daimler Darts back then.)

Well I've milked that post for all it's worth ARF ARF !! :rofl:(Do ya get it ..... :heyhey: ..... I should get paid for this shit.) 🥛🥛
My 1982 licence specifies the unladen weight of a three-wheeler driven in those circumstances as 'up to 425kg'.

The unladen weight of even the most ladylike of milk floats would be towards two tons - http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/9th-july-1971/58/british-electric-vehicles-model-by-model

The UK does not have a statute of limitations on criminal offences, I wonder if there is a reward on offer?
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
I am delighted to report that the French do indeed have electricity. This makes electric cars there viable.

In other news, there appear to be no pubmen over here whatsoever...
Thanks for the update.
Electricity now but do they still make do with primitive toilets ?
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
Even as an EV owner that… seems impractical at 20 cars as the minimum. It would require a lot of digging. It also has some weird issues like what do you do with multi-business shared car parks (like the tech park)

Kingsmead not having any is frankly criminal though, it should have been a prerequisite by the council for the build in the first place
Kingsmead flooding and electric chargers may not be such a good idea though. Oh hang on, didn't they promise it wouldn't ever flood again when the planning was being done?

Just a thought.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Even as an EV owner that… seems impractical at 20 cars as the minimum. It would require a lot of digging. It also has some weird issues like what do you do with multi-business shared car parks (like the tech park)

Kingsmead not having any is frankly criminal though, it should have been a prerequisite by the council for the build in the first place
Trouble is if you don't do stuff like this, as well a fill roads with on street charging and upgrading places like the Hough from 2 to 12 or more chargers as an absolute minimum, not to mention quadrupling the number of motorway chargers and having it all as 100kw plus charging, then come 2030, we're stuffed.

It's almost as if Boris decided on the EV only policy without properly thinking it through or having any sort of plan besides the initial headline.
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Trouble is if you don't do stuff like this, as well a fill roads with on street charging and upgrading places like the Hough from 2 to 12 or more chargers as an absolute minimum, not to mention quadrupling the number of motorway chargers and having it all as 100kw plus charging, then come 2030, we're stuffed.

It's almost as if Boris decided on the EV only policy without properly thinking it through or having any sort of plan besides the initial headline.
Very true, but I think 20 is a bad minimum to be honest, it’ll catch a lot of businesses without the means to do it and the charging providers will rip them off because they have no choice

Wouldn’t have affected us as our landlord is planning to fit a bunch anyway, he put in the cable for it when the 3-phase to our building had to be replaced.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Very true, but I think 20 is a bad minimum to be honest, it’ll catch a lot of businesses without the means to do it and the charging providers will rip them off because they have no choice

Wouldn’t have affected us as our landlord is planning to fit a bunch anyway, he put in the cable for it when the 3-phase to our building had to be replaced.
It should be set as a proportion of the workforce.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
It's almost as if Boris decided on the EV only policy without properly thinking it through or having any sort of plan besides the initial headline.

Almost ? ....... If ? ........ (Promise me you'll buck up.) 🤪😜😛

Ok ok, I know it was sarcasm, or irony ... (personally I prefer plutoniumy to irony.) :heyhey:
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Trouble is if you don't do stuff like this, as well a fill roads with on street charging and upgrading places like the Hough from 2 to 12 or more chargers as an absolute minimum, not to mention quadrupling the number of motorway chargers and having it all as 100kw plus charging, then come 2030, we're stuffed.

It's almost as if Boris decided on the EV only policy without properly thinking it through or having any sort of plan besides the initial headline.

It should be set as a proportion of the workforce.

Agreed. They don’t really care about feasibility though, if they actually wanted to make this work they’d be providing financial assistance, including exclusions where it’s simply not feasible (I can think of some quite rural examples where a three phase supply would never be fed to) and scrapping EV VAT (and public charger VAT which they just introduced… twats)

It’s aaaaall just for show
 

gilesjuk

Well-Known Forumite
People seem to park their petrol and diesel cars without needing to top up the fuel in car parks. Why do EV owners expect to charge up on the go? do it at home. Oh perhaps it is because EVs are not as efficient and the technology isn't there yet. After all, if it was superior to petrol/diesel then HGVs would all be using it, the fact they are not shows how battery powered vehicles are an inferior technology at present. In fact, HGVs will probably be using diesel for decades to come.

I'm not anti-EV, I just believe that to make progress the next technological step should be upwards over the current technology. Not a step backwards and requiring governments to ban the alternative. Nobody forced you to stop using a CRT TV, a dumbphone etc, governments didn't have to ban them.

