Electric vans

[bigspark17]

Any body have or thinking about getting an electric van?

im considering the vivaro e. The 50kw battery will do 143 miles which is more than enough for me. With the goverment grant of 20% off zero emmisions vans up to £8000 its coming out at onlu a few grand more than a new vivaro diesel. British made and also a good usefor the BBL. any views?

 

[Mike Johnson]

Please explain how producing more electricity will help (see post #12) when the DNO networks are on the limit now

Because the infrastructure will have to be improved along with the increase in power requirements, I can't believe you really are that naive or are you just being obtuse.
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I agree, it makes sense for town and city commutes. The cars can cope with the shorter journeys, there are charge points available, and it keeps pollution down in urban areas.

Surely town and city commuters should be using public transport.

 

[OnlQQker]

You may be able to increase the mileage by adding something like this?

 

[James]

I get the idea but do you think the extra energy harvested from the sun overcomes the extra energy required to overcome air resistance?

 

[Mike Johnson]

Well the spoiler effect will hold the back end down at speed, shame it's a front wheel drive car.

Also in stealth mode, no number plate.

 

[Ian Mills]

Hi I would say the long term answer is a plugin hybrid but not what is being built at the moment it has to have a small diesel or petrol engine maybe under 1L and a electric motor, it needs a range of 30 miles off of the battery and the engine is used for faster travel like motorways and out of town driving, once in town you use the electric, engine also charges the battery and the electric motor is used to help acceleration and going up hills, most pollution can be cut using this system, but you will have to change the way you drive, you can also use waste heat from engine to heat car/van

 

[Mike Johnson]

The Porsche and VW air cooled engines have heat exchangers on the exhaust to heat the cab and always have, so not a new idea, in fact pre the second world war.

 

[Ian Mills]

The Porsche and VW air cooled engines have heat exchangers on the exhaust to heat the cab and always have, so not a new idea, in fact pre the second world war.

The engine could still be water cooled, something like a mini-digger engine driving a auto box, with inputs from that and electric motor, revs of engine change very slowly add blue and partical filter on exhaust, I have been told that the latest diesels exhaust gasses are cleaner that what it breathes in in some cities, not sure how true that is but here is a link Can diesel engines CLEAN urban air? | Motoring Research - https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/can-diesel-engines-clean-urban-air

 

[Zerax]

EV development is hardly in the early stages, development has been ongoing since the 1970's with range still being one of the biggest issues to overcome along with battery longevity

I think that for most people (not everyone, before someone screams at me), range is now acceptable. 100 miles a day for a jobbing house bashing sparky is plenty for most. But I can see that for maybe a maintenance guy, that spends most of his time on the road rather than on a site, it might not be for him. A fast charger can give you 80% capacity while you're eating your lunch though...

 

[Mike Johnson]

Next you will be telling us that the manufacturers statement "Self charging Hybrids" is not an oxymoron, the hyperbole message given by that statement is beyond belief, 100miles is not enough to sustain any kind of realistic life style in a modern age, we are not there yet, but the Kia with it's 250mile range is certainly getting close.

 

[James]

The problem is probably 80% of cars do less than 100miles a day on average.
15,000 miles a year is only 40miles a day.
As a population, we are not ready to accept that our dalily run about is unable to take us on the family holiday of 200miles each way without spending 2 x 1 hour charge breaks in the journey.
Most people would save enough by running a cheep electric car day to day, to hire a gas burner for the 2 week holiday but we are not good at compromising our convenience for the environment.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I live in Kent and have a rod on the Avon in Hampshire it's a 300mile round trip, my other house is in the South West of France and that's a one way trip of 713miles, there is no way an Electric car could work for me, despite all the wind farms and hyperbole given out by the media, the cables aren't long enough.

 

[DPG]

I live in Kent and have a rod on the Avon in Hampshire it's a 300mile round trip, my other house is in the South West of France and that's a one way trip of 713miles, there is no way an Electric car could work for me, despite all the wind farms and hyperbole given out by the media, the cables aren't long enough.

Having a 2nd house in the South of France is hardly typical ffs.

 

[Moley]

Doesn't everyone on here have a 2nd home in the south of France then? Does my place in Monaco count?

 

[Ian Mills]

I live in Kent and have a rod on the Avon in Hampshire it's a 300mile round trip, my other house is in the South West of France and that's a one way trip of 713miles, there is no way an Electric car could work for me, despite all the wind farms and hyperbole given out by the media, the cables aren't long enough.

You may say that but I have a customer with a Tesla and he has used it to come down here which is about the same distance, he says it charges in about an hour but this time he had bikes on the roof and car full and was only getting 150 miles between charges instead of nearly 300 miles. Is he green? uses more heating oil to keep the chill off his second home than diesel I use in my van all year

 

[UNG]

A fast charger can give you 80% capacity while you're eating your lunch though...

The problem is that the type of battery fitted to the vehicle generally dictates what level of charge the vehicle can accept and therefore how long it will take to get back to any decent capacity
If you look around the network of public chargers most are 3 - 7 Kw which will hardly give a fast charge, ok Tesla seem to have charging stations in most service areas which can deliver a fast charge but my understanding is they only support their vehicles
About 6 months ago they were showing a fast charger that could recharge a vehicle in around 10mins the problem was there was only one vehicle at that time on the market that could charge at this rate with a couple more coming to market over the next few months. The other side of fast charging is the electrical supplies needed with one charger needing something in the order of a 300A 3 phase supply