I'd like to think I'd be able to do the servicing of any EV to the extent that there is anything significant.

I've mentally put aside a couple of thousand $A for the EGR valve failure with another one for the DPF if I'm lucky and by that time battery power should be established as an alternative for my reduced use/need.

Battery to replace pneumatic and hydraulic systems in the new aircraft also

http://mro-network.com/opinion/2016/07/advantages-more-electric-power-architectures-commercial-aircraft/12701?dm_i=2H5E,TPOT,638VLL,25T37,1

Now over 10,000 non-Tesla charging stations....

 

https://www.zap-map.com/statistics/

 

 

 

Edited 8 July, 20169 yr by lol-lol

Tesla has installed charging infrastructure for Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane travel........you have to start somewhere.

Tesla has installed charging infrastructure for Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane travel........you have to start somewhere.

 

 

The Tesla is the pinnacle of electric car performance currently I reckon and it only needs a more favourable taxation environment, ie drop the import duties and VAT and more free parking and charge, because the owner is doing their bit for the environment and we gain even quicker impetus.

 

I am very keen to try a Zoe but would like to see the 30 Kw-AH batteries like the Leaf.  Interesting article about how changing other components gave the NEDC range of the Zoe up from 210 to 240 kms.

http://insideevs.com/renault-zoe-r240-battery-capacity-23-3-kwh-usable-25-92-kwh-total/

 

I am keen to try our Bollore electric cars which have the 30 Kw-Hr packs and are suppose to be able go 250 kms making my trips from Worcester to Cambridge and Heathrow well within range and then I can use the rapid charger in those locations.   

It amazes me that the coal and oil industries get subsidies but people suggest an emerging tech shouldn't get the same treatment.

Lower health costs fund EV subsidies, if legislators can see that far ahead, of course.

It amazes me that the coal and oil industries get subsidies but people suggest an emerging tech shouldn't get the same treatment.

Lower health costs fund EV subsidies, if legislators can see that far ahead, of course.

 

Not in the UK.

 

There is no coal industry left due to taxation, and coal fired power stations pay massive carbon taxation.

 

A  coal fired station in the UK is taxed per tonne of coal it brings onto site and a further tax per tonne of CO2 emitted. For a single 2GW station on full burn for a year the carbon tax would be over £100 Million.

The UK's Coal Fired Stations actually pay far more carbon tax than the rest of Europe.

 

In the UK of heavy emitters pay massive tax and our renewables are heavily subsidised. That's why we have energy costs that are among the most expensive in the world. And why heavy industry and manufacturing are struggling to be competitive.

Then the Government blames greedy energy companies, many of which are not making any profit and why we have little investment in the grid and infrastructure.

 

Lee

Edited 9 July, 20169 yr by logiclee

The oil industry in the U.S. is still subsidised (aren't they profitable?) and the coal industry in Australia is also, so a 'transitional' EV subsidy makes sense and increasingly paid for by the declining carbon intensive ones.

Then no subsidies for any and the money saved spent on expanding the infrastructure then ultimately the health and education budgets.

Not in the UK.  There is no coal industry left due to taxation, and coal fired power stations pay massive carbon taxation.

A  coal fired station in the UK is taxed per tonne of coal it brings onto site and a further tax per tonne of CO2 emitted. For a single 2GW station on full burn for a year the carbon tax would be over £100 Million.

The UK's Coal Fired Stations actually pay far more carbon tax than the rest of Europe.

In the UK of heavy emitters pay massive tax and our renewables are heavily subsidised. That's why we have energy costs that are among the most expensive in the world. And why heavy industry and manufacturing are struggling to be competitive.

Then the Government blames greedy energy companies, many of which are not making any profit and why we have little investment in the grid and infrastructure.

Lee

 

Not correct.  See this  http://www.coalimp.org.uk/3.html

 

UK imports millions of tonnes per year from Colombia and Russia and some from Australia and USA also rather than use its own plentiful supply.

 

That might change as the UK leaves the EU as local coal wll become relatively cheaper as coal iis bought in US dollars and with large fall in the British pound against the Dollar. 

