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Electric California ( on the way )

EddieEagle

EddieEagle

VIP Member
Messages
752
Location
Hampshire
Vehicle
T5 SE 140

Has left me a little conflicted
Great to see all electric van out there but not so good for us diesel owners .
The future is coming ...
 
My daily driver is a full electric Audi Etron. It's fantastic. I won't ever buy a new ICE car again. Can't wait until campers are electric too.
Seconded
 
Who fancies a touring trip 2 gallons of fuel each day maximum and 99% of fuel stations closed when you arrive. Doesn’t sound much fun but that’s what an electric California would feel like now!!!
Maybe. But whichever way you look at it. Electric vehicles are the future. And maybe we will all need to adjust a little to the new norm. But I think we are all used to changing our ways after the last six months.
 

Has left me a little conflicted
Great to see all electric van out there but not so good for us diesel owners .
The future is coming ...

I think the diesel Calis are good for quite a few years yet. For a car, electric makes a lot of sense, but not for a camper. In my Cali, I frequently make a journey of several hundred miles to a remote location and then use heating/fridge/lights/gadget charging before driving off in the morning. I’m not a regular user of campsites. A usable eCamper is some way off yet.


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Will be interesting to see how the sub stations will cope when all households are drawing 7-10 KWh for 5-8 hours each night,
I bet the pavement will feel like it’s got under floor heating,
 
Will be interesting to see how the sub stations will cope when all households are drawing 7-10 KWh for 5-8 hours each night,
I bet the pavement will feel like it’s got under floor heating,
Should keep the pavements ice free during winter. :thumb
 
Long way away from a (decent) electric cali/camper.

62 miles unladen....that'll be a fun roadtrip.....
As you say - 60 to 100 miles range is a non starter; electric vans are a technical cul de sac for commercial vehicles until graphene batteries or similar are perfected (decades away) - hydrogen fuel cells however...
 
Maybe. But whichever way you look at it. Electric vehicles are the future. And maybe we will all need to adjust a little to the new norm. But I think we are all used to changing our ways after the last six months.
"Electric vehicles are the future". Depends. If all the cars in the UK were to go electric that would require 10 - 15 nuclear power stations of the Hinckley Point size. If from wind power one would have to close pack Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and a chunk of Hampshire with wind turbines. This is a very simple calculation. I brought this question/calculation up at a recent meeting on the viability of electric cars - the organisers asked me to leave! Then there is the requirements for Neodymium - required for high efficiency electric motors. Look at the mining catastrophe of obtaining this material in China! The vast majority of neodymium comes from China. If the UK went electric the world requirement for Neodymium would increase by a factor of 10 - just the UK. Neodymium is a "rare earth metal" - note rare. Not as rare as some metals but a lot rarer than iron, aluminium, etc. and they make a mess of the environment. One part of the extraction process involves an acid extraction. The acid lake on one of the Chinese mines is several square miles in area. This kills all the wild life for miles around. Search neodymium mining. Then there is the requirement for chromium. Another unpleasant extraction often involving underage children in Africa. Electric cars are great to drive, make 100% sense in cities, elsewhere the jury is out.
 
Yes I think the next hot topic for Extinction Rebellion will be the environmental damage caused by battery production. IMHO We’ll undoubtedly see developments in the coming years relegating today’s battery powered vehicles to the same fate as ICE powered vehicles. Take a look at the following, a battery that does not need recharging :-

The California-based startup NDB has unveiled a battery that uses nuclear waste and lasts up to 28,000 years.
The power of the nano-diamond battery comes from radioactive isotopes used in nuclear reactors.
Its radioactive core is protected by multiple layers of synthetic diamonds, one of the hardest materials to damage or break.
The energy is absorbed in the diamond through inelastic scattering, which is used to generate electricity.
The battery can be used to power devices and machines of any size, from aircraft and rockets to electric vehicles and smartphones.
 
