[Technology] If you could afford it would your next car be an EV?

[chickens]

Elec mix tonight to charge all those extra EV’s plus base load

Yup. Your point?

We’re powered by a mix of energy sources, a couple of years ago we’d have had coal in the mix.

A decade from now we’ll have a lot less power from gas, and they’ll have fixed the software issues that currently mean battery storage gets bypassed by the grid, and gas-fired power stations get fired up at enormous expense.

Nobody’s claiming all Britain’s energy is currently being generated by renewables, but our direction of travel is right, unlike under the last lot, who after shutting all the coal mines down suddenly decided that they loved coal mining, and were never happier than when singing “hi ho” with a pick in their hands.

At least I think they said pick.

 

[nicko31]

Elec mix tonight to charge all those extra EV’s plus base load

Poor solar today and not much wind, tomorrow more wind and about 170g/kwh by evening

A reminder why we need a greater uptake in home solar batteries to flatten the curve for gas demand and of course V2G cars will help even more going forward.

Attended the Everything Electric show at Farnborough this weekend, so much new tech coming to the market in the years ahead

 

[Fungus]

Elec mix tonight to charge all those extra EV’s plus base load

We don’t all charge our cars every night, any more than you fill up with petrol every day. And when we get V2G, we can smooth out grid demand even more.

 

[wealdgull]

https://grid.iamkate.com/ is a great site to see power generation and usage.

 

[Greenbag50]

Poor solar today and not much wind, tomorrow more wind and about 170g/kwh by evening

A reminder why we need a greater uptake in home solar batteries to flatten the curve for gas demand and of course V2G cars will help even more going forward.

Attended the Everything Electric show at Farnborough this weekend, so much new tech coming to the market in the years ahe

We don’t all charge our cars every night, any more than you fill up with petrol every day. And when we get V2G, we can smooth out grid demand even more.

great news!

 

[Greenbag50]

Would think the best place to put solar panels is on roofs of existing buildings….
I agree batteries are key, so is figuring out how to get zero carbon supply and batteries to flats and those homes who can’t accommodate heat pumps.
We also can’t sub out our base gas load, plus build a lot more nuclear.
We cannot and should not rely on renewables to provide the base.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

The Hyundai IONIQ 5 has (or can have as an option - I'm not sure) a solar panel on the roof.

From what I remember reading the amount of charge it can generate, even in bright sunny conditions was pretty low. I think it was single-digit miles per day.

If that's the case, it may explain why there's not been wider adoption thus far.

Pretty similar with the Renault Scenic E-Tech. Roof looks funky, though!

 

[Greg Bobkin]

This EV might win over a few sceptics...

New BYD Seagull will come to the UK in 2025 to rival the Dacia Spring | Auto Express

A new European-market BYD Seagull electric supermini is set to hit UK showrooms in the second half of next year

www.autoexpress.co.uk

 

[Wozza]

Somewhat remarkably, over 96% of new car registrations in Norway in September were EVs, and they now have more EVs on the road than ICE cars.

They don't seem to worry about range in colder conditions.

I'm due to drive a Polestar 4 around NW Norway in a few weeks' time.

Was initially worried about driving an EV remotely, but don't think I'll ever be too far from a charging station...

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Poor solar today and not much wind, tomorrow more wind and about 170g/kwh by evening

A reminder why we need a greater uptake in home solar batteries to flatten the curve for gas demand and of course V2G cars will help even more going forward.

Attended the Everything Electric show at Farnborough this weekend, so much new tech coming to the market in the years ahead

How was it? Been a big fan of Fully Charged for years. They really have a good thing going on there.

 

[Audax]

Waiting impatiently for V2G to be viable. Unfortunately you need more than just the car. You need a bidirectional charge point as well, and there's not many of those available. In fact, there's so few that I decided to wait at least 3 more years before getting a V2G car.

 

[wellquickwoody]

hydrogen isn't going to take off for personal transport. it has it's benefits but on balance it losses out to electric. makes little sense to cart around heavy, large compressed gas cylinder, there's difficult supply of materials for fuel cells at scale, then there's the problem of building a parallel distribution network. it should stay at the grid level where it's drawbacks are negliable. may be for larger vehicles, seems to be working for buses.

From the ‘Science & Engineering’ FB page.

