The latest on my quest for an EV

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NickJ
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Postby NickJ » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:29 am

Ah the never ending EV quest....

Having been through the difficulties of finding an EV 2 years ago (finally found a Berlingo) which is in daily use by my partner for commuting, I have just been going through a similar process now I need a vehicle to do a longish journey to a new job. The problem is that all the EVs are aimed at city use and we live in the countryside, so even if we bought a Think (complete with £140 a month lease on batteries) the servicing, to keep the warranty, would need a trip to London. So I have no current production vehicle which will meet my needs at sensible money (I cant afford a tesla!). My solution is going to be a DIY conversion, Problem is not everyone can do this and until a manufacturer with a decent dealer network gives us an EV it will remain a difficult quest....but it will come! In the meantime I have found an Insight hybrid to tide me over.

Nick

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:54 pm

You're absolutely spot on Nick. Fortunately there's some of us who are effectively pioneering the EV in the UK which is how the BVS came to be really. But why does the 'modern man' have to be spoon fed all the time by the big corporates ?

NickJ
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Postby NickJ » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:51 pm

Absolutely agree! My personal feeling is that many things have been turned in to one form or another of "consumerism". If it is not new and shiny and has a "label" from some brand or another people regard it as inferior. So we have to wait until some large company gives us what we want because the small scale projects often do not have the "respectability" in modern eyes.

Bit of a rant there! but I take great comfort from the BVS as I see all the pioneering and sometimes downright mad things people do, really restores my faith in humans!! :D

Getting a bit off topic, but to bring it back a bit I can say that the berlingo/partner is probably the best bet at the moment on the second hand market, ours has been great! (frantic wood touching :lol: )

microman
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Postby microman » Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:45 pm

Its not the 'newness and shinyness'. Its the reliability and backup. Many of the offerings on the market (no disrespect to other posters!) are here today and gone tomorrow when something goes wrong. This should not be so with an vehicle from (say) Toyota/Mitsubishi/Subaru. Forty five years ago I carried a set of tools and spares wherever I drove - and needed (and used) them. Now its a different matter - and so it is for the ordinary car user of whatever age.

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:35 pm

microman wrote:Its not the 'newness and shinyness'. Its the reliability and backup. Many of the offerings on the market (no disrespect to other posters!) are here today and gone tomorrow when something goes wrong. This should not be so with an vehicle from (say) Toyota/Mitsubishi/Subaru. Forty five years ago I carried a set of tools and spares wherever I drove - and needed (and used) them. Now its a different matter - and so it is for the ordinary car user of whatever age.


Shiny new stuff there's no point in carrying a toolbox with you as it's always a black box that goes wrong and gets simply thrown in the bin for a new one. I've got a K reg out the back of the house which is easy to repair and costs peanuts. and that's a 1972 K reg so almost as old as your toolbox :wink: oh and by the way it's not Japanese it's all British :wink:

microman
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Postby microman » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:51 am

Agreed about the black boxes but new shiny (or grubby in my case) cars have a much lower failure rate despite their increased complexity and electric ones should be even better. In the last 15 years or so - excluding one accident and yjr odd puncture - I've only had one incident needing assistance (sudden and complete battery failure).

But my real point is that Joe Bloggs doesn't trust JustImportedFromChinaMotors Ltd, Back Canal Street, NorthEast Cheam, trading since early last year now in liquidation, or home brewed machines. Even if he did they're not advertised or readily available just off the High Street. For enthusiasts - as BVS member are by definition OK, but the general public no no no. Its a circle - prices only become competitive with mass production, which need large sales which needs confidence from consumers at large.

I have two electric (Chinese) bikes. The 6-year old is no longer supported by the importer/assembler. I expect the new one to be in the same position in a years or two. I don't mind at all, but then I'm an electronics engineer and DIY fanatic. (And they don't cost as much as a car). Joe Bloggs comes from a very different direction.

