Electric Cars

[Mexican18]

If someone lives in a house that has no off-road parking (Eg Coronation Street)how can they charge an electric car?

[CrapAtCryptics]

Buy a supercharge pass or go to the nearest charging point.

[Sunk]

My neighbour has one, and he goes to Morrison’s supermarket which is a short drive away, and has a charging point. I think he tops up often so he plugs in, he goes shopping, and has juice when he returns.

[Khandro]

Do they have heaters, if so how long do they last?

[ToraToraTora]

Yes, that is a major issue with moving to electric cars. Until we come up with a societal solution it'll be those suggested above. I do have a driveway so I'll probably get one at some point but if I had to park in the road I could be doing with the agro so I'd stick with petrol.

[Mexican18]

TTT, I feel the same. How long does it take to charge?

[davebro]

I'll stick with my diesel until it dies then maybe get a petrol/elec hybrid (Toyota Prius?) as my last ever car.

I can't see them solving the home charging problem for millions of car owners any time soon.

[ToraToraTora]

well it varies depending on the charging mechanism. A mate of mine has Tesla and he says you can get a variety of transformers. 2 - 12 hours but he says he treats it like his phone, plugs in every night so after an initial charge it's just topping up.

[Sunk]

There are different ways of charging.
Rapid takes 45 minutes, Fast 5 hours and slow 12 hours.

[Mexican18]

So you would have to stay at Morrisons for say 3or4hours!

[aelmpvw]

//plugs in every night so after an initial charge it's just topping up//
that works fine until he wants to do a six hundred mile round trip

[ToraToraTora]

mexican, possibly but I was talking about home charging. At a public charger it depends on the charger:
https://www.drivingelectric.com/your-questions-answered/117/what-fast-charging-what-rapid-charging
In reality though you'd not need a full charge to get home and it would probably be better to be fully charged before going out. Yes we will have to adjust our habits as far as driving is concerned.

[Zacs-Master]

No, the ones at supermarkets charge up to 80% in about 50 mins.
Sunk, your neighbour must be spending quite a bit on charging it up if he can’t home charge.

[Zacs-Master]

Yes, they have heaters. Mrs Z can set hers to ‘pre condition’ (warm up) the interior before she gets in which has been very handy on cold winter mornings.

[TonyV]

My next door neighbour has electric / petrol hybrid. Bit disconcerting when you can't here a car approaching you, same as the electric scooters that are becoming more popular with teanagers. Plus point with the cars is you'll only find them on the roads and not the pavements. (Normally !!)

[ToraToraTora]

aelmpvw, yes that is a shortcoming. I think that a much better charging infrastructure is needed before we can go over to electric vehicles wholesale. They are great round town and going a few dozen miles to work and back. There will also be the problem of charging millions of cars, many new power stations will need to be built, mostly nuclear. Then there is the inevitable fuel duty erosion that will need to be replaced so expect some form of road pricing system. Yes, a lot to do.

[Zacs-Master]

Mrs Zacs mini has an inbuilt speaker which gives it some sound (a zoomy whoosh just like Commander Straker’s in Space 1999).

[KARL]

Regarding charging, the infrastructure needs to be, and is being, built up throughout that part of the world where these are a realistic proposition, some countries being way ahead of others. The cars themselves are becoming more practical as their range increases. I know people who have a Mitsubishi hybrid and it does around 30km on a full charge which means that around town they do more or less everything on the batteries - when moving on electricity their car emits a sort of hum which is recognisably Mitsubishi, others do something similar. Personally, I find electric cars appealing and if I were considering buying a car I would go for a fully electric one, not necessarily but likely a new one. If large scale generation of electricity by nuclear fusion becomes feasible then the present conundrum will solve itself rather neatly - but fusion has been just beyond the horizon for many decades and a breakthrough is somewhere out there still.

[ToraToraTora]

ZM it's UFO.

[bhg481]

I wonder how many people actually charge their hybrid or do they just use it as a company car tax dodge?

[mushroom25]

// (a zoomy whoosh just like Commander Straker’s in Space 1999).//

are you conflating your Gerry Andersons there, ZM? Commander Straker (played by Ed Bishop) was in UFO.......