lol-lol

The UK various governments, over the last probably 50 years if one includes the phasing out of lead in petrol, have had various taxation projects to achieve objects of reducing pollutants whether it is lead, Carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide and that has been both carrot and stick it extra tax for high CO2 vehicles and incentives for EVs which do not emit CO2 or NOX (maybe more tyre dust perhaps). Taxation is my field of work having worked for HMCE/HMRC and pwc and therefore interested in taxation efficiency and tax avoidance. Is not Vehicle Excise Duty and when there was EV incentives pretty transparent ? Where is the UK government being sneaky and subversive ? They do plenty of that in their political actions, voter ID for instance, but anywhere in the area of transport ? One of the better areas I would have thought. Do not live in London but have been fascinated to hear the vitriol against the major about ULEZ. With figure of 10,00 death a year due to poor air quality I am amazed how some Londoner complain about the penalty driving their NOX polluting EURO5 vehicle in London. Same for Birmingham of course and any city.

In the UK the problem seems to be a public lack of understanding of the base cost of the solar panels and then what is needed to supply the energy to the house or office needs. Personally I am well impressed on how good the solar panels work in doing what they say and work well in conjunction with the solar input with the so called solar batteries and of course the ease to add to the power reserve. I am buying batteries at around 50 pence per wh and with the downloading of electricity on my negligible tariff of 7.5 p per kwh, was paying 5p a kwh up to september 22, and generating about a one kwh per average day I reckon I am saving about whole two pound a day, even in winter as downloading is much more than panels to me so a few hundred pounds saved per year and batteries which cost less than £2k will pay for itself within 5 years. Looking to acquire another solar generator, 3.6 kwh, 4 kw invertor but it is still £2800 so I will wait until Cyber Monday where it should be down to less than £2k. We then need to think about plumbing in to the house mains rather than have my current device just sitting there powering the fridge freezers and other kitchen appliances. Must be plenty of electricity around at very cheap prices else Octopus would not be selling it at 5p, 7.5p or 12p per kwh on Octopus GO and if one goes for Octopus Agile then one can get even lower figures, even negative sometime so they will pay you to take the electricity. Here was a nice occurrence a few days ago for Go users............... (below graph) Price at MDNT - -1.1p per kWh and stay negative for an hour and a half, then goes positive to 2p per kWh and then negative again for half an hour, then positive for an hour and a half, 1.5p per kWh and then negative again. It stay cheaper than standard electricity until 1630 where it is the same as many people pay and the goes cheap again in late evening. Electricity is nice and cheap and over plentiful, even you can grab it when it is cheap and Octopus and smart chargers can be programed to download lecky when it is priced below a cert level and when doing this straight in to an EV at 7,11 or more kW one is charging up the EV at miniscule costs. Reckon I add 65 miles of range for just over a pound when plugged in so about 1.5 p per mile. England already has the largest wind farm in the world and with the farms on the Dogger banks this will be superseded again to a farm that will generate 3.6 kWh at peak ie about 7.5% of what is needed even at peak times.... Current proportions of wind as a percentage of total can be found here. https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ Wind is often over a quarter of what we need but in the early morning can be the dominant source has can be sold at just a few pence per kwh. Tuesday, 11 April 2023 Negative Under 3p Under 5p Under 7p Under 10p Over 10p Over 15p Over 20p Over 25p Over 30p 5 3 2 0 0 1 7 18 7 5 Average price for day = 18.4p (Avg Peak = 32.0p, Avg Offpeak = 16.4p). Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost Time Cost 00:00 -1.1p 00:30 -4.4p 01:00 -5.7p 01:30 1.9p 02:00 1.1p 02:30 -3.8p 03:00 1.5p 03:30 -2.8p 04:00 4.4p 04:30 3.3p 05:00 18.0p 05:30 18.0p 06:00 20.9p 06:30 22.1p 07:00 23.2p 07:30 28.8p 08:00 21.2p 08:30 24.0p 09:00 21.9p 09:30 21.6p 10:00 20.4p 10:30 20.5p 11:00 19.8p 11:30 20.3p 12:00 20.5p 12:30 21.2p 13:00 21.6p 13:30 20.7p 14:00 20.0p 14:30 19.8p 15:00 16.8p 15:30 18.2p 16:00 25.1p 16:30 33.1p 17:00 33.5p 17:30 33.5p 18:00 33.5p 18:30 33.5p 19:00 28.2p 19:30 26.6p 20:00 26.7p 20:30 24.2p 21:00 27.6p 21:30 22.1p 22:00 27.4p 22:30 17.6p 23:00 23.4p 23:30 11.9p

