lol-lol

And expensive times are likely to change also for everyone unless on is daft enough to only choose to pay the single rate across the whole 24 hours. Some places pay about a 50 % premium for using electricity 1600 to 1900 hours. Octopus Cosy Heat Pump do, just need to remember to get ones system toastie between 1400 and 1600, let it cruise lightly in the Expensive period and the have it kick in again on higher power later in the evening. All about paying the fair market price for the real time. Exploit the cheap lecky, avoid it when pricey. Device can be ad cheap as £14 i have found and that is for a little battery, little balcony solar panel and two LED bulbs. Like Boxt boilers there a devices which you can get that just pay for themselves, high efficiency ie 90 % replacing a less than 70% efficient ones and one is better off even paying the £11 a month buying plan. Heat Geeks are doing some incredible Thermodynamics work which is now removing the need for large water tanks for Heat Pumps and tge Leggionares cycle. Game change foe Heat Pumps.

Actual generation costs, especially solar abd wind, can be as low as a penny per kwh but add on all the transmission and even Octopus costs and you get to 4.7 p per kwh, a, sixth of what non pro active are paying. Then of course there is the steam turbines that take hours to heat up and cool down and so cheaper to sell their power for a negative amount, minus 42p as we recently saw. Then there is the clever predictive planning that Kraken and Tesla software does. Given cheap or free electricity in the middle of the day and those with batteries will use less and tea time when the real price of electricity is circa £1 a kwh as those expensive Peaker plants are called for online. Have been paying £133 a month, but our last ICE car going to EV means more lecky usage. I like to just top up with Am Ex now and the so I get cash kick back. Don't think Octupus are too keen on me doing this though. I wonder how long the 5, 6, 7, 8 p per kwh will stay as it is an obvious cash cow for domestic users, battery storage people small and large to take big advantage of, buy low sell or use when high.

Ecoflow Stream plugs in to a socket and can download power when cheap ie less than a third of the price, ie 8p per kwh and tge put in back in the ring main when electricity expensive ie about 28p per kwh. System is modular so one can add additional batteries as more capacity if needed, linked to portable solar panel on balcony rails or just hanging from the window. In UK on should put this device thru tge fusebox but in other countries, and people may in the uk and not bother to put thru fusebox and be bidirectional into the house/ flat ring main.

There are deals everywhere UK, America, Europe it's just a case of tuning into the deals. Usage is no longer limited to those with EVs, or Driveways. Have a look at the Ecoflow Stream and millions with no driveways, or gardens, just balconies or windows and 3 pin plugs and they seek out the good electricity deals and invest a few quid in these new devices which will pay for themselves a few seasons and that time period is getting shorter and these device prices continue to plummet. ³

Not expensive if you sign up for dual time slot usage. My average price per kwh works out at 12p per kwh and interesting plan to get that under 10p per kwh as many signed up for dual rate ie Day and Night rates where the Night Rate can be as low as 6, 7 or 8p per kwh. Gas at a 12m fixed of 5.7p per kwh is good to making my bills not to pricey and that is with 3 EVs and house with 4 bedrooms etc. Just got to be cute and energy bills can be long way under £2k a year.

Renault have moved on from this. Batteries are in isolated packs with only a few hundred in each pack and there is a foam flooding via a fireman port to flood each chamber. There is a operational document for fire departments to perform this pack flooding. I think am auto onboard system should be the next step.

I was amazed that at Luton airport where my Scenic sits quietly. Was expecting 50 or 100% loading on parking an EV in their car park, nothing. Every day I expect a call that my car has burnt down the car park along with a thousand other cars. Same for my house with its dozen lithium battery storage devices littered around the house, any one which could burst into flames at any moment. Even when I let all that free solar energy from my solar arrays keep being plugged in they seem to just shut the incoming power off and sit there 100 % so despite good overcharge and more input than output and 100% charged those Chinese BMSs keep doing a great job, not what the right wing press tells us is happening all the time !

