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Electric Cars


gdevoy

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25 minutes ago, Lroy said:

Screenshot_20190429-184641__01.jpg.9c1968861098f0235a19d1c6d8799870.jpg

The wee park garden thing? I'll be honest, I didn't even know there was a "behind the hotel."

And why are there so many blue cars?

Grey oblong in front of the red truck. 

Scottish gas get together? The ones for up my way have a regular thing at the Brisbane House

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Tesla Model 3 is now available in the UK. The cheapest version isn't yet available, but the 2nd cheapest is.

£38,900. Probably means the base model will be about £35k when it eventually arrives.

That includes Autopilot as standard, it's an extra £4,900 for the full self driving hardware.

0-60 in 5.3s. 248 miles of range.

Top specs are 3.2s 0-60 and 348 miles of range, but they are 60k and 50k cars respectively.

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On 4/29/2019 at 6:48 PM, Lroy said:

Screenshot_20190429-184641__01.jpg.9c1968861098f0235a19d1c6d8799870.jpg

The wee park garden thing? I'll be honest, I didn't even know there was a "behind the hotel."

And why are there so many blue cars?

Ignore what I said before. I was concentrating on other things last time. 

They've fenced off the Simon Ford memorial garden and bunged a couple of them there.

D5e2jh4WwAAAoIH.jpg

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On 4/29/2019 at 3:42 PM, Scooby_Doo said:

Great Scott! That could get you from Edinburgh to Kilmarnock, then on to Greenock and back in the same day.

For example.

When these things get up to 88mph, you're gonna see some serious s**t... just think where you could go if it had one of those Flux Capacitator thingamajobbies on board! B|

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Just finished reading through all this.

I'd considered an electric, but I don't have a driveway so can't charge it overnight. I'd have to purposely hang about somewhere to charge it. Not particularly an issue if it only takes 30 mins to charge and I get an equivalent range as I do in my petrol car. 430 miles (was 540 for my diesel).

They seem to have created more charging points. How do you pay for your "topup"? The ones I've seen don't seem to have payment methods, but I doubt that they are free!

Also, I never buy new cars, as the first year or 2 has an incredible depreciation. So my top budget for a car is around £12k (which I just paid for my 9 month old Astra SRi Turbo - list price of £20k+).

 

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2 hours ago, killieblues said:

They seem to have created more charging points. How do you pay for your "topup"? The ones I've seen don't seem to have payment methods, but I doubt that they are free!

The charge points operated by the Scottish government through Charge Point Scotland are free for now. But that will likely change soon. The ones off motorways, like service stations, are a bit expensive. Still way less than petrol. I've heard stories of people owning cars for several years in Scotland and they haven't paid a penny in fuel.

At the moment there are sorts of apps for each network which is a pain but contactless payments will become more and more popular, if not legislation quite soon. EU are definitely bringing it as a rule soon but, you know.

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  • 1 month later...

Saw this a while ago, they worked out at the University of Glasgow how to refill a battery in 5 mins at a service station by replacing the charged fluid in it.  The old days of plugging in EV’s may soon be redundant, if you can drain, pump and refill a new batterys charge in liquid rather, than charge a solid state battery cell.

Could be neat solution to early adoption, if u can get 300 miles range in 5 mins at nay service station. Rare earth metals aren't in enough supply for all cars to go traditional battery and electric. Plus liquids are lighter than solids, then oil company's still get to sell you gas for ur EV, not just electric companies  suits everyone 

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/new-refillable-batteries-could-fuel-electric-car-revolution-ncna974556

 

Edited by RAG
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  • 3 weeks later...
On ‎6‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 11:33 PM, RAG said:

Saw this a while ago, they worked out at the University of Glasgow how to refill a battery in 5 mins at a service station by replacing the charged fluid in it.  The old days of plugging in EV’s may soon be redundant, if you can drain, pump and refill a new batterys charge in liquid rather, than charge a solid state battery cell.

Could be neat solution to early adoption, if u can get 300 miles range in 5 mins at nay service station. Rare earth metals aren't in enough supply for all cars to go traditional battery and electric. Plus liquids are lighter than solids, then oil company's still get to sell you gas for ur EV, not just electric companies  suits everyone 

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/new-refillable-batteries-could-fuel-electric-car-revolution-ncna974556

 

Sounds very interesting. If the technology can be minimised it solves a number of problems at on go.