I have a few solar panels but I do not think they are a worthwhile investment unless you are sure you, your family are going to be in a place for twenty years or more. Nor do they look nice and if I went for them i am glad it would be on my roof away from the street so the front does not look like a greenhouse. Here in worcester I think the main adoption of solar is on cheap properties rather than more expensive ones. Doing cost analysis it looks to me that using battery storage is much more cost effective, especially since the Russia-Ukraine war and the massive jump in energy prices in the last year. I think solar will come back in to electricity users options when the solar panels jump from 20% to 50% efficiency. personally I would rather have a much smaller array that maybe tracks the sun rather than a static upon roof array but it is the battery storage that works out best for savings. Downloading 0030 to 0430 hrs energy and using it during day, in combination with timed EV charging means most of the electricity I use is at the 7.5p per kwh Octopus GO tariff. Were talking hundred of pounds spent on batteries not thousands on solar arrays. I am a big believer in coxing people's action as the UK government did with EV incentives, got me extra interested, I am angling for the UK government salary sacrifice scheme which hopefully will come massively down in cost soon to reflect the huge drop in prices of TESLAs and how that forces other EV manufacturers to follow suit. These cars are becoming much cheaper as the Berlin Gigafactory ramps up.

I had a look on the government website and as I suspected less than 15% of cars licenced for the road are over 20 years old. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/number-of-cars-in-the-uk-over-20-years-of-age I rarely see a car that is Y reg or older round here, perhaps it is different in South Yorkshire. As to keeping a Feb 1995 car, and I am presuming you are referring to your MX5 I could not wait to get rid of my as it was a joke as a sport car. Mine was the 2 litre i with the very nice electric roof but God was it slow, as a sports car. A tuned MX5 tried to over take me in one of my Skoda Octavia VRSs, he disappeared in the rear view mirror, an absolute joke , hairdresser's car. Pure running costs are going to be key and as car (ICE) dealership, garages and petrol station go bust, as the percentage of EVs passes 50%, probably not in 2035 but I reckon before 2030, if not for cars owned and sat on a drive but miles driven on the road, last stat I saw EVs were being driven about a third more than ICE cars. The newer EVs are becoming cheaper than ICE cars to buy, China showing the way, massively cheaper to run on the road and to service, most people economic will necessitate them moving to EVs. Maybe EVs which do not even need a driving licence ! The recent spurt of take of EV ownership in China, Europe and the US, given further massive drops in the price to buy one and it seem soon to charge one as well should just coax the person who just wants drive to work, shops etc, rather than enthusiast for classic who will want to run them. Miss my beautiful Jaguar S type but escalating road tax just kills these older cars with massive annual road tax bills....

