Electric Cars Going Forward And Thoughts

[admiral51]

This is interesting
https://www.motor1.com/news/264974/merc ... r-cameras/

[myglaren]

Some electric developments in the supercar stratosphere

The Beeb

[NewcastleFalcon]

Just found out, another of the supercar stratosphere appearing at Geneva described as the "First electric super sports car with almost unlimited range" is a product of......

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/ ... -at-geneva

Chinese startup car manufacturer, AIWAYS, will debut two cars at this year’s Geneva Motor Show: an all-electric SUV and a methanol-electric supercar built in tandem with the engineer behind the Gumpert Apollo.

My post about the methanol-electric Roland Gumpert Nathalie on Interesting/awful engines

Spoiler: show

Ever heard of Roland Gumpert?

Pop up the bonnet on his/their "Nathalie" and this is what you will see...........

https://www.gims.swiss/sites/default/fi ... k=SZKWNHQ_

yes and he/they appear to have found the fuel of the future green methanol!

Read all about it!
https://www.gims.swiss/exhibitors-platf ... -nathalie

[myglaren]

^ I may have mentioned this previously but Volvo had buses operating in Gothenburg in the early seventies running on methanol.
Borås, where I used to live, have their urban buses running on methanol produced from domestic waste.

[NewcastleFalcon]

There are two types these days Steve.....Green Methanol and Black Methanol!

You can burn it in an Internal Combustion Engine, or you can utilise it in a fuel Cell.

That Nathalie Sports car uses the methanol fuel cell effectivly as a "range-extender" and of course as you would expect running it on "Green Methanol".

I dont know much about the arguments for and against Methanol. It can be produced from renewable sources, but I guess also produced from fossil fuels. I think the waste products from its use in a fuel cell are carbon dioxide and water so maybe they cant plaster zero-emissions on the side like the Nissan Leaf!

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Geneva Motor Show: Why it will be electrifying
By Theo Leggett Business correspondent, Geneva Motor Show


"New European emissions regulations, which are being phased in from next year, will force manufacturers to reduce drastically the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by their cars, or face steep fines.

Those targets will apply to average emissions across each carmaker's model range. Having low or zero-emissions cars, such as fully electric and plug-in hybrids, in their fleets will help to bring down the average.

"Not only do they have to make electric cars, the way the rules work they actually have to sell them as well," explains James Attwood, deputy editor of Autocar magazine.

Now there's a novelty. Auto manufacturers having to sell the cars they make.

REgards Neil

[GiveMeABreak]

And when there are no cars left to tax and regulate out of existence, what else will these europhile numpties dream up to justify their jobs?

Time to dust off the wind powered roller skates.

[Gibbo2286]

Email from Hyundai this morning inviting a look at their magazine and their hydrogen full cell car.

http://whnmagazine.com/cars/nexo/?entry=HMUK0353908

[NewcastleFalcon]

Further to this a couple of posts back in relation to new rules on emissions

"Not only do they have to make electric cars, the way the rules work they actually have to sell them as well," explains James Attwood, deputy editor of Autocar magazine.

Went back to Lookers-Nissan today to get a refund for the incorrect part for the Clio exhaust. You would imagine that having produced and sold what is now a mainstream electric vehicle for nearly 10 years now, Nissan would be really pushing sales on the new Leaf. As I observed before....the Qashqai, The Juke and the Micra are what they devote most showroom and most website resources to. Only one illustrative deal on the Leaf.

Other "dealers" may have a different approach, but lets look at the lookers Leaf Deal.

Straight away it loses me (hardly surprising given my bargain basement tendencies ). For the privilege of doing 7500 miles per year look forward to forking out a deposit of £4,500, and £359 per month over 4 years.
At the end of the 4 years you can chose to pay £9,456.96 to acquire the car.

The mass electric car revolution has to come up with something cheaper than that!

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

There is a nice little graphic if you scroll down this article from the South China Morning Post.

The stones in the road for China’s 2025 plan on electric vehicles

Can't select just the graphic so you may have to do a small amount of paging down......but it features one of the limiting factors...cobalt....and the worlds largest producer by miles "The Democratic Republic of the Congo" where according to the article 20% of cobalt mines are dug by hand!

Battery developments using more widely available materials tend to be always on the horizon but not quite there.

Regards Neil

[white exec]

Tanks for posting that, Neil.
Interesting graphic and info.
If researchers can find an alternative to cobalt, it will drastically alter the situation.
I still find it odd that the basic building block of the battery packs is something the size/shape of an AA. Must be a good reason for that; can't just be lack of imagination on Panasonic's part... Interconnection aside, I suppose it does give a certain amount of flexibility for vehicle battery-pack design, let alone all the other, non-automotive, applications.

[myglaren]

Tesla driver filmed apparently sleep-driving.
Independent

[Gibbo2286]

That's not limited to Tesla drivers Steve, if you watch 'Traffic Cops' they often stop car, and even worse, truck drivers dozing off and wandering lane to lane.

[myglaren]

True enough but this seems to have been a conscious decision on the part of the driver.

[Gibbo2286]

A bit like the woman who reportedly set her RV into cruise control on a US interstate highway then popped in the back to make tea.