Peter wrote:
Even distance commuting could be solved
Very few people distance commute. UK figures show that the vast majority of car commutes are under 10 miles. Distance commuting can be better reduced by other means.
Most cars have very low utilisation. There are 168 hours in a week – my car gets used about 2 hours a week, if it were electric that would leave 166 hours a week to charge it.
Hmmm I suggest living in the south east of the UK 
I think people are underestimating how complex the battery packs are and how tightly integrated in to the vehicle they are – both from a mechanical and technical point of view.
The battery in my car is literally wrapped around part of the driveshaft, and doesn’t just have electrical connections, the air conditioning pipework runs through it. This is used to both cool and pre-warm them as necessary.
I think it would be all but impossible to come up with a generic solution.
Even in the SE, and even if you were using your car 20 hours a week (the mere thought makes me lose the will to live), that still leaves 148 hours a week for charging. According to DfT figures most long commutes are done by train, not car.
Loads of people drive 20hrs a week; if not to work then generally. We have done this many times in the “electric vehicles” etc threads but there are loads of people who do drive distances, if not daily then occassionally, and in most markets people are looking for convergence.
That is why e.g. mobile phones have taken off. They do so many things, and an increasing % of the population can use them for all their comms and media consumption needs, plus taking selfies for posting on social media
Currently there is only a very small % of the population which can accurately state that a short range car (and with a crap heater, etc) will do 99-100% of their needs. Probably a lot of people in London, but London is a special case of people with (a) loads of money and (b) nowhere to park anything bigger than a Smart.
For values of “loads of people” that’s a small minority of the driving population at large. (And no doubt they are also spending much of that time stuck in traffic jams, where electric cars consume virtually no power).
Peter wrote:
Currently there is only a very small % of the population which can accurately state that a short range car (and with a crap heater, etc) will do 99-100% of their needs
Exactly. And by my observation a buyer does not typically buy a car to cover 90% of the intended service over say a year, they choose a car that will do 99% of what they need: witness the number of four or six seat cars carrying one person most of the time. A number people I know have Teslas, I’ve noticed none of them are single and all them have a spouse with a gasoline powered car.
I drive 45 miles per day average over a year, with the peak days being about 700 or 800 miles. If I were to buy a current electric car the motivation would be free electricity (which is the case where I work), it would have to be inexpensive (used low mileage electric Fiats are currently about $9K USD, which might pencil out). We wouldn’t sell any of our other three cars – which would cause a storage and insurance cost problem. Four cars for two people is a bit of a burden.
Quick change robotically swapped battery packs would make an electric car a lot more attractive for my use and I think a lot of other people’s use. I think if fuel cost ever rises to the point where people are buying electric cars to save money, not spend it, something along those lines will be introduced, along with government mandated standardization.
the motivation would be free electricity (which is the case where I work),
I am sure this is true for many right now, but I am equally sure it won’t be once too many people start charging their cars at work. Where my office is, one guy (a manager) is charging his electric car all day, but he’s the only one. And, BTW, FWIW, his twice a week commute is 300 miles, of which 30 miles is done on the battery and the other 270 on diesel when the battery goes flat.
I would be very tempted to get a little electric car for driving to work, or even to the airport. We have a good setup, with a garage so much less need for a working heater in the electric car. And diesel cars have rubbish heaters anyway; whereas a petrol car (even my previous 3 litre 220HP Soarer) would produce heat in a couple of minutes, the diesel VW doesn’t make any for maybe 15 minutes. But we also have other cars, so no space in the garage. Especially by the time I paid the electricity company for a 3 phase supply (probably 2-5k) as a larger electric car would require, it would be a futile exercise in champagne socialism. Some can get 3 phase easily because in the countryside you often have the 4 wires on the poles in the street (I did it in 1996 for under 1k, in such a situation, for a 45kW swimming pool heater, on cheap night electricity, in the house my ex now has 
) but for most it is an awful lot of digging up streets.
I think if fuel cost ever rises to the point where people are buying electric cars to save money, not spend it, something along those lines will be introduced, along with government mandated standardization.
Just think of the massive upheaval though. Especially as electric cars are made “everywhere but your own country” so no single government could legislate alone. In the US they could do it, perhaps.
Different needs I guess, but I would think Norway is much colder that SE England. No problem with heaters in electric cars here. They are instant on, and through apps you can program them to heat up the car before you drive (they have lots of battery power for heating and when plugged in it used power from the grid)
Cartridges will never happen unless batteries shrink in size by a factor 20 at least. Maybe in 100 years.
The main problem is when people reach a certain age, then “new stuff” becomes less tempting. It just takes longer before the switch over from half empty to half full.
It’s a bit of a generalisation to say that all diesel cars have crap heaters. My last two gave instantaneous heat via a supplementary electric heater. This was standard equipment.