’
BMW has announced a shift away from electric cars, revealing that it has successfully overcome the challenges associated with hydrogen engines. The automaker claims to have made significant advancements in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which could offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional electric vehicles. Hydrogen engines, unlike electric cars, don’t rely on large batteries, and the company believes this innovation will play a key role in the future of green transportation.
#BMW #HydrogenEngines #SustainableTransport #GreenEnergy #FutureOfDriving’

 

[Greg Bobkin]

From the ‘Science & Engineering’ FB page.

’
BMW has announced a shift away from electric cars, revealing that it has successfully overcome the challenges associated with hydrogen engines. The automaker claims to have made significant advancements in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which could offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional electric vehicles. Hydrogen engines, unlike electric cars, don’t rely on large batteries, and the company believes this innovation will play a key role in the future of green transportation.
#BMW #HydrogenEngines #SustainableTransport #GreenEnergy #FutureOfDriving’

That's fine, but there's still close to zero infrastructure (and no alternative like EVs had with mains power) and the hydrogen engines are much less efficient, so it'll be costlier.

I've gotta be honest, I don't think BMW is going to 'shift away' from electric cars anytime soon. But I could be wrong...

 

[nicko31]

Waiting impatiently for V2G to be viable. Unfortunately you need more than just the car. You need a bidirectional charge point as well, and there's not many of those available. In fact, there's so few that I decided to wait at least 3 more years before getting a V2G car.

Many of the charging units so far take a DC input from the car and are bulky and expensive, £5-6k is a non starter. AC output from the cars is a game changer and prices of chargers should plummet.

Seems all the VW ID range with 77kw batt will now be able to support it when the software update arrives, I'm sure others are doing similar.

 

[schmunk]

From the ‘Science & Engineering’ FB page.

’
BMW has announced a shift away from electric cars, revealing that it has successfully overcome the challenges associated with hydrogen engines. The automaker claims to have made significant advancements in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which could offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional electric vehicles. Hydrogen engines, unlike electric cars, don’t rely on large batteries, and the company believes this innovation will play a key role in the future of green transportation.
#BMW #HydrogenEngines #SustainableTransport #GreenEnergy #FutureOfDriving’

It's worth noting that BMW's prototype Hydrogen iX5 can only produce about 160bhp from the fuel cell, so still has a battery and electric motor to boost that to 300+bhp for acceleration. That will presumably carry over to production vehicles?

 

[raymondo]

If I could afford it, it wouldn't be the only family car.

In principle, yes.

Interestingly when I was in Brazil a year ago there were electric cars everywhere. The cheap Chinese ones that are apparently not welcome in the UK.

Electric cars: EU hits China with tariffs in battle for sales

The vote risks sparking a trade war as the EU looks to protect its own car makers.

www.bbc.co.uk

Yes, all the western governments want to save the planet...but not if it means the evil Chinese are part of the process.

 

[raymondo]

I do find it fascinating that we seem to have already gone past the tipping point, with the “yes/already have one” vote marginally ahead of the “no” vote.

The only word of warning I’d give re: electric is probably better to lease/PCP than buy outright, unless going for older sub-£10k cars.

This is because battery technology is making leaps and bounds atm, MG have already said they’ll have a solid state battery available by the end of 2025, with Mercedes and others claiming they’ll have solid state batteries in place by 2030.

Once models with these faster charging, higher range batteries are out there, existing models will be perceived as less desirable, with solid state charging taking 10 minutes 10% to 80%, as opposed to existing batteries 30 minutes for the same charge level.

"I do find it fascinating that we seem to have already gone past the tipping point, with the “yes/already have one” vote marginally ahead of the “no” vote. "

Nah, the NSCers with no interest in EVs just aren't on this thread!!!

 

[raymondo]

Somewhat remarkably, over 96% of new car registrations in Norway in September were EVs, and they now have more EVs on the road than ICE cars.

They don't seem to worry about range in colder conditions.

True...but they're all effing minted because of their country's long term and continued drilling of fossil fuels

 

[raymondo]

Norway leads the world in EV adoption, thanks to government incentives that include exempting electric cars and trucks from sales and emissions taxes, lowering tolls and parking fees for these vehicles, and allowing EV drivers to use bus lanes.

Their bus lanes must be gridlocked or triple laned!!

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

True...but they're all effing minted because of their country's long term and continued drilling of fossil fuels

I think you’ll find we have a long term and continued policy of drilling exactly the same fossil fuels and we’re not minted.

But I guess they have a record of electing more sensible government