Public charging just seems so cheap here ie less than half the price of UK public charging. UK public chargers complain of the very high connection fees to the grid as one standout fee, perhaps in the EU they are mandated lower. UK electricity priced linked to gas price but that will change fairly soon. Greg Jackin of Octopus on the case and now has a 3 year role with the UK government. A few years back was returning the hire ICE car to Malaga but recall there was some temporary road change that prevented me getting to that closest to the airport filling station. On another occasion when returning a ICE car to Shannoni did fill up to the 3rd click as you click as you are suppose to with Renault ICE cars , drove the last couple of K distance but the returns guy got another 4 litres in or so and charge their exorbitant 2 Euros a litre. He absolutely brimmed it, like I use to in the Fabia 2 VRS where you could to a trick to fill up the expansion tank too. No issue like these with EVs, State of Charge is State of Charge but as was pleasantly surprised how cheap the per kwh hour top up worked out as, pretty much the same as public and presumably Day time charging prices at Portugal. Down in the garage of this hotel one guest with a PHEV was charging up from a ordinary socket and getting his top up for free, probably only at 10A, 2.3 kws but nice overnight freebie. If a UK government did every try to charge 20 VAT on electricity thru home chargers EV owners would switch to use home sockets and 13A granny chargers so it looked like normal home supply. Also it would spur on more home solar and battery use and take the EV charge directly from those systems, hundred of thousands already do this and it will be millions soon. Interesting development with Ecoflows Source products just come on to market, seems an answer for those without roof or garden solar to capitalise on cheap and free electricity.

For some reason could not get to the petrol station near Malaga airport despite Google Maps so had to concede dropping it off with three quarters a tank but even though only 10 litres short the car hire, think it might have been Goldstar who are quite big in Iberia, still went to the rules and it was a 50 Euro charge for not being full and another 10 Euros for the fuel to top off. Presumably the 50 Euros is for the Employee time to carry out the process. With EVs there seems to be one rolled in fee for the employee charging and cost if energy and that charge is about half what it was for ICE. Even better than the UK, presumably as electricity costs are so much lower here than UK but sisel and petrol fuel prices similar the EV returning not full is much cheaper or no charge. 70% battery SOC, nothing to pay and 19% to 69% about half, or less, than disel petrol would be. Think Tennerife was cheaper for diesel and petrol but then it is a special territory. Will definitely use EV again rather than ICE for European mainland and I think my Octopus Electroverse card works on over 300k chargers throughout. Just bumped into Shakey Burns and James Tosland at the bar. Shame the racing at Estoril is not EV bikes. Locals in Estoril are banning most racing at Estoril circuit due to noise but that would not be a problem for Electric bikes, I can see this circuit closing due to ICE noise in the not too distant future and perhaps other circuits too due to Nimbys. Formula e will be faster/ quicker than F1 next year with their Gen 4 cars and like road cars EVs are now the fastest cars on the road as can be seen with the latest Chinese supercar offering and at a fraction of the price.

Got my electric rental car allocated to me from Lusbon airport, given a Pug 308 instead of 2008, quite nice and that is unusual for a Renault fan to say any Stellantis car is nice. Have rented ICE cars in Europe before and the experience with EV or ICE is stark. ICE cars the hire companies can take a deposit for as much as 200 Euros, charge you 50 Euros to drive it to the garage to top it off plus the fuel. EV, bring it back with 70% plus battery and no charge, 10% to 69 % a 30 Euro charge, 35 Euros if less than 10%. It is almost worth not charging it up but then my hotel has 4 ultra rapid chargers and I think it is 30 cents per kwh plus 30 cent connect fee and Octopus Electroverse card words her supposedly. The choice is simple, be smart or not.

Good thing about Renaults, like Skodas, thieves usually don't want to steal them, i am fine with that, to me and advantage.

Brake fire was one theory put forward, like with Albon's fire in F1 yesterday, hybrid car of course, lots of power, powerful brakes just going sky high temperatures in the brakes so it even melts and starts to self combust all around it with temperatures of 1000 K plus.

