lol-lol

Batteries are much cheaper but I think they would need Skoda or SEAT/ CUPRA or one of their Eastern European factories to make it to get close to that price.

I like the Extreme version with the 10 inch plus 7 inch screens but the non Extreme without the biggish screen is good value though I think the 65 hp rather than the 45 hp one is better to go for. 0 to 62 in nearly 20 seconds is a on the slow side. I like the idea of the Frunk and a £10k less than the R5 it seems to fit the bill as a back up to the main car should I arrive with the Scenic's battery flatter than a pancake. Great around town etc I reckon but can do motorway ie can hold 77 mph in most conditions but expect less than 100 miles range but then I could get from Worcester and down to South Wales and charge up for £2 and blast back again. Very cheap motoring. Mr Modern Heroes is from Glos I think.

Now over 75,000 public chargers, increasing by about 20k added in the last year.... https://mailchi.mp/zap-map/newsletter-6th-march-4929769?e=85ad54930f

Latest Octopus "GO" tariff bill shows my average cost of lecky is 13p per kWh which is across the 5 hours of cheap ie 8.5 p per kWh and the 19 hours of more expensive 25.5 p per kWh Day time lecky. GO tariff users are still waiting for notification what rates and what time periods we are are going to get for Q2 of 2025 and we are hoping Octopus will respond to Eon incredible 6.7 p per kWh for 7 hours rate the have published. On the car front the Zoe is due to end its PCP a bit later this year and I was fairly sure I was going for the Renault 5 after so many rave reviews ie Car of the Year 2025 and all that jazz. Well say the 5 a few days ago and thought not for me,for the money too compromised especially for me and my tall family members. Albeit it is only as a back up for the Scenic. So going to try the Dacia Spring. £10K cheaper, amazing finance deals, better screen in the Extreme trim than the R5, one can get a frunk as a fitment for cables etc, hate digging cables out of the underfloor in the Scenic and Zoe when the charge ports are at the front. Lots of negative and positive reports on the Spring.

Looked at the 5 over the weekend. Quite disappointed. Small infotainment screen. Back seats small too. Will try the Dacia Spring Exteme for my backup car for the Scenic. Only a 30 kwh battery but better display and 10k cheaper plus better finance deals and V2L adapter chucked in I gather. That or hold out for R4 or even go for a Sandero, third best selling car in Europe.

Loads of the DC public chargers around the Worcester have had their charging wires cut, I think the figure must be several dozen. Perhaps we will see more sites with untethered chargers. I am quite happy to charge at 22kWs much of the time and use my own cable. The service stations seem to be OK. It seem the quieter sites, not 24 hour etc. They need better lighting, security etc.

Farmers/ land owners will usually go for the best paid crop. If that crop is sunshine then they will go for some of that. With the UK increasing population over the last decade and a half, more than 10M I gather, we will probably need to learn from countries like the Netherlands who produce so much from little land using green houses, poly tunnels etc. Look as bad if not worse than solar perhaps.

Off to see a couple of R5s at local Renault dealer. Dealer has a Pop Green and a Pop Yellow versions, both 52 kwh nominal. Dealer going to be very busy tomorrow with new registrations but hope to get a peak at them as have not seen them in the flesh yet. Thinking of going for the 40 kwh LFP version rather than the 52 kwh lithium nmc. Big Renault event in two weeks but good finance deals might not appear until April ie Q2.

Sounds like Europe, particularly the EU, are happy to go down the Hybrid car route to say/ show they are doing something but also preserving their ICE vehicke industry. The EU also put Anti Dumping duties on some solar equipment as well as the Countervailing duties on Chinese BEVs so they clearly put economic protectionism before climate goals. As the UK has not opted for either such measures we, and similar markets, are getting even more trade flow of such goods from China which is propelling our EV market, now the biggest EV market in Europe and solar is also growing with massive double digit percentage growth with the quickly falling prices of pence per kw potential generating cost. Massive UK growth of solar both on an industrial scale and on private installs driven by it becoming so cheap when supply prices are quite high and threatening to go higher.

Solar is advancing at a rapid pace as are batteries, EVs and wind turbine design, the pace is truly incredible it seems to me. Solar panels are expecting a breakthrough quite soon with the advent of perovskite solar panels which are closer to 50% efficient rather than the current sub 25% of silicon panels. One would need half the panels. Also the mounting of panels can change. Rather than just laying them static on the ground on can mount them on masts and use the land below. When mounted on masts they can capture 40% more sunlight in a day. The can adjust themselves to be more robust in high winds and go in to a passive position when solar not collectable. Panel can become bi-directional ie collect light from both sides and add another 10% more efficiency. So much less panels and land can be needed in the future but still provide all the solar we need. Like wing the plan seems to be to generate twice the solar energy that the UK needs on average so half can be put away for a rain, dark day, night.

It does not have to only be for solar as the panels can be raised and sheep grazing still happen between the stilts of the panels. Might even give them a bit of shelter during rain and the occasional blazing sun.

Dale Vince. Ecotricity and Forest Green Rovers

Big plans to harness the power not just in the Scottish Isles but the Merseyside project could be epic. Serves to protect eel pool, sorry Liverpool and generate lots of hydro power. Several lagoon projects being talked about in the Bristol Channel which has the world's second tidal fall after the Bay of Fundy in Canada. Didn't know until this morning that Canada has over 200k km of coastline. Four times more than any other country.

