So who's getting an i3?
Discussion
I sometimes despair with the fickleness of the current car buying public who seem to believe that buying an electrically powered/hybrid car is the 'right' thing to do.
Surely you all realise that 74% of generated electricity is lost from point of generation to the electrical supply outlet? If not, I urge you to read up on the ridiculous proposal that is electrically mains powered transportation. An electrically mains powered car is not, in any way, an environmentally attuned vehicle.
My message to all is to not waste your money on these marketing mongrel monstrosities and to wait a couple of years for hydrogen powered cars. Then, you'll get a far better powered car that will run greater distances, use up far less of the world's precious resources and emit only water droplets and light vapour.
Of course, if you want to be sucked in by the multinational's marketing hype and governmental nonsense, carry on and waste your hard earned cash...
...there is a reason why hydrogen is the most common element known to man
Surely you all realise that 74% of generated electricity is lost from point of generation to the electrical supply outlet? If not, I urge you to read up on the ridiculous proposal that is electrically mains powered transportation. An electrically mains powered car is not, in any way, an environmentally attuned vehicle.
My message to all is to not waste your money on these marketing mongrel monstrosities and to wait a couple of years for hydrogen powered cars. Then, you'll get a far better powered car that will run greater distances, use up far less of the world's precious resources and emit only water droplets and light vapour.
Of course, if you want to be sucked in by the multinational's marketing hype and governmental nonsense, carry on and waste your hard earned cash...
...there is a reason why hydrogen is the most common element known to man
Who mentioned environmental friendliness? v8250 said:
I sometimes despair with the fickleness of the current car buying public who seem to believe that buying an electrically powered/hybrid car is the 'right' thing to do.
Surely you all realise that 74% of generated electricity is lost from point of generation to the electrical supply outlet? If not, I urge you to read up on the ridiculous proposal that is electrically mains powered transportation. An electrically mains powered car is not, in any way, an environmentally attuned vehicle.
My message to all is to not waste your money on these marketing mongrel monstrosities and to wait a couple of years for hydrogen powered cars. Then, you'll get a far better powered car that will run greater distances, use up far less of the world's precious resources and emit only water droplets and light vapour.
Of course, if you want to be sucked in by the multinational's marketing hype and governmental nonsense, carry on and waste your hard earned cash...
...there is a reason why hydrogen is the most common element known to man
Oh look, another random outburst declaring that the major manufacturers with their multi-billion pound research budgets have all got it wrong. Let me guess, you watched Tomorrow's World in 1987 which said hydrogen might be a fuel of the future and you've been convinced ever since ?Surely you all realise that 74% of generated electricity is lost from point of generation to the electrical supply outlet? If not, I urge you to read up on the ridiculous proposal that is electrically mains powered transportation. An electrically mains powered car is not, in any way, an environmentally attuned vehicle.
My message to all is to not waste your money on these marketing mongrel monstrosities and to wait a couple of years for hydrogen powered cars. Then, you'll get a far better powered car that will run greater distances, use up far less of the world's precious resources and emit only water droplets and light vapour.
Of course, if you want to be sucked in by the multinational's marketing hype and governmental nonsense, carry on and waste your hard earned cash...
...there is a reason why hydrogen is the most common element known to man
Please, if you get 5 mins spare from your despairing, can you go read this? If you can't be bothered to read it all, just the infographic at the top tells you what you need.
http://phys.org/news85074285.html
skilly1 said:
You have missed the point - there are not many people here buying one of these for green reasons but financial. No matter what powers it, saving £1000's is appealing to most.
Its pace looks very good too. 7 seconds to 60 93mph top speed (plenty) and solid 30-70mph acceleration. What's the residuals expected on these?
v8250 said:
...there is a reason why hydrogen is the most common element known to man
Cos it's in all those bloody stars.... How you gonna get that in your hydrogen tank before it under goes nuclear fusion in helium millions of miles away?
Back on earth you need 4 times the energy to electrolyse the water into h2 to give the same range as simply sticking that electricity into a battery electric car.
v8250 said:
I sometimes despair with the fickleness of the current car buying public who seem to believe that buying an electrically powered/hybrid car is the 'right' thing to do.
Surely you all realise that 74% of generated electricity is lost from point of generation to the electrical supply outlet? If not, I urge you to read up on the ridiculous proposal that is electrically mains powered transportation. An electrically mains powered car is not, in any way, an environmentally attuned vehicle.
My message to all is to not waste your money on these marketing mongrel monstrosities and to wait a couple of years for hydrogen powered cars. Then, you'll get a far better powered car that will run greater distances, use up far less of the world's precious resources and emit only water droplets and light vapour.
Of course, if you want to be sucked in by the multinational's marketing hype and governmental nonsense, carry on and waste your hard earned cash...
