lol-lol

I think itvis reasonable to assume, as it is happening in other advanced societies, that with more properties having smary meters, that there will be some times when suppliers charge less for electricity late evening to early morning and mid day, sometimes higher charges, ie the tea time slot, prices coukd be half as much again or more than currently single tariff rate, some times similar to current standard rates mid morning and later in the evening. One can choose to ignore when these changes occur or exploit the cheaper TOU rates. Up to the user !

Had a good few days of not having the heating on overnight but night temperatures dropping back into single figures. My lad does not use his, or my, car until midday so battery has some time to warm up a bit but EV have such large Thermal Mass as AI (Gemini for Google ?) explains below.... With the Octopus Agile tariff rather than GO tariff ie more mid day charging rather than mid night charging this may help battery temp before journey before journey. Heating back on Thursday maybe. With the gas price for next quarter it maybe that using electricity become at least as cheap as gas !! An average electric vehicle (EV) battery has a thermal mass of approximately 1.15 x 10^5 J / Kg.... This is determined by the battery pack's typical weight ( \(300 \text{ to } 600 \text{ kg}\) ) and the specific heat capacity of lithium-ion cells (typically around \(1,000 to 1,150 J / kg K Breakdown of the Calculation To find the thermal mass (\(C_{th}\)) of an EV battery, the formula is: C_{th} = m x C_p Where: \(m\) (Mass): An average EV battery pack weighs between \(300 \text{ kg}\) (e.g., a city car or a standard Nissan Leaf) and 600 kg (e.g., Tesla Model S or Y). \(C_{p}\) (Specific Heat Capacity): Lithium-ion cell structures and housing generally range from 1,000 to 1,150 J/(kg Thermal Mass Examples City EV (e.g., \(40 kWh}\) battery, 300 kg - approx 3.45 x 10^5 J / K Long-Range SUV/Sedan (80 kWh}\) battery, \(500 kgs 5.75 \x 10^5 J / K Why It Matters Because of this massive thermal inertia, the battery pack requires substantial amounts of energy to either heat up or cool down. This is why Electric Vehicles (EVs) rely on robust Battery Thermal Management Systems (BTMS) to maintain the optimal "happy zone" of 15 to 35 C

May figure from the ONS due out on June 17th so a while yet. The upcoming hike in energy costs, overall 13% but only about 5% is electricity and over 20% is gas due to the ME war should not effect EV running costs very much but gas is going inline with the big rises in Diesel, petrol ie liquid, STP ie ambient temp & pressure. UK government could do more to keep fuel and energy prices down, remove even more of the policy levies which still make up 6% of the retail price. List of the 125 food imports which are having their duty removed I will list over on the Cost of Living thread. Lots of thing government can do to keep downward pressure on inflation and we should not see similar to the over 11% in one year and 22% over 3 years we saw earlier this decade but always a battle with factors external to the UK. Inflation forecastsThe conflict in the Middle East and the associated rise in energy prices is expected to lead to higher UK inflation. Prior to the conflict the CPI annual inflation rate was expected to fall to around 2% from April and remain around 2% for the rest of 2026. On 30 April 2026, the Bank said, based on energy market pricing in mid-April, that CPI was projected to be 3.1% in Q2, 3.3% in Q3 and “to rise somewhat further in Q4”, due to higher energy and food prices. For more see the Library briefing on the conflict and UK supply chains. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) sets interest rates in the UK. The government has given the MPC a remit to target an inflation rate of 2% over the “medium term” – usually thought of as a few years’ time. For latest information on interest rates, see the Library briefing, Interest Rates and Monetary Policy: Key Economic Indicators.

