get ready??

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Did I hear right? Did he say that it's got a 60Kw charge rate, or is that just the battery capacity?
Where I live several houses are fed from one pole transformer. Turn on a 6oKw charger and the whole neighbourhood's gonna go dim!
50 kW DC is the charge rate of the rapid chargers in certain public places, never home chargers.

Tesla's dedicated public super chargers for their cars have a 120 kW DC charge rate.

Of course these public charge points have special mains feeds, newer UK homes these days have a maximum 22 kW AC feed. Older UK homes often have a maximum 12 kW AC feed or even less.
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Latest on e-car adoption is that UBER has announced a 15 pence per mile surcharge on all London trips. The revenue is to be used to rapidly switch wholly to electric cars in the London area.

They also said they intend to spread this to other urban centres in due course.

Since London's traditional cabs are also semi compulsorily switching to hybrids with over 70 miles e-range, these moves will put huge political pressure on the minicab business where older cars have mostly been used. I see many of them disappearing with just London cabs and UBER left as the choice.
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grldtnr

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Sep 22, 2012
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south east Essex
[/QUOTE

My problems re EV's mainly extend to my extenuating circumstances,if it wasn't for the need to tow my boat ,I would likely get rid of the car.
My bikes serve my travel needs these days, I rarely use the car ,untill I plan to go sailing, sometime tralling to far flung places like France and Netherlands, a lot of the South coast & Norfolk & Suffolk, these Hybrids I am uncertain if they can tow, since they charge a battery to drive a motor, EV's whilst having a lot of torque which suits pulling, can't cope with overruns when slowing down the electrical resistance generated would destroy the motors.
Or so I have read!
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,765
30,351
My problems re EV's mainly extend to my extenuating circumstances,if it wasn't for the need to tow my boat ,I would likely get rid of the car.
My bikes serve my travel needs these days, I rarely use the car ,untill I plan to go sailing, sometime tralling to far flung places like France and Netherlands, a lot of the South coast & Norfolk & Suffolk, these Hybrids I am uncertain if they can tow, since they charge a battery to drive a motor, EV's whilst having a lot of torque which suits pulling, can't cope with overruns when slowing down the electrical resistance generated would destroy the motors.
Or so I have read!
I very much doubt that's true in most cases, the overrun is regeneration into the battery, not heat producing. In any case, the plug in hybrid electrical operation is only at the low speeds that are typical in town. As more is applied for higher speeds or more pulling power, the petrol engine bursts into life and takes over in most models.

And one of the best known hybrids is the Chevrolet Volt, aka Vauxhall/Opel Ampera, and I couldn't see the Americans making a hybrid car that couldn't tow.
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Zlatan

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Nov 26, 2016
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I very much doubt that's true in most cases, the overrun is regeneration into the battery, not heat producing. In any case, the plug in hybrid electrical operation is only at the low speeds that are typical in town. As more is applied for higher speeds or more pulling power, the petrol engine bursts into life and takes over in most models.

And one of the best known hybrids is the Chevrolet Volt, aka Vauxhall/Opel Ampera, and I couldn't see the Americans making a hybrid car that couldn't tow.
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Its not quite that simple flecc. Cars on UK roads must be type approved for towing. A whole host of cars that would make great little tow cars simply can not be used legally. (fitting a tow bar to a none type approved car would invalidate insurance. Hardly any modern sports cars are put through towing approval, the numbers dont add up. (Z4, MX5 after mk2, mr2 are not type approved but would be perfect for small trailers. There are even tow bars available for some but I wouldnt fit one unless car had approval)
In case of e cars I suspect manufacturers simply dont want any bad publicity that might be generatred. Towing can half mpg, halving a poor range already would not go down well)
Perhaps in a few years but I have been unable to find either a modern sports car or a electric one having gone through type approval.
 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,765
30,351
Its not quite that simple flecc. Cars on UK roads must be type approved for towing. A whole host of cars that would make great little tow cars simply can not be used legally. (fitting a tow bar to a none type approved car would invalidate insurance. Hardly any modern sports cars are put through towing approval, the numbers dont add up. (Z4, MX5 after mk2, mr2 are not type approved but would be perfect for small trailers. There are even tow bars available for some but I wouldnt fit one unless car had approval)
In case of e cars I suspect manufacturers simply dont want any bad publicity that might be generatred. Towing can half mpg, halving a poor range already would not go down well)
Perhaps in a few years but I have been unable to find either a modern sports car or a electric one having gone through type approval.
I'm well aware of the type approval needs and have alread y posted on the other aspects you mention in an earlier thread, covering all the e-car limitations for towing etc. Perhaps you've forgotten that this was my trade

But I think you've jumped in late and misread. I wasn't speaking of e-cars, only many of the plug in hybrids. These are predominantly quite large substantially engined petrol cars with a smallish battery for electric mode at low town speeds for very limited range, typically up to 25 miles at under 30 mph.

They are often a variation option on an established i.c. only model which can tow anyway and fully type approved.

As far as I know the only pure e-car that's ok for towing is the Tesla X.
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