...there is a reason why hydrogen is the most common element known to man
I sometimes despair with the random bs that people post on internet forums without checking their facts, From point of generation to plug socket the worse case loss is 9%. I think you got yourself mixed up with hydrogen which loses 75% of ithe energy in the round trip from electric > hydrolysis > compressed and liquid cooled hydrogen > fuel cell > electric to drive a motor. You then have to factor in hydrogen off gasses about 10 percent of its weight per month as it warms and expands so youll always be leaking from your tank. Surely you all realise that 74% of generated electricity is lost from point of generation to the electrical supply outlet? If not, I urge you to read up on the ridiculous proposal that is electrically mains powered transportation. An electrically mains powered car is not, in any way, an environmentally attuned vehicle.
My message to all is to not waste your money on these marketing mongrel monstrosities and to wait a couple of years for hydrogen powered cars. Then, you'll get a far better powered car that will run greater distances, use up far less of the world's precious resources and emit only water droplets and light vapour.
Of course, if you want to be sucked in by the multinational's marketing hype and governmental nonsense, carry on and waste your hard earned cash...
...there is a reason why hydrogen is the most common element known to man
Trust me Ive been looking at this stuff for well over a decade, I bought shares in Ballard Fuel Cells back in 1999. I gifted them to charity in about 2005ish as they were costing more more to keep in a foreign share portfolio charges than they were worth.
Fuel cells have some serious problems to overcome before they can become mainstream namely their cost due to the use of rare metals like platinum. The last time I checked Ballard were looking at getting the platinum coating on the cell sheets down to 1 atom thick using a similar approach to how semi conductors are made (vapour deposition). But even then they were still costing nearly 100k a piece for a stack big enough to power a car.
As soon as someone comes up with an energy efficient way to generate and store hydrogen and fuel cells cost as little as a LiIon baterry pack I think the advice to wait and buy a hydrogen powered car is probably a decade too early.
Your last point about not being eco friendly was discussed earlier in the thread... there are dozens of scientific studies from well to wheel for Combustion engines comparing to mine to wheel for an EV and the EVs come out better by about 30% before you start to add in renewable power.
Edited by TransverseTight on Sunday 24th November 00:59
Atommad said:
I thought there were no DC fast charging stations yet? That's what I was told by the BMW dealer, so the DC charge option is a gamble on the future. Is this correct?
If you lease it, DC charging though 500 odd quid to the cash buyer works out as a zero cost extra. I guess Beemer are looking 3 years down the line.Terminator X said:
Spends £30k on a new car and saves money, amazing 
TX.
Thats it exactly. So many friends and family have said to me "I'm getting a new car, it does 60mpg so I'll save a fortune on fuel"TX.
Well yes, but for the amount of money you've now lost on your current car and the fact that you're spending another £10,000, you could probably drive to the moon and back several times in your current car and still be better off. They'll then change their car for a newer model every couple of years anyway so its a completely false economy.
CHN said:
Terminator X said:
Spends £30k on a new car and saves money, amazing
TX.
Thats it exactly. So many friends and family have said to me "I'm getting a new car, it does 60mpg so I'll save a fortune on fuel"TX.
Well yes, but for the amount of money you've now lost on your current car and the fact that you're spending another £10,000, you could probably drive to the moon and back several times in your current car and still be better off. They'll then change their car for a newer model every couple of years anyway so its a completely false economy.
With the tax advantages of running the i3 as a company car and the minimal charging costs, I will DEFINITELY be saving money.
The charging stations that they now have at a lot of supermarkets, are they free to use? I noticed the ones at tesco never seem to be used but the ones at waitrose always seem to have a renault zoe or something charging up. The tesco outlets are only 10 minutes walk from my house plus they have a petrol station is well for filling the range extender.
RossP said:
CHN said:
Terminator X said:
Spends £30k on a new car and saves money, amazing
TX.
Thats it exactly. So many friends and family have said to me "I'm getting a new car, it does 60mpg so I'll save a fortune on fuel"TX.
Well yes, but for the amount of money you've now lost on your current car and the fact that you're spending another £10,000, you could probably drive to the moon and back several times in your current car and still be better off. They'll then change their car for a newer model every couple of years anyway so its a completely false economy.
With the tax advantages of running the i3 as a company car and the minimal charging costs, I will DEFINITELY be saving money.
TX.
RossP said:
Impressive.have to say I'm currently on BMW trying to configure myself one....not sure why I can't afford one LOL.
Terminator X said:
Afaik company car tax is zero at present for leccy cars but starts to jack up in 2015 with nothing stated after that. If you're benefiting it will only be for a short while? Likewise your cost to charge up is low today but surely you can see that at some point it will cost the same as a petrol fill up as the Govt need their tax income regardless of what powers our cars.
TX.
It's on a 3 year lease. I will benefiting for the term of the lease. After that, time to reevaluate!TX.
RossP said:
CHN said:
Terminator X said:
Spends £30k on a new car and saves money, amazing
TX.
Thats it exactly. So many friends and family have said to me "I'm getting a new car, it does 60mpg so I'll save a fortune on fuel"TX.
Well yes, but for the amount of money you've now lost on your current car and the fact that you're spending another £10,000, you could probably drive to the moon and back several times in your current car and still be better off. They'll then change their car for a newer model every couple of years anyway so its a completely false economy.
With the tax advantages of running the i3 as a company car and the minimal charging costs, I will DEFINITELY be saving money.
Will you have another car for private use?
Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff