Electric vehicles. Anything goes

Adz · Jan 15, 2007

[rant]

Is it just me that's thoroughly peed off with the electric vs internal combustion debate?

Toyota claim their Prius thing emits a whole TON of CO2 less than 'a normal car' but what they neglet to mention is that your friendly local power station emits it for you and that your household electricity bill sky rockets.

There's a really simple equation: The number of miles travelled is directly proportional to the amount of energy required. Weather that energy comes from a relatively inefficient internal combustion engine or from relatively highly efficient electric motors which rely on relatively inefficient power generation at source, charging and battery storage isn't neither here nor there.

The only advantages I can see to an electric car is there's one less friction lining to replace (clutch) and you're always operating at peak torque.

[/rant]

Cheers,

mondo · Jan 15, 2007

Adz said:
Toyota claim their Prius thing emits a whole TON of CO2 less than 'a normal car' but what they neglet to mention is that your friendly local power station emits it for you and that your household electricity bill sky rockets.
,

i think you missed the point there adz

the prius aint a milk float that need pluggin in every night to charge it up from the mains

ormus · Jan 15, 2007

the simple problem with em is the fact that none of them can go more than approx 40 miles without a long wait for recharging.
and even if you get one that is suitable for your daily commute, you have to replace all the feckin batteries every 3 yrs.

delivering local milk is just about right.

sir Adrian · Jan 15, 2007

Mr yella pid depicts a megane which appears to be beating an Audi... boy those electric cars... must be good?????????

ormus · Jan 15, 2007

aye, but the megane has got a petrol injun.

yella · Jan 15, 2007

and its an old bloke in the audi

floydster · Jan 15, 2007

I'm no eco warrior, that's not why I'm into EVs and solar power, I'm just trying to reduce my bills to jack in full time employment sooner. Crikey, I have one car that returns 3mpg and I drive a Landy!

However, the Landy's been around since 1972 so the grey energy is way less than anyone who's bought a couple of new cars since then (even if they're recyclable).

EVs can be very very quick and if you invest in a wind or solar power then long term motoring becomes very cheap. The problem with so many so called eco warriors is that they fail to realise that the plastics and many other materials that go into the construction of wind turbines, solar panels etc, comes from oil!!

Yes I have solar water heating (it's very good), PV and I'm into wind generation but I still want to be a part of the petrol party while I can afford to. Anyway, if anyone is interested EVs as well as Landys then surely that's nothing to be ashamed of.

And another thing, if you know what you're doing you can fix the batteries.

ormus · Jan 15, 2007

no names, no kit bag. but?

sir Adrian · Jan 16, 2007

Is it possible to combine several thoughts here and produce Solar powered scaletrix????
We could make a bundle of cash and resolve the issue of bank balance verses fuel

yella · Jan 16, 2007

shall we all grow our own food in the back garden to save using fossil fuels to go shopping, hey, what about burning peat on out fires and using candles for lighting

floydster · Jan 16, 2007

Do all that before going down to the garage to fill the beast with super "green". Even my own waste goes through my reed bed filtration system. Really! The reed bed is just about ready to process my latest batch of home grown sprouts

Mmmmm. Gooseberries for pudding tomorrow, kept frozen by my PV powered freezer.

Hot water was at nearly 40 deg.C. today thanks to a nice clear sky.

Solar water heating pictures from home & garden photos on webshots
Photovoltaic Powered Garage pictures from home & garden photos on webshots

And some Landy ones since I'm being boring, again.

Land Rover Series IIa Lightweight pictures from cars photos on webshots

That terrier get everywhere.

ormus · Jan 16, 2007

nice photos.
re the last piccy:
you must have some very small horses?

floydster · Jan 16, 2007

ormus said:
you must have some very small horses?

They'll be the horses registered with the Kennel Club.

GRUNT · Jan 16, 2007

Bit of weeding needed there.

floydster · Jan 16, 2007

GRUNT said:
Bit of weeding needed there.

You should see the rough stuff

Grippa · Jan 17, 2007

Ok, what ****es me off about the whole fuel debate is this whole electric car thing is total bollox. As has been said the 'fuel' has to be produced somewhere that usually involves finite & polluting fossil fuels.

They are bought in the main by people who want to 'do their bit', which means getting rid of a perfectly good car & wastfully buying another just so they can drive around misguidedly guilt free boasting to their friends about how eco they are.

A lot of us run 'green', potentially greener vehicles. My Landy for one will still be hauling me about long after the Prius & probably the next 3, 4 (?) 'geen' cars Mr Green bought have been turned to pure pollution.

It's green potential is it's ability to be run on vegetable based fuels which require comparitively minimal processing to produce. Trouble if I was to use it legally & 'do my bit' for real the tax man would still totally fleece me.

The tax reduction is pathetic & you've the hassle of submitting a return. Who'd bother?

Want to really clean up the country/world? Scrap the tax on it & I bet the producers of diesel engined vehicles would struggle to meet the demand.

So there!

Adz · Jan 17, 2007

Here Here Marcus mate!

Mondo I ain't missed the point re the Prius mate. Even if the batteries are only ever charged from the petrol engine (which is also fitted( it's compounding the inefficiencies inherrent in converting one form of energy into another.

The best NiCD and NiMH rechargeables are only about 66% efficient so 34% of the charge applied goes to waste straight away - any real world pollution drop is down to how efficient the petrol engine is and that it's significantly smaller than the average automotive petrol engine on the road in the UK.

Remove the charging circuit from the vehicle and it would be significantly (at least 34% - see above) more efficient than with the battery power (if it were charged from the internal combustion engine alone and never plugged into the mains). Weird thing is, then you'd have to pay the congestion charge for it if you drove into Kenland - go figure.

Cheers,

ormus · Jan 17, 2007

marcus is correct. you really need to look at the whole life span of the car to see how green it is..ie how long is it on the road (yrs).

a landy or a volvo is therefore much greener than any other vehicle.

there was research done a few yrs ago (cars) and the volvo came out top with a life span of 21 yrs, on average.
(assuming average mileage).

just one statistic for you, its estimated that it takes 45000 gallons of water to produce 1 car!
a landy is saving hellavalot of water compared to a ford mondeo.

yella · Jan 17, 2007

ormus said:
just one statistic for you, its estimated that it takes 45000 gallons of water to produce 1 landrover!

isnt that the same amount of rainfall that will leak into your landy over its lifespan

Grippa · Jan 17, 2007

yella disco said:
isnt that the same amount of rainfall that will leak into your landy over its lifespan

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA, ooo, that hurt, now THAT wuz funny.

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