Electric cars - food for thought

Due to job change in the future been giving a few thoughts to an electric car. What got me going was that a work collegues son is buying a BMW i3. Mega bucks £33k minus the £5k incentive = £28k. OK, other incentives are there for that guy because he runs his own business and further tax gains are available to him. The BMW is plastic built so gross weight is 1.2 tonne.
Out of interest, I had a look at the Nissan Leaf. First level built in Japan and been around for a couple of years now. Charge range about 77 miles and can be picked up for about £11k with ownership of batteries. Second level out now and built in Sunderland. Three spec levels available with the cheapest being a tad under £16k to buy. Price tag is about £25+k with government incentive of £10k to be taken off. The Leaf being made of metal weighs in at just under 2 tonne. The new models have an improved milage range of about 120 miles between charges. I was quite impressed with the size, 5 door, 5 seater with a reasonable boot. Part of deal is a home fitted British Gas electric charger with increased amps. Charge time 5-6 hours. Can be charged on normal 13 amp three pin plug but that takes 12 hours. The other options are improving grid of fast and rapid charge outlets at main dealers and supermarkets. Nissan main dealer rapid charge takes 30 minutes and doesn't cost a penny. Downer is that the rapid charge being used constantly is detrimental to the batteries. Dealer tells me home charge on night leccy tariff costs about £2, so 120 miles for £2 ain't bad. On top of that, only an electric motor to worry about, no combustion engine, gearbox, clutch or exhaust to maintain. Brakes, steering, suspension, tyres etc same as conventional car.
Dealer explained that the batteries are an unknown quantity at this moment in time but expected them to be down to 70-80% efficient after 5 years. He also couldn't quote on replacement battery costs. That's why there's a rental deal on the batteries which carries a price of £70 per month, mileage dependent.
The Leaf also as an option of a solar panel in the rear spoiler for trickle feeding the batteries. Made me wonder how long it will be before all the exposed panels have integrated solar panels and the front grille is utilised to be a wind tunnel with a result that these cars become self sufficient with energy recharge.
For now the old Doblo as got to behave itself for my 60 mile daily commute but if it doesn't and I have to replace it, reckon leccy will be the way to go.

Interesting stuff...they just sound like milkfloats, but I guess you could get a cd of a hearty V8 to play through the stereo, if using the stereo didnt knock 5 miles off your range! LOL
Whats happening workwise Pete???? :shock:

I'm all for looking after the environment but these electric cars are a con. A friend of a friend actually bothered to do some research and the amount of harm it does to produce some of the electrical components and the batteries is ridiculous. He worked out it was less harmful to be driving around in his old V8 landrover for the 40 years than to buy one of these cars.......mental! I know which i'd rather have too, but i'm very much a hater of all new cars, especially electric ones. Give me something where the steering wheel feels like its actually connected the wheels and the wheels are indeed touching the tarmac anyday!

Just my two pennies worth :lol:

Your right about extra voltage usage Greg. On the heat side, remotely by your smart phone/tablet whatever, the advise is to program the heat to come on whilst the car it's plugged into the mains charging thus not draining the battery stored juice.
The LEAF as got a top speed of 100mph and very quick, very silent, very instant acceleration.

As for the job front, changes going on at present company and something came up with another company that wants to be around when I hit the magic 66 mark. Rightly or wrongly, I've decided to go for the change whilst this opening is on offer. Saw what happened to my couple of years older bro, he got his redundo notice last August and couldn't even get interviews to stack shelves. Best open the borders because we've got loads of jobs on offer that UK companies can't get local people to take :evil:

Good luck Pete, sounds like the right move for you bud...but wont you miss my "mate"... :lol:

As you would expect, when I was talking to the car salesman, he was uncommital about the cost of replacement batteries. He said the official Nissan line was that they are to new and nobody knows how long they will last and what the replacement costs would be.
Then I done a google search and low and behold, the UK Nissan vice-president as already spilt the beans. No wonder the salesman didn't want the subject mentioned.
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/lea ... d-cost-19k

So just like everything else in our lives that's battery powered.........damm expensive to replace, always nearly flat when you need them and never last as long as promised. Everything battery powered in everyday life is basically crap, short lived and severly limited by its batteries until we plug it into the mains.
Until battery technology makes a huge leap in capacity and durability and price then electric cars won't take off. We need hydrogen fuel cells at a reasonable cost at least to make it worthwhile . Lithium batteries are also fairly fragile and go bang big time if charged incorrectly or damaged. I use lithium technology in some of my RC aircraft and there are all sorts of precautions to take regarding battery safety. Have a look on youtube for lithium battery fires.....they're tiny batteries compared to a 24kw Nissan leaf battery....wouldn't want to be anywhere near a Nissan leaf in a crash because if a single cell gets punctured and exposed to air then away it will probably go.....and you can't put the fire out....it's a self sustaining chemical fire

Are the Leaf lithium-ion batteries the same ones that grounded the Boeing Dreamliner?
In the defense of Nissan, they do have a cooling system for the main lithium-ion batteries. As a side note, the ancillaries are run from a separate 12 volt standard battery.

If they ever do take of i would love to see what the little boy racers are going to do for big bore exhaust noise and the huge boom box in the boot? Probably have one of those little electric devices to make the noise through an outside speaker and get an i-pod with an amp for the boom box! :mrgreen: