Graham Butcher

The Nissan Qashqai I had for 2 months was a mild hybrid and the acceleration in that for such a small engine was startling indeed, and it did coasting quite well, but I never really thought the mpg was much better considering the small size of car, and the assist on pull away and overtaking from the electric motor(s), I think it had a small motor on each rear wheel, I might be wrong on that point, however. Are the batteries on the Clio under the boot floor then, hence the smaller boot? The boot on my car has a massive 625cubic litres and something in the order of 1,760 with the rear seat down. Mpg is also good on mine in the ECO mode I have seen 67mpg on the trip computer, but that did include a lot of coasting but needs a decent run to achieve figures like that, around town the best I have seen is around 40mpg and worst is 23mpg with a cold engine so the Stop/Start is not operating. The best hypermile time is summer with dry roads, if the roads are wet, the mpg figure drops down to about 48 to 51mpg. If the government are really serious about the electrification, then they really need to do something to assist the retired motorist into being able to get into an electric car, the salary sacrifice scheme is good for those in work but does nothing for the like of me and if they think that retired people do not have aspirations of owning a new vehicle, then they are so wrong. For instance, I was considering the purchase of a new car, funded from my occupational pension schemes, but after we exited the EU, my pension pot was devalued by over 50% and so I have not yet invoked them in the hope the stock market might recover enough to allow that to happen one day. so one day I might end up in an EV, never say never I say. I fully expect that you have me down as being anti EV's, which is far from the truth, I'm just extremely cautious as the technology is still relatively new and things are continually being improved and yes, I know that they do accelerated ageing tests etc to try and see how the tech stands up over time, but there is no test actually like the test of time itself.

Just how reliable is a serial hybrid, or plug in hybrid when compared to either full on EV or an ICE? To my mind, there are more bits to go wrong and so less reliable, but is that true?

Well, I had to re-adjust my lights again today, and it is definitely a 6mm Allen key that fits my adjustment screw. My dealer had to remove the front bumper today to fix my front parking sensors as the clips were all broken, and I mentioned to them about that I discovered my headlights were slightly different colours which he confirmed. My N/S has a brand-new headlamp unit fitted which the dealer who sold me the car fitted before I took delivery of it as the DRL had snapped in half. My dealer suggested that I don't bother replacing the bulb(s) unless I was really bothered and a perfectionist, as the OEM bulbs were so expensive. He showed me the exploded view of the headlamp unit on his computer and the price of the bulb alone was £264 each, so I think I'll be leaving it alone for the time being unless it fails altogether.

Wow, the video appears to show the bomb was beneath the van, but the photograph indicates it was on the opposite side of the road, while I can appreciate people's anger at the cameras and the scheme, I cannot condone that kind of action, it could easily kill someone.

Interestingly on the Land Rover front, I see that Essex Police have discovered quite a few stolen top end Land Rovers in the last few days, packed in shipping containers awaiting shipment overseas and allegedly made some arrests. Certainly seems like the numbers being reported stolen on the local social media has dropped a lot.

I have not been swayed either way, when the time is right and the support systems are in place I could see myself considering the option, especially if the sums all work out in my favour, it is always going to be the carrot that will carry the most weight.

@wyx087Sorry, but you wasted your time when all I did was to flag it up that the topic had been raised in the Australian parliament. It was everyone else who decided to jump on it and respond, reading more into it than was there.

OK, I may have got the terminology wrong, but you all know what I meant 😊

Never disputed any of that, and I don't have any issues with it either apart from the infrastructure needed to be there and the similar capability ICE in terms of range etc, ought to be in place and let the public adopt EV as I'm sure they would if they could match the abilities of ICE and were proven to safer, less expensive to run and insure and no more expensive to purchase. Banning of ICE should only ever become required if the public didn't switch over. Its back to the carrot or the stick approach and the carrot is the better option I feel. That could start with the powers in the world leading by example?

Haha, there are large parts of desert and large parts full of trees etc and there are large parts with huge mining operations going on.🤔

Talking about boosting the EV charging network by £70million at COP28 is one thing, actually doing it is another thing, and it's not like they have a good track record of delivering on promises, is it? This might be a good time to slip into the conversation that so far the Rwanda scheme for stopping the boats has only cost a mere £240million and not a single person has been sent to Rwanda and if and when they do, the scheme only has the capacity of 100 people, so thats a cost of £2.4million per person, what a bargain. That £240million would do far more good being put into the improvement of the infrastructure here.

Again, I have no argument with any of this, but once again, surely all of these points should have been addressed and in place before anyone started the banning of ICE vehicles. How many members involved in these discussions take flights or ships to go away on holiday for instance? I know I don't.

Firstly, would you not agree that producing the food that we all eat is a number 1 priority? Is that not what these people in the outback are doing? So is it right and fair that they should have to depend on keeping old worn out and unreliable vehicles going and hope that they don't break. I agree, the UK is never really more than approximately 50 miles from some form of civilisation, but if that is how people are viewing this then its sad that they cannot see the bigger broader picture, for all of humanity.

Wrong the "over simplification" comment I made was not in relation to anything you had said, it was a reply to comments made by J.R., go back 12 posts and check it out. That comment was made because of the comments he made by people who live in these remote areas, re walking etc with total disregard to just how dangerous and fast moving such events are. Those people live in those locations, rearing cattle etc so that the rest of the population can eat. Electrification is a great benefit anywhere, not just in the Australian outback. That said, surely banning new ICE cars by a certain date is not the right way forward, until such time as it possible to match the capabilities of ICE cars, which in the fulness of time, I expect will come. To do so before then, is actually going backwards.

