wrote in message
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On Wednesday, 17 April 2019 19:53:17 UTC+1, NY wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
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In article ,
NY wrote:
I've often wondered what the attraction with alloy wheels is,

Looks. Same as anything car wise. Otherwise we'd all be driving
Allegros.

No we wouldn't. After this time, the Allegro would probably be a pile of
rust on the driveway :-( Also you picked a bad example because the
quartic
steering wheel would probably have put a lot of people off buying in the
first place (I know it would have put me off).

Alloys are the one fad that I've never understood. They don't affect the
performance or road holding or comfort or fuel economy or anything like
that, and from a few metres away you'd be hard pressed to distinguish
them
from steel wheels with metallic wheel trims. Not *everyone* is taken in
by
posing and bragging rights of alloys.

I wonder what cars we'll be driving by the time the 2040 ban on petrol
and
diesel cars comes into effect and all cars are fitted with speed
limiters.
Driving will probably be very boring, with everyone going at exactly the
same speed (overtaking will be impossible on a motorway if everyone is
doing
70.0 mph). And we'll all have to stop every 200 or so miles for an
enforced
and prolonged recharging stop - that's the hurdle that really hasn't been
overcome yet: limited range coupled with *very* long recharging times.
When
they bring out an electric car with a 700 mile range which can be
recharged
in 5 mins to give another 700 miles, then I might be interested.

I wonder if the reduced range will cause people to move back to towns and
cities or on railway/bus routes, reversing the trend of the last 50
years.

Politicians saying we'll ban something 20 years later means approximately
nothing.

Quick recharge is already doable: swap the battery
pack. Charge the driver per charge used.

Trouble is that that still doesnt work with all the cars being
recharged with a battery swap because it still takes too long
to charge the battery. You would need a huge shed of batterys
being charged for an hour or so to keep up with demand.

If you can recharge the pack in 15 minutes it's
doable at least for low use garage forecourts.

Trouble is that you would need 3 times the forecourt size
assuming most currently recharge their petrol/diesel cars
in 5 mins and its the peak number of cars being recharged
at once that matters, not the non peak volume of cars.

Busy ones would need a big recharging shed with a busy forklift.

Cant see that working either.

The other way to tackle the problem is improve
the energy efficiency of cars. That is entirely doable.

No it isnt given that we have been doing that for a century now.

Gotta wonder why mfrs don't seem to care on that point.

Corse they do.

Many buyers do.

And plenty of manufacturers make cars for those buyers.