Looks like a bit of not knowing what is happening after 2045. With the percentages almost not changing then is my old Department, before I took my commission with HMCE/HMRC, thinking the numerous ICE vehicles over 10 and 15 years old are continuing to work on the road ? Sounds bizarre with tech moving forward, cheap electricity and ever evolving ban on ICE vehicles in urban areas. Technology continues tom move at current pace it is hard to imagine ICE engines maintaining any market share beyond 2035 and if so would that probably be hydrogen anyways, not even mentioned in the graph above. Anyone for methane or methanol ? Even against current EV tech ICE vehicles are slow accelerating and expensive to service and that situation get worst every year and EVs continue to get improve range by about 10% per year whilst lower cost by about the same. ICE cars just get more complicated, more expensive to fix and extra care like adding AdBlue. Best ICe feature at present is as their thermal efficiency is so poor they produce lots of waste heat to keep one toastie in cooler temperatures and currently they can go about twice as far as an EV without needing refueling but the range difference is changing in EV's favour at a pace and those better EVs fitted with heat pumps are quite so bad that suing the heating is a big negative for range, it is the lithium chemistry which is poor in cool conditions and it looks like mixing the battery pack with some cheap sodium cells cures that. I reckon ICE cars will be rarer than EVs are now by 2040 at the latest, maybe they will be gutting many ICE body shells to fit EV gubbins so not to waste so many ICE chassis.

Over half of advanced economies have subsidies for EVs, the UK longer does. Did for a while and I benefited from this but then I had a mass of VAT on my bill for a relatively expensive cars which EVs in all cases are (We do not get the Dacia Spring, made in China, here unfortunately that most of Europe does). UK Government could reduce the VAT on EVs to 5% or something in between 5% and 20% to encourage sales as a way forward to promote EVs from its existing take. It appears the biggest mover for change is a combination of Elon Musk and the EV tech ie traction battery advances and tumbling costs which will make EVs the natural choice over ICE cars. Over 12k in my Zoe, never done a fast charge and want to avoid it as lots of evidence it double the rate of battery decay using fast charging over home or destination charging at 0.2 C or less is for a 50 kWh battery nothing over 10kW. DId once using a 16 kW charge but 3 hase chargers are quite rare, occasional see them labelled as 11,16 or 22 kW but most turn out to be 7 .2 kW, which is not too bad if I am going to be there for a couple of hours for work or a meal or the like. Next car might have a mixture of Lithium Phosphate and Sodium batteries I would reckon, quite a move from my pure Lithium ion tech in my 52 kWh Zoe. Newer chemistry will be much better in colder weather and much cheap and so the Renault 4 and 5 which will replace my Zoe, and hopefully we will get RHD Dacia Springs, will be better suited to our cooler late autumn, winter and early spring months as the present scenarios when the car only is fully awake over 15C is a bit of a drawback in these cooler climate zones. Will miss the singing note of the three cylinder super efficient 900 cc Renault engine and cannot wait until a charge up gives a similar 500 miles of range when I fill it with petrol, same as in the Arkana but more like 550 miles in that case. The future is bright, the future is electric.

Arnold Clark, the EV experts, over 60 EVs to choose from with expect advice from the staff, hmmm.

That is based on the assumption that everyone gets their electricity from the Grid. There is a vast change over of UK citizens who generate their own and even supply back to the grid. It expected that in the emerging generation of solar panels are going to be 150% better than the existing one ie going from 20% or so efficiency to over 50% or individuals producing way more than they need is going to be common place. " Come round my house and charge you car up". Friends are free on I can sell you 10 kwh for a quid. 50kwh for a fiver which will take your EV 150 to 200 miles. Then there are those of us who down load that cheap electricity after midnight for 7.5p per kWh or so. Home battery storage becoming every cheaper. Electricity could become like bootlegged fags or weed being sold around between solar generators, off peak downloaders with battery storage selling to those unfortunates who cannot generate and store so have to buy at the expensive times during morning and late afternoon peaks. kWh could become a commodity millions of UK citizens pass on or sell to each other completely outside the control of the national grid. Transit vans with storage batteries patrolling service stations selling electrical charge at less than 50 p per kWh rather than the official power at 79p per kWh. Its probably coming near you or perhaps already here according to ZAP maps private locations/driveways.