Now that I agree, I would still be driving my old car, which would now be over 10 years old, and I'd be very happy with it, safe in the knowledge that I knew all of its history, being its only driver from the day I collected it new, from the showroom, low miles, high reliability, spiciness and comfortable and would more than likely still be driving it in another 10 years time. By which time it all of its carbon footprint would have been paid off handsomely. I could never see the point in replacing cars every three years, even higher miler company cars could be stretched out to 4 or more years. Yes its always nice to get a new car, but if you chose wisely in the first place, then you have the right car for you and so it does not become a chore to put up with it for longer. Add to the mix, the reduction of BIK taxation after a certain period of time, what's not to like?

I'm really struggling to see how you are all ignoring the potential seriousness of situations like this. Yes, I do understand about checking the charge level before making the return trip and maybe topping it up. Yes I understand all about the high levels of sunshine in Australia, hell I have family members living out there, so I'm not wet behind the ears. Yes I also understand all about the possibilities of having wind generators also, as well as batteries to store the power and then invert back to usable power for use in the house and also charge the EV car. I also understand get the point about the ability to charge the car for free. So if I get all that and understand that it is all good and is very positive, why is it that you all just cannot grasp the fact that EV's cannot go as far as an ICE car when both are fully fuelled, the ICE is likely to have a greater range. An ICE can be refuelled in just a few minutes so even in an emergency life and death situation, an ICE can be filled up and is ready to go in about 5 minutes or less, even from the point where the refuel light comes on. You cannot do that with an EV, even if you have the mains power on and solar / wind generation also working. Now imagine an EV being fully topped before making the return journey, which may be a couple of hundred miles away from the nearest city, where you went to do the weekly shopping trip or whatever, and this is a real situation for many people over there, it is a vast country. You drive home and after a short while, you are ordered by the authorities to evacuate your house and the area due to a wildfire rapidly approaching your locality and all around the area is a forested area for several miles, your EV only has about 10% charge left after the long drive home and needs around 8 hours of charging time to top it back to 80% or higher. If the fire does reach you, your chances of survival are pretty slim. If you had a diesel car, even if the tanks are running low after your long drive home, in a matter of minutes it can be filled to the brim from your farm tank(s) even without electricity. Your family and pets can all be loaded into the car, and you can be driving away from danger and headed to safety. Later, hopefully the fire dept were able to stop the fire, so then you all can return home again, thanks to the fact that you were able to refuel your car in mere minutes. What is so hard about imaging yourself being in that position? Instead, everyone seems to think, I couldn't care less about other people's positions as long it does not affect them. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy? I'm getting tired of other people's indifference, and it nearly always seems to be in the main part, to be those that already have an EV are the ones burying their heads in the sand and ignoring what are real possibilities. No this is not me having a pop at you either, just a statement of truth, the Australian MP's question/statement in their government seems to be being taken as a joke, when it shouldn't. I can feel empathy for the plight of others, and don't understand why others cannot do the same.

Glad to hear it, but I was not expecting anyone to, I was merely posting about something that was going on and thought it was worthy of posting.

Over simplification, I think. So you could always be 100% sure that after your return home in the outback, late in the afternoon or evening from a trip into the nearest city or town, when the sun has gone down that you could recharge your EV to make sure that the battery was topped off then yes? Even if you plugged in the charger, if the power had gone due to fire, you could be at the mercy of the fire because your battery does not have enough charge to get you to safety. Why is it that people cannot picture the scene for what it is an emergency and these things do happen.

I totally agree 100% under normal circumstances, but we are not talking about normality here 😬

I have done that and guess what, it didn't fall off, sorry about that 🤷‍♂️ But guess what, this is a serious matter, it is not some YouTuber with clickbait after views.

As I understand it yes, they like us are introducing a ban on new ICE vehicles, hence their concern.

FFS, its not about keeping a farm going, its about survival in a natural disaster like an out of control wildfire, or do you really want to people to be burnt alive because their EV car does not have a full charge? It has zero to do with the day-to-day functionality and life, can you not see that??? Edit; The size of the tanks in the photo I used is not meant to be typical of the size used for large farms, just an illustration of what I was talking about, fuel tanks with no electric pumps for dispensing fuel into vehicles, tractors and the like.

I have been following James & Kate for some time now, and it is shocking what some dealerships try to get away with.

What has petrol stations or refineries got to with ranchers etc living in the outback of Australia? Has nobody been on or worked on farms, I have done lots of times, and it is indeed very common for our local UK farmers to have tanks for diesel mounted high enough to allow the flow of fuel by gravity as per the photo, and that is what the lady in the video is actually saying. With the worldwide push for EV cars to be the norm everywhere, even in the outback of Oz, and especially in the areas prone to wildfires, an EV car could be a death sentence if you need to escape a bush fire and your EV has too little charge to make it to safety 🙄 It only takes a little bit of thought to understand the reason for their concern, surely?

This is a quite interesting discussion that is taking place in Australia at the highest level, and it is one that I have thought about before, in areas of sparse population and subjected to wildfires, putting lives at a greater risk than is necessary, any solutions out there?