Kryten drives an ampera

[thinfourth2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3emYdFEWyJ8

The battery head drives the new vauxhall ampera

An electric car that can be filled up with petrol

[thinfourth2]

A bump for the 9 to 5 crew

[attym3]

I don't think Llewelyn is much of a piston/petrolhead. Always going on about eletric cars and often seen in a Prickious.

Mark

[thinfourth2]

attym3 said:

I don't think Llewelyn is much of a piston/petrolhead.

Only if being a petrolhead involves having huge blinkers to anything new or different

Also the way he giggled like a kid on scrapheap challenge when anything with a V8 was built


So i would say a true petrolhead

attym3 said:

often seen in a Prickious.

Mark

Which runs on petrol

[sjg]

From a tweet of his last year "I was a VW fanboy for many years, had Golf Gti, VR6, V6 fourmotion and R32".

Yep, not a petrolhead at all If you like technology and engineering, there's a hell of a lot of interesting stuff going on in the electric/hybrid car world. More interesting to me (and presumably him) than reporting on yet another special edition of a supercar that has an extra 4bhp, is 5kg lighter and has a couple of extra carbon bits.

[Nuclearsquash]

God what's wrong with me, I actually quite like the idea of that

My current commute would mean having to charge it every other day, and then maybe use some petrol at the weekends. If only it wasn't 28k.

[thinfourth2]

Nuclearsquash said:

God what's wrong with me, I actually quite like the idea of that

My current commute would mean having to charge it every other day, and then maybe use some petrol at the weekends. If only it wasn't 28k.

Combine it with vauxhalls lifetime warranty and it could be a fantastic dishwasher car.

Just a pity it costs a stupid amount.

And i think he makes a very good point. While you can fill it up with petrol you won't do it very often.

[Alex@POD]

I think this is the first electric car I've seen as a viable proposition (although I haven't really paid much attention to the matter either). My concerns, as the average car buyer, still reside with the used car prices/maintenance at high miles/cost of replacement batteries though... For someone like me who doesn't want/can't afford to buy new cars, will this be a viable proposition in 10 years time?

[The Wookie]

Alex@POD said:

I think this is the first electric car I've seen as a viable proposition (although I haven't really paid much attention to the matter either). My concerns, as the average car buyer, still reside with the used car prices/maintenance at high miles/cost of replacement batteries though... For someone like me who doesn't want/can't afford to buy new cars, will this be a viable proposition in 10 years time?

I think I'm right in saying that the Ampera uses LiFe batteries, which are both cheaper and more durable than the Lithium Cobalt packs used in phones and such, although slightly heavier for the same power and energy storage capacity

Edited by The Wookie on Thursday 21st July 12:40

[Slinky]

The Wookie said:

I think I'm right in saying that the Ampera uses LiFe batteries, which are both cheaper and more durable than the Lithium Cobalt packs used in phones and such, although slightly heavier for the same power and energy density

I might be being dim here, but how can they be heavier and achieve the same energy density?

[Caulkhead]

thinfourth2 said:

attym3 said:

often seen in a Prickious.

Mark

Which runs on petrol

So does my garden strimmer, but it doesn't make me a petrolhead.

I quite like the Ampera/Volt. It's certainly the best of a bad lot so far. I can't understand why he sat at a petrol station for 11 minutes charging the battery because the electric range was 29 and his house was 32 miles away. Just use a teaspoon of petrol for the last 3 miles if you have to.

Once again the main problem is the price and as finances get strained we're going to see the free govt. bribes for EV's disappearing as well, making them even more expensive.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-...

[willisit]

Caulkhead said:

So does my garden strimmer, but it doesn't make me a petrolhead.

I quite like the Ampera/Volt. It's certainly the best of a bad lot so far. I can't understand why he sat at a petrol station for 11 minutes charging the battery because the electric range was 29 and his house was 32 miles away. Just use a teaspoon of petrol for the last 3 miles if you have to.

Once again the main problem is the price and as finances get strained we're going to see the free govt. bribes for EV's disappearing as well, making them even more expensive.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-...

Because he wasn't in the Ampera, but the Leaf when he made the comment about going home (wasn't that obvious? LHD/RHD/different interiors)

I like the Ampera - great idea. If it saved me money (excluding potential battery worries) then I'd do it for business use.

[grumbledoak]

An interesting, and seemingly pretty neutral, review.

I do think he is a PetrolHead at heart; his reactions on Scrapheap Challenge were pretty clear.

[kambites]

I do think range extender hybrids are probably the way forward for mass transport in the medium term.

[Caulkhead]

willisit said:

Caulkhead said:

So does my garden strimmer, but it doesn't make me a petrolhead.

I quite like the Ampera/Volt. It's certainly the best of a bad lot so far. I can't understand why he sat at a petrol station for 11 minutes charging the battery because the electric range was 29 and his house was 32 miles away. Just use a teaspoon of petrol for the last 3 miles if you have to.

Once again the main problem is the price and as finances get strained we're going to see the free govt. bribes for EV's disappearing as well, making them even more expensive.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-...

Because he wasn't in the Ampera, but the Leaf when he made the comment about going home (wasn't that obvious? LHD/RHD/different interiors)

I like the Ampera - great idea. If it saved me money (excluding potential battery worries) then I'd do it for business use.

Aah, that makes sense. I did wonder why the seats were different colours, I just thought he'd tried two different press cars!

[Fastra]

attym3 said:

I don't think Llewelyn is much of a piston/petrolhead. Always going on about eletric cars and often seen in a Prickious.

Mark

?

Given his history on Scrapheap Challenge and previous cars owned I'd say he's pretty much the stereotype of a pistonhead.

[The Wookie]

Slinky said:

I might be being dim here, but how can they be heavier and achieve the same energy density?

No you're absolutely right, typo is now fixed

[Alex@POD]

The Wookie said:

I think I'm right in saying that the Ampera uses LiFe batteries, which are both cheaper and more durable than the Lithium Cobalt packs used in phones and such, although slightly heavier for the same power and energy storage capacity

Edited by The Wookie on Thursday 21st July 12:40

That sounds quite good actually... I suppose it would also be fair to assume the price of batteries will drop as they get more widespread. I wish reports like this would go and interview garages about what the maintenance of them entails, is it me or is it still just unknown/press releases?

[thinfourth2]

Caulkhead said:

thinfourth2 said:

attym3 said:

often seen in a Prickious.

Mark

Which runs on petrol

So does my garden strimmer, but it doesn't make me a petrolhead.

So you mean everything that runs on petrol isn't a V8 supercar.

Some folk have a hard time understanding that

[Fume troll]

Electric cars are getting a whole lot more sensible. According to my quick calc, at current fuel prices doing 50 miles a day, this could save you about £10k over five years. Which would be good if the car cost 20k instead of 30k. So not quite there yet, but getting there.

Cheers,

FT.