Clearly electric is where we are going but I still think the notion of electric being totally mainstream in 15 years is optimistic. If this approach works out it is going to make the bosses at my work, who have just installed charging stations in the management car park, look awfae silly.   

I am an engineer so thinking up 1,000 ways this could go wrong is just how my brain works. Right away I am thinking "What happens to the depleted electrolyte?" Presumably it is pumped out as the new stuff is pumped in. "Is it a hazardous substance?" "Can it be re-cycled or does it have to be disposed of?

............

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26 minutes ago, gdevoy said:

Sounds very interesting. If the technology can be minimised it solves a number of problems at on go.

Clearly electric is where we are going but I still think the notion of electric being totally mainstream in 15 years is optimistic. If this approach works out it is going to make the bosses at my work, who have just installed charging stations in the management car park, look awfae silly.   

I am an engineer so thinking up 1,000 ways this could go wrong is just how my brain works. Right away I am thinking "What happens to the depleted electrolyte?" Presumably it is pumped out as the new stuff is pumped in. "Is it a hazardous substance?" "Can it be re-cycled or does it have to be disposed of?

............

Aye, because batteries and electric motors are a new thing. No-one will have thought of these things.

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I agree with gdevoy on this one; can't see where this technology is headed. Sounds like someone had advertising budget in their PhD grant. Old fashioned high voltage/current charging still seems the way to go. Solid electrolytes are next.

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27 minutes ago, Lroy said:

I agree with gdevoy on this one; can't see where this technology is headed. Sounds like someone had advertising budget in their PhD grant. Old fashioned high voltage/current charging still seems the way to go. Solid electrolytes are next.

They use similar liquid 'battery' tech. in some solar power stations for when the sun goes down - although I'm sure it's called a 'power cell' not a battery.  Is (lack of) rare Earth metals that are the problem in current batteries, in 2018 VW tried to buy 40% of the worlds supply of cobalt for their batteries alone.

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1 hour ago, gdevoy said:

I am an engineer so thinking up 1,000 ways this could go wrong is just how my brain works. Right away I am thinking "What happens to the depleted electrolyte?" Presumably it is pumped out as the new stuff is pumped in. "Is it a hazardous substance?" "Can it be re-cycled or does it have to be disposed of?

No idea.  I think what makes it a feasible option is the network of tanks and pumps at every petrol station.  Presumably these could be converted to pump hazardous electrolytes rather than petrol or diesel.  Might even be cheaper than installing hundreds of thousand of charging points at petrol stations.

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13 minutes ago, RAG said:

They use similar liquid 'battery' tech. in some solar power stations for when the sun goes down - although I'm sure it's called a 'power cell' not a battery.  Is (lack of) rare Earth metals that are the problem in current batteries, in 2018 VW tried to buy 40% of the worlds supply of cobalt for their batteries alone.

Oh yeah, the rare earth issue is the biggest single issue facing the adoption of electric cars. There is plenty of money being put towards developing cobalt and lithium free batteries.

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1 minute ago, RAG said:

No idea.  I think what makes it a feasible option is the network of tanks and pumps at every petrol station.  Presumably these could be converted to pump hazardous electrolytes rather than petrol or diesel.  Might even be cheaper than installing hundreds of thousand of charging points at petrol stations.

Can't see how retrofitting a petrol station would be cheaper than throwing up a few fast chargers.

You've got on something though; the oil industry is going to plow s**t tonnes of money in to making sure they have a physical product to refine and sell. I keep getting adverts from Shell I think telling me how Hydrogen is defo the way to go.

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10 minutes ago, Lroy said:

Can't see how retrofitting a petrol station would be cheaper than throwing up a few fast chargers.

You've got on something though; the oil industry is going to plow s**t tonnes of money in to making sure they have a physical product to refine and sell. I keep getting adverts from Shell I think telling me how Hydrogen is defo the way to go.

That happened in the USA with the adoption of the car and building of freeways.  GM and all the big car companies bought the Trams and railroad companies and ran them into the ground, forcing the consumer to buy cars.  Garage fourourts and oil are a huge business. Battery tech is always behind the curve of other forms of tech.  Think of the phone you have now, probably 50-100 times faster than 10 years ago, but the battery technology inside will be incrementally better, not exponentially like the other components.

