Taxi - powered by coal, nuclear and gas

[dollywobbler]

I was thinking Land Rover FC101, but even though I love electric, I'm not sure I could bring myself to replace a V8 with a whiny motor.

[Tayne]

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

 

Got any more details on this one?

 

Given that the industry pays around 85% tax at the moment...

[Ghosty]

electrically-converted DS which seems like the ideal marriage of futuristic space-age design with a modern, slightly quirky method of propulsion.

 

Isn't that the taxi Back to the Future Part II?

[forddeliveryboy]

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..

 

I'd speak to plenty of people who know their onions, battery-wise, EV-wise and electric 2cv-wise before accepting that a 650-700kg car needs hundreds of kilos of batteries to power it, unless you're hoping to do 250 miles in one go or you're going to use secondhand lead acid ones. Or is this demonstrating that EVs need such a heavy battery pack and motor that it's pointless starting off with a light car?

 

It all sounds a very expensive whim to me, when an AX diesel would be several times less harmful to the planet and could sip waste veg very slowly even at 80 on the motorway. Or if you have to have a 2cv and want to be environmentally kind then find a 3 cylinder diesel which will slot in and run it on waste veg. Of course this would appear to most to be less fashionable, but as we know, fashion is fickle.

[warren t claim]

Just to get this thread back on track I'm considering the purchase of a new hybrid Mondeo. Any fellow shiters have an opinion about them?

[twosmoke300]

probably die from rusty batteries before its first mot

[dollywobbler]

I'd speak to plenty of people who know their onions, battery-wise, EV-wise and electric 2cv-wise before accepting that a 650-700kg car needs hundreds of kilos of batteries to power it, unless you're hoping to do 250 miles in one go or you're going to use secondhand lead acid ones. Or is this demonstrating that EVs need such a heavy battery pack and motor that it's pointless starting off with a light car?

 

It all sounds a very expensive whim to me, when an AX diesel would be several times less harmful to the planet and could sip waste veg very slowly even at 80 on the motorway. Or if you have to have a 2cv and want to be environmentally kind then find a 3 cylinder diesel which will slot in and run it on waste veg. Of course this would appear to most to be less fashionable, but as we know, fashion is fickle.

 

Cost is the main issue. Lead acid batteries not ideal, while li-ion ones are expensive. Range is something that needs careful consideration. In theory, 50 miles would do for much of my local pottering, but factor in the steep hills and 50 miles may not be enough. I'm not doing vast research because there's not a cat in hell's chance it's happening any time soon. 

 

I do hope you're not accusing me of being fashionable though. I just like electric traction! I couldn't give a monkeys about whether that makes people look at me with respect or contempt.

[Inspector Morose]

Second hand forklift? Provides the controller, batteries and motor suitable for a light weight car?

[dugong]

Mylar sails and weed.

 

Has that been tried yet?

[twosmoke300]

Second hand forklift? Provides the controller, batteries and motor suitable for a light weight car?

Wouldnt really be a lightweight car once you fill it with forklift batteries

[garethj]

Here's an electric taxi I travelled in when in China

 

It was alright, quick enough, I don't know how they managed with battery charging or whatever?  Probably the boot is full of iPhone clone batteries.

 

Range was displayed on the dashboard and I think it started at about 120km but by the time the driver had hoofed it back to the hotel (about 4 miles) the range was down to about 90km.  If this is normal they must have figured out a way of making them work all day.

[forddeliveryboy]

Mylar sails and weed.

 

Has that been tried yet?

 

Windy Miller. Well, maybe not Mylar, was it used in the 60s and 70s? You wait for a few days of wind, do the washing, charge the house batteries and if you're lucky there may be another 30 miles added to the car's cells.

 

 

 

I do hope you're not accusing me of being fashionable though. I just like electric traction! I couldn't give a monkeys about whether that makes people look at me with respect or contempt.

 

Thou dost protesteth strongly! Whether you are or are not, many would perceive an electric 2cv as at the very summit of green cool. I looked at the prices and fell about laughing, when you can have a Twizy for £6k, new. Go to Norway to purchase and you're not forced into the expensive battery rental scheme, either.

[dollywobbler]

Here's an electric taxi I travelled in when in China

 

It was alright, quick enough, I don't know how they managed with battery charging or whatever?  Probably the boot is full of iPhone clone batteries.

 

Range was displayed on the dashboard and I think it started at about 120km but by the time the driver had hoofed it back to the hotel (about 4 miles) the range was down to about 90km.  If this is normal they must have figured out a way of making them work all day.

 

There's now 20 of these pounding the streets of Londinium. 

 

I had a day of EV fail today, due to misunderstanding the baffling world of rapid/fast chargers. In short, it takes bloody hours to charge the e-Golf unless you can find a rapid charger. There are two in Wales. One is broken. I visited one just over the border, but hadn't realised that removing a boot allows it to fit the e-Golf. So, I had to use a mere fast charger, which takes 8 hours to give a full charge. The 'rapid' charger had three cables. Some have two. Only some cars are compatible with some cables. It's bloody rubbish.

