Hopefully Skoda will decide to go with hydrogen, sick refills , just need the refuelling points put in across the uk

5 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Right now, at this moment in time, EV only make sense for a small number of people.

So very true...

So why hasn't anyone come up with an electrically powered vehicle (like the Nissan Leaf for example) that has some form of wind charging? No, I am not talking about a wind turbine on the roof although I am sure they can design some sort of air intake that can accelerate the air flow of the moving vehicle and use it to power a generator to top up the batteries???? After all, high performance cars use all sorts of aerodynamic witchcraft to stay glued to the floor the faster they go (venturi effect?) so why can't the same principles be used for power generation in a moving vehicle?

The drag it would create would probably result in the car using more power than it was generating. 

The hybrid / electric debate is surely the way forward and our likely future, but I saw this today - could diesel be about to snatch victory (or at least a stay of execution) from the jaws of defeat?

 

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/diesel-saving-technology-could-make-it-market-two-years

I had a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV as a company car for a couple of years, plugged it in to recharge it at work even though I had company fuel. Very low BIK tax, an absolute no brainier.

 

The best and most enjoyable thing was the almost silent ride on EV only and not too noisy even when the engine was running unless going up a hill when it revved quite highly. Even SHMBO liked it referring to it as an electric armchair. (Other people called it the milk float - it was in white!) I also liked the regenerative braking - recharging the batteries instead of heating the brake disks up.

 

Economy at motorway speed was just over 30mpg when the batteries were exhausted, which happens quite quickly on the motorway (around 18 miles) but much better around city centres around 26 silent miles range depending on temperature and ancillaries ( heating or cooling knocks about 4 miles off the battery only range)

 

After the company dropped company cars I did think about buying it off the leasing company, but the low mpg off the batteries and long term cost / reliability of the batteries and drive components lead me down a different path hence a diesel vRS, I do about 20,000 mostly motorway miles a year.

 

I like the PHEV concept and would have one in the future, the Passat GTE looks good and I suppose some used ex company ones will be around soon, I think Skoda will just transplant that powertrain, though I suspect the 1.5tsi may replace the 1.4.

 

 

On 3/23/2018 at 10:59, carrock said:

 

Its even worse than that. My VRS diesel has a BIK of 28% from next month. And if it was a DSG it would be 30%. Next year it will be 31% and 33% for manual and DSG respectively . That's over £3500 a year tax paid, just on the car. ( I am a 40% tax payer.)

 

That's why I am glad my Octavia goes off lease this December. It's currently in assessment for repair after some bellend drove into it, I am hoping it gets written off to be rid of it faster and get something with lower BIK.