Thread: EV's ... Alternative Energies ??

Originally Posted by manic

Even with an abundance of suitable EVs at affordable prices, many millions around the world will not be able to buy them because of local factors that prevent convenient charging. And these are not just third world infrastructure problems. Certainly there will still be demand for ICE in 15 years.

Having just returned from a trip to London, I was reminded that there are millions of homes in the UK that have no garage and no driveway, where cars are parked out front on the street. The councils will not allow extension leads to run from houses across pedestrian path ways. My dad wants a little EV for his retirement run about but cant buy one because he is not allowed to charge it on his street. He may not get to see the infrastructure changes he needs, the council have nothing in the pipeline for his street. London proposed phone repeaters through the underground train/tube system in ~2000. 18 years later and the underground is still a blackout zone. I'm just saying, the progress of change can be frustratingly slow.

The EV will be king of the driveway, so much better than ICE - BUT for the quick transition we are hoping for we need to improve energy storage way beyond lithium. The current scale of lithium battery production is already causing significant environmental issues, and it will get much worse if this resource hungry old battery tech is packed into every new vehicle on the road. Lithium batteries are great for your remote control car, but it starts to get ridiculous when you scale it up.

If we are going to allow the auto industry to do a mass roll out with huge lithium battery packs, we should give proper scrutiny to the environmental costs, and set acceptable standards for recycling.

In Australia I would like to see mandatory recycling of lithium batteries to an acceptable standard, with huge fines for non-compliance. Currently we recycle 2% of lithium batteries in this country. Those that are recycled only salvage a small percentage of content, and much of the waste is burnt off. Most of what is not sent to recycle ends up in landfill, leaking into the ground. Surely we need to get this all in order.

The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction | WIRED UK

Obviously what is needed then is someone to come up with recharging by Wi-Fi.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Dyson to build electric cars in Singapore, with launch planned for 2021

Dyson to build electric cars in Singapore, with launch planned for 2021 | Technology | The Guardian

Given the huge premium in 'Dyson' prices over similar brand-name equivalents, I shudder to think what the Dyson Dragster is going to be ticketed at !!!

Just curious, but what is the thinking of a D1 or Classic conversion ? Cheap to buy and relatively easy to access etc, and taking out the gearbox for weight saving.
Or would an initially lighter vehicle be the way to go?

The Lady Sarah, '95 Classic, replaced by a teetotal Mazda 121

I see Nissan Australia is planning for one-third of its vehicle sales here to be electric.

Nissan LEAF | 100% Electric Car, Zero Petrol

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I see Nissan Australia is planning for one-third of its vehicle sales here to be electric.

Electrified, not electric. Most will have fossil fuel engines as well as a small battery and motor.

They said electric. Are you saying hybrid?
Nissan Australia to electrify a third of its volume

Originally Posted by superquag

<snip>
Just curious, but what is the thinking of a D1 or Classic conversion ? Cheap to buy and relatively easy to access etc, and taking out the gearbox for weight saving.
Or would an initially lighter vehicle be the way to go?

The Lady Sarah, '95 Classic, replaced by a teetotal Mazda 121

Depends on intended purpose .

Obviously a smaller / lighter vehicle will achieve the same range with a smaller battery pack, which will cost less up front and be faster to recharge.

Weight Saving by removing the gearbox will be negated by weight/cost of a larger battery and consume more power to run without one as well as the cost of a more powerful motor . (unless your doing a budget conversion with a cheaper / more torquey DC motor - which are fine without a gearbox)

A conversion will cost upwards of 20k (A/C motor & Lithiums) Probably overcapitalising on a D1 , converting a More valuable car or a classic makes more sense.(in my opinion) .

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

They said electric. Are you saying hybrid?
Nissan Australia to electrify a third of its volume

Of course. There aren't enough battery plants on the planet to allow them to go fully electric with anything more than a small fraction of their production. From your link:

Sydney, Australia (4 October, 2018) – Nissan has announced that during the current mid-term plan, one third of its Australian volume will include electric technology.

An almost meaningless answer. What kind of electric tech? Battery operated starter motors to replace crank handles? Hah! Manufacturers all over the world have been caught flat footed and have to find supplies of batteries somewhere. The leader of the pack (Tesla) knew all about this need and built their own gigafactory. VW is building a battery factory in eastern Germany but it won't be producing volume until 2020.

Originally Posted by goingbush

Obviously a smaller / lighter vehicle will achieve the same range with a smaller battery pack, which will cost less up front and be faster to recharge.

Based on percentage of capacity yes, but on range no. A bigger battery can be charged at a higher current level and add more range per hour than a smaller battery, depending of course on your available power source to the charging equipment.