Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

[Count Steer]

I've just been reading Top Gear magazine that I picked up in Asda and some of the new EVs look good, the Seat Born and Megane look good and the VW camper thing looks funky as well.

Is that the ID.Buzz? It's quite the cutest thing on the road.

When we were looking to replace Car 2 the only thing in the VW showroom that made my eyes light up was the original van version (at least I think that's how it's gone in terms of evolution). My eyes dimmed at the price - there's a limit to the £uplift that cute provides, but a camper version could be fun depending on all the usual - range, battery life blah blah blah.

I guess you'd still have to take a generator with you when you go camping...

Yes. And?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Could just plug it into the site hook up. Saw someone doing that at the last campsite I went to

[Count Steer]

Could just plug it into the site hook up. Saw someone doing that at the last campsite I went to

Amerika is a bit bigger than here though. When they go 'camping*' they take 4×4s with big engines, guns, skinning knives and lots of charcoal but not much fruit and veg.

* In LA that probably means something different.

[Taipan]

Could just plug it into the site hook up. Saw someone doing that at the last campsite I went to

You wont get away with it on many sites as the ones i used this year had signs up saying its banned. Some sites charge per electric unit now, so it may become an option?

[Taipan]

[ZRX61]

Yes. And?

Not exactly off-grid when you have to take your own *grid* with you. They apparently sell an EV Jeep, closest those things get to off-road is running over a planter in Macy's car park.

[Count Steer]

Yes. And?

Not exactly off-grid when you have to take your own *grid* with you. They apparently sell an EV Jeep, closest those things get to off-road is running over a planter in Macy's car park.

We've got a country here full of big 4×4s that the nearest they get to off-road is the house drive Not to mention camper vans that 'go wild' by making a cup of herbal tea in a National Trust car park.

You've got a bit more 'off-grid' space over there.

[Horse]

We've got a country here full of big 4×4s that the nearest they get to off-road is the house drive

Ex-CEO had a £100k+ black Range Rover. With a resident parking permit in the window, somewhere like Chelsea.

So one of the lads in the office decide to cyberstalk via Streetview to look for his house.

Car car, black RR, car car, black RR, car car, black RR, car car, black RR

And gave up.

But they did have to across a pavement to get parked - that's off-road

[Horse]

https://financialpost.com/commodities/e ... mare-tesla

Elon Musk's Cybertruck is already a production nightmare for Tesla

Musk says Tesla is digging its own grave with the Cybertruck, full of 'a lot of bells and whistles'

[Mr. Dazzle]

Said it loads of times....Tesla don't really know how to build cars!

They'll probably figure it out, they might even come up with some better ways of doing it. But it ain't like SpaceX, there are already many other well established players you're competing against, all of whom have figured out this "slim margins" thing. Fail fast and innovate doesn't work quite the same way in this market space.

Doubly so when it comes to trucks, the blue collar bread and butter. They're already a bit shit and cheap, so an expensive fancy one is less likely to fly like an expensive fancy saloon did.

We'll see.

[Yambo]

Why didn't he just buy a small Honda generator and plumb in the exhaust. Would have saved himself a lot of work. Be a shit video of course and that's the thing, did he do it for the YouTube channel (like the guy who deliberately crashed his plane and has just got 6 months jail) or because he likes making and filming stuff?

[Horse]

Said it loads of times....Tesla don't really know how to build cars!

I'm not the first person to wonder about the safety of the truck.

And that's not the usual 'self-driving aspects.

Instead, how does the angular bodywork affect pedestrian impacts and, if 'bullet proof', casualty extrication post-crash?

[Taipan]

Why didn't he just buy a small Honda generator and plumb in the exhaust. Would have saved himself a lot of work. Be a shit video of course and that's the thing, did he do it for the YouTube channel (like the guy who deliberately crashed his plane and has just got 6 months jail) or because he likes making and filming stuff?

As you said, it'd be a shit video. He would know better than most a nice quiet genny would have been a better bet but that ridiculous set up makes for laughs and grabs attention! Amused me anyway, so job jobbed!

And if what I read is true, there are quite a few Teslas driving around the rural areas of the USA with generators in the boots for back up reasons? Kinda makes sense really, in a bizarre sort of way!

