Taxi - powered by coal, nuclear and gas

[theorganist]

Flywheel hybrid you say?

 

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This uses a 1 1/2 tonne flywheel as a energy storage device enabling the use of a small (transit petrol tuned for gas) engine to propel itself along the rails. In use every day on the Stourbridge town to Stourbridge junction branch line and capable of moving ( not carrying at the same time, obviously) the same number of people as the single car sprinter that it replaced. (Soft spot for this as it was my first project managers job - long story)

 

Yes the same number but standing, a class 153 can seat 72 people I believe. In the morning during term time they sometimes have to leave people standing on the platform as there is often not room. I notice on the Parry Website they do larger capacity vehicles, shame London Midland or Centro or whoever ordered them ordered the smallest version. I have taken to walking to and from the Junction morning and evening now, mainly for health reasons as it's keeping me fit!.

 

It's an interesting device but not built for jointed rail. They ar/weree talking about using them on the freight line towards Dudley and Merry Hill which I think would be a good idea in principal but would have to do something about the ride quality unless the freight line to Dudley uses continuously welded rail.

[Inspector Morose]

The Parry thing can carry as many people as the sprinter as its turn around time is so much quicker allowing for more journeys per hour. I know it can't carry as many in one go as a sprinter but it does use far less fuel than a 15 litre cummins!

As far as I see it Parry is a good proof of concept manufacturer but what it needs now is to be taken on board by someone with the financial clout to be able to refine it for modern use. I'm afraid the owner (John parry) is one of those type of engineers that thinks refinement is unnecessary and the user (I include drivers and passengers here) should take what is given. This is one of the reasons he and I had a falling out and I was asked to leave. I tried to soften the edges as much as I could with the trimming and other mechanical bits but was constantly overruled until the point it became untenable.

 

Sorry, thread drift but it's still a sore subject for me. Back to coal powered taxis....

[tul66]

But so is having a 5.0 V8, yeah it's ok I only do short trips so I can cope with sub 20 MPG,  :roll

 

Don't get your analogy at all. The main reason they don't work for myself and many others is the fact that they have nowhere near enough range and take far too long to recharge. If that's sorted, I'm sure they'll be a far more practical choice for many.

I'm sure there'll not be any fossil fuel car on the market with a range of 80 miles though 5l v8 or not. But even if there were, they can be refueled in minutes, not hours. So, yes, whilst it may work for you, it doesn't get anywhere close for me.

[seacow]

I've had my Leaf for 12 months and 5500 miles now.  It has the 7kw charger so when I charge at home its costs £3 tops - but I always charge for free at council chargers.  For me I have a 30 mile daily commute so its perfect and my PCP rental is the same as I would pay for the train - so its a free car (man maths but nearly!)  In the winter when its cold it goes nowhere near 80 miles!  I think most services have the rapid chargers now.  For me its only really a second car but we do use it more than I thought we would.

 

the taxis will be using rapid chargers i suspect

[stripped fred]

One of my mates bought a leaf a few months back. I think he paid about £10k for a low mileage 3 year old one. He drives 45 miles to work so a 90 mile commute each day. He has to charge it up on the way home for 25 mins but he's happy as he's saving £300 a month compared to his previous diesel car. I think he can just about do it on one charge but it's tight.

 

We went from Leicester to Weston Super Mare in it the other weekend. We had to stop twice on the way and the same on the way back for a 25min charge each time which puts it to about 80%. It obviously took us longer because of the stops but it wasn't a problem. He also cruises at about 60mph tops and is careful with not using the heater/air con etc. So yes there are compromises but he loves his. Using the fast chargers at the services is also currently free. There's also very little to go wrong as well so not a lot of maintenance. It's working for him, he loves it.

[fairkens]

I'm not anti electric car but that would do my nut in, add an hour to what is barely a 2 hour journey, no thanks

 

Free charging sounds pretty ace though

[dollywobbler]

I'm not anti electric car but that would do my nut in, add an hour to what is barely a 2 hour journey, no thanks

 

Free charging sounds pretty ace though

 

Indeed. Our Devon trip saw a 3-hour journey turned into a six-hour one. And we were getting very tight between charges (e-nv200 has less range than the LEAF, and it was winter!). I tell you what though, some of the hyper-miling tactics have definitely come throught to my dino-juice driving. I'm much smoother now, and getting much better at maintaining momentum at all costs (something, to be fair, that I'd already learnt by driving a 2CV for 19 years!). The problem is, every time I hit the brake pedal, I bemoan the waste as all that energy gets turned into pointless heat rather than regen.

[stripped fred]

I'm not anti electric car but that would do my nut in, add an hour to what is barely a 2 hour journey, no thanks

 

Free charging sounds pretty ace though

To be honest I think it would frustrate me on a day to day basis too but like I said it works for him. Horses for courses and all that. He is also a proper petrolhead but he tells me that it is a different type of driving and he see's every journey as a challenge. I would have an electric car but only as a second car I think for more local journeys where I could charge it overnight.

