The problem with E-bikes in the UK.

[russ18uk]

Hey don’t be so sure
You may have something there

Would never work due to drag, conservation of energy etc.

 

[soundwave]

just get slaves to crank it round

 

[flecc]

Would never work due to drag, conservation of energy etc.

It could with cross winds over the car. Wouldn't gain very much though.
.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hiring is what many do for the odd long journey. Cyclezee drives electric and I think he has hired in that way.
.

Hi Tony,
Having sold my Citroen DS5 Hybrid 2 weeks go I did hire an ICE car to go up to the Northern Lake District to visit my wicked stepmother and to be honest if I hadn't been taking the family along I would have gone in my Zoe. There is are Ecotricity charge points at every motorway service station + 1 a mile from where my stepmother lives
My Journey was M1 then M6 and as anybody who has driven that route recently will be aware there is 100 miles of 50 MPH average speed monitoring which is due to the construction so called smart motorway.
BTW, how trucks and vans manage travel at 55 to 60 without getting a ticket?
Coming home on a Sunday night I took the A66 to Scotch and A1M / M1 which was clear until 10 miles from J14, that took almost an hour due to a van which had broken down in the road works.
2 weeks ago a guy with a very rare and much hyped high spec Hyundai Kona 64 kWh met me in MK and kindly took me for a drive. A nice car, impressive performance but there is more leg room in the back of my Zoe and the boot is not very big. It's sister car the Kia Niro electric is more spacious but for that money I could by two Zoe 40 kWh i's.. After having been in or driven most of the currently available electric cars on the market in the UK, I realise what a great little car the Zoe is.
To get back to the point, until I change to an ev with a genuine range of 200 miles plus and I am in a hurry to get somewhere with a lot of stuff, I would hire an ICE car or van, but that will not happen very often. One thing is certain I will never own another ICE car.

 

[flecc]

My Journey was M1 then M6 and as anybody who has driven that route recently will be aware there is 100 miles of 50 MPH average speed monitoring which is due to the construction so called smart motorway.

Back in July when I drove to Chorley and back in the Suzuki I suffered all the M6 restrictions, a real pain. On the return journey I was in fixed 50 limit area, it being clear I was tail of a four car well over 70 mph convoy when suddenly police popped up from behind as bridge parapet aiming hand held radar.

Maybe it was because I was at the end, but I never heard further, lucky day.

Like you I never want to own an ICE car again, the Leaf is everything I could want in a car, especially here in the crowded south east. The only change I've made is to add a space saver spare wheel and jack etc with cover bag. I don't like relying on the supplied pump and slime kit and the boot is so huge and deep the spare doesn't detract. Nissan actually do a spare as an option, slung under the rear on a frame, but factory fit only and they are vulnerable to theft of course.
.

 

[Fat Rat]

Problem also for me apart from range in my case Is ,
This wouldn’t be the same with an electric motor installed

Or this

It’s going to be a very sad motorsport world without IC Engines very sad

 

[Gubbins]

Problem also for me apart from range in my case Is ,
This wouldn’t be the same with an electric motor installed

Or this

It’s going to be a very sad motorsport world without IC Engines very sad

Isn't it an ecar that recently broke the high peaks record? Seems to me they can be made to go astonishingly fast

 

[Fat Rat]

Isn't it an ecar that recently broke the high peaks record? Seems to me they can be made to go astonishingly fast

Not denying that at all
My problem is the lack of drama
And also tuning engines for motor sport is not an exact science so there’s a competition aspect as well there

 

[Cyclezee]

Problem also for me apart from range in my case Is ,
This wouldn’t be the same with an electric motor installed

Or this

It’s going to be a very sad motorsport world without IC Engines very sad

I can see where you are coming from, you like noisy as well as high performance motor sport.
As a track marshal at Silverstone I too enjoy motor sport, but I am at age where the noise of a high performance ICE becomes irritating after a while. e.g. The 6 hour WEC race featuring LMP's was extremely noisy to the extent concrete walls were vibrating. Interestingly the quietest cars were Toyota Hybrids which came 1st and 2nd although later disqualified on a technicality.
I don't know if anyone has ever measured this but it would interesting to know how much pollution is pumped in the atmosphere by ICE cars at motor sport events.

 

[Gubbins]

Ecars are surprisingly complex. I watched a video where the dismantled a telsa and they are struggling to understand how they get so much power from the motor. Apparently, according to the vid, it is something special.

 

[sjpt]

In my earlier driving life I've twice through negligence run out of petrol on the road.
Irrelevant but.... Travelling with my favourite uncle in the Highlands in the 60's he very efficiently drew up a list of the route ... just a shame he placed it over the fuel gauge. We were fairly near a farm who sold him something that managed to get the car to hobble to the next petrol station.

 

[Gubbins]

That's correct, towing is out and no towbars are made for them. It's a matter of design for load and weight with a single gear covering the whole speed range. With their immense torque from zero revs they can definitely tow easily, but at the huge cost of rapid battery drain during the much slower acceleration phase towing a heavy weight. The much wider "throttle opening" to pull the weight off the mark presents a near dead short though the motor windings at low revs, not only draining the battery rapidly but overheating the motor.

Pulling a caravan on mixed roads my 160 mile range would drop to a third or quarter of that.

In an e-car future there will be no caravans, replaced by electric motor caravans designed for the load. Electric pickups, vans and estate cars probably doing away with car trailers too.
.

I have been looking into fitting a tow bar and found a website that gives some interesting information (to me at least). By eu competition law car manufacturers can't threaten a voided warranty if you use a non dealer to fit a tow bar (3rd party fitter (£450. Audi £1700), and all cars have to be made with the same tow bar mounting points. If all cars include e-cars, and more and more people want to transport heavier e-bikes, is it reasonable to assume e-cars available today will be tow bar friendly?
https://www.towbarexpress.co.uk/guide/does-fitting-a-towbar-affect-my-warranty/

 

[anotherkiwi]

If you run this page through Google translate (or other) there is a fair bit of interesting information from the Salon des Maires in Paris:

https://www.automobile-propre.com/salon-des-maires-mobilite-partagee-recharge-carburant-alternatif-etc/

On the fly a few things about pedelecs including a Portuguese company offering lamp posts with integrated charge points!

 

[flecc]

If all cars include e-cars, and more and more people want to transport heavier e-bikes, is it reasonable to assume e-cars available today will be tow bar friendly?

No, they absolutely are not and a warranty is voided if towing is attempted with most popular e-cars. On popular ones like the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe there's no suitable attachment points at the rear, the whole of the centre base is occupied by the battery and no tow bars are made for them anyway. The same with the BMW i3 where its even more impossible due to the range extender option space. The current alternatives of the Mitsubishi e-i car also appearing under Peugeot and Citroen badges and the VW e-Up couldn't tow anything anyway, too small and weak.

The position may change with some as i.c designs like the VW Golf and some Mercs and BMWs appear more commonly in their all electric versions, but at the moment they are fairly rare with very limited production.

Tesla's provision is somewhat different since their X (SUV) model is designed to be able to tow, but not sure about the smaller model 3 where I think it unlikely.

Of course the hybrids can tow so that's the available e-option.
.

 

[flecc]

On the fly a few things about pedelecs including a Portuguese company offering lamp posts with integrated charge points!

We are much further on than that in London. We already have 400 lamp post charge points run by German company Ubitricity and there are current contracts out to bring that quickly to 1192.
.