Electric Vehicles!

[Namaste Jesus]

Apparently, this EV has been available in China since 2018! Who knew? It's called the Punk Cat from Ora motors. Rumor has it they'll be available outside China possibly by the end of the year and GM may be involved importing them. Hey, if that happens, sign me up! Always wanted a four door bug!

 

[badger]

Apparently, this EV has been available in China since 2018! Who knew? It's called the Punk Cat from Ora motors. Rumor has it they'll be available outside China possibly by the end of the year and GM may be involved importing them. Hey, if that happens, sign me up! Always wanted a four door bug!

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Excellent! What an amazing looking vehicle.
I think it'll be too expensive for us....... that little EV bubble car would do us.

 

[badger]

An EV scooter owner has been visiting Valencia and the hire-and-ride runabouts are artisan ev2000s like mine. That's pleasing to know because if they can withstand that kind of use then mine might stand a chance.

 

[Namaste Jesus]

This may end up being my first EV

 

[badger]

This may end up being my first EV​

Excellent...... you must have very large lawns. I cut our lawns with hand shears.... true.

An old guy near here has a sit-on petrol mower and he can raise up the cutter and drive it to the local convenience store...has never been stopped.

 

[Namaste Jesus]

Excellent...... you must have very large lawns. I cut our lawns with hand shears.... true.

An old guy near here has a sit-on petrol mower and he can raise up the cutter and drive it to the local convenience store...has never been stopped.

Just shy of an acre. Thing is, there's over 20 mature oaks on the property and there's always twigs and other debris about. A regular mower just gets beat to death and the riders are always flipping belts. Thing that attracted me to this EV version, no belts. It has twin blades, each driven by separate electric motors. It's said to have a 2 hour or 2 acre battery life with the blades down and about 10 hours blades up, open motoring. Top speed is only about 8 mph though, so a slow go used for transportation. Seriously considering it, but it's an expensive rascal.

 

[badger]

Just shy of an acre. Thing is, there's over 20 mature oaks on the property and there's always twigs and other debris about. A regular mower just gets beat to death and the riders are always flipping belts. Thing that attracted me to this EV version, no belts. It has twin blades, each driven by separate electric motors. It's said to have a 2 hour or 2 acre battery life with the blades down and about 10 hours blades up, open motoring. Top speed is only about 8 mph though, so a slow go used for transportation. Seriously considering it, but it's an expensive rascal.

Hmmmmm....... (guessing)........ the battery will be lithium-ion so just that might cost £700..... because it's a specialist item with lower production and from far-east (?) I'm going to guess it will cost you £4500. Even my little mass-produced ev scooter costs over £3000 with just one battery, the second battery costs another £650. But with an acre of twig infested ground it seems to be a good buy. 8mph is very very quick across a lawn!

Not to be outdone by all these one acre home owners I though I would feature a pic of our extensive lawns......

 

[Namaste Jesus]

Hmmmmm....... (guessing)........ the battery will be lithium-ion so just that might cost £700..... because it's a specialist item with lower production and from far-east (?) I'm going to guess it will cost you £4500. Even my little mass-produced ev scooter costs over £3000 with just one battery, the second battery costs another £650. But with an acre of twig infested ground it seems to be a good buy. 8mph is very very quick across a lawn!

Not to be outdone by all these one acre home owners I though I would feature a pic of our extensive lawns......
View attachment 2946

Actually no, power comes from four 12V lead acid deep cycle batteries. Similar to those used in golf carts. Current price tag including freight, is right around $3000. Equivalent gas rider is about half that, but requires quite a bit more maintenance.

NE corner of our homestead. Ignore the old geezer with the rake...

 

[badger]

Actually no, power comes from four 12V lead acid deep cycle batteries. Similar to those used in golf carts. Current price tag including freight, is right around $3000. Equivalent gas rider is about half that, but requires quite a bit more maintenance.

NE corner of our homestead. Ignore the old geezer with the rake...

View attachment 2949

I wish I was your age.....
I love all those trees. And your 20 Oak trees must be a brilliant feature. That's not a bad price for an EV sit-on mower, imo.
By the way, do you generate any of your own electricity? We don't, because we are in the shade of a much taller neighbour (lovely and cool in summer, protected from SE storms in winter, but useless for solar-voltaic generation) and we although we can have a wind generator they are mostly noisy and can be dangerous in close neighbourhoods. But we do have a deep-cycle and inverter for use during power cuts.

 

[Namaste Jesus]

By the way, do you generate any of your own electricity?

We don't, but there is a house on our street with a solar panel roof. Thing with that, you can't directly use the power you generate. You have to sell it back to the power company and they in turn credit your next bill. Minus regulatory and administrative fees, of course. However, you can bypass the grid for the purpose of charging generator batteries. That was done so folks could keep the lights on in the event of a power outage.

So some are using that loophole to build carports with solar roofs to charge their EV's! As EV's become more popular however, I'm sure that loophole will be closed and the government will be taking their cut. Already happening in some states where there's a surcharge being added to EV registration to help recover lost gasoline taxes.

But we do have a deep-cycle and inverter for use during power cuts.

We bought a small gasoline generator several years ago after an extended power outage. Told the wife if we get one, the power will never go out again and it hasn't! lol

 

[badger]

We don't, but there is a house on our street with a solar panel roof. Thing with that, you can't directly use the power you generate. You have to sell it back to the power company and they in turn credit your next bill. Minus regulatory and administrative fees, of course. However, you can bypass the grid for the purpose of charging generator batteries. That was done so folks could keep the lights on in the event of a power outage.

