Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Electric Cars

Makes sense to me. Of course, if one wants to do one's bit to save the planet it makes much more sense to simply keep the car(s) one has rather than changing them every few years. BEVs make sense from an economic viewpoint if one has access to home charging from solar panels, but otherwise they are a heck of an expensive way to save a few quid.

To my mind, the 'must have something new' consumerist mindset is far more damaging at an individual level than burning a few extra gallons of gasoline every year.

I think the explanation was simplified so the very non technical home owner in question could understand why three phase power was needed.

I'm sure we all were young once, I remember when I was 14 whilst 6'2'' being bitterly disappointed when the publican refused to serve me, the school tie may have given me away. I remember my grandparents expressed very similar views to me in my teenage years.

Loads of silly thoughts.

1. We need to manage the queue, of course we do we are British. I present to you the mechanical way of doing this proven 100,000 times over. Perhaps not in the rain though.



2. There could be an opportunity to add value by the motorway services here - they could "invent" an app that manages the queue through location identity, you would of course have to pay for this....
(we could also use it to report duff chargers loudly as well)

3. I like the idea of having banks of chargers as requirements around commercial retail property subsidised however I worry about the number of new electrical sub-stations we may need to do this ? It could be a boom for food trucks/dodgy burger vans as well. You could even use an electric van as it would access to charging and the big battery would mean it can run the boiler, microwave, dirty grill from the battery so no loud putt-putt generator.

I know there have been charger rage incidents in the US already so am just waiting for the first to arrive on the front page of the Sun!


It does seem that the first round of BEV cars have gone different ways as the industry and customers work out the formula.
Fiat 500/MiniE/HondaE all small and light for city/urban/compact use.
Tesla/KiaGT/Polestar looking at bigh range and power
MG and a couple of others working out it needs pricing sensibility.

Is it not more valuable to look at the current stuff in more detail.

Electric (powered) vehicle but how do you generate/store the electric, perhaps slice those two issues up. I liked the i3 Rex logic which came about many years ago.

Small/medium battery for the short hops many cars do.
Plug in so this can be charged (feedback into home as well) from solar at home.
Medium on board charger engineering (full battery at home in 6 hours?)
Optimised Rex (option but retrofittable?) source to allow longer ranges or emergency charge.
Medium performance as massive power in confined traffic is a waste and possibly dangerous?

For greater range or a more flexible capability introduce
Greater battery capacity
High power charging 800v - 350Kw so 10-80% is rip fast to also clear the chargers quickly
Greater performance, overtaking, relaxed experience.
Rex as standard for flexibility in the journey and safety on a long motorway stretch.

We see this developing now but I don't see the Rex bit settling yet. How do I make a smaller, lighter, less expensive (eco and cost) battery pack work better?
Some of the new series hybrid cars appearing (Hondas new Civic) have the option to use the ICE to directly drive the wheels (no gearbox!) or just charge the engine/battery.
But it does not need to be a traditional ICE does it?
Hydrogen to electric motors seems to be constantly trying to get out of the gate but is also (more) infrastructure resistant?
Now given a general ICE today is designed to operate over quite a broad spectrum of loads and revs why use it in a Rex?
Optimise it to run at a set speed, junk all the vast electronics it nests in. Even junk petrol/piston?
A tiny gas turbine (I know, I am having a laugh) optimised to a synthetic fuel at a fixed speed that charges the battery or direct to the motor as a power top up.
Far less to build, fix, maintain, control. Less electronic junk with fixed obsolescence issues. More compact for fitment given the batteries are already bulky.

Seeing some of the companies bringing out serial hybrid is a move the right way.

This looks nice and sound promising.

https://hydrogen-central.com/new-hydrogen-car-travels-2000-kilometers-single-tank/

But if they release 10,000 cars in 2026 I bet none make it out of Europe. Maybe 2036 for one to reach Australia?

Not silly at all - during lockdown, when the number of shoppers indoors was controlled, there was a proliferation of supermarket queueing apps
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/superma...ology-can-do-so-much-more/647036.article

... but for charging services to introduce that they'd first have to admit there's a problem. And I guess that's the last thing they'd want to do.

Zap Map does show whether chargers are occupied or not, and if they're reported broken. Again though I guess people wanting to promote the shiny new better way of driving don't want to highlight the less robust bits of the ecosystem.

Setting aside all the emotional pulls of actual engine dynamics, my barrier to EV is charging anxiety. My hybrid fills with petrol in 5 minutes, and charges while parked & I'm eating/sleeping or working. Any other attempt to charge on the move is likely to add more stress and anxiety than range.

How long before we see newspaper headlines about bust ups between EV owners over plugging in? Range Rage?!

Will

Or people constantly falsely logging their local charger as faulty to keep randoms away 🙂

K

I mentioned charger rage about 4-5 years ago. A friend who had a flat in SanFran bought an early Tesla S. As a few of them had Tesla's they requested the management company to install a couple of chargers in the basement. It was contracted out to an external company as the underwearbunching around who was going to pay for it was apparently hilarious.

One person was always leaving their car attached and in the space even after it was 95% charged and the passive aggressive stress levels became challenging. The naughty persons car started to get scratched, he fitted CCTV to monitor it and a full on fight kicked off one morning. Of course it was covered by his CCTV and so he got hoisted based on evidence he recorded.

The zapmap stuff is very helpful for showing occupied vs broken vs free. It does not show the waiting queue however, which could massively extend the time if you are at 10% (so unable to go onto the next spot) and the chargers are <60kWh ? This is the deeply annoying bit.

Reminds me of communal laundry room angst.

Most people will charge an EV overnight - and keep it topped up overnight - meaning a 300 mile full tank every morning. I very rarely use the Tesla superchargers - I topped up in Birmingham recently on a trip up to the midlands, 20 minutes. I've just worked out that I've saved 68 visits to a petrol station since I've had it and used superchargers about 6 times.

As I rarely drive over 300 miles in a day I have yet to suffer from range anxiety. This sets aside the thousands I have saved in fuel and servicing costs.