The biggest hurdle to date has been finding self-drive hire insurance for the buggies.  We have discovered that most insurance brokers avoid self-drive hire insurance (for any kind of vehicle) and an even tinier number of brokers recognise the concept of a road-legal electric buggy! The latter is not so surprising given that the b-bugs are currently unique vehicles. We are delighted to report that  Zurich Municipal has come to our rescue and  Jon Taylor has been enormously helpful in finding a solution for us that we now need to work within.

We are now exploring the formation of a not-for-profit b-bug co-operative (“BBC”) whose aim will be to promote sustainable tourism travel in our National Park.

The BBC will manage a group insurance and maintenance policy for a small fleet of b-bugs (in Year 1) which will be manufactured and maintained by Dragon Electric Vehicles.  The idea is that individual tourist businesses in our area can opt to join the co-operative and effectively lease a b-bug to host and use themselves, to “livery up” (if they choose) to promote their business and eco-credentials and (obviously) to rent out to their customers to cover (hopefully) their leasing costs.

We’d see how this worked in Year 1 (2012) with a view to  expanding the scheme if it is successful.

We are confident that we will be able to re-activate and  expand our informal electric charge point network of local pubs, cafes, attractions and activity centres. The b-bugs only need a 13amp socket and a full re-charge costs abut 40p of electricity. Last summer, the b-bug charge points benefited from becoming interesting destinations in their own right for the b-buggers.

If you are a tourist business based in this area and think you might like to be involved in 2012, do get in touch with us.

This is the nearest we can give to an answer right now.

1. The b-bug trial was a small-scale research experiment and it finished on October 1st. The b-bugs were a great success and attracted UK wide media attention. You can read a copy of the trial report here.

2. We (The Prospectory) are a research company who study consumer behaviour and design and run eco product trials. We won’t be running a b-bug rental service next year.

3. Our partner, Dragon Electric Vehicles, is planning to manufacture b-bugs to order for private sales. Contact John Lilly directly if you are interested. john.lilly@dragonev.co.uk

3.  We are now exploring possible futures for a b-bug rental business in the Brecon Beacons National Park. This currently involves challenges on a number of fronts:-

- Finding self-drive hire insurance cover for a b-bug fleet. This has taken months of effort but now, thanks to Zurich Municipal, we’ve been able to find cover on the basis of a group policy.

- Exploring possible funding options for the initial build of a small set of b-bugs for 2102.

- Working the numbers (based on the trial data) to check there’s a viable business plan for tourist b-bug rental.

- Identifying a local party to set up or diversify their current business to run a new b-bug rental business in the National Park in collaboration with the individual tourist businesses.

There is a lot of interest and enthusiasm for the b-bugs to live on in the National Park and discussions with different parties are progressing. We will update this site if and when there are tangible steps to report.

Meanwhile, in partnership with Dragon Electric Vehicles, we are continuing to modify and test Boris and Blodwen and enjoy using them and demo-ing them even in wintry conditions.

If you think you can help make b-bug rental a reality, give us a shout.

We are now busy analysing all the data – post-trial interviews, surveys and 147 satellite tracks of trips which the b-bugs made. The latter is enabling us to calculate the average speed of travel as well as the maximum speed on each trip. We hope to calculate carbon savings (had these trips been made by car) and the kWh energy consumed by the b-bugs.

b-bug above Talgarth

We are carrying out linguistic analysis on the recorded interviews and survey comments to understand what people liked and didn’t like about b-bugging and how the experience affected their thinking about energy and travel.

We will be publishing a full research report in November and arranging a couple of seminars to discuss the results with interested parties and explore possible ways forward for b-bugs and light-weight, low carbon transport in rural (hilly) Wales. If you would like to receive a copy of the report or an invite to a seminar, please contact us at: alison@prospectory.co.uk

Fortunately, our volunteers are self-selecting and several have enjoyed a great time b-bugging up and down hills to work even through the gales and rain (“I don’t care that I get to work and I can’t pull a comb through my hair. I had a great time. It’s brilliant!”).

Not surprisingly, the (few) sunny September mornings and evenings have been the most popular  (… “suddenly, coming up the Warren road, I got above the cloud, the view opens out and you can’t help but smile”) . However, one commuter fell foul of a bad week’s weather combined with the need to arrive at work in respectable guise. She definitely needs a more weather-proof and luggage-friendly electric vehicle.

Interestingly, a couple of commuters have commented that the slower pace of the b-bug was actually a good thing for a daily work journey – “It just took your foot off the pedal if I can borrow a metaphor. You just approach things differently. You have a different viewpoint, you change your perspective a little bit. “

Mostly, the commuters seem to enjoy being out in the fresh air for at least one part of their day -  “it’s better than the car and more open and that was one of the lovely things .. the whole sensory experience was brilliant .. the smell of hay and I noticed today coming here, the smell of silage. Things like that”. Two of the triallists said they’d like to cycle to work but the distance and hills make that a challenge too far – “I’m not a mountain biker, I’m not fit enough sadly to get up the hill  to work and that’s where Blodwen came into her own for me. Great, I haven’t got to use my car and I’m outside.“

Erwood Station Craft Centre

However, the b-bugs continue to have their hiccups as this  entertaining blog  from Mike, the Manager of the Erwood Station Craft Centre (right) relates.