Yet average inflation is now down to 2.8% lowest its been for a while but I suppose it is fuel, diesel, petrol, inflation that is hurting some people whose have a significant amount of their budget spending on fuel. RAC Fuel Watch seems to be saying petrol is up about 27p a litre from about £1.33 to just under £1.60, so up about 20% but diesel up from £1.41 to £1.85 on average so up 31% retail, VAT inclusive price which would be massive for someone whose fuel bill is much of their outgoings. By judging driving on the motorway many drivers are driving at the NSL and above without any effort to be more economical. So how is best to help ICE drivers. UK Government has brought in a new mileage rate of 55p per mile to help those using their car for government of business.... Those who cannot claim mileage are faced with a difficult choice I suppose. Try and use less fuel by changing driving to be more economical, lift share, change car for a more economical one or an EV, all inconvenient and costly perhaps to change despite big savings after a change. UK Government has already postponed the Covid 5p a litre excise duty rise starting to kick in September and the Fuel Excise duty is as low as it was in 2009 and in real terms almost half what it was. The high cost of fuel is due to the Middle East War and profiteering by oil companies who have doubled their profits since the start of the ME war. Other countries who have lowered their fuel duties have still experienced road blockages etc and now have a bigger fiscal problem they had before the ME war thanks to Trump and Israel. I think a lowering of VAT fuel would have been something good to see ie lower the VAT back to 17.5% or even 15% or even lower, have different rates for diesel and petrol. Would have not helped businesses who reclaim the VAT anyways but would have helped retail non business consumers but how much of any reduction would the businesses actually pass on. Belgium has an interesting fuel sales price control mechanism but it was strained due to the ME war. As always a workable and fair solution is not easy but we should try.... https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/interview-iran-war-shock-exposes-flaws-in-belgium-s-fuel-pricing-system-industry-representative/3885209 GOV.UKExpenses and benefits: business travel mileage for employ...Tax and reporting rules for employers covering the cost of employees using their own vehicles for business travelwww.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/fuel-watch/ Latest UK petrol and diesel pricesFind the latest petrol and diesel fuel prices with RAC Fuel Watch. In-depth insight into fuel pricing in the UK with the latest data and analysis.

Been looking to change my ICE vehicle for a different model as finding it hard to get onboard my Yamaha Tracer with its 33 inch seat height so looking at cruiser type motorbikes. Fuel consumption is good on middle capacity motorcycles ie up to 100 mpg, looked at the Hero Hunk 440 which is OK performance and stonking value. Went to the bike dealer in the Scenic and one does not even think about the energy costs of doing a 25 mile trip as would cost less than a pound. I saw a report last week that fuel receipts from excise duties are down from the usual £2B or so a month and don't think that it is mostly down to EV but down to ICE drivers driving less. Caravan parks quiter than normal as those towing caravans and driving their motor homes doing less driving (ex-SNP leader not included as i presume he has had to give his back to repay thd £400k he stole from the SNP. Good peice on Have I Got News for You on what he spent the £400k on. Someone on the forum said they cancelled a journey due to fuel costs. Is the cost of driving one's ICE car a modifying factor in one's driving behaviour ? EV drivers reportly drive more miles per year than the average ICE drivers the RAC I recall stated, I presume this gap will be widened in 2026 ? Could not find an EV bike that was right for me but I expect there will be one along, probably Chinese or Indian, in months rather than years as with cars !

I think the looks of the R5 are much nicer but that is personal choice i suppose. Be nice if the R5 had the 4 level paddle controlled Regen but then my lad does not use it in the Scenic so no loss to him. There is the 40 / 43 KWh version in the Nissan too and hopefully the big buffer below 0% which i need to test and verify it is similar to the 52 / 55 KWh version. So pleased with mine will probably buy after the PCP 0% APR period ends and have already bought the £8.99 a month service contract for 3 years. Think the VW Polo EV will take sales from the 5 as it looks really good but the Cupra Raval version look much more handsome. The back seat and boot much better than the 5. Bit more expensive and only 37 KWh in the smaller battery version sounds on the small side. Lots of great small EVs now that are reasonable to buy, PCP, and low running costs. Neighbour's kid has an Atto 1, Surf, and MGs are cheaper to buy and I presume they have improved the reliability which was not great in the 4 I gather.

