Electric hotrods

[Manky Monkey]

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1039355/Mercury-EV-1949-Derelict-ICON-electric-car-conversion-Tesla

[stinkey]

Looks boring

[Stix]

If I had to have an electric car one of those would do just fine, the archetypal leadsled and just needs a few inches out of the roof and put it on air suspension, nice paint and a bit of chrome and they look stunning as a Kustom.

[BikerGran]

It would need some sound effects!

[Archie]

Looks boring

Makes more power and torque than most v8’s and the torque, will be instant / linear / smooth

Looks can be deceiving.

[morrag]

Whilst not Hotrod specific, I received this recently which i thought interesting...................................


A Different Aspect About Electric Cars.

INTERESTING -  IF ELECTRIC CARS DO NOT USE GASOLINE, THEY WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN PAYING A GASOLINE TAX ON EVERY GALLON THAT IS SOLD FOR AUTOMOBILES, WHICH WAS ENACTED SOME YEARS AGO TO HELP TO MAINTAIN OUR ROADS AND BRIDGES. THEY WILL USE THE ROADS, BUT WILL NOT PAY FOR THEIR MAINTENANCE! WHO WILL BEAR THE BURDEN?

In case you were thinking of buying hybrid or an electric car:

Ever since the advent of electric cars, the REAL cost per mile has never been discussed.  All you ever heard was the mpg in terms of gasoline, with not a mention of the cost to run it.

This is the first article I've ever seen and tells the story pretty much as I expected it to.

Electricity has to be one of the least efficient ways to power things yet  it's being shoved down our throats. Glad somebody finally put engineering and math to paper.

At a neighbourhood BBQ I was talking to a neighbour, a BC Hydro executive.
I asked him how that renewable thing was doing. He laughed, then got serious.
If you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, he pointed out, you had to face certain realities.  For example, a home charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service.

The average house is equipped with 100 amp service. On our small street (approx. 25 homes),the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more
than three houses with a single Tesla charge.  For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded.   This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles. Our residential infrastructure cannot bear the load.

So as our genius elected officials promote this nonsense, not only are we being urged to buy these things and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems with expensive, new windmills and solar cells, but we will also have to renovate our entire delivery system! This latter "investment" will not be revealed until we're so far down this dead end road that it will be presented with an 'OOPS...!' and a shrug.

If you want to argue with a green person over cars that are eco-friendly, just read the following.

Note: If you ARE a green person, read it anyway. It's enlightening.
Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors and he writes,

"For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine." Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9-gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is
approximately 270 miles.   It will take you 4.5 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours  to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a
typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity.
It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned, so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.  $18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg.
$3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile. The gasoline powered car costs about $20,000 while the Volt costs $46,000-plus.

So the Canadian and American Governments wants loyal citizens not to do the math, but simply pay three times as much for a car, that costs more than seven times as much to run, and takes three times longer to drive across the country.

[JayJay]

I love the old Mercury models anyway and I think they've done a good job keeping everything on show very retro. Considering this is a heavy car to start off with I thought the mileage on one charge was reasonable especially if you can do them at a fairly fast speed. I would imagine you'd probably manage maybe twice that on petrol, based on 20 mpg, but would it be cheaper? Definitely not, as long as your original outlay for the car is not way over the odds. It doesn't mention (unless I missed it) the cost of all the elements needed to make this Mercury a safe and balanced electric vehicle. Perhaps it was too frightening to tell us.  

[stinkey]

Looks boring

Makes more power and torque than most v8’s and the torque, will be instant / linear / smooth

Looks can be deceiving.

tbh Archie I'm not bothered about speed and torque etc etc..I've been in a buddies Tesla..and it's blooming brilliant ..but that merc looks CRAP ( to me ) and I am all for electric cars/bikes etc..but I love the idea of Hydrogen power

[JayJay]

Hi Morrag,
It seems I was writing my post while you were posting yours. 

I do agree with a lot that was said in your post as we have raised many of these points before when talking about moving to electric vehicles. However, I'm not sure about the costs in your post as the example given cites electricity as $1.16 per kWh which is approx 90p. Assuming you are charging from home, UK cost is at most approx 20p per kWh. Mine is 12.75p. The US is approx 10-14 cents per kWh depending mainly on the State you live in. Therefore the figures given in your post are way over. For example using 20p per kWh times by 16 kWh battery is £3.20. Divide by 25 miles, to fit with your example (and I think the Volt is a poor example of mileage achieved by one charge - definitely wouldn't want to buy it ) and per mile would be 12.8p per mile. Not bad. With my rate it would be £2.04 ÷ 25 = 8.1p per mile. Even better. I'm pretty sure my figures are right and relate correctly to the ones quoted in your post. Just based on these figures the electric car wins hands down but obviously there is more than that to consider when buying one especially with the initial outlay.

[Manky Monkey]

What's wrong with it's looks?

[morrag]

As I stated, the info. was relayed to me and as such, whilst obviously coming from the other side of the pond, where I have to assume it's reasonably accurate, I didn't dissimulate it's accuracy, however, battery depreciation and likely replacement would make selling a vehicle on, once used, difficult I would imagine. the load/charging issues are very relevant, as is available generated capacity of existing power stations, etc....so, good idea? for me the jury is out still, Morrag

[stinkey]

Just to say something about the costs on electric cars, and this comes from my buddy with the tesla..he is a self employed private hire chauffeur and has built up a nice clientele of business people..he's aged 72.. He pondered on buying his tesla car..mainly because of the price (70k) I believe he's had it 2 years now ?
He told me it has already paid for itself..he saves £1000 per month on diesel fuel alone..no road tax..no congestion charge..hasn't had to replace anything apart from tyres..not even Brake pads..hardly uses the brakes..the most expensive thing to be replaced ( hopefully never ?) would be the windscreen (£3500)
On the day he came down ( Heathrow to Poole )  he charged it up at a charging station in Poole ? He told me he sat and had a coffee and it took 40 mins to charge,total cost..£3.48 ..

[morrag]

Well, anecdotal evidence such as that is fine, but the empirical evidence differs greatly, I'm afraid, even when all the subsidies and inducement are included, from all sources both governmental and manufacturer, there is, or will still be, still the thorny question of sufficient charging facilities once the 'E' car business increases, that 40mins may be a little longer when you have to fight for a charging point and of course, there will be the tax situation to cover loss of conventional petrol/diesel revenue, but as I have no personal "axe" to grind, or indeed real interest in the subject! therefore....we shall see, or probably not so much "we" as, you youngsters!! you know who you are, will see! ....Morrag

[poprodder]

like that, lots.

[stinkey]

Unfortunately Mr Morrag..I tend to take all this written stuff as all Blah Blah! I'm afraid anybody can write stuff down and people will believe it ? I'm sure I can find stuff out there saying the complete opposite of whatever you learned guys have shown on here ?
I can only go by what my friends told me..and I'm sure the government /oil/power companies will be building LOTS of charging stations etc..and there won't be any problems with queues ..and the government will be getting their Tax from all the millions of electric car owners,so nothing will change..apart from the air MIGHT be be cleaner in big Cities ? and I still don't like Mercury Customs electric or otherwise