Re: electric car plans

Dave Plowman wrote:

JNugent <JN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Electric cars would be mostly charged up overnight when there is spare
power station capacity.

No need for all these charging points as it'll be at home, then?

If electric cars/vans are ever to be a success, there'll need to be an
extensive network of charging points in order to cater for vehicles
which are run to (or near to) the full extent of their range, just like
driving to Scotland and back (from Southern England) requires a refill.

Then they won't be charging overnight when there's a surplus of capacity.

Very true - on those occasions. But charging overnight (which will still be possible at other times) is only a bonus, not the basic raison d'etre for electric vehicles.

The possibilities have to include charging points in car-parks
(especially indoor and lockable car-parks). But the most obvious model
would be quick-release batteries with a contract hire system where the
vehicle owner never has to own a battery (bit like BOC, etc). Drop off
a nearly-discharged battery and strap on a fully-charged one. No
waiting - as quick as filling a tank - though it would require
standardisation of the battery and therefore also the co-operation of
vehicle manufacturers.

Given the investment, storage and labour needed, you're into making the
running costs way higher than needed.

The whole point of car ownership is its convenience and immediacy. Having to wait sveral hours for a battery to charge (a situation which would *frequently* have be endured without a facility for instant change) would not be acceptable to the user. Having vehicles conk out on the road because they've run out of charge is the negation of convenience and would be a major barrier to the wider use of electric cars. As soon as anyone experienced it (whether in a hired or borrowed electric car, or as a passenger or as a disppointed customer waiting for a delivery or a visitor), they'd mentally cross electric cars off their wishlist.

And you're assuming near identical power requirements between makes
and models.

I'm not, any more than I assume near identical power requirements between makes and models of chemically-powered cars.

I'm suggesting that the *battery* would have to be the same size (or at least, that there's have to be a very limited number of different sizes, with stndard fitments for easy and quick changing). If something like that did not come about, there'd be a constant problem of vehicles being immobile for hours at a time, and electric cars would be discredited. Fact.

It also make a nonsense of
reducing CO2 outputs - given how much extra energy will be needed to make
these millions of extra batteries. And it would be millions if they're
going to be easily accessible.

It's the only way round the problem of being able to refuel and use the car at will.

But the idea is nonsense in practice. Even with things as basic as
torches there are several 'standards' for batteries. The chances of
getting every maker to cooperate on just one for something as varied as
transport is about as likely as equine flight. They could already have
done so for lead acid starter batteries - or at least reduced the variety
- but of course don't.

That's now. And it doesn't really matter, as you only need to buy a car battery now and then* and torch unit cells *do* come in a very limited range of sizes. I'm talking about the future - and it is not at all impossible to envisage an industry standard for electric car batteries. We have them for most things with replaceable and rechargeable batteries.

[*I haven't had to buy a car battery in over twenty years.]

It would be expensive (the hire charges would need to be high enough to
cover the replacement of the chemical elements in due course), but it
could be economic as long as the government kept its sticky fingers
off. But they won't.

The one thing you can be sure of is a government of any colour will find a
way of getting the same sort of tax income from electric vehicles if/when
they become common.

They'd still need to cover track costs (with a road tax of sorts), but they probably won't want to overdo it whilst the industry is in its infancy. In the longer term, they'd need to ensure that electric cars were properly viable (especially in quick refuelling terms) before starting their usual antics with taxation.
.

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