Zero emissions jimny replacement

Following a conversation I had yesterday I thought I'd share.  I was waiting in the car when I was accosted by a environmentalist who noting the mud and filth on my car decided to have a go about how I was destroying the planet by going off road in my nasty dinosaur powered suv. This was in the jimny not even the cruiser but whatever I soon shut her up. But it got me thinking what would it take for me to be zero emissions.? Well to start I'd need a side by side buggy which are about 20k in electric but they are also classified as a tractor so I would need a daily which is another 20k plus for something about the size of the jimny but such a thing can't tow for trying so I would need a 4x4 to do that especially as the drive is steep and gravel so that is something like a q4 etron at 40k plus.  OK the etron could do double duty but they are harder to manoeuvre in town and they hardly fit in parking spaces.  So that means a comfortable 90k on 3 vehicles plus the charging infrastructure and for the buggy a suitable secured storage option cause they get stolen off farms all the time.  And that's just to replace my jimny never mind  the parents daily and the heavy tow rig. It's no bad thing th they have extended the cut off date,  gives them chance to make a viable electric jimny. 

Living in a country where half of the cars on the road are EV and 80-90% of new cars sold is EV, I must say it is fully possible to do. But at what cost? Many fully functional cars have been scrapped to make this change, Many vast areas in Africa have been devestated by the chinese in their search for rare earth minerals to make the permanent magnets and batteries and all the pollution from the production. Not sure of the total impact af all this on the earth.
And all our norwegian electric power needed to charge the cars comes from our hydro electric power grid so it is very green. But in other countries the electric power comes from CO2 emitting power plants so the small gain is most likely none.
All the over comsuming and over production is what kills the earth. All the parts of the value chain that only makes stinking rich people more stinking rich as we make 20% too much stuff that we do not need. Cutting everything by 20% would make the incredible rich stop getting richer and we normal people would still have what we need but the total emissions and production cut by 20% would make most of the environmental problems go away. And we would still have enough for all our daily needs and then some.
The cars and normal peoples behavour is what gets all the focus but still it is just a small part of the total pollution. I think we all need to help, but it is most likely to little or no effect in the long run.

I would like a 4x4 with full el-motor torque from zero rpm and up though.

How about a mountain bike? Yes I know you can't get 3 sheep on the back.

On the radio this morning the UK contributes just 1.1% of global emissions and in 25 years green housegases have fallen to one half of what they were.

The biggest source of emissions in the UK is electricity generation, that's mainly due to burning gas to produce electricity.

Don't get me started on methane, the biggest source comes from cows burping, so perhaps we should cull all of them, then we woukld have nowt to put on our cornflakes.

So if we stopped burning gas to make electricity and let us use gas for our boilers/hobs we would massively cut gas usage & greenhouse gases. However, worldwide it still wouldn't make a difference.

The radio didn't give figures for Norway, stangely (sorry Yakuza), but I would image if we added Norway's figures to ours, globally it would still hardly be significant.

Did you ask the woman what she was driving, or how many greenhouse gases were created in the making of her clothes, etc? Even if she got the bus she still created some greenhouse gases.

Today's rant over, that felt good.

Theres also the argument of just how long does it take for a car to pay back its debt to the earth for its build. My SJ certainly has and as Jimnys get older they will. In todays world of finance and having the latest things many people only have their car for around 3 to 5 years before trading in for a new one. This ulez stuff means alot of people have had to get rid of their perfectly good cars.

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How about a mountain bike? Yes I know you can't get 3 sheep on the back.

On the radio this morning the UK contributes just 1.1% of global emissions and in 25 years green housegases have fallen to one half of what they were.

The biggest source of emissions in the UK is electricity generation, that's mainly due to burning gas to produce electricity.

Don't get me started on methane, the biggest source comes from cows burping, so perhaps we should cull all of them, then we woukld have nowt to put on our cornflakes.

So if we stopped burning gas to make electricity and let us use gas for our boilers/hobs we would massively cut gas usage & greenhouse gases. However, worldwide it still wouldn't make a difference.

The radio didn't give figures for Norway, stangely (sorry Yakuza), but I would image if we added Norway's figures to ours, globally it would still hardly be significant.

Did you ask the woman what she was driving, or how many greenhouse gases were created in the making of her clothes, etc? Even if she got the bus she still created some greenhouse gases.

