Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Real world eV usage

Interesting figures, the Leaf is quite popular here but friends who have them only get 140 -150 km per charge and the late model ones a bit less apparently they require a software update - not available here as Nissan don't support the vehicles as they didn't sell them, they are all second hand Jap imports!
It seems that only Tesla do what they promise mileage wise . I do wonder what happens to all the old batteries in future and the people mining the lithium ?

Re the old batteries question a uk company has a deal with Renault to turn them into household storage units.

The Norwegian guy is obviously using them in a colder climate than the UK. The varying charging stations and Differing capacities and voltages used by the car manufacturers is quite an interesting difference in use. The Jaguar I-PACE official figures don't appear to hold up in use.

It's very good of these various owners to post this information, and yes there will be bias and favouritism in some of the views but data figures and the functionalities are revealed, no doubt over the coming years the designers will have to craft these cars so that they can compete, for now Tesla had it relatively easy but its build quality is one thing that is shown up by the other main stream manufacturers.

You take for granted how far you can travel in an ICE car without filling up that frequently.

EV are going to require a different mindset in long distance travel.

Perhaps if manufacturers considered the real world when they design these things. Virtually every manufacturer boasts about power and acceleration as though they are in a competition. The competition should be range.
That’s what puts me off them, I’d take up EVs now if I was confident of a decent and accurate range together with charging infrastructure. The cars should also be future proof as far as batteries are concerned. If this is all to save the Planet, we can’t keep buying cars and then scrapping them as they get older.

EV reminds me of the diesel situation in some aspects.
Initially promoted for better mpg and CO2.
NOx known about but ignored.
Slightly higher purchase price of car.

EV.......
Zero emissions as a selling point, ignoring how the electricity is generated.
Significantly higher car purchase price.
Li-ion battery production and disposal issues similar vagueness/ignoring of known issues.
Battery safety in a crash.
Battery life/replacement.

Other than VAT there is the issue of fuel tax. Current fuel duty is a major part of the at the pump cost. A double whammy as VAT is paid on the fuel duty part too...tax on a tax.Far too much ££££ to ignore so what will be done to tax electricity for vehicle use?
I look on EV promotion as being sold far before the hidden issues are resolved and publicised. It looks good for the politicians to be pro EV.

Broadly, ⅓ of UK power generation comes from zero-carbon sources and ⅓ comes from very low carbon (nuclear). Of the rest, only a tiny amount comes from coal, it's nearly all gas these days.

Compared to the extraction, refinement, and distribution of gasoline and diesel, the overall carbon emissions of EVs are very low indeed.

They will switch from taxing the fuel to taxing road usage.

As long as the issue for battery resources and disposal is not resolved we still have a fundamental problem.

I absolutely agree. It is really the case with us in Germany that the advocates of the eV are mostly driven by other interests. Left-wing Green politicians want to save the world in first order and eV is for them the untouchable new Messiah.
Right-wing conservatives are also voting for eV because they are more closely connected with the car industry. The car industry, on the other hand, collects billions from the state to develop eV. VW e.g. tries to distract massively with eV from its hideous fraud image and gets Billions of subsidy funds to develop eV

In all this, I see an extensive electrocar psychosis affecting many different groups.
And the objections that you describe, Sospan, this fields of problems are completely ignored, as if the secret goal were to abolish individual transport as a whole.

Agreed... the Hydrogen powered fuel cell is, to my mind, a far more environmentally sound solution. Mercedes has a GLC with this power plant and it takes just 3 min to fill the tank. Range is about 250 miles, performance what would be expected.

Details here..
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/mer...ell-2018-review

And for the true "petrol heads", hydrogen will fuel a normal ICE engine perfectly well.

Not much of a problem in the UK. Firstly, EV batteries, even the early technology versions, are lasting much much longer than originally forecast.

Then when they do reach End of Life capacity for vehicular use they are being re-used in storage arrays for the VPP (Virtual Power Plant) industry which is growing incredibly quickly not only in the UK but across Europe.

Finally, the batteries are being recycled - not very many at the moment because there simply aren't that many that need recycling yet.