The TESLA model Y is the logical police pursuit police vehicle in the UK i am sad to say as a non TESLA fan. It has the 4 wheel drive and 155 mph top speed and quite decent range. Not the fastest charging but TESLA finally going to 800v architecture which is solving that. Massive boot which my experience working with Traffic police on multidisciplinary road exercises they love as well as quite high GVW so they can do their boxing maneuvers. Other police forces ie US have chosen EVs like the GM Blazer, also 500 hp + but we do not have that option. One wonders if more police forces will choose Chinese brands like BYD, Cherry etc for their value and spec and nice with flash charging in a few minutes which would be sad but European / Western cars seem to be not catching up with Chinese cars. Having had my own chasing police car and road block ahead which stopped me the police Officer thought I was trying to outrun him, I was on a 1,000 cc Yamaha, he said since he had radio which worked at the speed of light. Fortunately did not use a stinger and we just had a chat. Seemed to really help to gave a female passenger which changes their attitude ! We have had some interesting bad boy cars here in the Midlands, an A6 which someone dropped a Lambo V10 or V12 engine in to. Near 200 mph top speed and acceleration to match but eventually messed up and were caught but for a while gave West Midlands cops a headache.

Cheers Graham. George knows more about Stellantis cars than I do and I know from what Bjorn Nyland has says both these marques were not making great EVs a couples of years ago but the lastest versions are much much better. So if you get the very latest spec they are quite impressive but if you get ones that are a year or two old models then they are much less good. US and Canadaian buyers tend to be very good at ensuring they get say the 2027 model whereas Europeans tend not to be so savy on this particulars. Maybe Stellantis or Toyota batch sold them a load of older soec ones, hard to see though with a reg one can get quite a bit of useful info. I use to have access to PNC checks but it should be used for official business and Officers gave got caught out using PNC for private checks, naughty. Hope they are the better mist modern spec but would not be shocked to hear and lemons / citrons.

This is why Octopus's Greg Jackson has disrupted the UK suppliers market but there is still more to do and the decoupling of wholesale price from the bid gas prices is the key which is going to require enough battery and hydro storage to get us thru the 1600 to 1900 hours peak when market elecrricity double or treble in cost. Not that difficult and of course Hinckley and Sizewell Cs on line in a few years time. Add to that the massive increase in home solar, already thought to be contributing 3 GWs during daytimes this time of year plus increasing home batteries which i reckon is well into the Gigawatt hours with the static batteries and EVs and suppliers will have to be competitive as significant number of users will make their own. Wonder if I can sell some to neighbours ? Think I am allowed to sell up to a grands worth without registering.

The contracted supply price for the big wind farms is less than 1 p per kwh. It makes you wonder how we get to 25 p per kwh. We know there is a massive network charge and there is still some policy charges too. The biggest element for those on a single rate charge is the electricity companies need to have a price high enough that if users use lots in the 1600 to 1900 hours slot, where electricity can cost 40p per kwh or even more. The answer to being supplied with and buying much cheaper elecricity is the true cost being set in the supply price. So my Agile rates, half hour changes but much of the time kwh unit are less than 20p per KWh and quite oft, like tomorrow, there will be hours when the cost to the user is 10p per KWh. Sometimes 5, zero, -5 or -10 as well. Many of us have storage batteries, 1, 2,3, 5, 10, 15 KWh and increasingly we have our EVs like my Renault 5 with its 40 KWh battery and Vehicle to Load adapter. J don't believe fas is being loaded with extra costs it is just that LNG has about doubled in cost and that is jacking up UK supply prices. Electricity is cheap much of the day and night and it is just getting a dual, tri or 48 rate like Agile to exploit the low cost electricity available !

See my post in cost of living thread. Electricity not up by much at all it is gas that is the big riser ie 4 times the rate of increase. Gas us up, like diesel and petrol, due to the big reductions in supply from the Middle East. Electricity should fall as more renewables come on line. Whether to 12M fixed ones gas rate or stay on 3m flexible is the big question. If gas is over 7p per kwh there will be times when electricity is less than that on tariffs like Agile and charging the cars is almost free or being paid to do so. Businesses should have this available too.

