William Tasso wrote:
> When one uses mains electicity to charge an electric car is one compelled
> to declare the usage and pay duty (in the UK)?
No. There is presently no road tax for any EV at the moment, either
electricity or license though you need to display a tax disk. No MOT
either though if you have an accident you'd be hard pressed to prove
your vehicle was in roadworthy condition if you didn't have one.
> If one were to use a diesel generator to charge it, is the diesel used
> subject to duty?
If the vehicle was moving and you're charging, I think you'd find it
impossible to prove that the diesel wasn't being used to power the
vehicle and therefore is exempt from road fuel duty. Charging
stationary at the side of the road with no connection between the
charger and the rest of the vehicle whilst moving, I think you would
get off with that as no one could prove where you got the electricity
from, very grey area I would say and you'd be best looking at the laws
of the land in depth to resolve that one.
However, if you look at it practically:
You're going to need a big diesel genny to get enough power to an EV,
especially as you'll have a literally a ton of batteries to drag
around.
Big diesel generators aren't quiet, aren't cheap, aren't small and
aren't particularly efficient compared to modern diesel vehicle engines
(a generalisation, I know)
You'll need an onboard charging system of some complexity to make sure
the batteries are charged correctly and to control the generator.
If you generator isn't big enough to supply more than your average
needs you're going to have to stop and wait for it to charge, so if you
have to stop anyway you're as well trying to charge from a electric
socket where power costs are a fraction of diesel costs. Plus you're
going to have a big diesel generator thumping away full speed which is
slightly embarassing and not very enviromentally friendly spewing out
diesel fumes where other people are likely to be stopped as well.
Electric vehicles are great things, and they can work well. But they
have their limitations, and which are substantial:
Heavy weight - you need AH to get range and and voltage to get
performance and the more AH and V you fit the heavier it gets so the
more you need - you get into a vicious circle, a good EV balances that
just right.
Maintenance of batteries - you are heavily discharging lots of
(expensive) batteries on a regular basis so either you need to check
each battery manually for any signs of differing capacity or you need
to fit an automated system to do this. Otherwise your whole vehicle
performance and range is held back by maybe only one poor cell.
Maintaining your batteries electronically is pretty essential if you
can't replace electrolyte yourself (like if you're using Optimas or
other sealed batteries).
Cost of components - you can buy everything you need off the shelf, but
you have to have a long term outlook with regards to recovering costs!
A motor controller will cost over a thousands pounds, you might pick up
a s/h forklift drive motor for fifty quid if not another thousand for
new, a suitable battery charger will cost another thousand, battery
charge modules possibly five hundred, batteries will be around a
thousand, plus all the misc cabling, high V DC/low V DC convertor,
electric vac pump for brakes, instrumentation etc. I'd like to be
proved wrong that it could be done on the cheap but I can't see it.
Sure you could save on the controller and use forklift contactors to
change speeds, and you could use a variac for a charger and rectify
it's output but you still need matched batteries and deep cycle high
capacity batteries aren't plentifull secondhand unless they're
completely done!
Having said that, I have taken a trip to see a company in the states
called EV parts (well, they were Wilde EVolutions when I met them) who
have a great 88" series II electric amongst other EVs. Really nicely
done, and they have in the past done what you suggest by adding a
genny, in their case I think it was a Fisher APU, but don't think that
was long term, just strapped in the bed of the LR. Dunsfold have a
series III electric though when I was last there they were about to
kill it by fitting ten quid SLI batteries to it! Not sure if they
actually did though....
Regards
William MacLeod
