lol-lol

But do not have to stand there looking like I am mating with the car, I walk away, empty my bladder, go get a Starbucks, or Gregs or Maccie Ds etc. With UK unemployment going up perhaps we can go back to attendance service in filling stations ?

They will when the new batch of Dacia/Renaults come through and if we let the very cheap Chinese cars come in and not stick them with a whole not of Anti-Dumping Duty in addition to the 10% existing customs duty. The UK and EU government are here to protect EU businesses, not so much EU consumers. BYD seagull should be only around £10k so very cheap to lease, PCP etc. French have recently had a program for about 60 Euros a month for Dacia Spring and the like, massively oversubscribed . Like below, again might be a while before we see RHD version, link to French newspaper which your browser should translate approximately. https://www.frandroid.com/marques/byd/1958408_le-plus-grand-concurrent-de-tesla-reduit-le-prix-de-sa-voiture-electrique-la-plus-abordable-avant-son-arrivee-en-europe

Never charged for more than 15 minutes and that is with an EV that can only charge at less than 50 kWs. Next car will charge at 100, 150 ,200, 250, 350 kW, up to the 60% mark which will be enough to get a hundred miles or more. Not sure where people get the half hour charging from, most people I see at public chargers are been and gone in ten minutes, 15 sometime and rarely more than 20 minutes, no point, get back on the road and drive for another hour or two and get home to that lovely sub 10p per kWh lecky, to a cheap fast (ie 7-22 kw), not rapid charger which there are tens of thousands.

It is this bit particularly "that is why diesels were always massively more economical than petrol engines on short urban journeys especially winter ones," Wrong on so many levels. Diesels are awful on short journeys, take far too long to warm up, power units are heavy for their specific outputs, better suited to long steady journeys on motorways etc, or barges, or ships, though my French employer CMA is quickly moving over to LNG powered ship for cleaner emissions. if you can get a petrol engine to at high compression ratio, now well over 10 and as high as 12 in some cases, along with the petrol engine lighter weight and less inertia of reciprocating and rotating components, always liked Vankel engined machine and enjoyed my time with Piper and Norton working on their engines. Have heard that one firm has just scored a diesel up to 53% thermal efficiency, well done, be the next century to get to electric motors circa 90% though. My 1.4D Skoda Fabia was a right old cobble together, yes could do 80 mpg but what a palava and of course slower to warm up than a petrol or EV with a heat pump. I like hybrids with small efficient engines, petrol of course so the NOX is not bad ie less than 10 ugm per km, not 60 or 80 as many of them are on paper but in reality much worse. Clio e-tech 1.6l, non turbo, amazingly low NOX. Petrols have been getting closer and closer to diesel, especially in full hybrid mode making diesels really only suitable, for the next few years for 40/44T haulage but even that will go in a few years for full EV or hydrogen powered IMO.

Go do a degree in thermodynamics and you may then know what I am talking about. This month £8k into pension FYI.

Popped in to the local Renault/Dacia dealership to get some coolant fluid for the Arkana, bloody ICE cars and their needs for liquids and fluid filters, and activity is low and they are waiting for the plorethoria of EVs that Dacia/Renault are launching in the UK later this year, relatively cheap and with all the experience the have gained being the early adopter like their sister company Nissan. The car market, including the three quarters that is supposed to be ICE/hybrid is quite as it is a tough market to sell in with the UK economy still in the Doldrums after the LT mini-budget but I think they are selling quite a few pure ICE Clios which they have re-introduced to sell along the excellent Clio etech full hybrid, you can even give get extra discount if you trade in an old Fiesta now that Ford has abandoned that sector. As I have mentioned before being a country that drives on the left, ie need RHD cars means we are getting the latest cars a few months after the LHR versions are made sadly. Anybody sensible, which hopefully includes me, will know UK EV buyers will see some mega EV deals as UK cars sellers subsidies the sales of EVs from there sales of ICE cars to avoid the £15K per cars hit they are the wrong side of the compulsory 22% EV share of sales. Already happens a bit with the 94 grams/km penalty level on CO2 emissions. they can take my Zoe back so there will be another EV to buy on the second hand market, these prices seem to have recovered somewhat since the glut of ex-rental ones went back on to the market. EV sales are bound to crest and dip when matters like subsidies and penalties appear on the market. If I do not go for the TESLA model 3 SR then a Megane-e is a very nice car though I wish there was the 85 kwh battery option like in the sister car Nissan Ariya gets, maybe there will be as the battery packs get cheaper and cheaper, maybe an even cheaper LFP battery pack version as well !!

