Saab administrators find buyer for ailing car company

[sgould]

Too true.  You need 600 miles range and an overnight stop for an electric car to be viable.

[Audax]

Too true.  You need 600 miles range and an overnight stop for an electric car to be viable.

No you don't, Some people may need it but I don't. I've never in my life driven more than 300 miles in one day and I've only done that once or twice! That's in 14 years of driving with an average of about 15k a year. So even a 200 mile range would be fine for me!

[Max Headroom]

I hope the seats will be as good on the new generation electric cars 

[CitTone]

I've solved the range problem already...a little Honda generator in the boot for when the batteries go flat.

[Steve McF]

All this talk of plug in hybrids and electric cars is academic really - because you won't be able to charge anything when the overseas energy companies switch off our electricity supplies..........

[Audax]

All this talk of plug in hybrids and electric cars is academic really - because you won't be able to charge anything when the overseas energy companies switch off our electricity supplies..........

If they do... I'd suggest that we wouldn't have any petrol either... At least we have some nuclear capability unlike many other states. If they want to turn that off our nuclear power stations then I suggest we give them a Trident in return to share our nuclear resources.

[Max Headroom]

In that case I shall have a horse and call it SAAB 

[StanleyB]

You guys are being far too negative. Don't forget that we are talking about Saab a company that introduced or demonstrated technology that many had considered impossible before that. 
I am sure that the buyers would not have put up that sort of money to buy out the company unless they have a clear idea of how they are going to get their investment to pay back.

[Mr Linear]

I was coming out of my local Co-Op yesterday and saw 2 x Prius and 1 x Honda Insight in the car park, all just a few months old, so I think that hybrid is definitely the way things are going, especially considering the difficulties people seem to have with low mileage driving in diesels.

Mr L. 

[Norfolk Jim]

My horse would be called either Viggen or electra 

Audax - you must be one of the lucky ones to never having driven any more than 300 miles in one day. I could not carry out my job using a car with a range of less than 300 per day. My work takes me all over the UK to places very often no public transport can get you. Yes I may be in my office all this week but I have 2 appointments next week with both in excess of 400 miles round trips and neither could be arranged on back to back days. One is Tuesday near Bournemouth and the other is Thursday and near Skipton. Both journeys will be round trips in the day to make fee viable and I need to be in office Mon, Wed and Friday.

Bournemouth would cost me £65 on train (2 trains and underground) then taxi to site as no buses nearby and I am then fixed to train times - clients don't like you saying 'must go now to catch train'. Skipton would be 2 changes of train and about £60 plus taxi but longer journey time as nothing direct. I get to Skipton driving in just over 3 hours and can spend 4 hours on site with no worries. Bournemouth is 3.5 hours and can spend same time on site. On each journey diesel would cost me about £60 with no taxis and time is my own - very important to me.

Some say I could relax and work on train - nope - you can't draw on a train and I find it hard to relax on one.

If I had a Prius I'd still be putting petrol in!

So sorry unless a decent long range electric car can be found it will never work for me and I can't move closer to my work either! That could be literally anywhere even abroad!

[sgould]

I agree.  When I was working, I was visiting green field sites in the sticks.  No facilities there because I hadn't built them yet! So only a charge at home would be possible.

The other downside is that you arrive on site late because you had to drive gently to leave enough power the return trip.  If that's at the limit of your range, you could be time limited so you can get home before dark and the need for headlamps.  If it rains you will be stranded too.

The only plus is that traffic jams won't use power unless they delay you until after dark.

[Audax]

Audax - you must be one of the lucky ones to never having driven any more than 300 miles in one day. I could not carry out my job using a car with a range of less than 300 per day. My work takes me all over the UK to places very often no public transport can get you. Yes I may be in my office all this week but I have 2 appointments next week with both in excess of 400 miles round trips and neither could be arranged on back to back days. One is Tuesday near Bournemouth and the other is Thursday and near Skipton. Both journeys will be round trips in the day to make fee viable and I need to be in office Mon, Wed and Friday.

Which is my point really, I'd suggest most people are lucky then as not many people cover such high mileages every day (or indeed very often) just because an electric car won't work for you doesn't mean they won't work for most people out there. Not many people drive more than 20 miles in a single trip, just because there's a few people out there who do cover high miles, I fully agree an electric car won't work for you but then you're in the minority of drivers out there with such requirements.

[Norfolk Jim]

Sorry Audax but I'd say most people where I live do more than 20 miles a day just to and from work and I only live on outskirts of the city. Aviva is our biggest employer and where is there main offices - all 3 big ones are outside the city! 3 changes of bus from my side of the city or 13 miles each way. We are talking 6000 - 8000 in Norwich.

Most of my architect friends do in excess of 20k a year so not sure how you think most do less than 20 miles a day!

As Will says average to long journey's you'd be watching the charge level all the while and heaven forbid having rain like on Friday where you need lights, wipers either aircon or fan running fast and so on. You end up staying at clients for the night to charge up!

I can see it would work well in the major cities but for the countryside - nope unless car can regen as it drives but how would that work???

[Audax]

Sorry Audax but I'd say most people where I live do more than 20 miles a day just to and from work and I only live on outskirts of the city. Aviva is our biggest employer and where is there main offices - all 3 big ones are outside the city! 3 changes of bus from my side of the city or 13 miles each way. We are talking 6000 - 8000 in Norwich.

Well, having spent a large part of life living in Norfolk I'd still disagree, I never drove more than 15 miles to work in Norfolk... Most of the people who work at Aviva don't do more than 20 miles to get there, I know a fair few of them! In fact the majority of people I know who work with Aviva don't drive at all to get to work.

[Audax]

I've just spent a bit of time looking around, the average distance travelled by car every year is 8340 (source RAC foundation) but business users travel nearly 20k a year. What was also interesting was that Norwich has the highest number of people who make their journey by foot to get to work.

That makes it that most journeys if a car is used every day is going to be in the region of 23 miles... That's easily good territory for having an electric car and as I have already pointed out, people in Scandinavia manage to plug their cars in to keep the blocks heated so why can't we manage the same here?

I'd really suggest that the naysayers for electric cars are looking at edge cases and not the majority of how people drive in the UK. Having read up on this most car companies seem to have done their sums too!