August, I can give my Yeti back.

With the pogrom against diesel, much as I love my Yeti, I feel I should save the world and drive a frugal

petrol engined car instead. There are already stealth taxes on carbon emissions only expensive cars

with electric motors are being exempted. So do I go for a puny 1l city car?

Drive what gives you the most enjoyment.

It's your money, no doubt hard-earned, so spend it however you wish.

Your choice of a puny car will not save the world and will probably lead you to motoring misery.

 

My view, for what it's worth:

Think of the cost to the environment of manufacturing and running a new puny 1 litre city car.

Think also of the cost to the environment of manufacturing and running a new electric car.

Then think of the cost to the environment of keeping and running your existing EU6 car.

No contest!

My parents owned a 15 plate Citigo Monte Carlo1.0 from new (£20) road tax & last year chopped it in for EXACTLY the same new replacement, last month the road tax reminder dropped through the letterbox.....£140!! Whatever you drive unless it's electric you are going to get your trousers pulled down im afraid....

It’s not about emissions..........it’s all about TAX/REVENUE when big desiel cars and emissions cheats were paying £20 the government  were losing ££££££ it’s all about the money.

 

 

As others, "Road Fund Licence" is about generating revenue and not about saybing teh planit! Just how often do you actually drive into a (proposed) LEZ Zone anyway?

If you're happy with it, and it's reliable then keep it. 

 

As for puny 1l petrol engines.... 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-45628325

My 150 tdi would have been £185 tax before recent changes had  I bought it earlier, its now £140 like everything else.

21 hours ago, gumdrop said:

So do I go for a puny 1l city car?

 

Depends what you class as puny - a 1litre 3 cyl in a small car can be fun...   but the other posts above are right - it'll be £140 tax regardless

It is all about tax revenue which is why even electric will never be cheap...the govt. will have to find an alternative way to replace the massive tax revenue they will lose from petrol/diesel.

If every motorist changed to electric tomorrow,and with no revenue from petrol /diesel/road fund the government would be taxing electric and air to get the same revenue which they rely on so much.

The Mention of Electric Cars reminded me;

I was watching The A1 saga of the longest road when the patrol team had a call to an accident.

An electric car had been involved in a collision but they had to wait for a "special" pick up truck.

The electric car had to be checked that it was not live as it carries enough amps to kill! and the

normal breakdown truck crew did not have the training.

 

Some really sensible arguments have been put forward but my greatest worry is ending up with

a diesel with no resale value, thank you all.

 

 

Amps dont kill.

 

Risk of a fire or worse still the battery pack self combusting but no risk of electrocution from a 12v system no matter how many amps.

 

How would they declare that it was "not live" ?

Edited 28 March, 20197 yr by J.R.

New VW Group Hybrids and Ford and others will be 48 volt systems.

Electric cars like a TESLA 375 volt.

 

I keep seeing a repeat of 2 Traffic Police Officers trying top move a car with an E-Brake stuck on (supposedly), trying to but  with the car door open...

 

 

 

Edited 28 March, 20197 yr by Skoffski

15 hours ago, Sad555 said:

If every motorist changed to electric tomorrow,and with no revenue from petrol /diesel/road fund the government would be taxing electric and air to get the same revenue which they rely on so much.

Heard on the radio yesterday that there is lobbying to fit cars with speed restrictors from 2022. If that were to happen that would be another big drop in revenue from speeding fines.

Its not lobbying it will be fitted from 2022.

Unfortunatley though it can be over-ridden.

 

No-one need ever pay a speeding fine! I was travelling up the M1 yesterday, largely on 60 on overhead gantries, and I lost count of the number of times I saw the camers flashing as cars came the other way, or even overtaking me from behind.

@VAGCF @kenfowler3966 - "Fake news". What is actually being proposed is a "speed awareness system"; a so called "bitching betty" that will recite "Too fast. Slow down." if it thinks you're over the ruling speed limit. I await with interest the results of attempting to use it on the A34 or Aston Expressway in Birmingham, or on the M8 through Charing Cross in Glasgow, where a 50 or 70mph limit road is abut 20 feet laterally from a 30mph one.

One of my cars does that already. It reads the road speed signs it can see, and beeps at me if I exceed the speed it thinks I should be travelling at. Luckily it works on GPS speed, not the speedo. However, it is only really annoying when it misses a derestrict sign! I can turn it off, of course; but would probably end up paying fines or attending speed awareness courses.

5 hours ago, J.R. said:

Amps dont kill.

 

Risk of a fire or worse still the battery pack self combusting but no risk of electrocution from a 12v system no matter how many amps.

 

How would they declare that it was "not live" ?

Technically, not true. It is the amps that will kill you, and it isn't much (you get into trouble above 10mA). However skin is a pretty good insulator and so you require a fair amount of voltage to get over that in order to start pushing those amps through you. Your body only has a resistance of around 1kOhm (varies on a few factors, but only by 2 either way), so in fact it wouldn't take much voltage. The rules are that you enter Hazardous Voltage region above 50V DC, at which point you start to wear insulating gloves and so on if you are working on live systems (i.e. the system is open and you are able to touch live parts), but obviously isn't required once the system is sealed.

 

As for making sure it isn't "live", it kind of depends. You need a potential difference to make it dangerous, and so it would be a case of working out where that could be. The first one would be to take the connector off and check it is dead at the output. But that doesn't cover if there is an isolation fault inside the battery making some of it live. The chances of the battery failing in such a way that positive is one part of the car and the negative on another with no other route than is say a person bridged it should be minimal. That's why the car should be bonded to help prevent that.

@kenfowler3966 You are right it is not lobbying, that stage is passed, after EU Commissioners got Romania to agree to the proposals, 

but it is not agreed or passed until the Heads of State and others have approved it, and that has not happened.

5 hours ago, J.R. said:

Amps dont kill.

 

Risk of a fire or worse still the battery pack self combusting but no risk of electrocution from a 12v system no matter how many amps.

 

How would they declare that it was "not live" ?

 

The problem isn't the minor 12v systems in an electric car but the much higher voltages between the controller and the motor/s. That can easily be at fatal levels and it is possible in an accident for the car to become "live" at that voltage. Therefore CARE is needed.

Orange cables / warning.

Not knowing what you are doing then do not mess about. 

 

 

 

Don't assume that an electric car has a 12V main battery!  EG some Teslas have a battery pack of 350 Volts!

 

https://electrek.co/2017/08/07/tesla-model-3-new-details-revealed/

 

 

as a 'not very impressed' occasional watcher of the electric grand prix racing series.... there must be a reason why, after a crash, the driver

remains in the car until he is signalled to by marshalls that he is safe to climb out

@muddyjim

They all have power packs,

they are Electric Cars, but expect a 12volt battery as well.