More likely that virtual nobody will want ICE cars unless it is a real enthusiasts model ie Ferrari with a great engine sound track, as running an EVs will be so much cheaper than running an ICE car. The inventory of Chinese brands is equivalent to 54 days of sales, the stock of joint venture garages is 64 days, and the stock of luxury brand cars is equivalent to 70 days of sales. According to the disclosure, more than 75% of the inventory is ICEs, while the rest is PHEVs and EVs. Considering that PHEVs and EVs account for more than 35% of the total sales in the Chinese market, EVs’ stock is equivalent to approximately 40-50 days of sales. ICEs’ stock is equivalent to approximately 70 days of sales. We are already seeing it in China where EVs cost no more than a ICE car but cost a fraction to run as electricity is a tiny fraction of the energy running cost of buying Hydrocarbon fuel. Chinese manufacturers are now turning their attention to flood Europe and USA, following on from the successful sales of MG cars and of course TESLA which the Model Y will be the best selling car in most large markets. https://carnewschina.com/2023/03/21/china-had-3-41-million-cars-in-stock-in-february-2023/ Dealerships, particularly those with a small percentage of EV sales, will continue to go to the wall by the hundreds a thousands as percentage of cars on the road quickly slip from being ICE to being EV and as the EV servicing costs are a fraction of ICE those delears are no longer financial viable when you can pick up your TESLA from the docks and hardly ever see a servicing garage. Not a shortage of ICE cars, a glut of ICE cars that can only be sold with big discount and anybody with more than a modicum of economic sense will avoid as electricity becomes abundantly cheap and Arab controlled oil supplies squeeze supply to keep it commodity price high.

I was thinking of going Sunday as son is working Saturday. Sunday is cheaper but I suspect it might be a day with less going on on Sunday. Have not planned the route so not sure doable in the Zoe.

Two year or so away ! Will VW's crushing debt burden even mean that the company exists in its current form ? $200B in debt and wanting another $200B to transform itself to EV production when other companies are already there. Hundreds of thousands of unsold cars in China. Almost giving away ID4 in China for £20K ..... https://carnewschina.com/2023/03/13/vw-slashed-id-prices-in-china-id-4-down-by-19-to-25000/ VW Golf no longer top selling car in Europe, TESLA model Y way outstripping it and sales of Dacias Duster, Sandero and the Chine made Dacia Spring moving in to the top 20 along with TESLA models. Dead men walking like most European and US car makers unless customs tariffs doubled, tripled and maybe quadrupled from its present 10% Ad valorem.

FWD due to the easier/safer drive in low grip conditions ie very wet, snowy, muddy etc ? There is a lot of macismo crap is saying RWD is best and FWD is more average or below average talented drivers. I thought Toyota solution for the Prius, as an option for bad whether, snowy conditions, was to add a tiny electric motor, so not a full blooded half the power to the rear but just a few percent of power, all you need to get rolling in super low traction conditions. Toyota are being interesting in their strong believe that hybrids are the future and not pure EVs. Also Stellantis boss recently saying that there is not enough Lithium in the world to give every car a full EV battery, only enough for a small (1 kwh like Renault ETECH) hybrid battery. That has all changed with the big arrival of Lithium ion phosphate using less lithium and sodium using no lithium. MG have got so many things right, I was very tempted with the MG5 estate and lots of Youtube videos. If only they could get the software for the nav, audio etc it would be almost perfect but then that is the US banning Google from being fitted in Chinese machines but that is easily overcome with a Western phone and an additional on da sh screen.

It is such a shame that the UK is either slow to get the massive wave of cheap EVs and the prices which are falling massively in many countries but the UK, with its less common Right Hand Drive format seems to mean we get new models a few weeks later and at a somewhat higher price, maybe 5% or the like of, perhaps even having a less used currency ie GBP instead of Euros translates to the RRP, book price being higher in the UK. Car market is very volatile as there are hundreds of manufacturers chasing the shrinking pool of car buyers money in the current cost of living crisis.

