lol-lol

One of the daughters wants to trade her Fabia for an EV. Will need boot to take a pram. List to look at are: Kia Soul 27 kWh. Nissan LEAF mark one 30 kWh. Renault Zoe ZE40 Any other suggestions ? Budget only up to 8k.

Like the car park fires the main thing I draw from the NZ fire as well as the car parks is the lack of fire detection and or fire fighting equipment. These beach properties often contain lots of timber in their construction and yet if they had had good sprinkler system, which would have added 1 or 2% to the overall cost and limited the fire to one room or so. I have spent many days on firefighting courses as part of my at sea training, no point ringing 999 when the nearest fire service is more than a thousand miles away. The courses I have done, a lot wearing a BA set whilst fire fighting, gave me a huge respect of fire but apparently to some it is is not something that is considered important.

Not at all. I think these bullsh!tters are quite easy to spot as they seem to have similar modus operandi. They make assertions without quoting facts or credible sources and just seem to largely give their opinions. EVs are much less a self combusting fire risk than diesel or petrol cars. Hybrids that are diesel or petrol have the similar risks to pure diesels or petrols. I am not pro electric just for the sake of it. My EV costs a small fraction of my mild hybrid to run. It is very pleasant to drive. My hybrid, with its 600 mile range is good for longer journeys, even more comfortable than my little EV. I do not need a muppet to tell me their "facts". I have not heard one of them inform their credentials to comment on such subjects ie technical experts, owners of such vehicles etc. My time is precious and I can establish within a few seconds watch their videos that they are vacuous entities and not worthy of my attention. Plenty of other good sources and whilst not perfect I listen to the Electric Viking who details are verifiable and concise and informative. Each to their own but I will not be watching what I perceive as trash.

How do you mean tax contribution ? What is the VAT rate on the bi-directional charger ? Octopus continue to do great facilities for its users. I have just got £50 credit for getting one family member off British Gas and on to Octopus, BG were holding back nearly a grand in credit and would not let them have a lower DD. Visiting another family member who has a Heat Pump house so going to get him over to the Cozy Heat pump tariff which should save him a heap of money and give me another chunk of introduction bung ie £50 for them and £50 for me too, nice. Converting my octoverse points in to credit on to my account after each savings session so along with the above intro credits I am hoping to avoid any rise in my DD this winter.

Are electric cars relatively expensive or cheap ?? How about an ID7 for less than £30k rather than £60K ? Chinese buyers are not buying the ID7 even at just below £30k as they have high tech Chinese versions of a similar size at less than £25K. So are European made and sold EVs just not being made in an economic way or prices kept high ? France and Germany just discontinued EV subsidies for Chinese made EVs, presumably some TESLAs as well as Dacia Spring maybe and the BYDs, Geely cars ie Polestar and Volvos and SIAC cars such as MG4s and Maxus. Tesla just slashes prices again to keep the costs low and win that best selling car of the year status for the Model Y.

If the discharge and recharge does a fivers worth of damage but one gets a tenner or twenty or fifty quid supplying say £50 of resold lecky then might be worth it. If not doubling, trebling, quadrupling or more the return then would not be interested. Lithium batteries might not be worth such extra use than working as the car traction battery. Maybe Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries might be more suited as acting as a V2G. Think I likely stick to my purpose made batteries for home storage and only looked at sending lechy back to the grid if it is super worth it ie at the rates those peak like a pound a KWh but I expect TESLA will scoop all that up and make a killing. They can install container sized battery pack in less than 100 days they have proved.

The above video is by a click batting loon. Actual facts are:- https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/coromandel-luxury-bach-fire-ev-not-to-blame-for-cooks-beach-home-blaze/4LKGZP7MAVCLXFSOGXKV5KWVEU/ ......Social media posts and a media outlet then reported a witness as saying the fire had been started by an EV (electric vehicle) in the home’s garage. But Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) investigator Ed Hopping said that was not the case. “The investigation is still ongoing... but I’m comfortable to put it out there in the world that the fire wasn’t a result of the battery in the car failing,” Hopping said. He said the fire started within the home, while the car was parked outside the garage and was not plugged in for charging at the time. It’s just important to put out there that hybrid cars... aren’t that vulnerable to fires,” Hopping said. “And then in this instance, the car wasn’t plugged in and wasn’t inside the garage or the structure.” Another Youtube maligned fantasy piece of crap...

