(30-07-2017, 07:09 AM)Pat Pending Wrote:Craig Wrote:the leaf has a 24kWh (24e3 x 3600 = 86MJ)battery and that gets you 300 miles if driven conservatively.
Not criticism of your post Craig just offering real world experience.
A neighbor has the Nissan. He is a "conservative driver" and claims @ 90 - 100miles per charge, last winter he nicknamed it the "fridge". He challenged the dealer about the range and was lent another vehicle, it was no better. His wish now was that he never bought the thing.
Well I've just looked a little further - and the official range of the 24kWh Leaf is "up to" 124 miles. Not 300 as I suggested - but in fairness I think I was looking at the spec for the 30kWh version in km. But I suspect that the "up to" numbers are fudged the same way as miles/gallon rating is fudged for regular cars - over-inflated tyres, mirrors tucked in or removed, level smooth road, no wind etc.
But it is easy to criticise affordable electric cars. And I am outspoken about the fact that the practicalities have not been brought out (20% additional power generation, the need for massive copper mining and refining for motors etc etc). I hope though that we agree that something has to be done - we simply cannot continue as we are. Although the state of the art fully electric cars, like Telsa (£100k plus) and the Rimac electric supercars http://www.rimac-automobili.com/en/ at an unknown but probably stratospheric price, at least demonstrate what is possible with today's technology. With technology dribble down, features in Tesla and Rimac will find their way into more modest vehicles.
As an example, I have a series III Jag V12, 1984 vintage. So 33 years old. That gets 18mpg if driven very, very carefully. It has a trip computer and air conditioning, both of which were features of only top cars of the day. There is no anti-lock braking or airbags, or anything that is now accepted as standard features in base model regular cars. As an example, to get the highest safety rating now, a car needs to have automatic braking to prevent rear end shunts if the driver is distracted. So our expectations of petrol/diesel cars has been totally transformed as high end features have dribbled down and endless new and essential features have been added.
You have to look at electric vehicles in the same timeframe.
