lol-lol

R4+ will have the new battery packs entitling the car to the £3750 UK EV grant. More and more European cars will probably get the UK larger £3750 grant and Far East made EV will have to lower their prices to complete. Did some work a few years ago on the import declarations of cars coming in to the UK, before my current employment who moves 4M finished cars, and I was stunned how low the import values were and therefore how different they were to the retail price. For the UK, as with the EU, there is an addition to the value of the UK buying the car from the Asian country of the cost of freight and that is a significant uplift in declared customs value and just shows amazing the Asian countries are in still being good value despite coming half way round the world !

Not available in the UK but perhaps available in Europe as they will make a batch of the LHD ones before making RHD ones. We will not see the top selling Mk6 Clio, or the Twingo, until 2027 apparently. Which of the 7 candidates are not available in the UK yet. Sat in the R4 and Bigster. R4, like my R5, compromised in the rear seating area. Joy to drive though, not quite a good as the Mini but fair bit cheaper. Bigster OK but nothing great I thought, some nice new engines though. Thought CLA is being delivered now but it is not that a different shape etc so probably would not notice one. Granda Panda sounds good value but worry about winter range as I thought heat pump was not standard. EV4 are being delivered I understood, Elroqs also being delivered I read.

We have started to use Electric trucks from the tip of southern Spain and there performance is incredible as the power of the e-trucks is so much more the ICE trucks and the time saved during the journey to Madrid and beyond makes up for their charging time needed and I would like to see interconnectors from Spain which has so much solar etc. The do need more batteries to give the system inertia resilience as exposed by the massive outage earlier this year. Morocco also has incredible solar production, not just photovoltaic cells but their focused sunlight heating salt to incredible temperatures which can keep electricity production thru the night until the sun comes up in the morning. Africa has super massive solar potential and supplying it to us northern nations. Considering how much per kwh the nuclear electricity is going to cost us from Hinkley and Sizewell what can be offered from Southern Europe and North Africa could be really cheap but we will be committed to paying the expensive stuff from the UK nuke sites. Would like to see the Brittany ferries convert to electrical power as is happening on the Norwegian ferries, being able to charge ones EV when sailing across the Bay of Biscay. My Electric Dream.

The title of European Car of the Year 2026 will shortly be announced from the 7 finalists. The Skoda Elroq is a fancied car and would break Skoda's duck on winning this competition. Top Gear have chosen the Renault 4 as their favourite EV for 2026 but I doubt Renault will win a third in a row CoTY title after the Scenic win in 2024 and R5 win this year 2025. The other 5 candidates are the Dacia Bigster, Citreon C5 Aircross, Fiat Grand Panda, Kia EV4, Merc CLA. All good cars. The Merc CLA near 500 mile range for an EV whilst not a completely silly price and will soon not be liable for the Expensive Car Supplement I gather. EV dominance seems to be well embedded amongst the 60 publications that vote for European CoTY, incl UK ones..... AutocarWhich of these seven models will be 2026 Car of the Year?...Car of the Year jurors gathered recently to whittle 29 new cars down to a shortlist of seven...

Is the UK taking a bit too much margin on handling power from France goin in to Ireland ? These interconnectors, 1.4 GWs, seems to be a common size, are getting longer and longer lengths across the sea bed. UK was evaluation an interconnector from Morocco ! A great tradition of laying sea cables since the great ship the Great Eastern was laying cables across the Atlantic in the 19th century. If we could wire up the world we could provide more cheap solar, renewable power 24 hours maybe. Then there is collection from satellites one day and beaming it down perhaps.

I am still trying to get my head around that electrons go in the opposite direction to the current. It's magic isn't it, like microwave ovens, radio waves etc. Those electrons from the Denmark, France, Norway have to be declared at customs and then they might pop over to Ireland via the UK-Ireland interconnector. Wonder how long they spend in the UK or if one in and a different one out of the same quality.

Who new German companies can be so kind. Competition ie with Octopus, BG maybe and some others working quite well it seems. My DD is £133 but then we have got three EVs etc and I think I might need to bung in a bit more as bills have been getting close to £250 pm and that credit I built up in the Summer and early Autumn is almost gone. I like Feb with only 28 days and hopefully this is just some short term pain in Q1 before the promised land of cheaper per unit cost in Q2 though I wish they UK government put some of the money off against the daily charge rather than just the per kwh rate but then that is where it currently sits I suppose.