I would only consider using my car battery for vehicle to grid at those times, like we have had a of for the last few days with Octopus paying us back many many pence per kWh, as each time one charges and discharges one takes a small bit of life out of the battery, smae as running an ICE engine, putting hours on the run clock and moving it close to servicing or scrapping. So for the Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries then possibly use V2G if the price was right, 50p or a £1 or more per kWh and probably no way for the lithium battery in the Zoe despite its excellent protective BMS. There is talk of Renault 5 and its siblings being LFP with the high performance or long range options being still lithium and even talk of Sodium ion batteries making an appearance, good for the cold climate version. Some cars make get a mixture of batteries it has been muted. I am game if the price is right and battery damage very small.

In reality zoe drivers do not bother to switch off the singing, why would one ? It is EU it exists and UK effectively still follows. As Farage said in the jungle the UK now has a right to do its own thing even if it is worse for UK citizens. In reality the UK is too small a market to do something different even if 1 in 10 Zoes are UK or Ireland spec. Hoping to upload the sound of a Tie fighter to replace one of the 3 sounds.

Yes the capital expenditure is huge both on the cost of the actual charger units and the cost of site installation. The Single phase AC are easiest, then 3 phase AC then the big DC chargers. When my company owned Source London I recall seeing the import declarations for the units, not cheap. One has to sell a good few Megawatts Hours of lecky to recoup that capital investment. They need to make the money back before TESLA have enough charging stations to service non-TESLA in most places which they will do at 50p per kWH or less if one pays the £11 a month TESLA. I think Octopus have got it right ie not investing in actual hardware but just doing a deal with their Octoverse RFID cards which give a discount to users and get extra trade for the charger network. The planning stuff can also be a big headache. London with its 44 boroughs was relatively more difficult compared to Paris unitary authority I heard. ABB have a big DC chargers manufacturing in Italy, not aware of any similar facilities in the UK. https://new.abb.com/news/detail/92348/abb-e-mobility-opens-its-largest-dc-fast-charger-production-facility-in-italy https://youtu.be/qydRAhIW6QA

You not noticed Renault EVs, and presumably Dacias EVs as well, sing when the are moving between 1 and 19 mph ? THis is a Zoe ZE40, or ZE22, difficult to tell, but my ZE50 does the same thing. Works well.

Intelligent Speed Assistance is still due to become EU law in July 2024 so less than 200 days and if the EU is doing the UK has to follow suite as it is making most of cars made in the UK for other markets. US looks like it will follow suite within month of this too. Legislation covers much more than just speeding..... EU) 2019/2144 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2019/2144 We might see thousands of cars registered in Q2 of 2024 ie removed from customs WHs and put in to UK Free Circulation as there are some cars that need a big design to make ISA work on the vehicle. Renault UK HQ asked me to test drive the new Austral, very impressive dash and sensor systems. Its ability to sense cyclists and I presume pedestrians is awesome. Felt a bit too futuristic and I miss not having a tacho which seems to be one of the things that go along with gear number indicators which I like. Its garlic bread ie the future. Irish quick explanation, them still being an EU country and not still sorting out which laws to follow......

