lol-lol

Love the Norwegian vista absolutely top notch, went there last July on the big P&Q LNG ship, something like 186,000 tonnes, amazing views. Close call between Rockies and Norway for most beautiful place on earth, or so Slartibartfast reckons. Thought Norway was banning all cruise ships running on hydrocarbon from entering their fjords this year. Went on a large electric ship up and down the Stavanger fjord, past pulpit rock where Tom Cruise did the Mission Impossible stunt, breathtaking. Did not quite get to the Arctic Circle but still light at midnight is spooky. In one place saw about 20 Twizys which one could hire one to drive one self instead of using the coach travel, all good though.

The fee for charging at charge points is not just for the electricity but largely for recouping cost of the capital equipment. My company at the time ie Bollore, owned Source London, now 2.500 charges in London and Birmingham which cost cost thousands for single phase and tens of thousands for 3 phase chargers so much of that pence per kilowatt hour os for the recoup of CAPEX. Those of use with home chargers have paid hundreds if not a grand or so for chargers installed at home to tap in to house mains and supply 7 kW to the EVs, quite an investment that takes many thousands of kWhs of cheaper electricity to recoup that CAPEX, albeit it might add some value to the house when sold having EV chargers installed. The hardware does not come cheap and the installers are not on peanuts either as anyone who employs electricians knows, a good trade to be in then and now increasingly.

BYD (YANGWANG) U9 party trick. Avoid potholes etc, jump over it....

I am a big supporter of lowering the VAT on public chargers from 20% to 5% or even VAT free which would slice loads of the public charging price. Sunak would not do it or even address the question in parliament. Of course the lowering VAT on public charging would mean a loss of revenue that would need to be met elsewhere. I have already said that I would be happy to see VAT on hone fuel go up, particularly on gas usage but probably not the best time for that in a cold snap and before state pesioner get their hike in pension but there are probably several good candidates for hikes but uk government probably does not want to do anything to drive up inflation hence they were soft on fuel prices not increasing them by inflation or removing the covid 5p. Some areas, ie the Highlands, Exmoor get a further 5p off their tax on fuel of course. Some people like new houses Some like old ones. Charge Scotland, supported by the SNP and Barnet funding do not seem to have done a good job from what I have read of you posts ?

Did i say motorway for EV ? I am simply saying that ICE drivers mostly know to not buy fuel on motorways. Those of us who charge at home rarely charge at public chargers ad the headline price is about ten times higher. I have only public charger six times in 4 years, all times only about 5 to 7 kwh ie free as octopus credit or with Octopus discount so about £3 to £4.50. If I was going to charge regularly public i would join one of the discount schemes in addition to the Octopus Electroverse one. I like Ionity, it would definitely not be TESLA as I would be making sure not a red cent went to Mr Musky. You can know join the Shell Recharge subscription through Octopus, 23% of their high rates, would be worth it if a regular public charge i suppose. Lots of options to save and with EVs it is easy to get the exact number of kWh one needs.

Some amazingly cheap figures being quoted. The YouTubers were saying £23k for either. You can always take out the deal and then pay it off with all the money on fuel one has not spent of course. What APR is that? Renaults 4.9% APR is outstanding.

EV owners will pay the new standard rate when they renew but many of us intend to "retax" our EVs in March so we will start paying VED in 2026. So yes April 1st but 2026, or maybe March 2026, not quite sure how the system will work. Or it might get adjusted of course in a budget or statutory instrument I suppose.

Parts, most if not all. Not only Vauxhall/Stellantis are selling EVs at the same price as the ICE but the price of the MG4 at less £20k is a stunningly low price. Not my boat floater but as a popular model ad buyers prove it is a lot of car for the money. Buying kWhs of electricity for a those who have to buy from public chargers needs a bit more research that those who buy diesel or petrol ie don't buy on motorways as one needs to look at ones usage and local geography of public chargers. By choosing the optimum network discount subscription one could be getting kWh as low as 29p per kWh, sadly with someone like TESLA who I would personally pay Gridserve twice the price than buy from TESLA but there are other networks where one could pay a small monthly subscription and get kWh at half the headline prices of 79 to 85p per kilowatt hour. Like millions of other Octopus customers I do and they can get an Octopus Electroverse card and get discount and postpone cost in to one's monthly energy bill. EVs are cheaper to run for VED and servicing in all cases i have experienced and read of. Depreciation is a non issue for most as you pay your PCP and if quite heavily depreciated, EVs are just getting much cheaper as the key component costs ie batteries are falling like a stone. I have been whispered that I will be offered my Zoe at well below the balloon payment cost, thousands less, or I will do a deal for the new Renault 5, quite likely to be car of the 2025 as was the Scenic in 2024, not EV of the Year, European Car of the Year, period. As I said guff from start to finish spouting inaccurate clap trap which only the uneducated in the matter will suck up.

