Council would book him for parking on the footpath here!Quote:
Originally Posted by jerryd
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Council would book him for parking on the footpath here!Quote:
Originally Posted by jerryd
A lot of people seem unaware that electric cars go back a long way, in fact to the 19th century. They represented a viable part of the motor industry certainly up to WW1, but lingered on in special circumstances. For example, Jean-Albert Gregoire of Tracta fame built and operated an electric car in Paris during WW2.
To the early motorist the electric car had a lot of advantages - no clutch or gearbox, so easy to learn to drive, quiet, reliable and odour free. As against this, they were slow, unlike the Tesla, but like Tesla suffered from range anxiety, worry about battery life, and were horrendously expensive.
What effectively marked the end for the electric car except in special circumstances was the introduction of the electric starter and the cheap, mass produced cars introduced by Henry Ford and William Morris and others in the 1910-1920 period.
A work colleague has a hybrid Camry.
Leaving work last night, we had a short chat about Camrys in the car park. Looking at his Camry I commented "Perhaps I should get a hybrid Camry. Look, it even has a towbar."
"No.", he replied. "It's not advisable to use it."
Apparently, it can tow up to 400kg but not at 100km/h on the freeway. The electric motor can't hack it.
Now, electric motors can be strong, with loads of torque, at high speed. Think diesel electric locomotives. However, they need big heavy motors and lots of current and voltage to do it i.e. lots of high capacity batteries.
What size caravan can the Tesla tow? What is the range of the Tesla towing a van on a 39 degree day with the a/c going flat out?