electric range rover

Thought some of you might be interested in this;

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAF-iRN0eys"]Electric Range Rover runs on batteries - YouTube[/ame]

last year we (the company i work for) built this on behalf of a company called liberty. its a prototype at the minute and not sure if it will ever go into full production but after borrowin it myself its fantastic to drive on the road. not very good off road though:doh:
It has many downsides but im quite proud of the fact that i helped build it.
some of the claims arnt 100% acurate but i suppose thats marketing!

Any thoughts anyone?

Yep, it's a fecking waste of time like all electric cars, they are more polluting than an I.C engine it's just that the pollution is concentrated at the power station. Most electricity is generated by steam turbine, ( Charles Parsons 1899) steam is generated by oil, gas coal or nuclear. Energy conversion efficiency is something like 35%, then you have the transmission losses taking the electricity to where it's needed, up to 18% depending on the weather. In addition you have to make batteries, a pretty polluting process and you have to dispose of them after a fairly short life. By comparison a good common rail diesel has a better conversion efficiency, really big common rail engines can approach 80% efficiency. Now tell me why an electric car is a good idea except for city centres or for that matter why train are touted as being green?

i didnt say electric cars were a good idea! Just i was chuffed that i was involved in building one of the most advanced electric cars in the world.

not that im really pro electric cars......but what if the electricity is produced by a renewable source? and the motors that were used on this car are above 90% effeciant.

Partysos said:

i didnt say electric cars were a good idea! Just i was chuffed that i was involved in building one of the most advanced electric cars in the world.

not that im really pro electric cars......but what if the electricity is produced by a renewable source? and the motors that were used on this car are above 90% effeciant.

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Windmills are a joke, even the experts are starting to admit that. solar power is expensive and the manufactuting process is highly polluting. Doesn't matter if your motors are 90% efficient the losses are all in power generation and distribution. Great fun to do the design work though, just a stupid vehicle to use ase a base. The Japs put up a satellite to monitor CO2. they found that CO2 emmisions were lower in developed countries than in undeveloped countries, don't ask me why. The green lobby seem to have hushed that up quite well and of course the politiciens love the green argument, what a perfect excuse to up your taxes.

Datatek said:

Windmills are a joke, even the experts are starting to admit that.

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come on then, back that up please .......

I sometimes drive a Ford Connect electric van at my work. It was supposed to have an 80 to 100 miles reach on the full charge but it will not give more than 40 miles. Nice and easy to drive as its an automatic but not up to the job as it takes too long to recharge.I suppose the technology will improve but until they have a removable/portable battery pack and fuelling stations re-charging them it isn't a viable proposition. The purchase costs are quite prohibitive also.

Sean said:

come on then, back that up please .......

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Do your own searches. Huge instalation costs for the infra structure, not to mention the manufacturing costs. The have to be shut down in high winds (nice film on TV of one burning out that failed to shut down in a gale) blade failure due to icing, ( we had one over here threw a blade 50 metres)they don't run in low wind, they are chopping up birds and changing the climate locally in the North Sea. Independant monitors have shown that at times of high demand like hot weather when people turn the aircon on there is no wind to drive them. In cold weather when heating is required they are also often not generating. Some of them run for less than 16% of the time and when they run is unpredictable. As conventional power station cannot be turned on and off easily, they have to be kept up to speed whether the output is used or not. Thus the aeoliens are just expensive decoration that you are paying for in your electric bill to the tune of £120 per annum.

wave technology is he way ahead.Electric cars that caharge in a hour and have a range of 400 miles would be viable. anything else is a pretence

crashbox said:

I sometimes drive a Ford Connect electric van at my work. It was supposed to have an 80 to 100 miles reach on the full charge but it will not give more than 40 miles. Nice and easy to drive as its an automatic but not up to the job as it takes too long to recharge.I suppose the technology will improve but until they have a removable/portable battery pack and fuelling stations re-charging them it isn't a viable proposition. The purchase costs are quite prohibitive also.