Guy talking absolute tosh.

More nails in the coffin of ICE vehicles, even PHEV versions of ICE....... (Those PHEVS that say they can do over 100 mpg and have emissions of sub 50 gm/km but are actually twice or more will get their comeuppance.) https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/sustainability/365499/plug-hybrids-face-stricter-emission-tests-2025-misleading-efficiency-figures Plug-in hybrids face stricter emission tests in 2025 as misleading efficiency figures are targeted Plug-in hybrid cars will be subjected to more stringent emissions tests in 2025 to better represent real-world use cycles, Auto Express can confirm. It’s thought the changes could have significant implications for company car drivers, with some models expected to see big jumps in tax bands, which are based on CO2 emissions. Existing Euro 6e emission standards will be superseded by so-called Euro 6e-bis tests, applicable to all new models launched from 1 January 2025. This will then be updated at the end of the year (31 December) to include all cars on sale, meaning existing models will have to be retested in order to comply. Previously, the emissions tests were conducted over a simulated distance of 800km (497 miles), but Euro 6e-bis ups this to 2,200km (1,367 miles). To illustrate the effect this has on a PHEV’s emissions and fuel consumption in real world driving, the International Council on Clean Transport (ICCT) analysed the performance of a BMW X1 xDrive25e under the revised conditions. What are the Euro 7 emissions standards? The ICCT said: “Over the past several years, it has become evident that the currently used UF curve does not reflect the real usage of PHEVs resulting in unrepresentatively low official CO2 emission values. “This leads to an excessive gap between the real-world fuel consumption and the official value determined during type-approval.” The new parameters saw the X1’s emissions rise from around 45g/km, to 96g/km. The X1 has a current Benefit-in-Kind company car tax banding of eight per cent, but the 6e-bis tests would see this number jump to 24 per cent – comparable with the most efficient pure petrol models. A further advancement in emissions standards is expected in 2027, when ‘Euro 6e-bis-FCM’ comes into force. Under these circumstances, tested over a total distance of 4,260km (2,647 miles), the same BMW is said to emit around 122g/km. As it stands, only cars bought brand new will be affected by the updated emissions standards; there are no plans to backdate the bandings for existing company car users. This is in contrast to the proposed introduction of VED road tax for electric car drivers due later this year, which will be applicable to both new and existing electric vehicles.

-8c a few miles from here ie Oxfordshire, usually Brize reports these low temps. Or Benson at minus 8.2c.

The problem is with CO2 is the levels we have never seen and not what those are doing with the ambient temperatures ie globally, and especially where the earth stores its frozen water on land ie Antartica and Greenland, it is now running off these land areas in to the sea.

But the UK us not just targeting cars, trucks, vans but is using collected taxes to heavily subsidize heat pumps to the tune of thousands of pounds per install so it is this key area as well. Also having shut down the last dirty coal power station and with massive wind farms coming on line to reduce and soon eliminate the need to gas power stations also. The decarbonisation is going on across the piste including of the ships which bring EVs and goods from China that the UK no longer makes.

But we all suffer the effects of climate change that scientists believe is largely down to pollution from burning hydrocarbons. We all breath the same air that is being polluted by diesel and petrol cars in urban areas. Governments around the world are moving in a cleaner direction. The program of phasing out ICE vehicles is happening, my company is doing so for cars, vans, ships etc as are most civilised companies and countries and then there is the strong economic argument with lower running cost. You would think no brainer but apparently some still elect to burn stuff at great expense and damage to the environment. Freedom is great but not when it extends to poisoning your fellow citizen and putting them further in danger of climate change risk it is not personal freedom but collective responsibility that trumps. Let's hit that 28% electric sales or even go over 30%. We are falling further behind countries like China, Norway etc.

Like the sound of that as Renaults are particularly light. TESLAs pretty light too. German cars, including SEAT and Skoda are heavy like VAG, Mercedes and BMWs.

