lol-lol

What an absolute peach of a car. Renault got so many things right on this model. Got to order it with the baguette holder.

China has a massive demographic issue, thanks to the one child policy and other policies. ITs population could half in a lifetime. So they need and apparently are already building human shaped robots to work on their car production lines. The Chinese already have numerous advantages in making cars ie the material like Lithium, the battery manufacturing, advanced manufacturing processes like giga-presses. And now robots that will work almost 24 hrs, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. As a socialist I do wonder how wealth will be shared amongst the Chinese people ? We will need robot maintenance crews etc but how many staff, one day a week, month and will that get automated too ? Times a changing.

This graph does not worry you then ? If it is not ice then it is in the sea and that is a problem. Unless you are Aquaman.

It has potential. My biggest concern is that its control might be in the same hands as the hydrocarbon industry or maybe in the hands of the massive conglomerates of the gases industry whilst not being so bad as the HC industry the electric production and distribution industry, to me at least, look a more wholesome bunch of fellows, Elon Musk being the questionable one who sounds like he would quite happily zoom off to the moon or mars or wherever and leave the rest of us stewing in our overheating planet.

If you knew your climate modelling you would know that the South polar region is far more important the the North polar region. South polar seeing record least amount of ice... https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151692/exceptionally-low-antarctic-sea-ice#:~:text=Prior to 2014%2C ice surrounding,%2C 2022%2C and now 2023. As the Northern polar region goes at least I can get my ships from Far East to Europe without having to go around the southern tip of Africa. As the South pole de ices we are all in big trouble with sea level ie ports and coastal areas, the Thames estuary, East Anglia, much of Somerset. At least the Hawthorns football ground will be OK. Boing boing.

Duck guts. 2 0 0. Two being the duck and guts, two zeros.......

But they can run on sun shine, or wind, or tidal. Some forms of these energies can be produced at home or by renewable companies like Octopus or Gridserve and many others. The liquid hydrocarbon, or hydrocarbon gas, has to be released from wells in the ground, North Sea, Russia, Saudi or where ever, refined and then sold from a few thousand specialist outlets ie fuel stations, by massive conglomerates, who oft make obscene profits, and vehicles who use this liquid rarely hold enough of this liquid to do more than 1000 kms. When shortages occur drivers of ICE vehicles go nuts. EV owners just go home or two a public charging station and charge up as the electricity comes from massively diverse sources so that if one is on short supply the Grid switches to another. I have an ICE car and a feel better when it is sat on the drive with 550 miles range but happier with the EV which only has 240 miles of range but there are numerous ways I can refill it to keep it running not only tomorrow but next week, month, year etc. EVs are just so much more versatile in their energy acquiring plus the battery, as I said, acts not just a energy store but a thermal one as well in advanced EVs. It is like comparing dinosaurs/reptiles to mammals. ICE cars cannot adapt (maybe other than switch to hydrogen) whereas EVs are infinitely more flexible as to where they get their energy from ie Grid, home, destination charging whilst eating, shopping. No contest.

We all breath the same air and live on the same planet which scientist tell us is under-going massive climate change. Governments can take various routes to reduce the Carbon, NOX and PM pollution and mostly I am impressed with what they have done. The UK with their subsidies for EVs and home chargers initially and now such schemes such as salary sacrifice for EV leases have been and are welcome. In combination with this we need for fuel duties to at least keep up with inflation in my view so I would like to see at least a two pence per litre rise in fuel duty next week on March 6th in the budget as well as Vehicle Excise Duties going up, which is of course scaled to CO2 emissions also broadly in line with inflation, 4% or so. So for those who run vehicles running on hydrocarbons that this sector is continual taxed more and more until the sheer economics of comparatively running an ICE compared to an EV encourages the jump to EVs. As now and increasingly those who run ICE cars subsidize those that run EVs as is happening now under UK government tax laws and many countries around the world. Banning, or taxation dis-incentivising, older EVs from cities is of course is another tool in the toolbox being used to speed up the transition. Yes I think the UK could use another carrot rather than stick ie a new scrappage scheme to get those ten year and older ICE cars off the road. So in summary I am an advocate of freedom of choice but not when in damaged my health or that of my offspring and the economic future by helping along the demise of the environment and climate which makes us unlikely to be able to feed ourselves or makes large parts of the world uninhabitable so that people are forced to migrate to those bits of land that are still habitable. Freedom has its limits when consequences of those choices massively affect us all.

