15-10-2019, 11:54 AM
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against electric cars, but for really long runs they are not quite there. One of the problems is the difference in claimed range and that which actually is available in real terms. A good pal of mine has a part time job delivering cars for BMW all over the country. He told me of a run he had to do to take a BMW i3 from their depot in Thorne (near Doncaster) to somewhere south of Bristol.
The i3 is an electric vehicle with a 650cc twin cylinder petrol engine that kicks in when the battery runs low in order to generate electricity for the electric motors. The engine doesn't drive the wheels, well not directly anyway - it just acts as a generator. This particular journey involved a long run on the motorway network, down the M18, the M1, the M42 and the M5. As a result the car's battery pack used up its charge pretty quickly running at motorway cruising speeds and without any braking to recharge the batteries the donkey engine cut in to keep things going. OK you might think. The problem is that the i3 only has a tiny fuel tank and motorway speeds meant that the donkey engine was working flat out trying to keep pace with the demand. This meant that between Thorne and Bristol my mate had to stop several times to fill the tiny fuel tank. What the fuel consumption was for the entire journey I have no idea but it just highlights even the disadvantages with a range extending engine in certain circumstances. Nothing is pefect.
The i3 is an electric vehicle with a 650cc twin cylinder petrol engine that kicks in when the battery runs low in order to generate electricity for the electric motors. The engine doesn't drive the wheels, well not directly anyway - it just acts as a generator. This particular journey involved a long run on the motorway network, down the M18, the M1, the M42 and the M5. As a result the car's battery pack used up its charge pretty quickly running at motorway cruising speeds and without any braking to recharge the batteries the donkey engine cut in to keep things going. OK you might think. The problem is that the i3 only has a tiny fuel tank and motorway speeds meant that the donkey engine was working flat out trying to keep pace with the demand. This meant that between Thorne and Bristol my mate had to stop several times to fill the tiny fuel tank. What the fuel consumption was for the entire journey I have no idea but it just highlights even the disadvantages with a range extending engine in certain circumstances. Nothing is pefect.