When will you own an electric car?

[Coolbanana]

I bought a hybrid for my wife. It's better than I thought it would be so very happy with it. Indeed, I prefer it in EV only mode to when it uses its Petrol engine.

Not quite ready for full EV as yet for longer journey's however but I have no reservations about ditching ICE completely in the not too distant future.

Hybrids are a great interim measure for those of us who want the general EV supporting infrastructure to improve a bit more first. Which I am convinced it will and then buying an EV will be just fine.

The Manufacturers have got it right: wean us off ICE with Hybrids and then when EV can take over completely, we won't be bothered by it. In the meantime, the full EV cars are great for many as they already are.

[DoubleD]

sjg said:

There's plug-in hybrid versions right now of:

Audi Q7
Range Rover
Range Rover Sport
Porsche Cayenne (between models - outgoing one, coming v soon on new one)
Mitsubishi Outlander
BMW X5
Mercedes GLC (oddly, not offered in the UK yet, but is elsewhere)
Mercedes GLE
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90
Kia Niro

I think pretty much all of them will within a few years, and future platforms are being planned around supporting full EV as well as PHEV or plain old ICE engines.

But where are the hot hatches and sports cars to tempt petrol heads?

[Fastdruid]

DoubleD said:

sjg said:

There's plug-in hybrid versions right now of:

Audi Q7
Range Rover
Range Rover Sport
Porsche Cayenne (between models - outgoing one, coming v soon on new one)
Mitsubishi Outlander
BMW X5
Mercedes GLC (oddly, not offered in the UK yet, but is elsewhere)
Mercedes GLE
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90
Kia Niro

I think pretty much all of them will within a few years, and future platforms are being planned around supporting full EV as well as PHEV or plain old ICE engines.

But where are the hot hatches and sports cars to tempt petrol heads?

Where are they full stop!

It's all compact crossovers and SUV's these days. D segment is dying.

[DoubleD]

Fastdruid said:

DoubleD said:

sjg said:

There's plug-in hybrid versions right now of:

Audi Q7
Range Rover
Range Rover Sport
Porsche Cayenne (between models - outgoing one, coming v soon on new one)
Mitsubishi Outlander
BMW X5
Mercedes GLC (oddly, not offered in the UK yet, but is elsewhere)
Mercedes GLE
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90
Kia Niro

I think pretty much all of them will within a few years, and future platforms are being planned around supporting full EV as well as PHEV or plain old ICE engines.

But where are the hot hatches and sports cars to tempt petrol heads?

Where are they full stop!

It's all compact crossovers and SUV's these days. D segment is dying.

There are loads of available hot hatches

[RobDickinson]

Vw do a golf hybrid gte thung

[DoubleD]

Even less fun than a GTI....no thanks.

[Watchman]

I watched one of the Wheeler Dealers, where Mike and Edd bought and updated a Maserati that its former owner had converted to electric, and I have to say I find the idea quite appealing.

I'm thinking something originally heavy like an old Roller or Bentley - one of those (now) cheaper ones from the 1980s. My commute is quite short - only 18 miles each way, and my company is about to invest in "at work" chargers. It has so much potential, especially as those cars made a point of how quiet their engines should be anyway. Those huge V8s were quiet but usually pretty under powered. Imagine equipping them with double the power, and totally silent. I think they could be great fun.

There are companies that specialise in conversions like this. I might consider one when I come to change my current car.

[Plug Life]

Watchman said:

There are companies that specialise in conversions like this. I might consider one when I come to change my current car.

Good idea. Electric drive is a great match for a Roller.

[Too Drunk to Funk]

DoubleD said:

sjg said:

There's plug-in hybrid versions right now of:

Audi Q7
Range Rover
Range Rover Sport
Porsche Cayenne (between models - outgoing one, coming v soon on new one)
Mitsubishi Outlander
BMW X5
Mercedes GLC (oddly, not offered in the UK yet, but is elsewhere)
Mercedes GLE
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90
Kia Niro

I think pretty much all of them will within a few years, and future platforms are being planned around supporting full EV as well as PHEV or plain old ICE engines.

But where are the hot hatches and sports cars to tempt petrol heads?

To take the top one from your list the cheapest EV Q7 isn't far off £20k more than cheapest non EV one. So what's in it for me?

[Watchman]

Plug Life said:

Watchman said:

There are companies that specialise in conversions like this. I might consider one when I come to change my current car.

Good idea. Electric drive is a great match for a Roller.

I've been mulling the idea around for a while - I thought the "project" could simplify some of the over-complex systems, like air suspension or even just replace with modern airbags which have become quite cheap these days - virtually consumables. Electric powered steering is another more modern and easy replacement but I'm not sure how you'd do power assist for brakes, and a 2+tonne Roller would need big powerful brakes.

Modern lighting, modern coloured re-trimmed interior, electronic dashboard...

To be honest, I got the inspiration from that film, In Time, with Justin Timberlake. The cars were all "retro" styled with futuristic (presumably electric) power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time


And then, there are a few conversions on YouTube including a really lovely Ferrari 308.

