lol-lol

Onwards and upwards indeed My work with central government, Department of Transport and HMCE, HMRC probably pale into insignificance with you work with the local council, quite so, well pointed out. Any road, back to EVs rather than Swifts, MX5 etc .....

Indeed my Renault 5 i am due to pick up this week I just a nidge over £20k but i get most of the amount on 0% for 25 months so in real terms it will be less than £20k for the European Car of the Year. A few compromises as the pop green 💚 is the free colour and the very nice pop yellow is £800 addition, ouch. This current basd spec comes with just a 40/43 kwh so nearly 200 mile range in dawdle mode but if one wang it at the uk national speed plus limit one will not get much over 100 miles which will horify petrol heads but those of use to living with EVs with the smaller battery options can live with. There is going to be a Renault 5 FIVE which will be even cheaper ie 95 hp, no DC fast charging that will be about 23k Euros ie under £20k, £19k maybe with a bit of haggling, same 40/43 kwh battery as my R5. Hyundai Inster is a good machine and good value. BYDs little EVs god value but will UK continue not apply Countervailing import duty and then there is the very cheap MGs, if one is ok with their reliability rating. Lots of choice and brilliant cheap running costs.

Million is peanuts compared to the recent total of £3.6B spent on asylum accommodation.

Yes of course. Sometimes get Aberdeen and Inverness locations wrong. Be interested to hear what Scots think of Westminster using that Highlands base for asylum seekers ? Think my dad might have done his infantry training from there. I did my Officer character training in the Cullen Ridge in Skye. As soon to retire must reacquaint myself with an epic car journey to the Highlands.

Large ie 6m by 6m at least fire blankets should be on hand at all EV charging sites to put over the EV. Not so easy for just one person to do rather than a two person operation. Some thought needed on how to deploy such fire blankets. Perhaps some system like those fast deploy tents. I have fire blankets near my larger lithium batteries just in case. If filling petrol and diesel cars were safe from fuel fumes then why do we get shouted across the speakers from the kiosk staff for using mobile phones or smoking on the forecourt. Being an ex diesel engine apprentice, marine main engine, generators i have snorted more than my fair share of diesel fumes. Like with asbestosis, what coal miners got, smokers etc, it is a lottery whether one get cancer abd other diseases from these poisons, luck of the draw. Busy week ahead with EVs, climate change after hurricane Melissa and COP 30 coming up. Wake up call for everyone !

A great stop for doing the NC500. Is true about sow cars, caravans and motor homes crawling along the route spoiling the driving pleasure sometimes, oft ? There are some good picturesque roads in Wales too, and Cornwall and Ireland, true for Gaul and Basque too, odd most great drives and I the Celtic areas !!

The recirc system is not perfect and whilst the low pressure recirc system gets much of the gas it is not perfect and some hydrocarbons get past this system which has improved things but is not 100%. Quick check shows data which state 85 to 95% recovery. Suggest you take some of you own advice, possibly get a science degree to add to your arts degree ?

Ohh, my R5 should be here in the week coming. Zoe going back to Renault on the 13th so will have 4 EVs for a few days on the drive. My Evolution Urban 40 kwh is fairly stripped out but what does one expect for a bit over £20k plus most on 0% finance. No cup holders or arm centre arm rest which is a bit annoying but order this below, £12 delivered. Really want the baguette holder but they are £100 as is the V2L adapter but will look to get both, maybe not genuine Renault but if it works and looks OK.

I like elephants, and Laura Brannigan

Aberdeen showing the way as EV charging company Fasned get approval for indoor charging and location with facilities...... https://www.electrifying.com/blog/article/raining-champ-fastned-plans-first-indoor-charging-hub#:~:text=Fastned%20could%20become%20the%20raining,that%20found%20in%20petrol%20stations. Of course could not really do this with an ICE vehicle refuelling station as it has to be outdoors to waft waft away the foul smelling, carsogenic gases released when refuelling as well as a much increased fire risk doing such refuelling inside.

I am not the biggest fan of Dave Takes it on but some salient points here for people to plan for the future. The decline in fossil fuels, at least for motive power rather than plastic etc, could be more like a very steep slope rather than a gradual one. 2025 appears to be peak oil, gas, coal production and looking like quickly downwards from here. China leading the way of course and expect to see even more shadowy ways Russian oil makes its way to European markets.

Also glad to say my allIgator defence system is working as I have not seen any alligators around here at all !

There is no shortage of torque on electric motors abd it is more at the top end that is the reason to have 2 or 3 gears to avoid overspeeding. In most EVs one gear is fine. Massive torque from 5 mph up to a typical 100 mph when the single geared vehicle is quite suited to the massive torque at 5 mph and then the torque will typical be backed off in the upper half of the rev range. Only really for German Autobahns where one might want to drive at 125 mph, 155 mph on needs a second gear to stop that electric motor going past 12,000 ram and bring in a second gear to drop the motor revs by half or so to allow the electric motor to drop the revs back to 6k revs or so and go again up to 150 mph and beyond. My company uses lots of electric trucks, mainly BYDs I think. My old company provided some of the tech for Mercedes EV buses and trucks, still have the patents I think. Of course EV motors have none of the reciprocating losses of ICE cars, ****el engines aside, so spinning at high revs is not exponentially rising the losses. All the low down torque on would ever want and much easier to get the power to individual wheel than ice cars with all the differentials and transfer boxes. Easier to control power / torque allocation i expect too.

