Electric Vehicles EVs

self-charging" (ha bloody ha) Toyota things

But if your working day was 200 miles and you had no drive you might find the Toyota was the best bet

Perhaps, but then again, how can it be better than a standard ICE (other than by allowing part of the journey to have lower emissions)? If all the power comes from fossil fuel, surely this is an extra inefficiency? But it’s the implied promise of perpetual motion that bugs me.

I’ve been trying to make this point for two pages now. It’s not worth it.

If you look back two pages you will see my explanation that Toyotas are Atkinson cycle engines with cv gears and self charging so run at a far greater efficiency than a conventional petrol/diesel.

For example

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The petrol engine is running at its most efficient but this is producing a bit too much power for the speed so it is also charging the battery which is providing a bit of power to the rear motor because it’s a bit slippery.

Toyota self charge hybrids are doing stuff like this all the time hence the really good fuel economy.

If you don’t believe the engineers try the real world experiment of seeing what Uber drivers use.

Have Toyota hybrid. 64mpg average.

Having to give it up as company going EV / PHEV. I'll be going PHEV with no driveway, never charging achieving a measly 30mpg no doubt. Had the option of the EV but can't see how to make it work without a driveway or charging at office ( to which I cycle).

Realise I'm the bad guy in this instance. Asked the council about on street chargers in the future and no reply.

This

I've got a bit lost in the last 3 pages but is a Honda Jazz Hybrid good or bad

I know someone who works for Sutton and there are supply issues and if your lampposts are concrete they can’t fit them inside.

Lambeth are completely incompetent, they have turned down my dropped kerb because it’s too near a tree but can’t tell me how far away I need to be.

I’ve ordered an EV and am going to chance it.

Electric bike?

Fair enough, I wasn’t aware that Toyota had this edge - but aren’t most new cars more efficient than their older equivalents? And if there is spare energy to charge a battery, would it not actually be more efficient to just run the efficient engine on its own?

I’m interested and willing to be persuaded, as our life at the moment includes some fairly frequent longer trips to see elderly parents where time is at a premium and not having to stop and charge would be a great help. We are currently using a petrol car for most of those trips.

Asked the council about on street chargers in the future and no reply.

Councils have no money for statutory obligations. On street charging expansion is a fairly low priority. Wide roll out needs a commercial outfit to install it and make it really easy for the councils.

It also needs to be installed in the roadway, not the footpath, but that's a different problem.

My RAV4 is really efficient in London, less so on the motorway, I probably wouldn’t replace an economical car with a new Toyota if i did mostly motorway miles

It might be that you are getting better mpg, but in the same size chassis as an ICE equiv. but with much less internal cabin space, as you've stuffed the chassis with an ICE, a battery, and two electric motors, another drive system etc.

I asked around installing something privately that runs across the pavement. No interest in entertaining it. I could still go the EV route, install a wall charger on the front of the house, run a cable over the pavement and put down something to guard / hide the cable but the fear is some old codger trips over it in the dark when out walking there dog.

Hadn't factored this in when buying the house.

Also, get an electric bike, you cunts

And if there is spare energy to charge a battery, would it not actually be more efficient to just run the efficient engine on its own?

To do what?

If the engine is running but not using the power it produces to move the car (because it’s coasting or braking or travelling at a speed it doesn’t need all its power to maintain) it doesn’t use it to do anything else other than run the alternator, which is a tiny requirement. [Modern] Hybrids use that otherwise wasted excess energy to make electricity.

Because you're probably not going to only be doing 200 mile trips and a PHEV let's you run on just electrics for all those <30 mile ones which are more common and also more likely through built up areas

Makes sense that a lot of PHEVs are SUVs as there internal space to spare.
The RAV4 PHEV is only very marginally smaller in the boot compared to its ICE and mild hybrid variants.

It's range is also limited in comparison though.

There's a circle they are trying to square

MPG efficiency
Cabin space
Complexity
Range / convenience
Price *

All things equal, i.e. same chassis, Ice wins on every measure except slightly lower MPG

* before tax breaks

Allegedly use of a pavement drainage channel is currently illegal. Seems like something the DfT could change. Example in the photo. Once legal councils could use their regular dropped curb contractors to install them at requestor expense. As long as they aren't too near Dibble's tree.

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Makes sense that a lot of PHEVs are SUVs as there internal space to spare.

Nooooo! SUVs are the least space efficient cars on the road. Flared shoulders, big wheel arches, raised ride height all take away from cabin space.

The reason they make PHEV SUVs is because that’s what people buy. They don’t care about cabin space, they want their car to look butch.

Ah, thanks Hefty, that makes sense. It seems a shame to have an engine burning fuel at a higher rate than is needed to keep the car going, so capturing some of that in a battery is perhaps a step forward.

Yup. Suvs don't have more space. People just like the high driving position. In every other measure they are worse. Handling, space, efficiency, etc.