What about this seemingly uncomplicated electric vehicle for London and provincial, school run/ supermarket urban use?
www.piaggioporter.co.uk/electric.htm
regards
Edited by oilrag on 26/01/2008 at 15:55
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I think I'd rather have one of these:----
www.modec.co.uk/uk/
PS - Have a look through the whole Modec site - looks like they might have got their product spot-on by tailoring it to what electric vehicles CAN do well and not trying to make it into a compromise Jack-of-all-trades.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 26/01/2008 at 17:27
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How are you supposed to charge the batteries on these electric vehicles? Leaving a lead trailing across the pavement from your house to your car is just not viable for obvious reasons. Until somebody develops a battery that can take a full charge in a couple of minutes electric power will be confined to milk floats and fork lift trucks.
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"How are you supposed to charge the batteries on these electric vehicles? "
Well I did have a fantasy of driving the pickup version into London, parking outside kens place and re charging by leaving a 3KW Generator running all day, bolted to the back ;)
How would that stand legally?
Regards ;)
Edited by oilrag on 26/01/2008 at 20:04
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Well I think the car charging thing would require some local infrastructure ie street charging points or charging points in private car parks.
I remember spending time in Canada and every car there had a little electrical plug coming out the rad grille for the engine warming circuit used in winter. I presume they had a network of sockets in underground or private car parks, perhaps even in the street.
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One enormous drawback is the maximum gradient of 18% which would mean I would not be able to get it out of my driveway. I also doubt that it would even manange to overcome the hill to get into my road in the first place. It just shows how little thought has been put into the engineering of this vehicle.
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How are you supposed to charge the batteries on these electric vehicles? Leaving a lead trailing across the pavement from your house to your car is just not viable for obvious reasons. Until somebody develops a battery that can take a full charge in a couple of minutes electric power will be confined to milk floats and fork lift trucks.
People have garages. But the big problem is the limited range. You are talking about no more than 20 miles each way, so it is fairly useless as a work vehicle. A delivery truck for a local grocer maybe.
But electric scooters are widely used by the elderly and disabled, and they provide a real alternative to a second car, for local shopping and chores. No MOT. Almost no servicing costs. Cheap fuel. No road tax. No insurance. Batteries wearing out is about the only major cost.
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From the Piaggio-Porter blurb: "Ten years experience of avant-guard research" .....preceded by a fail in GCSE English Language, perhaps?
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How environmentally friendly is it to get your fuel from a gas/coal fired power station rather than a petrol station? And are "lead-gel batteries "environmentally friendly" in terms of manufacture and disposal? I can see that the local environment may benefit from the reduction in air pollution - but otherwise?
Just wondering
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