As the 2011 b-bug trial comes to an end, we look forward to seeing how our last few commuters fare in the increasingly autumnal conditions.

We are not sure that the lack of weatherproofing and relatively slow speeds make the b-bug an ideal commute vehicle but they are faster than the average bike, allow you to carry more and are a lot less sweaty on the hills – well, Boris and Blodwen do the sweating rather than you! Also, if the main part of the commute is on backroads anyway (as it often is around here) than the b-bug top speed of 30 mph probably won’t be a limiting factor.

And what about the much discussed “range factor”. The b-bugs currently have a range of 20-25 miles depending on the terrain, load and aggressiveness of driving style.  Will that limit their utility for commuting?

We found these Wales Personal Transport Statistics (2008) yesterday which make an interesting read.. here are some highlights.

Of those who live in rural Powys and commute to work, 78% use the car. Only 2% are able or choose to use our scarce public transport. Across Wales 90% of work commutes are under 25 miles – i.e. within b-buggable reach – at least in principle.

The less good news for a potential commuting b-bugger? – the uplands of Wales average 85 “wet days” a year. That’s still 77% of days of dry commuting although some might be quite chilly..

To say that a b-bug has a range of 20 miles is a good guide to what you can expect in practice.  For while Boris has been known to get tired after 15 miles sweating up a hill with a more-than-svelte crew aboard, he’s also managed 26 undulating miles and still shot up our steep drive when we got home.  I’m not sure how the range of electric vehicles is officially measured, but on the kind of static rollers they use for normal fuel consumption tests, a b-bug might easily manage 30 miles.

An honest answer to the “cost” question is even more challenging.  Recharging a b-bug that has done its 20 miles takes between 3.5 and 4 kWh of electricity from the mains, which translates to about 3 kWh stored by the battery when charger efficiency is taken into account.  Our electricity costs 14p a unit (because our supplier only buys from renewable generators) and 3.5 times 14 is 49p.  Most people would pay less than that, but 50p for 20 miles works out at 2.5p a mile.  By comparison, our diesel car does about 10 miles on a litre of fuel, which currently costs 140p around here.  This works out at 14p a mile, or (apparently) about 6 times more per mile than a b-bug.

But that’s a wee bit disingenuous when you consider:

1.  There is no road fuel duty on electricity, and the VAT rate is only 5%.
2. b-bug batteries cost £600, and will only do about 6000 miles before their capacity drops by 20%.  It’s unlikely that all the batteries would fail at the same time, and used up lead acid batteries have a significant market value because they can be recycled.  But even, say, £300 every 6000 miles contributes 5p a mile to the running costs – i.e. more than the electricity cost.
3. Electric vehicles do have lower running costs in things like servicing.  The AA reckons running costs at about 20p a mile for an average diesel which includes fuel, tyres, servicing and parts. The fuel makes up about 60% of the running costs.
4. The AA’s estimates the standing charges for an average diesel at about £4000 per annum, or 40p a mile if you do 10,000 miles in a year.  A b-bug can’t do 10,000 miles in a year, so these would be proportionately higher but of course a b-bug is very much cheaper than an average diesel.

So I guess we can claim with some justification that a b-bug costs less to run than an average car, but since most people couldn’t manage with just a b-bug, it wouldn’t be a terribly meaningful observation.

But we’re not exploring b-bugs as a visitor transport option to save money.  Our interest and concern has always been with the energy used for personal transport in rural areas, and how sustainable that usage is.  Any way you look at it, we’re going to have to use much less energy in future to move ourselves around, and in particular burn far less fossil fuel in the process.  Whether or not you “believe” in Anthropogenic Global Warming, there can be no doubt that humanity will burn up in around 300 years, starting in about 1750, all the coal, oil and gas deposits that took hundreds of millions of years to lay down.  And when we have done that, regardless of whether we render our atmosphere more hostile in the process, we’ll need to re-think.

Boris and Blodwen move two people around at an energy cost of about 140 Watt-hours per mile.  We know we can improve on that with the same range and speed – perhaps down to 60 or 70 Watt-hours per mile.  We also know that over 80% of personal transport journeys, and perhaps 40% of the mileage, can be done in a vehicle with the b-bug’s range of 20-25 miles.  What we don’t know is whether, how, and under what circumstances people would adapt to using a vehicle with similar characteristics to a b-bug in real life.

An eco-diesel car can already do over 100mpg with two people, driven at b-bug speeds. A gallon of diesel produces about 45 kilowatt hours of energy, which works out at 450 watt-hours per mile if you do 100mpg. [A typical car uses more like a kiloWatt hour per mile today - every mile you drive uses as much energy as boiling 4 kettles!]. So even for a b-bug trip at b-bug speeds a conventional car would typical use between 6 and 10 times as much energy as a b-bug does.  But a conventional car can do 70mph and travel 500 miles on a single tank.