It will. Dale Vince, the visionary who started the UK public charging network, investing millions in to new solar farms cover square miles. Cons not happy calling it all bent as he is a big Labour supporter of course.

So near Bridgewater sometime in the future when that lithium battery is up and running next year ?

I think the Western world has largely given up on stopping climate change. Europe and North Anerica can see they have largely lost the race to produce EVs as China has already won that race. Some, perhaps the US, see climate change as an opportunity to develop Greenland and Northern Canada. The EU's tariffs against Chinese EVs whilst allowing Hybrids to flood in shows they put economics above climate change. It will be countries like Bangladesh that may well pay the biggest price. Florida and a few others areas will be in big trouble. There will be massive cost to keep adapting our ports to stronger storms and surges as well as higher sea levels. Some predictions have the Northern European warming Gulf Stream becoming too weak to keep N.Europe habitable for large population with even 15 year the warming to be too weak to be comfortable in Northern climbs.

Is BMW keeping production of the EV at Oxford ? Keep hearing all sorts going on in respect of that. Many parts of industry in flux at the moment and perhaps cheaper to make in China and import to UK but not EU of course with its countervailing on Chinese EVs. Expect BMW are having kittens planning all the options and strategies.

Have people been to Luton ? Not suitable as a modern car plant. Ellesmere Port much better. My company is the largest mover of finished cars globally, I fact our subsidiary was/is the mover of cars from these plants I believe. Modern way is pick up high volumes of made cars from ports. Car transporting or even using trains is clearly much less efficient that being really close to a port and sticking hundreds or thousands on a ship.

Yes much regen systems in pure EVs compared to hybrids but the hybrids are coming on leaps and bounds especially as the Eu and other countries are nailing Chinese BEVs with super massive countervailing duties. The new MG3 is quite a tool, 100 hp or so motor and strongish regen and now SAIC/MG have just updated the MH HS. 75 miles, possibly more on batteries plus your ICE and for not huge money... Many hybrids are going to get mega whacked in the new VED scales so this need considering in the rounds. Quite surprised how much regen by son's Clio with its tiny 1.2 kWh battery does but the small battery can only do so much to help the ICE but I have seen the Clio do over 80 mpg on some test. CO2 is only 96 gm/km so i think it is staying at £195 a year VED which is what my EVs will go to in 2026 ie next year. New HS with near 25 kWh battery ie nearly half the size of my Zoe !! I reckon I might get 100 miles range out of the battery.

My lad using the smaller of my two EVs to use for his commute to work sometimes as he has moved Depots and has to travel 50 miles further each day. Using his hybrid he would gave to go to the filling station every week to fill up, hybrid, like many newer cars, only has a 40 litre tank or so.. Using my EV two or three times a week he can extend the buying of expensive fuel to every fortnight and the EV can be topped up every other night at home when being used and no time wasting and expensive trips to the fuel station when Using the EV. Helping him save for his first property, saving the world from some considerable pollution and some money going to despots. Getting the 45p a mile extra mileage from employer, happy days.

Indeed. Saw this a few months ago and thought a good idea but would have liked to see the access port on the externals of the car, maybe on one of the corners. I trained as a fire fighter as part of the merchant navy training, no point calling 999 a thousand miles from land. I would not want to be the fireman getting inside the car to do this. Renault say the pressure of the water from the hose will blow through the thin plastic cover. Have not gone looking for it but there is a safety sheet for the Scenic that firepersons can access from the Web to show where the aperture is for flooding the battery compartment.

Heard it some months ago, tosh then and still tosh. Even if EV brake pads were softer to grab better for EVs slightly higher weight they simply are used a fraction compared to ICE cars. From what I heard the biggest issue with EV brakes is they are used so little, as regen does all the work, that freeing them up is the issue as the move and consume the brake pads at such a slow rate !!

That is hard to belive and coming from Lord Haw haw GB News. EV hardly use their brakes, EVs are known to have discs and pads last 200k miles as they are so little used. Tyres i can believe EVs are a bit hard on as a bit heavier on average and the stronger torque from the off. I'll defer until a more credible source but I doubt there will be one as it sounds like bull.

Castrol reckoned there was more engine damage in the first two minutes of starting an engine compared to 2 hours running on a motorway with a warm engine. What do they know eh, must be mechanic rather than engineers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8807w6AmE0

Range, I find, is so temp, dependant. Yesterday a neat 250 mile round trip to Liverpool and back. Well below zero degrees zero when leaving home at 5am. Struggled to get much above 3 miles per kwh. Arrived with 45% battery. Afternoon yesterday was quite warm and started off and car said charge at Sandbach services. Was getting just over 4 miles per kwh by time I got on to M5 from M62. Gridserve just put in six new 350 kw chargers but all 6 were occupied so went on to the 50 kw DC ones, two there. Saw it was charging at 52 kws which was OK. Just needed 10 minutes to get 7 kwhs to get me home with about 15 miles of margin. Cost just over a fiver, never paid much more than £15 just to get up to twenty kwh or so to get me home. Really warming to Gridserve for many reasons. If i decided to grab a McDs I would have gone on the AC connections and saved 30p per kwh and saved enough to pay for the Maccy Dees.