lol-lol

The UK is beyond broke ie hovering around a national debt of 100% of GDP, actually 100.5% and talking about spend, spend, we must have a Third Way. I would like to see VAT reduced to 5% for charging at public charging station but something like a local collected tax of something like 5p a KWh for local taxes to maintain the area of these charging areas ie those not at McDonalds, Garden Centres even truck road services. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicspending/bulletins/ukgovernmentdebtanddeficitforeurostatmaast/march2023 Would I go back to driving a 40 year plus car, I doubt it so many reasons why not ie virtually no safety features, the suspension, Citroen DSs 1950-1970s vintage maybe the exception I would drive today out of all historic cars. Personally I think we are getting in to the world of EVs quite well and that is despite our lack of direction ie dropping of subsidies I benefitted from for my EV and the home charger as the technology and the business case is making itself the sensible choice for transport, both economically and environmentally. More companies should take up the grants for vans and the salary sacrifice scheme too IMO which are two of the main sectors doing the high mileage and therefore polluting with ICE cars. Lets not just give away our government money but look at raise money not only through central government via Excise and VAT but add local taxes to raise money for charging stations. Ultimate I think geniuses like Musk like crack both the EV transport issue and power supply through technology, and maybe the main land China too, cheap cars, cheap electricity via cheap solar, cheap battery packs. As long as EU, UK, USA do not put up too many strong trade barriers like Anti-Dumping to stem the inevitable tech advancement.

Well unless you are going to become a law maker ie Minister of Parliament or part of the London Council that makes these policies you protesting against the experts science is not going to move mountains of direction of policy. One can spot check ones local pollution level but the monitoring systems that recorded pollution has gone over safe levels more than 150 times, as I quoted in this website a few days ago, is likely to be the driving evidence rather than a spot check on a link to a website. Change will happen as EVs increasingly become a higher percentage of the vehicles in the road. I just do not like be painted and restricted as a polluter when I am driving my zero emissions vehicle. Let me do the full speed !

An Audi A4, with the 1.9 PD engine, 130 hp I recall, something like a 65 litre, maybe 67 litre tank, after a fairly slow speed cruising session, fill it up on the company fuel card and range-ometer shows 960 miles, wow. Not that I would every drive more than 3 hours or so without a comfort break and I did not know then just what pollutant the car was putting out. Quite good for CO2, as it was clearly an economical car but I probably had no idea about the NOX, the PM 2.5 and 10s, THC (thought that was in cannabis). Driving home from a footie match this afternoon, the permanent restriction signs on the elevated beginning of the M5, down to 60 mph due to "AIr Quality" the sign says. But I am not in my mild or full hybrid this time, I am in the Zero Emission ie ZE50 Zoe, running on sun shine and the tears of squirrels, so can do a nominal 70, ie 77 or even 79 mph please ? I have the same annoying messages, there seems to be more of them around as time goes by, whether it is South Wales or Yorkshire, speed limit down to 60 mph due to Air quality. Time is money and I am being slowed up due to other people (mainly diesel I presume) polluting cars, and the older non EV vans and trucks of course. New EVs with range of 400 miles sounds fine to me. As long as there is a service area with a rapid-ish charger, adds a hundred or two hundred miles in ten or twenty minutes that sound great, can take me a several minutes to walk to the loo, have my pee, wash me hands, get to the Starbucks and get a cappuccino and take that back to the car, not as swift on my pins as was nor is my bladder. Would be nice to have the air quality at a quality I can drive at the National Speed Limit again. Would be happy to have all the service stations uprates to 36 or so, maybe 42 or 48 if a really busy services, TESLA V4 chargers, or a nice GRIDSERVE, lots of other ones too, hopefully tie in to Octopus, especially now they at No 2 in the UK, so I can use my Octoverse card and just stick it on my home bill. Happy see chargers at McDOnalds and Garden Centres too where I might spend 20 minutes or so getting some food. Community centres sound like a good idea too, especially if they have a coffee shop. Really not sure if we need thousands of charge stations in addition to the above, just not sure they will be needed with the quantum improvements we are seeing in EV battery ranges plus portable battery packs.

