Electric cars

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Wolfie1

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so today at work we were getting electric charging points fitted for the new ipace and the hybrid range rovers and i was shocked at the size of cable just for a charger that will charge 2 cars, i just cant believe that this infastructure is going to be implimented country wide in time as it will cost millions just for the cable alone let along all the trunking and man hours to dig the holes, thread the cables and wire it all up! Check the thickness of this bad boy!
 

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so today at work we were getting electric charging points fitted for the new ipace and the hybrid range rovers and i was shocked at the size of cable just for a charger that will charge 2 cars, i just cant believe that this infastructure is going to be implimented country wide in time as it will cost millions just for the cable alone let along all the trunking and man hours to dig the holes, thread the cables and wire it all up! Check the thickness of this bad boy!

Just another reason why it will never happen.

Add to that the time that cars are parked blocking any other access to the point. Not just the time it takes to charge, but basic human nature. Who is going to be the good citizen who moves their car after an hour of charging when they can just leave it where it is for two, three or eight hours while they do their shopping or sit at their desk all day.

Plug-in electric is doomed before it starts. Roll on hydrogen cells.
 
Wireless charging similar to mobile phones will be the way forward

I'd take it a step further. Inductive charging on major roads. Vehicles charged as they travel.

I'm patenting a Linear Inductive Charging Propulsion system that goes a step further and propels the car along the road and charges it.
 
Until the makers get their heads around the fact that we're not all wealthy it's never going to happen ! The only ones that work properly are Tesla, can YOU afford one ? and where is the power coming from ? the electric fairy ?
 
Will the car be on rails Dryce..?

It's all a bit hush hush but the concept is for the chain of coils under road surface that form the combined charging and propulsion system to keep the cars in lane magnetically.

Initially the cars will support their own weight on their wheels.

However the second generation system will levitate the cars as it propels and charges them - reducing friction and increasing efficiency.

The motorways equipped with the system will be redesignated with an L prefix instead of M - and called Laithwaite routes.
 
I'd take it a step further. Inductive charging on major roads. Vehicles charged as they travel.

I'm patenting a Linear Inductive Charging Propulsion system that goes a step further and propels the car along the road and charges it.
You are Professor Eric Laithwaite!!
One of my heroes!
 
Thankfully I will be well out of it by the time this tomorrows world arrives,this thread is a little like the X files.
 
Wireless charging similar to mobile phones will be the way forward

Realistically this is going to be the only real way to charge electric cars in the real world. Plugged a car in, is all well and good if you have off street private parking or allocated parking but of not you're stuck.

Some good friends of mine bought a very nice house, nice area etc. but no off street parking. They rarely get to park directly outside their place so plugging a car in is not an option. I suspect that applies to a huge percentage of car owners, let alone people in flats etc. Wireless charging has to be the way to go, whether it be built into the roads or via another method of transfer.

I work in central London and walked past a Tesla on charge. Slick looking cars, incredibly modern and yet a bloody great blue cable trailing from the back of it. Can't help thinking that's a bit archaic.

Wireless charging great, alternatively if you could have a smaller battery pack that you could swap over at charging stations that could work. Pull in, take out old, swap for charged, pay for the charge and off you go. Of course battery tech would have to move on from the thousands of cells running the length of the car to a pack that can be lifted by little old ladies haha.
 
There are great solutions being worked on but my question is who is going to pay for the infrastructure to be installed. It looks like being all tax payers either through central / employment tax or local authorities through Council Tax. Therefore, to strangle a political phrase - the many will pay for the few. The infrastructure has to go in now but the majority of car owners will still be driving petrol & diesels well into the next decade. At least now, if you have an electric / plug in you make your own arrangements and pay directly. I am not advocating doing nothing now, just that the recovery of the costs should be thought through in a fair way.
 
I actually read an interestig article today about an australian company that has build a power generating facility that is carbon negative, it takes co2 from the surrounding air, mixes it with water in some distilation process and then use renewable electricity to turn it into a liquid fuel (which can be delivered at the current fuel price) which can be used in any car, truck or plane on the go today with no modifications to the engine and give just as give performance, sounds too good to be true as its a big claim to make but if it is thats the future there
 
We've all seen the absolute chaos caused by running a single cable up motorways to make them "smart", can you imagine the M4 in rush hour while all that is being installed ? It really doesn't bear thinking about. No, I'm not a Luddite, just realistic.
Politicians and vested interests have more power than you can imagine, what happened to Ford's lean burn technology, or Honda's ceramic engine development, it was drowned, and we all had to buy catalytic converters.
 
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Sure I saw something on TV or the BBC website the other day about a borough in London that were installing chargers on/by street lamps as of course, there is already a power source there
 
That'll work well . . . . . . till they're nicked.
 
I actually read an interestig article today about an australian company that has build a power generating facility that is carbon negative, it takes co2 from the surrounding air, mixes it with water in some distilation process and then use renewable electricity to turn it into a liquid fuel (which can be delivered at the current fuel price) which can be used in any car, truck or plane on the go today with no modifications to the engine and give just as give performance, sounds too good to be true as its a big claim to make but if it is thats the future there
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How Bill Gates aims to clean up the planet
Australian firm unveils plan to convert carbon emissions into 'green' concrete
 

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