RUMCars Forum
General Category => Off Topic Lounge => Topic started by: marcus on June 27, 2013, 08:12:26 AM
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23071190
A great achievement and hopefully an indication of what may be in the future, but I still feel that electric cars will remain a minority until range, heating and re-charging are addressed.
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...and meanwhile...Hybrid Planes: electric taxiing under development, what a great idea; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22992654
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23071190
A great achievement and hopefully an indication of what may be in the future, but I still feel that electric cars will remain a minority until range, heating and re-charging are addressed.
This does not prove anything other than electricity is really good stuff in a burst of power. When they have a standard class saloon that can go over the Alps and get to the sea, get charged up over the period of an office meeting, and return we can say the electric car can replace the ICE. Until then its a niche market, accept it, get over it, there is better technology out there, until or unless Governments are going to help fit the infrastructure. Cannot help feeling metal runners in the road and linear motors would then not be a more economical, durable and longer lasting infrastructure.
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Take the blinkers off Al.
If you want to go to America you don't moan because cars can't fly.
It's horses for courses.
Millions of people drive a few miles to work or school-run etc. They often use a vehicle capable of reaching Spain - across country and going over mountains. A bit of a sledge hammer to crack a nut.
You don't build the QE2 to get to France just because you might go to Australia one day. Much smaller boats can get you to France every day.
One answer is to use a small electric car for local trips and commuting but have a bigger car, perhaps Internal combustion, for long trips.
If you don't do long trips often then hire a vehicle when you need it.
Where do you store these vehicles - there are solutions and many families already have a few cars - some not capable of reaching Spain (by ferry).
For overall performance similar to an internal combustion engine we must wait for Hydrogen cell development perhaps.
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Save your breath Barry, my wiz is running proof of your argument, three and a half years of ownership now, used every day, runs on peanuts! [there's a joke there somewhere} now I wouldnt be without it unless a Twizzy turned my head.
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Saw a wiz humming along the country roads near us in Sufflok yesterday. Don't often see them outside the smoke.
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Electric cars have their uses but my beef with them is that, whilst they are clean and emit no pollutants, their power source (ie. electricity) does - either burning of ever depleting fossil fuels (instant pollution) or nuclear waste (future legacy issues). To my mind hydrogen power is the way to go. Hydrogen is the most abundant energy source in our universe after all...
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Perhaps using Hydrogen at the power station rather than in individual fuel cells in cars?
The Sun has worked fairly well over the last few years converting Hydrogen to Helium - could be a good experiment. BANG! and we won't have to worry about any microcars anymore!
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This is an old chestnut on this forum Pete. RE electric cars still burning fossil fuel at the power station, if I had a pound for every time I have heard that I would have , well about £25! ;D The fact is that you can choose to buy power to charge your car from renewable sources if you wish, .it also pollutes about 60% less by burning its fuel at a power stations than if it was burning fuel in the carits self. It also takes the pollution away from inner cities where it is the most dangerous, especially for children. I didnt actually buy mine for eco reasons, its just a local run about that my wife too can drive on her old style provisional as its converted to a single seater. Great for women [and men] with no mechanical feel as its impossible to stall and will always "start" up on the winter mornings. I'm not what you call an EV enthusiast but it just does the job we want doing and extremely well and economically at that.
I dont think larger electric cars will be catching on for a long time, for one thing, they are a shocking price to buy!
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Fair point Bob, I'm obviously behind the times - wasn't aware you could chose to buy your electric from tidal or wind power (I believe the only sustainable clean source, even hydro power has its issues)...
I see them a lot in London, along with electric delivery vehicles. A couple of times I have almost been run over by the latter as you don't hear them coming...
I'll still stick with my polluting old cars, they might kick out a lot of nasties but by not replacing them with something new it saves the energy and natural resources of building one. Besides, I'll leave that to the missus as she is a bit of a philistine when it comes to older cars...
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To my mind hydrogen power is the way to go. Hydrogen is the most abundant energy source in our universe after all...