Octopus just released their GO tariff prices for Q1 2026 ie before the drop from the recent budget announcements for Q2 2026 takes effect. The very good news is the Night time rate of 8.5 p/kwh is staying until March 31st 2026 which is fantastic for our EV charging done in this period. The ok but not great is the daily charge going up 0.7p per day so about £0.63 (Edited for £6 wrongly calculated in original post) for the quarter which is OK I guess. The painful bit is the Day time rate going up by over a penny per kwh to nearly 30 p/kwh so more effort required to drive down that usage. Working on that and am confident I will be able to use less Day time electricity by downloading Night time and using during the day, TV, router and EE, Sky boxes will be using Night time power from 1st of Jan I will setup. Hope Q2 reductions in unit cost affect Night time lecky as well as Day time and we will see in 90 days time !

Spring is Chinese made as we know and just badged as Dacia but just goes to show how companies like Dongfeng, Hyundai, Leapmotors etc can lower their prices to equal tge European and UK EV subsidies due to the rapidly falling prices of batteries and particularly the cheapness of LFP EV batteries. Interesting choice of VW to go with LFP for the smaller batteried Polo ID. 37 kwh does sound small, I struggle sometimes to do the journeys down to South Wales from Worcester in the R5 with its 40 kwh battery. Though I would say my lad's Mini does not eat up its range as quick as the R5. Maybe 4 miles reducing for every 3 miles travelled in winter, rain, cold etc where the R5 is more like 3 miles gone for every 2 miles travelled. Hope the Polo ID is good on efficiency, not sure smaller battery version gets a heat pump even. ICE cars still have a place in colder climates where all that, 65% or so, "waste" heat if very useful for cabin heating. Same for Canada etc. Though Nirway has transitioned well of course. Gather Sodium batteries are better in the cold bur lithium has been getting better recently.

Quantum change / Improvement is Europe UK cheapest car the Dacia Spring. Test drove a Spring 65 (hp) earlier this year, thinking it would be fine as a backup and local car for silly money, one could get a new one for about £11k. Dacia /Renault, in conjunction with Dongfeng the manufacturer, have done many improvements, all for a rise in the RRP of about £1k it seems. Spring 45 become Spring 70 and the old Spring 65 becomes the Spring 100 but as well as 50% more horsepower a whole host of other improvements which were needed ie roll bar, brakes as the one I drove felt very skitty. One thing have not heard about but needs doing was the front seats, just awful, people were ripping out seats from crashed corsa etc to fit in and replace the shockingly bad OE seats. Should further the EV transition and might try one just for interest though loving my R5 of course and only annoyed I only got the £1500 grant rather than the £3750 though apparently the R5+ in RHD is still a few months away so people are accepting the current R5 with only the lower grant to get in one sooner rather than wait for but one only gets it with the 52 kwh battery and not the 40 kwh battery version I have. It will come and the R5 will drop to below £20k but below that Dacia / Renault will have the Spring soon and then the Twingo EV which i sadly think will be squeezed by the R5+ and Spring 100 which is, again, not great for Europe and a victory for China which seems to be the norm now sadly.

I think it was the Electric Vikjng who talked about the 35 degree belt and I just remembered it from him, he is an Aussie. A figure I remember from Vangelis Albedo 0.39 album and track is the 23 degrees 27 minutes etc and losing that 23.5 ish degrees from the zenith near the winter solstice as we are low certainly makes the sun very low in the sky abd in Worcester we are just over 52N latitude so add 23.5 degrees and we have the sun, at best, about 15 degrees above the horizon. Not too bad for me as I my solar tracking arrays dip right down to point at tge sun but roof top solar is going to be very poorly position probably. I think it was YouTuber "Just have a think" who quoted a study showing how bad solar xan be far from the equator in the winter time. We of course get much longer daylight hours in the summers than those between and close to the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Still tuning my solar arrays and need to do quite a bit more tree surgery, especially of tge evergreen tree to improve my solar harvesting. A Nissan Ariya did pole to pole and used solar, those lightweight foldable panels which I also have. They did the journey summer in the northern hemisphere to summer in the southern semi of course. Not too far from the obliquity of the ecliptic zones is best and certainly more of struggle when one is more than twice that from the equator.

No Carbon. Legislation all over the world to reduce and ASAP stop carbon in all its forms. UK is signed up to CBAM and EU is ahead of UK by a year or so with this. About 35 countries/groups involved in International Carbon Action Partnership... No Carbon, or it tax into being reduced and then substituted is the common plan ! The crazy weather reminds us all of the urgency. GOV.UKFactsheet: Carbon border adjustment mechanismTaxation and Customs UnionCarbon Border Adjustment MechanismThe CBAM will initially apply to imports of certain goods and selected precursors whose production is carbon intensive and at most significant risk of carbon leakage: cement, iron and steel, aluminiumEmissions Trading Worldwide: ICAP Status Report 2025Check out the 2025 ICAP Status Report with the latest developments in emissions trading around the world.The report includes:🔹 State and outlook of emissions trading worldwide🔹 Detailed factsheets o 250613_icap_sr25_es_en.pdf

Possibly a hydrogen network that could feed ones boiler and ones car too. Tgat wound be something. Charges ones vehicle in two minutes with hydrogen, have an quick heating boiler rather than a heat pumps that takes ages to heat up. Carbon is the enemy not burning a fuel ie hydrogen which only priced water as output of material. Anything with carbon is being seen as the enemy and probably rightly so but tgere are alternates it is just not much happening in that direction compared to the super rapid development of electricity generation and usage.

