Running costs of electric cars vs petrol cars according to size

TonyM:

This is a strong argument for standardization of battery pack formats, electrical characteristics, connections etc. across brands, so that for long journeys recharge could simply be by swapping your depleted battery for a fully charged one....(snip!)

Well the motorbike folk are ahead of you    honda, yamaha, kawasaki, suzuki standardise electric bike batteries


and also

"universal" electric motorcycle standard - though the advert also shows a golf buggy...


Now all we need is a few cheaper car makers to re-use these electric jerry cans ('mobile power pack" apparently the word 'battery' is so old fashioned... ) in some sort of array, at perhaps 48V, and 20Ahr ~ 1kWh capacity nominal  each you may need  groups of 20 or more for typical car, but nothing that could not be swapped out by forklift or something like an engine hoist, comparable at worst to changing a clutch or gearbox certainly. (and both are long but not difficult DIY jobs, at least in my experience)


Mike.

JoeB: 
 

Alex Barrett: 

Slightly off topic here. I know an owner of a hybrid car. He never charges it up at an E.V.  charging point. He says that it just charges itself up when he drives it. Efficiency? Very low.

Why is the efficiency very low? Our little Yaris hybrid exceeds most cars on the road for efficiency. A little electrical storage overcomes a lot of shortcomings in a conventional ICE car.

it's far more efficient to plug the hybrid in and charge overnight on cheap electricity than to charge it from the petrol engine as you're driving along. 
Also means the battery probably spends a lot of its life in a very low state of charge, depending on the battery technology that could reduce the life/capacity of the battery. 

 

What I'm saying is that the hybrid is far more efficient than 99% of the cars on the road. As to lifespan, Toyota have been doing these for many years, longer than almost anyone else. Adding a small battery to a conventional car gives a significant improvement in efficiency, given that our modern cars spend a lot of time at junctions and inching along in queues.

I had to drive into London yesterday, and it appears the choice of city car for a large proportion of residents is something like a Range Rover or large Mercedes estate. It seems that surcharges have little effect upon vehicle choice.

They need SUVs for going off-road (aka parking on the pavement)