Electric Car Charger
- Thread starter scarboroughmonkey
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Always a good idea to read T&C's - I make a point of it!
The generator cuts in as needed to maintain the minimum charge level, so this shouldn't be a problem.
it's an Ampera, aka Volt, and I've had it for just over a year and so far it's brilliant.
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In view of what he's written subsequently, I presume he mean that it can travel a total of 350 miles with a set of fully-charged batteries and a full tank of petrol.
Kind Regards, John
Yes, that's correct (I thought I'd been clear that the range on battery only was about 40miles - clearly
I hadn't)I think you were clear - but clifford1 would have had to read more than one of your posts to get all the informationYes, that's correct (I thought I'd been clear that the range on battery only was about 40miles - clearly
Kind Regards, John
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Is it an Ampera? Oh, hang on, they're 54kW....
Is it an Ampera? Oh, hang on, they're 54kW....
err .. yes... as stated four posts above
The petrol engine is actually 86PS/64kW.
Primary traction motor is 150PS/112kW, torque 370Nm
Secondary traction motor/generator is 72PS/54kW
Battery capacity is 16kWh, of which 12kWh is usable to prevent overcharging and deep discharging to preserve battery life.
http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vehicles/vauxhall-range/cars/ampera/technology/electric-driving.html
The fuel used by power stations is not subject to the tax that goes on road fuels. There will be VAT, but they'll reclaim that and then add VAT when they sell the lecky to the end customer.
But they are subject to all sorts of "taxes"* and the painful end of all those "subsidies"* paid to windmill growers. And lets not forget all the money they are required to put into those energy efficiency schemes (insulation etc).
* Dress it up as you will. ROC (Renewal Obligations Certificate), FIT (Feed in Tariff), or whatever - it ends up as a subsidy to the renewables generator and a tax to the end user of the power.
But they are subject to all sorts of "taxes"* and the painful end of all those "subsidies"* paid to windmill growers. And lets not forget all the money they are required to put into those energy efficiency schemes (insulation etc).
* Dress it up as you will. ROC (Renewal Obligations Certificate), FIT (Feed in Tariff), or whatever - it ends up as a subsidy to the renewables generator and a tax to the end user of the power.
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Is it an Ampera? Oh, hang on, they're 54kW....
err .. yes... as stated four posts above
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Where has my maths gone wrong? Holds 35.2 litres which equals 7.74 gallons and once the petrol engine kicks in it has a 310 mile range giving 40 miles to the gallon when using petrol engine.
How do they get 235.4 miles per gallon?
Even including the 50 miles on battery still only 46.5 miles per gallon. If one looks at how far it will go on one gallon of petrol then 90 miles so how one can state 235.4 miles per gallon when the manufactures figures show it will go 90 miles with fully charged battery and one gallon I don't know.
Yes with one litre of petrol in the tank it will travel 58.8 miles which yes would mean 58.8 miles per litre which if multiplied by 4.546 is 267 miles per gallon but one would also have to multiply the batteries by 4.546 which clearly does not happen.
In other words it's a big con!
How do they get 235.4 miles per gallon?
Even including the 50 miles on battery still only 46.5 miles per gallon. If one looks at how far it will go on one gallon of petrol then 90 miles so how one can state 235.4 miles per gallon when the manufactures figures show it will go 90 miles with fully charged battery and one gallon I don't know.
Yes with one litre of petrol in the tank it will travel 58.8 miles which yes would mean 58.8 miles per litre which if multiplied by 4.546 is 267 miles per gallon but one would also have to multiply the batteries by 4.546 which clearly does not happen.
In other words it's a big con!
Welcome to the world of greenwash. When doing official fuel consumption figures, the car will be tuned to minimise fuel consumption regardless of it's affect on other things (like driveability and so on). The Toyota Pious* came out with ridiculous official consumption figures that no-one can get even close to (even further adrift than people are used to with plain petrol/diesel cars) - and I've heard suggestions that the official tests will get updated to take account of batteries. One trick that would be easy to do is to start with full batteries and run them flat - as in damagingly flat, flatter than you'd ever do normally. That's energy not accounted for by measuring petrol added.
