Electric conversion prices coming down?

[geoffbeaumont]

There will always be people who carry on driving on the reserve...

[simonr]

36 minutes ago, smallfry said:

Is that actually possible in an EV ? Is there any sort of "reserve" ?

Generally, sort of!

When the charge gets really low, it limits the acceleration & speed to reduce the current draw per mile - in the hope you'll use those extra miles to find a charger!

There has been some talk of breakdown vehicles carrying either a generator or (more likely) a battery.  If you were to sit beside the road & fully charge the car from a generator, that would be daft (and take many hours).  Providing enough charge to make it to the next services, which is effectively what they do for ICE vehicles, isn't so daft.

We will need something like that.  In the mean time, recovery to a charge point works too.

20 hours ago, deep said:

Having said all that, I'd love to convert my Series 3, just to see for myself.  That's because I like learning new things and it would be interesting, plus it rarely strays far from home so the negatives don't matter.

That's what I like to hear!  Go for it!

[bishbosh]

Given how dangerous hard shoulders are I would be amazed if they did anything other than cart you off to a place of safety and then worry about charging.

[sean f]

Would it be technically possible to have a plug in the boot where an auxiliary battery could be connected capable of moving the vehicle to a safe place (couple of miles?) probable at reduced power.

Sort of like a jump start battery but I expect bigger and then driving in the equivalent of limp mode.

If a standard fitting could be agreed (not likely with out regulations requiring it) something like this could be carried by break down services and fitted and then retrieved by a trained fitter, I doubt they would be cheap.

Kind of expecting someone to tell me it would work out to heavy and the power draw would be to much but though I would ask those who know more than me!.

[Bowie69]

There's already standard fittings for charging, connecting via that, especially the CCS(?) high-power sockets should be enough to get moving.

Of course, avoiding it all together should be the priority, the software on the car should be sounding alarm bells if there isn't a programmed stop within the range of the vehicle.

[Happyoldgit]

Why would a recovery company want to connect an electric vehicle to a supply to enable it to be shifted to a safe area when the norm is to hoik an incapacitated vehicle onto a beavertail or spectacle lift etc? 

[FridgeFreezer]

29 minutes ago, Happyoldgit said:

Why would a recovery company want to connect an electric vehicle to a supply to enable it to be shifted to a safe area when the norm is to hoik an incapacitated vehicle onto a beavertail or spectacle lift etc? 

Certainy for some of them when they're totally dead the wheels are locked solid (although that may get changed in future for safety):

https://jalopnik.com/a-tesla-bricking-itself-on-the-highway-is-a-reminder-th-1847734019

[deep]

Good grief!  We are living in an era of truly bad design.  Let's hope some basic intelligence starts over-ruling the childish hype soon enough.  The bit that really got to me was how such important things are accessed through the "car's centre-stack touch screen".  Mine hasn't worked for over a year, thanks to rodents chewing through two fibre optic cables (which nobody wants to fix for me).  I'm trying to picture my mum having any chance of working through a menu like that too.  Won't happen.  I know the new Defender has no brakes if it has no battery and there are countless other examples of manufacturers' arrogance ("our cars never break down").  They do and always will.

 

 

[Happyoldgit]

8 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Certainy for some of them when they're totally dead the wheels are locked solid (although that may get changed in future for safety):

https://jalopnik.com/a-tesla-bricking-itself-on-the-highway-is-a-reminder-th-1847734019

 

Aha, sort of makes sense now I come to think of it. 

[western]

On my Motorsport EV course for Recovery crews, we were told that No EV currently built can be towed with wheels on the road, it has to be a full lift, so the motor cannot turn & become a generator & damage the motor/EV system, in my case I can spec lift one end & put my full lift dolly wheel set under the other end. 

[sean f]

20 hours ago, western said:

On my Motorsport EV course for Recovery crews, we were told that No EV currently built can be towed with wheels on the road, it has to be a full lift, so the motor cannot turn & become a generator & damage the motor/EV system, in my case I can spec lift one end & put my full lift dolly wheel set under the other end. 

I wasn't aware of that but it makes sense, which makes a short term plug in battery (or connection to recovery vehicle?) and valid idea even if all it does is let the vehicle be powered onto a trailer or recovery vehicle, easier quicker and safer than having to winch it on, this assume it is broken down due to lack of electrons.

[western]

Any breakdown on a EV is a full lift loading or wheel skates under the 4 wheels then the EV can be winched on the transporter so the motor does not turn or on a spec lift & dolly wheels on other end. 

[deep]

1 hour ago, western said:

Any breakdown on a EV is a full lift loading or wheel skates under the 4 wheels then the EV can be winched on the transporter so the motor does not turn or on a spec lift & dolly wheels on other end. 

Ha - not if it's a converted Land Rover!  Just put the transfer box in neutral.  I had a Series 3 once that had free-wheeling hubs on the back.  The previous owner used to tow it on an A-frame and, one day, it "bounced" into gear on a bumpy road.  But, normally, towing would be fiine.

[cackshifter]

This all sounds like good fun on a smart motorway hard shoulder/ lane 1 when they haven't noticed you are there. Presumably the lights go out when the battery goes flat?

[western]

EVs have 2 systems 12b for normal stuff like lights, radio, central locking, electric wind ows, & the high voltage power system  for the drive motor, well at least the Tesla model 3 we had on loan during the course did, the is a isolation break for emergency services as well. 

[Snagger]

Yes, they have the two electrical systems.  The high voltage battery will recharge the 12v service battery, so that battery should last longer than the high voltage drive unit.  With EVs tending to use LEDs rather than filament bulbs for efficiency, the lights should remain illuminated for a fair amount of time, as long as the driver isn’t using the heater or other services while waiting for recovery.

[FridgeFreezer]

...assuming it's not all software controlled & the thing hasn't crashed / locked up. These days everything including the hazards and the handbrake are on the CANbus.

This is where I am very wary of Tesla, they are very casual about their whole approach (see: never-endingly testing betas of "self driving" via their customers on public roads), that's fine if you're making mobile phones or apps or something but less good if you're doing something safety-critical. I get the whole silicon valley mentality of rapid development / "move fast and break things", but there's a reason they don't do too much of that in safety critical systems. And I don't believe for a moment that Elongated Muskrat gives too much of a toss as long as it's cool and has whichever stupid gimmick he's though of this week.

[deep]

Someone told me yesterday about his friend's Tesla.  He'd stopped to help a stranded motorist on a stretch of road that had no cellphone coverage and left the car parked with the hazard lights on.  It wouldn't let him start again until the car got moved to an area with cellphone reception!!!  

[Snagger]

12 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

...assuming it's not all software controlled & the thing hasn't crashed / locked up. These days everything including the hazards and the handbrake are on the CANbus.

This is where I am very wary of Tesla, they are very casual about their whole approach (see: never-endingly testing betas of "self driving" via their customers on public roads), that's fine if you're making mobile phones or apps or something but less good if you're doing something safety-critical. I get the whole silicon valley mentality of rapid development / "move fast and break things", but there's a reason they don't do too much of that in safety critical systems. And I don't believe for a moment that Elongated Muskrat gives too much of a toss as long as it's cool and has whichever stupid gimmick he's though of this week.

As opposed to commercial aviation, which has a “move slow and let things break” ethos.  Honestly, the expensive bits in Airbus and Boeing are all 80s tech and is full of design flaws that are never fixed because that would be a tacit admission of the faults and lead to litigation.  All the clever stuff is in business jets.