VW ID7 Pro compared quite well to a new Model 3, big battery dual motor version......... Despite no heat pump in the ID7.

An EV's traction battery is both a store for electrical energy and a thermal mass store too. Particularly when an EV's battery is pre-conditioned before a journey it will acquire thermal mass that can be used to warm the passengers as well optimise its electrical capacity for maximum absorption of electrical energy. The battery can be used to directly supply the ancillary electrical devices needs such as instrumentation, power steering etc. It does this with about 90% efficiency. The energy can be bought from renewable sources. A hydrocarbon fuel tank in an ICE car supplied an engine which converts the chemical energy in to kinetic energy which is mostly used for forward motion but also some oth is power is used to drive an alternator to provide electricity to the ever increasing electrical systems though out the car and it does this at around one third efficiency and as a secondary bi-product outputs a lethal cocktail of poisonous gases and particles and then one has to indirectly pay some despote to get some more of the stuff similar to a heroine addict getting some more smack. Yes they are both energy stores for vehicle propulsion but as technically efficient and environmental solution they cannot be much more different.

Here is a youtube vid of a Zoe, only about eight years old but had very close to original range, cost pittance to run, think he sold it for a grand profit a few weeks later.

I think you may not be giving the EV car manufacturers enough credit about thinking ahead on this. They do do lots of testing pre launch, try to do hundreds of thousands of kilometers to full test a car and in very harsh conditions, much harsher than the UK ie colder and hotter. What EV makers have done, to varying degrees is to have buffers of extra charging capacity. In my Zoe's case the battery is inferred to be 50 Kwh, the useable capacity is 52 kWh, the actual capacity is 55 kWh. All controlled by the software. I think most EVs have over the air software reception and this could be amended, buffers released. Toyota with their BZ4 got things very wrong but reconfigured the software to give much greater range. The previous model of my Zoe ie ZE40 has actually about a quarter of the cells held in reserve that could be brought online so the range would stay similar to new many years down the years. Some TESLA also it has been showed are built with far more battery than the owner might think and those reserves of battery cells can be brought online ig owner complains range has gone down by 10% so as if by magic the car regains is estimated full range. Some EVs have just has a duff cell or two replaced and got back much range. Others have received the battery pack from a new model and suddenly doubled or tripled their range and battery packs are falling in cost like a stone ie 10 or 20% per year. I am far more worried that the price of petroleum spirit I put in my ICE cars is much effected by the whims of people like Putin and the Saudi and Jemmy the Hunt in his budget next week when at least I know the price of lecky is going down big time soon and if I fancy it I can make lots of lecky myself and can fill my EV. Don't think I can do that with oil.

Massive horsepower is nice in either EVs or ICE cars if you want it and it does not badly affect your insurance. In the motorcycle world there has been insurance tariffs, particularly in Germany ie one of few countries that one can apply hundreds or a thousand or two horsepower through the accelerator and waft yourself up to 200, 300, 350 kph. As EVs are digital, where as nearly all ICE vehicles are analogue, and I I can only think of the Bugatti Veyron that actually displays the horsepower being deployed, whereas my Zoe and most EVs do this as a matter of routine, and my Zoe will oft display 111 kWs, which is 151 hp, even though the car is rated at 135 hp but it is a bit immaterial, think I would rather display the Nm of torque and the revs the single geared traction motor is revving to. I would not expect the power to diminish in the way and ICE car does ie leaking piston rings, coking up even when the battery loses a few percent in its capacity due to chemical degradation. EVs sometimes only give peak power for a few of seconds, 5s in the case of the Mach e GT and 2.5 second in the Taycan I gather. For Rolling Road tuning, working with race teams and even professional with marine engines producing tens of thousands of horsepower we are interesting in the area under the curve when one does a power versus time or revs and with road vehicles the in optimum gear power from gear change to gear change as this gives the maximum acceleration, with some influence with inertia of parts of course. It is all about P= T 2 π n under the curve at any millisecond to optimise acceleration. Lord Nyland experience with the on paper powerful Mustang-e GT with its fleeting power. Grabs the headline but not so impressive to live with.

