When are you going fully electric?

Soldato
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Heckling for change
Great to be able to have those panels if they are out of the way. We went for 16 x 300w Perlight as the JA Solar we initially went for were sold out. The look of the system meant a lot to us as our roof is on show from a distance in our village. We still have room for a separate east west split of 12 panels in the future too.

The advice we had from our installer was that battery storage would maybe save us £250 and wouldn't be worth it for a typical 4kw install.

The idea of being able to store 40kw for a car is great but just now it's a lifestyle /ethical choice rather than a financial one.
 
Soldato
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I hadnt seen that converting was a thing.
What do you do, just replace the engine, and tap into the driveshaft? So all the batteries etc in the engine bay?

Converting isn't new but the technology of modern EVs makes for more power and range.

Jag E type conversion to be offered by Jaguar Heritage is one of the best examples of a sympathetic conversion that may be offered by an OEM. Comes at a cost of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=610Amyhpzzk

Other conversions can do any combination you can think of really. Installing a complete Tesla drive unit is becoming a popular choice. That's consists of the motor + inverter in the factory aluminium sub-frame with the driveshafts, wheel + brake assembly complete. This can be installed front, rear or both!
 
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Caporegime
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Just been watching some videos of the Kia Niro EV.

Looks like a great little car, except for one thing. You can't spec it with anything other than Halogen lights! I don't think I could ever go back to Halogens now. I had a 2009 330d which had halogens and I thought they were downright dangerous.
 
Soldato
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Not to mention they also look gash when you have LED DRL's under them that inevitably have a different colour temperature to the headlights.

There has been a few EV's announced at the LA Auto show but thing to get too excited about if I'm honest.

Rivian pickup truck and SUV, specs look great but I am tempering my excitement because its yet another start up with not that much money.

Audi E-Tron GT, basically a Porsche Taycan drive train inside something that looks like an S7 body. Again looks great but not coming until at least 2021 so nothing to see here. Seems off Audi's first two proper EV's are using 2 completely different platforms, probably why is this taken Audi so long given the Taycan is launching next year...

Kia Soul EV update, same drive train as the Kona and Nero which is great but its low volume and more importantly pretty ugly and doesn't really have mass market appeal. Again not launching until late 2019
 
Soldato
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March 15th apparently. Musk has been dropping all kinds of hints people don't seem to have been picking up on, I expect they will also show a prototype of the pickup truck as well.
 
Soldato
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I doubt they will be his legislated off the road but normal things like getting fuel will become incredibly difficult. Not only that they will just become socially unacceptable, I expect ICE cars will be banned from city centres in the future (talking 15-20 years), it’s the equivalent of being relegated to the smoking shed except you aren’t a 2 min walk from the front door.
 
Soldato
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They do that on roads already though.

Indeed, and that also used to be the prevalent form of transport until the automobile came along, so the street were no longer covered in perfectly harmless poop, but instead the air started to fill up with toxic gasses. Not that people knew any better back then, heck they thought smoking was good for you. :p

Move forward 20 years and instead of going shopping (if any are left) with toxic fumes in the air, you'll have nice clean air. :)
 
Soldato
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March 15th apparently. Musk has been dropping all kinds of hints people don't seem to have been picking up on, I expect they will also show a prototype of the pickup truck as well.

Musk is going to run off to Mars where customers stuck on never ending waiting lists for cars and parts can't get him.
 
Soldato
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Been watching a few vids of the Kia Niro and the Hyundai Kona, if you could actually buy them in any kind of sensible time frame they'd be ideal.

I do feel that by the time the Tesla model 3 ever gets to the UK there'll be no point as there will be several 300 miles sub £30k cars to chose from which is a shame really as i really do love the 3, but i don't think i'd chose that over the more practical SUV of either the Niro or the Kona.

I wish someone would make a medium size estate car with the same running gear as the Niro/Kona but i fear i'd probably be the only customer as everyone else wants an SUV :(
 
Caporegime
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The model 3 is great from a tech/performance perspective, but the saloon boot is very limiting IMO.

I would love a Model S as a company car in 2020, as the hatch style boot is big enough and they are quick, but am hoping they are going to improve the battery cooling at some point...Bloomin expensive as well.
 
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