Don't think we do, could have been several things on the article rig which were on fire which them set the BYDs alight. Becoming logical to tie down some of the large high temperature fire blankets, curtains to stop fires from trucks spreading to EVs. Quite simply to do and prevent the loss of quarter a million pounds of cars. Blankets could be used thousands of times and would not be surprised for insurance companies to demands such measures. We move around 4m finished cars per year, very high value ones in sealed trucks or containers and I would expect to see increased fire detection and retardation measures being implemented.

Two Hours of Free electricity today, starting in 20 minutes, and just announced another hour tomorrow, unusually 11 AM to noon. My Scenic is Short Range as smaller battery ie nominal 60 Kw instead of the 87 kwh most have bought but I find it absolutely fine. Was doing regular Worcester to Heathrow and Liverpool which is almost 250 miles and managed that fine. Just did Worcester to Dartmoor and back with just a 65% charge in Plymouth which cost less than £32 even thought Gridserve which is a non - Octopus Electoverse supplier of course so no discount or lobbing on the house bill. ICE owners probably fail to appreciate that we can be hyper accurate with our charging of just the right amount to get us home and then tap in to our mega cheap lecky. Something wiesel, dino-juce buyers cannot be anywhere near as precise about. I do go under 10% sometimes, have been 12 miles below 0%. Only at minus 11 miles did I get a performance restriction warning. I think Renault's have quite sizable buffers.

Five hours of 20% plunge prices from 1100 to 1600 today with Octopus Electroverse and maybe other networks. One could charge up at the cheaper rate, drive say 250 miles and then charge up again in the cheaper period. Hopefully this is something that is going to become more common, should do when there is cheap, zero or negative cost to the Public charging networks so they can pass much of this on and both User and Network benefits. Of course the first 200 miles of our EV journeys are nearly always using our 7 or 8p per kwh electricity from Home ie 2p a mile energy cost so this could be if one has driven the first 250 miles, charged, done another 250 or so miles, charged on the Plunge price lecky again and done another 250 miles. Sounds like another road trip to see how low a very long journey, even with a couple of Public charging stops could be. Could be like our Day and Night home electricity usage differing rates where we get the average cost down to half or below of the Headline rates of Public charging non discount rates or the Day time electricity rates.

You either have never had fire fighting training or forgotten what you were told. ICE vehicles have multiple materials /fuel which could be on fire and fire fighters, like I have been trained as, must pick the right extinguisher for the fire. Using water on the wrong type of fire can make things much worse, spread the fire, create massive steam plum etc.

Just pricing up EV charging prices in Lisbon as will be there next week for the WSBs. Only 43p per kwh and EV car hire from the airport at around £10 a day. Hopefully avoid the 50 Euro charge i got last time for not returning the car full of fuel at Malaga car hire, so difficult to avoid not getting stung. Cause my Octopus Electroverse card in Europe as well of course so the bill just gets rolled in to house energy cost which is big in credit at the moment after the summer DD payments etc.

Apparently electricity prices tomorrow, Saturday 4th of October, is minus 42 p per kwh so Octopus giving me two hours free is some incredible business model and they stand to make millions i expect therefore ! I miss when I use to buy petrol and get substantial Tesco points that were turned in to vouchers to get money off a later fuel purchase or food shop. Good times !

Two hours of free electricity from Octopus for some/ all ? of their customers tomorrow 4th of October. Two EV to charge up plus home batteries which need it with this storm Amy darkening the skies not helping my solar but presumable lots of wind power being generated in the North Sea..... Should be able to get about 30 kwh downloaded in that time should should make more than £8 for little effort and for the dozen, mainly 1 hour and a couple of 2 hour sessions probably made about £33 overall for this summer/autumn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi L, There’s plenty of green power in the wires tomorrow, enough for you to get a... SURPRISE DOUBLE Free Electricity Session 12-2pm, Saturday 4th October! Get ready to fill your boots Why not move your power-hungry bits and bobs into that magical hour — pop a wash on, give the hoover a whirl, top up your gadgets or brew a round of teas. What you’d normally pay for stays the same, but every extra kWh you use in that window is absolutely free! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Macron's Rafale is 4.85m as it has been stretched by 130 mm to give room for all the toys. Peugeot do a 325 hp 5008 which was not chosen but Rafale was for whatever reasons and French Presidents have had PSA cars, including DSs of course which many say is the coolest car ever made..... https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/citroen/101998/citroen-ds-worlds-coolest-cars

