Ireland going for electric cars ?

Furp

ned78 wrote: »

Tell you what, we'll get a washing machine electric car, a 64 Mustang V8, an e46 M3 (6 Cylinder) and Ferrari F40. Let's rev them all, and see which makes the nicest noise.

I know where you are coming from V8's make a beautiful sound, as does the 2.5 6 cylinder in my dads e85 z4, my Nissan primera 1.8 not so much. The Ferrari Daytona Richard Hammond drove in the last episode of top gear sounded amazing especially in the tunnels:D.

Unfortunately revving these cars would be no contest as when the Telsa Roadster or other electric cars are at a stop the engine does not turn. Its Silent!

Owen

astrofool wrote: »

Drive a tractor if you really want that loud fossil fuel engine sound

lol, okay okay, you win. That's priceless

Biro

ned78 wrote: »

I think that people are just viewing it on a one car basis. If you were to switch the entire country from fossil fuelled cars to electric ones, the drain on the electricity supply system would be vast, and production would have to increase substantially to compensate, thereby increasing emissions. Then to compound the issue, you'll have the factories building new cars farting out more emissions, and the scrapyards filling up with older used cars creating more of an environmental problem. And then, to really top it all, we're all going to be driving with toxic hazardous products in our cars - ie: the large battery packs.

Factories building new cars, scrap yards filling up with older cars and all that is happening today as it will be always. Just different types of cars in the chain is all. Same with anything, when the technique is refined, building an electric car should be no more environmentally costly than building a petrol car. Nuclear power is the way to charge the cars! The batteries can be recycled.

ned78 wrote: »

And anyway, environmentallists are hardly qualified to give a petrolhead a lecture on what an exciting drive is. Exciting for them is knitting a jumper, growing a beard, cycling to work, and hugging a tree. Hippies. God damn hippies!

Very true, they don't have a clue.

ned78 wrote: »

My engine is supercharged. I always have full acceleration on tap.

Not necessarily, depends on whether it's a screw supercharger or a root supercharger. In any case it can't deliver it in the same linear fasion from the off like an electric car can!
Anyway, I've no problem with electric cars to be confined to the cities. No point in being in an F40 while stopped in Dublin traffic! Keep the country free for us petrol heads to enjoy!

ART6

markpb wrote: »

I think it's odd that there are tax benefits for businesses but not individuals, isn't that a little odd?

You find that odd with FF and the Greens in government?:D

astrofool wrote: »

Batteries will get smaller and more efficient, again, the Mini is an adapted petrol vehicle, batteries don't have to be a single block, and can be evenly distributed (as you say), but remove the petrol tank and combustion engine from a car, and you have plenty of space for batteries, without compromising usable space.

Their being evenly distributed should make visiting one of the proposed battery changing stations an interesting experience. I am trying to imagine my wife pulling into one of those for a fill up -- but it keeps causing me hysterics!

Owen

Biro wrote: »

Not necessarily, depends on whether it's a screw supercharger or a root supercharger. In any case it can't deliver it in the same linear fasion from the off like an electric car can!

From the MINI-E Press Release : "The MINI E’s electric drive train produces a peak torque of 220 Newton meters, delivering seamless acceleration to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 8.5 seconds. Top speed is electronically limited to 152 km/h (95 mph)".

My JCW S will do 0-62mph in 6.6 seconds (On paper, on the dyno it's 6.2), and reach a top speed of 143mph. So while the electric car delivers a more linear power curve, it seems the Petrol equivalent has a slight advantage in outright performance for the interim.

towel401

Who cares what the thing sounds like if its cheaper to run, has better acceleration and all that good stuff

imo electric motors sound much better than ordinary engines. of course the best has to be a gas turbine.

maidhc

ned78 wrote: »

Brilliant. The emissions from the tailpipe shall now be replaced by more emissions from the power stations as they charge all these cars.

