How does a electric car compare with a diesel performance

[kambites]

jamei303 said:

There are a lot of diesel-powered generator farms springing up to sell leccy at peak demand times.

As I understand it they're not to deal with peak demand in the sense that you're implying. They're there to deal with mainline power station outages and potentially extreme peaks in demand; we've got some around here and as far as I know they have never actually been fired up except for testing.

It's cheaper and more environmentally friendly to build a few simple cheap diesel generators for that purpose than to build a damned great big power station to only be run a few hours a year. Obviously if they ever end up being used for regular generation they would be pretty awful.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 13th December 13:00

[CubanPete]

MrOrange said:

Sounds to me like you have the perfect car fir your usage profile. And also sound a good candidate for a PHEV when the 320 passes its sell-by date,

BEV don’t suit all cases, but for those they do the fit is stunningly better than most pure dino-options.

Yep, a PHEV would work well for us for the next choice.

[CubanPete]

Evanivitch said:

You can specify a size of hire car. Everything from a econobox to a large SUV.

As has already been said, perhaps it doesn't suit your needs, but the above isn't a valid reason.

It may not be a valid reason for you, but it is for me!

[RayTay]

jamei303 said:

edd344 said:

"They" being the environmentally friendly hippies that actually believe EVs are better for the environment than a normal engine?

Believe me if 24 million EVs were to suddenly appear on the road tomorrow our grid would not cope. We have a buffer of around 20GWs currently between what is reliable energy and what is used at a daily peak so tell me mathematically how the grid could support 24 million evs?

There are a lot of diesel-powered generator farms springing up to sell leccy at peak demand times.

There are three prime oil refineries in the UK. One consumes the same level of electricity as the cities of Leicester and Coventry combined. Yes!

So, we consume electricity using mainly fossil fuel to make fuel to burn which again produced pollution. We get it twice with road vehicle fuels.

Produce electricity using mainly fossil fuel, using that to directly power vehicles and one level is cut out completely. The head of National Grid said we have the capacity to cope with a full transfer to EVs. Electricity to refine oil is directed to charge vehicles and home batteries. As oil usage drops the electricity used to refine oil is used to charge EVs. No change.

Edited by RayTay on Saturday 29th December 17:26

[RayTay]

kambites said:

As I understand it they're not to deal with peak demand in the sense that you're implying. They're there to deal with mainline power station outages and potentially extreme peaks in demand; we've got some around here and as far as I know they have never actually been fired up except for testing.

It's cheaper and more environmentally friendly to build a few simple cheap diesel generators for that purpose than to build a damned great big power station to only be run a few hours a year. Obviously if they ever end up being used for regular generation they would be pretty awful.

Grid electric battery storage farms are being built adjacent to where the peak demand is. These are large chemical battery banks in large sheds. They charge up overnight mainly releasing their electricity at peak times. They balance the grid. The diesel mini power stations are probably overkill as battery banks could do the job.

Edited by RayTay on Saturday 29th December 17:21

[RayTay]

edd344 said:

Consider an electric motor to be around 85% efficient, compare that to an ICE.

More like 90% plus.