RE: Driven: MINI E
Discussion
What we need are scalextrix style contacts. You could couple in your sat nav and sit back and have a cappucino whilst the car did it's stuff.
I wonder how long until people are f
king about with motor windings. "I'm sorry sir, you have fitted a transformer to boost accelleration, your insurance is invalid"
Prescott Hillclimb, the new Super Ferrari E1 car, fitted with an eco carbon motor, ceramic gears, special superconducting brushes and the latest in regenerative braking, all powered by a windturbine up the top.
Call me a luddite, but these are fking lame. If you want to use transport, take a train.
Funnily enough, Issigonis, designer of the mini experimented with electric cars...with the motors in the wheels.
I'm really sorry and ashamed at myself for being so backward, but these really are st. It's a glorified milkfloat and whilst these are most certainly the future. Your satnav could even make sure you slow down by a big nanny state style sealed rheostat, to make sure speedkills doesn't happen.
I wonder how long until people are f
king about with motor windings. "I'm sorry sir, you have fitted a transformer to boost accelleration, your insurance is invalid"Prescott Hillclimb, the new Super Ferrari E1 car, fitted with an eco carbon motor, ceramic gears, special superconducting brushes and the latest in regenerative braking, all powered by a windturbine up the top.
Call me a luddite, but these are f
king lame. If you want to use transport, take a train. Funnily enough, Issigonis, designer of the mini experimented with electric cars...with the motors in the wheels.
I'm really sorry and ashamed at myself for being so backward, but these really are s
t. It's a glorified milkfloat and whilst these are most certainly the future. Your satnav could even make sure you slow down by a big nanny state style sealed rheostat, to make sure speedkills doesn't happen. SLacKer said:
Make the battery pack into a pod underneath the car and make that interchangeable like a bloody mobile phone then no need to wait for charging.....pull into an E Station and let the robots take over.
I mentioned this to Wieland Bruch at BMW (minus the robots bit!), who said that they are aware of the idea, but are waiting to see if a standardised battery setup emerges before the system could be practical. He said that if one particular battery standard emerges, then they would be interested in this idea.Edited by SimonSaid on Friday 16th October 15:36
pbirkett said:
People have obviously forgotten the real threat of black-outs and such like in a few years due to power stations being closed down, without replacement, so what do we do? Rely on cars that need leccy! Really clever given the current climate!
I would assume most people would plug in at night when there is a surplus of power...But yeah, we need more nuclear plants to be built pretty sharpish.
After some rough but generous (to the mini e) back of an envelope calculations, I reckon that at £330 per month + 1.50 per 10 hour charge, the mini would cost approx 27% more than my current daily driver to use and be less flexible. For example I regularly travel to my girlfriends parents house on weekends, a journey of 100 miles. Judging by this cars real world range it would struggle to make it.
Electric cars are the future, but they have a long way to go before they become properly viable and further still before they become desirable.
Besides when we've all switched over to electric cars they'll simply throw all the taxes currently on fuel onto electricity instead. Meaning running a car will be just as expensive and providing power for your home will be a lot more expensive. Of course they'll tell us its all in an effort to reduce emissions, nothing to do with them not wanting to lose the revenue.
Electric cars are the future, but they have a long way to go before they become properly viable and further still before they become desirable.
Besides when we've all switched over to electric cars they'll simply throw all the taxes currently on fuel onto electricity instead. Meaning running a car will be just as expensive and providing power for your home will be a lot more expensive. Of course they'll tell us its all in an effort to reduce emissions, nothing to do with them not wanting to lose the revenue.
patmahe said:
Besides when we've all switched over to electric cars they'll simply throw all the taxes currently on fuel onto electricity instead.and add some for good measure. Meaning running a car will be
My bold
patmahe said:
After some rough but generous (to the mini e) back of an envelope calculations, I reckon that at £330 per month + 1.50 per 10 hour charge, the mini would cost approx 27% more than my current daily driver to use and be less flexible. For example I regularly travel to my girlfriends parents house on weekends, a journey of 100 miles. Judging by this cars real world range it would struggle to make it.
Electric cars are the future, but they have a long way to go before they become properly viable and further still before they become desirable.
Besides when we've all switched over to electric cars they'll simply throw all the taxes currently on fuel onto electricity instead. Meaning running a car will be just as expensive and providing power for your home will be a lot more expensive. Of course they'll tell us its all in an effort to reduce emissions, nothing to do with them not wanting to lose the revenue.
Is your daily driver the lotus in your profile?Electric cars are the future, but they have a long way to go before they become properly viable and further still before they become desirable.
Besides when we've all switched over to electric cars they'll simply throw all the taxes currently on fuel onto electricity instead. Meaning running a car will be just as expensive and providing power for your home will be a lot more expensive. Of course they'll tell us its all in an effort to reduce emissions, nothing to do with them not wanting to lose the revenue.
Have you done the calculations with another new car rather than a six year old one so it's not an apples to oranges comparison?
XitUp said:
pbirkett said:
People have obviously forgotten the real threat of black-outs and such like in a few years due to power stations being closed down, without replacement, so what do we do? Rely on cars that need leccy! Really clever given the current climate!
I would assume most people would plug in at night when there is a surplus of power...But yeah, we need more nuclear plants to be built pretty sharpish.
robsti said:
XitUp said:
pbirkett said:
People have obviously forgotten the real threat of black-outs and such like in a few years due to power stations being closed down, without replacement, so what do we do? Rely on cars that need leccy! Really clever given the current climate!
I would assume most people would plug in at night when there is a surplus of power...But yeah, we need more nuclear plants to be built pretty sharpish.
