More on military and Tesla research -

https://electrek.co/2019/05/13/tesla-battery-researcher-new-battery-tech-army/

Battery flight -

https://electrek.co/2019/05/16/lilium-electric-fiveseater-airtaxi/

 

 

 

Edited 17 May, 20197 yr by Skoffski

Mercedes’ warning of increased costs of ICEs  -

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/combustion-engines-to-get-more-expensive-as-ev-tech-gets-cheaper-says-mercedes-benz-74639

 

(the motoring world version of coffin corner)

I had to drive our pool ev, the Mk 1 Leaf, today.😢 

 

After ratcheting on the foot operated parking brake and almost giving myself whiplash when I automatically tried to depress the clutch on approaching the first junction, progress was relatively uneventful.  Fortunately I was only going a few miles to a meeting a) because of anxiety about that stupid parking brake and b) Because it hadn't been plugged in to charge by the last user (or had discharged over time through lack of use - don't know if they go flat over time) I had a lot of range anxiety. 

 

The display read 10 miles of charge remaining when I set off on a 5 mile or so journey.  I was however shown the charge cable in the boot and how to plug it in to charge, and phoned ahead to confirm they could charge the EV, which they could as they had a new charger installed recently.  As a bonus I could charge for free as a visitor.  The space was booked for me there and then instead of the space I'd previously reserved.  Fine thinks I, it can have a little drink of lectricky during the fairly lengthy meeting and should get me back home again.

 

It wasn't a pleasant drive as I spent more time concentrating on keeping my foot off the clutch and watching the battery display than anything.  But I got there.  Then the fun and games really began.  I pulled into my allocated EV spot and proceeded to haul what I believe is known as the granny charger out of the boot.  By the time I'd opened the front flap and plugged it in the security chap had come out (presumably to check I was the person who'd phoned to book the space).  I caught my finger in the space at the bottom of what appeared to be the cover on the place to plug in and pulled.  Didn't budge.  Then the following exchange took place:

 

Friendly guard "Have you a card"

Me "Whats that"

Friendly Guard "They unlock the charger"

Me "Oh! Nobody mentioned that! Dunno I'll look in the folder"

Friendly Guard "Dinne bother, it's free for visitors, I've a card in my pocket that'll unlock it !"

*Swipe*, *Click*, *Charge point door opens*

Friendly Guard "That's the wrong cable you have there, it doesn't have a socket for that, do you have another cable?

Me "Dunno, I'll look"

*Me + FG proceed proceed to scour the car for a different charge lead to no avail*

FG "How low are you?

* I proceed to tell him the story of how it's running on battery fumes*

*FG Laughs at my predicament*, which I could understand, had I not been driving the EV I'd have been laughing also.

FG "Tell you what, the lead you've got is pretty long, it's a nice day, and we've got the windows open in reception.  Park over there on the kerb up against the wall and pass me the plug through the window.  There's a socket on the wall near there you can use."

 

After thanking him profusely I got the charging sorted out and went to the meeting.  The charge it received got me back to our office, at which point I had a few words with the person in charge of the pool vehicle fleet about a) It being flat when they knew it was booked out  b) The missing charge lead and c) No charge card

 

They took the comment on board about the charge level and said they'd check the log sheets to see the car had enough range left for the next booked journey.  They hadn't bothered ordering the fast charge lead as they charged the cars up slowly overnight and c) there was no charge card as no-one ever went far enough to need to recharge it, and if going any distance people would be allocated one of the diesel cars.

 

^^^^^^ An EV with a clutch?.

 

at least the battery will outlast the car apparently

 

https://electrek.co/2019/05/24/nissan-leaf-batteries-outlast-car/ 

No, no clutch, but a ratcheting on parking brake right where the clutch pedal is on a manual car.  As someone who's spent decades driving manuals, habit kicks in when you stop concentrating on what you're driving, and you depress the "clutch" when approaching junctions and the parking brake comes on hard and stays on!

 

I understand they changed it on the later versions of the leaf, probably due to comments from people used to driving manual transmission cars.  Our pool car leaf will outlast it's battery.  A 2014 car with just over 12k on the clock.  At that rate it'd be around half a century before mechanical wear and tear required parts to be replaced.  I doubt the battery would last that long.

America has much to answer for.

Before electronic handbrake, all Mercedes had ratchet foot operated "hand"brake. It's not special with Leaf. It doesn't get in the way what so ever, you have to lift your left feet higher and more to the left than normal clutch.

 

The battery depends heavily on care by the owner. If your car is regularly left empty or fully charged (eg pool car), then the battery will likely degrade quicker than manufacturer predicted. Li-on battery likes to be kept at around 50% charged. We charge our Leaf regularly but never let it sit with below 20% or more than 80% for more than half a day.

 

 

15 hours ago, widdershins said:

Friendly Guard "That's the wrong cable you have there, it doesn't have a socket for that, do you have another cable? 

This is a big problem with EV's in Europe. The stupid requirement to carry your own cable for destination charging.

