[jontracey]

So we are all use to answering the litany of questions at the services when charging your car however today I went to see two Lancaster bombers and a Vulcan at Waddington airfield. Due to a huge crowd I parked in a temporary car park with a few hundred other cars about 1 mile down the road.

After the event we all walked back and as I was putting my camera away a small crowd came up to ask about the car. Usual stuff, how many miles, how long to charge etc etc

However one middle to elder gentleman seemed to get rather irate, when i said it costs around £5 to charge from flat on cheap rate electricity, he just blurted out "rubbish", then when I said it will go between 250 and 270 miles on a charge, again "impossible", he said there must be an engine hidden in there somewhere, even after I opened the bonnet and boot. Then the final line "I worked in the oil industry for 40 years and can tell you what your saying is not possible"

Does the oil industry brain wash everyone who works for them ?

I challenged him to listen for the engine as i pulled away but he was too busy trying to tell the others in the crowd why what I was doing was impossible as I sped away down the A15.

Oh well cant win them all

 

[billysielu]

People don't like becoming obsolete I guess.

 

[Paul]

Best person to ask about batteries, someone with forty-years of experience. In an entirely different field. An oil field at that.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Nothing quite so bad as that but yesterday I was charging at Exeter services on the Ecotricity rapid when a couple came up and started with the usual questions but sounding interested. The woman was more interested than the man and it was she asking all the questions when the man said that they will never take off! I asked him why he said that and he said that if they could fix all the problems with the batteries then they might work but then went on to say that the only way forward was hydrogen. I asked him where he thought the hydrogen was coming from and how it might be stored and transported and he scoffed and said "no problem... it is everywhere" I asked what he meant and he said "every where in the atmosphere"!!!

I lost interest at that point and after a few more exchanges of disbelief he went on his way.

Sally was standing beside me listening and we just laughed when he was gone... that is all you can do when faced with such ignorance and narrow thinking.

 

[JAMES MURPHY]

This is the nectar of life ..... being bemused by such intransigent thinking saves me buying a ticket for a comedy show ...so another money saving aspect of EVs .... Bliss

 

[Ian]

Oil is too precious to use for transport. It is needed as feedstock for plastics and other vital chemicals for the future thousands of years. But who looks that far ahead?

 

[Brooktop]

There's no fool like an old fool....

What the hell has working in the oil industry got to do with batteries. It's like saying I've flown a glider so know about space travel.

 

[Matt Beard]

This reminds me of the time I helped exhibit a few EVs at a green-technology show. One chap came out of the main building to the area where we were showing the cars and berated us for stealing money from the rest of them by taking government subsidies. I wonder whether he took the same line with all the other exhibitors showing subsidised wind turbines, subsidised solar panels (PV and thermal), subsidised heat pumps (ground or air sourced) etc. I did try and point this out, but he simply harrumphed and stalked away!

 

[EV Rider]

This reminds me of the time I helped exhibit a few EVs at a green-technology show. One chap came out of the main building to the area where we were showing the cars and berated us for stealing money from the rest of them by taking government subsidies. I wonder whether he took the same line with all the other exhibitors showing subsidised wind turbines, subsidised solar panels (PV and thermal), subsidised heat pumps (ground or air sourced) etc. I did try and point this out, but he simply harrumphed and stalked away!

And He was at this show why...?

 

[Matt Beard]

And He was at this show why...?

The show was also at a farming-related site in an agricultural area and with lots of farmers in attendance. I wonder if any of them get any subsidies!

 

[Brian Stanier]

Surely you mean't DON'T get subsidies!

 

[Simon Mac]

I've not come across any of these types yet.

Saying that most of my friends are 30-40, have technical jobs in the IT sector, and apart from being outside my office or at home, I've not really taken it anywhere.

My business partners, are German car fanboys, and were very skeptical when I ordered the car. I can sense they are just waiting for me to get stranded to gloat, but then I am always chuckling when their cars are in at the dealers with faults

They are slowly seeing the light, wouldn't surprise me if one of them followed suit and bought an S next time they renew.

 

[UKTechie]

How long has Scalextric been around? Just explain you now have the real thing

 

[h8ten]

Sounds like an idea for a car sticker!,

 

[brothersoulshine]

Humans have a long tradition of talking pompously out of their arses.

"Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia."
-- Dr. Dionysus Lardner, 1793-1859

 

[cjm_2013]

Sounds like an idea for a car sticker!,

"If I stop, please get the WD40 & wire wool!"

I find it hilarious that that old fella couldn't accept what he was being told.

As others have already pointed out, the goalposts of what is and isn't possible seem to be shifting further and faster. I can imagine that to some, the Model S is the automotive equivalent of a flying saucer.

 

[knoxie]

Yes it’s amazing, so many people I have told that I have an electric car still think it also has a petrol engine as well, almost as if you couldn’t possibly have a car with no engine? I was recently chatting at a rapid without my car (I was on my ebike) and a fella was telling me how he had driven one of those electric cars and didn’t like it, I said to him was it the Nissan Leaf and he said yes I think it was, he then went on to say whats the point of having a silly battery and electric motor when you can just use the main engine, he had of course been test driving a prius.

For any electric car owners out there particularly Model S owners who lets face it own the very best you can buy at the moment, just lay down the basic facts then tell them to type tesla model s wiki in to google, should save a lot of chit chat.

For every bozo like this guy that tries to convince his friends that you are lying and it just cant be true I think there are maybe 10 times as many people that are being converted by meeting others at rest stops and chargers so its not all bad.

+1 on keeping the oil we have for other things as well, they say that world wide estimates of oil are woefully optimistic to the point where some countries are reporting more estimated oil in the ground 1 year after pumping millions of barrels out of the ground without any technical information or prospecting data to back it up, it is of course to do with quotas and ensuring that they are allowed to pump the same amount out in the coming year, hilariously unsustainable business model that one day will just stop, It will be interesting to see what happens, Oil companies need to accept the inevitable and start investing their money elsewhere.

 

[Brooktop]

The simple fact is that without oil there would be worldwide chaos. Look around you...and unless you are in a field or forest, the majority of things you are looking at will be derived from dinosaur juice.

The only solution is reduce, reuse and recycle. Unfortunately we ev drivers are just the very tip of the iceberg and it will take a MAJOR inconvenience to the average motorist for them to switch. Otherwise ICE will remain the dominant means of propulsion for decades to come and in that time, the proportion of family income spent on petrol/diesel (and other oil derivatives) will increase. Due to 'inelastic' demand and steady inflation, people grumble but accept it.

Perhaps if we had another fuel tanker strike for a fortnight, then joe public MIGHT take notice as we drive by while they queue for an hour at the petrol station to get their 1 gallon ration.

Anyway, enough dystopian banter...

 

[Paul]

That's what we need, a big tanker strike, and arrange drive-bys.

 

[Lee Jones]

Google "peak oil"; the stuff of nightmares. It's simple oilfield physics regarding the maximum rate of extraction of a well as influenced by the depletion of that well. Actually, thinking about it, it's like charging a battery; the rate of charge can depend on the state of charge at any one time.

As an ex-oilfield geologist I am perfectly qualified to talk about car batteries too. As an ex-scalextric owner, even more so .

"My other cars a scalextric" sticker sounds like a plan.