Graham Butcher

Is this the way forward to bring electric to those unable to always be able to get a home charge because even with the adoption of a home gully cut into the footpath to bring their charging cable through to the car without a tripping hazard, you often cannot park outside your own house. If the same engine is used for multiple car brands, it should bring down the cost of both spares and servicing? This tiny petrol engine is designed to fit in electric cars | Autocar

Unless you have a habit of moving between different cars and taking the dashcam with you, I'd seriously suggest getting a hard-wire kit for it so it switches on automatically on starting the car so you never risk driving without it being activated (sods law says that will be the time when you needed it the most) and then it frees up the power socket for other things, such as the LED voltmeter.

Of course, I will, still awaiting shipping from China at the moment.

Even Rachel, when interviewed on TV after the budget did not have the faintest idea as to how the mileage was going to be recorded in the first 3 years of a cars' life, in fact it looked that she was not even aware that MOTs were not required until the car became 3 years old. In the end she came up with that being the reason as to why it would take them 3 years to implement the tax. We so desperately need to stop accepting these politicians who are in politics as a full-time career choice and start electing them with some real world experience and knowledge of how the world actually works, and they see their job as being to improve things both the population and the country during their period in office.

Sounds great in theory, but perhaps, that could equally be achieved if we switched off all fridges, freezers and AC units and go back to the dark ages 👀

@lol-lol so where does the heat pump derive its energy source from if not the batteries, then. Strikes me as both heat pump and PTC will be consuming power from the batteries?

@lol-lol in that scenario the real advantage that PHEV offers over a BEV is one of range and the disappearance of the much touted range anxiety as they can go from almost empty to full in about 5 minutes. As you pointed out, the inequality between the BIK of a BEV and a PHEV, plus in addition the 1.5p per miles and the increased VAT that PHEVs will be paying just (in my view) highlights just how little governments actually understand the fundamental differences between the types of vehicles and the resultant impact on the Net-Zero policies. Clearly they have been paying too much attention to so-called "Think Tanks" who I have always said have vested interests in getting a particular strategy adopted.

I see, well others have fitted it with no trouble.

Not sure what you mean, if you mean it could be coded as a spy, then I'm not sure what they can access on my car that would be of any interest, it is not a camera laden car. The only existing camera I have is an aftermarket dashcam. I look at it as being £40 versus £600 plus judging by the adverts I have seen and reviews on that camera all seem to be pretty good.

Apart from, it is highly likely that loads of them will be company cars or salary sacrifice cars chosen for the BIK and most likely unable to charge at home.

Well its now 100%% official, PPM is coming in 2028 but currently only for BEV and PHEV, even though most PHEV's will never be plugged in, so for those poor souls it will be a double whammy, fuel duty and PPM, so it was less of conspiracy theory after all and was the result of leaks, although to be perfectly fair, its so bleeding obvious that as fuel duty was reducing, they had to come up with some other way of replacing that money and certain YouTubers were predicting this a couple of years ago. MSM has to follow the narrative whereas YouTubers don't, and some have even been demonetised for some of their content in an attempt to shut them up. So they seem a pretty creditable source of information, a bit like Mercedes-Benz cars are often ahead of the curve as far as in car tech is concerned.

Cost? According to my research the cost of that is going to be in the realm of £500 plus and needs to be coded to the vehicle, whereas the one from AliExpress is currently on offer at £37.49 on a Black Friday deal and is totally plug and play with no coding required.

Well I've pulled the trigger on this camera now while stocks were available, the price is excellent, and it should be a really worthwhile addition to the Kodiaq to spot posts etc that are below the window line.

My first was a MK1 (2nd hand) that looked like a new car in every aspect, but it just would not go above 45mph unless going downhill. Later I MK4s and MK5 s as company cars and the MK5 was a lovely car, comfortable, fast enough etc and very reliable.

@Lee01 the Ford Cortina Ghia period was probably the best period when cars were at their peak for drivability, reliability and self serviceability as they never really had any of the technocrap that cars of all types today have and it nearly always seems to be that stuff that cause the most problems.

I thought the one with the round knobs/buttons was the Amundsen but the review on Aliexpress for the camera shows that model but the description says MIB2 Canbus Dynamic Trajectory Reverse Camera For Skoda Kodiaq 2016~2023 MIB2 STD HD Parking Backup Camera Work With MIB2 NAV Unit - AliExpress 34

I'm thinking of adding a aftermarket reversing camera kit to my car but the only ones that I have come across are for the MIB2 head unit, but which one is that. There are 2 types of Columbus units fitted to Kodiaqs, one with only touch controls (no rotary knobs) all the left side of the unit and the other with buttons on both sides of the screen with a rotary control on each side. My car has the former, all touch controls on the left, so is that MIB1 or MIB2, thanks in advance.

The same source as those YT pundits got their info from, no doubt.

It certainly is beginning to look like a software issue to me.

If this person has got his facts right, and the PPM is introduced as is the current thinking by almost everyone connected with the motor industry, it won't be only the BEV owners paying, it seems that everyone will be paying, even petrol and diesel cars will be paying it but at a reduced rate, in addition to the current fuel duty and then the VAT on top of that. So if it happens, we will all feel the sting.

Well, TBH, I'd have thought that if the car states that it is a 400V system that would be the voltage when fully charged and the extra "headroom volts" would come from the actual charger, which is the normal mode of operation for most things. Take anything that you have at home, radio, calculator, etc with a rechargeable battery, it will state on the item what the normal voltage is, but then measure the voltage coming from its charger and it is higher. I would not expect a BEV car to be any different to the normal run-of-the-mill operation. The curve in your post looks odd to me as it suggests that the greatest capacity (mAh) is when the cell voltage is at 2.75V, which is odd as it should be when the voltage is at its maximum.

@lol-lol that sounds like a real faff doing that stag do then, so the R5 is really a city car primarily, I could do that trip 4 times in my car. The number of cells in your battery pack seems an odd number, @93. So that makes 93 x 3.7 = 344.10volts and at 100% SOC = 390.6volts, I would have thought it would have had 95 cells?

That is the crux of the matter, right there burning stuff for trivial errands. The problem there is that most of us cannot afford to run 2 or more cars. The ideal would be a small BEV for city use, shopping etc and an ICE for longer trips or one that requires space for 4 very tall males and a taller than most SWMBO, so the less well off have to continue with their ICE car for both types of trips.

Yeap, my son has a Audi A5 and it was his dream car and has so many things wrong with it, can't use his phone, sat nav, and so many other things because his phone app and the car are totally screwed up, been like it a year now it's the first week in Jan 2026 before they are able to look at it. Maybe he should stop paying the monthly lease on it? So glad my car is not considered one of the luxury cars from VW group, I still have switches for most of my controls👍

Modern cars rely on software far too much, now imagine if that app was safety critical and playing you up?