Driving an Electric Car in London

[@amazinglyamazing3668]

Yea for Singapore!

[@GustavSvard]

No congestion charge? Sounds like a short-term gimmick that. The Congestion charge is, as the name implies, all about the reducing congestion and electric cars create just as much congestion as combustion engine cars. So that exemption will go bye-bye in a few years. That said, great that more electric cars are around and great that services like DriveNow are spreading. One reduces noise & local pollution, the other reduces car usage & requires fewer parking spaces & is a more efficient use of the resources it took to build the car.

[@thegrowl2210]

It's also to reduce emissions in Central London.

[@Hirotoro4692]

Congestion charge is one thing. ULEZ is another. Our new major is trying to expedite the introduction of the ULEZ.

[@simontay4851]

So what about electric or hybrid buses instead of the old (and new) polluting diesel ones. Other city's such as San Francisco already have electric hybrid busses. I've been there.

[@thomasconboy4636]

Reference point when you lock door in car electrical cord is locked

[@Daniel-jf5fd]

which four broughs?

[@HenrysAdventures]

Interesting!

[@camerastooge]

Very cool, but I would still be too timid to drive in London!

[@corbensebastian]

but how long does it take to charge?

[@ThisIsReMarkable]

No worries, Dennis (Yes, this answer is very very late) The limit on charging speed right now is the lithium battery as it can only take so much charge at a time without overheating. So once battery technology improves (for instance, with carbon nanotechnology where the battery never loses capacity and recharges nearly instantly, not to mention using an common element, rather than a volatile metal) electric cars will become extremely viable.

[@hairyairey]

I thought it was weird that the charging point was still on the roadside. Why? Logically the safest place to fuel any vehicle is the inside. I suspect the reason it's still the outside is because manufacturers make them that way for right hand drive markets. If we move to electric cars then we will run out of electricity as we don't have the interconnects or generation available. We'd have to travel to France to charge our cars! Great for those living in Kent, others not so much. Ironic when Thatcher believed that up to the year 2000 growth in electricity demand would be 0%. The invention of the PC alone made that assumption wrong.

[@owenchuarbx]

Only One i3?

[@Hirotoro4692]

they have 20 or 30. I think it was 30.

[@Garfie489]

So maybe in the future we wont own our cars, but rather rent them to get where we need to go? Isnt that what buses and trains are for? - and they do it more efficiently

[@paulsengupta971]

Trains and buses only go where the trains and buses go though. What happens if you want to go somewhere else?

[@Garfie489]

From a London centric point of view, theres not many places within the circular road that i cant get to via a few connections and a little walk. Admittedly in Zones 5 - 6 ect that no longer holds. But even then most places are decently well served.

[@Hirotoro4692]

Yeah but not everyone lives in a city. For where I live cars that come to you would be freaking awesome because as it stands if my grandparents wanted to get to us and couldn't drive, we'd have to pick them up. There are no bus stops anywhere near them. They could request a car, it would arrive, take them to us, drop them off and go. They'd request another when they want to go home.

[@chrisstephens6673]

Enjoy the benefits while you can, as more and more people use them the "powers that be" will want to recoup their losses from a lack of real cars. On another point, what about the increase in accidents due to the lack of noise!

[@Person-vi6pt]

they are thinking about changing law so they make an engine noise

[@chrisstephens6673]

How about the sound of a steam engine?

[@Hirotoro4692]

What's a "real" car? So EV's aren't real? Are they just... figments of our imaginations? And I'm not even being funny but most EVs already make a high pitched whine noise at low speeds. I live out in the styx and I've seen quite a few EVs (we even have one ourselves) and it makes a kind of motor whine noise so you can definitely hear it!

[@chrisstephens6673]

For the purposes of this argument "real cars" are the ones that pay lots of money to the government in taxes. I'm not, for once, being sarcastic but how long could the government coffers survive the lack of car taxes if we all drove "friendly" cars?

[@babatunde6080]

Will Davis jus

[@aa67216ify]

No emissions, hmmm, how is electricity produced. emission producing power stations. problem not really solved that we'll.

[@infrajo3]

Andrew Armstrong combustion engines are insanely fuel inefficient compared to using electricity produced from fuel powered power stations. And the fact electricity can be produced from a huge number of zero emission sources. Teslas supercharges will eventually be fully powered by solar panels. You're not really looking at the bigger picture.

[@captain_john_d]

+Andrew Armstrong It's WAY more efficient to mass-produce electricity to power electric vehicles than it is to have each individual car generating its own power from a combustion engine. Not to mention that there are many ways to generate electricity that don't rely on emission producing fossil fuels.

[@Hirotoro4692]

You do understand that EV's are important not just to reduce emissions right? Oil is called a fossil fuel for a reason; it won't last forever. We need a renewable alternative.

[@williamfall2214]

Joe - but what about the emissions released to produce the panels, which often exceed the panel's lifetime emissions savings? What about the unreliability of the panels in winter/at night? What about the land use of the panels?

[@Hirotoro4692]

William, I don't know what FUD articles or news sources you've been blithely reading and blindly accepting as gospel, but anyone who tells you a solar panel's production emissions are rarely offset in its lifetime, they're COMPLETELY and utterly clueless and haven't the faintest, faintest idea what they're talking about. People will believe any old toot they're told these days, won't they...

[@joesos]

I got a toyota ad

[@thomasconboy4636]

Much more tourk than gas

[@peejstar]

So the idea now is to pass on all the pollution to those good country folk who live by the power stations.

[@o0prince]

Agree but power plants makes less pollution than the combustion engine ie less harmful gas per litre of fuel

[@Hirotoro4692]

At least the population density in the country is far lower. Plus it's easier to contain emissions at the power plant. Definitely preferable to densely populated cities where buildings trap fumes and exacerbate the problem.

[@MarioBrosCODFlameNinjaTeam]

1

[@aa67216ify]

No emissions, hmmm, how is electricity produced. emission producing power stations. problem not really solved that we'll.

[@Nilguiri]

Andrew Armstrong That's true, obviously; well, I say _obviously_ but plenty of people don't realize that! Yes, the emissions from the power stations still go into the atmosphere but they're far from the city. Electric cars aren't contaminating or poisoning anybody in the town which is where all the poisonous gases from thousands of vehicles tend to concentrate. It's more healthy for residents where vehicles are concentrated, but you're right; it does nothing to address greenhouse gases and climate change.

[@tpmiranda]

Nilguiri Overall efficiency is greater from oil to electric car than from oil to combustion car, due mostly for the high efficiency of the electric engine and slightly better efficiency of generation and transportation of electricity. Also, not all electricity is made from coal, oil or gas, as there are countries with more than 50% of it's energy being generated already through renewable sources. Plus, electric cars have regenerative braking and don't waste a lot of energy just by being turned on, adding even more to the overall efficiency.

[@Nilguiri]

***** Aye.

[@szymongorczynski7621]

+Tiago Miranda But if you're in London, you'll barely ever get above 20 mph and regenerative breaking only really has an effect down to the speed.

[@tpmiranda]

Szymon Gorczynski Combustion engine cars also suffer on a mix regime. A lot of energy is put into accelerating and putting the car back in motion and the engine has an hard time cooling due to the lack of air flow on the radiator. The only way to do so on extreme occasions is to kick in the fan to force air into the radiator. This, obviously, uses energy from the battery, putting a bit more effort to the engine. Moving from motorway journeys into the heart of the city cost me almost 80km of range on my FIAT Panda, because I had to handle far worse traffic and signaling priorities.