Hybrid & Tesla

[goron59]

I’m an Engineer, no electric bike, a motorised mobility scooter with upgraded 4wd and a 100 battery pack and Lucifer mode.

AKA a Tesla X

[Deleted User 1874]

At an F1 charity dinner I was at last night there was an auction prize of 48 hours in a Tesla X, overnight accommodation in Hampshire, a day at Thruxton with a meet & greet with Tiff Needell & then off for a pie & a pint with him, for two people. It went for £600. I’d have bid, but being new to BEV’s I was honestly concerned about getting from Teesside to Hampshire on battery power alone.
I guess, if I feel this way about a loaner for 48 hrs what hope do I have in real world ownership?
Until the infrastructure is sorted I’ll bide my time. The Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid really interests me but let’s be honest, the fuel economy, or zero emissions isn’t the driving factor for me. 680hp anyone?

That would have been a very simple route for a Tesla using Superchargers, so your concerns are really unfounded. Public charging infrastructure still looks like a mixed bag of worms though. Worth noting that a hybrid would be totally inefficient on a journey like that too. Once the feeble battery ran out after the first 30 mins, you'd be hauling it along for the ride until you got to charge it again. Or you could charge it along the way by burning even more petrol. Hybrids only really work for local town/city commuting, not long haul trips. Last time I tested a hybrid (Volvo XC90 T8), I was very disappointed with the battery range, even for fast local trips. The Tesla X drivetrain was in a different league in every way and a real eye-opener at the time. No regrets after 10k hassle free miles. I'm sure a Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid is fun to drive, but certainly no solution to the issues we face.

[Deleted User 1874]

Interesting Twitter feed yesterday from political journo, Isabel Hardman, about how her day was ruined by the failure of the charging points at 2 service stations, on route to some book festival she was due to be speaking at. The last time I had range anxiety, was riding a motorbike in Wales, on a Sunday, back in the early 90's!

This is exactly why Tesla decided to build their own charging network. I guess the public network will catch up some time in the future, but today it's a very poor second choice.

[Deleted User 1874]

Just the unfortunate families living near the power stations will suffer instead...

To a certain extent, is this not simply moving the pollution (from built up urban areas) to the location of where the power is generated (as not all power will be generated by renewables) and nuclear power has its own issues...

The term zero-emmision vehicle is very misleading in my opinion.

Large scale power generation is a lot more efficient. That's why we don't all have petrol/diesel generators in our gardens. That's not to say grid power doesn't need to get cleaner, but it has been heading in the right direction for many years. Since the early-mid 2000s the UK mix of grid energy sources has changed dramatically. Coal is now almost obsolete, gas has increased a little (now our main source), nuclear has remained about the same, but renewables have really taken off and now contribute more than nuclear and about half of the gas contribution. Total demand has also been falling over the same period due to more efficient usage, especially in industry. There is still massive room for improvement in energy efficiency in all sectors and that in itself is now big business!

[johnd]

For anyone who doesn't already have this link, you can see a live dashboard of current UK energy generation at:

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Solar and wind contributions obviously change on an hourly basis while nuclear is essentially constant (except when plant is offline for - usually - planned maintenance). Solar can only be a rough estimate because domestic generation (eg solar on roofs) is not metered in the same way and so solar is probably a significant underestimate.

ICT = Interconnector to other countries. Minus ICT figures I think represent exported energy and positive = imported.

CCGT = close-cycle gas turbines (virtually all of them, as opposed to open cycle - OCGT)

NB It's a shame that this dashboard hasn't been updated for a while - some of the smaller gauges are less than clear. But it still gives a pretty good overall picture.

[Wing Commander]

Just the unfortunate families living near the power stations will suffer instead...

To a certain extent, is this not simply moving the pollution (from built up urban areas) to the location of where the power is generated (as not all power will be generated by renewables) and nuclear power has its own issues...

The term zero-emmision vehicle is very misleading in my opinion.

Large scale power generation is a lot more efficient. That's why we don't all have petrol/diesel generators in our gardens. That's not to say grid power doesn't need to get cleaner, but it has been heading in the right direction for many years. Since the early-mid 2000s the UK mix of grid energy sources has changed dramatically. Coal is now almost obsolete, gas has increased a little (now our main source), nuclear has remained about the same, but renewables have really taken off and now contribute more than nuclear and about half of the gas contribution. Total demand has also been falling over the same period due to more efficient usage, especially in industry. There is still massive room for improvement in energy efficiency in all sectors and that in itself is now big business!

Thanks, Peteski. Interesting & encouraging stuff