The term global warming is obsolete. The steady rise in CO2 and methane is more appropriately called climate change as this change in the worlds atmosphere is causing more violent weather and is actually looking like it will put Northern Europe in to a much colder sub climate rather warmer due to the diminishing Gulf (Mexican) decline.

The sunshine/solar belt is sometimes stated as being between 35 N and 35 south which does include a great many peoples of the world. If we can get solar efficiency form its current 24% or so to 50% or so we could widen that belt. It does give us issues in this 50N latitude. I occasional look at small wind turbines for homes but there seems to be a big lack of supporting data on what to get and what power one might get in average winds. They can link to the same batteries/solar generators I suppose but would need a wind turbine controller of the right size for the turbine. Still in its infancy but maybe one day will compliment solar power generation at the micro home level.

UK Grid suppliers must make their business decisions like anybody else, they buy or produce at some cost and offer that electricity at times and amounts they look to make a profit. All quite a gamble with so many variables. UK governments has the dual task of providing both reliability of supply and cheapest possible costs to customers, not an easy brief. Visited Hinkley Point man years ago, when doing Mech Eng, It had the old Magnox reactors at Hinkley A and then the AGR at Hinkley B, I do occasionally dip in to the pprogree on Hinkley C, 12,000 people working there, quite a way to spend £46B but very interesting to one who has porked in power generation albiet from a MArine Engineering standpoint mostly. This power station, and Sizewell if they also build one there, should provide a nice chunk of Base Load. I can see the UK electricity market getting smarter, especially as the percentage of those with home Smart meters that can report half hourly like mine does and millions others. Whilst Octopus has reflected the market with Agile which follows the market, even going negative but also up to £1 a kWh sometimes, then we have Intelligent Go which provides floors and ceilings and guarantee of several hours of electricity per day at about a third of the normal daily rate, then there is my simple GO tariff that just gives me 5 hours of cheap ie 8.5p per kWh which is fine for me to charge up my electric cars and home batteries and I think we all know that the UK electricity market will evolve. Brother has the HEat Pump Cosy tariff which is tri-rate I think. Octopus want him to avoid the Tea time electricity peak rate period and take advantage of the cheap night time tariff of course which he can set the under floor heating etc to do. I expect electricity price to have peaked in real terms and fall from now on, particularly for the smart users. Like other places in the world ie California, and I expect many others, electricity users will get financially penalised for using electrical power at peak times ie that 1730 to 2230 time, possibly with prices approaching £1 a kwh, but at other times the price will be more like 25p per kwh with sub 10p per kWh. Despite Martin Lewis bleating I think the Daily charge may stay where it is as to reflect the massive infrastructure costs of getting lecky from the offshore turbines, the standby gas power stations, Hinkley Point C, the hydro Great Glen project etc. Octopus, and the UK government, want to see us replace our home gas boilers with heat pumps to really bring down the CO2, as well as have standby batteries instead of gas power plants. Just a matter of time and I think it is a few years away and not decades.

AutoEV's 2024 awards. Great showing by Renault (inc Dacia) which shows how the other European makers have failed to grasp the EV making opportunity (cars to expensive, too heavy, too inefficient usually). 2025 looks to be even better with the R5, R4 and Twingo hitting the UK markets. Let us hope that the other European car companies can survive in this rapidly changing market.

There will be moments where the sun and wind are insufficient and Dinorwig is only meant to cover daily fluctuations. The Great Glen project will help with more like weekly smoothing. Hinckley Point C will provide quite a contribution to Base Load. In Spring, Summer and Autumn more than a million homes's solar will help and we can expect more business buildings and companies exporting to the the Grid. Whilst country to country interconnectors are providing good supply. The 1.4 GW interconnector with Norway seems to run flat out all the time. Be interesting to see if the proposed interconnector to Morocco gets done. Long route but should be a solid contribution. We should expect the French connectors also to be a good constant supply as they supply from their nuclear base loads and increase solar and wind to complement the UKs rapidly expanding off shore and on shore wind plus home generation as it is so cheap to do.