Of our 3 cars, two hybrids and one pure EV, it is the ones with ICE that worry me fare more both in terms of something expensive going wrong and longevity. I worked on a rolling road for a good while and ICE owners usually have no idea how much horsepower how much hp they have dropped after tens of thousands of miles. That may not affect the range massively but certainly the acceleration and often oil consumption. Loses of 10% to 25% were not unusual and trying to explain that 130 hp quoted at the engine with power train losses and losses due to mileage on the engine that they would be lucky to see 100 hp at the rear wheels. If we could up that by 10 or 20% power and toque they should focus on the increase not the disappointing net figure. My Zoe is has air cooling to the battery pack and I can hear the fan kick in if the ambient is up around 30 C plus and I have given the car a bit of a flooring just before but the combination of this ai cooling and not allowing the charging to go above 125A ie 46 kWh, and mostly using the 3.6 kW charger at home, judging by reports by some of the 300,000 other Zoe owners the battery will have only a few percent loss over many year. Zoe has been around for over a decade and there are plenty of high mileage examples. My cars with ICE as well as the hybrid system worry me much more, especially if I have outside manufacturer's warranty.

Charging at home to get quite a bit cheaper with big fall in electricity unit price in 35 days time................ Should save me about a quid of charging up ie down from a fiver for 200 miles to closer to £4 for a charge up ie back down to 2p a mile for energy as it was getting close to 2.5p per mile. Down 4.3p per kWh for the single tariff ie down 18% in the Midlands. Just have to wait a few days to see what the day rate and night rate change to. Daily charge up to 63p per day, up from 54p, scandalous. Even worse in SW England at 67p a day ie £245 a year just for the supply of lecky. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/get-energy-price-cap-standing-charges-and-unit-rates-region Electricity standing charges and unit rates paid by Direct Debit, single rate - Region Daily standing charge January to March 2024 Daily standing charge April to June 2024 Unit rate January to March 2024 Unit rate April to June 2024 North West 51.79 pence per day 51.19 pence per day 28.44 pence per KWh 24.67 pence per KWh Northern 57.44 pence per day 71.20 pence per day 27.81 pence per KWh 23.36 pence per KWh Yorkshire 56.00 pence per day 67.44 pence per day 27.79 pence per KWh 23.36 pence per KWh Northern Scotland 59.38 pence per day 61.10 pence per day 28.48 pence per KWh 24.96 pence per KWh Southern 49.97 pence per day 63.33 pence per day 28.79 pence per KWh 24.66 pence per KWh Southern Scotland 62.08 pence per day 63.31 pence per day 28.16 pence per KWh 23.97 pence per KWh North Wales and Mersey 62.21 pence per day 67.04 pence per day 29.57 pence per KWh 25.42 pence per KWh London 38.50 pence per day 40.79 pence per day 29.73 pence per KWh 25.72 pence per KWh South East 47.56 pence per day 56.90 pence per day 29.38 pence per KWh 25.29 pence per KWh Eastern 44.00 pence per day 49.92 pence per day 29.22 pence per KWh 25.26 pence per KWh East Midlands 50.69 pence per day 56.00 pence per day 28.02 pence per KWh 23.77 pence per KWh Midlands 54.36 pence per day 62.73 pence per day 28.12 pence per KWh 23.84 pence per KWh Southern Western 58.68 pence per day 67.19 pence per day 28.43 pence per KWh 24.21 pence per KWh South Wales 54.21 pence per day 63.26 pence per day 28.71 pence per KWh 24.51 pence per KWh Great Britain average 53.35 pence per day 60.10 pence per day 28.62 pence per KWh 24.50 pence per KWh