[garethj]

The manufacturers aren't helping each other with different systems, from a user's point of view surely they just want to plug in and get moving asap. Who wants to be faffing around searching for a specific charging system?

 

Hopefully they'll sort out the boring bit quickly.

[dollywobbler]

Indeed. Infrastructure and ease of use are the keys for allowing more people to go for electric. I just love how easy they are to drive, and how pleasant. I was having a lovely day before the charging issues struck.

[Asimo]

I see from VW website that their rapid charge uses DC, @ about 30KW, which suggests to me that the charging electronics for the rapid charge are external to the car, and thus unique to each model.

 

If charging points are not rapidly standardised the creation of a useable infrastructure for EVs will be held back terribly.

 

My local Tesla owner now has a roadside charging point, glows blue in the dark. Could anyone pinch charge for their Tesla from this I wonder, or are they interlocked with a code? If they are coded, that code could automatically debut the cars account.

 

I do hope the industry is thinking about all of this.

[dollywobbler]

Yup. Rapid chargers just fire in electricity, though there are several different plug types. AC chargers use the car's on board charger. The e-Golf has a particularly slow one. 

 

It isn't just technology though. When you start looking into it, there are loads of different charger companies. The car came with three different cards FFS, and that still leaves a lot you can't use!

[LC Torana]

I long for the day when they will have liquid electricity you can fill up with at the pump.

[Pillock]

Pantographs and wires. That's the future. As well as remembering to duck when you cross the road.

[HH-R]

A taxi company round here have a few diseasels but when Common Fail came in they put in an LPG pump at the depot and ran mostly petrols. They have a fair few Toyota hybrids and some Leafs (not sure how many), I've been in them a few times. Asked the driver how they got on with them with the charging and he said that it gets up to 80% in 30 mins so they're alright for local trips.

[twosmoke300]

Wonder if you could put LPG on a hybrid petrol for ultimate mingebaggery/ electrical nightmare

[fairkens]

You see the 80% in 30 mins stat a lot. How long does the othe 20% take?

[cort16]

Just to get this thread back on track I'm considering the purchase of a new hybrid Mondeo. Any fellow shiters have an opinion about them?

They're the defacto new taxi in the states now the crown vic is dead. There was thousands of them In san Franciso this year. If they're shite I'm guessing they wouldnt be buying them.

[willswitchengage]

Got any more details on this one?

 

Given that the industry pays around 85% tax at the moment...

 

Substantiated, as always.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/19/coalition-branded-climate-change-deniers-over-north-sea-oil-boost

 

85% tax? Of what? Please feel free to expand on that fact.

[dollywobbler]

You see the 80% in 30 mins stat a lot. How long does the othe 20% take?

 

Longer. Squeezing that last bit of electricity in takes some doing, so the charge rate slows quite dramatically. We could get the e-NV200 to 80% in half an hour, but it then took another half an hour to get the last bit in - though that was a while ago, so my timings may be a little squiffy. 

[Pillock]

80% charge in half an hour, does this battery technology suffer if you never fully charge them or is it cleverer?

 

Not imaging Priuses are powered by a bank of old Ryobi ni-cad cells out of car boot drills, but there's always catches with most batteries, how you're meant to use them for the best.

[dollywobbler]

80% charge in half an hour, does this battery technology suffer if you never fully charge them or is it cleverer?

 

Not imaging Priuses are powered by a bank of old Ryobi ni-cad cells out of car boot drills, but there's always catches with most batteries, how you're meant to use them for the best.

 

It's quite interesting actually. It used to be thought that rapid-charging was bad news for the li-ion batteries in EVs, but a taxi firm in Cornwall has rather disproved that - rapid charging its cars several times a day. One of which has now clocked up over 100,000 miles. The guarantee on the e-Golf apparently states that problems will not be covered if you use a rapid charger more than twice in a row, so some worries remain. 

 

They don't like being kept at fully charged and not used apparently, and it's not a good idea to regularly take them very low, or completely discharge. 

[Ghosty]

At the moment I'm seeing more Outlander PHEVs than Kia Sportages... and that's saying something.

[dollywobbler]

At the moment I'm seeing more Outlander PHEVs than Kia Sportages... and that's saying something.

 

There's a reason for that. PHEVs tick all of the boxes for company car folk. There's some debate about whether they genuinely deliver any fuel benefits, and they clog up chargers which upsets owners of all-electric cars. They've sold very well though.

[Tayne]

Substantiated, as always.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/19/coalition-branded-climate-change-deniers-over-north-sea-oil-boost

 

85% tax? Of what? Please feel free to expand on that fact.

It's not 85%, it's between 62 and 81% depending on when the field was first developed.

 

This consists of corporation tax at 30% (other industries pay 28%), corporation tax supplement (10-30%) for activity on UKCS and Petroleum Revenue Tax (50%) on profits earned.

There are also various ring fences in place to stop companies offsetting to reduce their tax liabilities.

 

You can find all the details on the hmrc website here.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/otmanual/index.htm

 

Imagine you earn £50k in a year yet only take home £182 a week...