Electric cars-Conversions

[Mandrake]

Very funny. And judging by the accent the Ad aired in Australia, so it may not have been seen over here.

More advertising like this is needed on TV to raise awareness of the silliness of burning fossil fuels in cars when alternatives are starting to become practical.

A bit of lighthearted mocking is just what is needed.

[Mandrake]

Don't know why I didn't think of posting this earlier, I'm planning to go to "Evolution Scotland" this Saturday (6th May) which is a car show dedicated to EV's, which includes being able to test drive EV's from various manufacturers that will be there. (Yes even Tesla ) It runs from 9:30 to 4:30.

http://scotland.evolutionshow.co.uk/

It's located at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh - just next to Edinburgh airport. Registration and entry is free online. To be able to drive any cars on the day you have to register and provide drivers license details, but that only took me a few minutes to do online.

Should be an interesting day out (I haven't been before) so anyone in the central Scotland area that is curious to see and possibly drive some EV's might find it a worthwhile day.

Naturally I'll be taking the Peugeot Ion, although I suspect I might have to queue to use the charger in the nearby park and ride before I can get home again due to masses of EV's flocking to the same area at the same time from who knows how far away....

[CitroJim]

Sounds like an interesting show Simon. I'll be looking forward to your report on it...

Naturally I'll be taking the Peugeot Ion, although I suspect I might have to queue to use the charger in the nearby park and ride before I can get home again due to masses of EV's flocking to the same area at the same time from who knows how far away....

Simple solution... Put a towbar on the Ion, get a trailer-mounted diesel generating set and take it with you... Maybe you could set up your own rank of charging stations and make a bit of money on the side

[Mandrake]

So I went to Evolution in Edinburgh, family in tow, and took the Ion to get there naturally.

It was located in the Royal Highland Centre, quite close to the runway. (Just opposite the entrance was the grassy area where all the plane spotters park outside the runway fencing!)

I did take the documentation necessary to go for test drives but partly due to us being so late to get there (we didn't get there until 2:30, with the event running from 9:30 to 4:30) and me being a big fat chicken, I didn't ask anyone for a test drive! I think it's a yearly event so I'll try to pluck up the courage next time!

Those that were driving them were following a complicated circuit that had been set up on the grounds, and were driving them at a reasonable speed. There were a lot of EV's in the car park belonging to attendees, I'd say there were a couple of hundred cars parked outside in total and about half of those were EV's or Hybrids that I recognised. Lots of Leaf's of course, loads of Hybrids, at least 10 Tesla's, but not a single Ion/C-Zero/i-Miev apart from mine! Either they're not very common or the owners live too far away to drive such a short range EV to the event!

Within the grounds was an i-Miev belonging to Edinburgh University kitted out in full signage, plugged into a charging point. What it was doing there I don't know, but it's the only one I saw. I had a few people staring at mine as we arrived and left so its obviously different enough looking to other EV's that even other EV drivers take notice.

Inside there were probably about 20 cars on display from various manufacturers - Tesla had a nice blue Model S and a white left hand drive Model X there - the Model S looked lovely as always but I was really taken aback by just how HUGE the Model X is! You have to see it in person to appreciate it. It is an absolute monster!

I've seen plenty of Model S's on the road but never a Model X in the flesh. When you see them on videos it looks like its just a taller version of the Model S but it really isn't, it's massive. I couldn't believe how high the falcon wing doors open - fully extended they must be at least 8 feet from the ground, so even the tallest basketball player could walk under them without bumping their head. People were getting in and out of these two cars and fiddling around with the touch screen etc inside.

That booth was the official Tesla presence at the show, but there were two other Model S's there as well, one I think was a hire company that hires Model S's, and I'm not sure what the other one was there for. Lots of people flocking around the Tesla's the whole time we were there.

What was quite surprising and a little bit sad when you think about it, is that some manufacturers booths were nearly empty of people. Of the other brands that were there, Mitsubishi had their Outlander over on the far side of the venue - with almost nobody looking at it, Toyota had both a Prius and a Hydrogen Fuel cell car, with not many people looking at it, Nissan were present with a Leaf and an e-NV200 van, not many people looking at those either (everyone knows the Leaf I suppose, so it's "boring", and not worthy of going to a show to see) and the only other marque that had significant interest seemed to be BMW, who had an i3, and i8, and something else I didn't recognise. Quite a few people milling around those, and the i8 (I think) did look very impressive indeed.

