Zero emission road vehicles.

[Nick]

AFAIK, the better ones will preheat the battery.

I would guess that's another balancing act..the heating energy used by the battery to keep itself warm if its parked without bring hooked up to the charger for a day or two.

Well, no, you would just tell the car via your phone half a hour before you need it to heat the battery, defrost the windows and heat the seats.

[Greg]

Ten minutes is enough.

[steve s]

AFAIK, the better ones will preheat the battery.

I would guess that's another balancing act..the heating energy used by the battery to keep itself warm if its parked without bring hooked up to the charger for a day or two.

Well, no, you would just tell the car via your phone half a hour before you need it to heat the battery, defrost the windows and heat the seats.

Thanks nick it all makes sense now, but only if you have spent enough on the car to get the bells and whistles ?

It will be interesting to see how these EVs develop over the next few years, been fantastic so far. I'm sure i will have one as a second car in the next few years.. or maybe as our main car ?
Just watched the bike show where they have just given an electric motorbike a rave review..

[steve s]

It seems not all ev's are a good buy
And again interesting to read whey battery temperature control is an important aspect

https://provscons.com/why-nissan-leaf-d ... e-so-much/

[Nick]

It seems not all ev's are a good buy
And again interesting to read whey battery temperature control is an important aspect

https://provscons.com/why-nissan-leaf-d ... e-so-much/

IMHO, thats why Tesla still have such a lead on the rest, its only the last year or so that there seems to be some serious attempts to provide what Tesla do in terms of range, performance and charging networks, and in most cases they still seem to have a way to go.

but only if you have spent enough on the car to get the bells and whistles

That's another example of the above, it makes no sense not to have those features as part of the base package for any EV, Phone connectivity is going to be there for charging, locking and other info, all the rest is just the car turning things on that will be there anyway via software rather than a button being used to turn them on via software.

Ev's being networked is so sensible that it would be stupid not to do it, but the idea of a car updating itself over the air with a software upgrade adding new features is just alien to most traditional car makers, that’s what dealers are for. Once they can do that, they can share road and traffic information, warn other cars about potholes, and provide so much information back to the makers to improve the development of autonomous driving.

[steve s]

Its the way normal cars are going too nick, my car updated its own software the other week. Must say it took me by surprise. My last one was 'connected' too, but software updates where done at the garage.

[Neal]

The new Citroen Ami, it's not a car - it's a quadracycle.

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/citroen/ami

The concept is intriguing but the practicalities pose a real issue.

[Ray P]

The new Citroen Ami, it's not a car - it's a quadracycle.

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/citroen/ami

The concept is intriguing but the practicalities pose a real issue.

One of those would be entirely practical for maybe 90% of the driving miles I do.

[vinylnvalves]

I would be good to see the stats on how much of our yearly mileage is urban, I would imagine for those who don’t commute it’s quite high. So as Ray says it’s would cover most of our needs.
In reality going forward and being green will have consequences on our lives, it makes me smile when the latest house sales data shows an outflux into the countryside. Not sure in the next decade how rural life and green transport will fair, one thing is for sure it will be cost prohibitive. Unlike other nations we no longer have the infer structure for efficient public transport. There are numerous city’s around the world which don’t allow cars in the city’s and have curfews on commercial vehicles.
As said in the video.. is the future we hire by the hour a simple EV car to go into a city, either parking our gas guzzlers at perimeter pick up point... which hopefully has a train stop too.

This vehicle is a good example of designing to requirements. What we want, ie going faster/ more power aren’t fundamental requirements they are tradable attributes- which may not trade in the future green world. Making EV cars that have the range of our current IC vehicles, is probably not sustainable- they are easier to sell as they have no downsides if you can afford them.

Changing our transport habits will be like taking guns off Americans.. we know it’s the right thing to do. It will need some global calamity to force it through.

[Ali Tait]

AFAIK, the better ones will preheat the battery.

I would guess that's another balancing act..the heating energy used by the battery to keep itself warm if its parked without bring hooked up to the charger for a day or two.

Well, no, you would just tell the car via your phone half a hour before you need it to heat the battery, defrost the windows and heat the seats.

Only if it’s plugged in though, otherwise it’s using internal power to do this.

[Ali Tait]

Ten minutes is enough.

I guess that would depend on the temperature though?

For instance, at my mum’s place, temps of minus 20 or more are not unusual in the winter.

[Nick]

I would guess that's another balancing act..the heating energy used by the battery to keep itself warm if its parked without bring hooked up to the charger for a day or two.

Well, no, you would just tell the car via your phone half a hour before you need it to heat the battery, defrost the windows and heat the seats.

Only if it’s plugged in though, otherwise it’s using internal power to do this.

Well, yes, It was in response to Steve initially thinking it would be heating the battery all the while while waiting overnight. I suspect that the process of charging will keep the battery warm anyway, and may even require active cooling depending on the charge rate.

[Ali Tait]

Yes I guess so Nick, that would keep them warm even in very cold temps. I'd be interested in how it would effect range in very cold temps though, where the car had to heated by the internal batteries. It gets pretty cold in Braemar at times.

[Nick]

I( guess most heat loss is via the glass. There is a lot of that on a Tesla 3. I wonder what is more expensive in power, heating in cold climates or cooling in hot ones? We only notice the effect of air con on ICE's econ as they normally have heat to spare.

[steve s]

The new Citroen Ami, it's not a car - it's a quadracycle.

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/citroen/ami

The concept is intriguing but the practicalities pose a real issue.

One of those would be entirely practical for maybe 90% of the driving miles I do.

I'm the other way ray, it would be good for 10% of my mileage