It is not a case of "wanting" but it has to be by an Anti-Dumping investigation which means EU Auditors gathering evidence of what cars cost to Chinese consumers and then what they are supplied as a price in to the EU. If the EU value is lower then ADD can be applied but as these cars are generally about half the price in China than they are in the EU then "trouble at mill". Companies like BYD and SAIC, which is partly Chinese government owned I recall reading, then their prices to Chinese consumers is in part to annihilate the 90 odd not so big EV manufacturers so there is just a few big ones left so they, like TESLA, are selling at near cost or even as a lost leader to vanquish the opposition which does undermine the EU ADD investigation I feel. EU could think about Countervailing Duties or Retaliatory duties maybe but this is grabbing at straws somewhat and China might retaliate by either not supply at all, or is only small quantities key material it controls ie Lithium maybe or rare earth metals.

Be interesting to see if Anti Dumping duties get shoved on the Chinese cars. There is already a 10% Ad Valorem tariff on cars from non preference countries and what the Peoples Republic of China might do is outsource the final assembly to a pref country to get sufficient local contect to qualify and they can avoid both the 10% Most Favored Nation duty and the ADD.

Maybe even cheaper than anticipated..........

Complexity to provide small incremental improvements in efficiency is not quantum improvements as with battery energy density and even electric motor design we are seeing. Petrol engines are still about one third thermal efficient, diesel maybe closer to 50% efficient but have those nasty NOX and PMs. Electric vehicles around 90% efficient and batteries improving many percentage points per year. ICE is a nice way for all that waste heat to use to keep the passengers warm but rubbish at use all that chemical energy in to motive power. Maybe just a small single cylinder, or vankel or the like, ICE to produce a bit of waste heat for thermal comfort and do a bit of powering a generator to charge the battery but other than that do not see any medium to long term future for combustion engine on European roads, maybe in the middle east where petrol costs less than water. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/engine-thermal-efficiency

EVs are made as well as they can be at the time. As have been ICE cars It is just that lecky vehicles are improving hugely year on year whereas ICE plateaued many years ago......

Ahhh (A HA) Norway..... Below, me in my 186,000 tonne transport to Norway last summer (powered by cleaner LNG). And below that the 300 passenger electric fjord cruise boat out of Stavanger... EVs in different modes by the wonderful Norwegians.

I thought EVs were just for local journeys and not capable of pan country or pan European journey and for that you needed a proper ICE car ?

I had had that the average ICE car was only about 7k miles pa with the average EV about 7.5k miles, only 5% of us, including me, drive over 15k miles a year...... https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/car-industry-news/2023/02/27/less-than-5-of-vehicles-are-driven-over-15-000-miles-a-year https://www.britanniacarleasing.co.uk/news/annual-uk-car-milage/ Oldish and in pandemic but still valid then... https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/electric-vehicles-news/what-range-anxiety-ev-drivers-rack-up-more-miles-than-those-using-tradition/

Exciting week, Geneva motor show and lots of new EVs, including the Renault 5 EV out of the ashes of the old ICE model. Sounds like it is using the Zoe ZE50 battery and motor which is no bad thing with its range but will be interesting to see if the bump up the DC charge speed from the relatively slow 125A just under 50 kW to something a bit more modern rated ie 200 A and therefore about 80 kWh at least for the first few minutes of charging when SOC is under 50% whilst keeping the market leading AC charging of 22 kWs. C3e will be there and the new Dacia Spring extreme with its 45% increase in power taking it to 48 kW from the 33 kWs (new model can do 130 kph, eventually, might take a minute or so to get there. Exiting time and cars for the recession blighted Europe and UK.