Electric Vehicles

[RobW]

I'd argue about the Underground being modern..... But equally, if the population density is high enough and parking too expensive people will switch. What we need to do is move more cities over to linked and affordable public transport without pricing the car out of existence.

Isn't lithium a small fraction of table salt? I know it's mostly a NaCl, but isn't some LiCl? There are also graphene batteries coming along, so we'll still be using carbon to fuel the electric cars!

[Will01Capri]

i was lucky enough to attend a German Automotive conference last year and i told my boss in the afternoon, sorry i'm off, they have a test track! haha

Anyway there was lots of cool metal there, but most impressive are the Tesla cars.
Model X P80d wow does that thing go, but nah i don't like it. Bit flashy and gadgetty for me.
Model S P100d ludicrous! OMG
Now i am a true petrol head, i love cars eat sleep talk and bore people about cars and tuning etc. But i have never been in a car which accelerates like that. Plus they can do 300 miles on charge.
Apparently 15mins charge gets you 2/3rds battery charge or something. So yes they could work, especially on commuting.

Downsides, well to get electricity currently you still are using old infrastruture ie burning coal or running nuclear etc.
Its not quite as convenient as a IC engine.
Its pretty numb. Yes they are quik, but it does it soo easy, the power just gets boring. Too easy to outrun every car on the road!
Heavy and not very nimble in the corners, but then again it is heavy and a GT type car, so yeah not a great way to rate it.
Cost, well for that money i would having something bonkers like a recereation Shelby Cobra Daytona or GT40. I like theatre and fun and classic ness. That raw feeling even though going slower always makes you tingle after a spirited drive.

Would i get one? Well if the price was alot better then i would love a Tesla Model S P100d for commuting to work. But then on the weekend i would drive a real car albeit it slower, but have more fun doing it.

But we need to be careful, the electric era is here already and here to stay. More hybrids and electric only are going to play a big part of the future.

I like to think i will be Sylvestor Stallone in the Demolition Man driving that Chevelle SS weaving in and around all those electric cars. But i maybe not allowed to. But i staying strong to my IC cars for real driving.

[rochesb]

Take London where you have a modern intergrated public transport system, most commuters use that rather than be stuck in traffic an hit by a congestion charge.

Yes, and the Govt spends £1940 p.a. per head on transport in London, and £220 p.a. per head in the North East........

I would imagine other regions have a similar story to tell about the inequality of transport spending.

[RobW]

If you consider the oil extraction, distillation etc then electric vehicles aren't quite as bad as it initially looks. However you need to mine the lithium & rare earth elements & dispose of the waste oil fractions (petrol & diesel)....

If graphene batteries and dispersed renewables work then electric cars work, but we'd still be stuck in traffic jams.

[tomhugill]

If you consider the oil extraction, distillation etc then electric vehicles aren't quite as bad as it initially looks. However you need to mine the lithium & rare earth elements & dispose of the waste oil fractions (petrol & diesel)....

If graphene batteries and dispersed renewables work then electric cars work, but we'd still be stuck in traffic jams.

I hate to keep banging on but I think this is why a properly intergrated public transport system is the answer!

[jarndice]

I am not taking the blame,
I own a motorcycle, No traffic jams, and with a pair of 40 litre boxes on the flanks I can go to the local Supermarket on a Saturday morning, Do the shopping and ride past the same cars waiting in line to get to the store I have just come from.
Unclip the Boxes and my Estate car is now a sports car.
Shaun.

[971wright]

Hi Well just been through, this topic something everyone has missed, air travel unless we go back to sail boats how do people get from the states to Europe , or any where else, Another point is Nuclear power, no one has ever taken a nuclear power station apart after its finished, as uranium has a half life of about 4,5 billion years ,what and where are they going to put all the radio active shit that is in a power station, the Japanese have just said they have put 60 trillion yen and sixty years to sort out the nuclear power station hit by the earth quake ,Chernobyl they have just abandoned left the area fenced off. There is no safe way to take a nuclear power station apart, so for me its a none starter.

Something to think about

regards pete

[jarndice]

It's certainly something for the French to think about as the majority of their electrical generation is through Nuclear power and has been for many years.,
Living in the UK with the prevailing winds coming from the West, If the French have a runaway/meltdown then countries to France's East would have the problem, although when Chernobyl went down Welsh Sheep Farmers were paid by HM Government to put down their irradiated sheep.
Shaun.

[43rdRecceReg]

It's certainly something for the French to think about as the majority of their electrical generation is through Nuclear power and has been for many years.,
Living in the UK with the prevailing winds coming from the West, If the French have a runaway/meltdown then countries to France's East would have the problem, although when Chernobyl went down Welsh Sheep Farmers were paid by HM Government to put down their irradiated sheep.
Shaun.

It wasn't just in Wales, Shaun. That hot wind went right across Sweden and Norway in Scotland. There are still farms on the East Coast, near Inverness, that are prohibited from selling meat products because of contaminated soil on their farms. Then there was the Hot Wind from Windscale in the 1950s. It blew across Northern England and into the borders. If these areas had historic clusters of unexplained cancers down the line (as In Sweden), governments would try, and probably have tried, to cover them up....especially if they want to promote a nuclear energy future.
Mind you, we have bags of wind energy potential up here (especially after sprouts), as well as tidal energy. But where you can rely on the tides, winds refuse to blow when you'd like them to.
Norway has always made the most of its Hydro schemes, and Scotland can do the same; but putting a forest of 400 ft turbines right across the Isle of Lewis is likely to spur another Highland Clearance!. So big is that proposed collection of turbine props, that they could even slow down the Earth's rotation ever so slightly...

[jarndice]

I made the point about Wales to illustrate how the whole of the island of Britain was affected, I had absolutely no intention of ignoring the disastrous harm done to the farmers of Scotland or Scandinavia or indeed anywhere west of Chernobyl.
As to slowing the earths rotation, simples, Just fit contra-rotating props.
Shaun.