XitUp said:
patmahe said:
After some rough but generous (to the mini e) back of an envelope calculations, I reckon that at £330 per month + 1.50 per 10 hour charge, the mini would cost approx 27% more than my current daily driver to use and be less flexible. For example I regularly travel to my girlfriends parents house on weekends, a journey of 100 miles. Judging by this cars real world range it would struggle to make it.
Electric cars are the future, but they have a long way to go before they become properly viable and further still before they become desirable.
Besides when we've all switched over to electric cars they'll simply throw all the taxes currently on fuel onto electricity instead. Meaning running a car will be just as expensive and providing power for your home will be a lot more expensive. Of course they'll tell us its all in an effort to reduce emissions, nothing to do with them not wanting to lose the revenue.
Is your daily driver the lotus in your profile?Electric cars are the future, but they have a long way to go before they become properly viable and further still before they become desirable.
Besides when we've all switched over to electric cars they'll simply throw all the taxes currently on fuel onto electricity instead. Meaning running a car will be just as expensive and providing power for your home will be a lot more expensive. Of course they'll tell us its all in an effort to reduce emissions, nothing to do with them not wanting to lose the revenue.
Have you done the calculations with another new car rather than a six year old one so it's not an apples to oranges comparison?
What matters to me is how well a car suits my needs. As a commuter car, my current car suits me better than this would. In my mind I was comparing a car for my commute with an alternative car for my commute so it was an apples to apples comparison for me, age did not come into it, but cost did.
But I do take your point that if a new car was important to you that depreciation would then become a factor. I do however wonder, if BMW were rolling this out on a wide scale would the cars be so cheap (ie. are they subsidising the scheme somewhat, since profit is not their primary motive at this stage) and also as I said above if we were all driving around in electric cars then the powers that be would simply heap all the fuel taxes onto electricity, making electric cars a lot less viable.
It would be interesting to have all of the information to hand to make a fair comparison. Like for like with new cars and to take into account their whole life environmental impacts and running/purchase costs. Unfortunately we can only guess at this stage. But for me for the time being and for what I need the car for, I would not be tempted to switch.
God idea but as mentioned in the review clearly dosent work to well in the MINI because of the space the batteries etc take up. I reckon the car really needs to be designed with a sandwich platform like the small Mercedes and smart car, so the batteries can be held in between the passenger compartment and bottom of the car.
Edited by va1o on Friday 16th October 23:14
You have to pay BMW to test their car for them? Are the fking kidding?
No one is saying coal fired power stations and nuclear reactors are eco friendly. But an electric car still has far less demanding energy requirements over all.
P,I am, in comparison to the vast majority of other ways of generating electricity.
As for the car, take half the battery out and stick in a small range extender engine please.It'd be interesting in countries with lots of sunshine to see how feasible a solar power setup would be to run the thing for free.
king kidding? XitUp said:
PJR said:
hornetrider said:
Is battery power actually less polluting than internal combusiton engines though, given that the car has to be plugged in over night?
Yes. Much.No one is saying coal fired power stations and nuclear reactors are eco friendly. But an electric car still has far less demanding energy requirements over all.
P,
As for the car, take half the battery out and stick in a small range extender engine please.
SimonSaid said:
SLacKer said:
Make the battery pack into a pod underneath the car and make that interchangeable like a bloody mobile phone then no need to wait for charging.....pull into an E Station and let the robots take over.
I mentioned this to Wieland Bruch at BMW (minus the robots bit!), who said that they are aware of the idea, but are waiting to see if a standardised battery setup emerges before the system could be practical. He said that if one particular battery standard emerges, then they would be interested in this idea.Edited by SimonSaid on Friday 16th October 15:36
Interesting that they manage to cock the handling up so much by adding only 260Kg, ok its a lot but only the same as three blokes?
Is it not that the weight is in a different place? could it not be better spread distribution wise i wonder?
The whole thing about it being a 2 seater as well, its taking the mick just a bit, why not make it as a 1 or 3 series and keep it as a usable 4 seater, use Alloy / GRP / Whatever panels / thinner glass to get maybe 75Kg off the weight.
I know its classed as WIP, but it seems more like marketing in progress to me.
Is it not that the weight is in a different place? could it not be better spread distribution wise i wonder?
The whole thing about it being a 2 seater as well, its taking the mick just a bit, why not make it as a 1 or 3 series and keep it as a usable 4 seater, use Alloy / GRP / Whatever panels / thinner glass to get maybe 75Kg off the weight.
I know its classed as WIP, but it seems more like marketing in progress to me.
nav p said:
£4000 per year to be a test pig for BMW?
They must be kidding,you can buy a prius or other eco cars for that monthly payment(that are ezxcempt from CC) that you own and the development has been done!
I bet it it is over subscribed too...must be not getting the logic.
I guess some of the ecofriendly folks out there aren't willing to sign their lives away and drive a Pious yet. They must be kidding,you can buy a prius or other eco cars for that monthly payment(that are ezxcempt from CC) that you own and the development has been done!
I bet it it is over subscribed too...must be not getting the logic.
900T-R said:
nav p said:
£4000 per year to be a test pig for BMW?
They must be kidding,you can buy a prius or other eco cars for that monthly payment(that are ezxcempt from CC) that you own and the development has been done!
I bet it it is over subscribed too...must be not getting the logic.
I guess some of the ecofriendly folks out there aren't willing to sign their lives away and drive a Pious yet. They must be kidding,you can buy a prius or other eco cars for that monthly payment(that are ezxcempt from CC) that you own and the development has been done!
I bet it it is over subscribed too...must be not getting the logic.
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