lol-lol

The electric SUV has to weigh more than two tonnes to get hit with the higher charges and that means certainly the French SUV EV will not get the extra charge as even the big Scenic SUV comes in at 1952 Kgs even with the huge 87 kWh battery pack. The 60 kWh Skoda might creep under but even the not that large 77 kWh battery packed Skodas and other sister clones will attract the higher tax as they are way weight over 2T.

Decline in hydrocarbon tax receipts. This tax has been broadly the same for many years, wnet down loads in pandemic and is now at a lower level than was in noughties.... https://www.statista.com/statistics/284323/united-kingdom-hmrc-tax-receipts-fuel-duty/

Gosh, one could put together several books on it but here is a few examples........... https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/how-much-uks-energy-renewable On 15 May 2023 the UK produced its trillionth kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generated from renewable sources – enough to power UK homes for 12 years based on average consumption. While it took 50 years to reach this milestone, based on current projections it will take just over five years to reach the next trillionth kWh. December 2023 was the 15th month in a row where zero-carbon generation produced more than fossil fuel generation. We’ve reduced the involvement of coal in our generation mix by more than 97% since 2013. Power provided from coal was responsible for only 1% of electricity generation in 2023, compared to 2018 when coal represented 5.1% and 2013 when 39.6% was generated by coal – showing the significant reduction that’s taking place. Zero-carbon power sources in Britain’s electricity mix outperformed traditional fossil fuel generation in 2023 by providing 51% of the electricity used, compared to 32% from gas and 1% from coal. A maximum zero carbon record of 87.6% was reached on 4 January 2023. The record for the maximum amount of wind power generation was broken twice in 2023;10 January saw the first record of the year, with wind generating over 21.6GW, and 21 December delivered the largest wind generation to date with a record 21.8GW. The highest share of wind in the overall generation mix was on 19 November 2023 between 4:30am and 5am, at 69%. 20 April 2023 saw the highest ever solar generation record at 10.971GW. 2023 was the greenest year on record, with carbon intensity averaging 149 grams of CO2 per kWh. The lowest carbon intensity record of 27 gCO2/kWh was achieved on 18 September 2023. Half way round the world countries like Australia, rich in coal, has transformed at a stunning rate..... Petroleum will still get supplied by Russia and the Saudis who can pump it for as low as $20 a barrel and there will be buyers for it but as lithium batteries and solar panels have been dropping by more than 20% per year, year on year, it is only a matter of a few years that engines running on petroleum will be more costly than electric ones not to mention the continually much higher servicing costs too.......

Hydrocarbons to be burnt is a rapidly dying sector. We need oil for plastics but need to stop using hydrocarbons in any mode for motive power. Scotland has massive renewable to exploit, tidal, wind, solar if you say so, plus massive potential for energy storage with both battery and pumped in to the GWh and tens of GWh for pumped. Europe and US has now cut its EV subsidies but the Chinese EVs and TESLA just keep coming as they do not even need subsidies. Next consideration for Europe and America is Anti-Dumping Duties needed over and about the 10% Ad Valorem customs duties to slow down the wiping out of Audi, BMW, JLR,Merc, Stellantis and VW ??

Maybe a question of cost too ? I paid £450 for my driveway charger, £500 subsidy, government got some VAT in it I suppose. Now no grants and chargers cost £900 at least and there is no grants for house, something for flats I seem to remember reading. So street chargers have to be paid for by who ? All on our council taxes or by private companies who will need to charge enough to recover the CAPEX as well as the electricity usage. I think the supermarket, fast food places, garden centres might be the best solution rather than lamp posts, charging posts on the kerb. I had a bit to do with Source London and there certainly were lots of challenges with local council approvals, plumbing them in, ICE'ing etc. Let the likes of Sainsburys, McD get in to it, and maybe universities like here in Worcestershire.

Not always a fanboy of WhatCar as they can be a bit lightweight on real details and even here they talk about charging at around 30p per kWh when most EV drivers charge at home and I would have thought the majority of them have night time tariffs of less than 10p a KWh but that said I thought below summarised the economic Truth about Electric Cars, mentioned the environmental issues many EV drivers have concerns about and one of a few key points not mentioned was the attractiveness of electric car acquisition via the UK government Treasury Salary Sacrifice scheme, which I hope to join in the next few months to acquire a TESLA which is clearly streets ahead of other brands, perhaps Renault/Dacia being in the place TESLA is not ie relatively cheap EVs......

I think this is where that sort of information came from...... Renault went their own way and hence they have this feature they have had for more than a decade of being able to charge at a variety of single phase and 3 phase amperage.. Renault Zoe ZE50 R135 (2021) AC charging characteristics (Active power consumption) measurement

Back window optional. Wish I did not have one in the Arkana Sport Coupe but had camera(s) instead.

