the UK is primed for an electric car boom

People have been saying that for at least the last ten years.

( thinking with a long head to solve any potential problems with cheap effective solutions )

I have been considering the various construction, operating and economic factors relating to practical mass market electric cars. It would appear that most potential manufacturers are locked into designs which need massive investment in new tooling, use possibly the most expensive batteries on the market. Overall family practicality sacrificed on the altar of style and the aerodynamics quasi-religion when its unlikely to be driven long periods at high speed.

The first cost of any practical electric family car is prohibitive to most people, then the range is only perhaps 60 miles. Most people need a car capable of longer journeys, and as far as I can see the most practical solution is to use cheap lead acid battery pack on trailers. Its not a new idea, Ribble Motor Services ( Preston ) built and tested a prototype electric Leyland National bus in the 1970s, the batteries were carried on a trailer.

It could be possible to build a national network of battery trailer interchange stations on a scale similar to the number of small petrol garages in the 1950s. Each station could hold a stock of trailers to interchange and charge batteries on site, perhaps even using local renewable sources. The trailers would need to be hired out on a common user basis, the value of the energy included in the hire price. It would also be beneficial to provide trailer park / interchange sites on the outskirts of town so that you could rely on the ( perhaps smaller ) vehicle battery alone for the trip into town itself.

Perhaps a radical departure away from " traditional " mass production car design is needed considering the investment by potential owners. To be true " green " any mass production need to be capable ( with maintenance ) of lasting at least 30 years. Buy an electric car in your 20s and then hand it on to your kids when they first pass their test and start driving independently. There is proven vehicle technology capable of doing this, the ERF SP truck cab with sheet mould compound plastic panels on a strong steel frame. Using the SP cab design as a basis it could be possible to build a vehicle which fits the above criterion. If it was thought about properly you could even send your vehicle in for refurbishment and have it returned with different body styling. Such a vehicle would be likely to retain its second hand value long term, unlike current mass production designs which are normally " knackered " at under 15 years old, even if you could theoretically still get the required spares.

I have been thinking about ways to reduce power consumption and improve regenerative braking in electric road vehicles for several years now. I have a PTII motor vehicle technicians certificate ( from 1982 before the syllabus was dumbed down ) with distinction and in my spare time over the years swatted up on railway locomotive engineering. My idea is based on the principle of the Fell Locomotive ( Built 1950 ) using four diesel engines driving through differentials to provide automatic gear changes.

It would probably not be practical to use four small electric motors for a car, but you could use two medium sized driving through a differential. At low speed one motor would be idle and locked, the diff providing a reduction of 2 to 1, at above say 20 Mph the second motor was unlocked and came into use to provide additional power and acceleration at higher speed up to a max of around 70.

A spectacular example of wishful thinking.

I have bookmarked this article with a view to revisiting it next year for a hearty laugh.

Even in the Grun you can go back and read this...

I like this idea of batteries-on-a-trailer - I've not come across it before, but I can see a lot of potential there. Perhaps these could be hired out on motorways, so electric vehicles could drive on their standard batteries to the start of a motorway, pick up a battery trailer that would take them a few hundred miles up the motorway where they could drop the trailer off at another station.

On a separate note no mention in the articel of electric motorcycles, which are already available at a similar price to the equivlaent petrol driven bikes. Is this the year for a boom in electric motorcylce sales?

And as to range anxiety, a much simpler solution than developing complex new technology is to demonstrate to people that in the vast majority of cases there is very little to be anxious about. Users of electric vehicles tend to find that range anxiety is greatly exaggerated.

Isn't hauling large batteries around on a trailer going to severely reduce the miles per kWh? It is all very well extending the range of electric cars if it means that they are in fact no longer a "green" alternative.

1) What is the carbon intensity of energy production in the UK? (gCO2/kWh)
2) How many miles per kWh can your chosen electric car do? (Miles/kWh)
3) What is the answer to 1) divided by 2)? (gCO2/mile)

4) How big is your chosen electric car?
5) What would be a similar sized/equivalent petrol car?
6) What is the fuel efficiency of the equivalent petrol car? (gCO2/mile)

7) If you increase the weight of the electric car by sticking a massive battery pack on the back of it how much does this decrease miles/kWh? and as such increase the gCO2/mile?

