Top Gear Clarkson & May in Lincoln recharging electric cars

[pcuimac]

They were totally dishonest. They started of with just enough stored energy for 30 miles but never mention that fact. So they were willfully dumb to piss onto the electric cars.

They love combustion engines and don´t like to be doing the right thing. Which in the end is using an e-bike.

[cammyammy]

Electric cars are a bit obselete these days. Yes they are OK for short commutes but they dont last nearly as long as petrol/deisel cars before they need a major service of battery/motor. And that will not be cheap as they are not common parts. Also the fact that they take many hours to fully charge instantly putes them leagues behind for most people. Hydrogen full cells are way forward for sure, Its just the infrastructure that needs to develop. Then cars like these will be fully redundant.

[antonioscheel]

If do not like electric that is your choice but i will tell you i have an electric car goes only 70km but that's all i need! i pay $0 for power as i have solar panels. when i want to go somewhere i take an airplane with all that money i save from bills! or i just hire a car for big trips! cause hire cars have insurances so if there is a break down, i get a replacement if something does! also i do not accumulate the K's on my car! win win!

[maxydude98]

That ain't no Mitsubishi i, that's a Peugoet. Well they have a partnership, which explains the shape of the Peugeot.

[yertv98]

if Clarkson and May are here with a Mitsu. i and a nissan leaf does that mean Hammond's in a Chevy Volt?

[Stellar001100]

Nah, not thinking about switching to electric cars anytime soon... not until they can fully charge a battery as quickly as I can put 12 gallons into a traditional car.

[TheSaltyAdmiral]

@Stellar001100

Then you can switch today. Unless you have a very unusual driving pattern you will actually never have to stop anywhere to fill up. You simply wake up to a "full tank" every morning.

[alexplayero]

Electric cars suck. I want the throat roar of good cars like lambo's

[earthwizz]

Clarkson and friends dishonestly lauding the qualities of redundant technology and totally dismissing its inevitable demise, just like those chaps in cardigans orgasming over steam engines. Clarkson wets his pants over the Arial Atom. It must really gall that luddite that the electric Atom is even faster. We're getting closer to some really high performance vehicles instead of this noisy old rubbish.

[Bischlarbo69]

@earthwizz You obviously drive a Satan-fueled diesel car. Commit suicide. Please

[earthwizz]

@Bischlarbo69 And you, obviously, can't read. I've been travelling electric for 10 years.

[Bischlarbo69]

@earthwizz ah that explains it, even better....

[m1aws]

They raced the car around for 40 miles the day before then knowingly went on a trip to break down. Then finding it still had plenty of charge they drove around Lincoln for another ten miles to ensure the charge was too low to get to Scunthorpe.

Little did they know Nissan fitted a tracker which monitored their consumption and route.

Top Gear is sponsored by Shell.

It takes 7.5KWH to process one gallon of fuel which will take this car 6x further than any fuel car.

[j101saar]

This Top Gear show was a lie. See evworld dot com forward slash currents dot cfm?jid=200. Clarkson set off with 30 miles of range in the Leaf, and had to drive around Lincoln for 10 miles to make it go flat! Didn't tell us that though. Plus recharge time shown was based on 120V - not 240V. Disgusting - and I'm a fan of the show usually.

[CCmachine]

Top gear tried to drive with no planning as to where they would charge. It's 40 miles from Lincoln to Cleethorpes. If you planned it correctly you would either use a petrol vehicle or a fast charger, which would take only 15 minutes or less to give you the 40 miles extra range you needed.

I don't know why it said it would take 13 hours to charge, it should take about 10 from empty. Even a slow charge would need only 3-4 hours to charge up to 40 miles of range. Silly Top Gear.

[neychev]

@CCmachine the car dashboard said first 11h then 13h, it is not if they made that up

[Oldjohn52]

No technological leap required!

[Oldjohn52]

Like, when manufacturers agreed on how big to make a fuel filler neck, all the same sized openings, ya know?

[Oldjohn52]

I was just trying to say that it is technically possible to make a universal battery pack for electric cars. It would require a bit of standardizing

[Oldjohn52]

Battery swop stations will replace refueling stops. Pull in swap battery pak and drive out about fifteen minutes to swap. Leased batteries. Job done

[njones1091]

@Oldjohn52 Do you know where the batteries are located on a Nissan Leaf? when Nissan talks about Battery leasing they mean from their dealerships when they need to be replaced. Good try not practical enough. Not to mention the only charging stations are located in California currently

[m1aws]

@njones1091 Every garage has a mains socket. Or fit an outdoor one on your house.

Why suffer going to the fuel pumps, in all weathers, queuing up, filling up and messing around with money?

