lol-lol

Totally agree with the VAT being a high 20% on public charging but only 5% is unfair. Sunak was challenged on this about 18 months ago in parliament and totally avoided the question. Labour gave not done anything about it but what is the way forward ? The current government have to deal with the Blood scandal, the PO scandal payouts. The Cons gave billions away in NI cuts in 2024 rather than in other directions. If I was me I would restore the diesel and petrol excise duty to 58p per litre from 53p per litre and reconnect to inflation and use that to fund the dropping of public charger VAT to 5%. Not popular with ICE vehicle operators but might spur then to accelerate the transition to EVs with vans and trucks as well as cars and bikes.

You don't seem to understand basic economics or how the UK power generation works. Whether it's Centrica, the German Eon company or our the homegrown Octopus energy they can sell energy at 6 or 7 p per kwh in the early hours of the morning and they still making a profit. Us EV user, and home battery adopters are simply buying lecky when it's cheaper to buy. To you understand Happy Hours in pubs and similar events ? The UK power generation network has a certain about of nuclear base load, this will be further enhanced when Hinkley Point C and new Sizewell come on line as well as wind turbines providing supply thru the night. There has been almost a billion pounds list with wind turbines being switched off due to excess supply in the network. Best ti get 7 or 8p a kwh off customers with car or home batteries rather than have to that energy wasted. So much neteirk energy at sometimes Octopus give us free energy for some hours. Supply, Demand and economics not charity or privilege just smart people doing smart things.

These fuses will supposedly run at well over their nominal max amperage but one does not want to push it and have to call out the Grid to replace as most electrician will not touch anything Grid side one electrician told me.

And we are seeing more homes with two walbox chargers and one can even charge a third EV via a 13A plug. A charger could add 35 kwh in 5 hours which happens to be the size of the minis smaller battery size, looking forward to picking it up tomorrow. If the Zoe is replaced by a 40 kwh Renault 5, or Spring, they also can be charged from almost empty to full. Scenic can get over half a charge in the 5 hours. Still reeling as to why two gentlemen from National Grid lowered my mains fuse from 100A to 80A, apparently a policy now for houses. Still looking for a mobile house battery that could charge at up to 6 kwh or so but also power the house during the day. Saving nearly 20p per kwh. Ultimately would like to stop using gas completely but with gas at 5.71 p per kwh it is hard to argue with that. Any gas powered cars out there ? Dacia still do dual fuel lng and petrol. We do it for our 200,000 ton, 23,000 TEU LNG ships so must be something in it.

Maybe EV sales will spike upwards even faster as refineries close.... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/12/petrol-stations-run-dry-oil-refinery-collapse/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/12/petrol-stations-run-dry-oil-refinery-collapse

Wrong thread. This thread is about electric cars not hybrids. Hybrids have two whole propulsion systems, twice as much to go wrong. Be glad to see the back of the Clio hybrid this week and we will have 3 pure BEVs, hurray.

Just had a call from Sytner Mini and my lad's Cooper E Exclusive in BRG has arrived. Odd as I thought it was not due for a month. Perhaps just a same car cancelled from a previous boat. Think the finance has changed a bit as on the Cooper E it is 3.5% APR and not 3.9%. SE is 3 9% and JCW MINI finance want 4.9% APR. At a price of a nidge over £30k it seems a good deal to me considering how expensive Minis have been. With battery prices falling by 30% over the last year it is probably quite easy for Great Wall Motors to sell in the UK at these lower prices. As with all EVs it will be interesting how much lower per kwh batteries will go and with even better finance deals down the road as central interest rates continue to fall should be plenty of relative bargains coming up.

If you think the standard Cooper is hard the latest JCW, or sports spec i presume is another level of hardness. Even the Mini dealers/agent says it is really hard. I think we will be in touch with you when the Exclusive level one arrives on our shores from China, said in a Trump tone, we will be looking for nice 16 inch rims, alloy or steel, with good 16 inch all weathers to take the hardness edge of the mini suspension.