Edited by RAG
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13 hours ago, Lroy said:

I agree with gdevoy on this one; can't see where this technology is headed. Sounds like someone had advertising budget in their PhD grant. Old fashioned high voltage/current charging still seems the way to go. Solid electrolytes are next.

My apologies - I read the poster, not the post. 

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  • 1 month later...

Bit the bullet and bought a Tesla Model 3 (the AWD Long Range version (348 miles allegedly)).

Stressing that I only just got it on Friday (and am awaiting the installation of the proper home charger), so can't speak to what it is to live with yet or how realistic the range is, but my intiial impressions are pretty spectacular.  Easiest car to drive I've ever had, and certainly the most comfortable - at 6 foot 5 legroom is obviously pretty important and it's excellent.  The one comment I can make about how is it to live with is that they advertise adding 5 miles of range per hour on the standard plug (and say 19 mile per hour of charge on the 7.4kw charger you can have installed), but I've been getting 8 miles per hour of charge so far (caveat there is I've only had it since Friday).

It's really comfortable to drive as well - firm suspension for the handling, but no issues with the ride, and perfectly fine at handling the likes of the speed bumps through Moscow/passed Loudoun Academy at 30mph.  The software is good for comfort to - you can control it from your phone, so as I was leaving the Aberdeen game on Saturday I could put on the air con and the car was cool by the time I got to it - pretentious as that all is, it is genuinely going to be immensely useful on a cold winter morning.

My only complaint so far is I don't like the door handles - they're embedded in the door (being electric a big part of the range is all about the aero I guess) so you have sort of push one end with your thumb so the other end pops out and then open it.  In the great scheme of things who cares, but it is a small annoyance.

The acceleration I don't really have words for. As well as being ridiculously quick, it's the nature of it - no drop off as you go reach and go through the rev peak in a combustion engine car, and of course no gears to interrupt the acceleration.  It's theoretical 0-60 is 4.4 seconds, but it's the fact that it seems to do the next 60mph just as quickly, and does it without any sound and fury.  If the likes of a lambo or ferrari blows other cars away (not that I've ever driven one to be fair), this one feels like it just kind of quietly dismisses them from its presence.

As I say, don't know what it will be like to live with over time, but no regrests so far.

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1 minute ago, Lroy said:

Sex.

Keep us updated, I'd love to know how it is to live with.

 

Qs:

  • Colour?
  • Any options?
  • Did you get the full self driving option?
  • Gee uz a go.

Will do.

Colour:  Black with black interior.

Options:  The LR AWD one comes with the "premium interior" included, which the most significant thing is the panoramic roof, which is really nice, makes the care feel extremely spacious.

Full Self-Drive:  No as it's not actually turned on in the UK yet (you can actually add it after the fact if you want as it's just software, so figured I could just add it down the line).  The normal auto-pilot does self-drive on the motorway (or allegedly anything with clear lanes) though (as in accelerates/steers/brakes fully within the lane without your involvement.  It won't take the right sliproad for you or anything of course.  It spends the first 100 miles calibrating the sensors though so I haven't tried it yet.

Also:  naw.

One other thing I should have mentioned - the handover (up at the service centre just off the M9 outside of Edinburgh) was great and really straightforward (plus they didn't even bother glancing at the car I was trading in, which I was pleased about given the corrosion around one of the wheel arches), but trying to get them on the phone to ask a couple of questions about the order after I'd made the initial deposit was like pulling teeth (and they didn't reply to any e-mails of web messages) - from the various forums, etc. this does seem to be pretty common, but their owner support seems to have a better reputation.

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3 hours ago, Lorielus said:

Bit the bullet and bought a Tesla Model 3 (the AWD Long Range version (348 miles allegedly)). 

Sounds fantastic. I like to have something different to drive (had a 2nd gen. Neon back in the day and have an Infiniti Q30 just now) so I'm really really tempted by the Tesla. Seen them all over Southern Cali and look the bizzo, a real head turner. 

Do keep us updated, and if you want to entertain an admirer, drop your address in a pm. ;)

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