Just had a thought - what's going to happen to the electric car (should it ever materialise in the next 50 years) in winter?
Switching on the heater would draw another 1000W from the car's batteries, which would mean you grind to a halt about half a mile up the road.
I imagine this is just another (of many) reasons why the whole "electric car" scenario is never going to work.
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And also where is the power going to come from. We hear from 'those in the know' that we need more power stations as things stand. Imagine if we all drove an electric car and plugged it in to the grid at night.
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Funnily enough, some of the electric cars previously produced used a parafin heater because of the power drain of an electric one!
Alternatively wear thermals ;-)
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Buy one of these and use it to charge your electric car tinyurl.com/dfdlq
madf
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When I hired an electric car it had an Eberspacher petrol (or probably diesel) powered heater in it. Hotter than a dragon's breath, the entire car is warm in less than a minute from start-up but very low fuel consumption.
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Tatra V8s (rear engined) had petrol heaters in them. They did not have air-con of course, and that will remain a problem for any electric car.
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"Buy one of these and use it to charge your electric car.."
And the faster you go, the more it will charge it up! Hang on a minute...
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The electric sportscar featured on tonights Fifth Gear seems a leap forward in speed and range but is eye wateringly expensive,as usual not enough detail given in time available on the programe but will make interesting reading when a full review is published.
ndbw
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Looked impressive. 0 - 60 in 4.2 secs with maximum torque available from rest. They said the top speed was only 105, but a gearless car with that sort of power delivery would be as quick as even the fastest supercar in real world conditions.
Three and a half hours to charge the batteries and a range of 200 miles is a big step forward as well.
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but will make interesting reading when a full review is published.
www.venturi.fr/us/index.php3
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Thanks for that Dyn.Dave have put site in my favourites so I can watch developements.
ndbw
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Very little information, but if you click on Happenings, then Gallery, there are some pics.
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In effect the Toyota Prius is an electric car, albeit with a petrol engine and generator to top up the battery or provide extra power when needed.
OK, so hybrid's aren't true electric cars, but much of their technology could be used for pure electric cars, making them cheaper to buy through economies of scale.
There may well be a future for pure battery-electric cars (with regenerative braking) but only only as city cars for relatively short journeys. The Smart and the Mercedes A-class were designed with battery electric versions in mind but those never materialised.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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Very little information, but if you click on Happenings, then Gallery, there are some pics.
More stuff mentioned here:-
www.venturi.fr/us/fetish/specs/specs.php3
Hover your mouse cursor over the various wordings on the right to see the blurb.
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Hmm - 58kWh battery and 180kW motor, so if you keep the pedal to the metal, the battery will last about 18 minutes! Mind you, you will have gone over 30 miles in that time, but it makes the quoted 250-350km range sound a bit optimistic, especially since you will be looking rather hard for somewhere to re-charge towards the end of your journey.
I think the hybrid arrangement is a lot more practical, as the batteries can be then be used for peak demand (or trickling in traffic) and the IC engine can be sized down for average requirements.
More efficient solar cells may be a way forward, assuming we have some sunshine to go with them...
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Although i haven't done all the maths, electric cars are not necessarily all that cheap to run, or environmentally friendly.
say you get an average hundred mile range from your electric car. Those 58kWh will have costed you c.5.50 sterling, i.e 5.5p/mile.
a small diesel supermini nowadays gets around 60mpg and has a longer range. Fuel costs here, c.6.4p/mile.
So running costs are marginally cheaper - this isnt including purchasing cost, of course.
Environmentally, im not totally aware of supermini emissions, but the point is that whilst you are driving on electricity, causing 'no pollution', that electricity has almost certainly been produced in a great big dirty power station. For each kW of power output, 550g of CO2 is produced, along will not insignificant amounts of sulphur compounds and other harmful substances.
I'd be dubious whether electric cars are ALL that great for the environment.
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