Cannonball Run in the Leaf

rebel.ranter wrote: »

I currently have 3 x cars with cylinders (2.0L, 2.5L & 3.0L) and I can see the relevance & significance of the Nissan Leaf.
The debate that's going on here now probably happened at the turn from horses to the internal combustion engine.
An alternative to fossil fuels is needed. The sooner they do the less pressure there will be on the extinction of fossil fueled cars.
Bring on the Leaf. (Although I think they should start to make attractive electric vehicles for a change)

A good point there. Horses didn't disappear completely when we switched over to ICE. They were repurposed for pleasure uses. Personally I still prefer the sound of a performance engine, whether it's a turbo charged Japanese 4 cylinder or a large displacement V8+

I hope someday any enthusiast can own an EV for their everyday driving and still own an ICE based performance car... without being penalised by high taxes etc. That day is a little closer now that we've started using EV's for the everyday mundane tasks of getting from A to B. ICE will probably have some healthy competition though from performance EV's

http://www.ridemission.com/motorsport/mission-r

http://vimeo.com/25686996 <- I would own this if they made a production version, doesn't sound too bad to my ears either.

The heart of the Mission R is an advanced MissionEVT powertrain that packs 141hp and 14.4 kWh of energy storage in a package smaller than a 600cc sportbike. The liquid-cooled AC Induction motor produces 115 ft. lbs. of torque the moment the rider cracks the throttle, rocketing the bike from a standstill to over 160 mph in one gear. Power is managed by the MissionEVT 100kW motor controller, with customizable regenerative braking maps, throttle maps and more. All vehicle and ride data is accessible via WiFi or 3G connections.

colm_mcm wrote: »

Saw this today. It's got a green wrap.

Laughing at the idea that esb think stopping every few hours to recharge isnt an issue for people

Depends on what you mean exactly? My wife and I use ours everyday and don't have to stop. But that would be because 160 kilometres covers 99% of our daily requirements. I know some people use their cars a lot more than that, but it is backed up by statistics! a lot of car owners don't travel that far on a daily basis and when they require more range on occasion, then having to spend 20 or 30 minutes recharging isn't such a big deal to them.

Example: Me and the other people who have so far bought the Leaf. Many of whom I've met personally and have the Leaf as their one and only car.

http://www.facebook.com/ESBecars

http://www.youtube.com/ESBecars

Shane732 wrote: »

Why were you hoping I had a crap car?

So a high performance car is wasted in Ireland but a car that can't do a run from Galway to Dublin without having to recharge is perfect for the country?

You have a nice car, I like it. You did say the Leaf was sh1t though, I was just hoping you had demonstrably poor taste in cars

Eric Cartman wrote: »

im well aware but still

if you bought your ev because :

it costs less to run - bus is even cheaper
saving the enviroment - bus is more eco friendly
you only do short journeys - a bike and the bus/luas/train is a much cheaper option

now nobody in their right mind would buy an EV because of its range or comfort compared to ICE cars , or its sale price.

so if you only do such a small range theres really 2 cheap options
1) something like a polo, cheaper to buy , 104 a year to tax and you might spend a 5er a week in fuel
2) get the bus/train/luas/bike.
works out far cheaper on your pocket , and public transport is a good idea for the eco conscious.

A Polo bluemotion uses 3.4 litres of fuel per 100km. So the 5 euro in your example would get you 100km of range per week. 5 euro electricity will get me 400km per week in my Leaf. Adding to that, the Leaf is bigger, has more gadgets and is more powerful. I was going outside to plug in the car and took this picture for you:



I only got my car at the end of April, clearly I'm doing more mileage than could be done using public transport. When I consider we have two young kids, I just couldn't have the same quality of life if we gave up our proper car for public transport. In any case my example clearly disproves your position that EV's are for low mileage people who should consider public transport instead of an EV.

You made some other points like a bus being more eco friendly, is it? It emits carbon gases, it also takes energy to get and process the fuel for the bus. How many people need to be on a bus in order to make it more eco friendly? In Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years we built lots of low density housing spreading out in all directions LA style. That's exactly the wrong way to build housing if you want to improve the efficiency of public transport. Buses and other public transport vehicles having to travel longer distances with fewer passengers on-board between stops.

I probably wouldn't argue against peak time buses (morning and evening commuters) being slightly more efficient (in cities like Dublin anyway), but what about the majority of the time when buses are doing all those long journeys to our far out housing estates with only 1 or 2 passengers on-board? It would be interesting to see if anyone has done calculations on this.

All that bus stuff is academic for me though. I'm currently averaging 2000km a month in my Leaf at a cost of €20pm. It's also a far far simpler machine with much fewer moving parts. It's possible you might mention batteries as others have done, I've said my piece on batteries before. Lets just wait and see, I'm confident it will work out for me in the long run.