Not correct. See this http://www.coalimp.org.uk/3.html

UK imports millions of tonnes per year from Colombia and Russia and some from Australia and USA also rather than use its own plentiful supply.

That might change as the UK leaves the EU as local coal wll become relatively cheaper as coal iis bought in US dollars and with large fall in the British pound against the Dollar.

You have published old figures prior to the latest increase in carbon taxation.

You have published old figures from when the market was coal first and most stations were on full burn all year.

Now the market is Gas first due to the increased taxation on coal. Coal stations are only running when demamd dictates now as they are out of the money.

In 2014/2015 (The figures you quoted) a typical coal station would bring in 70 trains a week. Through this spring/summer the rail network has only been transporting the odd load of pre bought fuel. There have been hundreds of job losses across the train companies.

Local coal will become cheap? We have no mines left, the shafts are filled in. That horse has bolted.

Stop being a Google warrior when people who work day to day in the industry are explaining to others how the market in the uk works

Edited 10 July, 20169 yr by logiclee

You have published old figures prior to the latest increase in carbon taxation.

You have published old figures from when the market was coal first and most stations were on full burn all year.

Now the market is Gas first due to the increased taxation on coal. Coal stations are only running when demamd dictates now as they are out of the money.

In 2014/2015 (The figures you quoted) a typical coal station would bring in 70 trains a week. Through this spring/summer the rail network has only been transporting the odd load of pre bought fuel. There have been hundreds of job losses across the train companies.

Local coal will become cheap? We have no mines left, the shafts are filled in. That horse has bolted.

Stop being a Google warrior when people who work day to day in the industry are explaining to others how the market in the uk works

 

Read...     https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532896/Section_2.pdf

Read...     https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532896/Section_2.pdf

 

A pity you didn't read it before posting out of date information and calling my post incorrect.

 

I deal with this daily, not just when I Google it.

 

Lee

A pity you didn't read it before posting out of date information and calling my post incorrect.

 

I deal with this daily, not just when I Google it.

 

Lee

 

Are you a bit dim?

 

The graph show about a million tonnes of British coal extracted in Q1 of 2016.

 

Your statement was "There is no coal industry left due to taxation....." which is just plain wrong.

 

Last time I went past Ffos-y-fran mine a short while ago they were busy at it extracting coal despite all the eco-warriors up there and there are plans to maintain UK coal production in the millions of tonnes per year for the next few years with five additional open cast mines in England-Northumberland, Scotland and Wales.  It is such an issue, the no-existent coal industry that you say does not exist, that ECOs are campaigning against in the following letter that want supporters to submit.  Those who want cleaner air want Coal fired stations used as little as possible quite rightly so.

 

I hope you are more accurate in your job than your are in your statements else we should worry more about keeping the lights on and the French inter-connector's 2 GWs is not going to make up a 20-30 GW and we want Drax etc to operate only in the most dire situations so as not to contribute to already poor air quality in parts of the UK.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Home Secretary May,

I was alarmed to hear of plans for five open-cast coal mines across England and Wales. The Nant Llesg, Highthorn, Tower Colliery, Dewley Hill, and Hilltop projects will add over 11 million tonnes of coal to the global coal market and undermine efforts to phase out coal in global energy production. Furthermore, they fly in the face of the UK’s commitments under the Paris agreement, and government-announced intention to phase out unabated coal from the UK energy system by 2025.

 

 

 

The graph show about a million tonnes of British coal extracted in Q1 of 2016.

 

Your statement was "There is no coal industry left due to taxation....." which is just plain wrong.

 

 

 

 

Don't make me laugh.

 

Before I worked in the power industry I was a mine engineer working at the biggest mines in the UK, my maintenance team in the power industry are all ex-mining engineers some of which I've set on in the last two years. My Pension is tied in with the mining industry, I know it inside out.

 

The last big mines closed in 2015.

