Graham Butcher

All very interesting but totally irrelevant, you are either not reading and understanding the real issues that the UK has with electricity supply and also the population does not have equal positions in life that you do. The point I'm trying to make is that with all the vehicles theoretically coming onto UK roads in by 2030, which includes all the vans, HGVs and buses that Ed Milliband is pushing for, there will not enough capacity to charge them all. There is no way on gods earth that you are going to able charge all of those from solar and storage batteries at the same time. Yet, all you keep doing is stating how you do things and what you're thinking about doing. If that is how our politicians are thinking, then it's no wonder the UK is struggling to make any headway. We all need to stop thinking so much about ourselves and think about the problems that millions of other people are faced with. Others can also see it.

You live in your own little bubble and not in the real world, it might come as a shock to you, but it has been said before by many people, not everyone has the same unique position in life as you. Honestly you could get yourself a job on the Fully Charged Show and Everything Electric alongside Robert Llewellyn as a presenter........😶‍🌫️

Apparently it would take around 8 to 12 years to build a powerline from Scotland to the south coast, and that would be running about 2 miles away from my front door if they could ever get the final plans approved. Which at the moment is embroiled in loads of red tape with councils and masses of residents all opposed to it and this has been going on for the last 3 years to my knowledge. Hinkley point C is not supposed to be online until well into the mid-2030s and even then will only generate enough power for 6 million homes 7% of UK power need. Building started last year on Sizewell C due on line mid 2030s to 2040 powering 6 million homes, 7% of UK power need. Bradwell B is still in the feaseablity stage, would take an estimated 12 years to build (always run into delays), so if construction starts this year, it would be late 2030s to early 2040s before coming online and power 4 million homes, 4.5% UK power demand. Wylfa power station, if construction starts this year would be broadly the same as the above Bradwell B online mid 2030s to early 2040s, powering 3.5 million homes, 3.5% UK power demand. So where is all this extra power coming from to power all the proposed electric cars, vans, HGVs and buses coming from in 2030, given the massive size of these HGV fleets and buses? Once again, the UK has some very grand ideas and very little forward planning on how to deliver the massive amounts of power of power that would be required to keep people and vital goods mobile then? The above power stations would possibly deliver some 19 million homes then, when we had 30.4 million homes in 2024. Wind and solar cannot make up the rest, as wind does not always blow and I frequently see wind farms where no blades are turning, and no solar at all during the night. Are we living in cloud cuckoo land or what? Hinkley Point C | EDF Building Sizewell C - Sizewell C Homepage - Bradwell B Project Site Wylfa nuclear power station - Wikipedia

I think that you are missing the point I think that you are missing the point here, which I feel you do so often, and that is because you are so passionate about electric cars and that is fine. I feel that the point here that @Dieselgate is trying to convey, to you but you are ignoring is these energy suppliers have to generate their power, and the price of doing so will be increasing quite significantly in the fullness of time.

Yes, I think you'll find it is a short term thing, all designed to try and stop the decline in adoption of electric cars which will revert as soon as possible. I was reading somewhere recently, can't remember precisely where, and also I heard it on the news that electricity was going to increase a lot in due course, especially as and when more and more electric HGV and buses take to the road. I did come across this little nugget, which shows just how much we are having to import electricity from other countries, which clearly shows that we far being self-sufficient and we are still heavily dependant on our European neighbours to keep our lights on Power surge: UK spends £250 million each month importing record volumes of electricity from Europe - Drax Global This chart shows where we are as of 2024 and it shows the massive spikes in the importation grows as more electric cars demand more power to keep them going. The chart is extracted from the above site. The report also claims that we are spending some £250 million a month on imported electric power. Maybe this is why the Russians are so interested in plotting where our interconnects are located and hence the presence of the spy ship in the North Sea, which is causing the military so much concern.

Correct, people should be free to make their own choice of what type of car suits there own requirements. It really just like BetaMax and VHS, vinyl vs cassette, v CD, laser disc v DVD v Bluray and CFL and LED bulbs, the customer will make their minds up as to which format wins out, without governments mandating everything.

All of this is true, but only if you ignore the massive depreciation if you were buying the car; plus, of course, you are working on the basis that you have the means to home charge. Try the sums at public charging prices, and that margin comes tumbling down, does it not?

True, excellent at that kind of running cost, but that bubble will be burst soon with rising energy costs in the not too distant future.

I think I'll just leave this here and see what you all think about it..... Sanity check warns EVs and heat pumps deliver “no proven carbon savings” ahead of 2030 clean power target - Queen Mary University of London Electric cars deliver 'no proven carbon savings' in the UK, scientists warn in 'sanity check' study | Daily Mail Online

Not according to the searches I did just a few minutes ago, £49k to £52k seems to be the starting price, and don't forget, it does not make one jot of difference how much discount you get off it, it all depends on makers published list price that will decide if it attracts luxury status or not. Also it is neither clever nor advisable to allow your battery to ever go below 20% anyway. Most seem to suggest keeping the battery always between 20% and 80% and only ever going upto 100% if you know that you are going on a long run the follwing day. Besides that it is highly likely to cost twice what you're looking at for your Renault, so why didn't you go for one of those?

Yes, I would have thought that would be a given anyway as they are going to be so much more expensive to buy in the first instance and I'd expect the insurance costs are going to be sky high until the system has demonstrated that it is going to be more reliable and far safer than a human driver.

