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Electric Cars


Drew

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On 9/18/2018 at 8:31 PM, freddy said:

Also, I don't drive a lot, but when I do, it tends to be long distances, often in remote areas. How realistic is it to expect charging stations in the middle of nowhere.

 

Pretty sure my wife was reading up on EV car sales stats by geographical area, and, interestingly, Argyll & Bute apparently has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) uptakes in Scotland. This, despite it being a very dispersed, rural area with limited population in terms of land mass.

We wondered whether this might have something to do with the relative cost of fuel in more remote rural areas. There will no doubt be other factors. Outside London, I think Scotland has the largest number of charging points per head of population, and, as I mentioned earlier, has additional subsidies for installing charging points.

Still a very long way to go (not least for people who live in flats as you say) but there will have to be considerable investment to back up the policy pledges.

We are due to pick up the car tomorrow, so progress updates to follow....

Edited by Drew
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Guest TPAFKATS
Pretty sure my wife was reading up on EV car sales stats by geographical area, and, interestingly, Argyll & Bute apparently has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) uptakes in Scotland. This, despite it being a very dispersed, rural area with limited population in terms of land mass.
We wondered whether this might have something to do with the relative cost of fuel in more remote rural areas. There will no doubt be other factors. Outside London, I think Scotland has the largest number of charging points per head of population, and, as I mentioned earlier, has additional subsidies for installing charging points.
Still a very long way to go (no least for people who live in flats as you say) but there will have to be considerable investment to back up the policy pledges.
We are due to pick up the car tomorrow, so progress updates to follow....
Cost of fuel and location of petrol stations?
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10 minutes ago, TPAFKATS said:
24 minutes ago, Drew said:
Pretty sure my wife was reading up on EV car sales stats by geographical area, and, interestingly, Argyll & Bute apparently has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) uptakes in Scotland. This, despite it being a very dispersed, rural area with limited population in terms of land mass.
We wondered whether this might have something to do with the relative cost of fuel in more remote rural areas. There will no doubt be other factors. Outside London, I think Scotland has the largest number of charging points per head of population, and, as I mentioned earlier, has additional subsidies for installing charging points.
Still a very long way to go (no least for people who live in flats as you say) but there will have to be considerable investment to back up the policy pledges.
We are due to pick up the car tomorrow, so progress updates to follow....

Cost of fuel and location of petrol stations?

Aye, reckon so. Lot to be said for being able to 'fill up'  very inexpensively at home, with free topping up if you plan ahead.

I'm pretty sure the salesman we spoke to mentioned that he had just sold a similar car to a guy from Oban.

Edited by Drew
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Guest TPAFKATS
Aye, reckon so. Lot to be said for being able to 'fill up'  very inexpensively at home, with free topping up if you plan ahead.
I'm pretty sure the salesman we spoke to mentioned that he had just sold a similar car to a guy from Oban.
Wonder how many days it took him to get the car back to oban [emoji3]
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On 9/18/2018 at 9:27 PM, saintnextlifetime said:

I think you will see a lot more hybrids coming onto the roads before we arrive at the replacement for the internal combustion engine , whether that be an EV or a hydrogen car. With sales of the fossil fuel cars stopping in 2040 , the likelyhood is they will still be on the roads for a wee while. . l think we need to see improvents made to public transport too , those McG*lls buses always seem to be breaking down. .

I agree that hybrids are the way to go in the foreseeable future. Changed my car a year ago and looked at Electric and Hybrid. In the end,  I ditched diesel as I was reducing the miles I would be driving.  Disregarded Electric at present due to charging issues.  Easily overcome at home but potentially not when travelling. Seriously considered Hybrid but styling currently lags behind.  I change to a new car every 2 or 3 years.  Hybrid will be where I will start looking. With that a round trip to Paisley would equate to the cost of gallon of fuel compared to 2 or more gallons with petrol. My car is an automatic. 

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I recently had a Toyota Auris Estate Hybrid as a company car. Perhaps due to the mileage 1000+ each month and the fact I did a lot of motorway/ dual carriageway driving it was far from economical. The EV only activated at speeds under 20mph and if you used the Ecomode you would never get anywhere. Don’t know if all Hybrids are the same but I couldn’t live with that model through choice.

