Electric vehicles - again

[Stevekane]

Intresting reviews online of a mass market Chinese electric car being sold for around £3500,,The Hong Guang Mini EV is being built as part of a joint venture with US car giant GM,,not a concept but a model thats already sold more cars than Tesla,,,I thought a very interesting take on a commuter car.
On a slightly different tack, what about doing away with the green belt around towns, encourage densly built towns so that they can eventually support public transport and incorporate workplaces near to where people live,,,like it used to be?
Steve

 

[Spectric]

ICE always meant In Circuit Emulator/Emulation to me,

Yes thats the issue with acronyms, they tend to work only within a given enviroment, you reminded me of the day when instead of very expensive hardware emulation systems costing thousands Motorola's 68000 series came out with BDM, background debug mode that was part of the integrated developement enviroment IDE that was software. You must remember the likes of Greenhill and Introl !

 

[Jameshow]

This looks interesting....?

https://www.resolve-ev.com/shop/p/resolve-controller

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you say so.

 

[Stevekane]

This looks interesting....?

https://www.resolve-ev.com/shop/p/resolve-controller

I saw part of a tv program earlier this year where they converted a classic car to electric,,and I think one of the things they used was a gizmo like this, so the idea would be to either scrap or buy a write off Leaf and what then? Are there Leaf based Kit cars out there?
The thing that I found most interesting about the Hong Guang in my post above is its total lack of tech wizardry, no fast charge, no regen braking, just a simple electric motor and battery to give you a perfectly usable commuter car at mass market prices,,
Steve.

 

[Ollie78]

This looks interesting....?

https://www.resolve-ev.com/shop/p/resolve-controller

There is a company that sells bolt in electric kits for classic minis. And now Mercedes pagodas as well.
And several other companies who will convert classic cars to electric now.
I remember floating the idea for doing this with my Dad ( a lifelong vintage car owner) years ago . Looks like we should have done it, we would be ahead of the game now.

Ollie

 

[clogs]

SteveKane
I'd buy one tommorow if I could get it here at a similar price.....can't wait....
our more modern shopping car is a Matiz.......cheap to run but the electronic .....grrrrr....
it wouldn't do more than 50miles per week....no buses only overpriced taxi's.....

 

[John Brown]

Yes thats the issue with acronyms, they tend to work only within a given enviroment, you reminded me of the day when instead of very expensive hardware emulation systems costing thousands Motorola's 68000 series came out with BDM, background debug mode that was part of the integrated developement enviroment IDE that was software. You must remember the likes of Greenhill and Introl !

Yes, I remember BDM. These days we have JTAG and SWD... 40 or more years ago I built my own system for debugging the 6502, which you could single-step. It had thumbwheel hex switches and LED displays...

 

[Stevekane]

SteveKane
I'd buy one tommorow if I could get it here at a similar price.....can't wait....
our more modern shopping car is a Matiz.......cheap to run but the electronic .....grrrrr....
it wouldn't do more than 50miles per week....no buses only overpriced taxi's.....

Im hoping a company like Toyota might suddenly bring a similer car to the market, recognise that low tech might actually be a good selling point,,,it would be a shame if the Chinese got here first and established a strong foothold, I guess the only thing holding them back is the massive domestic market, but if they saw it as a way of giving western car makers a kicking they might do it anyway!
BTW I would have one too, 50miles range is more than enough for our daily needs.
PS Ive just seen this,

Baojun E100.​

Its a great looking little car also Chinese in collaboration with GM again, a sort of Smart Car,,no doubt about the chinese are powering ahead already it seems.
Steve.

 

[Jameshow]

I saw part of a tv program earlier this year where they converted a classic car to electric,,and I think one of the things they used was a gizmo like this, so the idea would be to either scrap or buy a write off Leaf and what then? Are there Leaf based Kit cars out there?
The thing that I found most interesting about the Hong Guang in my post above is its total lack of tech wizardry, no fast charge, no regen braking, just a simple electric motor and battery to give you a perfectly usable commuter car at mass market prices,,
Steve.

Would be great in a lotus 7, elise or early tvr!!

 

[Jacob]

Is the whole EV thing floating on bulls hit and speculation?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/29/britishvolt-38bn-battery-factory-green-industry

 

[Noel]

I see BMW is moving all Mini EV production (40k units pa) to China and any future EV production will be in Germany. ICE models will still be at Cowley although the plant may eventually be sold to a Chinese manufacture.