Today's rant over, that felt good.

No I just asked her if she was partial to eating food and then suggested she owed me as a farmer. She then countered that she was vegan so I thanked her for volunteering to be the next nearest substitute for grass fed beef and she wandered off in a huff.

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Theres also the argument of just how long does it take for a car to pay back its debt to the earth for its build. My SJ certainly has and as Jimnys get older they will. In todays world of finance and having the latest things many people only have their car for around 3 to 5 years before trading in for a new one. This ulez stuff means alot of people have had to get rid of their perfectly good cars.

That's another good point a jimny is for life after all! I only got Tem because it was a way to have an auto, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the last one that money wouldn't have fixed.

Lifetime CO2 emissions are 70-80% from the tailpipe (the rest is split between manufacture and fuel extraction/transport/refining/supply), so the "payback" period for a zero emission car is shorter than you might think.

Of course, it depends how much you drive.  My MX-5 does 1000-1500 miles per year so is absolutely not worth replacing with something newer.

Which is entirely reasonable but as I said I would need 3 battery vehicles to replace my jimny which is a lot of lithium mining. If there was a single battery vehicle that matched the dynamics of the jimny I would have to seriously consider it but it would need to be a lot of things that battery cars currently aren't, light weight, compact, extreme off highway mobility, capable of towing it's own weight, enough range to cope with the currently available charging infrastructure and or a fast enough recharge time to compensate on limited range especially when towing at full train weight and possibly most importantly be around 20k including taxes. Oh and have a battery service life measured in decades.

Having very recently replaced my old 68 plate Jimny with a new one that features old technology (no EV) - a few thoughts. EV's are a non-starter for those who live in the third-world with next to zero EV infrastructure in place. I had a visitor this week who needs 5 charging apps on their phone to drive around Scotland and the North of England and suffers constantly from 'range anxiety' - suddenly the reality of investing in an EV is dawning! Even when the find a charging point there is always a question regarding how long to charge. how much to charge and will the charger even be working?. Many 'green' people appear well intentioned but curiously detached from the realities of life. As I drive my Jimny through the former Ayrshire coalfields I marvel at the poverty and lack of investment in the new green technologies. Maybe one day the new technologies will work, be accessible and affordable?

Here in Norway the charging points are everywhere. A little fewer and further between in the north of course, but still fully possible to get around everywhere. And with an EV with a bit of range like most second gen they have 300-400km minimum range and they can drive anywhere.
High season during summer there can be some waiting in line for charging.
in rural areas in the North of Norway the gas stations is further between as well.


But pulling a horse box, or any trailer, the distance between chargers soon get shorter. Very few and expensive EV's can pull any usable weight and when doing so the range of the EV is allmost half. Also during winter the range is way less.

My pulling vehicle is a large '06 VW T5 caravelle. Old and "cheap" it still would cost me approx 15000 € now and a new EV capable of the same volume inside and trailer weight at the back is not yet invented.

For me the simple calculation stops at us not driving enough distance to support the financial investment to buy any new car. It just do not add up and I can service my old and fully functional car for way less money than the drop in the value of a new car. EV or not.

If you have no need for pulling a trailer and just need a daily driver to get around, an EV is the best choice here. Also if you have some distance to drive like many have 30-50km to drive to get to work, then the EV is the obvious choice. No doubt. It is way cheaper to buy and way cheaper to drive. (in Norway)

My anxiety now is where to buy petrol when everybody else drive an EV..

The other alternative that I might consider would be retrofitting the jimny with a tesla rear drive unit in the middle feeding each axle and some batteries where the fuel tank was and some more and the controller under the bonnet replacing the engine. Which if you say it fast enough sounds a cheaper and easier than it probably is but it is an option?

Thar's the obvious layout, and you can save weight for batteries (as well as losing the petrol engine) by losing the gearbox, transfer box, and propshaft.  No need to connect the front and rear any more, and a low range is pretty pointless with an electric motor.

The difficulty is controlling it all.  For simplicity, probably best to set it up as a normal Jimny with RWD most of the time and the front axle with the same power characteristics when you want 4WD.  Somehow you have to stop the front motor acting as a generator in RWD mode, though.  There could be a spectacular flashover if you disengage 4WD in motion!