[Rockburner]

We've got a country here full of big 4×4s that the nearest they get to off-road is the house drive Not to mention camper vans that 'go wild' by making a cup of herbal tea in a National Trust car park.

A couple of my mates are into big camper vans, they have these £100k things that are pretty big and they swear by "wild camping".

Now before I criticise, I will point out that they love it, they seem to have a brilliant time and about 30 weekends of the year both families are off having fun with kids all over the country, it's a real social thing that they enjoy and it does look great.

However, "wild camping" usually means they turn up at a country pub in the late afternoon and ask if they can stay the night in the car park if they drink and eat at the pub all evening - and apparently 99 times out of 100 the landlord is fine with it. They both came and stayed up here and did exactly that at the village pub, the landlord was fine with it as we spent a fair bit between us all.

I don't know how "wild" that is, we sometimes join them and when we go we turn up in the Range Rover and get a room in the same pub, saving the cost of a £100k motorhome

That's about all you're legally allowed to do in England.

In England you're not legally allowed to just park up in a random spot and spend the night unless it's land specifically set aside for the purpose (eg camp-sites, overnight lorry parking etc). Pub car parks are private land so it's down the landowner.

That's not to say that it doesn't happen - but sensible motorhome livers are careful not to leave any mess and not to intrude on any locals.

Scotland does allow proper "wild camping": ie if it's not private land you can camp over night (it's mostly intended to allow tent campers to overnight while hiking etc).

In Europe it's also dependant on the country, but the whole concept of motorhoming is far more accepted generally and most towns/villages have a set-aside parking area becuase the vast majority of motorhome users bring some business to the area, where in the UK they're generally viewed in the same way as "tinkers/travellers/scum" by councils and locals. (the occasional idiot motorhomer who likes to dump his grey water onto the road, or worse, his black water into storm drains, doesn't help that impression).

[Mr. Dazzle]

One of my old colleagues I occasionally speak to still has a leccy defender. As in, and old school one with some kind of after market conversion.

He does whole weekends of camping and "proper" off roading on a single charge. Just claimbing over rocks at 5mph is almost ideal for an electric vehicle in terms of efficiency. They of course drive down as many hills and they drive up and at 5-10mph you can get nearly 100% regen efficiency. As in, virtually all of the juice you use to get up a hill you get back again on the way down.

[Rockburner]

One of my old colleagues I occasionally speak to still has a leccy defender. As in, and old school one with some kind of after market conversion.

He does whole weekends of camping and "proper" off roading on a single charge. Just claimbing over rocks at 5mph is almost ideal for an electric vehicle in terms of efficiency. They of course drive down as many hills and they drive up and at 5-10mph you can get nearly 100% regen efficiency. As in, virtually all of the juice you use to get up a hill you get back again on the way down.

Pretty unique use-case-scenario though...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Old Defender owners are a pretty unique type over all

In a similar vein though, there are a few industrial applications which take advantage of the same thing. Quarries and the like, fully lorries go down, empty ones go up, never have to charge! Like a Funicular

[Rockburner]

Old Defender owners are a pretty unique type over all

In a similar vein though, there are a few industrial applications which take advantage of the same thing. Quarries and the like, fully lorries go down, empty ones go up, never have to charge! Like a Funicular

Presumably it doesn't quite work in a quarry where the loads are coming up though....

[Mr. Dazzle]

Old Defender owners are a pretty unique type over all

In a similar vein though, there are a few industrial applications which take advantage of the same thing. Quarries and the like, fully lorries go down, empty ones go up, never have to charge! Like a Funicular

Presumably it doesn't quite work in a quarry where the loads are coming up though....

No...but in all seriousness, it's sitll alot better than ICE. The lorries can regen on their way down still, just 'using' their own weight. Then they have to power back up with a load. Which of course means you only actually 'pay' for the load, unlike an ICE where you have to 'pay' for the whole weight of the lorry+load every time. Given than the lorry is a non-trivial chunk of the total mass involved (often >50%) you can see there are still huge savings to make.

[Rockburner]

That's about all you're legally allowed to do in England.

Unless you have a Transit van and a caravan, then you seem to be able to do whatever you want.

I think that tends to work well when you have a few like-minded friends/family members so that you can present overwhelming force to the guardians of the law that arrive to see what you're up to.