Graham Butcher

Just remember to periodically test the pouch as it seems the keys wear away the effective screening of the lining after a while and they become less effective.

Ops sorry, I have reported it as filed in the wrong thread and asked if it can be moved to the one for England.

I have spotted a new hub being installed in Chelmsford (not before time as mentioned in a Dave Takes It On video, Chelmsford is pith poor for charging points), this ex Pizza Hut is now a McDonalds and opened last week and there is now I think 3 or 4 chargers which look like double chargers. I only saw it as I drove by it on my way to Halford's. This site is in Chelmer Village Retail Park and when I next go there, I'll try and take some photos of the chargers and let you know how many are there.

Well, yes it is of course common sense that you have to descend them there hills but, when doing so, you never replace the same amount of power that you use to climb those hills, even on maximum regen. And when you have to ascend and descend multiple hills to reach the actual worksite, which does not have the capability to recharge the battery by the end of the shift in order to do the return journey up and down the same hills to return to the depot. Then those vans are not upto the job clearly. These vans were used by the electrical dept who did not only the maintenance of public buildings but also new installations including a couple of Nightingale Hospital conversions etc, and they were in Yorkshire, so I'm guessing that would be Yorkshire County Council as I doubt that any town council would be getting involved in such projects, they would be more involved in housing repairs and are more likely to be using contractors.

In the same way as the Sinclair C5 😆

Hence why I thought, one on charge while the other is hauling, next trip they get swapped over and again over and over again because of hill climbing taking its toll on the batteries 😉. I know of a council who purchased electric vans for their maintenance teams to use, only to find out that they could not use them effectively owing to hills consuming the power when loaded.

Same document that I Googled 👍

That's what googled as well but in the video he was saying that the area he was in was a well known tourist spot so he should have been wearing seat belt I thought, he was certainly not delivering parcels, public were on the road etc.

Oh, I see, I had to replay the quiet bits a few times to see if there was a clue there about going electric. I was thinking the clue was in the title, running 2 trucks. One was on charge while while the other was being loaded, taken to the destination, unloaded and back to the yard, swapped for the other one being charged, then repeating during day. 👍

Turns out that we have been making some electric trucks, here in the UK, just a few miles from me as it happens, in Tilbury. They sold a few and then in March this year they invited companies to go to their factory and test drive the trucks. Long story short, the UK market is so ready for them that in May this year they appointed a receiver to save the company which as the rescue bid fell through, the future is very bleak for them. Electric Tevva truck to drive student skills at MIRA Technology Institute (vanfleetworld.co.uk) Tevva kicks off 2024 electric truck test-drive programme (vanfleetworld.co.uk) Tevva prepares to call in administrators while seeking rescue deal (vanfleetworld.co.uk)

@Ootohere ok I watched that truck video and I'm puzzled as to what it is that I'm supposed to be learning from it. The trucks he has are all pure diesels, no hint of electric or any attempts at emission reductions either, both of which you mentioned in your post? Nothing special in his logging trucks when compared to others, they either have their own truck mounted crane so they self load/unload or they have dedicated loaders and unloaders at each end of the trip. He also made a rather silly comment about wearing his seatbelt and how he had been comments about him not wearing it, so he has admitted being illegal by not wearing it. In the UK it is a legal requirement for HGV drivers to wear a seatbelt is it not?

Exactly, I'm retired, spending time with my family, making some long trips at times for pleasure. I'd rather be at home with my loved ones rather than charging at this point, a none existent EV at some remote location in order to complete the drive home. So like you, a diesel car fits my bill perfectly. If I was still working, with a company car, and they provided an EV, fine I and the company would have to accept the limitations that accompany them at times. I do object to be told that If I wanted to buy a brand-new car after a certain date, that I must buy an EV full stop.

This car has been featured already here and it dies indeed seem to be a good car for people to convert over to EV in as Matt said as it provides a realistic feel of a normal ICE car but as so many other people ICE drivers/owners have said before it is the current charging situation that badly lets EVs down and also the sheer amount of time it takes to refuel them. Fine for those who have the time to waste or those that are prepared to go and buy a meal etc, or something else to occupy the time, but time is the one thing that you cannot get back, so time for me (currently) is valuable, and resources are limited so always using a superfast DC charger with their costs etc is also not an option for me.

Following on from the Ford Transit PHEV van, maybe this could be the future of trucking, spoiler alert it still involves a diesel engine.

Interesting video, a bit rambling but a good result in the end and a happy Tesla owner.

Yup, my car has settings that include guests which will alter the radio settings, temperature, seating positions, seat heating etc but as the sole driver, is not a bother for me apart from when it goes in for repairs etc and I have to readjust manually the seat position as the memory function for them has never worked, and the service centre cannot find the problem. A diagnostics scan reveals there are no basic settings stored in memory and going through the setting of the basic settings routine does not get accepted by the system.

@Ootohere Oh, sorry that was my bad, I misread your comment re the AWD. The one pedal driving bit, surely all EV's have regen? That regen is what determines the amount of "braking" a driver has to do does it not? So if you turned off the regen, then you effectively only have a sort of normal ICE mode of braking where the transmission is still engaged unless you have a coasting mode? Switching off the regen mode is at expense of range, is that a good idea or not. Yes the centralisation of controls is not really new as even my 1957 Hillman Minx had them grouped in the middle of the dash, as did the Morris Minor (supposed to be making a comeback with updated design) and then of course the original mini, as a means of making it easier to build left and right-hand drive models, but one thing they all had in common was physical controls that could be operated without needing to look at what you were doing in order to operate anything to do the operation of the car or radio. These thank goodness most ICE cars have the dials also placed directly in front of the driver. As to the Tesla not interesting you, I concur, I much prefer a car to still look like a car, with a traditional "Face" if you will with a grill and headlights etc. I was never a fan of the rear engined (except the beetle) cars like the Renault Dauphine, or the Renault Floride always tend to look odd.