The days of being a petrolhead are numbered. I swear there are days I'd love to get the Greens and shove their environmental and political correctness up their holes.

I think it is a good idea. Nuclear power will solve your first argument.

For someone living a bit outside the city, then an electric car sounds ideal as an appliance to get to and from work. The porsche will do nicely then for the weekends!

derry

towel401 wrote: »

Who cares what the thing sounds like if its cheaper to run, has better acceleration and all that good stuff

imo electric motors sound much better than ordinary engines. of course the best has to be a gas turbine.

Nice vidio . That was the street useable production ~1963 car did 15mpg on a fairly whipy turbine and had problems to direct the hot exhast down to the ground so as not to cook the feet of hapless pedestrians at traffic lights


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2lrS6rcUTo&feature=related

This super big turbine trick very pedestrian unfriendly that does 350MPH with big very big after burner that can fry and blow away twenty pedestrians at 50 feet away easy peasy and noise would be something else


Getting back to electric this guy Amory Lovins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMTCNOlozTA&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_760583

explains in his lecture the ways to get more than ~100MPG and still have good power to weight (the good stuff )and why it is probably a better solution in the this time than electric solutions .Yes Electric will one day take over but not until the ranges are ~300 miles and recharge times are more like 5 minutes and costs are way down


But first to keep the story balanced pro and cons petrol diesel , versus electric .
What is to be taken into account is if all cars were electric most would recharge at night time slowly( even if they were fast charge types ) so as to use up night time electric power which is normally wasted anyway from lack of demand at night time and . Also each car would use 1/4 the power from the grid than it requires to do the same thing from petrol or Diesel .
There would be no need to build a nuclear power station to recharge electric cars as the electricity stations we have presently could easily cope .
Batteries can be recycled all cars use much the same materials to manufacture anyway. Most modern batteries in lithuim are not particulary toxic like lead acid . The big problem with batteries is cost and it isn't looking like the cost can go low eneogh inside ten years to tilt electric cars to be the best solution .
The internal combustion engine cars reworked as per the vidio could get more than 100MPG and match any electric car solutions in terms of enviorement emmisions outputs reductions .

I personly think there will be a case for some electric cars and some internal combustion engine cars for a long time to come keeping everybody happy and not frying the feet of pedistrians


Also we can run cars on Ethanol made from sugar beet without increasing food cost at much the same energy equasions as oil

Examples is it usully requires 3 liters of oil to be burnt to to extract refine and transport 7 liters of refined oil products to the forecourt to go into the fuel tanks of the cars..This is energy cost ratio of ~30% for oil products

Ethanol fuels require some 3 liters of oil or fuel to supply tractors for farming and transporting the sugar beets products and then fermenting and distilling the product to make 7 liters of Ethanol to be used in the fuel tanks of cars .This is energy cost ratio of ~30% for Ethanol fuel products so it is similar to oil

If we only import ethanol burning cars and we convert all cars in Ireland to run on Irish home grown ethanol (convertion costs typically 600 euros hopefully grant aided ) we can do more good than changing all cars to run on electric solution . Also ethanol cars often gain 10% extra power with the convertion to Ethanol (more of the good stuff) and we get to keep a lot of farmers off the dole queues

But the oil companies have the regime who run the gaff in their pockets so if you think the oil and energy supply companies are going to say good bye to the 6 billion Euros of energy sales they nail us for every year ,what without a fight and conning every petrol head with distorted data then you know why we all will breathe in dirty petrol fumes at eye gouging prices for a lot lot longer

Just look the sell out by the regime yesterday who gave Shell everything they wanted for squat all from the regime who are living it up while Irish motorists get their faces ripped . The regime doesn't care they fly PJ (private jets ) from the tax returns from petrol taxes us twots have to pay


Derry

jozi

Here's a Blog from the guy who owns a wind turbine company over in the Uk, he's converting a Exige to be wind powered! Thats pretty eco-friendly to run!