London to Edinburgh by electric car: it was quicker by stagecoach

[The Straight Story]

London to Edinburgh by electric car: it was quicker by stagecoach

In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).

What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. This did require 50 stops to change horses, but each of these took only two minutes, giving a total stopping time of just over an hour and a half.

Considering that horse power was carbon-free, emitting only organic fertiliser along the way, isn’t it time the eco-conscious BBC became more technologically savvy?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8262095/London-to-Edinburgh-by-electric-car-it-was-quicker-by-stagecoach.html

[FreakinDJ]

1. Tesla Electric Car would do it in a couple hours

200 mile range

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. or 6 hours plus the time for one charge

It's about 405 miles from the centre of London to Edinburgh. The driving would take about 3 hours to do 200 miles (70mph speed limit, and slower than that to get out of London).

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Why the wait to charge?

Just swap out pre-charged batteries, just like changing horse teams on the coach. The coach didn't have to wait for the horses to feed and rest. Now, if the battery stations used wind power to charge up the spare batteries...

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. I don't believe there are any battery swapping stations in Britain

And you'd have to find one at exactly the half way mark, since the distance is pretty much twice the range.

How common are they in the USA? How much do they cost?

[hlthe2b]

2. Oh, I imagine quite a bit of methane was released... LOL

That said, I would love to see horse-drawn transportation be revived in certain settings.

[virgogal]

3. And a couple of hundred horses were kept employed.

[Electric Monk]

4. I wonder how long it'd take to swap in new batteries if you had a fresh set waiting for you?

That'd make it a more apt comparison.

[The Straight Story]

6. Have a spare battery and an alternator charging it

;)

[Angry Dragon]

5. Took the train from Edinburgh to London

and beat both of them

[Terry in Austin]

7. The point being what, exactly?

That short-haul transportation doesn't do long-haul as well as long-haul transportation?

Mmmkay...

[madrchsod]

8. same problem here in the usa...

the first all electric cars had the same problem ones today...the problem of finding an outlet to recharge the batteries.

of course that was in the early 1900`s.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Oh, well then

How about if they were allowed a new electric car at each stop? Just put the one you're driving on charge, then get in a new one at the charging station?

The analogy would be proper then. What would the time be then?

[Electric Monk]

12. Eww, it smells like (see post #4) nt

[namahage]

13. Or, alternatively, letting the original horse team "recharge" as needed? n/t

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. Here's my dream hybrid...

I imagine a car with two high discharge/quick recharge batteries. Drive the wheels with one while the other is being recharged by a generator driven by a small internal combustion engine powered by whatever the hell works best... gasoline, hydrogen, McDonalds french fry grease, or whatever.

A friend of mine brings a small gasoline generator when we go on camping trips. We use it to make margaritas, watch satellite TV, or whatever. It runs all night on about two cups of gasoline and has the capacity to power up to four 110 volt appliances.

Why is it that we can't couple that generator or one like it to charge one high discharge battery while the other powers the wheels of a vehicle, and switch automatically between the two: Charge one while the other drives the vehicle. Switch to the other when it has given its all to drive the car down the road.

This GREATLY reduces the weight of the batteries needed to get from one place to the other, negates the need to plug a car into an external power source and wait while the battery recharges, and reduces consumption of fossil fuels exponentially.

[Motown_Johnny]

15. Many countries are working with systems that swap out batteries

just like anything else that uses a battery


this is a pretty bad test, why use a car with only a 100 mile range for a 400 mile test