It cannot be considered due to the nature of hydrocarbons fuel. futile exercise. One fuel is extremely difficult to handle and lots of regs on how to store. The other is everywhere and ways and amounts it can be stored in and transformed to be used devices and vehicles is evolving in a good way by the week.

Not until September but just past the middle of 2026, after the summer driving season, band higher excise duties are due to hit. Someone said duty (incl VAT) up from 63.6p a litre to near 70p a litre. Oil companies being accused of profiteering as oil prices are lowest for 4 years but pump prices not budging much.

Yes of course patchy in relation to wealth per capita but the transformation in Australia, and NZ, has been stunning going from a luddite coal burning power generation to a leader in renewables. Africa has been rip for solar and my old firm was heavily involved in setting up battery banks in remote places and with solar. Think I read that some countries in South America have gone big on solar and even linking excess solar to making hydrogen. Panels are so cheap now something 30 cents per watt means paying back in a season or two whether for individual users, business or governments. Part of the reason for the delay in the outright EV ban has been said to been the number of Eastern European countries who are several years behind the Western European countries and the European success of the Dacia Sandero / Renault Clio (bas model) as most popular car in Europe is testimony for those wanting cheap motoring with a ICE system only, no hybrid but the EU requirement on CO2 is still very very demanding and difficult, as a Mech Eng apprentice, ex Piper employee how these engines are going to get below 50 gm /km when the struggle currently to get much below 100 gm / km. As I have said one can start using lithium (LFP) batteries, with a small solar panel and pair of LED lights I have bought from £14. My panels are costing me £32.65 currently (100w) so about 33p per watt. Next month/quarter should be when electricity costs will be nasty before falling in April. At least gas is suppose to go down a lot to offset but cannot use that in my EV. Unless a can get a gas powered generator perhaps.

Electricity is something one can make oneself, usually via solar panels but not exclusively, with equipment readily available for a couple/few grand. Diesel and petrol takes billions of dollars of equipment to create and had to be brought hundreds or thousands of miles to those distribution points which are highly regulated to prevent large explosions which can take out a city block. Diesel and Petrol is easy to tax as this can be done as it leaves the refinery, End Product Duty, it is the most efficient tax of all to collect in terms of cost to collect against amount collected. With electricity governments have less and less control with as people of the world make their own. They are increasingly there to power street lighting and utility services and more and more there job is to have ways of taking surplus power from domestic customers and presumably industry wanting to feed back surplus to them so their job is increasingly to act as a storer of electricity and energy to make electricity later. Transformation is happening much more in the sun belt of latitude 35N to 35S where already few consumers need help from the grid during the main daylight hours. They gave solar, they have batteries and they charge their cars in the daytime if they can. In that zone from Australia and NZ in the southern hemisphere and mainland Europe, US and China people have balcony solar to solar installations the size of football pitches and the countries have hydro projects that make Dinorwig look relatively small. The UK problem is we are far further north in latitude than where most people live but even here people are able make good solar much of the year and use batteries to use less of the expensive electricity and more of the cheap night time electricity. Trick is harvest enough to feed ones vehicle, difficult living so far north but electricity is clearly the way forward and dino juice yesterday's story. Yes the EU can relax the ban and replace with a near impossible CO2 target for ICE vehicles, result is the same abd with spiralling downward EV cost and spiralling upwards petrol costs that is just more nails in the coffin of ICE vehicles.

I am a bit worried about the UK voltage dropping from 240v and slipping down towards 220 v. Ireland should be similarly worried that the Republic's government is doing similar. Note sure what is happening in Ulster.

Renault App is not very good especially as it seems to be down much of the time and cannot handle having two Renaults at the same time. Don't actually use it anyways, quite happy to either pop to the car or I can see what is happening with charging with the Octopus Apps. Son's Mini App seems to be better. Cannot say it really affects te enjoyment of having EV's in any big way.