I don't think that it would be practical to build a battery trailer that would take you over 100 miles, but 60+ is quite " safe " and practical, it would probably be best to book your stops in advance to ensure availability. The point would be that fully charged battery trailers would need to be available on all motorway service stations, as well as at key points on trunk roads and on the outskirts of towns !

Every sensible EV user will use CO2 free electricity, mostly from windfarms.

The EV is so much more then a vehicle to bring you somewhere

For EV's, we are now in the age where people used PC as if they were typewriters.

In 10 years EV's will charge automatically when parked, and om some roads also while driving

Surely though there is no such thing as "CO2 free" even wind farms and photovoltaic cells have an environmental cost.

Interchanged batteries would mean many more batteries per vehicle. How many trailers per EV would be required?
The user has to pay for all of them.
For the same price the EV could have all of that included in the vehicle.

If you forget the CO2 Climate ( investment ) Scam quasi-religion anything is possible, and the fact is that oil is running out and what diesel we can easily make from underground combustion coal gasification needs to be reserved for heavy goods vehicles and the railways. Using electric cars would also cut pollution from cars in town but we could cut that by ripping out the traffic calming the Greens pushed even though they knew full well it doubled pollution. It would appear that the latest research points to wind farms being a bum deal all around as well but then some people are just using " the environment " as an excuse to put our relative basic human rights back into the 18th century. If the " greens " were genuine about protecting the global environment they would be pushing for a ban on consumer credit for any consumer goods not capable of lasting at least 30 years !

The CO2 production of a windfarm is very minimal, compared to electricitiy from a coal or gas fired power plant. Even a nuclear power plant causes 1/3 of the CO2 of a gas fired power plant.

Compared to that a windfarm causes almost no CO2

It all comes from the same socket. The estimated carbon intensity of all electricity generation in the UK in 2009 was 452 gCO2/kWh. (Source:http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmenergy/523/52305.htm)

Something certainly needs to be done and electric cars undoubtedly the future. Oil may well be running out but fossil fuels aren't the only limited resource. How many years worth of Lithium do we have left? If more and more people convert to EVs more batteries will need to be produced, how many years before demand outstrips supply?

The whole point is that you would make said battery trailers as cheap as possible in first cost ( Lead Acid ) not the stupid massively environment damaging mega expensive rare earth metal fancy new ones all the latest electric cars ( and Hybrid's ) use. It seems that someone in the US is taking Honda to court because the fancy battery in her hybrid went knackered quick style and left her with 30 Mpg as opposed to the claimed 50, but I suspect that the Guardian ain't going to print that ?

'the UK is primed for an electric car boom'
PMSL , the delusions around EV cars carry on, meanwhile the people vote with their own money to keep away.

http://www.realtimecarbon.org/
Featured previously on the Guardian website. For up to date information on the Carbon intensity of energy production.

Interchanged batteries would mean many more batteries per vehicle. How many trailers per EV would be required?

I'd envision as an additional option for someone who wanted to use their electric car for an occasional long journey, so it's not so important that this be a highly efficient use of energy. I've also seen it suggested that a possible solution would be to have additional batteries which could be removed for short journeys but added to extend range for occasional long journeys, but this seems an expensive option - I like the hired battery-trailer idea better. Perhaps another possibility would be for cars to join together in a 'train' with a shared battery car, all sorts of futuristic ideas come to mind.

However, the more realistic solution seems to me the steady improvement in battery technology combined with changing attitudes towards the way we expect to use our cars.

It would appear that the latest research points to wind farms being a bum deal all around

If you are selective about the research you read. There is also plenty of research showing that wind is a viable part of our future energy mix.

Using electric cars would also cut pollution from cars in town but we could cut that by ripping out the traffic calming the Greens pushed even though they knew full well it doubled pollution.

Perhaps because they understood that there are competing 'goods' in the real world. You will also find that many 'greens' are strong advocates for notions like 'quality over quantity' and object strongly to built-in obsolescence. On the other hand as technology improves there is a balance between maintaining older appliances and replacing them with new, more efficient models. These decisions are complex.

Automotive technology has gone nowhere since the late 1980s and all the new alleged super efficient for CO2 just pump out tons more nitrous oxides, the whole object of an internal combustion engine is to heat and expand the nitrogen, not set fire to it ?