This thread is about  emissions and how V A G have cheated the world, and caused much concern for diesel  engined vehicles so I am surprised I cannot find  anything about  an Octavia model, the G-TEC, which I did not even exists. It runs partially on compressed natural gas and I cannot find anything  on Skoda .co.uk  about it. No performance or prices. It  may well it is not available in England. I would have thought with all the trouble V A G is mired in re it's emissions, they would be pushing a natural gas product for all its worth and  making a Superb with such engines?.

 

There is a lack of compressed natural gas infrastructure in the UK, less than 10 stations in the UK are equipped. Skoda can't sell a car to a market like that.

Toyota, who have just overtaken VAG as the largest car seller, 100K warranty.  GM 100K warranty, Renault 100K warranty.

 

VW/Skoda 60K warranty.

I wouldn't get too hooked up on the warranty side of buying a car. The Toyota 100k or 5 years (unlimited mileage in first year) is better than the VW 60k / 3 years (unlimited mileage in the first two years) However I know a few drivers who believe everything is covered, where in reality the warranty is against manufacturing defects. In real life the parts that need replacing are usually 'wear and tear items' and I know of one driver who's gearbox failed in 'warranty' where the manufacturer claimed it was down to the way he drove the car. He ended up paying nothing, but he had a hell of a fight to prove his case.

But prove it he did?   Or not.?

 

Pure fights,  & jumping through hoops are part of the Volkswagen Way with Manufacturers Warranties, 

and their Gate Keepers, the Official Dealerships and Customer Services.

http://skoda.co.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Brochures/Warranty-Booklet-single.pdf

 

Thing of the past surely, 

The Volkswagen Group have a new policy, 'Honesty & Openness'

A Corporation you can trust,  rebuilding trust World Wide.

 

So lets hope the UK is in the World this time, unlike when they have World Wide Recalls'.

They get Trained up Warranty Managers and Service Desk Receptionists & Service Managers 

with a degree of mechanical knowledge, and then Workshop Technicians not necessarily 

with 'A Degree in Motor Engineering',  but not just all the gear and no idea and no Leadership with 

a clue.

That seems a little unfair. If it's in the atmosphere, then pollutants chucked into the air in the USA will eventually make it's way over here. So I want some of the money that the Americans will sue for Or do I sue the Americans for sending their polluted VAG air over here? 

Where are those helpful telly lawyers??

 

The US's EPA has historically looked at quantities of pollution and geared the fines accordingly although they have the $37,500 fine per vehicle as well of course which multipled by the half million cars could give the $18B talked about and VW might get fined half or so or nearly all of this.  Where cities are close by and the prevailing winds assist you can get one city, say Birmingham, blowing its NO and PMs across to East Midlands and Yorkshire cities due to Coriolis winds which I presume, as well as more local pollution makes the M1 in N.Notts and Yorkshire a pollution black spot. 

 

The premature deaths caused by NO and PMs are primarily a city thing (10K pa in London alone) and in fact mostly is summer in still conditions.  NO and PMs do get washed out of the atmosphere eventually ending up as Nitric acid but the PM dust can make it all the way to the poles and causes darkening of the ice which speeds melting. 

Who are 'they'?

1000 miles at an average speed of 60 mph would take 16.6 hours of driving. Stopping every 80 miles for 30 minutes would add another 6 hours. That's assuming you can get onto the fast chargers otherwise it 's a sixty minute charge. 

Oh, and it's £1080 a year to rent the batteries.

 

http://cars.aol.co.uk/2012/06/15/renault-electric-car-does-1-005-miles-in-a-day/

 

I would rather pay £1K for batteries and £1K for electricity than currently £6K on fuel just need the courage and help from my company to go electric. 

...and it's only £62k.

 

Well it might currently retail at £62K but it is quite easy for the UK and EU government to close the gap between a Tesla and an XF or the like if the will is there.

 

There is a 10% EU import duty on cars from the US, at a sweep the EU could make that zero, and perhaps recover the duty by making it 11% or so on compression ignition and spark ignition engines.

 

Then the could make the VAT 5% instead of 20% or make it zero perhaps and even make VAT on cars with high emissions a higher rate of VAT ie 30% perhaps.

