Nissan Leaf !! (Electric Car)

[ilovemarkb]

The more the I read about these the more convinced I am to get one!! Am I missing something obvious that puts people off buying them......don't see many driving about!! ??? !!!

[Hopkirk]

What happens when you turn the heater on?

I guess with no lovely hot internal combustion engine, the heater must run off the battery. No doubt the range must plummet as a result.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Electric cars suffer higher depreciation due to the battery issue.If you must have one then the BMW i3 (RE) would be a better choice.If you want a new one, dont buy it....contract it.

[EDDIE51]

No one seems to have mentioned that the range quoted is the maximum.
In winter with the heaters on, the screen blower /heater on and the headlights the range can be less than 50% of the quoted max range. Remember all conventional cars just use the waste engine heat for heating the car interior . An electric car has to have electric heaters that run off the battery these use a lot of current and dramatically reduce the range.

[Baldric]

Gumboil.
///Beware of one thing though. The battery in virtually all electric vehicles is leased to the vehicle owner. It's never owned by the vehicle owner. Check carefully what this means financially when the battery needs replacing either routinely or through a fault. ///

Leasing the battery is an option, see post @ 16:12 taken from 'Whatcar' review.

[ToraToraTora]

yes Hoppy, one of many reasons why they are not viable. I think the hybrid where it can be charged by plugging in but also an engine is on board only to charge the batteries is a better approach, bit like the old diesel electric trains.

[Hopkirk]

I believe the 'plug in hybrids' is where the sales growth is happening TTT, for good reason.

[ToraToraTora]

That's sensible, plug in when you can but you are not stranded when you cannot.

[Canary42]

With a much more unpredictable rate of fuel consumption (i.e. depends on heater/wiper/headlight usage etc) and possibly less fuelling outlets, the risk of running out on a journey must be greater. If it's petrol the Recovery Services can bring along a can - what do they do for electrics - tow them to the nearest charging point ?

[EDDIE51]

Here you go ,winter temperature can reduce an electric cars range by 57%
and that's in Southern California !!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2014/03/24/the-cold-truth-icy-temps-can-slash-an-electric-cars-range-by-more-than-half/#2715e4857a0b4f8560f126d7
The colder it is the lower the efficiency of a battery and the less power it can produce.Add that to the fact that in cold weather you need electric heaters on so that is even more power out of a battery that already has its capacity reduced by the cold weather in the first place.
Temperatures below freezing can reduce the range to just 30 % of the maximum.
The only people I know who have an electric car also have solar panels on the roof that connect to the charge point, so they in effect get free charge ups.

[Hopkirk]

I'll wait until they are mass producing hydrogen fuel cell cars - that's the future.

[EDDIE51]

My link throws up another problem for electric cars that I had not thought of. In summer use of the A/C will also slash the range.So electric cars are OK as long as the temperature is not cold or hot .

[ToraToraTora]

the problem with hydrogen is that despite it's abundance it is almost always attached to something else, eg Oxygen so hydrogen is worse, electricity wastes 80% of the energy used to produce it. Hydrogen needs electricity to unstick it so basically we now get 4% of the energy we'd get if we used fossil fuels. The only way that is viable is if electricity is made from Fission (hopefully fusion one day)

[EDDIE51]

TTT there are some interesting proposals to use solar electric power to split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen. The hydrogen being used as fuel.
As solar power is effectively free that means free fuel . Most of these proposals use catalysts to drastically reduce the amount of power needed for the reaction.

[CrapAtCryptics]

The Tesla is the only electric car to turn in a respectable range ( 300+ miles ) but you need to have £60,000 to buy one. I`ve been surprised by the number of Tesla charge points recently once you start looking for them.

[EDDIE51]

Hydrogen from sunlight has come on a lot in the last year or so
http://www.futurity.org/system-turns-solar-energy-hydrogen-fuel-later-use/
I can see it being almost universal within 10 years. No need for fossil fuel and no Carbon footprint !

[ToraToraTora]

great Eddie, if we can obtain hydrogen from solar power then that makes it more viable.

[Hopkirk]

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/93180/hydrogen-cars-your-fuel-cell-car-questions-answered

[EDDIE51]

It does work TTT, in the USA you can already buy 'off the shelf 'solar powered Hydrogen generator units that produce electricity rather like a petrol powered portable generator does.

[EDDIE51]

Here you go
http://www.hypersolar.com/application.php
Electricity from sunlight and water.

[mikey4444]

Why anybody would choose an all-electric car is completely beyond me !

These cost at least £20,000, and what do you get? A very ordinary, not very spacious car, that can only do 100 miles, at best, on a charge !

What is the ruddy point ?

I have been to Abergavenny and back today, a journey of about 100 miles and 2.5 hours.

But if I had taken a Leaf instead of a Fiesta, I would still be stuck somewhere on the Heads of the Valleys road,waiting for the AA man to arrive !