EV Charging in the UK

My Casio Rock (flip phone) needs to be charged about every two weeks.

It's nothing but a plain old phone without a cord.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin
Loading thread data ...

I'm perfectly happy with individual enthusiasts buying EVs, but I'm not happy with powerful people and groups using them as expensive power-building crusades.

My next-door neighbor Steve has always wanted a Tesla, so he saved up and bought a model 3. He hated it. "It does what it wants, not what I want."

I don't see it around any more. Maybe he got rid of it.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

Just install giant induction loops under every street.

Or big lasers on lamp posts to beam power down onto cars.

Or - best idea so far - store electric power in liquid form so a car can stash a lot in a lightweight tank instead of heavy batteries.

Protons would work. We just need a way to stick them together.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

Only some fussy smart cell phones require recharging every 12 hours.

My Moto G lasts around 3 days between charges. It would last even longer

- almost a week if I lived somewhere with a decent mobile signal.

It was deliberately chosen to replace my faithful old Nokia which would run for two or three weeks no problem until I dropped it in a bucket.(actually the battery was failing anyway but that was the coup de grace)

>
--
Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

Electric trams with overhead wires are making a comeback. Manchester has an extensive network of them now.

--
Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

We have a lot of electric public transportation here. It's very reliable and works well underground.

And we have cable cars! One giant electric motor powers the whole system. Cars going downhill donate their power to cars going uphill.

A cable car does have one lead-acid battery to run the lights.

formatting link

Great fun, especially hanging on outside at night. The Hyde Street line is best.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

They're even mad enough to let the tourists "drive" them ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

attery in the morning and never have to drive to a busy, smelly, nasty gas station again.

m
a

Sounds like charging my car! That's the point. Someone referred to the ho rrible inconvenience of plugging in the car every night. The reality is in most use cases a car needs to be charged a lot like a cell phone. Plug it in at home if you want, or plug in at work if that's an option. In Freder ick they have level 2 charging at the train station so people can charge wh ile they are at work and the car isn't!

This is early days still. In not too many years charging will be available everywhere you go, literally.

I've still got a flip phone to hold onto my old number. It is virtually un used save the telemarketer calls and the few calls from friends who don't h ave the new number (actually the really old business number I moved from a landline to the mobile).

Keeping the flip phone charged is more of a bother since I don't plug it in every night. It can go better part of a week and it often runs out in my pocket. The smart phone can go a couple of days but it gets plugged in mor e often because I think about it.

As to the car, it is much more of a bother to move things to and from the c ar each time I get home than it is to plug in the charger. Tesla has made it very simple and easy to perform charging. Combine that with the nearly complete lack of maintenance and it is a very trouble free car. They don't even have an annual service check like the hugely mechanically complex ICE vehicles.

It truly is amazing just how much the ICE has been honed and polished and w hat has been achieved with such an inherently complex and unreliable techno logy. Imagine how much improvement will be made with EVs over the next 20 years. By then, charging will be much faster (there are improvements to th at coming in the next 5 years), longer range, lower cost. With EVs being n early ubiquitous people will become complacent with the technology and expe ct TVs in every seat and a minibar. Actually, with fully self driving cars common, the minibar may actually happen. "I can drink, I'm not driving!"

--
  Rick C. 

  -+--- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Rick C

I have provided examples of practical problems in the UK.

You have refused to acknowledge them; for all I know you never even looked at the "pretty pictures".

There's none so blind as them's won't see.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

f

m.

r

nly

f

ied

quintuple

o

tch

dents

e

to be

issue

ular,

Many

ving

t think

It is

r EVs.

no factually based analysis of your own.

Yes, I looked at the pictures and I see what you are talking about. The RF guys talked about this, but it is hard to grasp without seeing a picture. The US pretty much doesn't have this. Streets are 99% wide enough for par king and traffic.

That picture doesn't indicate that facilities can't be added to allow charg ing. The fact that with less than 0.5% of your cars being electric (and th at figure includes hybrids which I expect most are) there are people workin g to solve these problems shows that others are not as adamant there are no solutions.

I'd be willing to bet when cars first appears in London there were many who complained about the smoke and noise and how they frightened the horses. Yet progress continued and I don't think I saw one horse in any of your pho tos.

Charging is not an intractable problem. In the UK it is difficult in some areas but will improve.

--
  Rick C. 

  -+--+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Rick C

And John, don't leave it too long, act fast before Tesla goes bust!

--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via  
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Cursitor Doom

After Tesla dies, where are people going to get replacement batteries?

It's going to be interesting. Teslas may go the way of PT Cruisers. One day people wake up and say "Hey, that's ugly!"

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

A sensible question, just as it is with any cloud service.

But the same is true of just about any car. The only solution is diversity of supplier. That's beginning to happen with EVs.

Unfortunately EVs like Tesla have the EV characteristic conmingled with the "driverless" characteristic - principally as a way of distracting from the less good characteristics.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

If you do Care About The Planet, this is the way to go:

formatting link

A truly zero CO2 footprint solution, the wood would have rotten anyway. More Teslas:

formatting link

formatting link

It seems that our eastern neighbours have gone very creative recently.

Best regards, Piotr

Reply to
Piotr Wyderski

On Tuesday, 18 June 2019 19:47:05 UTC-7, John Larkin wrote: ...

...

Why would a Tesla owner need a replacement battery?

They are not something that is high on the list for repair. There have been a few replaced although in many of those it was not the cells that caused trouble, it was the surrounding circuitry that is in the battery pack. Thes e items are mainly off the shelf electronic components and so probably repa irable even without Tesla's assistance if needed.

kw

Reply to
keith

On Monday, 17 June 2019 06:56:13 UTC-7, John Larkin wrote: ...

...

Phase control would cause unacceptable input current waveform distortion.

Pulse-skipping would avoid that but could cause flickering lights and other undesirable effects when switching 7kW.

Andy

Reply to
keith

Not everyone truly understands the concept of rechargeability. John often needs things explained to him using small words.

en a few replaced although in many of those it was not the cells that cause d trouble, it was the surrounding circuitry that is in the battery pack. Th ese items are mainly off the shelf electronic components and so probably re pairable even without Tesla's assistance if needed.

The reality is that not only is an EV a way of driving without being totall y dependent on carbon emitting fuels, it also costs less to fuel and is muc h lower in maintenance as well as having a much longer lifespan. So it's a win, win, win,... uh...

win!

I guess Larkin is the guy in the Volvo commercial from many years ago who a sks, "If they weren't so good, why would I buy so many?"

Yes, that's right. The guy in the commercial was another idiot.

--
  Rick C. 

  -+-+- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Rick C

That sounds like a lot of complexity to take a shower. We have a gas-fired 80 gallon hot water tank and two knobs in the shower, hot and cold.

I like long hot showers, because I have ideas in the shower.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

And solar variation. Possibly galactic cosmic ray flux.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

Ours is electric. Electricity is cheap enough and our water heater doesn't need to be portable. Batteries not included.

I'm still asleep at that time of the morning (and the gym has "free" hot water, in the evening).

Reply to
krw

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.