Comments on: I’m no Jeremy Clarkson (let’s get that straight…)

By: oly

oly — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:47:39 +0000

2009 will be the first year of “kinetic energy recovery systems” in formula 1 (for anyone who gives a hoot). This is where car manufacturers put some brainpower into what they should have been doing all along! Thanks max mosley!
Car manufacturers sell oil!
Why else would there be 19th c. technology under each bonnet?
There’ll soon be more small companies offering practical, fully electric cars.
We need to support these small suppliers in the same way we need to support smaller suppliers of food to try and stop supermarkets pimping out the planet to the big bidders.

By: Mark Loveridge

Mark Loveridge — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:30:06 +0000

Jonny, i can see your point. But we also need to consider the ‘Bigger Picture’!
Battery technology is improving at a rapid rate, with capacitors now being mated with batteries to provide a more rounded solution. These developments mean the batteries, in time will need less energy to charge, and propel vehicles for longer on a charge. There are also workings to make regenerative braking more effective, reducing the amount of times you need to charge.
Also, as solar costs come down, you can charge at your own ‘home station’.
None of this will happen without the investment, and consumers need to buy into this now to help aid its process. There are huge cost savings for those that do.
If we reduce the amount of vehicles on the road, reduce the amount of miles we do in them we will be half way to resolving the issue. But electric isn’t the sole fuel of the future. There is also Hydrogen, although currently the energy intensity to create hydrogen is high- with further development this could change.
In a nutshell- don’t be put off by these huge figures. Electric power is happening, it’s happening now and is leading technological advances for the future!
If you want to go electric now, see http://www.vectrix.co.uk

By: Jonny Holt

Jonny Holt — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:28:42 +0000

Last year I had a meeting with - well let’s just say “a man who knows about these things”.

He quoted to me possibly one of the most alarming statistics showing just how far we have got to go to rein in our unsustainable lifestyles.

It goes like this:-

If the total UK road vehicle fleet were powered by electricity instead of fossil fuel, we would need the equivalent of 46 additional nuclear power stations (over and above those that are already being proposed).

It is not going to happen, for so many reasons. So I suppose unless we can build several thousand multi-MW turbines most of us will have to bicycle around the M25 instead. Sadly, electric cars are likely to be rich men’s toys.

By: Paul Harwood

Paul Harwood — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:56:34 +0000

I think along the same lines. Rather than trying to change the world, like some orwellian dream - like they did in the sixties when they build that social utopia the ‘council estate’. I think we should improve it.

You can’t stop people wanting to drive fast cars, to take risks, to feel excited about beautiful objects. Unfortunately, currently, those feelings are umbilically linked to pollution and bad effects for us all.

I think this is the way forward, its much more likely that the ‘green’ brand will be taken up by the popular culture if we have flagships like very fast (inexpensive to run) cars.

It is not a luxury to create these items, but a necessity to replace them.

By: dale

dale — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:10:06 +0000

@ oly - The problem with Noddy and Clarkson you ask? - Well one’s a kind of cute but ineffectual cuddly fool and the other is a children’s character who drives naff cars…

The car is under construction, going to update on that shortly.

It’s not a ‘gimik’ but it is about boosting publicity, to get people thinking and talking about how we’ll all be getting around in the near future, and to introduce the idea of a wind powered car.

Cheers.

By: Xena

Xena — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:31:56 +0000

Hi Dale, and thanks for your response.

I hope things will change. I would gladly swap my car for an EV if they become more mass-produced (and therefore cheaper) and I guess that if the figures you’re quoting are fairly near to the mark it sounds like they would be slightly cheaper to run as well.

I resent paying for petrol… the petrol prices and the taxes that our delightful government stick on top of the fuel are completely ridiculous… it’s like we’re being made to pay through the nose to destroy our own planet. I can’t see the sense in that.

I get public transport anywhere I can to help the environment, but I am not perfect and I have to have a car for certain journeys.

The main issues for me with transport in general are firstly the welfare of this earth and its future, or course, and secondly in this current climate I, along with everyone else, am increasingly concerned about the cost of transport and the cost of living in general.

I hope you’re right in saying that things will change… and that they change for the better.

By: dale

dale — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:18:28 +0000

@ Xena - It’s early days to be certain on numbers, but the indications are that you could probably get 5,000 miles on 1 MWh of electricity (to charge your car) and that would probably cost say £150 in round numbers - that works out at about 3p per mile at peak rates or closer to 1p per mile if you charged on economy seven (cheap overnight electricity).

Buying an electric car right now wouldn’t be cheap at all, not the kind we’re discussing here anyway. My best guess is that currently it’d cost between 100k and 150k - but these are early prototypes in small scale production. Just like the cost of the first mobiles or laptops the price will crash as production ramps up.

As for charging the scenario envisaged here is that garages would cease to exist and instead charging points would be available in supermarket, public and motorway car parks. These new generation batteries can be charged in around 20 minutes, so say, in which case on a long journey you’d just need to stop for a break somewhere with a charging point. That’s the scenario. Today there are virtually no charging facilities and very few cars like this on the road. This will change.

Hope that helps. Cheers.

By: oly

oly — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:05:33 +0000

So what’s the problem with noddy and clarkson? And where’s the car?
Hope it’s not just an ego boosting publicity gimik! (I’ll tell ya about gimiks!)
Oly

By: Xena

Xena — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:05:11 +0000

The thing I’m curious about is the financial side of having an electric car…
How much would it cost to charge one? As even if it did 150 miles on one charge, someone like me would still need to charge it once a week.
And how much would it cost to buy an electric car?

One other thing I’m intrigued by is if you wanted to drive further than 150 miles in one go (on holiday for example), how would that be possible? There are no (or very few) charging points around, and I imagine it’s not like a mobile phone where you can just plug an ac adapter into a wall socket…

If my questions seem a bit simple, please excuse me… I’m kinda new to all this…

By: dale

dale — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:39:15 +0000

@ Paul - Dropping cars is not an option even in little old Europe - we’re talking about cars powered by renewable energy sources and the future of filling stations. Your 1500 mile example is for a once a year holiday. For the rest of the time, like getting to work and back, even to the Mall - we’re looking at electric cars with round trip ranges of 400 miles - surely your job and the Mall are closer than that! And we’re talking about charging these cars at home (and at the Mall) - not dropping cars, dropping oil companies and filling stations. That’s something inevitable. The status quo can’t be maintained, oil is running out - life as we ALL know it will change. You could always move to Europe though, for the better holidays… Cheers.