Graham Butcher

I agree, but it did cause @Rooted some problems, and the thing with EV's is that unlike ICE, you can't walk to the nearest charging point and carry a kwh back to your car to enable you drive the car to the car there to do a proper recharge.

While scanning YouTube for anything remotely interesting in the automotive world, I came across this video of what is claimed as being a Chinese micro car, I'm sure that it is Chinese. It's claimed in the video that its a new car, I have my doubts about that, the front doors have no door cards, but the rear doors clearly do so, the front cards have been removed for some reason. Makes you sure appreciate what we have even more 😉

Oh dear, that is not good news is it, so maybe Taycan man was telling the truth about the chargers after all, why I give the benefit of doubt when you can't actually be there, at the same time and verify things, you have to accept what he said as being correct. Good job you were not desperate for a charge at the time and were able to find others to get topped up from.

A nice and steady progression from the current model, no point in changing too much, if you have a winning product, why risk it all on complete departure from what is serving the brand well already?

Yep, I know that was what you're on about. I was talking about the price of the 2ndhand XL1 in response to Jonny Smith saying that they sold for £92,000 or thereabouts when new. Because it is such a rare car, it still commands a high price. I think it was well overpriced in the beginning. Had they kept the price low, they might have sold enough to make a profit and developed it further, their position today might be better.

There is one of those VW XL1's for sale here in the UK, very low mileage, £85,000 according to AutoTrader.

It seems is the operative word, according to an alleged report from I think it was UCL, the figures don't actually support Sadiq Khan's claims.

True, but if they had continued to work at it, we might be able to have a small efficient powertrain, coupled with more roomy interiors today. This high performance cars, be they ICE or EV, are not really the answer, especially here in the UK and for matter a large portion of the world because its not possible to actually use that performance/speed either because of legal speed limits or not having the safe road networks where the speed could be used. On the power supply side of things, if electrical power was to become an issue, is it really that wise to chuck all our eggs in the same basket for energy? PHEV, do seem to better option provided, one system is not tied to other in such a fashion that it becomes impossible to run on just pure ICE if the hybrid side should fail, which currently seems to be the case. God forbid that anyone should ever start another war with us, then all they would need to do to bring the country to its knees is to target the grid, deliver a knock-out blow and cripple the country, especially the armed forces, and prevent them or the civilians from freely moving about, making them virtual sitting ducks.

Shock horror, I just spotted this video which I suspected was more of a clickbait video, but doing due care and diligence checking, turns out to be factual. This is something that I had often wondered just what we do once the most cars were EV's, if electricity becomes in short supply for whatever reason, how will the world cope. Switzerland considers a ban on electric vehicle this winter, here's why - World News (wionews.com) Switzerland will BAN electric cars from the roads during power shortages | Daily Mail Online Is Switzerland banning electric vehicles? Here's all you need to know | HT Auto (hindustantimes.com) The truth behind the rumoured EV driving ban in Switzerland - electrive.com Switzerland to Become First Country to Ban EVs | YoCharge

A while ago I posted that the ICE could still be further refined and offer far more MPG and be considerably less polluting than the current cars are, and it seems that I was right. In fact, I had actually forgotten that Volkswagen had made some futuristic cars that showed it was indeed possible, and this car featured in the video by Jonny Smith of the Late Brake Show (YT) is one of those cars. It is a diesel PHEV, engine is 2-cylinder turbocharged of just 800cc, 5.5 kwh Li-on battery, CO2 emissions of just 24g/km and top speed of 98mph with a combined mpg of 300miles. What a shame that they never continued to develop the system. Fuel tank capacity is only 2 gallons but would have been the ideal solution to people not being able to home charge, as you had the option of driving in pure diesel mode, so you should be able to drive into places where chargers are pretty rare and not be bothered.

