3500kg to become 4250kg for "B" class licence holders

[Stumpgo]

Thanks for that info Difflock; as a very content user of  LPG Transits, for 12 years now, I find it encouraging that they will remain a Government favoured option.

I doubt all the advantages, particularly the very handy 4250Kg uprating, will be applied to existing vehicles. After all a/the major push to alternative fuels is about supporting new sales for the motor industry.

 

 

[josharb87]

Tesla are making a pickup, that should be awesome. https://electrek.co/guides/tesla-pickup-truck/ 

 

For Teslas, charge from home electric equates to 52 miles per hour plugged in, full charge is around 300 miles, Supercharge stations charge in 20 min, good for 170 miles, the swedish hamburger chain Max has free charge points, take a coffee or burger whilst the car charges, the more there are the more it'll be viable to use electric cars. loads of taxis are now teslas doing the airport run, thats gotta be a good sign, they do more miles than any arb gang! 

 

An electric work truck would in theory be awesome, constant torque, great for towing, extra battery weight shouldn't be a problem.

 

Oh, and unlike a milk float the Teslas do 0-60 in 2,5 seconds! The technology is there, just needs to become more mainstream.

[Justme]

6 hours ago, dan494 said:

just had a quick google and the Nissan leaf has a range of 155 miles and that takes 9.5 hours to fully charge. That's for a small car. Imagine the range and charge time for a van weighing over 4 ton? cant see it being feasible until major improvements are made in the technology. I think it'll happen  eventually and its the way to go. Can this be done before the deadline the government imposed? I have big doubts

Thats at home with a slow charger. Works vans will have access to 3 phase faster chargers like forklifts use.

[Gary Prentice]

Can you charge them from the cigarette lighter?

[Wolfie]

On 05/08/2017 at 10:04, aspenarb said:

The government should force electric cars on inner city dwellers where they are all choking to death.

 

Bob

Living in Cambridge cycle city, it's difficult enough to not have a bike on your bonnet when you are making a noise. All electric cars would be carnage.

[wills-mill]

The cars are pretty cool, but it really will need enormous changes to the entire power distribution setup across the whole country to work (even before you look at battery technology and on street charging). Most home circuits can only supply about 2.5 kilowatts, and a Tesla fast charge is knocking out about 50 kilowatts (enough to run a massive static bandmill). Extension leads just don't cover it...

 

 The cabling costs to do an entire motorway services car park would be bonkers, with a phenomenal carbon footprint. If you're gambling on an investment, I would be looking at copper cables or people ripping the heart out of the tropics to drag lithium out of the ground for batteries.

 Have a play with this cable calculator, even to run a 20kw three phase supply 100 metres you'd need 16mm2 4 core armoured at a cost of £350+ for the bare cable before switchgear. So there's at least 2.5 times that involved to get 50kw to the Tesla for a quick top up.

 

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Charts/VoltageDrop.html

 

  If that was powered by solar photovoltaic at 100 watts per square metre production (in absolutely perfect conditions) there's an absolute sh*tload of acreage needed to charge the 31.7 million vehicles on UK roads. Fun fun fun.

[difflock]

On the other hand, re electricty generation, see  

.  .  .https://netpower.com/technology/

or

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

 

for CO2 free "clean" power, backed by British design and Toshiba engineering.

 

& It will perfectly complement renewable energy sources as back-up power too!

 

Until they get fusion properly sussed.

 

mth