I would not rely on an analogue speedometer and I am pretty sure most professional drivers ie truck drivers, reps of various types, use either: Their car's digital display which is normally quite a large figure ie one or two inches tall Their GPS device displaying the GPS speed displayed at screen level A GPS HUD, head up display device, which can be had from £9 and upward, depending on features .... No excuses. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Display-Speedometer-Motorcycle-OverSpeed-Reminder/dp/B0CMXW3ZVN/ref=sr_1_3?crid=16CX4Q369KOYB&keywords=gps+hud&qid=1702654632&sprefix=gps+hud%2Caps%2C377&sr=8-3

Governments, City legislators, transport departments, analysts in to the statistic disagree. Bit surprised we have not heard more noise from businesses ie in my industry of logisitics, particularly last mile logistics. I am personally offended that the Devonian Mr Prowse was again dubbed in some of the Green Cross Code man videos, just like in Star Wars playing Darth Vader. James Earl Jones has a great voice but I would buy a video with the Devon accent Darth Vader. Any road up, New York city has introduced a 25 mph city wide speed limit which I think was throughtful to go a middle ground. Drivers would then perhaps kee to truly under 30 rather than driving up to 35 mph. Road speed and taxes, people seem to want to push the nominal limits by 10 or 15%. As long as we catch those who do 16% or more that is the aim I reckon.

This is the vid from about 15 years ago as part of the Think campaign. At 20 mph odds improve by a further third I heard. my ol

North Devon has much smaller population centres than South Devon is the reason for the less lanes to North Devon than South. Trucks have just been approved to be longer by about 6 foot so overtaking might be even more dangerous. Another reason I went for the mild hybrid Arkana rather than the etech version as that version is slow overtaking. Etech owners complain about overrevving and Renault do a "fix" but I would rather have the revs and better acceleration I think. OK on motorbikes usually but a heavily ladened Grockle box is a recipe for disaster for summer roads in Westcountry, Wales, Scotland etc.

Act better than 4 average human drivers I expect.

Questions not specifically at you but I presume there are lots of young deaths by RTAs in France as well Oll sweats like me have decades of experience of driving. Probably around a million miles in my case and in Canada, France and Germany as well as UK. If we are to get the death toll down lower measures do we think will work ? Winter tyres being one thought I have amongst others.

COP28. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/statements/unep-executive-director-statement-closing-cop28 “COP28 has delivered, for the first time at climate talks, a clear call on countries to transition away from fossil fuels. The deal is not perfect, but one thing is clear: the world is no longer denying our harmful addiction to fossil fuels. Now we move beyond bargaining to action. As the Secretary-General has said, the phase-out of fossil fuels is inevitable. “This means real action on a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, especially for the G20, and real action on the many other positives agreed at COP28: the framework on the Global Goal on Adaptation, operationalizing the Loss and Damage Fund, and new commitments on sustainable cooling, methane reduction, tripling renewable energy targets and nature breakthroughs. “The reality, as outlined in UNEP’s Emissions Gap report released ahead of the COP, is that we are not on track to deliver a resilient, low-carbon and just world. This reality has not changed yet. Now the hard work of decarbonization must begin. “To have any hope of doing this in line with what the science demands of us, we must unleash far greater finance to support countries in a just, equitable and clean transition, which is especially important for developing nations that must leapfrog to low-carbon development. Financing and means of implementation are therefore critical, as every developing country must have the capacity to urgently end energy poverty, realise its sustainable development potential and deliver on the SDGs. “We have the solutions; we know what needs to be done. And action can no longer wait.”

There will be details to some ie Police, Accident investigators, council I presume as not a Trunk Road, and locals will know stuff. Was it front to front collision, did the A1 rebound off in to the metal railing or brick walls. I regularly drive through South Wales and in winter the roads are oft very wet and I very cold, I have seen -10C and below. Since Summer tyres fall of in braking performance at 7C should we go like mainland Europe and to All Season or Winter tyres in mid November perhaps ???

Quite a road the NDLR. I was with Exeter South West Regional Office Dept of Transport and NDLR was just being finished off and we were just stating on the Second Crossing of the Bristol Channel, which took 8 miles off the trip from Devon to South Wales !. NDLR was one of the first in the UK to have automated ice warning from sensor to signage. The road has oft been in the top ten most dangerous roads in England. I usually stayed on the A38 unless there was probably with the 38 or fancied a change when going directly to my sisters on Dartmoor. All the 3 Moors think are blanket 40 mph signed. Why did God make sheep fog coloured ???