Yeah, I was joking about the driver and or the police thinking that a mini posed a real threat to a lorry, regardless of the load it was carrying 🤨

I expect that the police think you obviously look like a dodgy geezer in his high performance Essex White Mini with a limited range capablity, lol 🤣

@lol-lol getting stuck behind can actually increase your range if can get it's slipstream, I have done my self many times in my ICE to increase my mpg to compensate to an extent for low mpg in the city taking son and SWMBO to their places of work and collecting them later. That Taycan while having a low drag coefficient is a very heavy car when compared to say a Tesla or similar car so it uses a lot of power just to keep it moving, making it a bad car for that Jog to LE challenge. As you say, SUVs also catch a dair bit of wind resistance and the faster they go, the worse their range and mpg is.

An EV is ideal for people who don't need to keep to timetables, ie those of us who have retired or don't need to undertake long trips that often. Sounds like you have found that suits you perfectly and with you be able to access free charging on a regular basis is a no brainier.

You're right, I missed that point. I think Geoff had meant to stay on the A9 but those road works screwed him up, he did actually say that that Google maps had showed the A9 as being all red all the way from Perth, to Stirling and onto Falkirk and he was wondering why the sat nav was forecasting well over 4 hours to do 209 miles. So I'm guessing that Google showed the M90 as being OK and so he elected to use the Queensferry crossing instead to save time. Lee did go to Porsche Perth to charge as you mentioned, so did he take the same route or not?

Yeah, that car is just stupid for our roads, too wide and too low, no idea how it copes with speed bumps, some of the ones near. I have managed to bottom on in a Superb even. It was a fore gone conclusion that the BMW was going to win that challenge, 2 fuel stops for it and at least 5 for the Porsche, 30 minutes a time for a wee, fill with diesel and bite to eat, that's an hour. Porsche say 45 minutes minimum on a high speed charger, thats at least 3.75 hours added on, a wee and bite to eat can be done be while charging. How would your car perform on that trip, 974 miles, lets say your car does 120 miles to a full charge, meaning that you would need at least 9 stops for charging and how long would each one take? PS. They have to cross the Forth unless they take the West Coast route, their route plan looks like they crossed on the M9 at Stirling?

You are assuming that everyone knows that. Truth is there are many apps, just how many is one person supposed to have on their phone, and how are you meant to check them all while on the move? As I understood it, he stated in part one that he was planning his charging stops because everyone slates him for not planning on advance. Truth is that chargers are not plenty full enough still yet.

To be fair to him, he was in a challenge and he also explained a couple of time that he was on slow charger was only giving him 1mile per minute and someone plugged in next to him and his charge rate was halved as a result of inadequate grid supply. I doubt anybody else could gave done any better given the circumstances.

The second part of the Geoff Buys Cars challenge has been posted up now, the Porsche Taycan man has yet to do his version of it as he seemed to be spending all of his time finding working chargers and then getting charged, so he never actually made it to Land's End, to find out what actually happened you will need to watch the video, or you could if you want to cheat, jump towards the end of the video.

It is now being reported that claims that particle pollution from car tyres is far more damaging to peoples health than car exhaust fumes, so this mean now that all cars, ICE or EV are now likely to be targeted and be charged for driving in low emission zones. TfL raking in estimated £750,000 PER DAY in ULEZ fines | Regit

I thought that some of you may like to watch this video of the resurrection of a concept hybrid delivery van that I just stumbled over, interesting to watch I thought.

@J.R. You're right about the breathers in some EV batteries, they certainly exist in Tesla Model X and also Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV's but these cars were subjected to being totally submerged beneath water and the gull wing doors were open but still beneath the water surface, so the batteries would be exposed to greater water pressure then that experienced in deep puddles etc where the water only comes up to to half the wheel height or less.

Yeah, that overtake was crazy, something that I'd never attempt, no matter how fast the car I was driving is, he is a bit of a nutter.

Not sure if anyone is following the MacMaster in his Taycam, or Geoff buys Cars, but they are doing a challenge between the Taycan (EV) and a diesel BMW 320D, driving from John O' Groats to Lands End in the fastest time and also the cheapest. It is interesting and challenging for both of them with the disgusting weather in Scotland combined with road works. Where is your bet going, EV or diesel? This is the first leg of two, staying in a hotel on the M6 at Killington Services near Kendal.

The originals I think used to have the sliding windows?