What EVs did they choose ? I don't credit the police with too much intelligence, and I tended to work with Special Branch which was disbanded and Officers allocated to other sections but I presume it was their procurement division acquiring cars. Planning not their forte and that is despite them getting some massive discounts from manufacturers. We had some great cars in Customs, mixed selection as nearly all our cars were unmarked, for pursuit work so targets did not cotton one if we bought particular makes. A Clio Williams was one interesting choice. There are super long range EVs, the new BMWs iX3 WLTP range of 500 miles, even with all the extra equipment and two plods. They would get the VAT back and I suspect get some 20% plus discount too from supplier. I still get decent discounts through Blue Light schemes. We would get some awful Peugeots or the like. Pursuit driving course they do, Devizes was our local centre, 3 to 5 weeks, one for bikes too, only for the brave and skillful.

New Apple, I mean Ferrari EV. Looks better in red than the dreadful light blue, colour borrowed from the Renault 4 looks like. Amazing performance, nice interior but the outside, OMG. Very low Cd I gather but at what cost ? Ferrari stock value dropped $3B. Perhaps I can get an early discount on one ?

Presumably this is why the sea routes have been planned. No where more than a few miles for the sea in the UK. Cables can be buried, they are in Snowdonia for the near 2 GW cable connecting Dinorwig to the Grid. Loving the sun shine and electricity being sold at nidge over 10 p per KWh this afternoon.

What an amazing weekend of motorsport just gone. MotoGP, glad to see Alex M and Zarco up and about after their terrible crashes, WSB and BSB on too. I gather there was some ball sports on too. Also there was Formula e in Monaco so I post a few videos about these electric cars so fossil fuellers can see how things are changing.......

As some look enviously at the EV Salary sacrifice scheme the is a new scheme to even things up................

Loved the Octavias, mk 1 and mk 2 VRSs, petrol of course. Hatchbacks. Best Octavia, surprisingly, I had, was a 1.8 TSI L&K. Supposedly 160 hp but if it was only that I am a Dutch man. Yes the VRSs would show 150 mph on the speedo and still be pulling and most seen on the 1.8 TSI was 135 and still pulling. It was its power delivery. Rev'd to 7k, short stroke EA888 engine. Better mpg and range than the VRSs. 0-60 in 7.5s so not super quick but not bad. All the L&K niceties. Family car but nice place to be. Got a VRSs spoiler from CZ but it was easier then to import as UK was still in the EU. Not as quick accelerating as our Mini Cooper EV but about three times the range.

I was not allowed to have a Skoda and was told it was not in keeping the the company image which was a smallish software company but was allowed to have a SEAT Altea XL, go figure. OK to have a badged Volvo, S40, that was really a Ford Focus made in Belgium and had a poor PSA 1.6 diesel engine. Got my Octavia eventually when we abandoned company car policy due tax changes. Some of the old jokes below. I have a Felecia first back in mid 90s before VW took total ownership ! We warn you, they're not funny. 1. Why do Skodas have heated rear windscreens? New punch-line: To effectively clear condensation and ice from the glass in order to improve visibility for the driver. Old punch-line: To keep your hands warm while you're pushing it. 2. How do you double the price of a Skoda? New punch-line: Buy every item on the options list Old punch-line: Fill up the tank with petrol 3. Have you got a wing mirror for my Skoda? New punch-line: Yes, it'll cost you £45.99 Old punch-line: Okay, seems like a fair swap 4. What do you call a Skoda driver who says he's had a speeding ticket? New punch-line: A teller of plausible tales Old punch-line: A liar 5. What do you call a Skoda with a sun roof? New punch-line: Hard to say, all new Skodas are now available with a sun roof option Old punch-line: A skip 6. I’ve just bought the new 16 valve Skoda... New punch-line: It's called a 16-valve Octavia Old punch-line: 4 in the engine, 12 in the radio! (older readers may better understand this) 7. How do you overtake a Skoda? New punch-line: wait for a safe place to overtake and accelerate Old punch-line: Run 8. What colour shall I get my Skoda in? New punch-line: You can choose from a range of appealing contemporary colours, including metallic jungle green, corrida red and candy white Old punch-line: It doesn't matter, it'll go brown with rust after a week 9. How do you make a policeman laugh? New punch-line: spend some time getting to know him in order to understand his sense of humour, then tell him some appropriate anecdotes or jokes. Old punch-line: Tell him your Skoda just got nicked 10. I bought the top-spec Skoda... New punch-line: ...this one came with Apple CarPlay, parking assistance and side rear impact airbags. Old punch-line: ...this one came with an engine.