I think there is an element of location disadvantage ie if you live in the centre of UK then lots of chargers and I can generally go most places in the UK pass or use lots of chargers that are in the Midlands and either get home using mainly home charger or at worse have a small splash and dash or zap and zoom I suppose it might be called. It needs targeting and encouragement and SW England is a case in point, year or so very few chargers but now lots ie Exeter services, Salmons leap at Buckfast, Cornwall service and many other sites in the SW of England. With longer and longer range EVs being released every month it must be worrying for EV charging companies, TESLA, as usual, is the only one to really get it right, especially with the V4 chargers. EV drivers know they are cheaper than Gridserve and will use them in preference. Best of all get a TESLA if one can stand/adapt to the car controls issues. I presume one can get the new Model 3 performance, 0-60 in 2.9s, quicker than Mclarens, on salary sacrifice, yes £500 a month or so, still a bargain IMO, though I will probably go for Standard one at sub £40K RRP which is not around £350 a month with super cheap running cost for energy and servicing, say £400 all in for business use, and settle for 0-60 in 5.9s.

I think there are some temporary blips and inflections in EV sales due to withdrawals of subsidies but just down the road, later this year, there are crops of EVs that will be similar RRP and aligned with cheaper running costs they should bump the EV numbers up. EV owners like me are also looking to chop and change and there could be some mega deals as manufacturers do everything ie sell new ones at cost or loss to make their 22% EV target and avoid the 15k per vehicle hit if short. They may do heaps of pre registering of course too.

I blame Emporer Ming the Merciless. Where is Flash when you need him.

Its called scientific progress. As our science improves we learn more about what harms us, what trigger cancer and respiratory diseases. The UKs "safe" levels are twice what the WHO recommends as "safe" levels. Living near busy road junctions clearly has increased risks of the above medical issues , places we often have our schools sadly. We must keep "driving" the known dangerous pollutants down. NOX and PMs are realtime pollutants that can trigger respiratory attacks that kill in minutes. CO2 speeds along climate change. "Glaciers melting in the dead of night".

NOX is broadly heading the right way and is not being tightened up and same with HC. It seems PMs, particularly PM 2.5 seem to be the most worrying pollutant currently and Euro 7 looks to address this my stopping cars being made who do not have regen brakes or at least reversible generator/alternator tech which saves a bit on emissions ie mild hybrid. I would have thought there would be stricter quality on both brake components and tyres to emit less PMs. EV brake components can last 200k miles or more as they are used so little compared to regen, some but less so with hybrids, full or mild.

Wonderful trip to my home town. Be good when there are more TESLA V4 chargers to bring the cost down.

Solar panels, like EV traction batteries are falling rapidly in cost. Same for home batteries. I expect to pay less than 50p per watt of solar panel now, down by a half in a couple of years. Home batteries now less about 30p per watt hour of storage. This whilst inflation was over 10% last year and is still about 4% this year. True fall in cost of renewable and storage is staggeringly cheap hence countries like Germany are rapidly becoming more renewable than hydrocarbon, Denmark, Norway already are.

It's coming. As battery packs get cheaper and can be bigger capacity to less money plus increase use of super and ultra capacitors, my company been doing it for years as have F1, formula e and increasingly regen brakes use capacitors. Half Meg and full megawatt chargers are coming around in several countries.

There is a 20 % loss in uploading grid or solar to batteries and then deploying it plus the degradation of the battery pack which if lithium ion rather than lithium iron phosphate could be considerable. It has got to be a good margin to tempt me.

Actually it's down to compression ratios and max temperature and ambient, in Kelvin of course rather than C or F. Assuming perfect or semi perfect gas, not too much water vapour if I remember my BSc Thermodynamics of long ago.

The Zoe is not the best for long long journeys. I find it OK for a couple of hours and then I wish I was in the Arkana. It is/was a car of its time. Massive half tonne battery back, not a blade design to literally a block, have no upward/downward seat adjustment is a pain after a couple of hours. But Arkana is typically comfy Renault seats so I would cross continents in that, 7 speed EDC/DSG it purs along, 60 mpg in the summer, big boot, all good. look to charge it for a Rafela maybe in couple of years, it can run in EV mode at 130 kph, man from Renault HQ informed me but would not let me test out, son's Clio e-tech pops in to EV mode certainly up to 70 mph and can do 70 or 80 mpg if carefully. We just need to get the old cars off the streets which are polluting the air we breath. Another scrappage scheme needed I thinks.

