Alternative Fuel Vehicle Thread
 

Not sure if there's a thread on RS, but if there is, so solly............

I'm pretty sure there are some owners of electric, hybrid, solar, hydrogen fuelled vehicles on RS.

I drive an all electric vehicle and love it. No gas, oil changes, gears, just a lot of torque. Smooth acceleration. Some drawbacks, of course. Anyway..........

I was considering one as we have charging stations at work and, with a 115 km round trip commute, it would save me a ton on fuel costs ... But I was told employees aren't allowed to use them :okay:

I always think to myself how many tanks of gas would I have to save to offset the high cost of purchasing an electric vehicle or even a hybrid for that matter over a conventional car and when the math comes out to 10 years of gas fills give or take I go back to my dinosaur burner pretty fast.

Got $10, 000 off price. Government $5000.00 and manufacturer (Mercedes) matched the government incentive. Otherwise, like you, I would have said :fuckthatshit: so for $20,000.00 I was like, why not?

What did you get? Only electric car i'd buy would be the Tesla.

I'm so impressed with electric vehicles, I'm probably going to get a Tesla in the near future.

The electric car is not mine. It belongs to a family member, but I get to take it out often. It's a Smart for Two. Not many cars can keep up with it. Until you're on the freeway. The car maxes out at 135 km/h. Going up a steep hill, the thing is a monster. Anyway, I was hoping someone with a Nissan Leaf would chime in. The range on these things are not great. I need to get a level 2 charger. For zipping around town, nothing beats this little car.

yo MG1 you can charge your EV free of charge at IKEA while you enjoy your free $1 breakfast this friday :troll:


Anyhow, I always wonder what would happen when we don't have enough EV stations for cars. Doubt everyone will invest a few grand to put a fast charger in their garages. Also, what do you do if you live in a condo... strata :fuckthatshit:

The chargers at Ikea are damn good. RS mini meet? Like the good ol' days........... when we never invited people like yray, hee hee.

I gotta listen to that announcement every 20 mins :derp:, and I was there at all of the meets, nobody noticed :alone:

Electric smart car sounds pretty fun. I bet its way better than the gas powered one. If anyones driven them you would know they are the biggest pieces of shit in terms of drivetrain. Electric motor would smooth that right out.

Nissan leaf is okay. Driven 3 different ones. Range is around 130 fully charged? To get all the juice out of it you can't have the heater or A/C running. In the summer its fine you can roll the windows down, but as you are using heater to defrost windows and heat cabin in this time of year your mileage goes down.

Highway speeds also drain battery faster. I calculated from PoCo to Boundary Rd off highway 1 and back was roughly 10-20km more drain than the actual trip. Cant remember exact number.

Great as a 2nd car for the family, short trips, grocery store etc. Wouldn't recommend as a daily driver unless you have charging ports at work, and your commute is under 70km

Model E pre-orders start March 2016 #justsayin

driven a leaf before at work. some civic tried to race me at a red light, i smoked him with insta torque :awwyeah:
then the mileage went down by 20km...

I am waiting on the Tesla Model 3...

Right now, I turn on heated seats, heater, etc, and the thing just sucks up power. To boot, the battery isn't optimal in cold weather. Still, can get two days or more out of it driving in and around Vancouver/Burnaby.

Driving the snot out of it means having to plug it in each evening. Today, a Lexus IS whatever kept up, but not uphill. No gears is a blast.

I made it out to Abbotsford one day......... silly me, started out with 80% battery power. Planned to stay at friend's workplace. Plugged the car in and hung out. Something came up and friend had to go. That was not good. Charged at the Timmy Ho's by Sumas Way for an hour. Not enough to get home. Next stop, Walnut Grove Community Centre. Hung out at library for an hour (damn, MILF eye candy). Got to Lougheed Town Centre and plugged in for 20 minutes......... enough to get home. Never do that again, LOL. With full battery and sticking to posted speed limit, I would have made it home, but no.......... live and learn, I guess.