Hydrogen makes the lead-acid battery look clever. Hydrogen is only produced by consuming large amounts of electric power to separate it out, so think of it as a liquid battery. And then you need that huge apparatus of fuel cell in the car. It's just not clever.
But.... the great advantage of hydrogen is that it still needs an internal combustion engine to drive the car, so manufacturers can continue to concentrate on petrol-engined cars while claiming that hydrogen will make them viable in the future. Cynical, moi?
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deviating slightly but this is quite interesting . one only has to look at a crowded , New York , pavement for example to realise that there could be something there . Tidal power is much researched and in use but surely one of the largest tidal surges is rush hour city traffic - could this not be harnessed ? I am sure it will be some time in the future http://www.ovoenergy.com/2013/05/kinetic-pavements-are-giving-a-whole-new-meaning-to-power-walking/
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Gymnasium power!
Have you been to a Gym lately? Row upon row of exercise machines with people exerting and burning vast amounts of calories to keep fit or loose weight.
Surly if every machine had a small generator instead of a resistance brake, we could generate massive amounts of power? Millions of people use these machines throughout the day.
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Take the blinkers off Al.
Where do you store these vehicles - there are solutions and many families already have a few cars - some not capable of reaching Spain (by ferry).
For overall performance similar to an internal combustion engine we must wait for Hydrogen cell development perhaps.
If only it were so. The school run, preserve of the ill driven MPV/Jeep. Folk are wedded to thier girt cars. Millions, We will see but its a niche market until or unless it gets 'unfair' help to persuade us off ICE. These battery powered bimbles are not the future of motoring. Power cells, maybe.
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I think the power generating pavements sound like a great idea ( a bit expensive perhaps), if put along the slow lanes of all motorways, the HGV 's traveling in from Europe could generate enough power to run all the electric cars in the UK.
I believe that one of the big London night clubs uses the same technology under the dance floor to power all the lighting and sound systems
Chris Thomas
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Gymnasium power!
Have you been to a Gym lately? Row upon row of exercise machines with people exerting and burning vast amounts of calories to keep fit or loose weight.
Surly if every machine had a small generator instead of a resistance brake, we could generate massive amounts of power? Millions of people use these machines throughout the day.
Great idea, but the reality is very surprising: I adapted some bicycles for a children's museum display a few years ago. One turned a propeller, another acted on a pair of air mattress bellows which connected to a swanee whistle, another drove a small generator which powered a small radio and the 4th lit up a series of small bulbs, pedal harder to light more.
You have to pedal pretty damned hard to light up a couple of small torch bulbs!
I know all the arguments for and against EVs and right now they do fulfill transport needs for a growing number of people, but I think mass use of them is still a long way off.
Speed has never really been an issue with electric car propulsion, range, charging and other issues are more limiting. In fact in the early days of motoring electric and steam powered cars were often the ones to beat, and it took a huge amount of research, development and inventiveness to make IC engines as "good" as they are now. I have little doubt that a similar amount of effort and money would bring significant improvements in EVs, after all, electric trains can go at amazing speed.
This LSR only re-proves what we already know: electric motors can go fast, so it does not prove that they are "useful" for mass use, but it DOES help to overcome a small amount of the widespread prejudice against EVs.
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That is the point. The collective backing for the replacement should, with suitable fiscal pressure drive the standard ICE into replacement. It is therefore important the investment goes into the right sort of project to create a usable product. Batteries are not it, unless or until they can store a lot more energy for mass. Then you have the problem that that usually means rare earth elements, large holes in strange places and potential poison leakages.
Logically we have and industry and an understanding of ICR. We have vested interests making money from oil. The vested interests hoover up any successful looking technology that will breach their monopoly. The ICE folk want to perpetuate their market place and make the cars. I suspect the answer will be some sort of fuel cell cartridge feeding a modified ICE, with, or without, a back up electric motor, which is efficient and can be green in an urban area, depending on use. AS a nation sat with a huge coastline and with a higher average of air movement than most we are supremely set to add a world leading green edge to this technolgy. Sadly the ball is a bit grubby and in the gutter somewhere while the team captains argue of the colour of the shirts. That suits the Oil and ICE men very well indeed.