 

[GweithdyDU]

A modern twist on electric trolley-buses applied to large HGV's that looks interesting. Video here

 

[Jacob]

A modern twist on electric trolley-buses applied to large HGV's that looks interesting. Video here

Excellent and very obvious idea. For public transport too. Being able to shift on and off the system makes it more flexible than railways.

 

[Jameshow]

I see BMW is moving all Mini EV production (40k units pa) to China and any future EV production will be in Germany. ICE models will still be at Cowley although the plant may eventually be sold to a Chinese manufacture.

Typical inward investment!

Political elite in our country sold off our industry years ago....

 

[Spectric]

A modern twist on electric trolley-buses applied to large HGV's that looks interesting.

Only problem is that the trolley buses moved people around large towns and cities and not long haul between towns and cities. In essence we already have that concept, it's called the railway and if all goods were moved by train from ports to various distribution points then there would be no need for 40 ton lorries and so getting smaller electric lorries would be easier in the near future.

The thing about EV's for me is they are just cold machines with something missing that you get from an ICE, probably because I grew up with electric vehicles in the days when they delivered everyones milk.

 

[GweithdyDU]

Only problem is that the trolley buses moved people around large towns and cities and not long haul between towns and cities. In essence we already have that concept, it's called the railway and if all goods were moved by train from ports to various distribution points then there would be no need for 40 ton lorries and so getting smaller electric lorries would be easier in the near future.

The thing about EV's for me is they are just cold machines with something missing that you get from an ICE, probably because I grew up with electric vehicles in the days when they delivered everyones milk.

I am presuming from your response that you have yet to see the video. The whole point of the German development is designed for long haul NOT short haul, where rechargeable small trucks make loads of sense. BTW, there is very little capacity for freight travelling by rail in some areas of the UK. Rail can and should provide some of the solutions but there will be a need to transport large heavy stuff by road for some time to come yet.

I agree completely about leccy cars thus far being dull. If they're to succeed they need to be desired by people who enjoy motoring not just wealthy/comfortably off environmental activists and virtue signallers. Some smaller manufactures seem to be developing that sector and electric motor cycles look like they could be fun.

 

[Spectric]

Before looking to solve a problem look to see if the problem can be removed, so the problem is moving goods long distances around the country which is currently done by HGV's so rather than accomodate the HGV's on our roads with catenaries just remove them from our roads. This now reduces congestion and frees up room on the roads and will have some safety benefit, a lot of the railway is under used over night. Used to live within sight of the Liverpool street to Norwich line and very busy daytime with commuters but apart fro a very heavy goods train twice a week at around 2 in the morning it was quiet so that could take a fair load of HGV's off the A12.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Reasons why rail for freight may be a less than convincing idea:

• rail replacing HGVs means goods need to be handled at least twice as often
• most rail stations do not have goods yards where freight can be offloaded, possibly stored, and put on to smaller trucks for local delivery
• every large HGV delivering to store will be replaced by somewhere between 3 and 5 smaller local vehicles in aggregate driving more miles
• a lot of transit packaging and goods handling areas are optimised for pallet handling not obviously possible with smaller vehicles, or suitable for many goods.
• international trade is based almost completely around 20ft and 40ft shipping containers

None of these are deal breakers but potentially add materially to operating cost and the complexity of implementation. Autonomous smaller vehicles which eliminate the rail link and cost of drivers could make more sense.

 

[Spectric]

rail replacing HGVs means goods need to be handled at least twice as often

Not in all circumstances, port onto train to distribution centre and then smaller lorries to deliver, currently port onto HGV then to distribution centre where it may then go onto another HGV to customer, ie supermarkets. They use central distribution where everything goes into before being sorted and sent out to the shops.

I think we need to be realistic in what can be electric and what cannot due to power requirements. Tractors are another vehicle that have a high power demand, one of the solutions is to burn Methane like New Holland where the farmer can produce their own.

There was a time when a lot more freight was carried by the railways, a lot of the goods yards were closed in the late sixties when there was a downturn in trade, no one could see where we would end up, now on some mornings you can pass twenty Amazon prime vans in a convoy.