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95% of electric vehicles are still on the road.
The remaining 5% made it all the way home.
The remaining 5% made it all the way home.
EV are they worth it?
- Thread starter ericmark
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Only if you are Toyota.
They may have had value in moving certain people away from petrol who didn't want to go full electric at the time - that time being when electric cars were a Nissan Leaf or Mitsubishi i-MiEV with a 65 mile range when new, and rapid charging was a new novelty that may have existed at a few main stealers.
Today, hybrids in their various forms are just excuses for certain manufacturers to continue selling combustion engines for a bit longer.
Is it me or is this ridiculously cheap? 7,500miles, real world range just over 200 miles. I know some people consider them ugly but I've seen worse. 7p/KW EV tariffs make it 2p a mile to run. Best thing is they support V2L so you can sling an extension lead through the window and make cheap toast!
Worst of both worlds.
The used prices have dropped as the new prices for EVs dropped.
Someone buying a Model Y second hand doesn't care that it cost £52k new when bought, they look at the current £44k price for a new one.
And the MG and the upcoming Dacia make the lower end of the market look iffy. Why buy a 5 year old leaf when you can get a new MG?
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I have seen adverts for self charging hybrids, but have not seen any solar panels on the roof so don't know how they self charge?
Absolutely. That's a creation of "marketingspeak" and to anyone even remotely technical, is utter BS. "self-charging" hybrids are just "hybrids". There are several different sorts of hybrid, but I think that (just like before digital watches, nobody used the term "analogue watch"), they had to think of something to call the ones that weren't plug-in, when they started doing plug-in hybrids.
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I know with a push bike a hybrid is one which can do both on and off road riding, like the push bike equivalent of a Landrover. But electric push bikes are multi-fuel either muscle power or combined muscle and electric.
As to electric with cars there seems to be a few versions.
1) An electric powered car with a built in petrol engine to extend the range, but local it can run at all speeds just electric and charged when at home.
2) An electric powered car with a built in petrol engine which must be used for higher speeds and these are further split into two groups
A) battery only charged from engine, so really just petrol with an electric drive train.
B) battery can also be changed independent so within the Welsh 20 limit does not use petrol.
3) Full electric.
I like the idea of 1) but not many made, 2A is pointless, and 2B very limited use, and 3) has the problem of not being able to make long runs.
You can get electric road bikes too. Mrs. Avocet has one.
That's a "PHEV" (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle).
That would be called a "series hybrid". The petrol engine can't drive the wheels directly, it can only generate power to put in the battery for the electric drivetrain to propel the car.
I think that's the same as your No. 1 above? A plug-in hybrid.
There is, however, the "parallel hybrid", which is where the petrol (or diesel) engine can drive the wheels AND charge the battery. These come in a variety of flavours. You can get a "mild parallel hybrid" - typically a little pancake motor in the bellhousing that just gives the petrol engine a bit of extra "lift" under acceleration, and does a little bit of regenerative braking), or you can get a "full parallel hybrid" where the electric motor is powering the wheels - sometimes two wheels, and the petrol engine is powering the other two (or indeed, both powering the same driven axle). However, the main difference, is that both powertrains can directly power the wheels.
There are more and more PHEVs (1) coming on to the market now. Some with an "almost useful" amount of electric-only range. The problem is you're then lugging a useless motor, gearbox, fuel and exhaust system round with you on all your short runs, reducing your electric-only efficiency.
"2A" have their following. The BMW i3 is like that. A 2 cylinder motorbike engine charging the battery on long runs. Most of the time, it's electric, but you have no range anxiety. No matter what happens, you can complete your run on the range extender engine. However, it's only about 35 horsepower, so driven at (say) 75 constantly on a motorway, with a few people in the car, the petrol engine won't quite be able to generate electricity as fast as the electric motor can use it.
I did 20,000 miles in a "3" last year! Of course you can do long runs in them! Just think of it as a petrol car with a small tank. You'll have to stop and "refuel" more often, that's all. Personally, I'm happy enough. I can just about get 300 miles out of it in summer - maybe 240 in winter, but as long as it's got more range than my bladder has, it's academic anyway, because whenever I stop for a wee (or food or whatever), I just plug in.
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Was in a mate's EV the other week, and he started to talk me round to the idea ...
although this doesn't work in my case really ...
he said that he always gets cars on lease-hire (or whatever its called these days) and the monthly payment for an EV is not really any different from petrol, and he can get a "full tank" of electric for a fiver. So, that makes sense!
I haven't done the maths. And I've never bought a new car in my life, so doesn't really apply!
although this doesn't work in my case really ...
he said that he always gets cars on lease-hire (or whatever its called these days) and the monthly payment for an EV is not really any different from petrol, and he can get a "full tank" of electric for a fiver. So, that makes sense!
I haven't done the maths. And I've never bought a new car in my life, so doesn't really apply!
Yes, dirt cheap to fill up at home, if you're on a suitable tariff. (The best ones can only be accessed if you have a smart meter). I'm on a night rate of 7.5p per kWh and my battery is 80 kWh, so a "full tank" would cost me about 80 x 0.075 = £6! Obviously, that won't take me as far as a full tank in a typical ICE, (maybe only 300 miles at best), but even £12 is cheap for a full tank!
Of course, once you're out on a long run and using fast (over 50kW) public chargers, you're nearer 80p per kWh, so the same full tank would cost me 80 x 0.8 = £64. Not bad for a full tank, but remember, that's only 300 miles at best, so actually a fair bit more than a diesel and a little more than a petrol of similar performance. However, like most people, the vast majority of the trips I do, are under 300 miles.