The Atto 3 has been a sily price for a Chinese import but the sea creatures range Dolphin, Seagull etc should come in at proper prices hopefully ie closer to what they sell at in China which, in the case of the Atto 3 was almost twice what it sells for in China where as more like a quarter more should be more like the uplift of price when one add import duties and transportation cost. BYD will be looking closely at what SAIC/MG are doing and try and mimic MG's winning formula. What is a difference is that MG went for rear wheel drive but the BYDs are FWD. A big area of debate as these cars, compared to many of the small ICE car, and many European EVs, do not just have 100 to maybe 135 hp, which is a typical level of the big selling Stellantis cars as well as the big selling Zoe in most recent guise, these cars can have 200 hp plus, presents its own issues. Torn on whether its right to go back to RWD or stick with FWD as most small cars are these days unlike the 80s and before. A revolution in the small electric cars is happening where these cars are not the heavy and slowish option compared to the ICE competitors but now the EVs will be far higher performance and not that much more to buy and of course a fraction of cost to run. I can see hp limit options for insurance which when one turns 21, 23, 25 when can unlock another 50 hp, another 100 hp which will mean the insurance will rise. Insuring a TESLA can be very expensive for dual motor/performance versions. In the vein of EVs suddenly becoming the fun, and not just the ecological and cheap to run option, Europe should soon have the MF Cyberster which should hopefully well less than £40k with current massive drops in battery pack costs. The MGF reborn for the new century ?

Yes I read about this new Fleet version of the Model 3 which would, initially, just be sold to "fleet" and I presume that could mean salary sacrifice systems like Octopus is running. Expect to be released sooner after Fleet release especially if sales are not massive due to recession across Europe. As long as TELSA squeezes out most sales by those older mainly ICE selling manufacturers so TESLA hastens their demise to bankruptcy then it is job done even if profits are lower for a while. I think the model 2 can be bought forward to late 2024 now that much cheaper sodium and cheaper lithium batteries are happening due to the big drop in lithium prices and cheapness of sodium making a $25K small TESLA possible ie 22k Euros and £20k price point.

Nice one. love the ref to Indiana J 3................. RHD car production is oft an issue, hence countries with RHD cars get their deliveries later and possibly as a cost premium, KPMG once worked it out at just over 6%, ouch. Still cannot wait until Model 3 and then Model Y retail at under £40k especially as I do not think we will see the Model 2 until next year probably. Sorry to see the Spacex craft explode 4 mins after take off, thank God unmanned, probably get it right next time. Elon is certainly a disruptor but is what the world needs to take a proper leap forward rather than the fairy steps unimaginative most Western companies show themselves to be.

But was is the current price and is there going to be another big cut in the UK as there is 5th, 6th, or 7th cut I gather in many markets as well as they still get Model 3 for £36k now and Model Ys for less than $40k, that is less than £30k for a new base model Model Y !!!. I will give it until September and hopefully get it thru salary sacrifice but it must be a nightmare for dealers as the price of their used stock must be slipping and therefore PCP and salary sacrifice prices may not move as much as sliding new prices suggests as the residuals must be not lowering as much as a percentage with that end of PCP value being much lower. One could even imagine some PCP business going bust as the end of PCP value will be a fraction of what was originally estimated. And what is happening to TESLA values, which Musk etc is driving down RRP/Sale price, is pushing other manufacturers to follow suit or lose sales and this, some predict, will be the beginning of the end for many, if not virtually all, of the traditional manufacturers we have known for the last decades and century.

