Monkhai

If you charge the car on a plug, and the generator charges a battery below a certain amount it shouldn’t get used that often. A small engine or gas turbine directly runs a generator, the same as the alternator that would be otherwise required. No gearbox or transmission losses would easily save any small loses. As a generator an engine can run at its ideal RPM so would be more fuel efficient than varying revs with load. Finally the weight saving vs directly driven hybrid (mild or otherwise) would only add to efficiency. I believe a number of mild hybrids don’t deliver in the real world also, which suggests a degree of box ticking using 48v and a combined generator/alternator/starter to do some assistance. @Lady Elanore Sadly I’m not sure weight is such so different these days: Newest M5 is a smidge under 2 tonnes and an EV6 AWD a smidge over. https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/all-models/m-models/m5-competition/2020/highlights.html I’m not happy about the trend for fat cars and I miss the control you get from a Manual gearbox, although not currently missing the fuel bills. To be fair I also get irritated by the 101 bongs from driver “safety” systems that are not.

By 2030 I’d expect an electric platform with a generator not an ICE platform with batteries. If you’re currently pulling around a 150bhp petrol engine, a gearbox and a 50L+ fuel tank then there is lots of weight saving easily available. Composite or Aluminium panels hare used, so could be used more to drop more weight. Engines and fuel tanks can be smaller to reduce weight too. 100 miles not real under current testing either, but 80-100 is recharge once a week for many and frankly anything less is really just an ICE most of the time so shouldn’t be sold. EV manufacturers need to look at weight and efficiency too, 3.5 is an ok start, but 4.5 is better for m/kWh. I want an EV that can do a real 400 miles, but I’d rather it came with a 75kWh battery than a 100kWh as it’s cheaper to run. Less weight means better handling too 👍

I’ve seen the clip but no never driven one. Are they any good if you have?

Mild hybrid seems like a joke engine driven hybrid is pointless as you’re carrying a gearbox and drivetrain. For me hybrids should be electric drivetrains, could be petrol/gas even diesel generators and should be able to plug in and charge (AC only) with an electric only range of say 100 miles or 33% of range (whichever is higher). Possibly even a limit on the weight of the engine/fuel side of it to stop companies dropping in a v6 a big fuel tank and a tiny battery.

Van they could probably even stretch to larger capacity say 100kWh standard and 150kW LR both on 350Kw capable platforms. weight/cost would be a factor of course. 400 miles is a car is probably 250 in a van so 250 to 375 mile ranges (at a price) would likely clean up as Citroen/Peugeot vans.

That 98kWh model would be interesting, particularly if it has 800v batteries.

My hope is that the rapid chargers are free and working. The 350s seem to better than most, but far from perfect. Presently I assume no destination charging, but it’ll be nice if every parking space got 16/32 Amp type 2. Hydrogen fuel cells have worked for a long while, it’s the infrastructure that needs to catch up in the Uk (Familiar theme) Your point of doing it right first time is one view, the other would be regular smaller steps to get benefit as quickly as possible. Ability to recharge is a headache for many, so taking petrol/diesel and replacing it with hydrogen is a step. Fuel tax at two rates one for green a much higher for blue should help. I agree neither are perfect, my preference is getting people off ice ASAP.

Older cars are targeted by organised criminals to sell for spare parts. There’s huge demand for used parts for less than new, so they Nick the popular older cars and flog them as parts. Cleaned money. In Birmingham they’re even taking parts off cars whilst parked up for a few hours to sell.

@Graham Butcher i think you’ll find we all got confused by the fiesta comment. If you’d just said something like wouldn’t thieves target large numbers of parked up EV regularly left overnight we might have got your point.

The fiesta isn’t electric, what did I miss? Thieves steal stuff… in other news the world is round, the pope is catholic and bears xxxx in the woods.

A lot of people won’t go EV due to downtime. I couldn’t make it work with a 400v car due to my business travel, so I am limited to the highest speed chargers and some hope when working. Getting people out of ice is the goal here, hence when I said hybrid I kept it range extender electric drive only. BEV vs FCEV is the secondary debate of what is best vs good and the answer won’t be the same for everyone. Time does matter. But once a pumped hydro or h2 production facility is built it can generate. Sure use v2g, but if I was buying a car outright with lithium batteries I wouldn’t allow it myself due to increased battery degradation. Small maybe, but I want to keep the v. Expensive car going as long as possible. Thing is though, it’s almost not at all about efficiency and hugely about localised air pollution. As I said elsewhere I’d use excess wind to make green hydrogen, store and sell for transport and keep some to make electricity for the grid in low generation days. Even with blue (and a few years notice plan for a suitable tax on blue for price parity plus a bit with green) the CO2 being captured is better than it going in the atmosphere along with NOx and PM from petrol and diesel. Local air pollution is a very immediate problem along with CO2 and if people don’t want a car with a plug, I’d rather get them a step closer until battery/technology improves generally. Smart meter installer told me they’re been tasked with looking more carefully at the seals now prices are much higher. To be honest, I think the DNO should be required to provide a fuse, meter and an isolator, but that’s just my view.