Never smelt any gases from any of the numerous lithium or lithium iron phosphate batteries I have. Never had any problem with any of the BMSs which all seem to work well without any overheating. I have little lithium batteries of 5 wh righ up to ones of 2 kwh. All have worked faultlessly over the upto to 5 years I have had them include the ultra large car ones. Charging lead acid batteries I have detected the smell of the gases produced when charging and they are most unpleasant. It is shame most EVs still have lead acid 12v batteries. I gather Tesla have gone to lithium batteries for their 12v system and even plan to go to 48v architecture for their ancillary services. I concerted my Yamaha R3 bike to a lithium battery from the lead acid and i expect this is what most race and high performance vehicles do. 12v lead acid batteries is one of the weakest links in EVs as it is with ICE cars. Hopefully we will be able to banish lead acid batteries as we also do with ICE engines (maybe a small single cylinder range extended engine there is a bit of a case for) si it is lithium, LFP, Sodium batteries for both traction and ancillaries systems and get rid of this 19th century tech of internal combustion and lead batteries in favour of 21 st century tech which is safer, reliable and cleaner.

Still happy with my Evolution / Urban R5 choice over the Inster and C3e. Inster does well but FUGLY in my opinion, C3e thirsty...

Same with Temerife. Relatively little EV as petrol is very cheap. Not so the case in Greece but their electricity, single rate tariff has been around 23 Euro cents in the first half of the year but has gone up by half since August.... They can get good Night tariffs for as little as 10 cents per kwh similar to what we get in the UK and one can imagine. Athens is 38 degrees north latitude so not far outside the golden 35N to 35S great solar latitudes so individuals, businesses and governments can invest in solar and get a good return if prices of natural gas look expensive which they relatively are doing compared to solar. Not a great deal if wind generation possible there but solar would be good. Greek City TimesElectricity Prices in Greece Surge 52% in Just Three Mont...Electricity prices in Greece have surged by 52% in just three months, reaching €112.25 per MWh in October amid calm weather conditions and higher natural gas use. As costs rise, more households are....

Thought ICE was now less than 50% according to SMMT monthly figures. Acceleration to 30 mph tends to be most important ie where lanes go 3 in to 2 or 2 in to one. Cannot count the times some wannabe ICE driver goes to the outer lane and I am in the Scenic or Zoe and they are left for dust as the instant torque means one if 5 or 10 metres up the road before the ICE car has even got to max torque in first gear. With my FWD EVs wheel spin can be the problem from the get go. Scenic is well managed in traction control if not over managed, Zoe less so and will be interesting to see how the Urban R5 handles full blown starts from the lights. My favourite performance data site, French of course but uses data from numerous European publications. Kodiaq 150 hp true 0 to 100 kph over 10 seconds. Scenic EV60 also lost a few tenths and came in at just over 9s to 100 kph...... https://zeperfs.com/en/duel7347-12689.htm

I like Ionity, good chargers near Magor services and a fresh bunch due to open soon at South Gloucester next to Maccie Dees so less like likely to be vandalised, cable stolen by the scum.

£8 credit from Octopus for the 3 hours of free electricity a few days ago and another £3 for the hour of free just before that. Nearly £500 in credit so well good for the winter ahead. See what deals there will be for Black Friday which seems to last most of November now and another solar generator on the agenda i think. Need to get one that can charge the EVs. Renault 5 has vehicle to load but have to get the adapter as not included in the 40 kwh version I am getting. Budget month too !!

But only 4% of charging is done on Public charges abd if you need to then one gets a monthly subscription deal with a Public charger network of choice. Tesla the obvious one if one can stomach buying lecky from Elon but other deals like all you can eat from Octopus for £30 a month so £360 for the year. Massively less than I putting in my ICE cars even hyper efficient 1.4 wiesel car that was pretty dull to drive compared to any of the EVs I drive.

Love the bit where Patrick, great name, McGoohan drives his Lotus 7 (?) underneath the barrier before it even goes up. Then there is the beautiful Portmerion is the final seconds of the clip.

Many of us, of a certain age, know of the Parliamentary car park as there was a car bomb with killed NI Sec as he was driving out .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Airey_Neave Was not the opening sequence of "The Prisoner" filmed there ? (Below picture)

So applies to 84% of the UK population, you are of course technically correct but new law will apply to the vast majority of the UK people.

Happy with GO and paying the little bit more. Just worried it will end sometime and not be so cheap hence continuing to up rate my solar and batteries.

Or just use GO, gain control of your own charging, no smart charging requirements, slightly less advantageous cost per unit but I like the control and simplicity even though I trust Octopus on most things (notable exception is DD forecasting).