[no1froggy]

@Oldjohn52 You do realise the Leaf has 48 batteries dont you?.

[vexelworrior]

their showing the car in a negative way caveman

[environmentfollower]

Must see: search for Top Gear Eco Special

[xDamianoo]

@environmentfollower just epic :) The best Top Gear episode I have ever seen!

[xDamianoo]

A man who is creating Top Gear’s script should type this in google “850 Miles In A Tesla Roadster In A Weekend” and then realise his stupidity

[macnerd93]

@xDamianoo no one cares :P you don't need to keep repeating yourself on several videos :P, a Tesla is what $110,000 what normal person is willing to pay that to drive 850 miles in a car over a weekend what would most likely take hours to recharge between points? I'm much rather spend the money on an Audi R8 :P

[xDamianoo]

@macnerd93 hours to recharge LOL please read carefully an article that will show when you type in google "850 Miles In A Tesla Roadster In A Weekend"

[macnerd93]

@xDamianoo i'm also not talking about the Tesla, because quite frankly people with the money who can afford one in the first place would buy something much superior. I'm talking about average electric cars such as the ones in this video, and also G-Wizzes. Batteries which are just a chemical reaction taking place get weaker over time and they will eventually diminish I read often about battery technology since I"m a tech head always reading about new batteries for laptops and stuff,

[xDamianoo]

@macnerd93 Fuel Cell car has the same electric motor as electric car with batteries (it’s FCEV Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle). Besides of heavy and solid tank in FCEV the only difference between these two types of electric cars is: in BEV electric motor is powered by electricity from batteries while in FCEV there is a Fuel Cell that produces an electricity from hydrogen.

[xDamianoo]

@macnerd93 OK think which way will be more efficient.

1 use electricy from any source to produce H2 to use it in very expensive fuel cell to produce electricity that powers an electric motor

2 use use electricy from any source to charge battery that powers an electric motor.

[xDamianoo]

@macnerd93 "Batteries which are just a chemical reaction taking place get weaker over time and they will eventually diminish I read often about battery technology since I"m a tech head always reading about new batteries for laptops and stuff"

I have Lithium-ion battery in my laptop and mobile phone, have no problem with them. Really don't need a mobile that is powered by NiMH batteries or petrol LOL Anyway petrol can explode, it happends in reality, same hydrogen is highly explosive!

[xDamianoo]

@macnerd93 and I think you should find out about upcoming 2012 Tesla Model S. A version with 300 miles range will be available for 77 000 $ and 160 miles battery pack for 57 000$. and It looks outstanding very similar to Aston Martin Rapide :) I'm a big fan of electric cars and really don't like all false myths about them. That's why I'm commenting, because most of the people has almost no knowledge about EVs so they can believe that they're dull and unpractical.

[macnerd93]

@xDamianoo but the fact is lol no one cares electric cars are useless there is only one proper alternative and that will be Hydrogen powered cars like the FCX Clarity and I'm all for that, the electric car is backwards technology its fate is sealed for the amount of time it takes to recharge and the limited range, plus Lith-ion batteries can be extremely dangerous when exposed to an oxygen environment. Remember them exploding laptops a few years back :P, imagine being in a crash in one :O

[macnerd93]

@xDamianoo i'd much rather have an Aston Martine Rapide, also I think EV & Hydrogen cars are going to be major rivals, just like Betamax & VHS, VHS & DVD, HD-DVD & Blu-ray. I bet in the next 10 years or so the battery powered EV will cease to exist with the majority still being petrol and or Hydrogen

[macnerd93]

Wouldn't an electric car be more expensive in the long run say I wanted to go from Edinburgh all the way London which is about 400 miles, what use would an electric car be there, i'd have to stay at several times along the way waiting for the thing it to recharge lol

[xDamianoo]

@macnerd93 I wanted to go from Edinburgh all the way London which is about 400 miles, what use would an electric car be there, i'd have to stay at several times along the way waiting for the thing it to recharge lol

just watch on YT "24 hour EV Road Trip". As you can see on this vid longer trips in EV are possible even now. Note that in the future batteries will have much better specs = much greater range on a single charge. And the number of fast charging points will skyrocket in a few years.

[alexlam24]

topgear roadtrip with EV cars?

[RichTurtle32]

Cool :-)

[Nooblet68]

That must suck...

[jodark]

@toyotaprius79 No. They are just pointing out the obvious weaknesses of EVs by demonstrating that you can't drive very far in them.

If you want to tell me this is better tech, then it better be better tech and perform better. But it isn't.

[toyotaprius79]

@flameybadger That's racism, that doesn't give you any balls to do so.

[Jogeta5]

Did they not charge the cars properly? Nissan leaf's range is 100 miles.