But is the commercial case there for these tens of thousands of hubs ? They cost several tens of thousands of pounds to create for the smaller one and hundreds of thousands for the larger ones and with electric cars of ever greater range, improving year on year, are these private companies going to invest millions in charging stations when many of the cars they were hoping to sell electricity to have increasingly large range, half or so have charging at home and need these places less and less. I have charged once at a public charging bank of chargers, a Shell recharge, and once at a cafe who had a 16 kW charger, all the other times I have charged at home or work on 3.6, 7 or 11 kw chargers. Grid Serve have does acquired funding for half a billion pounds but one can imagine that this investment will go in to vastly expanding those motorway and A road service areas and TESLA will double and triple its Motorway service area chargers which, as we know, will all be Version 4 chargers that non TESLA can use. Drivers will be drawn to the TESLA super chargers which look as if they would continue to be about half the price per unit of lecky. Northern Scotland seems particularly badly serviced by such banks of chargers. The lack of provision much be commercial as I would have thought sufficient power around but plumping in to full bore grid supply so adding a mega battery pack is a solution but then that adds to the cost massively. TESLA and GRIDSERVE banks can be thin on the ground in the less populated area. Here a round trip of at least 35 miles is required to a decent TELSA or GRIDSERVE bank, a bit much but it will get better and quickly I think. Like all things the issues is going to be who is going to pay for all this and is the investment worth the return ??

Chinese battery firms on slow running and multiple battery plants planned all over Europe, one here is Somerset and several, even two massive one planned by the Chinese in US to meet US origin rules and keep those EV grants, like the ones we use to get in the UK but do not any more hence the lagging UK car industry and being behind on the target to net zero.

The cameras are going from the original 1M pixel camera to now 5M pixel cameras and the data processing, following Moore's law is considerable. Of course late ie 2022 Model 3 have much more powerful chip sets than the first 2017 Models 3s. From the rumours circulating it is the battery pack chemistry, density etc that to me is going to be the key change but it is nice to see the aero changes which has generally made the TESLAs standout as the motorway car of choice compared to other EVs and well done for TESLA for extending that advantage even further. Be interesting to see how battery supplier CATL, and BYD too, cosy up to other car companies which will help them close the widening gap with TESLA. There is already concern that they is too much battery manufacturing capacity in the world but there is plenty of places, like mega pack and home battery systems these batteries can go as well as in to EVs.

More than a facelift. Fundamental revision of over 20 key elements. Some press saying an actual lowering of level of equipment presumably to get a lower entry price (key in the UK that the price is below the £40k luxury tax of course). Quantum leap in Autonomous driving ability, cameras, computing power. Probably never be enough for some, well at least until the stats prove Autonomous is far safer than person driving. Bit like EV fires versus ICE fires. Some just will use the tiniest scrap of a story to discount the new tech despite the evidence.

I have a 1.8 kWh Bluetti EB1800, good lithium iron phosphate battery but only a 1k inverted and only charging at 210W via the charging brick, or solar mostly at the moment of a three 120W panel series linked and then a 1.5 kwh Allpowers with a 2.4 kw inverter and that can charge at up to 1.5 kw plus I have numerous 400, 200 and 100 wh solar generator batteries. The main purpose for the two larger solar generators is to supply the fridge freezer which seems to take about 3 kwh a day so by far the largest electric consuming items. I usually have the smaller ie 400 wh batteries power the laptop all day and I have a single solar panel to charge the battery not being used. I should get the router, and then when the telly and sky box is on but apart from the telly I do not think much in the house uses much lecky at all. With day time lecky becoming much cheaper soon I am going to be even less motivated to be bothered to keep faffing about with using batteries and hence just use them when I feel like it ie I am at hope and can be bothered. I think fridge makers should build in batteries to only run on the cheap lecky, from what I see you could easily save a hundred quid or more a year if fridge freezer have this built in. Nice to have the backup power if case of outage. These battery devices are getting cheaper and cheaper and now under 50p per wh even when bundled with decent inverters and solar generators.