[cros]

 

I'm not anti electric car but that would do my nut in, add an hour to what is barely a 2 hour journey, no thanks

Free charging sounds pretty ace though

Who pays for this "free" electricity?

[stripped fred]

Who pays for this "free" electricity?

The company who provide all the fast charging points currently supply it free of charge. I suppose when demand has increased and more people are driving electric cars they will start charging.

[cros]

Right, thanks for that.

[Ghosty]

So there's no charge to charge, but when more people charge, they'll start charging people to charge?

 

Sounds a bit Dodge-y.

[dollywobbler]

e-Golf arrived today. It's quite a motor car. I've already had fun testing the automatic cruise control (scary) and self-parking (terrifying). Aside from that, we drove over the Elan Valley mountain road to Llandrindod Wells and back - a 67-mile trip, with 36 miles left 'in the tank' when we got home. So, it seems a realistic range of over 100 miles (claimed 118 but I'm guessing that doesn't include mountains and driving at 60mph). Charged it up for a bit, then headed out again just to get it over 100 miles for the day.

 

I just adore the power delivery of electric. No waiting for the sweet spot, just bam and off you go. It appears to corner pretty darned quickly too (momentum conservation yer honour). 

 

I'm even getting on with the electronic parking brake - though it's not my car, so I don't mind if it breaks. It does get very pissed off if you get out while the engine is 'running' though, it bleeps too much and the ride is modern - ie ruined by tiny sidewalls.

[forddeliveryboy]

Questions I asked BMW about EVs when testing an i3 (which nobody could answer even in the UK press office, all they could say was "sure you're not a motoring journo?") included how deep a ford is it safe to cross (there is one on a weekly trip for me and I didn't want to recreate an electric iron in the bath scenario), what is the steepest hill the car will safely restart on with a full load (again quite a likely possibility here) and does it object to snow chains?

 

One beautiful aspect of EVs is a low down mass - to the point I've wondered if suspension with roll centres above the mass centre couldn't be used, to create a car which leans into corners. The BMW sported fine, highish aspect tyres which were relatively skinnier than a 2cv's - partly the reason for its wonderful grip and swervability as well as a decentish ride (spring rates were still too high, of course).

 

I know nothing about the E-Golf, I'm presuming it's using technology from the XL1?

[dollywobbler]

XL1 is a hybrid. e-Golf (rather than the GTE) is full electric. Has a transverse install too. It really is just a Golf, but with far more torque than a petrol, and far less hideous din than a diesel.

 

I would like to try an i3. I think it's a fabulous looking thing. Not beautiful, but worthy of attention. The inherent dullness of the Golf is getting to me a bit. I feel like shouting at people: "Look! This car is really impressive!" I'm plotting a long-distance trip early next week. Not sure where to go yet, but probably north. Tebay, disappointingly, does not have rapid charging. (they have fast charging, which is not the same thing).

[sierraman]

I know nothing about this other than to say i think the end of DIY maintenance could happen with major introduction of EVs, i got chatting to the National Tyres mobile van fitter who comes into my work, they had asked him to go and replace a tyre on a BMW I8, seemingly he cannot do it as the car needs to go to BMW dealer and be put on computer and "told" it is being jacked up before jacking it up, else it throws a hissy fit and brings up warning lights/messages etc.

I agree in some ways, the problem that would bring would be motoring becomes something only the middle class or reasonably wealthy could afford. I know I for one couldn't afford to run a car if every time it needed a tyre changing I had to go to BMW for a tyre swapping at £100 an hour.

[LC Torana]

Fireball XL1 crashed on the launch pad.

[dollywobbler]

I agree in some ways, the problem that would bring would be motoring becomes something only the middle class or reasonably wealthy could afford. I know I for one couldn't afford to run a car if every time it needed a tyre changing I had to go to BMW for a tyre swapping at £100 an hour.

Increasingly the way of things but do remember that the i8 is a super car. They've probably had to engineer in that kind of his at fit specially.

[sierraman]

Do the batteries ever require replacement on the Prius? They do seen irritatingly reliable, it's just a shame they look monumentally stupid.

[phil_lihp]

Despite an overwhelming lack of interest in 'modern' cars I agree that electric vehicles are something else and quite an exciting idea now that there's some properly viable ones about - hybrids aside as they seem like a crutch for electric's shortcomings.  Obviously it's not perfect, the electricity has to come from somewhere and the range is never going to be impressive until battery technology is revolutionised or replaced but to my mind the ideal application is the electric motorbike.  I'd love to try one and I'm a little surprised we don't hear more about them, they seem like the perfect way to use electric vehicle tech.

