Electric Car Etiquette

[Hotrodder]

Early adopters often pay the price. Like those who camp outside the Apple shops to be the first to pay stupid money for the latest Iphone. Six months later the price drops by a third.
I fear any real breakthrough in battery technology will be way more expensive than the existing ones so you may have a long wait before you get ahead of the game.

[DaveW]

Battery breakthrough seems to be a gradual process. Read some of the reviews on the batteries that Renault are using on their all electric Megane, lighter and smaller plus they didn’t try to re-invent and create their own control panel software, they use Android and it’s getting rave reviews. Not that I am advocating Renault because their build quality is crap, but they seem to have got the EV thing right.

Apple never ever reduce prices on their iPhones until a few months after the release of the next one. Even then the reductions aren’t earth shattering.

[RobertArthur]

Another problem I see with that is that battery life (that is life before it has to be replaced) is reduced in proportion to the number of charge/discharge cycles.

Another factor to bear in mind: fast charging is not going to get the maximum lifespan of batteries. For lead-acid there is still the 10 % of nominal capacity rule, Li-ions can be charged with much higher currents. There are of course thermal limits, overheating should be avoided. Long distance travellers prefer fast charging, you don't want to wait 6 to 10 hours. At the age of ten, simple lessons from my father: Ohm's law, resistors, fuses and batteries, including the 10 % charging rule of thumb. Modern times today, but nothing wrong with common sense and basic principles. To illustrate these lessons a contemporary study:

What can 6,000 electric vehicles tell us about EV battery health?


What about a 350 kW charger? Not for everybody, not for every electric car.

[rabbit]

Lack of charging options when on an extended journey is one of the issues putting me off going ev. Imagine arriving at the Services and all chargers are in use and you have two hours in a queue as well as your own charge time. Is there any disincentive to disconnect and move once charged? Certainly online mapping of charge points, capacity and points vacant will help

[Hotrodder]

About now, someone will probably mention Hydrogen power cells.
Check this out. https://youtu.be/AGTjKJHu99c

[Nomoss]

I don't understand why batteries for electric cars can't be standardised, and fitted where they can be quickly changed.

You could then have stations where cars could pull in for a quick battery change, taking a few minutes instead of spending several hours charging, or dragging an engine around in the car to charge its battery as in the hybrid concept.

Batteries would be rented, payment made at a flat rate, but adjusted at each exchange, on the basis of how much power was used between changes, monitored by recording equipment in the car.
If charging at home the flat rate would cover provision of and deterioration of the battery, adjusted according to the charging regime also recorded by the car.

It would also be possible to have rates depending on the age of the battery being rented, so when being used mainly for short local trips, older, cheaper, batteries could be used, and newer ones used when making longer journeys.

[RobertArthur]

@ Nomoss, as long as car sizes are different it will be difficult to simply swap these car batteries. There is one solution howver: one car size fits all, on display here.....

[DominicBest]

I think the three days needed to take the whole car apart to change the batteries might make charging the faster option.

[Hotrodder]

The concept of standardising propulsion batteries made me giggle. Manufacturers are reluctant to standardise anything on a car. Tyres, brake pads, oil filters, air filters, starters, batteries, radiators, suspension components, exhausts, drive belts, or pretty much anything you might care to mention.

Having said that, they do seem to be making progress in one direction. Almost all cars these days are black, white, or grey.

[RobertArthur]

Change the batteries?