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it's the same with any new technology - the early adopters tend to help develop the product, they certainly help test

There's always going to be power losses, that's a given. But if you've got a renewable energy sourse supplying a non fossil burning vehicle surely you can see that's the future. We are eventually going to run out of fossils fuels so it won't matter how efficient a diesel engine will be cos it will have not to run on. And it's a bit short sited to say its a stupid base vehicle! we chose it to show what was the company was able to achieve, it's not the answer right now but were working towards it!

Datatek said:

Independant monitors have shown that at times of high demand like hot weather when people turn the aircon on there is no wind to drive them.

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ah well, I was hoping for a well thought through reply

never mind

Sean said:

it's the same with any new technology - the early adopters tend to help develop the product, they certainly help test

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Yes Sean, I agree with that.

Sean said:

ah well, I was hoping for a well thought through reply

never mind

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I see you live in Orkney the land of wind and cold weather where they might just provide a form of sustainable power. I have seen on one of the islands that wind turbines are doing a good job where before the folks had to generate their own power. The rest of us live in a more benign climate and have power stations that can't be turned off..

crashbox said:

Yes Sean, I agree with that.

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am sure when Ford have perfected their fag packet sized nuclear reactor ........

Partysos said:

There's always going to be power losses, that's a given. But if you've got a renewable energy sourse supplying a non fossil burning vehicle surely you can see that's the future. We are eventually going to run out of fossils fuels so it won't matter how efficient a diesel engine will be cos it will have not to run on. And it's a bit short sited to say its a stupid base vehicle! we chose it to show what was the company was able to achieve, it's not the answer right now but were working towards it!

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Hydrogen will never run out and is the future.

Datatek said:

Hydrogen will never run out and is the future.

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nor will methene while pikeys around

Datatek said:

I see you live in Orkney the land of wind and cold weather where they might just provide a form of sustainable power. I have seen on one of the islands that wind turbines are doing a good job where before the folks had to generate their own power. The rest of us live in a more benign climate and have power stations that can't be turned off..

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the trick is to use the right renewable for your location - wind is well proven (spot the pun) up here, and many other places with a suitable average wind speed - it's a no brainer, and has nothing to do with being off grid - small scale local use generation is the way to go, thus negating the transmission losses and infrastructure costs

clearly someone living in sunny Frogland would see a reduced performed from a turbine, so perhaps PV is the way to go

sadly some folks up here have been mugged by the rent a roof brigade so there are a number of circa 4Kw PV arrays being installed - am assuming to take advantage now before the FIT reduces

Datatek said:

I see you live in Orkney the land of wind and cold weather

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just me bit on behalf of the Tourist Board

''Orkney's temperate, but wet, climate is heavily influenced by the sea, in particular the Gulf Stream — a warm, surface ocean current from the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf Stream flows north-east across the Atlantic Ocean and brings with it the humid air that makes Orkney's climate much milder than other areas on the same latitude.

Thanks to the Gulf Stream, there is less than 10 deg C difference between the average summer and winter temperatures.

We experience milder winters (average temp 5/6 degrees C) but lower summer temperatures (average 15 degree C with a maximum of around 19 deg C).''

Sean said:

the trick is to use the right renewable for your location - wind is well proven (spot the pun) up here, and many other places with a suitable average wind speed - it's a no brainer, and has nothing to do with being off grid - small scale local use generation is the way to go, thus negating the transmission losses and infrastructure costs

clearly someone living in sunny Frogland would see a reduced performed from a turbine, so perhaps PV is the way to go

sadly some folks up here have been mugged by the rent a roof brigade so there are a number of circa 4Kw PV arrays being installed - am assuming to take advantage now before the FIT reduces

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The rent a roof brigade are active here too. Typically €18K a pop after the government rebate, I can buy the kit direct from China for £3K. Water is best for me as I live in a water mill

Datatek said:

The rent a roof brigade are active here too. Typically €18K a pop after the government rebate, I can buy the kit direct from China for £3K. Water is best for me as I live in a water mill

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go on you know you want to ......

Dewdney Hydro - Micro Hydro Systems

some very good threads re using water here

Hydro Turbines

there's a few threads showing complete rebuilds of old mills to incorporate circa 10Kw gennies