Dieselgate

A day trip I made to Cornwall would not have been possible in a 60k Tesla. The BMW i3 has an optional 650cc "range extender" charging engine. Potentially that size engine would be sufficient to propel the car on its own, but...the fuel tank is limited to 9L in order to qualify as an EV (7.2L in the US). Also the range extender will only kick in when the battery is really low; another EV qualifying rule. A proper fuel tank would be an ideal solution, but would kick you out of the green brigade, apparently.

There are supercharger stations on the way and in Cornwall, they only take a half hour or so, just right for a cream tea and a wee. What is not to like?

and of course a supercharger refill is free, and the model S can knock on up to 300 miles before a recharge, three hundred miles without a rest stop is a bit too far for most drivers in any case.

I see that the latest software includes Summon: Get home, tell it to go and put itself in the garage. Next day, tell it to get itself out and come to your front door, could be very handy, especially if you have a small garage.

the car guides you to the superchargers

300 miles is optimistic, not using any performance, not driving in winter, and only when the car is new. Then you have to look for and divert to possible supercharging stations. Presumably they are unmanned and you would need some kind of access code to enter?

Not knocking the Tesla, it's a nice car indeed, but still exclusive. I can't see it as mainstream. How will the grid cope with, say 51% of cars filling up from superchargers? The guv want their slice of the action, so filling will not be free. Nevertheless, I am confident that electric technology will continue to develop.

On 08/05/2016 09:28, MrCheerful wrote: [... too many lines]

30 minute only adds 170miles. A 100% superchaging charge takes 75 minutes. Quite good coverage around London and to the west. But would be worried for driving in Scotland and Wales and the North East.

In due course every parking meter and bay should have a charging point. Whenever you park, connect the car, tell it when you expect to need it; and it charges accordingly. Could be billed via the same mechanism that you use to pay for the parking.

That way when a majority of vehicles are electric and by definition have to carry around their storage batteries we will have a mechanism for capturing solar-generated electricity and electricity from other unpredictable sources. Needs a bit of clever system design, and some civil engineering on our roads. Maybe incorporate fibre for fast broadband at the same time ...?

Clearly this works better with electric cars used for short runs.

For long runs train or plane is better, especially if the airport provides electric car rental.

Don't think any personal transport vehicle is viable in London - it is far too congested. Better not to go there ...

Twenty years ago east midlands electricity board had electric vans ok t in spring or autumn, not to bad in summer but come winter they were a nighmare, as soon as you needed to turn on the heating, lights and wipers the performance was seriously impaired. Often requiring a tow back to base, these vehicles were only used locally.

Ok battery technology has moved on but so has the tech in the vehicles , enterainment and navigation systems electonics everywhere.

Until yuo can charge up as quickly as yo can fill up, and you can get similar range the vehicles will be extremly limited..

just ask your sat nav, same for parking, banks, supermarkets, etc. etc.

since 70 percent of all car journeys are shorter than 5 miles (nationally) Tesla real world figure of 220 or 320 (just possible) should not actually matter too much.

Love to know how you get that 300 mile range. Steady 30 mph on a dead flat road? With a special low friction surface? And no heating or AC obviously.

It can be difficult enough to find a petrol filling station these days without knowing before where they are. As I discovered in Northumberland recently.

Have you even considered the impact on the electricity generation system in this country which is already at a near critical point? With no signs of increasing it dramatically in the foreseeable future?

few people make regular long journeys.

Why would you want such a high performance car as a Tesla if all you ever do is short journeys? Would you use a Ferrari for those?

And, of course, the costs per mile go up dramatically with an electric car when not much used.

Perhaps, but why do you need a 60k luxury car for short journeys? You'd expect cruising around the Alps or the Mediteranian coast line.

And another point: Supercharging stations have between 4 and 6 charging points, roughly the same as number of pumps in a traditional petrol station. Have you ever tried waiting for a free pump? If supercharging takes 30+ minutes, then You'd have to queue an awful long time for a free charging point when EV becomes mainstream. I appreciate that this is early days; I'd class Tesla cars as "imponators"; something to impress your neighbours if you have the dough.

Once the air con, heating and lights are switched on plus the entertainment system you will half that at least.

Has anyone considered the loss of revenue to the government, 80% tax on fuel, if we switch to electric how they going to replace the lost revenue

Unfortunately a car that is good footless 70% of journeys but totally unsuited for the other 30% leaves most car owners needing to buy two cars.

Of course some folk only ever do short journeys but I reckon your average motorist does enough occasional long journeys to need a "proper" car.

Tim