Electric vans

[Ian Mills]

Interesting Ian, at what sort of range are we talking about, electric car milage seems to be very optimistic and not real world, but diesel cars have been around long enough that we all know our true milage with our individual driving styles, I wonder what the Kw charge will eventually be at the road side and not at home?

This is the big question my customer with a Tesla gets free charging at service stations but he was one of there early customers and new customers do not get the same deal, but think they get so many KW per year,normally I think it might be in the range of 6 to 8p per mile. I looked at the idea of a electric van but would not work for me as I can do 2 to 3 hundred KM a day if I have a bad day and a problem other end of where I am working, also do not have the sort of turnover to cover cost.
Just whilst on point of electric cars, have had a problem with the charging on a Zoe, Customer said sometimes when they plug the charger in it does not charge, other times it does, turned out it was a poor earth rod, as ground dried out the resistance increases it must have just been on the edge of working or not, I had not thought about it but a good earth is very important in charging a car as the car is insulated by the tyres, if there is a fault the car will become live, so the system has some test if the earth is not good it cuts the charger out, fitted a second 2M rod and all being okay

 

[ipf]

I had the thrill of riding in this little beauty, a 1959 Ford Prefect that was converted to battery power by my neighbourhood auto electrician, Mr Doring. I recall (probably faultily) that it had 25 HP and a range of 40 miles. It was Sydney in ... err ... well a long time ago.

View attachment 59944

I remember riding in my dad's Prefect.......3 gears and, for then, it went like a bomb. He'd never have swapped that for a milk float.

 

[Timbo]

EV's have got a long way to go before they would be any use for me. I can travel up to 600 miles a day sometimes.
In July I drove 5000 miles in the van at an average of 40mpg (VW Transporter T6.1 auto).
Can't see EV's coming anywhere near what I need. Don't have the luxury of being able to stop for hours to charge up.

 

[pc1966]

One solution to the whole charging issue was to have replaceable battery packs of a standard configuration. So drive in to "petrol station" and robot replaces the battery from underside or similar. 5 min to, in effect, recharge and off you go. No need for a home charger in most cases. Also deals with the whole replacement battery cost as basically your charge/swap covers the power pack.

Of course that would mean some standardisation between rival car companies and investment in infrastructure, both of which seem a little unlikely any time soon

 

[snowhead]

One solution to the whole charging issue was to have replaceable battery packs of a standard configuration. So drive in to "petrol station" and robot replaces the battery from underside or similar. 5 min to, in effect, recharge and off you go.

Nice thought, but no chance.
As you've said that would need agreement, that's not going to happen.
Every manufacturer uses a different configuration of batteries / voltages and the fitment to a car is unique to a specific model even within the same manufacturer.
And changing in a few minutes is out of the question have you seen what they look like.
Not to mention the different types of cooling they all use /will be using.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

The biggest infrastructure problem is the DNO cables in the ground. Without a major network upgrade I don't see how it can stand a massive increase in load that EV charging will present. Most of the network was installed between the 1930's and 50's and is mainly 16mm² and 25mm² 4c cable, it's interesting looking at the DNO network plans to see how many properties are served off one 16mm² cable along a street and diversity if you can call it that is certainly pushed beyond limits and EV charging will probably be the straw that breaks it's back

Load throttling is the way. Chargers are now using ct clamps to lower the charging load if the house is using more. You can it a charger to a house with 60amp fuse with risking the dno fuse blowing. The wonders of ct clamps.
There is capacity in the network if used correctly.

 

[MJPD29]

You know that Tesla is mulling over the idea of setting up a factory in Derry. In the old Ballykelly Army Barracks

They were originally going to set up in Germany, but the site is too small and they wanted to clear some forest but the Green Party over there won't allow them.

They were also looking to build in Bristol but they are uneasy about Brexit so the idea of Derry, being half in and half out of the EU is appealing

Would be great to see. Couldn't go any worse than Delorean did anyway.

 

[nicebutdim]

Would be great to see. Couldn't go any worse than Delorean did anyway.

I've never liked inward investment schemes as companies tend to use them simply as a means of subsidising production costs. When the money dries up, costs increase and jobs are shed in favour of cheaper labour elsewhere in the world.

Seagate has been an exception to that rule, but I believe that's to do with their founder having a link to the area.

I'd rather see such funds used to invest in local enterprise as company founders will have motivation to ensure jobs remain in the country. Even if such companies go to the wall, at least it would be less likely that the money had been funnelled out of the country.

 

[pc1966]

Load throttling is the way. Chargers are now using ct clamps to lower the charging load if the house is using more. You can it a charger to a house with 60amp fuse with risking the dno fuse blowing. The wonders of ct clamps.
There is capacity in the network if used correctly.

The problem is all those chargers have to be linked, not just CT on the house supply, but back to the local substation to monitor the overall loads on the cable(s). Remember the typical past assumption for house load diversity when sizing the substation and cables is around 3-5kW, not 14kW or more.

So in that sense technology can reduce the risk dramatically, but people have to get used to the idea that their "1 hour" charger might take several hours or even overnight when lots of others are trying to use the supply for EV charge, cooking, showers, etc.

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Having a 2nd house in the South of France is hardly typical ffs.

That made me laugh a lot.