Like most, if not all taxes, they have to be collectable in that they have to be levied with an expectation they will be paid so setting the Expensive car tax which the Con party did in 2017, and by the Bank of England Inflation calculator 40k in 2017 is £54k such was inflation in the second half of the reign of the Con party in government so £54k would be the Expensive Car tax if at the 2017 level. Sounds more like it. But then the UK Balance of Payments were in such a mess from then and even now are out of kilter between Spending and Tax collection so all tweaks have to be considered in that light. The effect of the Expensive car tax has been to put RRP prices lower. One could generally haggle several percent of the new price of a car and I still think one can even after manufacturers pushed many prices down to come in under the Expensive Car tax and again further to come within the EV grant criteria. I am amazed one can get even more huge chunks off these massively downward moved prices with Blue Light type discounts but if the RRP is over £40k then extra £2k in those first 6 years has to be paid. Renault have been providing Presidential cars for over a decade. Skoda,, and especially Laurin and Klement had some very luxuries cars back pre WW1 and I loved my L&K Octavias I had, better than the VRSs I reckon. Renault GroupMore than one hundred years of history for Renault vehicl...Over the past hundred years and more, many Renault flagship vehicles have served as the official car of the French presidency. Inflation calculator | Bank of E...Inflation calculatorUse our inflation calculator to check how prices in the UK have changed over time, from 1209 to now.

Only the top of the range Scenic now in the Expensive Car band and that is down to gimmicks like the Photocromatic roof, very clever but a bit unnecessary in UK which is dark and dull for large parts of the Autumn, Winter and Spring. Its other features got it voted European Car of the Year last year and owning one i can see why. Not so sure about the Renault 5 being European Car of the Year his year. I struggled to get in the back at 6'1" so I think you probably would not even attempt it. Would expect the £40k to nudge up by a grand or two soon but with EV batteries dropping from about $50 per kwh down to half of that in tge next year or two, with the move to LFP and sodium chemistry even the mega expensive Audis, BMWs and Mercs might get closer on their smaller models.

Absolutely on point 2, whack an extra charge on electricity used in the 1600 to 1900 time on weekdays and upon everyone whilst charging or at Home, when expensive Peaker plants are being used to reflect their true cost. Difficulty is for families with young children who are goung to have tea time then, may older folk too, might need some sort of special rate for them or increased Child Benefit I suppose.

One of reason i choose the smaller battery Scenic that it was under the £40k luxury car tax band. EV RRP have been falling like stones and now so many EVs are under the £40k and even the £37K RRP and with Blue Light type discount and the EV Grants can be well under £30k to actually buy ! I have no problem paying £200 a year Road Tax from next year when it kicks in for EVs after many EV owners did the "retaxing" in Q1 2025 which pushed the relaxing date to Q1 2026. Quite a few caught out with the luxury car tax it sounds. Thought they got a few grand off and brought it under £40k only to find out it was the RRP that counted not the price they paid. Tesla soon to launch stripped out 3s and Ys to get under the £40k RRP. They looked stripped out already so one wonders how basic they are ongoing to be and how small batteries. LFP batteries certainly, maybe even some Sodium ones at some point ?

With Plug in Hybrids being a popular choice currently it is looking like Fuel Duty has got a couple of decades of significant uk government income stream. With our Clio hybrid, non Plug in, it was great in some circumstances ie lightly throttle, using EV mode even at motorway speeds and doing up to 80 mpg. In colder conditions, these hybrids rarely have Heat Pumps it seems so have to rely on getting jacket water up to temp i think it's mpg was actually worse than the one litre pure ICE variant. Will be interesting to hear the backlash when PHEVs starting getting stung from next year, could ge similar to the Diesel backlash of a few years ago. But more revenue for tge government when PHEVs start paying a more accurate figure for their level of pollution based on the Euro 6e BIS standard, plus an inflation matching hike for all of us, including EV VED and an inflationary rise in Fuel Duty may well be on the cards it would be logical to assume.