I'll do what I can to help out. It might be worth contacting the lady from the Rav4 on Jersey story above.
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one year since David took on the BBC :smile:Hi,
So as Andrew hinted, I thought the only way to show up the BBC for what they are doing was to race them. Fortunately, so did Tesla, so this morning was an early start in London to pick up a car and head north.
Robert Llewellyn came down to see us off:
We sailed past two of the BBC's locations and arrived at Nottingham for a late breakfast:
Fortunately we have access to an HPC here - so won't be long!
Follow progress on Twitter via @dpeilow. We're out of here soon!
I hope that, once the Model S is delivered to the UK, David will retrace this trip. At ~386 miles, it's a touch too long to go non-stop, but a well-chosen lunch break at the Nottingham Belfry and its HPC should make London-Edinburgh an easy run!
Perhaps -- but I know that there's an HPC in place. We'll see what Tesla plans for our UK friends.
Yeah it was nice that a year to the day since doing this trip, I actually ordered the very thing the BBC tried to undermine - my own "mass-market" EV (albeit one that carries a generator).
All being well, I'll be doing 14,000 electric miles a year and just the occasional liquid fast charge.
All being well, I'll be doing 14,000 electric miles a year and just the occasional liquid fast charge.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Yep, but I have no problem with that. I'm probably one of the few who've driven both it and the Plug in Prius and there is no comparison.
The Ampera drives like an EV with 40 mile range... and a backup generator. I totally understand why GM feels they need to distance Voltec from other plug in hybrids even if I don't 100% agree with their marketing tactics.
Until the developing mess over rapid charging is sorted out, this meets my needs.
(Yes I appreciate my position on this has changed. But what would you rather have, something that allows 90% of people to drive electric 90% of the time or one that allows maybe 10% of people to drive electric 90% of the time?)
The Ampera drives like an EV with 40 mile range... and a backup generator. I totally understand why GM feels they need to distance Voltec from other plug in hybrids even if I don't 100% agree with their marketing tactics.
Until the developing mess over rapid charging is sorted out, this meets my needs.
(Yes I appreciate my position on this has changed. But what would you rather have, something that allows 90% of people to drive electric 90% of the time or one that allows maybe 10% of people to drive electric 90% of the time?)
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
I have no problem with people using HEVS or PHEVS if they better fit their needs, just don't pretend they are EV's.
I agree, but let's not get into a "holy war" advocating for BEVs. Personally (obviously), I think BEVs are the cat's meow; the simplicity of design inherent in a single motive source is elegant, economic, and efficient. But I also realize that current technology limits make this purist approach impractical for many drivers; while I can take my future 85kWh Model S round-trip to five states' capitols, or round-trip to any point in my state, this isn't typical.
As an energy policy wonk, I would far rather see the car industry offer as many options, as fast as possible, that reduce gasoline usage and, in particular, by relying on the electricity grid. PHEVs are a useful transition technology that maintains pressure to develop increasingly good batteries and charging networks, which in turn open doors to more people transitioning to BEVs and kicking their "addiction to oil".
returns soapbox to the moderators
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
People keep interpreting my insistence on proper terminology as some sort of condemnation of anything that is not an EV. HEVS and PHEVS have their place, they also have specific characteristics that EV's do not and we should not confuse them.
Now we're getting down to semantics. Some could argue (credibly, IMO) that any car with an electric motor is an electric vehicle. "EV" seems to me to be a generic term, covering this broad range; within this range, there are flavors: HEVs, PHEVs, and BEVs. Call me ecumenical, but personally I welcome any of these flavors and don't want to label any as "not EVs". All are coming in from the cold of ICE! (Though, I'll admit, HEVs fall pretty far from the one true faith, as all of their energy comes from gasoline.)
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
"EV" with no modifier tends to refer to BEVs (as a synonym to "electric car"), just like how "hybrid" with no modifier tends to refer to non-plug-in HEVs. That's just the colloquial usage (that companies like GM and hydrogen fuel cell backers are trying to change in order to take advantage of the buzz about BEVs).
The main reason the terminology matters is because it can confuse people (for example, many people thought the Volt has a total range of 40 miles when it first came out, because GM insisted on calling it an EV/electric car).
I take your point, but I'm a pedant. :smile: I insist on referring to Roman Catholics as "Roman Catholics" rather than "Catholics", which properly understood includes a much broader range of Christians, including myself, an Episcopalian (who weekly associates himself with a "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church").
As I said at the top of my post, it boils down to semantics. Personally, I think we should draw the line at "plug-in" vs "other"; I'm fine with range-extenders, because it introduces more people to driving on pure EV mode, whereas the (current) Prius is just playing a time-arbitrage with gasoline power.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
This is a very important point. Add to that the issues the Volt has had, real and imagined, and suddenly EV's pay a penalty for the perceptions of PHEV's. It's not just semantics it's real world perceptions. It makes no more sense to call PHEV's EV's than it does to call them ICE's, they are neither.
Actually that's a red herring. The Volt's problems are the Volt's problems. They would have happened the same had it been a pure BEV. I havent seen any stories trying to tie other EVs into it, probably because there is nothing to tie in and they'd be found out quickly.
Or at the same time, both.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
You really haven't seen endless claims that EV's will explode and burst into flames, and that no one want's over priced EV's, both using the Volt as the prime example? I guess I spend more time in the FUD trenches because I've certainly seen both. Many anti-EV articles mention only the Volt in painting a picture of a failing EV market.
The problem is that they would have done this even if it was a pure BEV with 200 miles range. It's not the fault of the car, or even GM, in this regard because it's Obamacar. You had the unholy alliance of oil, AGW deniers and the Right all waiting for the right moment to strike.
