An interesting take on the new technology of Electric Cars as seen by a Canadian.

ioweddie

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An interesting take on the new technology of Electric Cars



as seen by a Canadian.
********************************************************


I always wondered why we never saw a cost analysis


on what it actually costs to operate an electric car.





Now we know why.





At a recent neighbourhood B-B-Q I was talking to a neighbour,

a British Columbia Hydro executive and I asked him

how that renewable thing was doing.



He laughed, then got serious.





If you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, he pointed out,

you had to face certain realities.


For example:



A home charging system for a Tesla requires a 75 amp service.

The average home is equipped with 100 amp service.



On our small street, only has 25 homes,

the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry

more than 3 houses, each with a single Tesla.



For even half the homes to have electric vehicles,

the system would be wildly over-loaded.


This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles.



Our residential infrastructure cannot bear the load.



So as our 'genius elected officials' promote this nonsense,

not only are we being urged to buy the damn things

and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems

with expensive, new windmills and solar cells,

but we will also have to renovate our entire delivery system !

This latter "investment" will not be revealed until


we're so far down this dead-end road

that it will be presented with an oops and a shrug.

If you want to argue with a green person over cars

that are eco-friendly, just read the following:



Note:



If you ARE a green person, read it anyway.



My friend Eric recently test drove the Chevy Volt

at the invitation of General Motors and he writes.



For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles

before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.



Eric then calculated the car got 30 mpg

including the 25 miles it ran on the battery.



So, the range including the 9-gallon gas tank

and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.



It will take you 4 and a half hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph.

Then add 10 hours to charge the battery

and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours.



On a typical road trip your average speed

(including charging time) would be 20 mph.



According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity.



It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.



The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned

so I looked up what I pay for electricity.



I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.





16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile

to operate the Volt using the battery.





Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg.



$3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.





The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.







Will it prove to be the same in Australia ?????
 

JohnArnoldBrown

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"I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh."
Electricity is obviously very expensive in Canada.
They should get some hydro-electric power stations built.

It's easy to make things look expensive, if you make up figures like this.
I looked up how much electricity is in Canada, and the most expensive place seems to be Ontario, at 14.6 cents.
 

LostKiwi

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I spot a writer with a vested interest....
 

d215yq

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The whole smart metering thing or even some 2 quid smart communication device in the car could mean all the cars would not charge at the same time and there would be no problem.

Don't get me wrong though , I'm not convinced by the eco/money saving economics behind these cars - it's weird how every "green/money saving idea" involves buying more stuff and not using less resources which to me is the whole basis for being green.

If people really want to be green (in the climate change sense of the word)/save money they can do what I did - buy a neglected 30 yr old W124 300D, pay more than it's worth to get it mechanically reliable, and then drive it frugally year on year. Once sorted out, I've had 2 years where it's done 45k miles giving over 50mpg averageand not having needed any precious resources whatsoever other than oil/filters, a hose and some fuses. Includes being driven up mountains in 40 degree heat and -5 degrees covered in snow, taken all my building materials (including 450kg payloads) and no breakdowns. Compared to other friends cars new and old it's the most reliable, cheapest to run (by a factor of 3x) and greenest as it gets either more/equal mpg and doesnt need changing every 10 years!

But of course it's just a noisy/unrefined battered old merc with no toys, not some supposedly sexy new car that increases GDP so it can't be the solution...in fact it's just been banned from entering Barcelona, though as I don't live there any more not too bothered...
 

Rappey69

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the nissan leaf has an interesting concept where you have house batterys, and solar.. the car plugs into the system and during peak demand times can power your house or sell its power to the grid, then charge the house batterys and itself during cheap rate times.
 

LostKiwi

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the nissan leaf has an interesting concept where you have house batterys, and solar.. the car plugs into the system and during peak demand times can power your house or sell its power to the grid, then charge the house batterys and itself during cheap rate times.
The big problem I see here is if you need to unexpectedly use the car and it's just donated all its power to the grid....
 

Craiglxviii

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The big problem I see here is if you need to unexpectedly use the car and it's just donated all its power to the grid....
A lot of it comes to planning...

Ahh, in 50 years we’ll have rapid charging points at junctions and traffic lights anyway...
 

bembo449

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A lot of it comes to planning...

Ahh, in 50 years we’ll have rapid charging points at junctions and traffic lights anyway...
50 years we will 'still' be waiting to get all the potholes sorted never mind the sodding white elephant that is electric based motoring Craig lol
 

JohnArnoldBrown

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I have no axe to grind, but an old friend of mine has a Tesla, and it certainly doesn't resemble a white elephant in any way, apart from being white, and having a trunk.
 

oigle

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I do believe that whole article is full of BS in the biggest way. 75amp outlet......come on. 7500watts!!!! The cost of power!!!! It is just so farcical.

Ian.
 

Larkone

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Based on the the high number of people that run out of petrol/diesel I am going to start my own EV towing company to cater for all the EVs that have run out of power and are stranded by the side of the road - got to be a winner. Or maybe a truck with a huge diesel generator for fast roadside charging:rolleyes:
 

Craiglxviii

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Didn’t get a chance to reply yesterday. That article is as full of bias as a spin bowler’s best ball of the day. The cost of electricity in the UK (quick Google) is £0.1524/kW.hr inc VAT. Not The >$1.00 he suggests. I think he has his math wrong. Multiply that by 16kW.hr and we get £2.44 per charge for 25 miles (which seems very low, considering most passenger car EVs are doing around the 0.2kW.hr/ mile region now). That works out to £0.10/ mile... so, basic arithmetic failure so soon in rather calls into question the whole article to me.
 

Craiglxviii

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Based on the the high number of people that run out of petrol/diesel I am going to start my own EV towing company to cater for all the EVs that have run out of power and are stranded by the side of the road - got to be a winner. Or maybe a truck with a huge diesel generator for fast roadside charging:rolleyes:
Combine them. A towing truck with a ginormous genset. Get towed AND charged at the same time.
 

M80

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No need,
manufacture trailerised diesel genny's so the EV's can carry their own charger.

Now all the EV's can drive as far as they like while charging, only having to pull in for a refuel every few hundred miles. Now there's a new concept.
 

KennyN

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in 50 years we’ll have rapid charging points at junctions and traffic lights anyway...

We have got them in work . for the LGV autonomous robots. They bimble around doing their thing and when they get a chance they hover over a charging point and get topped up should it be required.

Ours have copper charging points embedded into the floor and the robots have a charging arm that lowers to make contact with this , seems to work well it is just the batteries that are giving up the ghost on a regular basis which is good for the profits of the local supplier , Mannbat.

Kenny
 

M80

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Mannbat, shouldn't that have been Robatt?
 

KennyN

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Mannbat, shouldn't that have been Robatt?

No i am positive , Mannbat.

They are a decent company , their engineers really down to earth and never negative about anything.

Kenny
 
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