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Encountering the first major issue with the new car today having taken delivery yesterday afternoon.

The charger is getting installed shortly and it will be touch and go whether I'll be able to get away in time to go through to Hamilton for the game as planned:(

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On 9/20/2018 at 10:11 AM, Drew said:

Aye, reckon so. Lot to be said for being able to 'fill up'  very inexpensively at home, with free topping up if you plan ahead.

I'm pretty sure the salesman we spoke to mentioned that he had just sold a similar car to a guy from Oban.

There are two charging posts in Guildford square Rothesay if you are ever over. 

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Brief update:

Home charger installed on Saturday (just in time to allow me to get to Hamilton for the game....<_<).

Aside from having to push to have the installation date brought forward a couple of weeks, this was a painless exercise, and the lad who came to fit the charger was first class. He covers the whole of Scotland and seems to be very busy just now (booked up into next year), so they are having to draft in reinforcements from dahn saaf.

The car is great, really pleased with it. Aside from the fact that it is virtually silent (aside from a bit of road and wind noise at speed as would be expected), it drives likes a standard car with an automatic gearbox. It actually feels particularly refined for a small hatchback and is comfortable and very easy to drive.

My wife has used it for work a couple of times so far with no range issues. She is enjoying it.

We charged it at the pier car park in Helensburgh at the weekend just to get used to using public charging points. Piece of cake, and free. Well, I say free, but we were so busy concentrating on getting the charger set up that we forgot about the parking charge. Thankfully, we avoided getting a ticket and £60 fine! Lesson learned.

So, in summary, all good so far. No issues encountered, though early days admittedly.

Edited by Drew
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  • 2 years later...

It seems 2030 is the year that the majority of us will be driving an electric car. 

I suppose a lot can change in 9 years as, currently, the infrastructure isn't anywhere close to being sufficient.

The number of charging stations, the time it takes to recharge, the cost of an electric car, to name three, are all hurdles that need to be overcome before these cars can be seen as serious rival to petrol/diesel. 

I'm sure, a few years ago, I seen an article that there's a safety issue as they are close to silent, giving pedestrians less chance of hearing an approaching vehicle. 

After 2030 it'll be flying cars, I'm sure I seen them in a movie. 

PS I heard @Drew has almost made it around the block on a single charge. :rolleyes:

 

Edited by faraway saint
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There’s no doubt EVs are here to stay but unless whichever government is in power in 2030 (2035 for phev ) decides to outlaw petrol & diesel cars altogether, there will still be an awful lot of legacy vehicles kicking around for another decade.

Last year was the first year where the ownership of EV& PHEV combined reached double figures. with the changes to people’s work patterns in the last twelve months and reduced mileage for most people , this year could see another big jump in numbers .

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1 hour ago, Callum Gilhooley said:

There’s no doubt EVs are here to stay but unless whichever government is in power in 2030 (2035 for phev ) decides to outlaw petrol & diesel cars altogether, there will still be an awful lot of legacy vehicles kicking around for another decade.

 

Stop building fossil fuelled cars on that date, but your right, what's on the road will remain on the road for many years.    No plans to make heavy goods vehicles all electric because of distance they have to cover.  

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22 minutes ago, pod said:

Stop building fossil fuelled cars on that date, but your right, what's on the road will remain on the road for many years.    No plans to make heavy goods vehicles all electric because of distance they have to cover.  

Glasgow council is investing in green-hydrogen powered trucks.  There will be a production and storage facility at Whitelee windfarm

They will probably be using fuel-cell technology, but there are hydrogen-burners (smaller vehicles, i think)

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/hyundai-ships-first-units-hydrogen-powered-heavy-duty-lorry/

this  is an electric truck which gets its energy from fuel cells and has a range of 248 miles

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This MAGIC is in everyday use in Orkney.  Buses, bin lorries, other cooncil vehicles and ferries operate using 'FREE' hydrogen.

Wonderful engineering and lateral green, clean thinking, up there.

The science is simply explained in a wee video here.

Orkney Hydrogen | Surf 'n' Turf

Scroll down to the map, then click and play - also enjoy the authentic local accent and pronunciation.