Teenagers killed in the 20 mph zone on Monday were in collision with the bus it is reported. Details are almost nil about the crash. Question is what lesson are to be learnt. Should persons under 21 be allowed to carry 5 passengers for instance ? Audi A1 is a small car and has one of the better safety rating, even way back in 2010 at launch but, as we know, as car with 5 star rating a decade ago can be zero stars now so what do we do to help protect our young adults. Restrict young adults to 2 or 3 passengers ? Insist the only can drive cars with certain level of safety features ? That they cannot more than 1 passenger unless they pass an advanced test ? Maybe do this for those under 21, 23,25 and maybe those over 67 ? New car system can tell a car and driver the max speed, I think all three of our Renaults read road signs and they know what limits are from Google as well so should the car limit its speed to 10% over the published speed limit ? Think most of us agree that sometime a little spurt of power can get one out of trouble as well as in to trouble. Perhaps like the US have a no passing of buses policy in some circumstances when they are alighting passengers ? After all these deaths, especially in Wales, we need some fresh thinking I reckon. I did spend a year with Dept of Transport in part doing truck road accident investigation. Bigger killer back then but still way too high numbers both killed and badly injured with life changing injuries and experiences.

North Devon Link Road, lots of up hill and then massive down hill bits to build up speed, probably not even in gear. The wild wild west. Cops nicked some big vehicles at almost 90 mph down Holden hill like the arctic coming off the Plymouth ferry catching up time. Thats a lot of kinetic energy.

You have missed the word "nominal" out from your sentence above as the speed limit, in a 20 mph marked zone in Wales or other UK police force areas is actual 24 mph as the cameras etc are set to 20 mph, plus 10% tolerance plus 2 mph for other variances ie tyre size options, inflation etc. Freedom of information reveals Welsh cameras set to 24 mph. I have been driving in Wales this weekend. Zoe's digital speedo is quite accurate to GPS speed, I travel along in the 20 mph at an indicated 21 to 24 mph, occasionally someone comes speeding up behind me, clear driving at around 30 mph but they usually just match my speed until one of us turns off, no flashing lights or signs of frustration. If speed was set to "nominal" 30 mph drivers would be oft driving in the low 30s. So much more dangerous to pedestrians and drivers in a close urban environment. Three lads killed last night in a 20 mph zone in Rhonda in a Audi A1, same platform as Skoda Fabia of course. Road was urban 20 mph zone. long bend in the road, no sleeping policemen or crossing. Two other lads from the car fighting for the lives and with probable life changing experience/injuries. Twenty is Plenty. (Because human nature is to push limits and drive more than the prescribed limits).

Yes guilty as charged, twin charged. Never a problem doing so. Did about 70k in my Fabia 2 VRS. Best tankful was 630 miles, mind you could get 50 litres in the tank by supressing the little black button in the filler neck. Later cars, the mark 2 Oct with the 7 speed DSG, a lovely L&K 1.8 TSI, OMG< better than the VRSs in my opinion, short stroke EA888 engine revving to 7k revs, 0-60 in a nidge over 7 seconds, 160 hp the hell it was, way quicker than the wiesel VRS. Any road up that would it was either than one or probably the 1.4 TSI with the 7 speed DSG would open both dry clutches and drop the engine revs to zero, effectively coast the car, touch the brake or accelerator and the car would nigh instantly put itself in gear, great fuel saver, well in to the 50s mpg. Now the similar 7 speed EDC Renault box in the Arkana does the same, setup coasting in the menus and revs drop to zero when no load, batteries, not sure if it is the 12v lead acid or 12v hybrid battery maintains lights, electric power steering and fuel consumption benefits big time. In the summer well into the 60s mpg with the 1.333 litre Mercedes/Nissan/Renault engine almost instantly ready to reapply power when pedals touched, great system. These cars need heat pumps, like my Zoe has, to work better in cold weather as these mild hybrid, as well as the fully hybrids are great with fuel during warm weather but not so great in cold weather. No so great freewheeling/coating in a manual but seems fine in semi and full autos I have had, even coasting in the Zoe quite often ie stick it in neutral rather than using regen. keeping within the speed limits of course.