Not strictly true, they must be suitably qualified, have the correct equipment and have permission from the DNO. That last bit is usually only permitted for their staff. Of course any home without an isolation switch after the main fuse, should probably get one fitted, so the fuse is no longer an issue. https://engx.theiet.org/f/wiring-and-regulations/22053/on-the-subject-of-pulling-the-dno-fuse

Slight disagreement as actually many people who drive for work and currently use diesel to minimise down time between sites would kill for a decent hydrogen vehicle. Plenty don’t have drives too. So whilst battery is good for many, hydrogen would be good. I would like the option and would likely own one BEV with a 200 mile range and an FCEV. As it stands it’s a 300-450mile BEV and a diesel. Obviously an FCEV would be better and the smaller battery would be more efficient on the BEV. I also fundamentally don’t think v2g is the answer you think. Solar systems requiring a mandatory load shedding to home battery/hot water or EV is as much use. Pumped hydro and hydrogen generation to store excess renewables and use them when wind/sun is low is far more manageable for the grid and storage should be mandated for renewable generators. (Domestic could be v2g/home battery or throttle back). The storage at generation would also means rather than paying people to consume excess, generators could be mandated to disconnect from grid and store. These stores could the be used to balance the grid instead of gas backup stations when renewable generation is low. Batteries for EV are not exactly nice to make in terms of environmental impact, so smaller batteries in more efficient cars, with generator storage and an option for people who need mega daily range (at a cost) isn’t a bad thing. Don’t let perfect get in the way of good, and from an environmental point of view an FCEV is better than an ICE. Ideally green hydrogen, but even blue is better than petrol/diesel/gas boilers. At least pollutants could be scrubbed/captured and handled rather than coming out of every exhaust/boiler flu untreated.

If you have a drive, then an EV charger is possible and an EV can be charged at 2-3p per mile. if you don’t have a drive, then either keep what you have or go for a range extender hybrid (electric drivetrain, engine is a generator only). I think freight will be hydrogen and just like high mileage drivers used to use diesel but everyone normal was petrol, the long range/short stop time drivers might have hydrogen fuel cells.

Tiny hit tbh for AC or heating probably in the region of 5% or 10% on a crazy cold/hot day way outside what you’ll find here. Speed/driving style would have a far bigger effect. Talking of AC, car on an AC charger, set meeting end time plus 15 minutes, got into a car at 20 degrees with full range rather than hot hot hot. Much harder to do that in an ICE car and the EV can pre heat/cool from battery if really needed.

Better not get a car park full of automatic SUV or those daft oversized pickup trucks… who know what could happen, they might cause car parks to collapse 😂😂😋 Im glad the typical space size is increasing, although I’d still like a little more width due to above mentioned cars and an amazing inability to get near the centre of a bay.

The bit that got me was the article saying it would still be based of MEB not PPE or an MEB replacement. MEB is not proving to be a platform to have fantastic cars riding on it IMHO.

I’m absolutely not interested in hatches as everything is an SUV and I want load lugging. SUV formats are ok but not a patch on an estate. 👍 as for the id3/4, that’s the enyaq and personally I hated the 3 and sadly the 4/enyaq shared some of the traits I hated. I wouldn’t touch an octy based on that a barge pole. Currently thinking A6 Avant etron when the ev6 is due back.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/skoda-confirms-octavia-sized-electric-estate-car-2026 my main thoughts… really interesting and I’d love an octavia as I do miss mine. It could do with touching the magic 400 miles for a real world >300 winter miles. Also I know it’s up to 200kW… but why go 400V not 800V. if it’s RWD, please add AWD options.

diesel run well past 150k and 8 years without a rebuild… and often a new engine wouldn’t cost 10k, never mind a rebuild. Fuel tank isn’t that expensive either. It’s usually been other things that make them cost prohibitive to repair between 15/20 years Whilst I like the EV, if 160k is normal before it is expected a 10k battery refurb is needed that would put me off. 10k/8years = 1.25k per year @1.50/L and 11MPL is just over 9000 miles a year in fuel. Uk average is now around 8k miles per year.

IIRC they do11kW single phase charging, which is a whole lot of current.

Back on point I was on the m/way with three electric cars together and none of them spontaneously caught fire. When rapid charging no cars there caught fire either. I did see the charred remains of what looked like an ICE van in a parking bay though, which was being removed.

Would help if they mandated plug in and engines off within an hour or so for all ships mooring in the UK.

Well they said the EU5 diesels without adblue were as clean as they claimed, so big pinch of salt there. A 2.0 diesel EU6 rde2 with the correct adblue and a DPF has very low NOx and PM. I am not saying it’s perfect, but it is demonised, whilst the 1.0L turbo gdi found in many a small car was lauded. The same real world tests that caught dodgy diesel show many of those tiny turbos are well over. Frankly I think all family and city type cars should move to electric motors. Any petrol or LPG should be range extension and in the form of a generator to charge a battery. No excuse for carrying around a massive engine, gearboxes, electric motors and undersized batteries in current hybrids.

Guess they better ban high compression direct injection petrol engines. Particularly the turbo charged small ones. You might want to look at the compression ratios they run and how they too sail past what they claim. A diesel which correctly uses adblu will emit almost no NOx as it’s converted .