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Confused about PHEV, Hybrids, etc...

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tom66:
Absolutely, air conditioning is essential in any country that regularly exceeds 25C ambient IMO.   To that end 10 minutes with the air con on from my car's remote control and I have no complaints about the all-black interior being roasting hot.

pcprogrammer:

--- Quote from: nctnico on August 22, 2022, 01:44:01 pm ---About airconditioning in a car: Personally I consider it a safety feature. It has been scientifically proven the human brain doesn't work well at high temperatures.

--- End quote ---

Many don't work that well at room temperature either :-DD

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: tom66 on August 22, 2022, 09:34:48 am ---
--- Quote from: gnuarm on August 22, 2022, 09:25:13 am ---100 km is pretty lame range, even for a city car.  I don't know how many miles a day a taxi drives, well, km then, but 100 km is only 60 miles and that's not much for any sort of working vehicle, even if you charge at lunch.  We'll see if it is successful. 

--- End quote ---

It's not a bad compromise tbh... Most of the taxis spend their time tootling around in city traffic where average speeds of 8 mph mean you're doing well.  So they can easily run till lunch.  The petrol engine then gets them any fares to the airport and back.

But I think long term something like a 200mi / 300km all electric taxi will make the most sense.  PHEVs are training wheels for real EVs :)

As for Ni-Cads, no doubt at all that a Li-Ion power tool battery will outperform on current output.  My drill battery is fist sized and can do 30 amps without cutting out, at 18V.  That's over 500W peak power.  You are not getting that from Ni-Cads.

--- End quote ---

The latest version of the classic London "Black Cab", the TX5, has a 31 kWh battery, a petrol based range extender, a 64 mile range running purely electrically and a total range using the extender of 318 miles. It supports fast charging. Speaking to a London cabby a few months back he said that the pure electric range is enough for almost all his work, that taking an opportunistic charge while he has his lunch is generally enough to keep him from needing to use petrol at all.

They aren't making pure ICE black cabs anymore, and the London Taxi Company, principle maker of black cabs for many years, has changed its name to the London Electric Vehicle Company. That a company and vehicle that's so iconic* that it's known around the world for its product has gone down this route I think speaks quite eloquently about the suitability of a relatively short range EV for the rĂ´le of a taxi.

People get hung up on range, but even the pathetic 7.1 kWh battery in my PHEV is enough to ensure that 80% of all my travel requirements are catered for by a pure electric vehicle. Sure, you need more range than that if you're driving a pure BEV but the average person doesn't need the full range of a typical fully fuelled ICE vehicle for anything other than the most exceptional journeys. Most car owners could live with a BEV with a range of 60 miles or so for pretty much all their day-to-day driving requirements, as long as they have somewhere to charge the bloody thing.

* Let's face it, almost everybody in the world thinks 'taxi' when they see the silhouette of a TX series vehicle.

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: tom66 on August 22, 2022, 12:45:28 pm ---The insurance on my 204 hp Golf PHEV was less than my 90 hp Peugeot 206 HDi diesel.   

It turns out the insurance profile of EV and PHEV drivers (Tesla probably excepted) is "boring old guy who likes efficiency".  There are few better categories as far as insurers are concerned.

--- End quote ---

I went from "red two seater high performance mid engined sports car with negligible residual value and negligible theft risk" to "boring but expensive luxury PHEV with even more performance, considerably higher residual value and considerably more theft potential" and my insurance went down a little. So you're probably on the right track.

nctnico:
And how about refilling the oil? Those taxis are Brittish made cars so they have to leak oil  >:D

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