Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Electric vehicles the answer ?

As a mechanically minded person, I consider myself very fortunate to have born where and when I was, in my working life and in my spare time I had the good fortune to have hands-on with electro-mechanical equipment from the Victorian to the then leading edge technology, where digitisation altered everything greatly, and made so many hard won skills redundant.

I had greatly enjoyed many challenges and rewards over time, such as getting to grips with the operation of generating magneto fed sparks in my old Norton Dominator (wideline) then through HT coils and points on to electronic ignition. With the passage of more time and perhaps with a fair amount of frustration watched as digital technology in the early days inhibited access of the would be home mechanic to repair and maintain his car.. At that stage of the game I bailed out of interest in acquiring or working on more modern vehicles as a pastime... I had more than enough digitally controlled activities and frustrations with rapid advances in it at my workplace to keep up with...

I guess it might be expected that one who is ever excited at the sound of an old Brit twin m/cycle engine on full song, or the chortle of a pair of Webers on a Lotus twin cam, turning into induction roar when the boot was put in, those wonderful XK polished alloy rocker covers and black enamelled exh manifolds, the wail in the tail of an air cooled 911, or watching the flames exiting the open exhausts on the radial engine of an old Dakota as it roared and spat, having just got airborne... Yup pretty much a born and bread petrol head, who has owned a Morgan +8 for 16 years or so, having experienced a few adventures in it... Boy do I think myself lucky to have enjoyed the opportunities afforded me..

Finally getting round to it, almost (-: ... Electric vehicles...? I suspect that which I typed above may have shades of experience of many over 50`s Morgan owner perhaps part of their "story" causing them to become a Morgan owner as it did me...? Around the mid seventies when I was mostly messing with Lotus I had a pals V12 E 2+2 Coupe for a week, seem to remember getting through circa £60 of fuel which suggests I tested it`s performance a bit, fortunately no dash cams or roadside cameras around at the time, however I do remember thinking the V12 was missing something in terms of driver experience compared with my usual transport, and it was perhaps that it`s motive force sounded and performed more like an electric motor which at the time was a bit of a disappointment, it lacked that...err..raw roar via the attractive organ tail pipe exhaust, though the door window frames still rattled a bit at three figure speeds...

That was a while back, and I have burned a fair bit of petrol and diesel since then, and enjoying the process mostly.... Though while I am no sandal wearing tree huger, I do not like the idea of poisoning the planet, sure there are arguments for and against EVERYTHING, but I tend to follow the line of least resistance, finding comfort in the middle ground, and the advances in electric vehicles seem to be such that on balance I too might just end up as a convert... Perhaps more so now that classic car conversions seem to be a growing business, and given the mileage I may be expected to cover in my Morgan these days, I suspect I might find little to no inconvenience, and were it electric I might even use it more..

Just thinking in type, more than happy to discuss..

👍

Translation:

You see this brown coal power plant?
It is the exhaust of my new e-car!

By next year the UK will have just 4 coal fired power stations, all using hard black coal.
Those countries still burning brown coal should be ashamed of themselves.
Because of latent high moisture content and low energy density of brown coal, carbon dioxide emissions from traditional brown-coal-fired plants are generally much higher per megawatt generated than for comparable black-coal plants.As well as CO2 when brown coal is burnt it releases a long list of poisonous heavy metals and toxic chemicals like sulphur dioxide, mercury, particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. By world standards these pollutants are poorly monitored & controlled, and they impose a staggering health cost.
Germany has been the largest lignite producer in the world since the beginning of industrial lignite mining. It still is, followed by China, Russia and the United States.

Source: Web Searches and State of Victoria, Aus.

Seems part of the UK is becoming greener by the day... (-:

https://www.sciencealert.com/scotla...enerating-double-what-its-residents-need

Electric cars to emit sound for pedestrian safety.

What's happened to LPG conversions which seemed popular for 'gas guzzlers' some years ago ?

I had my S2A Land Rover converted to LPG. Commute to work was fine, as there was a filling point halfway to work, and another next to work. However, visiting different parts of the country was a bit hit and miss, and sometimes I was having to take massive detours to find a filling point. Some were at petrol stations, but others involved industrial estates, with special keys and access codes - a right faff.

Also, found the LPG to be far less forgiving than petrol - the slightest issues with valves, ignition etc would cause a drop in economy. - obviously a newer car would have less problems that my 1962!

Tank size was also issue - too big and you lose storage space, too small and you're forever re-filling. I tried to get the happy medium, but still had to refuel every 180 miles (3 days).

From a VERY dull memory the first issue with LPG, was that at the time valve seats depended on the lead additive for "lubrication," you may remember when they first started taking the lead out of petrol that such issues arose..?

Another issue seemed to be that while the exhaust from LPG was cleaner than petrol or diesel, apparently the particulate matter emitted was much smaller and thus could pass directly through lung tissue and into the bloodstream which was thought to create different issues... but then I am no doctor..

Seems the Dutch govt convinced many of the country`s motorist to convert to LPG by way of reduced taxation, and once the change had been a success they then taxed the LPG...?

Does anyone know the inside scoop on what happened to the plans for an electric 3-wheeler for the USA? I was surprised to learn that the plans were scrapped.