Yes, but once again registrations are not sales in the true meaning of the word, they are being used as a way of massaging the figures in a dual blade operation, A/ it helps the reduce the amount of fines that need to be paid and B/ it also helps the government get closer to their forced targets. That Mercedes CLA might well boast a high claimed range, but I doubt that if driven in the same fashion as ICE version it would get anywhere near its claimed range, and I seriously doubt that would get within about 100 miles of it if driven at a max of 55mph. It also costs around the £50K bracket so its OTR price price will take it into the luxury tax bracket so its not a car that will be widely adopted by many private buyers is it?

I agree, if you are able to do your charging at home, on a low tarrif and get back again to recharge each day with always having enough in the battery to meet your requirements, and you're not (assuming you purchased a new car) looking to replace at 3 years of age, but keep it far longer so that depreciation does not bite you in the arse, or you have a car provided by your employer, then yes, I'd agree an EV could well be a no-brainer to have. Like I've always said, if it fits your lifestyle and and your pocket, then they are a wise choice. But the caveat there is that first you have to be able to have the ability to home charge in the first place; public charging will destroy any financial advantage.

I don't see where or how you arrive at that deduction, in the main EV's are cheaper if you can always do your charging at home and you have one of those special tariffs, otherwise, if using public chargers to make the return journey, it is doubtful if the costs are any better. They are certainly not the case if you own the car and plan to replace it in 3 years time, as depreciation is so much bigger with EVs. Again, I cannot see that happening; unless all the dealers are bonkers, they will of course be only too aware that the 2026 target for EVs is even bigger than it was for 2025, so if they register cars in December 2025, then they have just made the target in 2026 so much bigger and even harder to hit, given that they never hit it 2025. Are you aware of the huge number of new EV's from that sector of the market you claim are returned to the dealers with long lists of faults that the dealers cannot rectify due to the parts stock not being available and difficulty in even communicating with the cars due poor quality control of the cars and software bugs etc. There are cases of some cars developing faults and throwing errors up on their dashboards before the owners have even left the dealers' forecourts? Some of these cars at the dealers have been there awaiting repairs long than they have been with the owners, so much for far Eastern manufacturers.

Whoa there, hold your horses. There are many things that affect people in many different ways. There were a couple of whistleblowers about their findings of the air quality on the London Underground, with readings many times worse than were found standing in the middle of the most congested roads in London. This was also backed up by scientific studies and reports carried by hospitals and doctors, which proved the air there was directly responsible for the men's chronic breathing and general health problems. You say that this one man's tests are conclusive when it was possibly a means to an end? I suggest that more people are exposed to poor air on the tubes then there are being exposed to the road traffic fumes on a daily basis, and those on the underground are alo more likely to be exposed for longer periods to those using the roads in the fashion that James Gallagher did for his "experiment" The SMMT figures do not show actual true sales, i.e., cars that have been sold and are being used on the roads, they only show cars that have theoretically been sold, when in reality many of these have been registered and then within days or weeks, declared as SORN and placed into storage. These cars are NOT contributing to the clean air that I keep hearing so much about are they? In fact there is an argument to be made that they are adding to overall pollution levels as they have had to be made and shipped all around the world and then become stored and later sold as used cars with delivery miles on them. The DVLA are aware of the number of new car registrations, they are also know what their drivetrains are, ie, petrol, diesel, HEV (predominantly petrol), PHEV, again petrol) and BEV. They will also be aware of how many of each type are also subsequently declared as SORN and their drivetrain types, as well as dates that they were first registered and when they were SORN and therefore can also tell how long that period was, how long the car has been with each new registered owner and also tell you who these keepers are, traders or private people. But they are not willing to provide such information, why do you think that might be??

Yes I saw that BBC report about 2 weeks ago and dismissed it as just another part of the official narrative to push electric cars. It also coincided with a whole raft of other things designed to increase the sales of electric cars as sales are dropping and making this ambitious 28% of all new car sales appear impossible.

I still have a MK3 manual and I have been through it and there is no such warning in mine.

True, but my cars came with 19" rims, but also don't forget that the dia quoted is the rim size, not actual tyre diameter which should in an ideal world match that of the standard normal running wheels.

Do they? Is the official spare smaller in diameter? I think they might only be smaller in width, load and speed rating. That said, I have always had mine supplied from the factory with a full size tyre on a steel space saver rim.

If the circumference is smaller, then it will certainly keep flagging a warning about low tyre pressure, as the wheel will be rotating at a different speed to the others. That system relies on the fact that a deflated tyre will make that wheel rotate faster than the others, and the system will flag a warning.

@Binx1310 Just a quick observation: are you 100% certain that that spare wheel will fit your Superb? The seller only quotes it as being compatible with the Karoq?

It seems that more EV's are failing their first MOT than other cars so they are not quite so maintenance-free after all, it seems. The main reason for failing is down to tyres, it is claimed. Why so many electric cars fail their first MOT (and how to prevent it) | Regit

Hmm, I think that they were doing what anybody does who drives an automatic, and that is when in traffic, apply the brake, and when the traffic begins to move, slowly lift your foot off the brake and the drive train creeps forward or backwards. My Superb did that, and so does the Kodiaq. Now my MK2 Superb did it very gently, but the MK3 and Kodiaq will happily shoot off to about 5 mph with no throttle input. Put it into neutral, and the engine idles at about 800 rpm; select drive, and it jumps to 1000 rpm. I queried this with my service dept, who told me that all Euro 6 engines do it as part of the emissions control.

Wow, thats scary.

This is the reason for China banning flush door handles and door handles that need electrical power to operate. How long before the rest of the world follows suite, as he says, this car because it was electric burst into fire within 60 secs. but ICE cars, even if the fuel tank has been ruptured, do not do so, they need a source of ignition. Watch the video for the full info.