WTF? Since when under normal street driving conditions you are using maximum acceleration and maximum braking power? So much so that you observe slight timing differences always accelerating from 0-60s. If you are not in a racing environment, such things are mute.
Normally the car does 6.8s to 60 in...
What's your verdict on PHEVs? My 2003 Toyota will need replacing sometime, and I ought to understand the tradeoffs.
IMHO the hybrids from Toyota are the best choice when looking for a second hand car. I looked at a whole lot of hybrids and these seem to be the most reliable and least costly to maintain.
What's your verdict on PHEVs? My 2003 Toyota will need replacing sometime, and I ought to understand the tradeoffs.
Put it this way: been fun to own one for four years but I would not buy one right now.
In theory best of both worlds. Electric for short journeys. Petrol for longer ones. If you can make the electric work for you (you "have" to use home charging IMO) then it's great.
Cost-wise on the used market my car is about £10k. So for an "EV" that can do 90% of your driving on electric it's excellent value (comparable 200+ mile range EVs are more like £17-25k). However I would say it's only worth buying one if you have charging at all your major destinations. For instance, I used to commute 12 miles to work and had charging there and at home. So all of my commute was electric. I was getting 2,000 miles to a tank of fuel. When I migrated south, I couldn't get such a close home, and no charging at work. So I've been using my car as a true hybrid for the last 2 years, charging only at one end giving a partial benefit to economy, but not an amazing one. It returns around 50-70 mpg in such a configuration (90 mile round trip, ~20 miles electrified), so as good as most diesel cars, but it has 204 hp, so merging onto the dual carriageway (very short left hand turn) is easy .
If you really want to use the EV function, you ideally use public charging too. So the 7kW spots in parking garages etc. Those can be mixed in reliability and it's frustrating to have to use petrol on the way back if you could have done in on electric had that bloody BP Pulse charger actually bothered to work.
I would expect these cars will become more of a maintenance liability as they get older... the GTE's for instance have a triple clutch gearbox and I've heard this extra clutch can fail, meaning the engine can't start... that can be a £2k bill for instance. Most of the older models will be going out of battery warranty too. So maybe not for someone who's coming from legendary Toyota reliability.
IMHO the hybrids from Toyota are the best choice when looking for a second hand car. I looked at a whole lot of hybrids and these seem to be the most reliable and least costly to maintain.Just paid 230 EUR for the yearly maintenance, APK of my 12 year old Prius. I was considering to replace it with a Mercedes C class plug-in, but the maintenance is 1200 EUR/year, which is more than what I spend on fuel and tax each year. So thx but no thanks, I will probably drive this car until it falls apart (which it doesn't). Only parts that needed replacing over it's lifetime was the airco compressor, and the 12V battery, breaks (went rusty) and windshield vipers. Meanwhile I know people that spent more on repairing their 3 year old Tesla, than me on my car during it's entire lifetime.
All this "EV will break the power grid" is a bunch of nonsense. It was taught in the university, that renewable energy cannot get more than 5% of the total, and the "entire grid will collapse". The professor came to the class and told us that it's not feasible, there will be blackouts, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. And look at us now, the lights are on.
All this "EV will break the power grid" is a bunch of nonsense. It was taught in the university, that renewable energy cannot get more than 5% of the total, and the "entire grid will collapse". The professor came to the class and told us that it's not feasible, there will be blackouts, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. And look at us now, the lights are on.Actually Tennet, the company that control the electricity grid in the NL has put out a warning last week that they expect electricity shortages within a few years from now.
All this "EV will break the power grid" is a bunch of nonsense. It was taught in the university, that renewable energy cannot get more than 5% of the total, and the "entire grid will collapse". The professor came to the class and told us that it's not feasible, there will be blackouts, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. And look at us now, the lights are on.Actually Tennet, the company that control the electricity grid in the NL has put out a warning last week that they expect electricity shortages within a few years from now.Did they specifically highlight EVs as a concern?