So some are using that loophole to build carports with solar roofs to charge their EV's! As EV's become more popular however, I'm sure that loophole will be closed and the government will be taking their cut. Already happening in some states where there's a surcharge being added to EV registration to help recover lost gasoline taxes.

Oh...that's a rip off! imo
Our next door neighbour has had an 'entry-size' Solar-Voltaic system fitted a few months ago (£7000), about 8 large panels charging three 40amp 50volt lithium-ion batteries connected to a regulator-inverter which gives direct and immediate 240v power to her home, and as long as the batteries are fully charged it then diverts any extra to the national grid. We are allowed to have such systems here because our government seriously wants as many of us to be self-sufficient as possible.

If I walk to the cliff edge (100oyds) on a clear day I can see more giant wind generators than anywhere else in the World. 30 miles to the North I can see a huge windfarm on the Galloper sands (?) off Clacton, there is a 40 unit windfarm 5 miles directly offshore, I can see the vast Estuary windfarm to the North East (2nd largest in World, I think) and a Massive windfarm off the North Foreland.......... I don't believe there's anything quite as vast as that lot. And for all these (and other) UK windfarms, we are still not self sufficient....power cuts are expected at peak times in very cold weather.

We bought a small gasoline generator several years ago after an extended power outage. Told the wife if we get one, the power will never go out again and it hasn't! lol

There you go........ but if you hadn't........
We've really tried to reduce electricity usage because the cost is massive, now and will be rising again in October. I have boarded out our roof space to help the insulation layer further and increase storage space, we've taken out the large hot water tank and fitted a half-sized one (which is fine and saves loads), I have added a third glazing layer to our doubled glazed windows, isolater switches to groups of gear for fast cut-offs, and my wife's best idea was to buy new warm slippers and dressing gowns to wear when watching telly on cold nights, so warm that doze off all the time.

There's mnore but I must go............

 

[wil]

I recall reading China has more electric busses running than the entire rest of the world.

This is what we need in US our entire trucking and transportation system flipped to EVs

I.so wanna ERV which is self driving and a I play cards or sleep between destinations.

 

[badger]

I recall reading China has more electric busses running than the entire rest of the world.

This is what we need in US our entire trucking and transportation system flipped to EVs

I.so wanna ERV which is self driving and a I play cards or sleep between destinations.

40 years ago the UK may have had the most milk delivery trucks! And now we've got hardly any dairy trucks of any kind at all...... progress!

 

[Namaste Jesus]

I.so wanna ERV which is self driving and a I play cards or sleep between destinations.

I'm just the opposite. I'd like an EV without all the added tech and expense. Something with real gauges and switches, that goes when I depress the accelerator and stops when I step on the brake pedal.

...and while they're at it, slap some chrome bumpers and whitewall tires on mine!

 

[badger]

Leviticus

I'm just the opposite. I'd like an EV without all the added tech and expense. Something with real gauges and switches, that goes when I depress the accelerator and stops when I step on the brake pedal.

...and while they're at it, slap some chrome bumpers and whitewall tires on mine!

Simplicity? I love simplicity! Less to go wrong, and I like having to push stuff and wiggle switches.
My wife has got a Jimny ATV previously owned by a senior prison officer who had fitted it out with masses of electric gumpf.... Remote start with security features, stuff like that.
And when you do get in the key doesn't start it (you have to enter a remote signal as well) so that even if car-jacked on your driveway you can throw down the keys and get clear cos the car just ain't going anywhere.... a huge kenwood sound system fitted under the passenger seat...and on. Recently the reversing sensors became paranoid and started screaming as soon as reverse gear was engaged and she asked me to disable the system because reversing a jimny is dead easy. The garage had quoted £3-400 to sort the problem because the control and sounder was secreted inside rear panelling which wouldn't come out unless rear folding seats and belts and goodness knows what else was removed.......... it took me a day to access the nasty little box and pull the plugs on it.

 

[wil]

In a couple generations most will never drive a car.

 

[badger]

In a couple generations most will never drive a car.

True, I reckon...... My great grandkids will be so bored.

 

[wil]

True, I reckon...... My great grandkids will be so bored.

Naw...it will be like washing machines, tv remotes, elevator operators...

"Back in the old days they did this by hand....could you even fathom having to stay alert at 70 mph and control the vehicle?"

 

[badger]

Naw...it will be like washing machines, tv remotes, elevator operators...

"Back in the old days they did this by hand....could you even fathom having to stay alert at 70 mph and control the vehicle?"

In different ways that has happened to us, I think.
If I had to travel through London again I would definitely take and use my AtoZ street atlas.... I don't expect that anybody uses them any more.
When I delivered yachts 40 years ago, I still used charts, stop watch, hand bearing compass and dead reckoning; I think they just use sat-nav now and that is linked to self steering for course changes.
It's a new world to me here and now.....
.....things like that.........

 

[Namaste Jesus]

In a couple generations most will never drive a car.

Shoot, my wife won't drive my car now. She considers pumping the gas to get it started, then waiting 10 minutes for it to warm up, quite primitive. Never mind the absence of AC, cruise control and power windows! Oh, the horror... the absolute horror!!!