Is there somewhere they can push the cars hard enough to use the power off?

[DerrenBrown100]

@daveklam1 You're a cunt.

[edeyb1234]

Did you fall down the stairs at 12:55?

[xDamianoo]

Clarkson should note that those electric cars have much better range than a Ford GT that he previously owned. If there weren't so much petrol stations in the world it would stuck quite fast LOL

Just wait for more public fast chargers and a better battery packs and a problem of EVs' limited range will disappear :)

[ncfatcyclist]

"Hey brother, can you spare some juice"

[vitessemeister]

@plaid4u It would be a good thing that for once Top Gear hasn't scripted a stunt since years

[bored1980]

Oh boy. I love Top Gear but I can picture the episode already... "We ran out of electricity and had to drive away in gas cars so this confirms EVs will never work for anyone". (Best said in a Jeremy Clarkson voice)

[FUOPEC1]

It's obvious from this footage this Top Gear segment could be shaping up to be a hit piece on the LEAF and EV's in general. As a LEAF owner in the USA I can say this car works great for my driving needs and costs me less then $1.50 to fully charge. I'm seeing more and more EV's around my city so apparently Top Gear isn't discouraging a lot of us but of course I am on the west coast of the Us where all innovation and tech revolutions begin. You brits are usually the last to catch up lol

[vitessemeister]

@FUOPEC1 You should watch the "fullychargedshow" from a British tech geek

[mikexilva]

Did you know you can wait for the charge inside the LEAF and still read the news on the computer?

Imagine running out of gas in the midle of a highway, walking 10miles to next station with a small empty tank to get a galon of petrol, just to find out ther's no more jiuce anymore, you've just consumed the last drop of oil in the world, and everybody else using ICE cars is stopping everywhere, from now on, just EV's passing by!

It's more likely to be in an ICE car than a LEAF in a highway :P

[bphockey23]

@mikexilva Oh yeah, smart thinking! Because if the Leaf runs out on the highway, there will be a plugin everywhere you go, so you can read the news! Oh wait, theres not?

-Do you also understand that to charge an electric car, you need a thing called electricity? We do not just get electricity, we have to make it and do you know how we make it? Thats right, Fossil fuels like oil and coal! Most of the alternate energy sources out there still are highly inefficient like solar, wind, etc.

[p4inmaker]

@bphockey23 Yes, because nuclear power isn't viable at all.

[eldictator1]

@bphockey23 DO you understand that Gas fired plants are the dominant fuel source in the U.K, thats right lower emissions and cleaner streets

[mikexilva]

@bphockey23 The LEAF has a 12V auxiliary battery that charges with a solar panel for computer and accessories independent from main battery, anyway, I was saying if you have to wait plugged in to charge, you don't have to be standing up outside the car with your arms crossed, you can play on LEAF's computer, read news of increasing gas prices, listen music, etc. BTW even producing electricity from fossil fuel in the end it's more efficient with an EV, than consuming fuel it in the car. Try hydro

[FUOPEC1]

@FUOPEC1 No offense to UK electric car supporters.

[essiemme]

@FUOPEC1, I agree with you, altough I'm European and I can say there are plenty more Europeans who understand this new paradigm... pitty there are some people who don't understand our current global mobility problems.

[Karkacool]

Like it or not, electric cars will conquer the world and Top Gear will have to change!

[groyal]

Deliberately driving a car until it runs out of fuel is not "breaking down".

Any idiot can run out of fuel.

[jodark]

@groyal This demonstrates what happens when you run out of fuel and how long it takes to recharge these stupid electric cars.

[eldictator1]

@jodark ahh so you have a Petrol station and oil well in your garden

[jodark]

@eldictator1 Nope. But I do have a few jerry cans of gasoline/petrol. If I run out of gasoline/petrol, I fill my tank in 2minutes and return on my way.

Those EVs need to sit there for the next 8 hours before they'll be ready to driven home.

[xDamianoo]

@jodark just google "better place battery swap" and "ev fast chargers" :) get to know especially about "level 3 chargers"

[Jogeta5]

@jodark

You charge them at home, overnight when electricity is a bit cheaper.

[jodark]

@Jogeta5 That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Firstly, electricity is more expensive overnight because its dark and more people are using electricity.

Secondly, what if you want to take a trip farther than 40miles?

[nizmojoeblows]

where do you live? Here in Canada our electricity rates are far lower at night then during the day. Maybe not during peak hours, but that ends at 11PM I believe. After that the rates are the cheapest they get....where ever you live you are getting screwed over--or you don't really know what the fuck you are talking about.

[nizmojoeblows]

@jodark and BTW I hate electric vehicles.