Good solid 5th place in WW2 kills.... https://worldwarwings.com/most-fighter-kills/ The top 5 starts with the Spitfire by the British Royal Air Force. The Spitfire’s elliptical wing design and sunken rivets gave it exceptional speed during WWII. It has a total of 4,000 kills to date. Flickr CC / davidgsteadman Next up is the Hellcat, which supersedes it with 5,229 kills. This American fighter plane was mainly used in the Pacific War against the Japanese. Flickr CC / tormentor4555 Crowd favorite P-51 places 3rd on the list with close to 6,000 kills. This plane gave the Americans the edge in air superiority during WWII. Flickr CC / NASA Second place goes to the FW 190 with more than 10,000 kills. Germany used this warbird alongside the BF 109 for the Luftwaffe. Flickr CC / SDASM Archives The plane with the most kills goes to the BF 109. Perhaps the most important part of the Luftwaffe, the BF 109 helped the German forces to have air supremacy for some time. Flickr CC / SDASM Archives

Klingon or Romulan ?

Your under selling my home pod point, it is 3.6 kWs I believe. Charged last 3 nights and battery went from 11% to 92% and range showing 220 mile. Princely cost of £4.28 assuming 90% charging efficiency. Oh the unbearable cost. UK government got about 21p tax on the VAT, ouch. Will use the Arkana tomorrow and Wednesday to do about 300 miles so some excise and vat coming Gov's way before month end. Will not need to fill up as have to over 500 miles range on Arkana 50 litre tank and already done 105 miles in it, nice.

Yes of course, silly me. I am happier with Joules per second and kJ, MJ, GJ etc, much better.

The Model 3 charging video mentioned charge rate dropped to just below 50 kWh at 86% so that is only 29%, two sevenths, of the initial and brief 175 kWh charging so only adding 3 and a half miles per minute at the charger. TESLA advice is go ahead and charge the LFP battery Model 3, and presumably the Y as well but that is pretty slow and not really economic for me to sit around with it charging that slowly. Wonder if I can buy in Ireland and get it as an export as Model 3 standard range in Ireland is 43k Euros which is less than £37k and if one could get a VAT free export that would be more like £30k, just have to avoid the double 10% import duty as I think these are Chinese made. Getting it RHD could be the issue for a European made one. Long range Model 3, with Lithium ion battery pack is 51k in Ireland which is £43.6k, without the VAT £35.5k so TESLA are being sold much cheaper in Ireland and other EU countries than GB sadly. Long range model Y is currently selling for 51,250 Euros which is £43.8k which is £35.6k without VAT if I am calculating right at 23% standard rate in Ireland. TESLAs seem quite a bit cheaper in Ireland than the UK which has not seen the same percentage of reductions that European has seen recently ie 5 to 7% I recall hearing.

The cheapest (sub 40K UK price) TESLA so no luxury car tax. This is the RWD Model 3 using LFP battery chemistry. WTLP range 318 miles. Does it charge at 175 kWs ie adding a mile of range every 5 seconds when plugged in to a TESLA supercharger (The usual V2 to V4, V1 can only do 150 kWh) ?

The legacy auto-makers BMW, Merc, VW, as well as Jag I suppose, are just not producing competitive cars compared to what TESLA and even the Chinese are knocking out at the moment as What Cars test shows. VW might say the ID7 is a slightly bigger and perhaps premium cabin offering than the Model 3 and BYD Seal but the difference are large in the efficiency of the drive train as well as prices between the other two competitors. I hoped it was only just the bottom and middle part of the market the legacy automakers were going to lose their market share on but it looks like premium as well. It will be interesting to see how the electric Macan sells this year. With Porsche going full electric, as is Jaguar, they are putting all the eggs in the EV basket bravely. (vid below 1st one).

Round trip completed. 210 miles travelled approx, 35 miles showing on range left. Miles per kWh showing 5 m/kWh so faily spot on for Zoe range ie about 240 miles. Oddly the Zoe odometer seems to under record as Google said about 215 miles but Zoe instrument slightly less than 210, usually to over report mileage than under so range would look better than it real is, weird. Will charge up tonight of the cheap lecky at 9 p per kWh so I reckon cost for the 210 mile trip £4 ish. Car showed stats of around 48 Kwh used but over 5 kWh of regen. Use of lecky for climate was only about 1 kWh for the whole trip. My £12 heated seat cover worked well. Average temp was about 9C so quite warm for this time of year. Well done Zoe, be interesting to see how the Renault 5 spec will be. I hear there will be a smaller battery LFP version and a more expensive pure lithium version and similar for an Alpine A290 lithium version.

Got good miles per kilowatt hour due to not using the heating much, even though I have a heat pump. Use my £12 bought from China heater seat cover, use that on low and the switch off for a bit and then back on for a bit of a body temp warm up. Have not checked the cars stats but I expect it will say 22 kws used for traction and climate but 2 kws regenerated back in to the battery on hill descents so 20 kWh net used hence still 60% battery left after 105 miles driven. Temperature about 10c ambient for the journey. If it had been around 5c or even less I would have used the mild hybrid Arkana and enjoyed the engines waste heat to keep toasties.