Fortunately for the UK we have super large wind farms coming on stream for the massive North Sea projects and many large scale battery peaker plants coming online to take the place of gas peaker plants. We still have Dinorwig hydro-plant and it is looking like the Scottish Great Glen plant will get built and that is more than 3 times the size of Dinorwig. All this whilst increasing number of UK homes are becoming self sufficient for large parts of the year. Looking forward to shaving more and more with free electricity sessions with Octopus and considerably increasing my battery storage via something like the Allpower R4000, below vid........ 4000W to Power 11 Devices Simultaneously] - 4 AC ports with a wattage of up to 4000W, 2 USB-C charging ports, 4 USB-A ports, and 1 car outlets power almost all your devices at once. [Remarkly Fast Recharge & 5 Ways to Charge] - Thanks to our proprietary AP-POWER technology, ALLPOWERS R4000 can be charged from 0 to 100% in just 1 hour by EV station charging & solar or wall outlets & solar together, faster than any other solar generator. Also you can charge from EV station charging, solar or wall outlets. [Unique Voice Control, Smart Wifi / Bluetooth Control Function] - The world's first voice control system makes the operation more intelligent. Easily realized by connecting to ALLPOWERS APP through WIFI Power Monitoring/Function Setting/Remote Control/System Upgrade. [Long Lasting LiFePO4 Battery] - Combined with LiFePO4 batteries, ultra-durable electronic components, ALLPOWERS R4000 gets 3500+ full cycles to last for years.

Think you'll find that the Isrealis had a batch of pagers actually built with tiny explosive chargers which got the battery to go off with a bang. It was being investigated. A short circuiting newly added sub circuit might do something, probably just fizz and overheat but in these cases the last report I read was that a batch was doctored so a tiny charge was placed in these papers, maybe close to the battery to get it rolling on a combustion of the battery. Clever by MOSAD but sadly, as usual, seems to have also harmed many innocents.

Saw this and could not believe my ears. The tracing of parking up positions is for the EV models of Skoda and Seat as well it is reported. Has someone parked up at the brothel or mistress house etc is there to see. Must be thousands of very worried VAG car drivers. With all the fuss about Hawei circuitry in many cars built in China, including many Western branded cars this is just so revealing. VAG in car software now coded etc in PRC and with the SOS system in modern cars. Needs a patch me thinks.

Greg Jackson. Octopus Go tariff was increased from 4 hours to 5 hours and done so at the end of the night period so the battery warming through charging and preconditioning the cabin can happen as late as 0530 rather than 0430 previously. Many people in the UK are reacting to the slightly higher day time charges ie 25/26p per kwh is currently I gather the typical cost of a kwh of electricity by installing typically up to about 20 large solar panels on their roof that I can see around here ie have the potential generation of up to 9 kws and some have gone for storage batteries and some just export to the grid at the 15p per kwh they can get. Yes cost them thousands of investment but there seems hundreds of thousands of households willing to do this. I dont know how much longer I am going to stay in my current house so gone down a bit of a different route. So I have portable batteries "aka" solar generators and portable solar panels. One can get solar batteries at less than 17p per wh ie 2400 wh for less than £400 and 100 watt solar panels for less than £40 ie 40 p per watt of max generation. Still benefit from the 5 hours of very cheap lecky, currently and in to Q1 of 2025 at 8.5 p per kwh, including the 5% VAT. If lecky at night rate did look like moving up to the Day time rate, no sign of it yet as Night time rate actually stayed where is has been rather than going up at all like single rate and the day time GO rate, then I would just buy so more portable batteries and more solar panels so I can both generate more and store more. This is the way that the market is working both fixed battery and solar panels and portable ones and both techs have prices falling at a very steep rate ie about a quarter to a half year on year. I think more the problem, and we see this in Australia, Germany, Spain and the US etc is that the amount of lecky being bought from the grid, by whole chucks of the population, are reducing so much that some of these countries are introducing a hefty standing charge like the UK has ie about £20 or £25 a month as they are making so little money from the lecky sales that they feel they have to have a substantial fixed charge to maintain the grid supply. All well Martin Lewis and others moaning about standing charge but the real cost of supplying a reliable supply is not cheap ie billions of pounds/$ of infrastructure required. The beauty of electricity, over gas, petrol, fuel oil, coal etc is that there is now, in 2024 and onwards, not a huge cost or problem generating and storing one's own lecky and choosing to not take it from the Grid.

If Jag i Paces or Taycans are deemed a fire this is not big news as most of us EV drivers/owners use mainstream EVs such as Nissan, Renault and TESLA and i not surprised that small volume sales companies have problems so the story is of minute relevance to us with mainstream EVs. Not heard of any statistically relevant number of mainstream EVs have self igniting issues.