[Watchman]

A friend of mine works with electric car tech - he's self employed and creates battery charging "levelling" systems, small-packaged charging stations... that sort of thing. As he's in the industry, he gets invited to symposiums and other related meetings. A few years ago, he took me to CENEX - one of those get-togethers at Millbrook for "Low Carbon Vehicles" - where I got to drive an e-Smart and other fun projects. This was only a decade ago but it was all before manufacturers became serious. The projects were just that... projects. Nothing was quite production-ready but it was a really interesting glimpse into what was coming and what the future might hold.

There was a company producing thin electric motors that you could "stack", sort of the way you can stack wankel rotors together for more power. I thought then that these "wafer" motors would be perfect to install in place of a differential, and do away with all the gearing in a car. It seems they are still around and their motors are aimed exactly at direct drive installations.

For reference, a conventional car wheel will be spinning at about 1800rpm at 150mph, so these motors, with their 3250rpm max revs would be perfect.

http://www.yasa.com/yasa-750/

... and here's Kryton interviewing them back in 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m_iIbX0gmA

Incidentally, that wafer motor produces a peak of 580lbft torque..!!



Imagine a car without any gearing at all - more efficient, lower weight, and much quieter. All the projects I've seen on YouTube use the diff at the very least, and many still retain the gearbox. It seems a complete waste to me to try and keep all that complexity.

[Evanivitch]

Watchman said:

Imagine a car without any gearing at all - more efficient, lower weight, and much quieter. All the projects I've seen on YouTube use the diff at the very least, and many still retain the gearbox. It seems a complete waste to me to try and keep all that complexity.

Tesla Model S 'D' models I believe use 2 motors of differing peak efficiency to better meet varying speeds. My Ampera is only geared to 99mph!

[giblet]

3 months into EV ownership. Picked up a second hand Renault Zoe for under £5k. It’s a battery lease one so I pay £69 a month but that’s it. Range is 60-70 miles in cold weather and 80-90 in warm(ish) weather. I’ve covered 1600 or so miles now and not paid for a single charge. I use a 3 pin mains charger for it at work and my employers are fine with it. It’s soulless but as a commuting car it’s perfect!

[Plug Life]

Watchman said:

Imagine a car without any gearing at all - more efficient, lower weight, and much quieter. All the projects I've seen on YouTube use the diff at the very least, and many still retain the gearbox. It seems a complete waste to me to try and keep all that complexity.

I guess some projects keep the complexity of the gearbox for the sake of simplicity and just put the electric motor in the place of the ICE. Can you even have regen braking with this method...? No idea, on the other hand with electric motors on axles/wheels you may need torque vectoring...? I guess complexity can escalate quickly Probably the best approach is to find a specialist firm with a proper portfolio and price list to avoid an electric nightmare.

[Monkeylegend]

giblet said:

3 months into EV ownership. Picked up a second hand Renault Zoe for under £5k. It’s a battery lease one so I pay £69 a month but that’s it. Range is 60-70 miles in cold weather and 80-90 in warm(ish) weather. I’ve covered 1600 or so miles now and not paid for a single charge. I use a 3 pin mains charger for it at work and my employers are fine with it. It’s soulless but as a commuting car it’s perfect!

You will probably need to declare that to HMRC as a BiK. It won't seem so attractive then

[giblet]

Monkeylegend said:

You will probably need to declare that to HMRC as a BiK. It won't seem so attractive then

Nope, rules changed during the last budget iirc. This was discussed in the EV section on here and other forums.

[Monkeylegend]

giblet said:

Monkeylegend said:

You will probably need to declare that to HMRC as a BiK. It won't seem so attractive then

Nope, rules changed during the last budget iirc. This was discussed in the EV section on here and other forums.

You learn something new every day.

[M4cruiser]

Too Drunk to Funk said:

To take the top one from your list the cheapest EV Q7 isn't far off £20k more than cheapest non EV one. So what's in it for me?

It's much the same for other EV models. The Leaf is around £8K more than a Pulsar - hard to compare when the spec isn't exactly the same, but both will do the job of transporting you, it takes a while for the extra depreciation to be re-paid by no fuel.

[anonymous-user]

Plug Life said:

Watchman said:

Imagine a car without any gearing at all - more efficient, lower weight, and much quieter. All the projects I've seen on YouTube use the diff at the very least, and many still retain the gearbox. It seems a complete waste to me to try and keep all that complexity.

I guess some projects keep the complexity of the gearbox for the sake of simplicity and just put the electric motor in the place of the ICE. Can you even have regen braking with this method...? No idea, on the other hand with electric motors on axles/wheels you may need torque vectoring...? I guess complexity can escalate quickly Probably the best approach is to find a specialist firm with a proper portfolio and price list to avoid an electric nightmare.

Wheel speed motors are a total No-No, because motor power scales with speed (and supply voltage) so a motor spinning at "just" wheel speed is massive,heavy and of low specific power. Consider the best PM eMachines are now kicking out 10kW/kg at around 25k rpm, and you can see the benefit of a few gears in-between the motor and the wheels.

(Hub motors, ie motors IN the road wheels are even stupider idea for numerous reasons)

[RobDickinson]

There are some really good conversion companies out there.. This Porsche looks good.

https://youtu.be/AJLdzRJdKrs

The factory jaguar etype zero looks awesome, done with rimac

https://youtu.be/610Amyhpzzk

Ev west do some great stuff too

https://youtu.be/Nzos5qz3_A4