EV charging seems so haphazard. So many non functioning charging posts and ones from the big oil companies exorbitant rates of payment required. I thought I heard that all hydrocarbon fuel stations above a certain size, unless the site was so constricted that the EV charging station could not be safely put on site ie be far enough away from the HC fuel pumps, had to plan to add EV charging. Good to see that Tokheim/ Dover Fuel solution, a branch of is in Dundee, (the city of EVs is it not), is getting to integrating the EV charge points in to its HC pump offering as an integrated refuel station offering as described here and pictured below............. https://www.doverfuelingsolutions.com/dxpower

The supply of electricity for our cars is a weird world increasingly so. Some places free, just plugged in at work and as Tammy Wynette would say, " No charge" and of course those lucky enough to have drive ways etc can charge over night at 7.5p or 12p per Kwh and compare that with those EV who do not access to such low priced and free lecky the running of an EV, quite a part from buying or leasing etc, is on a completely different level of running cost. Inequality is rife with little government correcting acting like installing some chargers in public locations like community centres and the like ?

On two stroke machines I would see melted pistons ................ Perhaps you need some 102 Octane racing fuel.

Once reason EVs are falling in price, not just as TESLA (and BYD maybe ) are lowering their prices to bankrupt most other car manufacturers EV and/or ICE producing, is that the price of lithium as been falling like a stone as Sodium emerges a competing battery tech. Sodium has been impractical as an EV battery element as it resulted in too low an energy density ie only about 100 Wh per kilogram but now as it approaches 200 Wh per kilogram it is in contention. Add that to superior cold weather performance to Lithium, or with lithium iron phosphate batteries and the economic sense of EVs over ICE cars become more compelling. Maybe a mixture or some Lithium and some Sodium ion batteries, more sodium if the vehicles being operated in colder climates................

No rear wipe on the Renault Arkana which is this "Sport Coupe" shape, is a pain but electric rear heater seems to clear it fast, not tried in snow and may never be I suppose.

How about some nitrous as it becomes a controlled substance and kids have to move on to something else it might become cheaper as manufacturers try to find new outlets, or a turbo to get better air-fuel mixing ?

Good news that you keep your EV for us who care about total CO2 emissions and hopefully it will be economically good for you too. Challenging times ahead with using economical chargers and a big lack of readily available information as to get good range out of EVs, especially in cool weather. Even in mid April my Zoe is only showing 176 mile range on a 97% level of charge, not going to win new converts over with sub 200 mile range for those who need to do proper distance in EVs. But there are ways of increasing this but it requires research and adoption of techniques the average motorist probably does not want to get in to. I think charger wars for those "in journey" chargers, trying to rip us of with rates of 79p per kWh will melt away as more and more places, pubs, fast food outlets, even recreational centers, have chargers in the 25 to 49p per kWh range and more of us will use them, even if they are only 7 to 22 kWh inc 11 and 16 for those of us who can use 3 phase AC, as we will take out time on the journey, stop for a bit to eat, charge the car and go on our merry way and then those powerful DC chargers will drop their rates to 59 or 69 p per kWh or go out of business. 1,000 to 2,000 charge points being added to the network each month so choice is becoming more diverse. I happily recall my Audi A4 with its 130 hp 1.9 PD engine clattering along, 66 litre odd fuel tank and seeing almost 1,000 miles of range displayed after a fill up. No AdBlue so polluting like a 20th century motor vehicle, NOX particularly as CO2 was probably quite good with it doing over 60 mpg, similar with the A3 but not such a big tank. Many mid 2010s BMW diesels are Euro5 and not Euro6 so owners are trying to get shot of them to avoid big London and other cities ULEZ charges which I suppose is OK as long as they are well maintained and not smoking like a 19th century black country chimney as some wiesels that one sees on the road occasionally. Change is inevitable it is optimising the sweet spots in these changes, tax advantages as well to preserve as much income as we can in these ultra high peace time taxation times needed to pay down the UK astronomic debts.

At these sort of diesel prices the choice of electric, petrol or diesel becomes more attractive for diesel combined with its better efficiency than petrol at least........ https://www.facebook.com/DARobertsLtd/ Shows what a massive margin those petroleum forecourts are making......