 

In America, all charge points have cable. The slow domestic charging cable at back of the car is for emergency only. Normally, you just rock up and plug in, like at "gas" stations.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1123272_first-all-electric-airline-could-soar-with-converted-old-seaplanes

Wolfsburg we have a problem -

https://electrek.co/2019/05/27/vw-massive-battery-supply-samsung-cant-deliver/

On 25/05/2019 at 00:57, widdershins said:

almost giving myself whiplash when I automatically tried to depress the clutch on approaching the first junction,

Er, I've only ever done this once when borrowing an automatic, and I normally drive manuals.

We (UK) are on a streak of zero coal usage:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/may/25/the-power-switch-tracking-britains-record-coal-free-run

 

Everyone's existing electric car becomes greener. With EV's, you no longer need to go and buy the latest car to reduce your emissions.

Just now, wyx087 said:

We (UK) are on a streak of zero coal usage:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/may/25/the-power-switch-tracking-britains-record-coal-free-run

 

 

Obviously, at least for some time, there will need to be coal based power on standby and particularly running in the winter months.

I’m curious as to what happens with coal fired stations when they aren’t required for week or even months.  They must be kept running to a certain extent and the staff must have to justify being paid by doing something more than simply maintenance.....?

The standing charge ought to pay for that. I expect this will increase as cheap renewables become more common and push down unit cost of electricity.

 

In summer, excluding EV charging, my house uses less than 50p of electricity, but pay 20p odd for standing charge.

Constant reductions in base load from coal must surely lead to closure. 

In Australia the generators have mostly been privatised and shareholders want their profits to continue or they’ll just abandon them.  A couple of big ones have already done just that.

 

 

Nissan claims the batteries in its Leaf electric cars will last 22 years, an estimated 10-12 years longer than the average life of the car itself.

 

Nissan reached its conclusions based off of data from the 400,000 Leafs it has sold in Europe since 2011, managing director of Renault-Nissan Energy Services Francisco Carranza said at the Automotive News Europe Congress this week.

 

So they can tell after 8 years of use that the battery will last for another 14 years, sounds a bit like extrapolation to me, I wonder how far the cars will go on their older batteries.

On ‎31‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 13:15, Bobclive2 said:

Nissan claims the batteries in its Leaf electric cars will last 22 years, an estimated 10-12 years longer than the average life of the car itself.

 

Nissan reached its conclusions based off of data from the 400,000 Leafs it has sold in Europe since 2011, managing director of Renault-Nissan Energy Services Francisco Carranza said at the Automotive News Europe Congress this week.

 

So they can tell after 8 years of use that the battery will last for another 14 years, sounds a bit like extrapolation to me, I wonder how far the cars will go on their older batteries.

Exactly. They haven't released much data on how they came to their 22 years conclusion. If Nissan's definition only require the battery to make the car move on its own power, it's hardly useful to any people wanting to drive out of their residential area..........

 

But current norm I've seen is to loose first battery health bar at around 5-6 years old, then, a bar every 2-3 years. So for a 14 years old car, it should have 7 out of 12 health bars left worst case scenario. That would be 57% original capacity, which should still allow 40+ miles range. More than good enough for school runs instead of idling diesel Chelsea tractors at the school gates.

 

Actually, this just came to me: If we extrapolate the above data as suggested, we get 21 years to reach 3 out of 12 bars. May be their metric for "lasting" is minimal range of 20 miles?

Nissan are good at making claims that have no basis in science.

 

 

The UK needs to get on with more storage capacity of the Electricity that can be generated during peak and off peak times.

Plenty schemes up and running that can generate but the National Grid do not want it all and so the customers can not get it to store at home or in their vehicle.

http://gridwatch.co.uk

A real pity that where electricity can be generated easily from renewables from wind, wave, solar and hydro and economically the tariffs customers pay for domestic electric are the highest in the UK.

(North of the Scottish Central Belt.)

eg

http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-48473808

 

Not in any way road-relevant, but VW have just slashed 40 seconds off the Nurburgring EV record with their Pikes Peak car doing a 6'05" driven by Roman Dumas.

 

 

That is even under the other-worldly Stefan Bellof Porsche 956 lap at 6 minute 11 seconds from 1983.

 

Only the Porsche 919 EVO is faster but I think it's 5 minute 19 is possibly out of reach at present.

 

 

 

Edited 3 June, 20197 yr by camelspyyder

Whitelee Wind Farm Battery news again.

http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-48582270

 

 

I understand that VAG bosses have demanded EV cars be available from the end of this year..........so George should be happy at least.

https://electrek.co/2019/06/17/vw-id3-battery-warranty-charge-rate/

Vorsprung Durch Technik 

Never be an early adopter with a VW.

 

Now the Mii electric or the e-Citigo is another matter.

VW have had 5 years of producing the e-Up!, surely then SEAT & Skoda can turn out a car that is really ready to go issue free.

But then the 3 models will all be getting built in the same factory.