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It can be quite efficient yes, particularly if you couple it with things like active recovery when braking.

The cradle to grave costs of cars with batteries is something that a lot of environmentally conscious people prefer not to think about at all.

I commute by cycle most days, and have a V6 for the weekend.

 

As mentioned above, the bike comment wasn't for your benefit just my general opinion on the matter.

 

V6 what??

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It's pretty clear that we'll all be driving battery cars soon.

The environmental case is "settled" so you can't argue against them even if you're right to do so.

The high cost is down to battery wear. That should be resolved in a couple of generations of battery R&D, as the latest Teslas can do 5000 cycles (up from 300 not all that long ago).

The only viable solution to the slowness and battery wear associated with "fast charging" is a swap-out system. Basically when you pull into the filling station they don't charge your battery, they swap it for charged one.

The current round of battery cars don't allow for this, but I pretty confident it's coming.

We're approaching the tipping point where battery cars may be slightly cheaper than petrol (partly due to state intervention) for certain use cases. I think my "just commute and never fast charge" use case is probably borderline.

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I'm sure we've had some thread in the past where we talked about our cars, no need to repeat it here :D (that was a reply to the question about what V6).

 

Hybrid cars are clearly what the manufacturers are betting on. Not pure electric. The number of electric assist cars coming out has increased massively.

 

They have the best of both worlds (with the downside of dragging extra weight around in the form of duplicated propulsion technology).

 

I changed car recently and I did actually consider an i8, until I realised that even the oldest 2nd hand is still over 60k... So perhaps next time when the price has come down a bit.

Edited by Cyclone

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It's pretty clear that we'll all be driving battery cars soon.

The environmental case is "settled" so you can't argue against them even if you're right to do so.

The high cost is down to battery wear. That should be resolved in a couple of generations of battery R&D, as the latest Teslas can do 5000 cycles (up from 300 not all that long ago).

The only viable solution to the slowness and battery wear associated with "fast charging" is a swap-out system. Basically when you pull into the filling station they don't charge your battery, they swap it for charged one.

The current round of battery cars don't allow for this, but I pretty confident it's coming.

We're approaching the tipping point where battery cars may be slightly cheaper than petrol (partly due to state intervention) for certain use cases. I think my "just commute and never fast charge" use case is probably borderline.

 

What happened to hydrogen? I read an article about it and the gist I got was that hydrogen has to be stored in a hydrogen absorbing material and the best at that are rare metals that there simply isn't enough of. Is that correct?

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It's also difficult to distribute (in that we don't have a network of hydrogen stations all over the country).

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It's pretty clear that we'll all be driving battery cars soon.

The environmental case is "settled" so you can't argue against them even if you're right to do so.

The high cost is down to battery wear. That should be resolved in a couple of generations of battery R&D, as the latest Teslas can do 5000 cycles (up from 300 not all that long ago).

The only viable solution to the slowness and battery wear associated with "fast charging" is a swap-out system. Basically when you pull into the filling station they don't charge your battery, they swap it for charged one.

The current round of battery cars don't allow for this, but I pretty confident it's coming.

We're approaching the tipping point where battery cars may be slightly cheaper than petrol (partly due to state intervention) for certain use cases. I think my "just commute and never fast charge" use case is probably borderline.

 

Electrickery powered cars are no new thing you know … Ford were making a 16v (battery?) powered car donkeys years ago.

 

Actually, the first electically powered car was made over 180 years ago, closely following the very successful steam powered ones. The internal combustion engine was a bit of a late comer, and bought about by Henry Ford mainly.

Personally, I think they should re-introduce the steam powered engines using modern technology.

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Quote by Cyclone: The BMW i8 doesn't look like it encourages steady economical driving.

I wouldn't know - BMWs are way out of my league and I would not find them practical. However, I do have experience of the Toyota Hybrid and IMHO it does encourage steady, economical driving because the ev/eco modes are clearly displayed and give you something to aim for whilst driving.

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The Toyota Hybrids also have a 3rd button, in addition to EV and Eco; [Clarkson] Power...[/Clarkson]

 

This ALWAYS gets pressed on mine...

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Practical? What makes a BMW inherently less practical than another brand?

 

(The i8 being a 2 seater is as practical as a Toyota MR2, you have to compare like for like with the type of car of course).

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What happened to hydrogen? I read an article about it and the gist I got was that hydrogen has to be stored in a hydrogen absorbing material and the best at that are rare metals that there simply isn't enough of. Is that correct?

 

Batteries turned out to be more practical. There were many reasons for this but the extensive use of precious metals in the fuel cells was certainly one.

 

In the long term, we may have Lithium-Air batteries, or possible Sodium-Air, to look forward to. But even with the fast charging issue, Li-ION batteries have come a long way in the last 10 years and they have an impressive lead over other theoretical electric car options.

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Do you know what metals were using in the hydrogen fuel cells?? (I have no idea, are they rare earth metals?)

Isn't lithium quite costly to get anyway?

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Do you know what metals were using in the hydrogen fuel cells?? (I have no idea, are they rare earth metals?)

Isn't lithium quite costly to get anyway?

 

Nope. Lithium is dirt cheap. That's why it's used. Sodium would be even cheaper, but that's still in development.

Worst offender in fuel cells is the Platinum.

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