Thoughts on electric vehicles?

[DaveL]

I own 2 electric cars, both of which are Mini Coopers. They're great and work well but if you misjudge the corners they have a tendency to fly off and smack the skirting board, and I'm forever plucking the fluff from the braided contacts.

We have some of those, my grandson thinks their great.

 

[Sirenity]

Skyechem,

my understanding is that power stations are below 30%, and that transmission losses can amount to 40 to 50%, depending on where you are in the country. On top of that, you have to consider the inefficiencies of batteries, and their low energy density.

I haven't found anyone anywhere who has provided figures to show that electric vehicles produce less carbon dioxide emissions, in total, than internal-combustion-engined vehicles. I believe that by encouraging electric vehicles we are heading up a blind alley that makes not a jot of difference to our problem.

Mike

It might make you feel better, but it won't be doing a single thing to reduce your carbon footprint, (presuming you don't live somewhere where all the electricity is generated by renewables such as wind or hydro-).

In fact, because of the relative inefficiency of batteries, and of the generation and transmission of electricity, it is possible this move could actually be worse for the environment than driving a diesel vehicle. All you are doing is shifting the pollution and carbon dioxide emissions from your exhaust pipe to the local power station.

Save your money and effort for something more worthwhile, such as making your house energy eficient.

Mike

It’s a common belief, unsurprisingly encouraged by fossil fuel lobbies, but the exact opposite is true. This from the Australian Energy council shows even using completely coal fired electricity they are still 40% lower emissions than petrol/diesel. In the UK, we are over 50% renewables the last years generation lots more research available confirms it. EVs: Are they really more efficient?

 

[Sirenity]

I agree

Environmentally speaking, deciding the best way to power a vehicle is a complicated problem.

There is the efficiency of internal combustion engines (25 % ish) compared to coal/gas power stations (30%+ ish I think) to consider.

If you're charging your electric vehicle from the national grid, then you can consider it being only part coal/gas powers, part nuclear powered, part renewable powered (I can't find any stats just now, but I think current UK electricity generation is very approximately 70% coal/gas, 20% nuclear 10% renewable?). This ratio is only going to shift away from coal/gas, towards renewable/nuclear, making an electric powered car produce less and less CO2 as it goes through life.

There is the energy and hazardous chemicals which go into the production of the battery.

Those are the main considerations I can think of just now, although there are doubtless hundreds more. It's my opinion that anything which promotes less fossil fuel use is a good thing. The amount of research being done into batteries and fuel cells is only going to increase the more people invest in them.

I was super surprised when I found the national grid publishes the data on one page for the last hour day month year and to find that average last year we are already more renewable than fossil fuel. In the last month coal was 0.6%
https://grid.iamkate.com/

 

[Sirenity]

I am seriously thinking of building/converting a van to electric drive (as if I didn't have enough to do).

What are your thoughts on this?

I’ve done a lot of looking into it, happy to chat. Have to say, for workshop/ life balance I’m with Oldman and Hitch above. There are lots of options cheaper than you could build, 3 on autotrader at the moment under 10k.

But if you do decide to go for it, I’d be up for a joint endeavour, although I bought a “here’s one they made earlier”, I’ve never lost the hankering for converting an Audi A2. You’d want about 100m range to be comfortable doing 60m return on the coldest days although you may well find there’s chargers in the car parks at college. It is a very viable option, but much more expensive than you’d think unless you salvage an written off Nissan Leaf or the like.

 

[Housey210]

Check with your insurance company first. Electric cars, no-one ever gives a clear answer to the ownership of the battery or if indeed it is leased!