Opinion on electric vehicles

[malla30]

Hi guys, I need your opinion on Electric Vehicles. One of my friends is looking for one? I'd really appreciate your input regarding this topic, thank you. 

[Twin Turbo]

Running the a/c electrically will kill the charge quickly. not quite what the doc orderd for our climate.

[tiv]

The electric car market is also kind of getting diverse, thus you must specify which electric vehicle you are interested in.

You see Teslas go from 10mil to 20mil, pure rocketships, does near 400km or more per charge, but zero dealer support, something goes wrong, good luck with Musk

The common Leaf has its ups and downs, again poor dealer support, but you can pull sth off, losing value, so on

on the shallow end there are cars called Shifeng, imported in few dozens running on lead acid and recycled leaf parts made locally doing like 60km per charge, i-Mievs doing like 80km per charge, electric scooters, so on. so Be SPECIFIC pls

Regarding the AC issue, it is true that the AC has a direct impact on the range, but not by 100s, roughly 15-30km of range maybe impaired, with many variables to specify that is. The deal with our local nut jobs is, they have a habit of setting the climate control to 18c and scooting about, this drains extra leading to major range loss. 

 

[vag2]

driving in SL is stressful enough, AC helps calm down a bit. Additional Range-anxiety is a no-go for me. And did you know some cars could get damaged from lightning,when plugged into a home without Lightning protection (which is usual in SL)?

Edited April 26, 2018 by vag2

[tiv]

The car has nothing to do with lightning if your house is wired up well, it doesn't increase or decrease any tendency for the house to be struck by a bolt. Also I doubt the average Sri Lankan is stupid enough to plug something that draws 20A from the grid during a thunderstorm. The car doesn't start charging if the ground circuit is poor or not upto the mark.

The EVSE is the weak link in the chain, any monkey business with the current mainly fries this, replacements are of hefty prices and rare.

 These things are crap these car salesman and people who skim on the subject makeup, Next story is you can't charge in the rain, which you can, all connectors are waterproof.

Range Anxiety is the biggest downfall in almost all EVs, atleast till / if you can afford a Tesla,  

[vag2]

10 hours ago, tiv said:

if your house is wired up well, it doesn't increase or decrease any tendency for the house to be struck by a bolt.

you are probably talking about the Trip switches,which has a time delay in the range of millisec. But Electronic components get damaged much earlier by transients, usually in the range of nanoSec.

[tiv]

I am talking of an isolated circuit with a breaker unit, also these electronic units, so called the inverter has the capability to handle a current of 20A AC, and upto 40A DC, with standalone cooling system and cut-offs, also as I said the EVSE also has  multiple shutoff mechanisms. So I believe a jolt or this or that in electricity, has nothing to do with frying a car.

But of course given a scenario where lightning does touch a house, provided the car was plugged in , the weakest link would be the breaker, then the fuse inside the EVSE, if you say millisecond delays can fry a car, I believe these cars designed to live with high voltage and currents would be poorly designed. So what you are trying to say is manufacturers overlooked the fact that small variations in current will harm their cars??

So have you heard of any lightning related issues in the leaf locally ? which is the commonest car here? and have you owned / used and EV for a period of time, since you liberally comment on the subject?

Edited April 27, 2018 by tiv

[vag2]

http://pes-spdc.org/sites/default/files/protection_of_vehicle_dc_fast_charging_r11.pdf

I am no expert, but it is a concern where electronic designers are looking for solutions. So a car intended for Japanese power grid with top-end lightning guards to stabilize transients may be damaged by our adhoc quality power grids and chargers.

Edited April 27, 2018 by vag2