26,000km 'leccy joy ride crosses finish line

Mr Onions

I must admit I had to verify that Mr Onions was a real person! Well, I guess he know his... errr

What I ask

Is that guy in the background doing? Looks like he's phoning 118 118 for the location of the nearest "Gentlemans Rest Area".

<Yawn>

Sorry, but I'm guessing the "supergreen car" was supported by a host of normal, ungreen, dino-juice-drinking vehicles. How does that demonstrate anything "to the locals"? That an electric car can carry a driver and a passenger alone but can't do diddlysquat without a host of supporting vehicles that have to be petrol/diesel-powered? This venture would have been a lot more impressive if it had been one or a group of electric vehicles that were self-sufficient, just needing access to the local grid to complete the journey. After all, a petrol/diesel-powered vehicle such as an SUV could have done it alone, carrying all the spares and crew (it could even have dragged a trailer if required), and probably in a lot less time.

Now that's a name!

Sir Keith O'Nions? Joined by his colleague John C'Arrots... sorry.

Good effort though. Bonkers but good. In a car with no roof?

Good to see the spirit of adventure is still with us - "had to stay in Columbia because of the coup ..."

Reminds me of when I was in San Sebastian (having arrived by boat, but that's another story) when a full-on Basque Separatist riot erupted outside the bar. Next thing my mate's at the bar entrance yelling at the rioters "Good God people, that's not how to throw a stone. Arm right back, point with the other, have you never played cricket??? Give it to me, I'll show you how to..." Swift retreat to back of bar with shutters down, to continue imbibing with the teargas leaking in. But I digress.

Charge time

One of the most interesting things is the charge time of only 7 hours, that actually makes the project seem realistic for a go in the real world. AFAIK most vehicle are substantially underpowered by comparison and yet have a lot longer charge times.(G-whiz 8 hours charge virtually no horsepower and can't get up a 20% incline). This design appears to be more durable, appears to require no specialist recharging sockets, (Tesla, higher performance in theory but requires specialist equipment to get any more tha 5 miles per hour of charge). This design seem compact enough to fit under a bonnet of a "normal" car, could have the horsepower or engines reduced to proved better range, and provide practility, rechargeability, range and power, so it doesn't seem entirely pointless, seems like a better option than hybrids (which with the Jaguar concept car would seem to best employing a gas turbine for the power and running off any fuel from alcohol to to recycled vegetable oil seems like a better option that an inefficient non combination super-turbo charged engine, like the toyota prius).

And no I'm not a fan of electric vehicles, I think battery packs are more of an envrinomental hazard than anything other mooted technology.

"Columbia"

Maybe it is in BC, but not in Colombia.

On to Whitehorse!

If trains stop at train stations, what happens at a workstation ?

Is it true the first two years of Journalism School are called <CTRL> C and <CTRL> V ?

Epic FAIL!

I wish they'd have published more than just the leccy's consumption levels. As any pro-leccy-tron would jump to explain when someone shows a diesel using less: but there's other considerations such as refining, etc. But then when the coin turns to the other side, they don't want to hear about any such thing: "No you don't have to worry about where the charge comes from" ... "No there's no pollution when mining and refining Lithium" ...

If this was deemed a testing scenario to accumulate data as Mr. Flintsone's mentioned, I'd give it a thumbs up. But no-where in the article does it even refer to it being something to try and make inroads to making leccy's more efficient / less pollutant. To the contrary: "It was also about demonstrating to communities along the way the effectiveness of low-carbon vehicle technologies, which the team has done in spades. Well done!"

Gives me tears in my eyes Mr. O'Nion!

It certainly did show how "low-carbon" vehicles are extremely effective. I'm betting one or more of the support vehicles (which were probably diesel) had better figures in the first instance (never mind when taking manufacture, mining, refining, etc. in account as well) ... and still my biggest gripe: there's no data about how much raw materials went into the SRZero's manufacture, how much lithium was used (and if that battery can still be used), etc. It's always like someone only showing the positive side, but never allowing anything negative to leak out. The epic fail? Well, as exampled by Matt 21, even the "positive" portion fall flat on its face.

Only thing out of this which seems positive is as Mr. Clarke's noted: charge time seems better and charging seems easier. I'm all for further experimentation, but I don't think leccies are the sole answer - we need something much more comprehensive than sticking a washing machine on a wheelbase and a lithium-ion poison box under your rear. We need other SOURCES of energy much more than we need other CONSUMPTIONS of energy.

hmm

supergreen my arse. I assume they only used electricity garnered from 100% renewable means? Would have been better on a hydrogen powered car (with icelandic hydrogen) transported on a hydrogen powered tanker of course. Did the batteries survive 26000km? Cant be arsed reading. Might wiki it.

<sigh>

I'll stick with my 224gmCO2 (and its unholy 25mpg) car thanks.

get it back in the landfill

Aye,

When the north sea runs out of oil, turn those platforms into nuclear power stations. Use existing pipework to land produced energy, and all the nasty stuff nobody wants, just stick it back in the hole where the oil came from.

Booyah! Leccy car city!

Was watching an interesting program about the hydroboard last week on the telly. Turns out they just sit tight and only help out with peak demand, whilst my nearest power station runs on coal? Seems kinda daft!, specially since its been raining non-stop for last 4 days.

anyhows, ppl get upset about cars, what about central heating systems in all the houses, that must be a nuts amount of gas burned every day. Thought nuclear was going to be free? ( just about, I wasn't around in the fifty's btw). sooner we get back to leccy the better I think :)

Stresses me out, all that co2 from past times, before we existed making its way back out into the air, spells trouble if you ask me, sooner we get all those plastic bags into landfill (at faultlines!)the better!