EVs are naturally cheaper to run because their energy source can be much cheaper and the servicing is much cheaper and I like cheap as it gives me more money to spend on my family. What initial outlay ? ONe just gets in PCP like most cars are put on the drive, less than £300 a month for my Zoe but I did catch the end of the Government subsidies for the car, and for the home charger install as well as Renault UK and local Renault dealer putting in quite a bit as well a bit of equity from an old Skoda I had. I do not do just local driving, Worcester to Manchester and back without charging is a regular journey, I think it is 205 miles roughly, summer or winter the Zoe copes as it has a heat pump. Took the Zoe to Gatwick airport, or actually close by in Crawley as where I was visiting had banks of free to use 7 kw chargers, forward thinking Nordic company. It is a had choice for me as the Arkana is more comfortable than the Zoe and I have a fuel card for the Arkana so motion potion is around 2p per mile whether it is fuel or electricity and I may get as little as 10p a miles from my Self Assessment tax return fo business miles. Uk Government, presumably Labour by April 2025, will apply the Vehicle Excise Duty to EV, which I think is fair enough, just hope it actually goes on road improvement as not much seems to these days so will be extra revenue from that, we will see if Labour keep the tax thresholds down at such low levels as that brings in much more tax and UK is in so much debt of course. Fuel is going up anyways due to its sourcing from such unstable areas mostly. At least EURO 7 is going to force the hybridification of cars and I do love driving the Clio e-tech as well as the Arkana and Zoe, all efficient, fun and environmentally heading in the right direction IMO. Hopefully change the Zoe for a Renault 5 next year when PCP up.

Like he said if you have a Renault Zoe like I have you would not have to stop at all and therefore could have used super cheap home charging and destination charging, and VAT at 5 % unlike diesel, petrol and public charging.

I come off at J19 on M6 which is quite a way outside Manchester and go to the Sharston area, loads of cameras, will use the Arkana then as heading to Liverpool next day. Air freight one day, sea freight the next. M6 better than has been in years gone by. I will not miss long motorway journeys when I retire. Cannot wait for full self driving cars.

I will be around Manchester Airport on Monday, note all the signs around saying ULEZ is being considered. There are thousands of routes without cameras and must be many occasions when number plate does not get read due to trucks being between camera and car number plate. If car is then picked up at another camera later on the system will have to assume shortest distance. Might be quite a few muddy number plates running around as fine could be cheaper than the road tax. Could not see anything specific in Labour's Zero emission plans but revenue has to be raised as UK is about £2.5T in debt, up from £1T 14 years ago.

I think the Highland Model 3, released in the last few months, is much better than the Model 3 of 6 or so years ago. The Model Y will change similarly with the Juniper version due at the end of this year, stat of next year for HD probably. The design is partly about lowering the aero drag coefficient down another hundredth or two down towards 0.2. The very low Cd helps give the TESLAs the best energy efficiency and range. Model Y is best selling car in the world for these and other reasons, personally I aim to have a Model 3 standard range with the LFP battery, sub £40K, good looking in my opinion. Headlights look much better than original IMO.

I definitely would do less motorway journeys and do more short cuts across countryside, even park up my EV more and use my MHEV for which I have a fuel card. All bad for air quality and the move to lower emission vehicles. UK Gov would have to review the 45p per mile, fist 10k miles, and 25p after that as both public and private workers would do even more of refusing to use their cars for their employers and to take the public transport options which has a profound effect on operational efficiency. I think the UK government will be scarred to do this and it is 99% certain, it is reported, to be a Labour Government from a few months time and then for the next 5 years and I wonder what their policy and legislation will be.

TESLA and several EV company's EV sales have slowed, much to do with the withdrawl of subsidies in many countries. $2k on model Y. Not seen them change in the UK but there always seems to be a delay fo RHD cars with LHDs, of course due to market percentage, being priority.

How could that work ? Drivers would do even more of not driving on motorways but driving though leafy conservative voting Cotswold villages and the like. Not far from me if the M6 toll motorway and millions of journeys per year choose to take the non Toll M6, polluting Birmingham, all to save a few quid. But toll roads is the only system I know is widely used to catch all drivers. How do you see a mileage tax working ?