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tate of mind issues there… Over spec yourself for 362 days for the 3 others?
That's exactly what people do. My supposedly eco-friendly sister bought a 4x4 for the same sorts of numbers regarding snow.
Minds need to be changed though. Imagine if cars had never been able to do more than 200 miles without an hour's break. We'd still be driving around Europe just the same only marginally more slowly. It would make no difference at all to life.
My mates a Tesla fanflapper and is on his second “ludicrously fast thnigummbob” says the fist gem was only good for real world driving of about 220miles full to 5miles before you call the AA out.
New version, he says, can do 250.. so that’s a whopping 30miles more. I reckon that’s one small step for man and one giant leap of ludicrous for mankind.
He says he stops 4 times when in that there Urop on the way to Lake Garda, with his Moth Dinghy on the roof.. says 80kph ave is achieved by cruise control and not playing with the toys and air con. Which is partially ok, were you not paying Stella amounts for a human flesh carrying machine that has to par boil its occupants whilst on holibobs.
He has said he’s seen plenty on the roadside that have run out of battery, and he has too 3 times in the most inconvenient moments.
I still think unless that Bloke stops tweeting about alleged perverts and puts money into the power grid I’m totally off whatever product he claims to be involved in.
Oh, and my mate wears a cardigan... which says a lot.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/electric-car-fiasco-strands-isabel-hardman-bb5ww2sk0
It is every electric car driver’s nightmare: becoming stranded during a long journey after running out of power.
Isabel Hardman, 32, a journalist and author, was left stranded on Friday after being unable to recharge her Nissan Leaf while driving from south Cumbria to a book festival in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway.
Despite leaving seven hours to make the four-hour journey, she arrived 45 minutes late after charging points operated by the green energy firm Ecotricity were out of order. She was picked up in a car sent by the festival organiser.
Returning to her car yesterday, she found that the chargers were still not working. Hardman was told the maintenance team does not work at weekends. “I think I can now confidently say it <span class="paywall-EAB47CFD">is a stupid idea to get an electric car,” she tweeted.</span>
Returning to her car yesterday, she found that the chargers were still not working. Hardman was told the maintenance team does not work at weekends. “I think I can now confidently say it <span class=”paywall-EAB47CFD”>is a stupid idea to get an electric car,” she tweeted.
Well I think that just killed it then......
I work for a german energy company with offices in Swindon. Several of our execs have access to Tesla’s so there’s every chance that your German plate car just popped down the M5. No sweat 💦
I'm quite amazed that people still think electric cars are for just going to the shops, I've been driving them for 3 years including several 900+ mile trips* from the East Midlands to the West and Northern coasts of Ireland and back, and that was back when I had a car capable of about 90 miles on a charge. My current car was returning 140 miles to a charge this summer and charged so fast on our last trip to Northern Ireland from Derbyshire that the trip took no longer than when we used to do it in a diesel. Just under three years and 28,000 miles of EV driving and I've never once been near to be stranded and I've probably took my EVs further from home than 90% of diesel/petrol cars ever get.
* approximate charging costs of each trip £12 🙂
It is every electric car driver’s nightmare: becoming stranded during a long journey after running out of power.
Not that different to arriving at a petrol station to find it closed or out of fuel or something, is it? This happened to us once when I was a kid - we were on fumes and the place had closed. Of course the lesson is not to leave it that late, which also applies here I think
Again - not a huge deal - if petrol cars had never been invented we'd be taking all this in our stride.
My mates a Tesla fanflapper and is on his second “ludicrously fast thnigummbob” says the fist gem was only good for real world driving of about 220miles full to 5miles before you call the AA out.
New version, he says, can do 250.. so that’s a whopping 30miles more. I reckon that’s one small step for man and one giant leap of ludicrous for mankind.
He says he stops 4 times when in that there Urop on the way to Lake Garda, with his Moth Dinghy on the roof.. says 80kph ave is achieved by cruise control and not playing with the toys and air con. Which is partially ok, were you not paying Stella amounts for a human flesh carrying machine that has to par boil its occupants whilst on holibobs.
He has said he’s seen plenty on the roadside that have run out of battery, and he has too 3 times in the most inconvenient moments.
I still think unless that Bloke stops tweeting about alleged perverts and puts money into the power grid I’m totally off whatever product he claims to be involved in.
Oh, and my mate wears a cardigan… which says a lot.
It's not just me, right?
I assume you mean the mean journey length. But it’s a pointless statistic because we know many journeys are a lot longer, and it’s those that are the issue.
So the average journey is seven miles. And you’re quibbling about mean lengths?
you know that some journeys are *much* longer (it’s the premise of the whole thread).
The shortest journeys can’t be less than zero, so there must be huge numbers of short journeys to drag the stats down that far.
It’s amazing to me that so many seem to use the “It can’t be done” as a cover for “I don’t understand how it can be done”, or worse “I haven’t bothered to think about it or consider changing my behaviour in the slightest”
My mates a Tesla fanflapper
I see loads in Harrogate, lots of them next to Ashville College.
Anyway, which electric car to pull my caravan to Fort William next May?
A hire car. For that one trip, months away.
A hire car. For that one trip, months away.
A hired electric car, with a towbar?
> I figured the battery would fit in the engine bay.
Far too much weight for that. They need to be low down in the chassis. On smaller cars they are under the back seats AFAIK.
