An article on the new Jaguar iPace - makes interesting reading.

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-driven...iven/38121

2 comments on the iPace article.
1, 13 year battery life. Has anyone got a laptop over 3 years old where the Li ion batteries are still working?

2. It says that the 2 electric motors each have a torque of 256 lb ft and feed into a 9:1 gearbox. Surely that would yield a total torque at the wheels of 4608 lb ft. not the 513 quoted. I guess this is a misprint in which case the motors are delivering only 28 lb ft @ 13k rpm

My brother's neighbour has a BMW electric car and was driving down the M6 last week on a section with no hard shoulder when a message came up saying "you need to recharge within 3 miles", a few minutes later it stopped. The police came out and then the breakdown people but as they can't charge it there it had to be towed to the nearest services. The car is a hybrid and he claims that the fuel tank is quite small due to the space and weight taken by the batteries so on long motorway runs you have to keep stopping to fuel up (at motorway prices) or charge up (at motorway electricity prices). In his experience it will only do about 12 miles on battery so not really practical except as a local runabout.

The technology isn't really there yet as far as I can see. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

your right Dorset, the tech isn't quite there yet, you still need an alternative back up power source. What happens if your miles from anywhere with no mobile signal etc and no frequent passing traffic, and the battery system fails (either through lack of charge or through total failure). Its not like you can plan and have a full tank of fuel like we have now.

Yes I know any car can fail at any time anywhere, but EV are being rushed in under Government pressure when the tech isn't ready yet.

For me EV is the emperors new clothes, it’s so flawed on so many levels it’s unreal. The only real alternative to fossil fuel is hydrogen.
My wife’s car is a Lexus 200 hybrid, nice enough wee car but wouldn’t by another. So I have experience of semi electric. Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

Yes and advocates of electric are going around saying that they will be so more reliable and cheap to service as they only have a few dozen parts rather than the 20,000 in a conventional vehicle which is clearly wrong. Sure the ICE has lots of moving parts but the bits on a car that go wrong tend to be brakes, suspension, springs, door locks, steering, tyres etc etc which will still be present on an EV and you can bet that there will be software issues with charging/discharging. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

There was a piece in the FT the other day about big oil companies looking at their future and they are making investments in various areas. They have looked at hydrogen and the view is that the infrastructure of cryogenic storage of liquid hydrogen just isn't there and will be very expensive to install for a market that doesn't exist yet. Whereas the electricity grid is there now so battery cars get a head start. I guess this is another VHS vs Betamax story where the better technology (Betamax) got swamped by mass adoption of VHS by the rental companies. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

dorsetfreelander wrote:

1, 13 year battery life. Has anyone got a laptop over 3 years old where the Li ion batteries are still working?

Quote:

The technology isn't really there yet as far as I can see.

and now Honest John

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road-tests/ja...road-test/

pab wrote:

It's not just the technology - the real issue is that no one seems to look at full-life costs (financial and environmental) when talking about electric vehicles. Manufacture of EVs can carry an environmental cost twice that of conventional cars due to the batteries. The electricity to power them has to come from somewhere, and that currently means coal, gas or nuclear as well as renewables..

One of the problems with battery packs has always been that if you have a few cells in series (actually this is true for parallel connected too) then as the pile discharges then inevitable one cell will discharge to zero before the others. If you keep drawing current then that cell starts to get reverse charged by the rest of the pack and that is when the damage occurs and its why you can never draw the full power of the battery. In the past I have stripped laptop batteries down and usually only one cell out of the 5 or 6 has gone and if you have enough old batteries you can get them going again. Bit more of a challenge with a car full. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Saw on twitter today by auto express an ipace got 5 stars .. price £81k , Jaguar bust be having a laugh or are they taking the P? Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

dorsetfreelander wrote:

One of the problems with battery packs has always been that if you have a few cells in series (actually this is true for parallel connected too) then as the pile discharges then inevitable one cell will discharge to zero before the others. If you keep drawing current then that cell starts to get reverse charged by the rest of the pack and that is when the damage occurs and its why you can never draw the full power of the battery. In the past I have stripped laptop batteries down and usually only one cell out of the 5 or 6 has gone and if you have enough old batteries you can get them going again. Bit more of a challenge with a car full.