This is why most sensible ev owners only go to the sites where there is half a dozen, dozen, two dozen chargers where one or two chargers out is not so bad and even at busy sites on those rare occasions the queue moves quickly. These days it is rare to not be passing such a site on a journey and with two thousand charge point being added per month hard to keep up with all the new charger installs. Plus new evs are being launched weekly with 50 miles plus ie ranges of over 300 miles, than last year's moldels.

Happy with my Octopus GO 4 hours of cheap, currently paying 7.5p kWh but that goes to the 9.5p per kWh middle of next month so I am charging at less than 2p per mile of driving currently. This will be just over 2p withe the new tariff with my usual 4 miles per kWh energy consumption. Simple tariff and UK most popular one I gather.

Brother has a large house, new build high up in the Cambridgeshire country side and he is heat pump, under floor heating and its own little room with the heat pump gear, massive hot water tank, chemicals, more cross over valves than some of the ships engine rooms I have worked in but I am try to get him off the big six and over to Octopus Cozy as I thought that was the right tariff for heat pumps but that is when one does not have battery storage. My humble 4 kwh of electricity storage is all highly portable, as is my solar and I am looking for my next solar generator to add to the bunch. At least 2 kwh, inverter of 3 kwh upwards and can handle 1 kw of solar. Be interesting to see the bills after my Octopus tariff change and the cap being introduced for gas but has about £300 in credit and am hoping I can keep my monthly standing order at £125 a month which is plenty cheap and better than last year. Hoping others see the Octopus light and we do not see a repeat of what was reported that about half the people in the UK went for long periods not putting on their heating during last winter as that can have clear negative health outcomes and whilst unit prices are cheap the standing charge is up and it is looking like no £400 help this year like last year. Wishing I had a TESLA or a vehicle to home setup as that can help, especially on days when you can go a fill you TESLA for free. Must not grumble as filling the Zoe up on overnight tariff, over several nights, is less than a fiver for over 200 miles of range both currently and will be even on 9.5 p per kWh. Also charging at our new new MER chargers for about 50p a kWh is not too bad compared to 79p per kWh at other places.

No Surprise. Standing quarter in 8 and half seconds, wow. It is the torque figure that is the key and having that torque immediately, not when the lambo comes on cam as the race is almost lost by then.

Just under 19p per kWh as a combined average but it is the just over 100 kWh at 40p per kWh that adds much to my bill, the 200 kWh at 7.5kWh is very nice and cheap so the bill is £44 for the day time and only £15 for the night ie working out 50p for an average night period and I charge about ten days a month but my charger is only 3.6 kW but the 14 kwh give me over 50 miles added range so happy with that. It is the over 2000 kwh of gas usage in mid winter that adds up but I suppose I will see gas go below 7p a kwh in October so happy days. Got gas hob as well as gas central heating. It is cheaper than lecky, or will be this winter, but it is quite dirty of course, even with a new 94% efficient boiler. Heat pump would only be worth it for me as a partial home fit I am thinking, was even looking at the ECOFLOW WAVE 2. Solar I want to get a solar tracking array for the garden, six panel or bigger, than tracks the sun. I can then take both the portable heat pump and solar tracking array to my small holding I plan to get up in the Welsh mountains when UK society breaks down.

Somebody got 6 month for stealing 12 bottles of water during the riots. https://www.thejournal.ie/student-jailed-for-six-months-for-looting-a-case-of-water-in-london-199256-Aug2011/ Unluck was not sent to Australia.

Octopus Go but my 7.5p/40p ends 17th September 2023 ie less than 3 weeks time and Octopus Go will renew then but on the 9.5p and 29p night/day rates so should be about a couple of tenners better off on the new rate as although I charge the Zoe and my batteries up in the 4 hours cheap I can only get to about two thirds in the cheap period, one third expensive period so expensive time has costs twice the cheap period due to the 5:1 ratio of cheap rate to expensive rate but that is changing to 3:1 as of 17/9/2023. Gas going even cheaper with Octopus ie below 7p a kwh and all of this means I need to bother less about when I use, and how much, power for either gas or lecky. The standing charge is the bit I despise but cannot do anything about that except go off grid, which is a thought. Just need my own mini gas powered generation set. Zoe is not Intelligent compatible and quite use to Go and have no desire to blow my mind with Intelligent. £125 a month for gas and lecky for a 4 bedroom house with EV charging for a car doing 6k miles a year from the home charging is nice and cheap. Greg Jackson is is a Steely-Eyed Missile Man.