For well designed cars (the Zoe seems quite sensible, we almost bought one) the battery is basically the entire underside of the car. Spreads the weight out and keeps the car's centre of gravity nice and low.
A hired electric car, with a towbar?
Or just something similar to what you have now, imagine if tech companies had given up with such trivial problems in the last century.
We could go to the moon but we can't take everybody, best give up then.
Or just something similar to what you have now, imagine if tech companies had given up with such trivial problems in the last century.
We could go to the moon but we can’t take everybody, best give up then.
I'm being reasonably serious. I commute to work 15 miles each way. (cycling is NOT an option thanks to very busy twisty roads & no facilities at work) I have a caravan, (might get a motorhome) I want to help save the planet (I've probably been on it longer than you so I owe it more) What are my options regarding the aforementioned?
Well a current tesla will do all of your commuting needs right now.
https://www.kenhire.uk.com/vehicle-hire-ashford/car-hire-kent/medium-car-tow-bar
https://www.sixt.co.uk/help-advice/driving-laws/towing-capacity/
Looks like people also rent things with tow bars....the more demand the more the market the more the availability.
In all seriousness Essel - you can easily get a Leaf or Zoe or any electric car, then simply hire something with a towbar for a few weeks for your holiday. The cost would be offset by the fuel savings.
Or there are hybrids that can tow - I think the Outlander might be able to, don't think the Lexus SUV types can - different system. A Passat GTE could also tow I'm fairly sure. These plugin ones can do 30-50 miles or so on electricity, but drive on petrol for longer trips.
A Tesla Model X can easily pull your caravan. Most people can't easily afford one of them though.
Dethleffs (I think it was them) showed off a concept small caravan with its own massive battery and electric drivetrain to reduce the load on the towing vehicle. I think they had an BMW i3 towing it.
That's an interesting concept that could solve your caravan problem on the future.
Bonus points if you can hook the caravan up to your house for the 95% of the year you don't use it and utilize the batteries for your house use.
Well a current tesla will do all of your commuting needs right now.
Champion! How much are they? I reckon I could get 11K for the current XTrail we have for towing (does 30mpg towing & 45 otherwise) or 3K for the Mondeo I use for commuting (does around 50mpg everywhere) We 'need' 2 cars cos Mrs EGF uses whichever I'm not using.
Can't see any electric vehicles on those links though.
Given that the vast majority of car journeys are short trips, long range high performance cars like Tesla must ultimately be a bit of a niche market.
Can’t see any electric vehicles on those links though.
Nope those are your plan B towing vehicles, as said any electric would do your commute if you can charge at home.
Not that different to arriving at a petrol station to find it closed or out of fuel or something, is it? This happened to us once when I was a kid – we were on fumes and the place had closed. Of course the lesson is not to leave it that late, which also applies here I think
The fact it hasn't happened since you were a kid is indicative of the likelihood of it happening now. She left 7 hours to make a 4 hour journey and have assumed one charging point would be out of order despite using 4 apps to tell her where they were. You can read the original article here
The funny thing is that despite being very keen on electric vehicles she suffered a pile-on from EV evangelists on Twitter who were upset that she had talked about her real world experience.
In a conventional car you just run to the nearest petrol station
Interesting point… but when did you last make such a stupid mistake? With old cars, where you had to learn to read the gauge, maybe… but modern cars help you so much with "mileage left" calcs, you need to be delibrately careless. I suppose that a big battery car has all the onboard help that any modern car has to help avoid this… in some cases much more.
She left 7 hours to make a 4 hour journey
Can't be arsed following that link, but if her point is that the Leaf has too short a range to regularily risk long journeys, then I'm surprised that even the evangelists didn't agree with her. It's a short commute/schoolrun/shopping machine in any unblinkered eyes.
What she was trying to publicize was the fact that the charging network wasn't delivering what it suggested and until it did people shouldn't rely on it. She was trying to get the providers to up their game. She was fully aware of the limitations of her vehicle and had planned accordingly, but the network let her down.
don’t think the Lexus SUV types can
That is correct. Though it’s nothing to do with anything design/mechanical its do do with some UK type approval law that stops Lexus Hybrids being allowed to fit a tow bar.
You can in the rest of the world though, so we must be very special people indeed to get such retarded laws eh.
For most people 200-300 miles between charges is more than enough.
Yep, and if all electric cars had a range of 300 miles AND cost a similar price to the petrol equivalent I am sure 95%+ of people would be buying them. A range of 80 miles however reduces that 95% dramatically.
Having once (stupidly) bypassed the garage at Gretna and pressed on to the next one, then when that didn't materialise the one after that and the closed one after that and the derelict one after that and the closed one after that eventually giving up in Dalmellington I can see how that could happen in that part of the world. Shockingly not everywhere has fast chargers or even functional forecourts every few miles.
Long range isn't something I'd be using electric for but thenI wouldn't drive to the shop round the corner so horses for courses. If manufacturers included a reasonably price backup hire it would be a non issue for those journeys.
I’m being reasonably serious. I commute to work 15 miles each way.
We used to do 50 miles a day in a Zoe, charged overnight on cheap electricity; it worked out at 1/10th the cost of petrol over a year.
Plus in winter being able to defrost and preheat it before leaving the house or office is AWESOME 🙂
We intended to use it as a second car as we have a petrol car as well, but it's been the other way round as we've not had a problem doing long trips away in the Zoe.