 

The gap soon comes down to something much much smaller.  This practice has already been adopted Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and we are therefore a bit of an oddity in Northern Europe.  In Norway a Tesla costs about the same as a A4.  

http://cars.aol.co.uk/2012/06/15/renault-electric-car-does-1-005-miles-in-a-day/

 

I would rather pay £1K for batteries and £1K for electricity than currently £6K on fuel just need the courage and help from my company to go electric. 

The wife does 4K a year if I buy her a small petrol car for £10k it will cost about £500 a year in fuel. If I buy her a £14k electric car it will cost £1k a year to rent the batteries + the cost of the electricity to charge it. 

At present it still doesn't make economical sense.

 

Well it might currently retail at £62K but it is quite easy for the UK and EU government to close the gap between a Tesla and an XF or the like if the will is there.

 

There is a 10% EU import duty on cars from the US, at a sweep the EU could make that zero, and perhaps recover the duty by making it 11% or so on compression ignition and spark ignition engines.

 

Then the could make the VAT 5% instead of 20% or make it zero perhaps and even make VAT on cars with high emissions a higher rate of VAT ie 30% perhaps.

 

The gap soon comes down to something much much smaller.  This practice has already been adopted Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and we are therefore a bit of an oddity in Northern Europe.  In Norway a Tesla costs about the same as a A4.  

Lot of 'if's' in that statement.

I'm in Denmark tomorrow so I see what's going on regarding electric cars.

Tesla was happy to share their Patents with other manufactures just as Japanese Manufacturers are with Hydrogen / Fuel cell Technology.

 

Surely Mass Car Manufacturers like the VWG that were the biggest in the world for 6 months in 2015 can 

Produce a Vehicle with Tesla type engineering and parts but make them affordable & not just build Luxury Vehicles and high value / cost vehicles.

 

But then that was not the decision that the EU Manufacturers and Governments went with,

they went with 'Green' Carbon burning vehicles.

Governments gave Grants and real money to the likes of Volkswagen to research then build Green Diesel Engines.

(The want that back now some say, since VW Cheated the results.)

 

The long term strategy stayed Diesel & Petrol and add some talk of and sales of EV's & Hybrids and put off for another decade 

anything really 'Green' or Low Emissions.

*Keep building Wind Farms on and offshore though, but do not hit the Oil Companies where it hurts,

after all some Major Oil Companies and even Countries Investment Arms have major holdings in car Manufacturers, eq Qatar in VWG.*

 

http://greenbiz.com/article/toyota-follows-teslas-lead-shares-fuel-cell-patents-through-2020

The wife does 4K a year if I buy her a small petrol car for £10k it will cost about £500 a year in fuel. If I buy her a £14k electric car it will cost £1k a year to rent the batteries + the cost of the electricity to charge it. 

At present it still doesn't make economical sense.

Lot of 'if's' in that statement.

I'm in Denmark tomorrow so I see what's going on regarding electric cars.

 

As I mentioned above I think my dealer Savilles were knocking out the Zoe for around £9K.  Not sure about servicing costs but would have thought less than a internal combustion engine.  Not saying that IC engined cars do not have their place, love my fully loaded Logan for £10K and a Sandero or Stepway are also immense but as the future is looking would not touch a diesel with a barge poll if you want enter cities as part of ones driving.

 

Denmark has an additional excise duty of over 100% Ad Valorem (up to 180%) for some cars in addition to the 10% EU tax and VAT they charge at 25%. Whilst they have to charge the 10% EU import charge they can charge what they like for excise taxes and VAT at zero, reduced, standard or a higher strata rate so influence buying habits although they are thinking of changing electric car zero rate tax status. 

There is a lack of compressed natural gas infrastructure in the UK, less than 10 stations in the UK are equipped. Skoda can't sell a car to a market like that.

 

  I see, thank you.

Tesla was happy to share their Patents with other manufactures just as Japanese Manufacturers are with Hydrogen / Fuel cell Technology.

Surely Mass Car Manufacturers like the VWG that were the biggest in the world for 6 months in 2015 can

Produce a Vehicle with Tesla type engineering and parts but make them affordable & not just build Luxury Vehicles and high value / cost vehicles.

But then that was not the decision that the EU Manufacturers and Governments went with,

they went with 'Green' Carbon burning vehicles.

Governments gave Grants and real money to the likes of Volkswagen to research then build Green Diesel Engines.

(The want that back now some say, since VW Cheated the results.)