 

The list of licenced mines on the list I know well and have even visited some of them (Some have closed since March). Some are little more than holes in hillsides mined by a handfull of men producing 50 tonnes a day and usually it's high quality coal for a specified market. Even the larger on the list of underground mines like Eckington employ 25-30 employees mining about 20k tonnes a year. They are small scale drift mines.

Somewhere like DawMill would produce that in two days and employ well over 1000 employees at full production.

 

Most Licenced Surface mines are now little more than reclaim sites but the fines they sell from lagoon bottoms are tax free so power stations want the product even though the CV is low. This has a year or two left before it's exhausted.

 

So when we look at the those small scale operations producing a few thousand tonnes a year a single 2GW coal fired station can burn through 6 million tonnes a year.

What is left in the UK is a drop in the Ocean. Large scale mining has finished.

 

The infrastructure is gone. When the study was done to re-open Harworth Colliery a decade ago all the shafts and winders were still operable. The cost was £300 to £500 Million and it was a 5 year project. Now we do not have any salvagable large scale mines. The winders have gone and the shafts filled or capped. 

 

The 2013/14/15 import figures were much higher than the actual burn as coal stations stockpiled coal and filled their stocking grounds prior to the taxation increases.

 

Feel free to Google something else.

 

Lee

Edited 10 July, 20169 yr by logiclee

Don't make me laugh.   Before I worked in the power industry I was a mine engineer working at the biggest mines in the UK, my maintenance team in the power industry are all ex-mining engineers some of which I've set on in the last two years. My Pension is tied in with the mining industry, I know it inside out.  The last big mines closed in 2015.   The list of licenced mines on the list I know well and have even visited some of them (Some have closed since March). Some are little more than holes in hillsides mined by a handfull of men producing 50 tonnes a day and usually it's high quality coal for a specified market. Even the larger on the list of underground mines like Eckington employ 25-30 employees mining about 20k tonnes a year. They are small scale drift mines.   Somewhere like DawMill would produce that in two days and employ well over 1000 employees at full production.  Most Licenced Surface mines are now little more than reclaim sites but the fines they sell from lagoon bottoms are tax free so power stations want the product even though the CV is low. This has a year or two left before it's exhausted.  So when we look at the those small scale operations producing a few thousand tonnes a year a single 2GW coal fired station can burn through 6 million tonnes a year.  That is left in the UK is a drop in the Ocean. Large scale mining has finished.  The infrastructure is gone. When the study was done to re-open Harworth Colliery a decade ago all the shafts and winders were still operable. The cost was £300 to £500 Million and it was a 5 year project. Now we do not have any salvagable large scale mines. The winders have gone and the shafts filled or capped. 

The 2013/14/15 import figures were much higher than the actual burn as coal stations stockpiled coal and filled their stocking grounds prior to the taxation increases.  Feel free to Google something else.

Lee

 

So we are suppose to believe a mid ranked worker (who says there is no coal production in the UK) rather than the official government figures that show 971,000 tonnes of UK produced in the first 90 days of 2016??  (We even exported 110,000 tonnes).

 

The UK has all the coal we will ever need and much of it is easy to tap in to via Surface mining techniques.  

 

We do need security of  energy supply and logically should keep a handful of open cast mines and coal fired power stations IMO but continue to work on keeping their emissions as low as possible and at times when such pollution does not hang about..    

 

Oddly the result of the  BREXIT vote might well effect the economics are I recall the it is also, like oil, priced in USDs, currently around 60 USD/tonnes, so coal, like oil and nearly everything else imported, will increase by about 12% (was £41 to now £47 a tonnes) in import cost in GBP.

 

I was customs officer for Portbury docks where could handle 5,000 tonnes of coal an hour as well as being merchant navy before customs and coal was often our cargo from Richard Bay to Europe to keep the lights on and affordable. 

Don't waste your 'energy' Lee.

Don't waste your 'energy' Lee.

 

We are clarifying accuracy of statements to vagaries, something which if we were all a bit more careful about we would not be in such a mess over the BREXIT.

 

I occasional get things inaccurate and even apologies when you asked for workings and I was a bit out in what I said I recall.