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6 hours ago, faraway saint said:

It seems 2030 is the year that the majority of us will be driving an electric car. 

I suppose a lot can change in 9 years as, currently, the infrastructure isn't anywhere close to being sufficient.

The number of charging stations, the time it takes to recharge, the cost of an electric car, to name three, are all hurdles that need to be overcome before these cars can be seen as serious rival to petrol/diesel. 

I'm sure, a few years ago, I seen an article that there's a safety issue as they are close to silent, giving pedestrians less chance of hearing an approaching vehicle. 

After 2030 it'll be flying cars, I'm sure I seen them in a movie. 

PS I heard @Drew has almost made it around the block on a single charge. :rolleyes:

 

I drive a Hybrid and it is silence when moving about in places like carparks. 

There are warning sensors on the car that assist the brakes if it detect any close movement to the car.

Getting 47 MPG around the town and a few short trips on the motorway to Erskine. 

Manufacture say between 55-61 MPG.

Not been able to do a long run due to the restriction so don't know if it will improved much.

All in all, been happy with it in the 4/5 months i have had it. 

 

 

 

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The safety issue can easily be resolved by having the car emit some form of artificial ambient noise so that pedestrians can hear them.

This idea is as old as the hills. Phones use them all the time. When you make a call some of the microphone is passed back to the earpiece in the form of side tone so you get that comforting hiss which tells you the phone is working. Same thing with power lights on computers etc. All basically functionally irrelevant but gives comfort to the user. Without these things technology would feel very odd to use.

That's how they'll solve it but the priority right now is range and performance.

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17 hours ago, Tommy said:

I drive a Hybrid and it is silence when moving about in places like carparks. 

There are warning sensors on the car that assist the brakes if it detect any close movement to the car.

Getting 47 MPG around the town and a few short trips on the motorway to Erskine. 

Manufacture say between 55-61 MPG.

Not been able to do a long run due to the restriction so don't know if it will improved much.

All in all, been happy with it in the 4/5 months i have had it. 

 

Aye, a hybrid seems a decent option, certainly at this stage where the major issues, number of charging points and the time it takes to charge, still, for me see electric as a "no".

MY current car get's just over 50mpg, although I have I have seen a slight drop in the last few weeks driving in the shit conditions we had.

I'm also only using B roads, try to sit about 55-57mph as I get decent mileage at that speed, unless I get stuck behind a Karen. :rolleyes:

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5 hours ago, faraway saint said:

Aye, a hybrid seems a decent option, certainly at this stage where the major issues, number of charging points and the time it takes to charge, still, for me see electric as a "no".

MY current car get's just over 50mpg, although I have I have seen a slight drop in the last few weeks driving in the shit conditions we had.

I'm also only using B roads, try to sit about 55-57mph as I get decent mileage at that speed, unless I get stuck behind a Karen. :rolleyes:

Guessing it is a diesel you drive ?

Always driven petrol cars and i got just over 30MPG in my last car, so the hybrid is giving me around 50% more MPG.

My last 3 cars been automatic since my wife was starting to struggle with a manual. 

 

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1 hour ago, Tommy said:

Guessing it is a diesel you drive ?

Always driven petrol cars and i got just over 30MPG in my last car, so the hybrid is giving me around 50% more MPG.

My last 3 cars been automatic since my wife was starting to struggle with a manual. 

 

Nope, like @StanleySaint says, 50 mpg is achievable.

I'm in 5th gear for about 80% of my journey, no "up and down gears", not a lot of braking, if other vehicles aren't using their brakes every 20 yards. 

28 minutes ago, StanleySaint said:

I've got a petrol Mazda that gets me (pre-covid) 50 mpg, we were going to get a small electric car for doing the local tootling about but no point currently, I think I mentioned before on this thread that I can't underdstand why companies are shying away from hydrogen fuel cells!

 

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28 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

Nope, like @StanleySaint says, 50 mpg is achievable.

I'm in 5th gear for about 80% of my journey, no "up and down gears", not a lot of braking, if other vehicles aren't using their brakes every 20 yards. 

 

Mostly short trips around town for me getting the 30MPG. 

 

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