All this "EV will break the power grid" is a bunch of nonsense. It was taught in the university, that renewable energy cannot get more than 5% of the total, and the "entire grid will collapse". The professor came to the class and told us that it's not feasible, there will be blackouts, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. And look at us now, the lights are on.Actually Tennet, the company that control the electricity grid in the NL has put out a warning last week that they expect electricity shortages within a few years from now.
No, that is not their concern as they only concern themselves with sourcing electricity to distribute. But it is logical to conclude that you won't be able to charge your BEV during a blackout.
I think it has more to do with shutting down power plants without building new ones. And going with the "everything is bad" attitude. Gas, bad because Groningen will sink to the ocean (import?). Coal bad because it's coal, phase out by 2030. Nuclear bad because the soviets' managed to blow up one. The country haven't built a single power plant for the past 10 years, only wind. A smart planner would build a new generation gas fired plants, that are 5% more efficient than the plants built in the 90s and save countless amount of CO2 with that, instead of waiting for miracles to happen.
Now they figure out that nuclear is fine again. It takes a decade to build a plant in this century. Cannot wait to pay an EUR/kWh to import it from Germany. Oh wait, we are already there.
No, that is not their concern as they only concern themselves with sourcing electricity to distribute. But it is logical to conclude that you won't be able to charge your BEV during a blackout.
Right, but a great deal of EVs charge overnight when electricity is cheaper. Will there be overnight blackouts? Or is this more of a peak capacity / load shedding issue?
Blackouts are a big problem, but more of a problem for immediate use of electricity, which affects petrol pumps too.
It's sad that even such a possibility exists but doesn't change EV's as an option for me.
If you bother to read the official references for the UK,
- yes there will be scheduled overnight blackouts
- yes it is a peak capacity issue
- yes it is a load shedding issue
- and it is also none of those. No gas/wind => no electricity until more supplies arrive
QuoteBlackouts are a big problem, but more of a problem for immediate use of electricity, which affects petrol pumps too.
Now you are struggling with a very poor argument!
A few messages back you suggested that petrol powered generators are a solution to some issues. ICE cars would function just as well.
Amateurs think about how things work. Professionals also think about how things will fail.
Tennet, the company that controls the electricity grid in the NL has put out a warning last week that they expect electricity shortages within a few years from now.
bad because Groningen will sink to the ocean
Did they specifically highlight EVs as a concern?
What you are missing is that hydrogen is THE KEY ingredient for energy storage. Again: the entire world is moving towards hydrogen production (from wind + solar) and storage. In the next decade hydrogen made from renewable sources will be available in abundance. And cheap. Forecasts say that by 2050 hydrogen can be sold to consumers for US $5 per kilo. Even today it is cheaper to run a car from hydrogen compared to running a BEV from public charging. In every serious article about renewable energy, you'll find hydrogen being part of the solution. Now try to convince me again hydrogen is dead... Hydrogen cars are going to be what the LED lamps are today: a truly better solution compared to what we had. BEVs are the CCFL lamps we used to have as a temporary solution to have more efficient light bulbs.
ULEZ is anywhere within the North and South Circular roads, not including those roads itself. It's a pretty big area to have to pay over a tenner a day to drive in, and not everyone who lives in that area is rich. (You may have more of a point if you talk about the congestion charge as that's almost all zone 1).
I know a few people not very happy with it, but ultimately it's one of those taxes that's necessary but never going to be pleasing for those who have to pay it. The whole point of it is to strongly discourage the usage of non ULEZ-compliant vehicles.
As for buying a Tesla. Don't make me vomit.
You'll also find ICE cars accelerate a bit worse in colder weather, so nothing new here.
As for buying a Tesla. Don't make me vomit.
It's unfortunate that your prejudice overrides your ability to consider even trying one. you should try driving one before you knock them, it's quite obvious that you haven't.
All it would do for me is discourage me from ever going into that area.
My prejudice is the, ahem, "hopeful" statements that lead the unwary optimist to believe that the cars are capable of driving safely (beta).
More prosaically, my prejudice is that the salesman who know how to demonstrate the car can't even turn on the windscreen demister while the car is stationary. As for being able to turn it on safely while driving, don't make me laugh.
That needn't apply to other EVs in general, of course.