Edited 10 July, 20169 yr by lol-lol

I remember the trolley buses in Launceston (Tasmania) but not sure about trolley trucks

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1104908_road-for-electric-trucks-with-trolley-like-catenary-opens-in-sweden

I remember the trolley buses in Launceston (Tasmania) but not sure about trolley trucks

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1104908_road-for-electric-trucks-with-trolley-like-catenary-opens-in-sweden

 

I presume the steering must be automatic in some form to stop it ripping away from overhead power.

 

We have 6 electric tram systems in the UK and plans for more to take the strain and pollution off our roads but also guided buses as in Cambridge but they are hybrid and not like the hydrogen fuel cell buses which we have a few off in London.

 

Certainly the way to go to help clean up city air where batteries are not suitable on their own like our vans doing short back and forth journeys to Heathrow.

 

 

On a unrelated point I was just reading that a lady from the UK is head of Citroen and a member of the PSA board, good on her, result.  Hopefully also push the green agenda as has been done with their development and the win of engine of the year in the 1 litre to 1.4 litre capacity for the 1.2 three cylinder and effectively voted again the best engine for the mass production cars.      http://www.ukipme.com/engineoftheyear/results.php?id=2 

 

 

Our 1.2 still amazes me. A CR of 11:1 + turbo requires a new understanding of engine design to accept its not burning dieselene.

Our 1.2 still amazes me. A CR of 11:1 + turbo requires a new understanding of engine design to accept its not burning dieselene.

 

It amazes me that the public have not cottoned on to the superior characteristics of the 3 cylinder turbo petrol engines and still by 4 cylinder diesel engines with worse on the road performance and fuel consumption that is only better when one is doing journeys over 20 kms or so which many people often do not do that often.

 

I can understand, like in mainland Europe, where diesel has been some 10-20% cheaper than petrol, hopefully that is being corrected with all the issues with diesel, non-SCR engines, but they are often still a couple of thousand dollars more expensive to buy and the money recovery time is oft several years and tens upon tens of thousands of miles or never if mainly doing short journeys.

 

Having been a VAG fan ie (SEAT) Cupras and VRSs (petrol only) I now am firmly in the Renault camp after all the lying that VAG has done at the expense of public health, and keep to try the 1.2 TCE engine but the PSA 3 cylinder does seem to be the engine others in this category are judged by.  Would also like to try the 140 hp ecoboost too, sounds like fun.

 

Back to batteries, the Tesla, much lauded in the International engine awards, is aspirational, if only they would reduce the 10% import tax.  Role on Model 3 availability.     .   

We have zero tariffs on imported cars, and have dumped manufacturing them.

Cars are almost as cheap as in the U.S. plus almost too much choice.

Margins are extremely tight and it's the servicing costs where they catch up.

We have zero tariffs on imported cars, and have dumped manufacturing them.

Cars are almost as cheap as in the U.S. plus almost too much choice.

Margins are extremely tight and it's the servicing costs where they catch up.

 

Quite similar here, car sold almost as a loss leader and money made on finance and extras.   I was sad to hear of the Ozzie car industry demise, someone I knew had a Holden Charger and Eric Bana's story of his Falcon is a really nice chapter.

 

Visited Adelaide picking up grain and was suppose to pop in to Freemantle but in the end they moved the couple of thousand tonnes of railway sleepers I think it was cross the Nullarbor etc and loaded everything in Wallaroo, remember a plague of mice/rats in with the grain, a very mess load I recall but we had the Queens Birthday off which we do even get here oddly enough!

 

Perhaps the UK will adopt zero or somewhere between 10 and zero duty for cars to keep them affordable for people, we can always hope.   

Our 1.2 still amazes me. A CR of 11:1 + turbo requires a new understanding of engine design to accept its not burning dieselene.

 

I was just reading that Renault have squeezed 110 hp out of the 0.9 TCE for the Twingo GT/Smart Four.  

 

Torque is 125 ft-lb. I think that is 170 Nms. 

The UK should look at manufacturing EV vehicles the way the £ has been going, we might be buyers.