 

Zero seem to be the only ones doing much about it.  http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/eu/

 

I wonder what older cars would suit conversion to electric motors?  Lightweights like the 2CV seem ideal, although there's a video somewhere on Youtube of an electrically-converted DS which seems like the ideal marriage of futuristic space-age design with a modern, slightly quirky method of propulsion.

[dugong]

Until we stop using fossil fuels, the notion of an electric car being 'green' is a load of shit.

 

Sorry.

[forddeliveryboy]

It's all about convincing the "because I'm worth it" people that continuing to buy even more stuff isn't a bad thing for the planet any more.

 

There is a very valid argument that the more cheap renewable electricity there is produced, the more unnecessary consumption there'll be, whether it's phwoar-torque EVs which weigh even more than this electric Golf (which is a third of a lardy tonne heavier than an i3 - it's batteries alone weigh half as much as as entire 2cv) wearing out tyres faster or more useless cheap plastic tat marketed as the next must have toy. And so more pollution off the back of this meant-to-be 'green' energy.

 

There's only one answer - drive a 405/w124/Audi 80/2cv/Saab or other worthwhile chod from the 80s/early 90s and repair rather than replace. And use a bike for journeys under two or three miles.

[tul66]

Hopefully the early withdrawal of subsidies will curtail the construction of more of those stupid fuckin, turbines!

[willswitchengage]

Hopefully the early withdrawal of subsidies will curtail the construction of more of those stupid fuckin, turbines!

 

How much has the Chancellor just subsidised the North Sea oil industry? Oh yeah, £1.3bn.

[dollywobbler]

I wonder what older cars would suit conversion to electric motors?  Lightweights like the 2CV seem ideal, although there's a video somewhere on Youtube of an electrically-converted DS which seems like the ideal marriage of futuristic space-age design with a modern, slightly quirky method of propulsion.

 

The 2CV isn't so ideal, as it's payload is so small. You can seriously balls one up by filling it with batteries. An EV specialist I spoke to said you'd be better off converting a Land Rover.

 

Dugong - a larger percentage of electricity is generated by renewables than fuel in cars. I don't think anyone here is pretending EVs are a miracle cure that makes flowers grow and birds sing, but a lot of the time, they make an awful lot more sense than having a mobile pollution centre in every car.

[tul66]

How much has the Chancellor just subsidised the North Sea oil industry? Oh yeah, £1.3bn.

Possibly, however the oil industry supports far more jobs in the UK than turbines will ever do.

[forddeliveryboy]

DW, only a few days ago you said you thought a 2cv would be ideal for an EV - perhaps the EV specialist changed your mind? It's the total  efficiency of the 40s French design which makes converting it tricky if the result is to be much good, surely?

 

Every component is beautifully light and strong and there's little wasted space, other than the voids inside the chassis, if it's a ladder-frame replacement like yours. That's where batteries would have to go if it was going to be a decent conversion, between the axles within the chassis. I'd have thought a knackered G-Wiz or similar could be a source of motor, controller and the rest?

[willswitchengage]

Possibly, however the oil industry supports far more jobs in the UK than turbines will ever do.

 

Not possibly, true. Through recently enacted tax breaks.

 

They're subsidised jobs that didn't exist before 1970, like the wind turbine jobs that didn't exist before 2000ish or whenever they began to appear. The Gov't has overseen concentrated industrial declines in the Midlands with the collapse of the inefficient auto industry etc, there's no reason why the the inefficient oil industry should get special treatment.

[dollywobbler]

DW, only a few days ago you said you thought a 2cv would be ideal for an EV - perhaps the EV specialist changed your mind? It's the total  efficiency of the 40s French design which makes converting it tricky if the result is to be much good, surely?

 

Every component is beautifully light and strong and there's little wasted space, other than the voids inside the chassis, if it's a ladder-frame replacement like yours. That's where batteries would have to go if it was going to be a decent conversion, between the axles within the chassis. I'd have thought a knackered G-Wiz or similar could be a source of motor, controller and the rest?

 

Yup. The chap pointed out that batteries are still the issue - you need hundreds of kg of them. Bear in mind that having just one passenger affects the dynamics of a 2CV, and another two change it entirely! The simplicity of the 2CV works in its favour though - no power assists make conversion a lot easier. I still want to have an electric 2CV one day, but I need to focus on getting it back on the road in any form first...

[phil_lihp]

High payload plus lightweight does rule out a lot of very simple, older cars I'd have assumed to be good candidates, the Panda/Marbella being another one.  Aside from the brilliant* idea of putting the batteries in a trailer I suppose that leaves you with little vans - electric Honda Acty?  Might work.

 

I cant help thinking that the correct Autoshite solution would be to get hold of a tatty Bedford Rascal and fit it with a washing machine motor and a load bay full of old car batteries.