Expecting this sort of range ie 165 miles when just driven when not too concerned with range and in summer. Am in two about the Eco mode. In the Zoe it is restrictive, feels too sluggish in the 60-65 mph zone. Scenic is spot on, just keeps it below indicated 72 mph so good for keeping one's licence. Mini 2024/25 will still do indicated 100 mph even in Eco Mode. Son is really good keeping to,me not so good so I will have to watch it. Hopefully some nice pings when over the speed limit like I have with the Scenic's Google Nav system.

There are companies that prohibit the taking of calls at all when driving. How can I talk about a complex tax problem when driving ? Should call be limited a few seconds ie I will call you at the next services or the like ? Like they use to say about VP Gerald Ford " He cannot walk and chew gum at the same time "

Something some of us are even planning for our own homes. I am really just at the testing stage with my 2 Axis solar array and I am looking to scale up my battery storage and get a EV charger than can use the battery energy to power up what will soon be our fleet of 3 EVs, Mini, Scenic and Zoe/ R4 probably replacing the Zoe. Having 7 kw charger from the batteries or even a 3 phase charger running off the batteries as the Renaults can take 11 to 22 kw AC charging. The pace of technical advancement, month on month, year on year on all this related tech is considerable. Solar panels which are bifocal, efficiencies improving, costs falling. Same with batteries and inverter spec and cost. Self funding as it saves money on electricity usage using free sunshine. Hopefully soon the perovskite panels which will double efficiency, harvest the high energy shorter wavelength light will reduce the need of land use and these canopy solar setups, like my 2 axis solar tracker means the land below can be used and the solar array provides so useful shade... I can see my solar array, tempered to add a second one, could produce 4 kws plus per array at peak times with the right panels ie nine 440 w bifacial panels per array. Think I am going to need bigger solar invertors ! And I can take them with me when I move as well as the wheelable battery units like the Anker F3800..... Down to les than £2,499 now. Lack of transfer switch, home panel, on UK version is sad but if one has alternate low voltage lighting and power to fridge, TV etc then would still be very useful item to have and provide time shifting of power so one does not have to pay Day time lecky.

Honda Jazz. A part from the well known reputation and a grandma/grandpa car, and it good build quality, it still is a car that cost around 10p a mile for fuel compared to an EV's 2p per mile for fuel. 0-62 in about 10S, compared to a cheaper hybrid Clio which is 9s or so. Fugly. Doubt it handles as well as a Clio. Think I'll pass until I have given up on life completely ands stop caring about the environment.

Synthetic fuels hopefully. There will be a few historical cars knocking around but EVs, as they are becoming already, are so much cheaper to own that ICE cars one would have to be certifable to choose to run ICE vehicle.

Yeap. MY Scenic. Car of the year 2024. Rear space of a similar spec to a superb reckon.

Most EVs are SUVs and quite roomy. Charging EVs is improving at a pace with couple of thousand being added per month and more competition on pricing. I occasional charge at relatives using by 3 pin plug and we share the cost saving over public charging ie I will pay then say 30p per kwh and they make money and I save bh paying half what public charging would cost. Refineries are closing in the UK and petrol station are and will increasingly shut down as their customers convert to EVs. Latest SMMT stats show EV sales continue to grow and look on target to hit 28% for BEV whilst pure petroldm nake up less than half the rest and diesel continue to head to oblivion in new car sales. Hybrids, particularly plug in hybrids with largish batteries capable of doing daily commutes purely in EV mode. Went to IKEA in Bristol which has an under store car oark.God on could smell and taste the ICE pollution was horrible and when you are with a one year old child one thinks of those terrible cars carsnogines in that air one is breathing in. Sooner we get rid of these cancer promoting vehicles the better IMO.

We are all law breakers either deliberately and or sometimes accidentally. Cars are very good these days, like a nagging mother in law, if one is one or more mph over the sped limit. On my son's insurance as it seems to reducecyhe premium. He is on one of my car's insurance and that adds quite a bit to my premium but it gives him a choice to balancecthe miles on his pcp for his car and it means I can have a sherbert and he can drive me home in my car. But always try to conform to insurance rules as being able to drive is a key part of my job. Police and Dept of Transport need ever better systems to ensure all drivers and vehicles on the road road are properly insured, taxed and MOT'd.