Got that right. I saw the EPA on the gas models and went WTF? I test drove a diesel version years ago and it was hideous/horrible. Most people see my little EV Smart Car thinking it's the gas powered one. They smirk, until I destroy them at the light. I wait till they catch up and give them a really good grin.

I'd be interested to hear from the biodiesel RSers :considered:

i remember watchin top gear aussie and they were talking about alternative fuel cars, one of them was driving a V8 biodiesel Holden Commodore & he called it "guilt free driving"

only problem for them is they dont have a lot of gas stations that have biodiesel, not sure if canada in the same situation as them

wait a min, dont u drive a blk 89 civic :troll:

I fully believe the car I buy after the next one will be electric driven. Whether it stores that electricity via batteries or hydrogen fuel cell remains to be seen.

My three main concerns will eventually be addressed in due time.

First is range, Telsla fixed that. They go pretty far without a charge.
Second is availability of chargers. The more electrics there, the more charging stations there will be. Supply and demand.
Third is charge time... As someone who takes a lot of road trips, this is a big one. I don't want to sit around for a few hours waiting for the thing to charge. I want to be able to fill up, squeegee the windshield and go... 15 mins and done... This is a huge drawback.

I'm aware of the things Tesla is coming up with to get past #3 like battery swaps and high amperage charging so this issue will be resolved soon.


Yet I still prefer hydrogen. It has all the benefits of electric without the toxic batteries. You don't even have to transport the hydrogen to the fueling stations. It can be generated on the spot with some solar panels and water.

My dad just ordered the Tesla Model X, and I am planning to get an used Nissan Leaf as daily driver. It seems when u buy a EV, you should learn from current users whether the battery will last. The Leaf battery seems to degrade (drop to 8/12 on the battery indicator on the dash) after 4years of charging. Replacing the battery under warranty should be covered in the first 4yrs, but you will worry how long it will last in long run, consider a new battery itself and installation cost about 6-7grand + labour.

Also, pay attention to the breakeven years when using cheap fuel and electric car. I drive only 20km daily in average, even with the fuel price double in Asia and literally half price on the car (no 100% sales tax), it won't break even after 10yrs of driving.

FYI... some stuff pulled off prius forums...



Blocking the front intake grille on a hybrid vehicle is one of the most significant improvements that any hybrid owner can make to offset the inevitable loss in fuel economy during the winter months.



Why block the front grille?

On the Prius and Civic Hybrid the optimal performance range occurs when the gas engine temperature is between 60C and 90C. In between those ranges both cars offer additional stages of operation particularly in areas affecting electric propulsion, regeneration and fuel consumption rates. However, when the ambient temperatures fall below freezing , it not only takes longer for the vehicle’s engine to arrive to the optimal range, but sometimes depending on how low the ambient temperature actually is, it may not even reach ideal operation at all.
The main reason why this is so is because as the vehicle moves forward the colder air rushes into the engine bay and prevents the engine from warming up as quickly as it should.

Now, if we factor in the fact that the car is being operated by a human being, the climate control is also likely to be set to "warm up" the passenger cabin. This too helps deplete/steal the heat the engine is producing thus slowing down the warm-up process even further.

Because the Prius and HCH have smaller engines, they also produce less heat since heat produced is a function of how little fuel gets burnt per unit of time. This makes these and other small cars more sensitive to cold weather operation and causes severe losses of fuel economy performance.

After driving a diesel, I don't think I could go back to gas. My fuel efficiency is nuts with my truck. A fill up from empty runs me about $60. 55L tank gets me a little over 700km running 33" tires.

It takes a lot of energy to separate out a significant amount of hydrogen from water. Your solar panels will probably give you enough to run a lighter for a few seconds.

Besides... you're taking solar electricity to generate hydrogen to power a fuel cell to run your electric engine... why not just take the power straight from the solar panel? You're wasting a ton of energy in the processing.

So one slight change in your day cost you 2 and a half hours? That alone would keep me from wanting to buy one.