Round-up 001 | Fully Charged

[@fullychargedshow]

@cybermaxpower A common complaint and quite understandable, however it's worth remembering that in 1908, the model T Ford cost $825 when the average wage was around $250 a year. In todays money that's a car costing around $80,000. There is only one thing we can be certain of, electric cars will get cheaper, fossil fuel will get more expensive. Everything else is up for grabs

[@fullychargedshow]

@angrystanmotion But that entirely supports my point. The Model T got relatively cheaper as mass production became more efficient. In 1908 it was very very expensive, only the upper middle class could have afforded one. By 1927 it was far more affordable. Just the same will happen with electric cars.

[@fullychargedshow]

@SplinterCas Please do use the videos, as long as you attribute them and don't hack them up, I'm very happy

[@NiallFernie]

Loving the show as usual. I would like to see the car industry go the same way as the PC industry. i.e. get yer upgraded motor from Ford (for example), bolt it into your chassis from Toyota and power it from your batteries from Fred Bloggs Batteries Ltd. I really think the life of a car has to be part of this new age of engineering so that you are not scrapping an entire car at an one time, just the parts that have died. Like the PC you might be able to build a car for your GF from old parts.

[@c33r0k33]

I absolutely love your show. Its like an oxygen hose in a room full of carbon dioxide. I like knowing about upcoming programming. I second the vote on seeing you in a Tango if you don't mind steering on the other side. It would also be great if the Automotive X-Prize finalists would let you have a run in each of their vehicles.

[@fullychargedshow]

@jkand I can dream, hope and dream that I will get to go in one one day.

[@TheGramophoneGirl]

So interesting to watch these old ones as I remember them at the time and thinking there was so much potential and so much to come - and 14 years later much of it is now here. EVs are mainstream and in the UK they're taking a sizeable market share.

[@medman36]

Looking forward to the upcoming episodes.

[@Aydosh1991]

Great video. Apart from the cost of an electric car, which will surely go down, I think the main problem for a lot of people will be how to charge them if they do not have a driveway. Have the manufacturers got answer for that? I would dearly love to have an electric car but the charging problem is a big difficulty.

[@slaggybuttonit]

Is that Larry David nearest the camera while Kevin McCloud is speaking? (about 9:30 or so)

[@zapfanzapfan]

8:49 Ah, a Th!nk City, did you ever get to drive one? I don't think I have seen you review it.

[@heyyyynoowww]

@fullychargedshow i SUPPORT YOUR CONTRIBUTION! ONE STEP AT THE TIME! ONE STEP FOR ME...

[@Domenick_Y]

Hope you can get a hold of a Lumeneo Smera to try out. Worth a trip to France.

[@Joe90V]

Can the Range Rover people convert existing cars? Mine's an estate to carry lots of kit, but I'm anxious to convert as soon as possible.

[@JRP3]

@fullychargedshow I like to compare today's EV's with the early flat panel displays. The first 50 inch plasma I saw at Best Buy not that many years ago was $10,000, today they can be had for less than $2,000. This is cutting edge technology and will be priced as such for a while. The lower operating costs must also be taken into account when discussing the price of an EV.

[@eldictator1]

@JRP3 Yeah. L.G revealed a 30inch! 3d OLED tv thats 2.5mm. The price is rumoured to be $9000. There have been OLED's from sony for about two years except they are about 15inches max and cost around $2000. Some say LCD's are getting thinner and better, but OLEDs use a quarter of a standard plasma tv's power are as thin as acouple of sheets of card and have the best picture over any format crt,plasma,Lcd etc. The price and the smaller size is a step back, manufacturers still press on regardless

[@WileE577]

Keep'em coming Bobby!

[@teslawizardvvv3]

Informative show on upcoming EV's wondering when will Fully charged come over to states for a EV drag race

[@Wash9102]

Love your show :)

[@davidmaxwaterman]

did you say "battery swapping"? I live in a 2nd floor flat, so most EVs aren't too practical since I can't actually charge them. Being able to switch a depleted battery for a fully charged one, in a similar way to how I would fill up my diesel car at a petrol (/diesel) station, seems much more useful...same as how I would prefer cell phone to work too (ie switch an empty battery for a charged one).

[@francisgaliegue6645]

This is a question of political will at this point. Personally, I don't believe battery swapping is a viable option, for one simple reason: logistics. At least not with the current state of battery development (energy density, volume-wise and weight-wise, is a problem; incompatible batteries between manufacturers is another). Quick charging however is certainly doable for at least two reasons: * Unlike popular belief, lithium is quite common on Earth and easy to extract; plus, in spite of the name, lithium is in fact a very small part of lithium-based batteries (lithium ion based batteries are the most common; other batteries using lithium are in development as well). Which means we have plenty of energy storage ahead in the form of electricity. * Two "corporate" initiatives allow for quick charging already: Tesla's superchargers and CHAdeMO (a Japanese initiative; see Wikipedia for more details). The former is, right now, Tesla only, but Tesla did say that any manufacturer could make use of the network they are currently in the process of building (and which is already quite dense in the US and several parts of Europe), and CHAdeMO keeps evolving as well. This means politics have solutions in front of them, they just need to pick one/negotiate/etc.

