Jennifer, thank you for your measured reply.To answer your questions:Based on current technology, Lithium Ion batteries take several hours to fully charge. An 80% charge on some can be obtained in under an hour. The greatest range for a fully charged EV that I know of is approx.320 miles in real terms (not that quoted by manufacturers).Regarding HMO's the Lithium Ion battery weighs about 25-30% of the car's total weight, so removal for charging,as you say is impossible. There are two types of hybrid. One which can run a car for a relatively short distance solely on electricity and one which can recharge the battery whilst on a longer run. These have two batteries one of which if not run for some time after starting regularly can fail. Their replacement cost can range for £600-£1200. Diesel driven cars these days have a similar problem when the Diesel Particulate Filter (a grand name) does not regenerate on short runs. I have a friend who has to drive his £70,000 Range Rover to Heathrow every 2 weeks to get the DPF up to temperature and burn off the pollutants. So much for progress.Investigations I have made regarding lamp-post charging has not been encouraging since charging times are not great. If you want a charging point installed at home to get the Council to install will mean getting proof of purchase of an EV before you start and will cost between £600-£1200. Petrol driven car batteries do go flat if left for long periods but they are quite resilient. By the way, you should never tow an EV with a flat battery as it can damage the motors. I read a newspaper article which projected that tens of thousands charging points would be needed for EV's because of slow charging times and motorists not vacating charging points punctually. What's the timescale for the sufficient implementation? I seem to remember a survey of charging points in Hounslow approx.a year ago suggesting less than 50% being operable at any one time. Currently I am pessimistic about buying an EV which costs about 2x a petrol car and has a "range anxiety" element to take into consideration. To answer you question about the space that batteries take up, clever design has generally placed them low down in cars and hence the space taken is not that much in comparison with fuel tanks. The weight is another factor however since they can easily exceed 200kg.20 years ago I scorned the statistic that there were over 10 million bicycles on Beyjing and few cars. Today the reverse is true. We, on the other hand seem to be going where the Chinese were decades ago.In the early 1900's there was a projection that should the horse population of London continue to increase at the then current rate the capital would be 9 feet deep in manure before too long.I subscribe to the philosophy that horses are dangerous at both ends and tricky in the middle so I would not wish to see their return either.
Jeffrey Cope ● 2169d