Yes I think the next hot topic for Extinction Rebellion will be the environmental damage caused by battery production. IMHO We’ll undoubtedly see developments in the coming years relegating today’s battery powered vehicles to the same fate as ICE powered vehicles. Take a look at the following, a battery that does not need recharging :-

The California-based startup NDB has unveiled a battery that uses nuclear waste and lasts up to 28,000 years.
The power of the nano-diamond battery comes from radioactive isotopes used in nuclear reactors.
Its radioactive core is protected by multiple layers of synthetic diamonds, one of the hardest materials to damage or break.
The energy is absorbed in the diamond through inelastic scattering, which is used to generate electricity.
The battery can be used to power devices and machines of any size, from aircraft and rockets to electric vehicles and smartphones.
Battery technology will improve - absolutely no doubt. But will it improve enough and in time, we can only wait and see - as a materials scientist and chemist I have grave doubts, happy to be wrong. The start up you mention I have not seen, so will do so. Nuclear powered battery - a difficult sell. As for being protected by diamond - what is meant by "protected". Gamma and beta radiation will pass through diamond - no problem. The nuclear cross section is just too small. So to protect the user the casing will need to be 2-3 meters thick of concrete containing a high concentration of radiation absorbing materials (large nuclear cross section) - the mobile phone migh be small but the battery! Do you remember "cold fusion". This was going to save the world - it was a scam, almost. This sounds the same, but I have to look into it.
 
Don't know why they are persisting with electric, hydrogen is a more suitable fuel especially for commercial use.

What happens when the battery is exhausted what's the life span?
Hydrogen is a great fuel and not nearly as dangerous as so many think. But! There is always a but. Where will the hydrogen come from, it does not occur naturally. One can crack water at very high temperature - going to need nuclear fission or fusion for this. Electrolysis of water - back to the electricity supply problem. Use of sunlight and a catalyst - at the moment very inefficient. Still no great answers to hydrogen supply.
 
Hydrogen is a great fuel and not nearly as dangerous as so many think. But! There is always a but. Where will the hydrogen come from, it does not occur naturally. One can crack water at very high temperature - going to need nuclear fission or fusion for this. Electrolysis of water - back to the electricity supply problem. Use of sunlight and a catalyst - at the moment very inefficient. Still no great answers to hydrogen supply.
Daimler have dropped their development. they cannot get the sums to add up, cost of manufacture cannot be reduced to make a vehicle for a mass market.

Mind you I am pretty sure I saw a documentary where a professor had an engine that could run on household waste and not only that it could travel through time!
 
Will be interesting to see how the sub stations will cope when all households are drawing 7-10 KWh for 5-8 hours each night,
I bet the pavement will feel like it’s got under floor heating,
UK electricity consumption peaked in 2005 at 357.2 terrawatt hours: in 2019 consumption was 301.76 terrawatt hours, and that is with about 280,000 registered electric vehicles in 2019 and close to zero in 2005.

Additionally, electric vehicles commonly draw electricity at night, a time of low demand. The infrastructure can probably cope with the increasing demand from electric vehicles.
 
UK electricity consumption peaked in 2005 at 357.2 terrawatt hours: in 2019 consumption was 301.76 terrawatt hours, and that is with about 280,000 registered electric vehicles in 2019 and close to zero in 2005.

Additionally, electric vehicles commonly draw electricity at night, a time of low demand. The infrastructure can probably cope with the increasing demand from electric vehicles.
But! Since 2005 the UK's generating capacity has been very substantially reduced with the closure of coal fired generation and closure of old Magnox nuclear reactors. As far as I am aware the UK's current generating capacity is very close to its demand. Will the infrastructure really cope?
 
What you all fail to see is that not everyone has a nice middle class driveway to charge their vehicles on. Imagine a terraced house in Doncaster. The scrotes would nick your 500 quid charging cable every day
 
What you all fail to see is that not everyone has a nice middle class driveway to charge their vehicles on. Imagine a terraced house in Doncaster. The scrotes would nick your 500 quid charging cable every day
Or you would be sued for creating a trip hazard
 
Or you would be sued for creating a trip hazard
There would be no trip hazard cos they would all be nicked.the whole concept fails when you look at terraced housing and flats. And yes I am a middle class twat with a drive. I'll stick with diesel be cause I want to go further than 80 mile
 
I’d like to be greener but we are years away from a viable ‘green’ campervan. The way I look at it is if four of us are using the van, we’re not flying. This has to be good.

I intend to keep my van for many years as I don’t see any real innovation coming through that would justify the cost both financially and to the planet of putting another California on the road.

In the meantime my kids are getting older and memories need to be made.
 
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