Bit disappointed not going to need a rapid charge probably unless I am driving in to a gale and cannot find some van to draft. Stopping at say the Ionity Chargers near the Hawthorn West Brom, grab a Star bucks, chat to fellow EV drivers is a bit of a journey highlight even for just 5 or 10 kWh and a coffee, a few quid, ten to 15 minutes and on my way.

The battery pack is around half a tonnes and hence the Zoe weighs about quarter of a tonnes more than a Clio which it is similarly size to. It does not feel heavy in corners as the weight is so low in the car. I think it tells on acceleration ad it is wacking out about 150 hp but only does 0 to 60 in about 9.5 seconds but the 0 to 30 is about 3.5 seconds and it feels quite similar to my 140 hp Arkana and sons 145 hybrid. Of the 3 the Clio is far and away the best handling and power delivery across the range, unless over 100 mph and then the Arkana is the car quite cable of cruising at any speed up to about 110 mph. As I said higher weight makes Zoe feel planned in high winds. All 3 pleasant enough to drive but hybrid clio ticks most boxes except absolute cheapness to run which Zoe EV wins on for fuel cost and servicing costs.

Great mid winter trip in the Renault Zoe ZE50. 105 miles from Worcester to Manchester, Cheadle to be precise, for a visit to my airfreight office near Manchester Airport. Only 40% of battery used so plenty to go along to my office and then get home ie about 215 mile round trip. Zoe showing 5.3 miles per kWh. Car great in the high winds with its 1.6 tonnes plus me and gear so probably about 1.75 tonnes. Great to drive past the clean air signs as I enter Manchester and happy I am doing my bit. Petrol hybrid sitting on drive at home with a near full tank in case we get some more really cold weather in Feb. Horses for courses.

Sounds a good deal if one has at least a couple of Ionity locations one might use. Peachy site at Maygor near Newport Gwent and at West Brom near the ground and at Chippenham cafe near m4 Junction. Good sites usually and good chargers. Sadly Dragon in Wales is going to be more convenient and cheaper and no subscription with the Eltroverse card.

Market leaders like TESLA, Dacia/ Renault and Stellantis are surprising buyers to the downside on price as they can do so due to their control of production tech and the plummeting price of lithium. The retail price of the Model Y and 3, the Spring, the Renault 5 as is being touted, the Citreon e3 as is being launched is well cheap. This is possible by using Lithium Iron Phosphate which is vastly cheaper and of course much lower fire risk as well as charging to 100% is ok, only slight downside is a bit lower energy density. Whilst LFP is the becoming the pervasive battery tech it is looking like sodium is coming along rapidly to market. Good in low temperatures. Some talk about combining different battery chemisties could be optimal for performance and price. 2024 is going to be a huge launch for so many EVs which I feel are going to get many new converts to EVe from ICE. Maybe spurred on if oil from Middle East gets strangled supply and prices jump up accordingly.

The journo should look forward not backwards. In the next few months the Dacia Spring at well under £20k, selling them for less than £13K in Germany, no subsidies. Citreon e3 will also be much cheaper than £32k, more like £22k. I got my Zoe on pcp, retail was £33k but that was artificial high a dealer immediately came up with 6k discount and you the tax payer added another £2.5k as there was EV subsidies then. Low interest with the pcp too. So not on a company car scheme, private arrangement and that is despite having a company fuel card. EV is nice to drive, eco responsible and very cheap to run for energy and servicing, even compared to only paying a fifth the price for fuel due to the fuel card still the EV is as cheap. It will be an easy choice to go full EV on both cars in a few months as the salary sacrifice for a TESLA Model 3 standard range, no premium road tax, pcp 300 to 400 quid a month with the 40% reduction in monthly cost due to uk government salary sacrifice scheme. Will miss my mild hybrid Arkana but it has to go as Renault cannot supply cars incapable of driving in EV mode as they and other makers get fined for selling cars over 95 gm per km and they must meet the 22 % pure EV quota too or be fined.

Severity greater than a burning liquid flowing like a lava flow ? Treatment is different yes, fire blankets seem to be a better way to act on EV traction battery fires. Maybe have stratified car parks. Lower levels for ICE where water sprinkler can be deployed and upper levels where fire blankets can drop from the roof to over the vehicle but reality is the vast majority of cark parks have no fire fighting equipment and that is the cheap way of having car parks as despite the hysteria with parts of media as fires are rare although making spectacular pictures and click bait articles.

EV fires, in perspective, the truth not the bull......... https://www.evfiresafe.com/ Document of issues and real stats. Fully Charged also talking to Emma Sutcliffe and the Youtuber crap talkers....