Not too scary in such a rough part of London, or so my Arsenal friends says, high jacking, mugging etc a concern on this site ?

Nice new ten charger installation at Worcester Garden Centre. A Mer install and the type the are due to put in at around 39 of their garden centres I gather. Along with Dobbies garden centres seems to be a pattern and with their restaurants perhaps a good place to stop for 20 or 30 minutes. 7 rapids, two 22 kw AC and a Chad and prices not too bad for us Octoverse peeps. Left 22 kW £0.56/kWh Right 22 kW £0.56/kWh Charging Speed Semi-fast Location access Public Status Available 52p for Octoverse I see. Seven 150 kW chargers at 78p kwh as a none discounted but via Octoverse or Mer's club 72p per kWh so I will go for the 52p per kWh and get a coffee.

Any free diesel or petrol stations today to compete ? Think this is a heroin dealer's trick, get you hooked on cheap or free lecky then they have got you.

How about taking three parking/charging slots then..... https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2023/02/23/tesla-ccs-magic-docks-revealed-but-with-short-cords-can-non-tesla-cars-really-charge-at-them/

No good for Arsenal fans as the only reason they would go to Tottenham would is to watch The Arsenal beat Spurs at their stadium. TELSA going to have to come up with charging station for the Gooners.

Probably a silly point but would you not just drive in forward rather than reverse in, like I would have to with the Zoe ? Not illegal is it, then left becomes right etc ?

As Bjorn (Nyland) said: Right side is the wrong side and Left side is the right side. Or Tom Robinson said..... Better decided what side your one. You better decide which side you're on This ship goes down before too long If Left is right then Right is Wrong You better decide which side you're on As a Zoe driver I find it on the nose is just fine.

Despite having bought countless iphones for the kids I am very happy with Android and Samsung and too old to change to iphone OS and there phones, as phones, seem to be poor and now Samsung, with the S23, just about has the best phone camera on the market, though I prefer to use a Sony Camcorder with strong optical zoom that use the phone camera. I like Samsung so much I bought a £25K Samsung car ie the XM3, aka Renault Arkana, not the XM 3 the Citreon XM with the 3 litre engine....... Real time fast up dating is important for me as I regularly go across one of the Severn Bridges. If it is closed and I have 60 mile detour to do. If I know about it then I can detour early and only lose a few minutes. We need to get to the stage where when roads become impassable, like below, we do not plough in to and lose lives....

Sorry posted in wrong section. Sounds like the new Cornwall Service, only place in that country with a dozen or more chargers, is still having problems, despite being launched at the beginning of the English school holidays on the last week in July 2023, as drivers are still only getting around 20 kWh charging rates. Gridserve need to update their articles and news and not rely on ZAP MAP to do so. In the article it says that Cornwall Services welcomes over 1,000 cars a month. Good God I would hope they see that a day in Summer time. Who checks these articles to accuracy? Maybe in the depths of winter they might only get 100 cars a day but even that sounds very low. https://www.gridserve.com/2023/07/24/latest-electric-super-hub-opens-at-cornwall-services/

Similar to when getting the poverty spec of the Arkana I got, no sat nav but then I have always viewed car makers own sat nav as always crap from what I have seen so more than happy to use Android Auto as it is so much better in every way. Zoe has Google maps all built in and of course over the air updates to it plus all the data on if a charge point is being used. I almost do not know why manufacturers continue to bother. Oddly the recently acquired Clio ETECH uses Tom Tom for the mapping and I heard uses Google for the local info, never heard that mix before. Had a play the part several times for it to sink in, (3:40 in to vid below) it has Tom Tom mapping but Google "local" as well, fuel prices etc, where did such a deal get done.? Must admit use the typed word rather than speech on the Clio, use verbal on the Zoe into Google Maps though I think it struggles with the West Country accent. I think these systems only work properly with BBC spoken english.