The long term strategy stayed Diesel & Petrol and add some talk of and sales of EV's & Hybrids and put off for another decade

anything really 'Green' or Low Emissions.

*Keep building Wind Farms on and offshore though, but do not hit the Oil Companies where it hurts,

after all some Major Oil Companies and even Countries Investment Arms have major holdings in car Manufacturers, eq Qatar in VWG.*

http://greenbiz.com/article/toyota-follows-teslas-lead-shares-fuel-cell-patents-through-2020

Have Honda perfected their fridge freezer sized home hydrogen recharge station yet?

No idea, do you know?

Do you need one?

 

http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-34278051

http://brightgreenhydrogen.org.uk/press-release-in-herald-newspapers

http://cheatsheet.com/automobiles/the-dawn-of-hondas-electric-vehicle-and-fuel-cell-future.html/?a=viewall

Not just the dealer but vw uk customer services said that customers will not loose out when it comes to resale at a official dealer for vw , however in reality this may differ

No idea, do you know?

Do you need one?

 

http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-34278051

http://brightgreenhydrogen.org.uk/press-release-in-herald-newspapers

http://cheatsheet.com/automobiles/the-dawn-of-hondas-electric-vehicle-and-fuel-cell-future.html/?a=viewall

Just curious as it's the most sustainable development in powering vehicles IMO.

Just curious as it's the most sustainable development in powering vehicles IMO.

Did you see the Horizon tv prog on Hydrogen fuelled cars, several years ago? (It was probably well over 10 years ago come to think of it)  They dispelled many of the usual fears over hydrogen as opposed to petrol. Even showed how many of the hydrogen airship disasters were not as bad as public perception seem to remember. I recall thinking it made a really persuasive case of hydrogen. I'd be potentially happy with one as opposed to a car full of rare earth metal batteries. Refuelling would also be a major factor for me now if only hydrogen could give you a comedy squeaky voice as well, it would be epic

It won't be long before my Yeti is joined by a power storage battery pack supplied by my PV panels (my last bill was ($0)......Tesla have integrated that into their cars also.

(notice how I managed to get Yeti into this OT discussion))

There is a prize (possibly) for the first person to get a pinapple on topic in here.

here's a question (without pineapple), has anyone developed a battery powered car with a hydrogen range extender. Presumably there would be a small advantage to being able to use the same motors?

?........

I'd be potentially happy with one as opposed to a car full of rare earth metal batteries. Refuelling would also be a major factor for me now if only hydrogen could give you a comedy squeaky voice as well, it would be epic

"........rare earth" aren't needed anymore as they can use plentiful graphite as a substitute now, from what I've read.

"........rare earth" aren't needed anymore as they can use plentiful graphite as a substitute now, from what I've read.

I've been waiting for these next gen batteries most of my life. not holding my breath

 

but to answer my previous question I see Renault have a van that is electric and has a range extending fuel cell, well sort of

I've been waiting for these next gen batteries most of my life. not holding my breath

 

but to answer my previous question I see Renault have a van that is electric and has a range extending fuel cell, well sort of

I didn't think you were THAT young.

http://brightgreenhydrogen.org.uk/hydrogen-van-order-placed

http://busandcoachbuyer.com/aberdeen-hydrogen-fleets-public-unveiling

I didn't think you were THAT young.

I read every week that there is a new battery around the corner (I don't doubt they have the technology). A lot of air related batteries and many still using lithium in some form or other. But it's been that way for so long I think I would show my age if I admitted to all the stuff I read No, for me it's nearly, but not quite, as bad a Fusion power. That always seems to have been 20 years away as far as I can remember :(

I read every week that there is a new battery around the corner (I don't doubt they have the technology). A lot of air related batteries and many still using lithium in some form or other. But it's been that way for so long I think I would show my age if I admitted to all the stuff I read No, for me it's nearly, but not quite, as bad a Fusion power. That always seems to have been 20 years away as far as I can remember :(

Show a little more patience

The 'first adopters' are paving the way for us plebs and when demand takes off it'll be there ready .....I'm not talking about Graphene...that's got issues around the move from the laboratory to production handling but, once resolved will change everything you can lay yr hands on....or see, for that matter.

Graphite as a substitute is not a difficult matter though.

I'm going to be dead before this stuff becomes mainstream. I have a better chance of getting my hoverboard and George Clooney clone.