Our challenge, if we’re to wean ourselves off high energy personal transport, is to match our perception of time and distance to the trips we actually make.  You need a maximum 70mph to drive to Scotland in a day, but the difference between a maximum speed of 20mph and 40mph on a trip between Talybont and Brecon (6 miles) is likely to be about 3 minutes (because you can’t safely average 40mph between Talybont and Brecon!).

The b-bug embodies that challenge rather well.  It deliberately limits your speed and range so you can’t use more energy than is necessary for the set of journeys it can do, but at the same time fools you into thinking you’re going much faster than you are, so the time passes more quickly for you.

In return, they are getting a trickle of b-buggers’ business – canoe hire, bike hire, a pint, dinner or just a cup of tea whilst Boris or Blodwen take on much needed fresh, local (and preferably green) watts.

12 of the 19 charge points have so far been used and some of them numerous times.  Here, for example, is Boris happily sampling the wattage at a selection of them:-

Wye Valley Canoes, Glasbury

National Park Mountain Centre

Welsh Venison Centre, Bwlch

Market Tavern, Brecon

Tourist Information Centre, Brecon

Talgarth Mill

Drovers Bike Hire, Hay on Wye

The Star Inn, Talybont

Park Place Tea Rooms, Crickhowell

And finally, Boris recently begged a few watts off a very friendly and helpful British Waterways office at Govilon.

British Waterways Office, Govilon

A full b-bug recharge takes about 3 units (~40p of electricity) but mostly our charge points are providing a small top up to get the b-bugs back home again. They display a small sticker so b-buggers can find them.

Is this the seed for evolving a ground-up, friendly local business and community-oriented approach to providing a charging network for other electric vehicles? We are unlikely to get funding for public charge points in our rural area for a long time…. at least this approach could evolve (for free) in line with electric vehicle penetration

• Average journey distance is 7.3 miles, with 59% of journeys covering between 3.1 and 12.4 miles
• Average speed is 17.7mph, with 69% of journeys at speeds lower than 18.6mph

One of the things we are exploring in the b-bug trial is what range and speed we can get away with in trying to create a lightweight and cheap electric vehicle for local rural journeys in our very hilly terrian.

It’s not clear how the Prius trial is being run but it’s still thought provoking  to note that our logs from the b-bug trial show:-

• Average journey distance is 8 miles.
• Average speed is 16 mph

Now, I’m sure a couple of Prius’s commuting on our empty country lanes would have achieved a higher average speed but, the interesting question is, just how much higher?

This is a map of the solar radiation per annum in kWh per square metre.  Most of the Brecon Beacons is in the orange zone, which means we get between 1100 and 1200 kWh of solar radiation per annum.  We might be able to convert about a fifth of that to electricity with state-of-the-art PV technology, but practically speaking, and allowing for charging efficiency, it’s probably best to expect no more than 10%.

The b-bug has around 2 square metres of surface area on which you could mount solar collectors, so a b-bug that was outside in the open all the year could theoretically put 10% x 2 x 1150 = 230kWh of electricity into its batteries.

Carefully driven, a b-bug can take you 6 to 7 miles per kWh, so clad with PV panels could capture enough energy itself for about 1600 miles a year.  That’s about 4.5 miles a day.  With conventional charging, a b-bug can do about 20 to 25 miles a day, so a b-bug with its own PV panels would provide about a fifth of its overall needs.  A b-bug also goes about 25 miles an hour, consuming an average of 3kW while driving – in bright sunlight at midday, its own panels would provide about 10% of that power.

Since we can’t capture enough power from the sun to drive a b-bug in “real time”, we’re going to need batteries, and our batteries take 8 to 10 hours to recharge when they are empty.  So a b-bug has to be stationary for the vast majority of the time, and when it is stationary it can attach itself to something like a house, which has enough roof area to capture all the solar power a b-bug needs to operate.  PV panels are also much easier to mount on a stationary roof, and tend to point in the right direction. When they’re back at base, Boris and Blodwen get most of their charge that way.

“I do think that people would use an electric car if they knew it was that easy. I think people think it’s a huge hassle. …

… I mean we spent less time faffing around with the b-bug than we would have done going to petrol stations. If you think about where we are here – there’s 2 petrol stations on the way to Hay but you are having to stop off, fill up the tank. With this (the b-bug), park it right outside the tent, plug it into a socket that’s just there and that’s all you’ve got to do.”

Now, obviously, there aren’t always handy 13 amp external sockets by your tent but the perception is still an interesting one. When you fill up your normal car at a fuel station it’s very quick (5 minutes) but it’s usually time out of something else you were busy doing or somewhere you were busy going. You are conscious of every minute it takes and may resent it. In a sparsely populated rural area, it can even involve a special trip or at least a diversion to fill up the tank.

If you mainly use your electric vehicle for short daily trips always returning to your base (canvas or bricks), then your vehicle recharges over a MUCH longer period (6 hours in our b-bug case) but the critical difference is that it’s NOT taking up any of YOUR time.

The vagaries of time perception have long interested me and this is a good example.