If you can call watering down making legislation that Yes you can have a combustion engine BUT it has to produce less than 50 g C02 / per Km for 2030 and 0% in 2035 but seems like some exemptions for poorer EU countries. Either and outright ban or an near impossible target for ICE cars, van etc to meet has similar effects. I believe EVs will be so cheap by these dates that it is difficult to imagine why anyone would opt for an ICE cars considering the improvements in range and the massively dropping prices of EVs. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-relent-combustion-engines-ban-after-auto-industry-pressure-2025-12-16/#:~:text=Reuters%20Plus-,EU%20drops%202035%20combustion%20engine%20ban%20as%20global%20EV%20shift,sought%20easing%20of%20the%20rules.

Well I have joined the Road Tax paying fraternity again and the Free Ride us EV drivers have had has finally come to an end. The Vehicle Tax reminder fell on the front door mat with the customary other bad news bills. £195 demanded to use the car on British roads for the next 12 months. Done my avoidance bit, re-taxed the car for nothing in early 2025 so extended this fateful day by a few months but could escape it no longer and its a fair cop. I can now raise my head high and complain about the dreadful state of the roads, the pot holes etc knowing I have the right to do so as I am paying my bit. The little R5 has to pay the £10 a year for the first year and my laddo's Mini the same but in Q3 and Q4 of next year they will also get whacked for the full normal cheapish sub Expensive car supplement £195 per annum. Good to see DVLA taking Am Ex and today was the first day of a new credit car period so will not get with the £195 after Jan pay day. Thought there would be a credit card handling fee added ie £2.50 or something but Am Ex amount just showing the £195 pending. Result. Feels good to pay road taxes again and not to hang my head in shame as a free loader. As is written.. Therefore, render to all whatever is owed. Taxes, to whom taxes is due; revenue, to whom revenue is due; fear, to whom fear is due; honor, to whom honor is due. You should owe nothing to anyone, except so as to love one another. For whoever loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For example: You shall not commit adultery. You shall not kill. You shall not steal. You shall not speak false testimony. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Catholic Gallery - BibleRomans Chapter - 13 - Catholic Public Domain Version - Ca...Read Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV) Bible - Romans Chapter - 13. CPDV is a new translation of the Latin Vulgate, made using the Challoner Douay Rheims version (DRB) as a guide. It is intended t

In Renaults, not sure about the Mini as only drive it occasionally, but it is almost impossible to not have headlights light on. I will try putting it is to sidelights only in night driving and report but generally I find the whole car very safety set and as they are using LEDs the power for lights, as with heated seats is absolutely tiny ie even the Evolution R5 has a battery around 150 MJ so drawing 10s of watts/ Joules/s is absolutely tiny. My Scenic has a 227 MJ battery, the big battery Scenic about 324 MJ battery. Using the full cabin heating is energy intensive especially if you are toasting yourself at 22 C or more, even if you have a heat pump. I am quite happy to have the cabin temp set at the lowest temp possible and just to clear the glass, 16C absolutely fine but have the heated seat on. Fitted on the Scenic but an after market jobbie on my Evolution R5 takes about 20W, J/sec, when first switched on and then I back off to lowest setting where it is taking 10W and then switch off after 5 or 10 minutes. My far the biggest issue in the cold is getting the battery up to temp and this is where Renault annoys me as I would like to be able to not only pre-condition the cabin but pre-condition the battery up to 15, 20 ,25C as I would get a lot more miles if I could do that. Think some cars can but cannot understand with cars like the Scenic, which will pre-condition the battery if one uses the inbuilt Google maps, set an in journey charging stop and it will prepare the battery, presumably to about 25C to take the quickest charge etc. Must be a reason but cannot fully fathom that.

The R5 reversing light and fog light are incredibly small, I mean a cm or two !

The very important to VAG ID Polo (not being called ID2). Smaller option battery car only get 37 kwh battery. Bigger one gets same as R5 52 kwh. Slightly bigger than R5, bigger battery version has some quite pokey versions. Conservative styling, no bad thing probably, but what will be the prices and will it get the £3,750 UK grant ?

I had a Fabia 1 VRS which was a great combo of low running cost and bit nippy with the 130 hp tdi. Local dealership who sold me that and a few other high performance Skoda also has a SEAT franchise and they had the Ibiza 160 hp version of the 1.9 tdi, and then they got the chip for it, knocking on for 200 hp supposedly and it was too much. Spinning up the front wheels too easy. Loved my mk 1 VRS Octy, have had it wheel spinning right up to 70 mph still in second. Best speed over was over 150 mph in my my 2 Octy VRS and it was still accelerating. Favourite Skoda was probably the 1.8 tsi l&k mk 2. Only got it too 135 mph but such a nice car with the short stroke EA888 engine, red line 7k but pulled well from 1500 ram and so nice with all the toys.