Electric Vehicles (EV) Thread

Driving and riding in Hua Hin and Thailand, all topics on cars, pickups, bikes, boats, licenses, roads, and motoring in general.
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Big Boy
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by Big Boy »

OK, but back in the day with our fork lifts and cherry pickers we had to keep spare batteries on charge, and change them regularly when the charge ran low. I guess we were changing batteries every day, and it was a heavy job. Is this still the case, or can batteries be topped up in a few minutes these days?

As a for instance, how much longer might charges add to a Hua Hin to Khon Kaen journey, if any?
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by Nereus »

Big Boy, you have to forget about what you used to do. I too had to maintain electric forklifts and their 3 ton lead acid batteries! Just as I had to maintain the DC motors used in them, which are also rapidly becoming obsolete.

Modern technology is as far away from them as steam engines. And it is also developing at an unprecedented rate, especially batteries. What can be quoted today will be obsolete tomorrow in a lot of cases. As it stands today in this country I would say that an EV is more limited to suburban running than extended trips to Isan.
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Re: Electric Cars

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I guessed things might have moved on. However, is it a 5 minute job, and hour's job or 4hrs +. I know there will variations, but just a rough ballpark figure would satisfy my curiosity.
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by GroveHillWanderer »

Big Boy wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:31 pm I guessed things might have moved on. However, is it a 5 minute job, and hour's job or 4hrs +. I know there will variations, but just a rough ballpark figure would satisfy my curiosity.
According to thechargingpoint.com:
The typical charge time for pure-electric cars using a standard UK home wall socket is between six and eight hours. Most new pure EVs can also use rapid charging points that can top up the batteries to 80% capacity in around 30 minutes.
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by Big Boy »

Thank you very much :thumb:
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by STEVE G »

Nereus wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:08 pm Modern technology is as far away from them as steam engines. And it is also developing at an unprecedented rate, especially batteries. What can be quoted today will be obsolete tomorrow in a lot of cases.
That's what I find is interesting about electric vehicles, the scope for development is huge whereas conventional vehicles haven't really improved much in decades.
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Re: Electric Cars

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Is my understanding correct, concerning home charging? A normal household 120-volt outlet typically has a 15-amp circuit breaker, meaning that the maximum amount of energy that the car can consume is approximately 1,500 watts, or 1.5 kilowatt-hours per hour. Since the battery pack in a car normally needs 12 to 15 kilowatt-hours for a full recharge, it can take 10 to 12 hours to fully charge the vehicle using this technique.

Using a 240-volt circuit, such as the outlet for an electric dryer in most countries but regular power in the UK, the car might be able to receive 240 volts at 30 amps, or 6.6 kilowatt-hours per hour. This arrangement allows significantly faster charging, and can fully recharge the battery pack in four to five hours.
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by Dannie Boy »

This is quite a useful and easy to follow explanation about EV charging
https://pod-point.com/landing-pages/how ... ectric-car
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by oakdale160 »

Thank you DB, this is a British article I think (Talks of motorways) so it is talking about 240volts I guess.
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Re: Electric Cars

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Re: Electric Cars

Post by Nereus »

Using a 240-volt circuit, such as the outlet for an electric dryer in most countries but regular power in the UK, the car might be able to receive 240 volts at 30 amps, or 6.6 kilowatt-hours per hour. This arrangement allows significantly faster charging, and can fully recharge the battery pack in four to five hours
.

It does not really work like that. You cannot just multiply the volts x amps to get watts in an AC circuit for one thing, as there are several losses that need to be taken into account. And as I posted previously, using a household outlet of whatever voltage is not the limiting factor, as the actual "charger" is part of the car and determines the charge rate by design. No idea what the regulations are in the UK, but it may be required by law to have a dedicated AC outlet, suitably protected, for use in charging the battery.

A "charging station" on the other hand charges the battery directly with DC at a much higher rate, but to do so requires (usually), a 3 phase 380 / 440 volt primary supply with high amperage.
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by Nereus »

This is another point about charging and who or what can do what:(or should that be watt?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772

and just to be different:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_62196 ... E_2623-2-2
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by Dannie Boy »

An extract from Autocar (a UK motoring magazine)

Hyundai on rapid chargers:

The boss of Hyundai’s powertrain division, Michael Winkler, believes an obsession with rapid charging of electric vehicles is pointless because most owners will recharge their EVs at home overnight. “Slow charging is more healthy for the battery. I would prefer to charge my battery slowly,” he said.
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by oakdale160 »

So after reading all this talk about batteries and re-charging it seems that the bottom line is that at the present EVs are excellent for driving around town for commuting to work and for short trips but at the moment not suitable for long cross-country trips. As I guess that 90%+ of milage is in the former they have a great place.
My friend who drives a Telsa says that he uses his horn much much more than with a ICE car, this is because the car is so quiet that pedestrians are taken by surprise. I just wonder if Thai people, who seem to thrive on noise, will like the silence.
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Re: Electric Cars

Post by HHTel »

I read somewhere (maybe on here) that in the UK, ev's have to emit an audible sound when dropping below 20 mph. Above that you will get 'tyre noise'
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