On Friday, 21 April 2017 19:48:45 UTC+1, NY wrote:
"harry" wrote in message
...
Most EV drivers charge their car at home far more cheaply.
I Summer I pay nothing mostly, due to PV panels.
99% of my journeys are in range.
The others, I use my other car.

Is there enough time to charge the car, given that you will probably have it
away from home during most of the daylight hours and hence there are only a
few hours of light at the end of the day and the beginning of the day when
the car can charge off free electricity; during hours of darkness you'll
need to use electricity that you have to pay for, from the grid.

How much does gradient affect range? I imagine that a few 1:5 (or steeper)
hills on a journey would reduce the range quite significantly.

Do you keep your car outside or in a garage? If it's kept outside, how do
you protect against moisture (eg early morning dew) and someone maliciously
disconnecting the supply (either to use your electricity or just for the
hell of it)? How do car parks guard against malicious disconnections?

If you can manage to keep your journeys to within the daily range of the
car, you don't need to worry about recharge time because you've got loads of
"dead" time either when you are at work or else overnight. But you need a
second car (maybe not used normally, but still needing to be taxed and
insured) for holidays and other times when you will want to travel vastly in
excess of the electric car's range. It is the need for two cars, each suited
to a particular type of journey, where a single IC-engined car would
suffice, which is a big problem with EVs.

I don't see a way around the recharge time, unless cars use batteries that
are exchanged at fuel stops, because the rate at which energy is taken on
board with petrol or diesel is tremendous: within a couple of minutes I can
fill my 60-litre tank and have another 700 miles of range.

Diesel is 45 MJ/kg. Its density is 0.8 kg/l, so the energy is 45/0.8 = 56
MJ/l. So if I fill up with 60 litres in 5 minutes, that's a power transfer
of

56*60/300 = 11 MW (!)

Try supplying electricity to a battery at that rate :-) Watch the lights go
dim in the neighbourhood while you are charging :-)

I am retired so it can be charged through the day.
But even on mains electricity, the cost is negligable compared with petrol.
Often you can arrange to charge up at destination.
You get used to range estimations after a while.

Gradient has a big effect. But you get about half back descending the other side.

The heater has a big effect too.

My cars are indoors,
I also have an ICE car. But no tax and cheap to insure as it's a heritage vehicle.