[@davidmaxwaterman]

The main argument I see in favour of swapping batteries is that it would be a good direction for the current petrol stations to go...I don't suppose it will be too long before ev/hybrids significantly impact the revenue of such places/orgs and they look for alternatives. On the other hand, if quick charging can be made as quick as filling a tank with diesel then that would also work. I do find the idea of a big change in "the system" attractive though...and that car company in Wales is quite interesting in that regard...forget the details now.

[@francisgaliegue6645]

OK, so, first point... I disagree that battery swapping is a viable conversion model currently or even in the future. Two reasons for that: * The first is linked to energy density, again. Consider that petrol (or diesel) is delivered using lorries (or trucks; whatever). If you were to replace this flow of energy with batteries, whose energy density is still far inferior to that of petrol, the expenses to bring batteries to station would skyrocket, and so would the energy expense to achieve that. * The second is more practical: it is much cheaper to convey energy from point A to point B (whatever A and B are) in the form of electricity. This is how we get electricity in our households everyday... And in fact, all existing petrol stations _already_ use electricity at this point (they don't burn petrol to light bulbs now, do they? :)) Now, second point: charging as quick as filling a tank... Well, OK, that can be viewed as a problem. However, unless you are an adept of, let's say, "binge driving" (I admit; I did 2400 km in 24 hours once, will never do it again), you'll need to pause from time to time, for a lunch break or whatever. Admittedly, right now, the ideal tandem for performing "zero-fossil" long journeys with minimal pauses is driving a Tesla Model S along the West or East coast of the United States; the concentration of superchargers over there is crazy; and a supercharger can basically refill 80% of your battery (300+ km) in just 20 minutes. But 300 km? How long does it take? Should you run at 100kph average, which is ludicrous, that is already 3 hours. Reduced attention span, you name it; not a sane way to plan a road trip anyway. Plus, a lot of cities over Europe are considering "zero emissions in town" policies; they cannot possibly enforce that without improving the recharging infrastructure anyway... And hey, you have plug-in hybrids, too. And that's a start...

[@_Piers_]

I design, build and fly radio control planes, as you would imagine the weight of components is very important. So we have been using lithium polymer batteries for electric powered planes for quite a while, we were certainly early adopters of the technology. I have a battery pack that cost £60 when it was new about 7 years ago, you can now buy more or less the same thing off eBay for about £8. I don't think we have any reason to believe the trend will not continue.

[@jkand]

Are you going to have a look at the Porsche 918 Spider?

[@darupz]

@fullychargedshow Don't forget Ferrari and Audi putting in batteries in their cars for slow speeds, start and stops so the car wastes less. Really hope you'll get the opportunity to test all the class of cars.

[@eldictator1]

Robert, I agree.Just look at green car congress' website. According to naysayers nothing is happening, but this site is updated daily with new tech and info related to E.V's

[@cybermaxpower]

The Main problem with the electric vehicles/Cars is the main outlay you pay. Some one please build a electric car that the every day person on the street can buy. e.g. affordable, low cost, etc. Other than that a really enjoyable show . :)

[@DanFrederiksen]

@XSO81 no we don't overlook where it comes from. we are just intelligent enough to look beyond today. you should try it..

[@dhymers]

@teslawizardvvv3 I second that ! Robert, it'd be really awesome if you did a segment on John Wayland's white zombie EV dragster.

[@tobyrhino]

Now Kevin McCloud is someone I'd like to see on Carpool!

[@joncomas]

I'd love to hear your insights about the book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein.

[@fullychargedshow]

+Jonathan Comas Goodness me you commented on a very old video, however thanks for the heads up about this book. I'd not heard of it. A very swift amount of googling led me to glowing reviews from the fossil fuel industry funded regulars, the climate change denying tin foil hatters and a rather damning review from someone with a clear grasp of those dam thingc called facts. ourworld.unu.edu/en/review-the-moral-case-for-fossil-fuels-really So, far be it from me to pass judgement on a book I haven't read but it sounds a bit hokey to me.

[@joncomas]

well, they seem to make a strong point on fossil fuel's role on society development.

[@greyareaRK1]

It seems the rest of the world is moving much faster in developing and deploying electric cars than here in North America. Overcoming the anti-electric bias in the British media will seem like a pleasant stroll compared to the mountainous uphill slog waiting in the states.

[@electrictroy2010]

The Pan-American Highway has a giant gap between Central & South America. It's impassable jungle. I don't see how the EV got through there, unless they detoured onto a ship .

[@_Piers_]

It was nice to see Quentin Willson supporting electric cars, just a shame TopGear and err the terrible channel 5 show don't have someone talking about them positively.

[@JRP3]

@drillococco01 Not enough surface area to make a real difference, bottom line. I think the Leaf will have an option for a small solar panel, but that will only run some 12V accessories. It would add a whole lot of cost to cover a vehicle with solar and it would only give you a mile or two of range, if you had lots of sun. Better to put the money into more batteries, you'd get more range.

[@OwtDaftUK]

when a car moves lots of wind shoots past so why not generate electricity with wind turbines on the car.

[@frackcha]

wind turbines would cause a drag on the car and the only energy you'd get back is the EXTRA energy you'd use driving down the road :)

[@sagasky]

ah...math..