Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Electric Cars

Latest info on electric cars is that ....according to todays papers ... when an electric car has a malfunction it doesn't coast to a stop , instead it stops suddenly ! Imagine that when the offending car is in front of you !
Secondly , its impossible to tow an electric car !

The same as ICE vehicles with auto boxes and electric handbrakes, then. Or did the article not mention this? Or was it trying to pretend that because an EV might in some circumstances fail in a way that prevents them going into neutral, that would happen in every single failure scenario whilst not applying the same narrow criteria to ICE vehicle failures?

One of the motoring magazines (CarWow, see the next post) did a road test of electric cars to see how they compared with the published range, and what happens when they run out. there is a video on youtube.
Other than the Tesla 3 once the battery had become exhausted none of them could be pushed easily, and a couple locked solid. As with ALL 4X4 cars the two motor electrics they cannot be towed, but must be recovered.
I do feel that causing the transmission to lock is unhelpful, and potentially dangerous: it should be prohibited.
I believe that in the USA there is a requirement that cars can be pushed, hence the Tesla facility.

A good review by carwow guys on the actual distance they achieve and what happens.

Leaf
iJag
Kia Nero
MB EQC
Qtron
Tesla3

Thanks for that real world test, so Kia are the only trustworthy cars in terms of the truth on distances Mercedes take the booby prize there

When my Jaguar XE Auto AWD was hit from behind everything locked up and it could not be moved until the tow truck arrived. It caused a traffic jam for over an hour and, of course, the tow truck was caught in the traffic jam too. To make it worse neither the police or the carabinieri attended because no one was injured and that left bystanders to direct traffic.

But what is the point. Remember the law of conservation of energy? To produce hydrogen even at 100% efficiency takes as much energy as buring it can ever produce. So why turn lexxy into hydrogen with energy losses simply to send through the pipes ( again with losses) when you can simply send the leccy through the wires?

People seem to think that there is a magic bullet that can be used to give copious energy without problems. Petroleum works simply because it already exists. Nuclear power works because the laws of conservation of energy dont apply to fusion.

Howard ...I think the draw of hydrogen is to flatten the intermittency of renewables .......turn the leccy into hydrogen that can then be used when we need it rather than when it's sunny or windy ... there's the ability to store energy in quantities that may never practically be reached with batteries (and in dumb metal tanks without the eventual toxic material disposal issues) .... some sci-fi improvement to battery storage levels will be needed before people stop thinking about hydrogen.

K

Friend of my daughter recently bought a three year old Tesla, the posh one. Four breakdowns so far. First three fixed by software updates. This latest one car had to be taken to a special unit in dartford (owner lives north london) and has joined a queue. Apparently they are overwhelmed with repairs and it will be two weeks before they even look at it! No courtesy car available. He's not happy......
Nick

I know graphene batteries seem to have been "just around the corner" for some time now, but in theory, they could provide the great leap forward you are talking about. As I understand it, the main difficulty is working out how to manufacture them economically. The more electric car market develops, the quicker this is likely to happen.

Graphene offers higher electrical conductivity than lithium-ion batteries. This would allows for faster-charging cells that are able to deliver very high currents. They will be lighter and more compact, and capable of more than five times the capacity. They should also be safer.

Lots of amazing people are working on this stuff. It will happen.