When you get to "energy efficiency" and "greeniness", there's a lot of greenwash out there. Ie not actually change all that much, but slosh some greenwash over everything and it looks better. Just look at all those "green tariffs" you can get for lecky - they change absolutely nothing whatsoever about where the nation's lecky comes from, but gives the custard a warm feeling as they pay more for exactly the same electrons while making the supplier look green.
Top Gear demonstrated quite convincingly how hybrids aren't as good as some people would like to believe - by showing that a Pious can drink more petrol than an M3 if you take it out of the niche where it does actually work. Out on the motorway, I find it hard to imagine that something like the Pious can be as good as something with just a petrol engine and without any mechanical-electrical conversions going on.
* I think it's a fair enough misspelling which probably covers why a lot of people buy them. It can't be for economic reasons.
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At the same time I had a Vauxhall Agila 1.2 and my wife a Toyota Yaris 1.3 Automatic the adverts said the Toyota would do less miles to the gallon than the Vauxhall my wife went abroad and I was working on the build of T5 Heathrow so alternated between the two cars to keep batteries charged etc.
The results were surprising with the regular North Wales to London runs the Agila rarely go over the 40 MPG and the Yaris was just under the 50 MPG and I am talking about fill up to fill up not using the MPG meter built into Yaris. This was opposite to the adverts. I would guess due to the VVT engine fitted to Yaris which maybe did not work out so well on the government test track.
I had noted well before this that some figures seemed to be well out. The Lada Samara was on the go at the same time as a similar shaped Skoda Favorit the former with overhead cam the latter a push rod engine and clearly the Samara with better technology engine would do more to gallon but all reports showed the reverse.
So it would seem the government test has been out for at least 25 years so can't really expect it to catch up any time soon.
The results were surprising with the regular North Wales to London runs the Agila rarely go over the 40 MPG and the Yaris was just under the 50 MPG and I am talking about fill up to fill up not using the MPG meter built into Yaris. This was opposite to the adverts. I would guess due to the VVT engine fitted to Yaris which maybe did not work out so well on the government test track.
I had noted well before this that some figures seemed to be well out. The Lada Samara was on the go at the same time as a similar shaped Skoda Favorit the former with overhead cam the latter a push rod engine and clearly the Samara with better technology engine would do more to gallon but all reports showed the reverse.
So it would seem the government test has been out for at least 25 years so can't really expect it to catch up any time soon.
From the days of diesel electric railway locomotives. These were supposed to be more efficient than simple diesel locomotives. The theory was the diesel's revs per minute could be set constantly at its most efficient rotational speed and this would compensate for the losses in the generators.
The "truth" according to an insider was the use of electric cables to get power to the motors fitted in the bogeys removed the contraints of mechanical drive shafts that had to allow for the bogeys turning on curved tracks and that was the overriding reason for going to diesel electric.
Battery range can be increased with well designed regenerative braking that re-charges the battery, ( as being developed in Formula 1 KERS Kinetic Energy Recovery System ). But this would be very expensive for the average family car.
The thing I do not feel happy with is having that much power in a battery under my seat until ALL the bugs have been removed.
As found in All Nippon Airways Boeing 787-800,
fromhttp://avherald.com/h?article=45c377c5&opt=3328
A Swiss exeperimental bus using fly wheel storage was found to be very efficent but ( reportly ) servicing made it not cost effective. There was also the perceived hazard that if the gimbals supporting the fly wheel jammed during a journey the bus would be locked to a very powerful gyro and be un-steerable.
The "truth" according to an insider was the use of electric cables to get power to the motors fitted in the bogeys removed the contraints of mechanical drive shafts that had to allow for the bogeys turning on curved tracks and that was the overriding reason for going to diesel electric.
Battery range can be increased with well designed regenerative braking that re-charges the battery, ( as being developed in Formula 1 KERS Kinetic Energy Recovery System ). But this would be very expensive for the average family car.
The thing I do not feel happy with is having that much power in a battery under my seat until ALL the bugs have been removed.
As found in All Nippon Airways Boeing 787-800,
fromhttp://avherald.com/h?article=45c377c5&opt=3328
A Swiss exeperimental bus using fly wheel storage was found to be very efficent but ( reportly ) servicing made it not cost effective. There was also the perceived hazard that if the gimbals supporting the fly wheel jammed during a journey the bus would be locked to a very powerful gyro and be un-steerable.
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