Morris Minor Owners Club

Did anyone see the electric Minor at the show? I thought very it was very impressive. The company is planning to electrify classic cars that are used in London where the pollution laws may start to impinge on our cars and the average journeys are low.

https://www.facebook.com/LondonElectricCars/

Not affiliated in any way, just impressed to see something like this.

Clever but just a way to get around irrational legislation. Not sure that transferring emissions is the way forward for the planet...just makes your street a bit less smelly.

Very interesting! Did you get to talk to the creators and did they give any specifications on the engines performance?

SteveClem wrote:Clever but just a way to get around irrational legislation. Not sure that transferring emissions is the way forward for the planet...just makes your street a bit less smelly.

Yes, electricity isn't created without pollution. The problem seems that there are too many people travelling too far. When the local steelworks closed (Which was responsible for some funny smells over the years but which once kept 16000 people employed), some of the workforce were kept on but had to travel 130 miles a day to get to their new jobs. Then when you can see the sky, it's often full of vapour trails. HS2 isn’t going to run at 200 mph on two AA batteries!!!

It seems to me that a lot of these initiatives are designed to give the appearance of doing something but without getting to the root of the problem; aiming at a soft target. Imagine the furore there would be, if they said, “Right everyone gets are carbon ration, so if you jet off to the Sun too much, you’ll have to cycle to work”. It’s seen as trendy to be “Green” but a lot of the time, I think it’s OK for people, so long as it doesn’t cramp their style. I can think of a good few so called “Eco warriors”, who drove best part of 100 miles a day to commute. It’s a bit like when the late Tony Hancock was going back to nature in “Wild man of the woods”. He chose a “Cave” (Bus shelter) on Clapham Common, as his home, so he would be near the shops.

The powers that be seem too concerned about emissions. They don’t seem to consider the effects of short life vehicles. I recently rode in a taxi, which was a hybrid. There was a display on the dashboard, that informed the driver as to what was happening; whether the car was being driven by electricity, fuel or whether it was generating power by kinetic energy. Most of the time, the engine was doing the work and the electric motor seemed of little consequence. Then there is the issue of the environmental cost of batteries and of what happens when all that complication goes wrong and the car isn’t worth the cost of repair.

I do like a good electric conversion.....

But do they realise historic vehicles will be exempt from the new emissions charge in london?

More people more pollution. We're full up now, half are in desperate trouble and still we expand wiping out other species along the way. I had a jw round the other day------ everything's going to be alright.

Tea wrote:Very interesting! Did you get to talk to the creators and did they give any specifications on the engines performance?

No, there were others in line but I opened up a dialogue on Facebook. There's an electric motor connected to the standard gearbox, batteries in the engine compartment and some where the petrol tank used to be. I will see if the builder can give more detail here.

With regard to the politics - I agree to an extent and believe all taxes should be hypothecated. Ie tax in the name of pollution should only be used to tackle pollution. Not into the general pot and certainly not in the form of flying politicians around the world to eat lobster, attend pollution conferences where they get the kudos for signing up to something NIMTO to tie the hands of future govts to something unrealistic.

With regard to the technical, keeping the source of pollution in one place at the power station makes it easier to control. I think clean technology has to start out mediocre and work on incremental improvements on the whole system to get where we would like it to be.

I think the London emissions thing is pre-73 so no problem for Minors but plenty of classics from '74 onwards. I think they are looking to electrify classic-shaped minis next.

If you want to bring the pollution down cut back on air travel. If you have had your classic to an airshow look at the fuel dumped on your car at the end. I suppose it helps to stop it rusting !!

I'd love do to an electric conversion but you need to have the skills to rip bits off scrapped EVs or upwards of £10k to drop on batteries. Imagine a minor with no engine noise or vibration - the luxury!

SteveClem wrote:Clever but just a way to get around irrational legislation. Not sure that transferring emissions is the way forward for the planet...just makes your street a bit less smelly.

it is not just moving the smell, the generation of power in the average power plant is far greater than that of the average petrol engine..
http://www.mpoweruk.com/energy_efficiency.htm

the petrol engine comes only just above solar power and geothermal plant..