There were also a couple of charge point vendors including chargemaster, who do home charge point installations - and stupid me, who actually wants to get a charge point installed didn't even take a leaflet.

There was a huge kids play area in one corner that had face painting, and I saw some kids in big sumo outfits...

Something that was quite cool was a racing track for some radio controlled toy cars - with a row of steering wheels lined up along the edge, participants took a steering wheel and raced these radio controlled cars against each other for a prize. (Not sure what the prize was)

There were also electric cycles on hand for people to test ride. All in all very interesting, I wish I'd taken a few more pictures - about the only pictures I took were pictures of Joshua running around the floor not sure where to go...

Edit: I checked and I do actually have a few photos, so I'll post some soon.

I'll definitely go back next time and try to pluck up the courage to get a few test drives!

On the way home the realities of owning an EV in 2017 hit home - to get back home in a 60 mile range EV I needed a quick rapid charge, and there is one at the park and ride just up the road.... which turned out to be broken and out of service, for apparently about 3 weeks.

So I had to drive about 4 miles to the next nearest one for a quick charge before heading home. Not only are more chargers required (there was only one at the site with no backup) owners of the devices really need to pull finger when there is a fault. The only rapid charger near the airport down for 3 weeks with no backup unit available and the nearest alternative several miles away just isn't acceptable if they expect any kind of EV uptake in this country. Would a petrol station close for 3 weeks because the pump is broken and they can't be arsed fixing it ? I don't think so!

[Mandrake]

I've re-posted this message in my blog along with some pictures:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=48988&p=532369#p532369

[RichardW]

On the way home the realities of owning an EV in 2017 hit home - to get back home in a 60 mile range EV I needed a quick rapid charge, and there is one at the park and ride just up the road.... which turned out to be broken and out of service, for apparently about 3 weeks.

Charging solution

[Mandrake]

No good Richard, EV's are very picky about what they charge from - they do a ground resistance test at the start of the charging procedure and will not charge if they don't detect a good earth!

So as far as I know it's not possible to charge an EV from a portable petrol 240v generator using the 3 pin "granny charger", as it won't be earthed.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Inside there were probably about 20 cars on display from various manufacturers -

Did Ford turn up with this?

http://www.ford.com/cars/focus/2017/mod ... -electric/

Plenty of points on offer over on the EV Spotting thread for the first on the road/in the car park/at the showroom spot of the Electric Focus!

Regards Neil

[Mandrake]

I don't recall seeing any Ford's, however one thing I did find a bit odd about the show is that manufacturers that were present apart from Tesla didn't have obvious signage to say who they were! So if you weren't very familiar with the various makes and models of EV's already you would have to go and inspect each car closely to find out what it was... So I could have missed it...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Just noticed my link above to the electric focus...the prices were in US Dollars. Looks like they are selling it there, but maybe like the Chevy Volt Bolt, being pretty cagey about world wide domination plans with not that much "focus" on selling it in Europe as yet .

Regards Neil

PS Auto Express did a piece earlier this year

Ford Focus electric gets 140mile range and new charging tech

Ford puts European spec Focus Electric on par with US market counterpart, with additional range and fast-charging technology. Ford has quietly issued an update to the electrified version of its popular family hatchback, the Focus Electric, boosting the range European buyers can expect and fitting fast-charge technology.

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

It's all in foreign but should be clear what they are up to.

[Gibbo2286]

All Double Dutch to me that tow rope was a bit long, a real pedestrian and cyclist trap.

[bobins]

I've seen plenty of Model S's on the road but never a Model X in the flesh. When you see them on videos it looks like its just a taller version of the Model S but it really isn't, it's massive. I couldn't believe how high the falcon wing doors open - fully extended they must be at least 8 feet from the ground, so even the tallest basketball player could walk under them without bumping their head. People were getting in and out of these two cars and fiddling around with the touch screen etc inside.

Serious question - do these falcon doors have a 'reduced height' setting ? If not, it kinda rules out parking them in quite a few multi-storey car parks if you need to open the falcon doors?

[NewcastleFalcon]

Serious question - do these falcon doors have a 'reduced height' setting ? If not, it kinda rules out parking them in quite a few multi-storey car parks if you need to open the falcon doors?

This video should answer that question Bobins. Also in close parking situations the falcon doors opening vertically then across mean they can be opened. No doubt sensors prevent any coming together with surrounding vehicles.

Regards Neil

[bobins]

Wooooooo !! That's witchcraft, that is.