Toyota/ Suzuki EV Jimny?

As we all know the Jimny has disappeared from the UK due to the EU emission regulations, with a temp fudge in the pipeline to reintroduce it as a commercial vehicle.
Maybe the tie up with Toyota could bare some fruit and bring the Jimny back as an EV? Toyota have been developing a solid state battery that has a 500 mile range with a charge up time of ten minutes and it should be ready by 2025.

According to the presenter's information the range will be 500km which is approx. 310 miles. That's for a normal sized vehicle. I guess the Jimny could carry only a smaller version of battery due to it's size, therefore the useful range drops to the same range like running a petrol Jimny on big wheels.

The issue with hybrids and EV's is still the price, l
bet an electric Jimny would be close to £30,000

The VW Up electric is a great little car but is twice the price of the regular VW Up

Yep it's the price that's the problem at the moment. On average 2.5x the cost of the base petrol/diesel model for the privilege of being a pioneer in technology and range anxiety. Hopefully this will change, but based on current Suzuki dealer greed, an electric GEN4 is probably going to cost £65K based on current trends (26K*2.5) = we are rich again

We are forgetting the elf-ant in the room, the cost of charging the battery!

I have a brother, retired electrical engineer, who did the sums on the cost of charging and running a Nissan Leaf. The Aus Nissan web site gives the power requirements and it exceeds most domestic (single phase) mains installations and at domestic tariff will more that double the average home owner's monthly electricity cost.

If you have access to commercial "free" power at work that will off-set the cost. We are in for a rude shock when they turn the petrol off! This is nothing like topping up your 12 volt battery overnight.

True the charging cost / infrastructure is a topic on its own. Currently in the UK the generation / grid system could not universally cope with everyone charging vehicles at 6 as well as making cups of tea!
But we are also in the VHS / Betamax phase of vehicle development, which will win long term, battery / Hydrogen / charging station / home charging / other tech?
It's too early to call this.
Maybe the horse and cart will get a second chance, who knows?

I'm no electrical engineer but to cram power into a battery to give 310 miles cruising range and all in 10 minutes is outside the realms of practicality for a normal household supply. If you spread it over night then ok, so I surmise this 10 minutes must be at the filling station of the future. My local gym has a re-charging point for current EV's and it appears to be well used.

Roger

I keep reading that there are now as many EV charging points as there are petrol stations (in the UK) as if that's some major achievement. What they fail to mention is that your average petrol station has 12 pumps, and each takes about 5 minutes to fill a car.
Plugin hybrids seem to be the way to go at the moment, a reasonable compromise.

Yes but the number of stations required is much lower as almost every EV leaves home in the morning fully charged, and vast majority will never need to be recharged during the day except for the few days a year they are doing over 150 or so miles.

Where as nobody has a petrol pump at home, so EVERY petrol powered car has to visit a petrol station sooner or later, even it only ever does short commutes.

GeorgeC wrote: We are forgetting the elf-ant in the room, the cost of charging the battery!

I have a brother, retired electrical engineer, who did the sums on the cost of charging and running a Nissan Leaf. The Aus Nissan web site gives the power requirements and it exceeds most domestic (single phase) mains installations and at domestic tariff will more that double the average home owner's monthly electricity cost.

If you have access to commercial "free" power at work that will off-set the cost. We are in for a rude shock when they turn the petrol off! This is nothing like topping up your 12 volt battery overnight.

Yes your electricity bill will go up substantially but your fuel bill will vanish, so it's a massive saving. Using a Tesla Model S as an example, it costs roughly £12 to fully charge using electricity from your house, and that gets you around 250 miles of range. Put £12 of fuel in an equivalent diesel or petrol car and you will be lucky to do 1/3 of the miles.

Ultimately petrol/diesel will die off because we will run out of oil but before then the EV has to prove itself practical from it's initial cost through to it's demise and replacement. From some viewpoints the contest is unfair because the dice are loaded in favour of the EV, we will run out of oil so so we will have no alternative plus the governments decision to ban petrol/diesel cars in the future.
Busta's comment re: massive saving on fuel bills needs approaching with caution, nothing is free ! The fuel, whether it's oil or electricity needs to made and we will have the problem of supply from the generating plants that we have at present. Yes, home supplies will benefit from overnight charging but not so daytime users. When we voted to exit Europe did anyone realise just how complicated it would be? I think the same will apply to this situation.

Roger

In any comparison you need to factor in the (UK) government has had years of imposing tax on road biased fossil fuels, so it makes them expensive. They are currently trying to find a way to move this tax to electric vehicles as revenue from fossil diminishes. So any advantage electric has now will soon vanish once the Government adjusts things.
Transportation is never going to be cheap.