lol-lol

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.

Indeed as modern cars have a fuel loop there is that quite a big of fuel in that loop. I think the pickup for the fuel in the tank is not quite at the bottom so should not pick up the very dregs. Cavitation ie air in the system can damage fuel pump gubbins and the motor driving it. As long as lithium batteries don't drop below about 3v pet cell I think there are ok and with EVs they start throttling power and giving dash warning this is happening but the Stare of Charge indication seems to vary hugely between marques.

Rather than Scrooge I would suggest it becomes an obsessive " hobbie" that does have addictive qualities. The constant drive to use less electricity and there is so much digital information that one get immersed in this detail and on can lose some what the sight of objectives like carbon reduction. No matter how much I play with electricity I still have a gas boiler which is chucking out carbon autumn, winter and spring. I have adopted these solar, battery and grid usage managements systems as one of my retirement projects and I do enjoy pottering with it. Biggy is to get the EV charged from battery and solar when the grid price is not great. 4 Kw solar generators are not cheap. Just bought another 2 Kw ish one but it is not going to make a big adding to 40 or 60 Kw EV batteries. Man had to have a hobby and if it does save, or be cost neutral, it does keep me amused.

Will start watching at some point. Customs did so many roles for other government departments because they were there at the frontier. A role dating back to Prince John's time The gauges, BMS, and range guessometer are looking at average lithium battery voltage i would presume but probably more sophisticated than that. I am glad Renault do as TESLA does, Nissan, Renault and TESLA have the most experience in producing EVs over the last 15 years or so. It's what you get use to I suppose. Just odd swapping from the Mini which zero is zero and Renaults where you have 15 to 30 miles left. As I mentioned the Scenic did not even give a dash warning that performance would become limited after 11 miles below 0% SoC being shown. The Mini starts ratcheting back from its 184 hp from about 20% SoC. Consistency would be nice if they could get sone agreement or EU laws dictates a standard maybe.

5E to be at Goodwood as taster before deliveries, only 1980 being made. With 540bhp and 4,800Nm of torque, the Turbo 3E will go from 0-60mph in under 3.5 seconds. Despite having two rear-mounted in-wheel motors, the 3E weighs just 1,450kg. Renault has also equipped the 3E with rapid 330kW charging, meaning that a 10 to 80 per cent charge can be completed in just over 15 minutes. A range of over 249 miles is claimed, too. July’s Goodwood Festival of Speed event will mark the first time that the £140,000 5 Turbo 3E will have been driven in front of crowds, having only been displayed in static form up until this point.

Mk 2 Taycan EV quantum better than Mk 1 version, even the wally McMaster says so though I don't like the zero buffer if one approaches zero miles State of Charge, prefer the Renault and TESLA substantial buffer. If one can get one on the EV salary sacrifice scheme (SS), and like the Audi e-tron too, an absolute bargain with a 4 or 5 hundred a month quid less than non SS deals. Audi, Porsche, VW Group seem to be finally getting their EV products competing with other EV makers, about time but possibly too late.

I recall the big super market contamination in 2007, nearly 20 years ago but it was massive .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_Kingdom_petrol_contamination Silicon in this case and it affected several supermarkets. Only problem I get with electricity is the voltage seems to vary ie 230 to 240 volts which means my charging time varies and is more difficult to calculate, less serious than fuel contamination thankfully. Supermarket fuel contamination not only required flushing but lambda sensors were damaged it was reported. Disaster. I recall it was fuel purchased off Dutch petrol market and imported rather than refined here in UK. Water contamination the more usual issue via ingress into storage tank.

The look on the farmer or other Red diesel cheat that one is seizing their vehicle is priceless.... Done this myself for Bootleggers ie booze and backy smugglers. In reality usually restore they vehicle for a relatively smallish fee but there would be the Level 4 penalty for using Red etc. I do miss some aspects of the job. There is a new Netflix series about customs Officers back in the 90s and the brave work done https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81708404

Point is for non farmers to not use the ever diminishing diesel we have and keep the price down for them. UK diesel for duty free uses has a red marker, green in Ireland, orange in Holland etc. UK HMRC RFTU who search for illegal use of Red Diesel sample the diesel cars of farmers etc at Cattle Markets etc. Marker can be present world after uses just one tank even after weeks of them doing so. Vehicle can be forfeit as well as fine. Excise rise in September nay well get postponed I guess.

You do love your click bait scaremonger YouTube vid. Is it BMW and Mercedes only and in the US ? People in Covid masks in the bits of vid from years ago ? I would not buy buying a BMW but I do hope it does not come to Mini. More fool for a buying a BMW if still extant. Also not a Toyota fan. Arrogant and now surpassed by many other brands. Some brands are so desperate to get extra money as they are considering getting extra money to stay solvent. No mention of Renault and non premium brands thankfully.

The price had to be right for someone to take out PCP or lease ir whatever. Dealers will try and get the best but they will not keep stock too long on their books as they cash flow hit is too painful. This dealers who wait too long will eventually even put these cars thru action and where fas been some good deals of EV cars but also EV vans going thru the auctions but eventually all these vehicles find their way to market.