I have tended, like many, to regard people who buy Audis as wallies, more money than sense. I had an A4 and an A3 but as company cars provisions. Does not take long to realise that A3, Golf, Leon, Octavia all built on same platform and with the non Octavias you are paying more and getting less. A5 is on the A6 platform and whilst bigger than the A4 not sure what one gets unless one goes for the more exotic engines V6 etc. All I remember about the A5 was not too spacious in the back with lowish roof line course and being over 6ft tall I would not want to do long journeys in the back. Which brings us back to SUV land as most people I know have gone for Q series cars and this has since the big A series cars diminish in popularity. Maybe a future of expensive fuel will see the low ICE saloons come back in to fashion with their superior f uel consumption over SUVs ? Dislike Audi dealers as if I did not dress up in my business suit they reception staff would look down their noses. Give me a Cupra, SEAT or Skoda everytime over a Audi or VW. E-trons and R8/10 etc are the only Audis I would consider as the other Audis are better, Newish Superb, 280 hp, over A5 or A6.

Twice or three times the price. Good on Salary Sacrifice but otherwise far too expensive in my view. New Polo e looks good (Raval Cupra even better, also Skoda SUV EV based on this platform) and they might save VAG from going under. Rumour VAFG to sell one of the factories to BYD. Also Cherry going to use Nissan UK other production line !!!

I actually have the 120 hp R5 but the torque is close to the 150 hp car and with the less weight and the standing kilometer time is less than 5% different.... https://zeperfs.com/en/duel12733-13244.htm Most EVs are single gear so limited to about 100 mph. Those with two gears can do 125 mph or even over 150 mph but that is only really possible in Germany of course.

We know electric cars, from stored energy to motion and then excess speed being taken off in Regen to go back in the battery, pure ICE cannot do this and hybrid can do to as degree. I gather there is about a 10% cost of putting vehicle kinetic energy back in to the traction battery and of course the 10% cost of redeploying that energy back in to the EVs forward motion so an over al 20% loss but this is small compared to the mere 35% or so efficiencies of ICE vehicles. Maintaining a nice steady cruising speed, not speeding along too deep in to the 60 mph plus where aero costs are high, unless one has a very slippery Model 3, Polestar, Mercedes CLA e which CD of about 0.22, similar to Model 3. think my Scenic 0.29 hence not great at the limit of legal motorway speed ie up to 78 mph. Happy around 60-65 mph !

I think it is Torque not Power. Nm at very low revs rather than Horsepower and mid or upper rev range. Depends on the EVs, for cruising speeds as most EVs are SUVs and therefore the Cd and frontal surface area is against them, mainly due to battery pack jacking the car up. Notable exceptions are TESLA model 3 and Polestar but there are a raft of Chinese low saloons and sports arriving in Europe. I am happy to drive at 60 mph myself and not bother with NSL, NSL +10% +2%, just not in that much of a rush these days. I cannot imagine what nearly 5,000 Nm is like in the Renault 5E. Tyre shredding I would have thought.

Gen 4 Formula e cars to be quicker than F1 at some tracks ? To be seen later this year. Spec:- Permanent 4 wheel drive, 600 kw ie 815 hp in Attack and Qualy mode, with 700 Kw regen, record-shattering 1.8-second 0-60 mph launch.