Go electric. Your wallet will thank you.

We use to get stopped by the police sometimes more than once I a week. Issuex a HORT to produce documents to local police station, licence, insurance, MOT. Whether on Fizzies or ex police Dunstall tuned Norton Commando, 0 to 90 in 9 seconds. Never got stopped in cars unless it was an accident or speed stop or the like. Throw the book at non insured, attachment of earnings fines or up to 6 months in prison would like to see more off though we need the prison places of course.

Even the 60 kwh, P60 ?, is Group 50 insurance so even doing the adding a oldie on the insurance i imagine insuring a Tesla S would nit ve cheap, like many of those high CO2 cars and their VED the insurance and tax per year will be as much as these ten year old performance cars cost to buy. Miss my Jaaag type S but several big negatives such as running costs and fear of something going wrong which make continuing to run economically difficult. Despite that still looking for a big performance rat car ! Lotus Charlton would be my dream but they are rarer than dragons teeth.

The Spanish Traffic Officers should be able to get approximate speeds from lengths of skids etc and as you say car and phones gps. Such a sad end to two young men who were great footballers but apparently more victims of RTAs. Another theory is they hit a wolf or deer which are common in this area. Hopefully all drivers wi become more circumspect of driving hazards.

Exclusive comes with 18s but I would have had 17s at a choice. Pure conjecture but one wonders how extreme low profile tyres and pot holes contributed to Jota and his brother's death. Very sad occuence and the subsequent fire and I hope lessons are learnt and not just glossed over because he was a popular footballer. Speed, road quality and the extreme performance level of the car and driver experience. Perhaps hypercars should have an addional test whether petrol or EV if they have over 500 hp or something like 800 hp as in the Huracan's case if memory serves.

I have given up on the saving days as I was just getting a few pence but on the free days I plug both EVs and plug in my Allpower S2000 which charges at 1.5 kws. I should put on the electric immersion too which is 3kws and then save on the gas but gas is so cheap ie 5.71 p per kwh and the boiler is 15 kws so much more powerful. Just have to make sure I do not stay above 80A is only about 18 kws and I am getting up to 12 kws already after National Grid switched my 100 A to 80A as is policy now.

Our low range, but quick accelerating Mini Cooper E has left China and heading across the Indian Ocean and due to dock in UK on the 11th of August I gather. Range of between 110 miles in Go Cart mode to 200 in Eco mode and good weather going to be interesting. Gravitating towards R4 rather than R5 for my own second car and R4 seems to be getting similar gushing praise that the R5 has been getting but is clearly more practical for carrying cargo and oversized / overlegthened people. Scenic, even though the UK discontinued 60/65 kwh version has been awesome with this week doing Worcester-Liverpool-Worcester no problem with 40 miles of range left after it's 246 miles trip. Cost about a fiver.

Another hour of free electricity from Octopus tomorrow 2-3 pm. Got £3 refund for my free electricity a fortnight ago. With the lowering of the daily standing charge all the recent sunshine and my new 2 axis solar tracking array which is increasing solar collection by about half I have reduced down my DD to Octopus to £133 and am still in credit by a months worth of usage. In a counter move petrol station are thinking of delivering fuel cans with a few litres in to their customers. Na, not really. Octopus may not be the absolute cheapest hourly rate but they seem to be very fair on tweaking the DD payments and not insisting one is massively in credit in summer. Also they do Octoplush toys that even Maverick the Lab does not destroy in 10 minutes like most other dog toys......

The Oxbridge wallies of the BBC don't live in the real world. Almost dont watch any BBC except Have I Got New For You. Only 4 large oil refineries in the UK is pretty thin even with EV taking an ever growing share. Visited the Pembrokeshire refinery few years ago. A massive site.