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dargles
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Postby dargles » Thu Jul 31, 2008 5:52 am

Thanks for mentioning the K-reg, Qdos. I've kept very quiet about my 1968 Triumph based Gentry in the garage, so it's reassuring to know that someone else considers that old cars can be environmentally sound (well, as sound as any fossil fuel burner can be).

I know it's true that modern cars tend to be ultra reliable, but I too had a breakdown call-out some years ago on my Montego. Why? Because the battery wasn't charging, so the car just stopped :roll: Now, my first car was a 1950s A30, and I ran that for 6 months with a flat battery because I couldn't afford a new one! I just needed to start it with the starting handle each time.

Also, my friend currently has a Nissan which has a quirky emissions sensor. The car runs fine, but under certain circumstances it thinks it's producing too much CO2 and stops until the system is reset by the garage. He's spent hundreds of pounds so far, and still the fault hasn't been traced. And this is progress? It isn't that there is a problem, it's just that the car thinks it has a problem, so it refuses to start...

OK, I know there's no simple answers, but I just worry that we can too easily fall into the trap of thinking that buying the latest ultra-reliable fuel-misers necessarily helps. And yes, I do have an ultra-reliable, fuel-miserly Golf mk5 sitting outside the house...

Regards, David[/i]

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:36 am

Gentry :D Lovely car I built a Spartan when I was 17/18 This is it here

Image

Green new cars versus Old cars

Now lets say new cars are bought perhaps every 4 years on average ( I just plucked that figure out of the air based on people not wanting a car to MOT like my parents ) Average price circa £12-15k and going up Average improvement in mpg each time about 4 mpg perhaps and saving in CO2? Anyone's guess really...But remember all the CO2 used in manufacturing the car all that energy to make the steel and the plastics etc! Oh we don't count that do we that might hurt industry

So what's happening here is that the car companies have a regular income of £3 to £4k purchase plus the required servicing and guess who gets a share of that ? Yep our government....

So what's happening with old cars? servicing maybe £200 per year? and what else ? hmmmmm notihing as far as the tax man can get his grubby hands on other than the road tax.

Motivation? Being Green or lots of income? You go figure I already made my mind up :wink:

So pulling this back on topic imagine someone building an EV on an old donor car that's no longer economic for the owner of the car to run thanks to high petrol prices and emissions based road tax. Now how do you think the government and Industry are going to like that !?!?!

But then am I being Synical :?:

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dargles
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Postby dargles » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:23 pm

qdos wrote:... I built a Spartan when I was 17/18...


Mmm, nice car. Like your home as well, but can't see a garage though. Is that why you had to keep the car on the road? :lol:

qdos wrote:Green new cars versus Old cars
...Motivation? Being Green or lots of income? You go figure I already made my mind up :wink:
But then am I being Synical :?:


Nope - I can go with that!

qdos wrote:So pulling this back on topic...


Indeed. I was interested to see about the new EVs coming out, so followed up on NICE cars, the Lightning (it costs how much????) and the Quiet Car Company. I was interested to see that the Quiet Car 2 looks sensible, has a decent performance/range and is being sold for an affordable sum. Also, they're based in Lymington (not far from me), so I thought I'd book a visit. Unfortunately, all the car guys are at Excel selling lots of cars to Londoners, so I'll have to wait 'til next week. I was getting the low-down from the bike guy at Quiet Cars - it sounds like a real good deal to me.

Has anyone got any inside information?

Regards, David

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:04 am

LOL yes I was speaking to Vaughn (the MD) at the show and took some photos of the cars for him to send back to Mitsubishi which is what the 5 door is based on. The Quiet actually includes the batteries in the price whilst others such as the Th!nk do not and you have to lease the batteries on top of the price of the car!!!

The house in the background is Charterhouse School We lived just on the opposite side to where the photo is taken and I used to drive through the grounds frequently. 8) If you're wondering who went there basically most of Genesis except for Phil Collins and I think Winston Churchill went there too but not totally sure on that Oh Thomas Sutton founded it whoever he was He's the Statue :wink: Now we really are off topic!!!


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