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[w3526602]

Hi,

Some Many years ago, I read an article about a Triumph Herald that had been converted to battery power, apparently successfully. I think it had about a 50 mile range.  I think the batteries were hidden under the bonnet.

In an effort to retrace my steps, I have just Googled BATTERY POWERED TRIUMPH HERALD.

Lots of hits (many were for toys) but most were for Triumph Spitfires.  Conversion kits seemed to be about £18,000 to £30,000, and located in California. I have not investigated further.

How many of us  could live with a daily 50 mile range? I certainly could ... I seldom do more than 6 miles, but probably six days a week. Barbara's 2019 (June?) Hyundai is now approaching 3,000 miles on the milometer, I suppose it could be argued that travelling by taxi would have been cheaper. I would argue that (outside of London), a taxi will travel almost as many miles empty, as it does when carrying a passenger, which from a pollution viewpoint, is not a good thing.

If push came to shove, I would rethink a suggestion that I made some months ago ... Take a Series Landy, and remove the engine, radiator, battery, etc, (300kg?) and fill the void with batteries. Then fit an electric motor from a retired fork truck, milk float, ex-WD bomb-trolley, or WHY, hung under the tub floor, and driving the gearbox, via a short prop-shaft connected to the PTO output on the back of the gearbox.  I agree that you don't need a gearbox with an electric motor ... right up to the time that you do.  Would a gearbox allow a smaller motor in a hilly district? And anyway, you might need four wheel drive, occasionally.

I believe there are a lot of Citroen 2CVs running around with a couple of PP9s under the driver's seat.

There is a forum on t'Net, for milk-float enthusiasts, and breakers who specialise in milk-floats.

Hmm! Barbara keeps asking me what I want for Xmas.     How about an invalid buggy, same as hers, (£2.000) fitted with a "street legal kit"? 4x4?

602

[mrutty]

Nope can't cope with 50 miles. The new 'lets ban petrol' gang seem to have no idea about living in the countryside. Yes in lockdown I have not had to go far but normally I'm looking at a 4 hour drive most weeks each way. Oddly my son and I were having the battery debate at the weekend. So if I travel 4 hours and then catch the train into town is the plan to have charging points at every single parking space? Otherwise I come back from Town, get in my car and have to find a charging point for an hour. Now I'm looking at 5 hours each way.

Also all of these batteries will need resources mined and currently this looks like Cornwall for the UK so what will be used to power the diggers oh yes petrol!

And gets better the MoD will be growing their own fuel coz its more important to be a green armed forces than a fully funded one. Oh and these green fuels will be grown where? Not on UK farm land coz 'we' want to plant trees on them - in a country that has to import 50% of its food AND HUGE amounts of the country can only support grazing but 'we' want you to reduce your meat intake.

Sorry soap box moment lol

[rustylandrovers]

Nope can't cope with 50 miles. The new 'lets ban petrol' gang seem to have no idea about living in the countryside. Yes in lockdown I have not had to go far but normally I'm looking at a 4 hour drive most weeks each way. Oddly my son and I were having the battery debate at the weekend. So if I travel 4 hours and then catch the train into town is the plan to have charging points at every single parking space? Otherwise I come back from Town, get in my car and have to find a charging point for an hour. Now I'm looking at 5 hours each way.

Also all of these batteries will need resources mined and currently this looks like Cornwall for the UK so what will be used to power the diggers oh yes petrol!

And gets better the MoD will be growing their own fuel coz its more important to be a green armed forces than a fully funded one. Oh and these green fuels will be grown where? Not on UK farm land coz 'we' want to plant trees on them - in a country that has to import 50% of its food AND HUGE amounts of the country can only support grazing but 'we' want you to reduce your meat intake.

Sorry soap box moment lol

The alternative is the status quo. How's that working out?

[mrutty]

But all lorries, tractors, etc will remain on fossil based fuels.

Its the same as the oh lets move everyone away from gas - OK but the National Grid has 5% spare capacity so where is the investment to consume that remaining 5%. Oh and again in the sticks we don't have single power sources coz we get power cuts a lot. In fact the guy down the road got a heat sink system fitted and then realised that it only works with mains power to run the pumps, suddenly he's fitted a wood burner.

I agree we need to make changes but its all about 'quick wins' that arn't quick wins. For example if each school in the UK built a living wall 6 ft high by 12 foot long thats over 50 arces of much needed plant life in the places where greenery is missing. Every new commercial building in the UK needing to have solar it another hit (rather than filling fields that we could use to produce food and thus reduce carbon miles). Solar panels on the top of each petrol station is over 200 acres (assuming a 12ft sq roof).

Lots of different options out there.

[Wittsend]

.... and what do jet aircraft run on 

.... and all these giant container ships 

[ChrisJC]

Our leaders need to set out hugely ambitious targets and provide motivation for them.

They may be unachievable with today's technology, but they are not unachievable.

Engineers and scientists (the underrated part of our society) will take us there.

The naysayers are those people who think their knowledge is the total sum of all knowledge for now and the future, upon which they base their pronouncements.

That's my soapbox moment.

Chris.

[Davidss]

ChrisJC, Thank you.

[vod80]

The naysayers are those people who think their knowledge is the total sum of all knowledge for now and the future, upon which they base their pronouncements.

The trouble is... there are no simple answers. The replacements are rarely better than the existing. Battery powered cars still run on energy that has to be got to the car, for example. For sure, generating the energy outside of cities makes life better for the city dwellers but there is a cost for those next to the generation plant, be that coal fired/nuclear/windfarm etc.

And the the batteries are not really very nice things either. Recycling them will resuire energy and produce all sorts of by-products of differing toxicity.

No simple answers.

[ChrisJC]

No simple answers.

That is indeed true. But it is not the same as saying there are no answers.

You can be sure that in 100 years time, those people will look back at our fossil fuel burning antics with disgust and outrage, particularly those of us who are hanging on to the obviously environmentally catastrophic hobbies for pure pleasure!

And I wouldn't be surprised to see fossil fuel / automotive memorabilia get the 'Colston' treatment in time as it will be viewed with such disgust. Particularly when climate change does start to have real effects (like London being underwater, not a spot more rain than normal).

We cannot envisage those days ourselves, but they will come, and we will be lambasted for not doing more sooner.

Chris.

[Davidss]

... No simple answers.

I'm not sure anyone is claiming the answers are 'simple', but that shouldn't stop us exploring, and developing more effective solutions, in the same way liquid fuelled engines have developed over the last ~120 years.

Regards.

[vod80]

Well, I agree with you both but my thesis, if you will, is that merely changing fossil fuel consumption to battery power will not appreciably change the situation, probably only exacerbate things (not only more energy consumption now, toxic waste on top)

If you look at the traffic jams on the roads around the world it’s clear that we need a societal level reset.

That’s not going to be so easy although, perhaps CoViD has shown that we can do more from home than we thought...

C’est tout!