Author Topic: Fully Charged - British clean transit series  (Read 971 times)

protomech

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Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« on: May 23, 2012, 09:28:21 AM »
Really nice presentation. I'm a little bit skeptical of his CO2 claims for the Tesla, and caught a couple of small slips. Probably the best "dispelling EV myths and hand-wringing" video I've seen.

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machone

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2012, 12:58:01 PM »
Like Robert llewellyn - from his role as Kryton through Scrapheap challenge to carpool. Not sure whether he creates his roles or whether they ask him to do it but he is one of the few pro-EV voices in Britain.

The popular TV program he was refering to was UK Topgear, if you hadn't guessed!
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protomech

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2012, 03:36:55 PM »
Oh yes. His repeated and mildly derisive references to "that light entertainment show" were.. amusing.

I enjoy Top Gear, but it's sort of like professional wrestling in one sense.. there's a thin veneer of objectivity masking the predetermined story that has been called for, and it really bothers some people when that objectivity is called into question : P
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Richard230

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2012, 05:18:39 PM »
I would like to see the Top Gear guys interview him. That would be fun.
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machone

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2012, 11:32:29 PM »
That would be great TV.
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hbrider

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2012, 12:04:37 AM »
Great segment, I sent it off to some ev car critics I know.  Took one driving in my VW Rabbit conversion the other day and he actually smiled and enjoyed the quiet and fast ride ;D

FreepZ

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2012, 07:46:41 AM »
I enjoyed the video, but there is one point where is argument is quite weak.

While talking about cars running out of energy, at 5:30 he asks "what do you do when you run out of petrol 20 miles from the nearest garage?"

He answer is "you look stupid".

A better answer is that you would call your buddy (or AAA) to come by with a jerrycan of fuel, stick it into your car in about 2 minutes, and then drive 20 miles to the petrol station fill it up there and you're good for another 300 miles. The nearest equivalent an EV has to that is to call your buddy to come by with a generator, and then wait an hour or so to get enough power to drive to the nearest power source and then fill it up there for an hour or half a day (depending on what is available and how far you need to go).
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protomech

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2012, 08:43:13 AM »
Yep. And I don't know that many people that have run out of gas.. though I've hit reserve on the gas bike several times, and I've put about 10.1 gallons into the Insight's 10.4 gallon tank trying for 700 miles.

Personally, I don't think I will ever run out of range on an EV. I'm too cautious to push it that close, and if I know my round-trip distance will be longer than what the bike will support then I'll take another vehicle. I don't generally have unexpected trips that need to be made, and I have plenty of buffer in the ZF9 to handle errands or shorter unexpected trips.

Ex: a couple weeks back I was heading over to a friend's house for Game of Thrones and Dr. Who. Those days are 70 mile days for me, 20 miles to run in the morning, 12 miles to work, 18 miles to friend's house, 20 miles back to home. I catch a short charge in the morning after I get back from the run, but with just 110v 30-60 minutes is only a few % of the "tank".

With a ZF6 Zero or the Enertia Plus, I would have to charge at their house while we watch tv and movies. Generally not a problem, we're there for about four hours. On this particular day I show up and find out they had come down with the plague (have two young kids), so no TV tonight. Email was sent but my phone has essentially no signal at work. I turn around and go back home, no problem. With the E+ or the ZF6 bikes I would have to stop somewhere and grab dinner while I charged up. Still no problem but an inconvenience I dodged.

If you run out of charge to a point where you require a half day charging (even on 110v) to get back to home base, then you've badly miscalculated something. The ZF9 and Empulse will do a 95% charge in 8 or 9 hours, so let's say it's a Leaf. 12 hours of charging on 110v will get you about 16 kWh back into the pack, or about a 2/3 charge. That's good for about 50 miles at moderate speeds, more if you take a slower route. How / why did you end 50 miles from home base when you ran out of charge?
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Car Loss

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Re: Fully Charged - British clean transit series
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2012, 06:41:50 AM »
Personally, I don't think I will ever run out of range on an EV. I'm too cautious to push it that close, and if I know my round-trip distance will be longer than what the bike will support then I'll take another vehicle...

If you run out of charge to a point where you require a half day charging (even on 110v) to get back to home base, then you've badly miscalculated something.

There's the trick: thinking is a luxury these days. Many people want the "freedom" to "just not think about things."  A 300-mile range with lots of stations that fill up in 3 minutes gives you that absent-mindedness.  Actually having to plan ahead, let alone do basic arithmetic, is just too much work for some people.  For the same reason, you just won't convince some people that $0.11/kWh beats $3.69/gal- they'll only do math in relative terms, and can't make the jump to conversions and intercomparisons.

Me, I'm weird that way.  I like having plans, reading maps, shaving margins, etc.  Apparently you are too.

Carlos