A little update

I have done no work on the project over the winter..  But it's almost time to tidy up the workshop and start again, spring is almost here :)

In the meantime here are some EV pictures that I took last weekend whilst on a little holiday in Newcastle.

First, I was surprised to find electric busses!  Not trolley busses, which were taken out of service in the 60s here, but shiny new single deckers plying a route between the Millennium Bridge area with its art gallery and concert hall, up to the centre of town and the railway station.

We took a ride on one and I was impressed with the quiet and smooth drive and the ease at which it climbed the extremely steep hill on the route!  

However, I remain not entirely convinced about whether it's completely battery powered.  The stagecoach website alternately mentions "electric" and "diesel electric", whilst wikipedia suggests they are "gas turbine electric"

As I say, they were *very* quiet in operation, you could hear only the transmission whine and faint roar of the heater.. or was that a turbine?

The company website gives more details: it does indeed have a capstone 30kW turbine which can run on diesel, as well as Li-Ion batteries and a 500kW drive..  Not bad!

Later on we visited the Angel of the North.. but on the route, I'd been told by my customer that Smith Electric Vehicles was nearby, and who could resist nosing about an electric van factory!  (ok, everyone but me) 

Probably quite wisely they don't have a showroom and there was nobody about.  However, there were signs of a large scale conversion operation in full swing.  Maybe 100 "chassis-cab" Transits and Isuzu (I think) trucks are lined up at the front, with the converted vehicles no doubt fenced off at the back.

I've seen the big orange TNT trucks driving around in cities so they are definitely out there - the Transits I haven't seen but I believe they are turned into supermarket home delivery vans with a custom rear box.

The chassis take one or several big Zebra batteries, giving an impressive range.

Here are some of the Transit chassis anyway, they are clearly being supplied as "gliders" without engine, gearbox or other ICE parts.