@wyx087 you seem to think that my comments were aimed you exclusively, well, that is not true, and I'm not aware that anyone was egging you on that you had to explain how you used public transport, when several people have already pointed out that you do happen to live in one of the best cities in the world for public transport services. I know other people who live in London and one person in particular who has sold his car because he can and does mainly use public transport because it is so good and as he says, it suits him, he only has himself to please, nobody else to worry about, and it saves him a **** load of cash by not having a rust bucket decaying and cost him VED, insurance and running costs, servicing etc when he can hire one for the one or times a year when he might need one.

@OotohereI use EV haters term as that is what so many call the YT Vloggers, which most of them are not, they believe, like me, that it will lead to a 2 tier society. Most Vloggers these days are monetised and for many now, it is their main source of income, and so they, just like all other forms of media, are all seeking the consumers' attention in order to earn money, and then can be via monthly or annual subscriptions for online publications like the Mail, Telegraph, Autocar etc in form of direct payment from the consumer, or the YT Vloggers seeking money via indirect means from advertisers which is based on their subscribers base and the number of views, so they use clickbait in order to get our attention, so where's the problem, its advertising, and we are constantly being bombarded with it, even just sitting in our cars, there are the makers logos etc all over them in view. What really piths me off are those Vloggers who use clickbait to get you to watch them, expecting to see and hear something to do with their thumbnail and or headlines only to find it was a lure to get people to click on it grrr, that is pure clickbait and should be allowed, they are making deliberate false claims. The charging issues that some have or may not have and there many who claim that these Vloggers do it all wrong, claiming they do it on purpose etc, many claim that there is never any problems with chargers not working, this or that app would tell them in advance if chargers are free and working, are not always correct. Sadly, not everyone is as honest and agreeable as you are, and you said in many of your posts that they don't always work etc, and you have had to phone the operators etc. Then just as Vloggers will make comments and sometimes exaggerate, or perceived to do so, so there are many EV owners and drivers here who likewise do precisely the same thing by saying how cheap their EV motoring is and how green they are for using public transport when ever they can, and we all should all be buying new or second-hand EVs and following in their footsteps, when that is not currently a viable option, or even possible for them. With the Audi in the video and the pithing about selecting the drive mode, I totally agree and more and more cars are going down that route requiring more to be done via the central screen, something many Vloggers highlight as a problem with modern cars, and indeed one of bothers in that video actually did say that it was dangerous. Why not use a good rotary switch or a lever that you don't have to look at to operate? Certain features on my 2016 car have to be done via the screen grrr. By the way, in way did you mean that most Tesla's are 4-wheel drive now? The website only shows the Cybertruck and the model S and model X as being 4-wheel drive only, the Model Y and 3 come in both versions.

Those who think that I'm a EV hater, should watch this video, perhaps this will put the points over in a clearer fashion what my main gripe is with EVs. Ignore the charging and the range issues. These points raised in the video between 2 brothers, 1 owns an Audi A8, the other owns a Tesla Model Y. With all the other videos I watch, these same points are being flagged up, such as the lack of proper switches and dials, most things being controlled via touch screens which demand that you take eyes off the road and navigate the screen and menus to adjust the radio, heating etc. If you do the same thing with your mobile phone or sat nav while driving, or stationary with the ignition on, you face a £2,000 fine, points on your licence etc., and yet it is deemed perfectly acceptable to interact with a large touch screen in the centre of the dashboard. And yet these YouTubers are all being labelled as EV haters which is not true, they just don't share your passion for them for various reasons. How can someone actually hate something that they have zero experience of? Even the much slated McMaster and his Porsche Taycan, says that he actually enjoys his car in many ways, the looks, driving experience, the things he does not like at the moment is the charging infrastructure which is his chief gripe, which will get better over time.

The fuel filler is on the left rear side panel above the wheel arch, the charge port is in the N/S front wing, as you can see in the right-hand side photo, there is nothing on the O/S of the van.

Those plug ins are not the ones shown in the photo, they are totally different in appearance all round. The charging port is in the front N/S wing by the door.

I was not saying that you were, but others in this thread were saying / implying just that. I'm also aware that you are used to having lower ambient temps up in Scotland, whereas we Southerners are not.

I really am not, I'm just anti having the option removed in time from those who want to buy new rather the buying used cars. If I only had to do short trips around the city, I would possibly opt to have one myself with home charging, they are ideal for that, but they do not tick all the boxes for all uses.

And so it was also an honest answer, so what is with setting the temps low and slipping jackets or gillettes on or over normal working clothes, being frugal with energy use, cars having heat pumps, tyres being perhaps slightly over inflated to help with efficiency and thus range. Now here is a thing, I would have also expected better economy in the summer if the interior temp was turned up (I suspect that it would if I could stand the heat), but I suspect the fact that I appear to be getting better results in the summer is a combination of 3 things, 1) that I tend to do most longer journeys in the summer as that is when air shows and also other events tend to be held, and 2) the car is pretty well insulated and so once the AC has brought the temperature down a comfortable level, the automatic controls then regulate how much work the AC actually has to do, and its output is reduced once the set temp has been achieved. Lastly, 3) it appears to be more wind and rain and certainly snow in the winter, all of which call for more energy to overcome them. It is amazing how much difference a wet road makes to economy compared to a dry one.