Owen778

Ah! Then he is wrong, not confusing.

Pulaski

I can agree with that.

dj6372

Nissan Leaf AKA Marmite

Love it or loathe it

I live in the wonderful State of Cali, s'up dude

Anyway always makes me raise an eyebrow to see a Tesla and Aston Martin parked next to each other in our apartment block

I know where my money would go, the one covered in my drool..............

sir_eccles

Power from the atom was never so disappointing.

Pulaski

Ironic isn't it, to produce electricity using nuclear power requires steam technology that the Victorian engineers built empires with, and even the Romans were aware of (primitive rotating steam toys).

Boomhauer

Caterpillar who has stuck with mechanical drive , but they do offer Diesel-Electric versions also.

Some mines also utilize a catenary system, similar to electric trains, that augment the diesel-electric drive of the trucks with eletricity from the cantenary system. The added eletrical juice is for loaded trucks going up a grade.

Boomhauer

If I had the money, I'd rather get a trophy truck/pre-runner, but the particular 2 I like cost more than any Aston Martin model except the One-77 .

They start off with a Ford Raptor, which is heavily modified. Cost :$550 to over $650K
Stewart's Raceworks | Specializing in Designing, Building and Maintaining a Variety of Custom Off-Road Race Trucks and Luxury Prerunners.

http://www.jimcorace.com/race-vehicl...ck-pre-runner/

Steerpike

The point being made is that there are many examples out there of two-stage (or multi-stage) power delivery systems; this is not something unique to modern hybrid cars. In many cases, the final delivery stage is electric motors driving the wheels, because there are numerous advantages to an electric 'final stage'. Without getting technical, electric motors run over a wide speed range without the need for "gearboxes", while other forms of power run best at a single speed, or within a narrow band (hence the need for a 'gearbox' in gas/diesel cars).

Having a final stage that is electric allows for multiple options for the 'first stage' - batteries, gasoline engine, or some other to-be-developed source.

uk_grenada

Jaguar made a straight 6 4 litre engine for the army, light tanks, the idea was that it was designed to run on anything from gin to jet a1 to old engine oil, achieved by using variable fuel heating, plus the ability to use spark plugs or compression ignition a la diesel. Now that might be useful? I know merc diesels favour old chip fat but the smell of simmered cod from the exhaust is just too much to bear.

uk_grenada

Modern cruise liners are mainly diesel electric, they use props in pods below the ship that can be swapped out quickly, all to keep them earning money constantly. Giga container ships on the other hand just minimise running costs, and use typically 1 diesel engine and 1 prop though i know a hilarious story. I used to work for the moller brothers aka maersk shipping. A dutchman called hans ran a fleet of rental ships, mainly for the oil explotation industry. One coming over the atlantic, reported a vibration from a propshaft. This normally means youve damaged a prop passing a submerged tree or russian submarine. Hans ordered a dry dock in rotterdam and ordered a new prop from korea which was flown halfway round the world in an antonov. The ship arrived, it was a bite our of a prop, they unscrewed it, but the new one didnt fit. He had. Ordered one for the sister vessel, not the same, so he had to order another one, and keep the vessel in drydock at 10k an hour for 2 days. This cost maersk a million, but being danish, hans was mercilessly ribbed for. 6 months by everyone, but he didnt lose his job. As they say, (being richer than god, 40% of denmarks gdp helps) we expect our people to take business risks, and business mistakes happen, nobody died, no safety rule was broken, so we are content. Good co to work for.

Pulaski

Interestingly, the diesel engines used in the high speed passenger trains (HSTs, the first ones with the wedge-shaped nose) built in the UK in the late 70's and early 80's, used marine diesel engines (one at each end of the train). The engines had been used in/designed for use as generators in warships, and perhaps other marine applications, and worked well running at constant speed/load for hours or days at a time; they did not work so well run under heavy load for several minutes, moderate load for 20-60 minutes, then idled for ten minutes, before repeating the cycle, ..... as happens when you install your marine diesel engines in passenger trains. Unsurprisingly that caused noticeable reliability issues for BR.

Steerpike

Was driving up I5 earlier this month on the way back from AZ, and saw this at a remote rest area - middle of nowhere. I saw a similar one a hundred miles or so further down, on an earlier trip. Tesla have implemented a network of charging stations separated by 1-200 miles so you can reasonably drive long distances. With a 50% charge taking only 20 minutes, that's not a bad time - a gas stop can easily take 10 minutes if you take a leak and/or grab a snack. There were another 8 or so stations around the corner from the ones shown.

The map on this page shows that there are 591 supercharger stations across the country. https://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger

markcst

Loads of 2nd Hand Leafs in and around Dallas.

I'll be getting a Spark for the missus though. Not convinced of the Leafs battery longevity.

tom169

I don't, but one day I would like to build an electric car conversation using a Nissan Leaf battery or similar.

Pulaski

It's easy to talk about that sort of project!