Electric Seven

[Dave Mann]

  Plymouth Enterprise 20MW.jpg (Size: 321.63 KB / Downloads: 388) Ah when the wind doesn't blow we have STOR Short Term Operating Reserve, anybody with some spare cash builds a diesel generator power station and gives the keys to the National Grid, the photo shows one in Plymouth.

[Tony Griffiths]

Here's a comment I lifted from the paper the other day:
"There currently around 20,000 public charging points in Britain, with another 20,000 private ones - and the SMMT reckons we'll need around 2.3 million by 2030. Only 2.26 million to go - and I make that about 4,750 per week (allowing for holidays). Good luck with that, Greenies!
Now, the “ultra-rapid" chargers that "can charge cars in a matter of minutes". Sounds exciting, but, why are there are so few of them? Here's the reason: take the tiny, useless Renault Zoe - battery 52kWhr, 400-Volt lithium - and do some rough calculations on the current / voltage needed to put 80% of nominal charge into it in five minutes. Feel free to check my working: plugged into a 3-phase, 440-Volt supply that’s over 100 Amps - but how many homes have a 3-phase supply? virtually none. Use the domestic 220-Volt single-phase supply and the power required rises to over 220 Amps - but the typical house breaker trips at 65 Amps - so, that’s a non-starter.
Of course, Motorway service stations and ordinary filling stations have a 3-phase supply, but what if they fit twenty ultra-rapid chargers? With all in use, that's about 2,000 Amps, with two lots of cabling to split the load into something manageable, with each of the three cores (plus earth) being 630 sq. mm. in cross-sectional area, and each core 38 mm in dia. So, maybe the services on the M25, and groups of local garages can club together and buy their own power station driven by a nuclear sub-type reactor from Rolls-Royce? Twenty chargers on a packed M25 - not really enough is it, so, let’s go to forty. Operating simultaneously that’s 0.25MW x 40 = 10 Megawatts of power. That’s a lot of electricity – enough to power 5000 homes - just for one charging station, operating at full capacity. The grid can barely service current requirements – so where will we find 10s of gigawatts of extra power, to recharge a 100% EV fleet? Compare this to a petrol filling station, which is essentially just a big underground tank and a pump. The power is conveniently stored in liquid form, so its much easier and cheaper to handle and deliver. Without some major breakthroughs, all-electric national vehicle fleets are just as much of a fantasy as the rest of the green package of climate “solutions”. Something EV manufacturers hide about rapid-charge stations is that the battery gets very hot - and a quarter megawatt of heat is not easy to dissipate. The Nernst equation says that heat kills cycle life (above ~40C, about 2x per 10C). You can rapid charge often for convenience, but doing so will kill the battery sooner rather than later. Perhaps an undisclosed EV financial warranty liability? My Jaguar iPace has a claimed range of 292 miles, manages 223 on the internal computer at best and could only manage 172 miles last December before running out. Basically, it's an excellent local shopping run-around but absolutely useless as a means of transportation. Thankfully it is leased and will be going back to Jaguar. "

[Reckless Rat]

My son has a SEAT Mii as a second car and it will be due to be changed later in the year. He lives in Stuttgart which is very "green" in its political outlook and has already banned all diesel cars except Euro 5 & 6. His garage has been trying to sell him an all electric Mii as a replacement but there are no public charging points near where he lives, he has no private parking and has to park on the street, IF there is a space available. Explain to me how that works, says he to the salesman...

[Tony Griffiths]

Ah when the wind doesn't blow we have STOR Short Term Operating Reserve, anybody with some spare cash builds a diesel generator power station and gives the keys to the National Grid, the photo shows one in Plymouth.

First time I've seen a picture of one of these. Most are US-owned, the CEO of the company saying, in public, that they are "A licence to print money" - they're paid even when not generating power.

[Graham Barker]

Would love to see some photos of the electric A7 that is the subject of the original post. Also some info on the conversion. Any chance?

[Tony Griffiths]

Discovered in a hitherto secret factory publicity file, this prototype electric-fan powered Chummy was inspired by the remarkable French Leyat. Sadly, its hill-climbing ability failed to match the storming performance of the standard car although the claimed range, at 7 miles, was judged entirely adequate. As the Leyat had rear-wheel steering, the designers concluded that as the Seven was already so equipped, there was no need for any further modifications to the chassis.

[Dave Mann]

        Here's a photo of the car showing the works. it's been tested round the neighborhood roads which was done while I wasn't around. It has a 8Kw motor driving the prop shaft via a twin Vee belt pulleys giving a 3:1 ratio.

[Mark R]

Thank you for putting the images up. Any more details would be interesting, motor and battery details, what voltage is being run etc, if indeed you know them or can find them out. It looks to be a nice tidy conversion leaving the possibility of converting back if someone in the future wished.

I bought a similar era 4 seat tourer quite a while back which the person selling it was planning to convert to electric using the rear axle from a G-wiz, hence the car came with no engine and gearbox when I bought it.

[Graham Barker]

Thanks for putting up the photos.  Very interesting,  
Quite a simple  and neat conversion.  I guess that the weight of the motor gearbox and radiator would be similar to the weight of the electric motor and batteries. So that shouldn't make the handling any worse than your typical Austin Seven provided some petrol or water is in the fuel tank to keep the rear end at the design weight.

[Tony Griffiths]

The ideal conversion would be entirely encased in a hollowed-out engine, utterly silent in operation and powered by AA batteries inside the U-section of the chassis frame. Connected to the motor - and other elements of the car - would be an array of sensors feeding a computer with the correct data to play, through loudspeakers, a convincing recording of an A7 engine and gearbox at work. Having demonstrated the success of this master forgery, I would then rip it all out and go back to driving a real Seven. Here you are, the modern version: https://www.spotlightmetal.com/a-differe...-a-700667/