Leaded petrol was banned of course, but that should never have existed and only existed due to a big act of deception.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Cue

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
People seem to park their petrol and diesel cars without needing to top up the fuel in car parks. Why do EV owners expect to charge up on the go? do it at home. Oh perhaps it is because EVs are not as efficient and the technology isn't there yet. After all, if it was superior to petrol/diesel then HGVs would all be using it, the fact they are not shows how battery powered vehicles are an inferior technology at present. In fact, HGVs will probably be using diesel for decades to come.

I'm not anti-EV, I just believe that to make progress the next technological step should be upwards over the current technology. Not a step backwards and requiring governments to ban the alternative. Nobody forced you to stop using a CRT TV, a dumbphone etc, governments didn't have to ban them.

Leaded petrol was banned of course, but that should never have existed and only existed due to a big act of deception.
I've had my latest EV since mid October and apart from driving it down to the south of France the same day I bought it and then back again, I've only used a public charger once since then. Normally, I only charge it at home or work. Since I got it I've done I've done just over 6000 miles and in that mileage have used public charging facilities far, far less than you will have in your ICE vehicle.

The problem is, as you say that the technology is only just starting to make significant progress, so not many EVs have a range of about 400 miles like my current one. ICE has been in development for the past 130 odd years, so it's no surprise it is superior in terms of easy of day to day filling up than many EVs. Eventually, whether they are banned or not, petrol will become scarce so you won't be using them for much longer, as daily vehicles whatever.

Eventually, solid state batteries will become a game changer in terms of range and charging speeds and once the price of the technology becomes as affordable as some petrol cars are today, they'll take over the duties of a daily car. For HGVs though the future will never be a plug in electric set up. It'll be a hydrogen electric combo and as you say it is some considerable way off.

In the meantime, though my EV and your car may use up precious earth resources during build and at the refueling stage, I'll stay smug in the knowledge that I'm not causing pollution at point of use. That I'm driving around in near silence and that when I do fill up, it's costing me way less than half what its costing you, are added benefits of such an as yet insufficiently developed technology.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
In addition of course, having an EV charger requires only a bit of hardware and wiring, in essence. So providing there is a supply of electricity for a charger, it's job done. To have a petrol pump, not only do you require electricity, and on surface hardware but you have to be able to dig a great big hole in which to put a massive metallic tank. You also require the area to have access for a big oil tanker to visit on a regular basis in order to provide you with your fuel of choice.

So rather than stating why do EV users require charging facilities in convenient locations like supermarket car parks, on street or pubs etc, surely the question should be, why do ICE vehicles require such dedicated, expensive, environmentally damaging, smelly and inconvenient public refueling facilities, when for an EV you can charge up where it is convenient to you?
 

Raven

Well-Known Forumite
If you have off road parking & you own the property then charging is not an issue.
Renting / Apartments / Council etc then home charging is a non runner (bye & large)
Hence charging points are a necessity for many once they change to an EV.
It may be cheaper now of course if you can charge “at home” but that is likely to change as smart meters can detect when that is going on and change the rate once our masters deem it so.
HGV’s will slowly become EV driven as they can already be driven over 400mls on one charge so they will fit the depot to depot daily use that many are put to for the likes of the big retailers & parcel carriers, like from Kent to Birmingham depot’s where the driver is obliged to take a break and in this time it can easily charge for the return, same for a daily delivery run for say a supermarket vehicle that does no more than a few hundred miles dropping off at about 4 stores.
We are proud to “notices” on them all telling us about how they are helping to save the planet blah blah (once they can buy them at the right price)
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
People seem to park their petrol and diesel cars without needing to top up the fuel in car parks. Why do EV owners expect to charge up on the go? do it at home. Oh perhaps it is because EVs are not as efficient and the technology isn't there yet. After all, if it was superior to petrol/diesel then HGVs would all be using it, the fact they are not shows how battery powered vehicles are an inferior technology at present. In fact, HGVs will probably be using diesel for decades to come.

I'm not anti-EV, I just believe that to make progress the next technological step should be upwards over the current technology. Not a step backwards and requiring governments to ban the alternative. Nobody forced you to stop using a CRT TV, a dumbphone etc, governments didn't have to ban them.

Leaded petrol was banned of course, but that should never have existed and only existed due to a big act of deception.
How do you suggest those in terraced houses, older flats and other pre charger communal living charge their cars? And don't people on long journeys require a petrol station stop to refuel? Why shouldn't electric cars be able to do the same?

I don't understand your logic.

We need to clean up the air for everyone's interest and health and one only needs to walk along any main road in Stafford in rush hour to know how urgent this is, you can literally taste the pollution cars, and it is mainly cars in Stafford, spew out. Some teething issues with electric vehicles is a small price to pay for our kids not having to breathe this poison
 
Top