Wednesday 28th February - 20:00 - 22:00 - Steyning Cricket Club
Motor engineer, David Lemon, will be discussing the challenges to be faced in switching to electric vehicles and asking what is the future for the internal combustion engine?

Some issues to consider:
• The change is/will be driven by the increasing high cost of producing, owning and maintaining fossil fuelled vehicles versus using electricity.

• An electric vehicle (EV) has about 160 moving parts versus about 10000 for a combustion engine vehicle and typically will be able to complete 500,000 to 1 million miles.

• Electric motors, have been around for ages, are simple, robust energy producers and are about 4 times more efficient than fossil fuelled motors that loose about 80% of their energy as heat.

• EV's, compared the fossil fuelled vehicles, have very rapid conversion of electric power to motion to accelerate the vehicle. and are able to use regeneration to recharge batteries.

• Electricity is available from a range of sources with renewable being the most desirable unlike oil that has major pollution issues, across all aspects, for the environment.

• Electrification of land transport is only a few short years away as technology develops efficiencies with EV options.

• Initially EV's will be owned, as is currently the model for fossil fuel vehicles, however there will be a reducing price tag as production scales increase to meet demand across various models of EV use.

• In short order vehicle ownership will begin to fall away as 'on demand self drive' EV options increase and 'change' the current ownership model.

• This will have the effect of saving households and business thousands per year and as a consequence put money into the economy in so many ways.

• A stage could be reached when it will be increasingly difficult to divest from a fossil fuel vehicle with these having to be abandoned to recycling having little compensation value as they have high non cost recoverable components.

• Computer management of EV's are reaching ever greater levels of efficiency and safety and will eventually lead to increasingly more people not driving at all - a boon for the infirm and aged.

• As data comparisons between drivers and 'self drive' vehicles confirm danger levels so will bans be put in place to limit or even restrict drivers completely from entry to cities.

• EV's, communicating with computer controlled traffic management systems, will deliver vastly reduced trip times as they navigate though a city, reducing this huge and growing frustration factor for drivers.

• Current battery technology delivers sufficient energy to satisfy the average daily commute distance of city drivers.

• Battery development is advancing to the stage where double the present distance between charges is likely thus extending the operational EV footprint for commuting beyond a city's confines.

• The mayors of Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens say they are implementing a ban on diesel fuelled vehicles in these cities by 2025 to improve air quality. Link: www.bbc.com/news/science environment-38170794.

• Many more cities will likely follow as they struggle to manage ever increasing air pollution levels that are causing many respiratory health issues for inhabitants.

Link for a comprehensive futuristic forecast by Stanford University economist: Tony Seba:www.afr.com/business/energy/oil/petrol-cars-will-vanish-in-8-years-says-us-report-from-stanford-economist-20170514-gw4r0u

rgodwin@telkomsa.net