Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Electric Cars

It seems to me that the evolution from internal combustion power to electric power is opening up options that mean one size no longer fits all. This makes decisions are required and, just as importantly, the playing field is no longer level.
ICE is the "safe" option, for sure, but new ICE engines may be reaching the end of the road.

Electricity has much to recommend it, but the hard choice is how to "carry" the electricity, and this depends as much on life style and geography, as anything. in dense Urban areas EVs make absolute sense, but for the many who run 5 to 15 year old cars that cost less than £10k and EV is still way too costly.

Charging a BEV at home, with occasional top up charges on the road works for many, but not all. Even the home charging question is complex: if you are an eco warrior with substantial PV and Battery you are largely insulated from the capacity of the DNO 240V system. But already on our lane a householder has been told by the DNO that he can have either a car charger or a an air source heat pump, but not both, unless he pays £25k towards an upgrade of the local transformer and 3 phase power to the house: one phase for the traditional supply, one for the heat pump and one for the car charger.

Taking a holiday in some parts of the country with an EV can be stressful. A pal has recently dumped his Tesla Model 3 for a Volvo hybrid, after a 2 week stay in Cornwall where he spent "far too much time" looking for power, with the resultant family stress: 3 kinds from 7 to 16 don't think sitting in a Tesco carpark for 3 hours as the car charges is "fun". I can understand that.

Hydrogen could be a solution, if there was an infrastructure, but there isn't. Yet.... If ever.

Fast chargers exist on the Motorway Network and in urban conurbations, but about 50% of us don't live near enough to benefit.

For all these reasons I dumped the 14 month old Tesla and replaced it with an ICE in a 6 year old Porsche. I suspect I'll not be alone. I will wait, and perhaps no longer be a driver, by the time this has all worked through.

Unfortunately it has happened.

Current EU regulations are that all electric and hybrid cars must be fitted with an acoustic warning system (AVAS) :
The measure affects electric cars sold within the European Union as of July 1, 2019, while for those on the road the requirement to be equipped with artificial noise systems was triggered in 2021. Specifically, vehicles must emit a sound of at least 56 decibels to a maximum of 75 decinels in intensity while driving at a speed of up to 20 kilometers per hour and in reverse.

As I said before I think this rule should apply at all urban and semi-urban speeds, say up to 70 kph.

I was not previously aware that an AVAS system must be retrofitted, by law, if a vehicle does not already have such a system.

That's not how the grid works - if he has been told he has to have 3 phases (which is understandable if you were going for a 10kW+ heat pump and a 11 kW EV charger and the existing 100A house load) then it means that the combined loads are spread evenly over the 3 phases, so each phase will consume roughly a 3rd of the load.
He would also need to allow for a new consumer unit in the house as the current single phase unit would need to be replaced by a 3 phase unit with all the house loads re connected to provide an even load over all 3 phases. Or rather that's the way it should be done...

We recently pulled in to a services area on m5. 6 elec charging points. All occupied. I stayed in our petrol car while my wife went in to buy a couple of takeout coffees.
I watched a continual stream of electric cars pull up, look sadly at the full chargers and park opposite to sit and stare until one became free. Their faces clearly displayed their anxiety. Clearly it's not just the time to recharge but that time plus the wait for the blooe in front to charge first! Then the fight to get the space as there were at least three waiting when one car unplugged and went on it's way. No obvious queue, just 3 or 4 cars all converging on the space from various directions.
Nick

That’s just poor UK policy (on motorway service contracts). Part of the concession contract should be nowadays including (say) 10% rising to 40% car spaces with (say) 50 rising to 150kw chargers…

Paul .... That will only happen when they can add punitive charging prices (as they currently do with ice fuel ... being far more expensive than even a remote Highlands corner petrol station, in spite of huge turnover, buying power and ease of resupply) ... the operators would just threaten to pull out and the Govt would back down .... they couldn't even get them to provide food 24/7 as they were set up to do ..... with most falling back on a Costa kiosk after 9.30 as a fig-leaf to providing for travellers.

K

Interesting article on EVs (and Satnavs) in the latest IAM RoadSmart magazine

A friend with a Renault Zoe has successfully toured Scotland. His advice - look for a Holiday Inn - many are very close to motorway junctions. They have car charging points which are usually un-used during the day time, clean toilets and reasonable coffee. And you don't have to fight your way through an unwashed coach party or stag party to get to the loo.

AIUI if you get someone like PodPoint to operate your charger you can specify what rates you want to charge for electricity, how long you allow cars to charge for, and how much the punitive over-time charge rate is?

I would have thought there's plenty of incentive for service area operators to install more charge points as demand grows. A rough rule of thumb is that it takes about half an hour to add 100 miles of range at the moment, so for people who regularly do long motorway journeys beyond the charge range of their car it's going to be a pretty fraught business for some time to come, probably for 5 to 10 years I'd guess.

The EV benefits analysis really makes sense in for the regular short/medium range with home overnight charging use case, but in many others. Fortunately this is where most users sit, and that's where the manufacturers are aiming, in the up to 200 miles per day segment.

Bigger batteries giving longer range are all very well, but they take a long time to charge and what's the point of lugging around all that weight if you never need it? You can always hire something for the odd occasion when you need to drive a long way in a short time if it's not part of your regular journey envelope. For everyone else ICE vehicles will still be around for decades. Our Landy is only 20 years old and has only done 130k miles or so, so it'll easily see us out, as will the Morgan. EVs certainly aren't the solution for everyone, but for many they are, as witnessed by their sales growth.

I would consider BEV for the "shopping trolly" but not for anything else.

At the moment we have 3 cars: VW Polo (the "shopping trolly" but don't let know that I called it that), Jaguar XE for family trips and my use when the Morgan is not appropriate, and the Morgan Plus 4.
The Jag is diesel but the other 2 are petrol. I would not mind changing the Jag and the Polo for one car that covers the current use of the two but at the most I would consider hybrid, or plug-in hybrid. So called "light hybrid" is just a way of utilising generated engine power a little better and, in effect, still remains an ICE vehicle.

We all want to save the planet but after seeing the recent antics of a drug and alcohol stupefied crowd of thousands of "young" people at a recent illegal rave party I really wonder if it is worth the effort. This lot seemed to think that freedom of expression and the right to hold a manifestation allows the to occupy private property, drink and drug themselves to the point they can barely stand up and still drive away, and inflict all this on local authorities and residents. I doubt that even one planet saving BEV arrived at the location, and that includes the hundreds of emergency services and police vehicles that arrived at the site.