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Electric cars

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Forest Hillbilly Flag in a hidey-hole 20 Feb 18 2.57pm Send a Private Message to Forest Hillbilly Add Forest Hillbilly as a friend

Originally posted by twist

Given the price of gas over there i would have thought an EV would have been a no brainer.

As to the electricity, more than 50% of the power provided in Britain is from renewable sources

Degradation of current year EV batteries is almost a non issue. The quality and robustness of EV batteries are way higher than phone/tablet/laptop batteries. They did a study of over 500 Tesla vehicles in the USA, and found that in the first 50,000 miles of the vehicle, the battery degraded by 5% and after that almost nothing at all.

Even if the battery failed outside its warranty period(8-10 years and 100k-150k over here), the prices have dropped dramatically to around 0/KWH to replace. By the time it did come for you to replace, its estimated prices would be -0/KWH.
Just because the battery fails, does not mean the cells need replacing, thats actually quite rare.
There are many instances of EV's here with 300,000+ miles on the original battery, with 0-15% degradation.

Another plus of modern day EV's is their reliability. Electric motors are far less prone to problems than gas/diesel engines. Virtually no moving parts means far less potential problems.

But range is the real issue. Your not going to be able to drive the distant specified on vehicle with a fully charged battery. If it says 250, you can expect 180-200, depending on road conditions, traffic etc. Most EV's dont even have that kind of range.

In Britain you are lucky, already a ton of charging stations. Takes about 40 minutes to fast charge a tesla to 80%, 20 minutes for 50%. So if you plan things right, you can be eating lunch on a long trip whilst your car charges.

So yes, i think in Britain, EV's are very viable. Not so much in the USA yet, except California, but if in live in Cali i would probably have a hydrogen car.

Actually, renewables only account for around 30%
of energy production in the UK
[Link]
But the point is, renewables contribution is improving and is likely to stay well ahead of nuclear electricity generation

The only problem with renewables input into the grid is its variability. If the wind don't blow, your turbines don't turn. If the sun don't shine, you ain't got power. That's why fossil and nuclear power generation keep the electricity grid stable.

Some of the ideas mooted, like swapping a flat battery for a charged on at a fuel station seems very good. I liked the scalectrix rail system on the roads idea, but overhead lines for a bumper car model also came to mind.

Edited by Forest Hillbilly (20 Feb 2018 2.59pm)

 


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twist Flag Miami, Florida 20 Feb 18 4.32pm Send a Private Message to twist Add twist as a friend

thats a more detailed report than the one i read, which claimed 2017 was the year that > 50% of energy used in Britain was from renewable sources. Still, much better than over here where everybody wants renewable, but "not in my back yard".

 

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