Are we being forced to go electric?

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Gillstay

Gillstay

Veteran
icowden said:
They have got new ones coming out, but the Honda Prologue is being rolled out in the USA in 2024. There might be some over here this year, but I'm not sure if they have been released yet.
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Went out in one of those at Xmas and very impressed. Super comfy, handled very well and great place to be. They use it as the second car in the family and does it very well. Defrosts in the morning without disturbing the neighbour.
 
Gillstay

Gillstay

Veteran
All uphill said:
The Uber and airbnb two way review models seem to work pretty well; it wouldn't be too difficult to extend this to shared cars.

I think the big obstacles are the emotional attachment many people have to their car, and, I observe, the habit of not including all costs in the calculation of the cost of a journey.

You can see it in this thread - the cost of a journey being reduced to the cost of fuel for the journey, ignoring depreciation, maintenance, ved etc.
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You may be right but also there is the thing of people not liking change. It was always that global warming was not really a thing so we don't need to change, then its not proven so we don't need to change and now its the car are not suitable so why change.
After all do you see people making their cars greener ? i have friends who still insist on old fashioned points in their classic cars, but feel people should not pick on car drivers.
 
All uphill

All uphill

Still rolling along
Location
Somerset
Gillstay said:
You may be right but also there is the thing of people not liking change. It was always that global warming was not really a thing so we don't need to change, then its not proven so we don't need to change and now its the car are not suitable so why change.
After all do you see people making their cars greener ? i have friends who still insist on old fashioned points in their classic cars, but feel people should not pick on car drivers.
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You are right; so many people fear change. Discussions like this one are part of the process of accommodating to change.
 
D

DRM

Guru
Location
West Yorks
cougie uk said:
That's having a petrol mindset with EV technology.

You'd need stock of batteries, skilled staff to replace them, how to cope with your brand new battery being swapped for an older one, waiting around for a swap. It would be quite expensive.

Much easier to just install a few slow charging points at work or wherever you park.
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Not only all the above, but the battery will have to be the same voltage, not all EV‘s are the same, I believe the battery voltage can vary between 400 to 600 volts depending on the car, the connector on fork lift/electric pallet trucks that do have battery changeover are different sizes depending on the current they are designed for with a key way so that different voltage batteries can’t be connected to the wrong truck, the actual swap is dead easy, all you need is a fork lift, the battery pack would have fork pockets on the bottom, or there’s a system with an electric pallet truck with an attachment bolted to the forks, the batteries is on rollers and an extending electro magnet grips the battery & drags it out on to the attachment, you then stick the flat battery into a spare rack in the charging bay, take a charged battery and put it in the car, you’d need to design access, usually a lift off panel, and there’s the risk of your pride and joy being hit by a careless fork truck driver, plus there will be the chance that when you get to the changeover site, all the batteries are not yet fully charged so you would have a wait while one became available
 
Jameshow

Jameshow

Veteran
MrGrumpy said:
Swap to LR Discovery , it will do all that and more in spades ! ;-)
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When not in the garage!
 
cougie uk

cougie uk

Guru
icowden said:
Yes, but they are prohibitively expensive unless you live in an apartment block that is subsidising them. Hourly rates for Enterprise Car club (there are three cars near me for example) are £6.30 an hour or £40 for the day. This does not include the membership fee of £2 per month, nor mileage charges if you go beyond the allowed range.

Musk wants to blow those sort of charges out of the water.
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£40 a day ? Sounds good to me. A car all weekend for £80 is a lot cheaper than owning and maintaining a car that you only use once a week or less.

When I lived in London I had no need for cars and I didn't even have my bike with me.
 
A

Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
icowden said:
Yes, but they are prohibitively expensive unless you live in an apartment block that is subsidising them. Hourly rates for Enterprise Car club (there are three cars near me for example) are £6.30 an hour or £40 for the day. This does not include the membership fee of £2 per month, nor mileage charges if you go beyond the allowed range.

Musk wants to blow those sort of charges out of the water.
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£40 for the day is still a third of the current lowest rate for Enterprise in Bridgend ( checking price for pick up Monday, return Tuesday same time).
 
Mike_P

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
cougie uk said:
They now have ten swapping stations for Europe. I just don't see this being viable for them.

It's even less practical than hydrogen power.
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More the concept, if it was picked up by other manufacturers once they realise the issue of terraces, flats and other properties with limited or no ability to home charge.
 
biggs682

biggs682

Itching to get back on my bike's
Location
Northamptonshire
We did an an airport run last night 180 miles door to door with no stopping apart from a hold up in traffic for 4 miles.
When we got home still had over half a tank of fuel so even if there had been a big diversion we had no worries about fuel no if we had been in a similar sized ev (nissan note) would we have got there and back on one charge and still have some power ?
 
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