5 minutes ago, classic said:

The Macmaster has got another EV 😂.

Nottingham Porsche come out of this really well.

He said that he really wanted a 911 ICE, but the amount of money it would have cost him to get out of an EV was eye watering. Nottingham Porsche were able to put a deal together if he went for another EV Porsche, he revealed that in an earlier video.

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

Macron's Rafale is 4.85m as it has been stretched by 130 mm to give room for all the toys.

Peugeot do a 325 hp 5008 which was not chosen but Rafale was for whatever reasons and French Presidents have had PSA cars, including DSs of course which many say is the coolest car ever made.....

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/citroen/101998/citroen-ds-worlds-coolest-cars

Yes, that was my point, when they claim that presidents and royalty etc were using cars made by xyz, they were not using standard off the shelf models that the average person can get hold off, there is nothing remotely special about your Scenic, it is just a bog-standard half decent family runabout that just happens to suit your family needs. It is highly debatable that it would suit my needs with 4 of my family being 6ft 4" and 2 of us built like the proverbial brick **** houses and reasonable tall SWMBO. We also need a large boot to lug all the shopping home and to pop in a pair of step ladders at the weekend when we go plane spotting.

There are many people like us, who do struggle to find a car that is suitable and affordable without going into the luxury car bracket of the S class etc, which are all far north of the £40,000 figure that is claimed by our authorities as a luxury car.

On the Citroen front, yes, the DS when it came out was light years ahead of the competitors and in many ways, it still is. It had the world's finest suspension system, I've driven my old bosses DS23 Pallas on many occasions and it was silky smooth on the road and it was even possible to mount kerbs without any perception of doing so inside the car. The engine as well, although people claim it was lacklustre, at the time it was more than enough when compared to other cars of the era and it is only now noticeable because cars got more powerful over the years.

Edited 3 October, 20253 Oct by Graham Butcher

19 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

He said that he really wanted a 911 ICE, but the amount of money it would have cost him to get out of an EV was eye watering. Nottingham Porsche were able to put a deal together if he went for another EV Porsche, he revealed that in an earlier video.

I know he did, I’m a subscriber since you introduced me to his channel. It helped me decide to get an EV.

He blew his pcp mileage by thousands of miles and they’ve done him a deal.

He loves them Graham, the guy is laughing his head off driving that Taycan !

@classic yes, I know he does, he has never ever tried to hide the fact that he loves the way that they drive etc, his only gripe is with the state of the charging infrastructure and the problems that early cars are having, believing that the technology is currently not suitable for mass adoption and that it should be left to the market place to decide when it is right to do so.

I'm pleased that I introduced you to his channel, I do enjoy it myself, I find him to be a genuine person and quite entertaining, especially when he does challenges with other YouTubers.

I'm also pleased that his channel helped you to decide that you also wanted to get an EV, and as I've always said, that if and EV fits your needs and lifestyle, then why not get one, I'm just anti the political push and can see that it be discovered to be the wrong move in a few year's time, much the same as with diesel, they need to be part of the overall mix and are ideal for city dwellers if they can charge them OK.

So the upshot of it all, is that the MacMaster is not all a doom and gloom merchant, just a person who calls it as he sees it, highlighting both the good and bad bits of EV ownership.

Two hours of free electricity from Octopus for some/ all ? of their customers tomorrow 4th of October.

Two EV to charge up plus home batteries which need it with this storm Amy darkening the skies not helping my solar but presumable lots of wind power being generated in the North Sea.....

Should be able to get about 30 kwh downloaded in that time should should make more than £8 for little effort and for the dozen, mainly 1 hour and a couple of 2 hour sessions probably made about £33 overall for this summer/autumn.

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

Hi L, There’s plenty of green power in the wires tomorrow, enough for you to get a...

 

SURPRISE DOUBLE Free Electricity Session 12-2pm, Saturday 4th October!

Get ready to fill your boots

Why not move your power-hungry bits and bobs into that magical hour — pop a wash on, give the hoover a whirl, top up your gadgets or brew a round of teas. What you’d normally pay for stays the same, but every extra kWh you use in that window is absolutely free!

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1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

He said that he really wanted a 911 ICE, but the amount of money it would have cost him to get out of an EV was eye watering. Nottingham Porsche were able to put a deal together if he went for another EV Porsche, he revealed that in an earlier video.

I am sure they will be quite happy with him paying over £14,000 a year to drive about in the new car

Apparently electricity prices tomorrow, Saturday 4th of October, is minus 42 p per kwh so Octopus giving me two hours free is some incredible business model and they stand to make millions i expect therefore !

I miss when I use to buy petrol and get substantial Tesco points that were turned in to vouchers to get money off a later fuel purchase or food shop. Good times !

Just pricing up EV charging prices in Lisbon as will be there next week for the WSBs. Only 43p per kwh and EV car hire from the airport at around £10 a day. Hopefully avoid the 50 Euro charge i got last time for not returning the car full of fuel at Malaga car hire, so difficult to avoid not getting stung. Cause my Octopus Electroverse card in Europe as well of course so the bill just gets rolled in to house energy cost which is big in credit at the moment after the summer DD payments etc.

Five hours of 20% plunge prices from 1100 to 1600 today with Octopus Electroverse and maybe other networks.

One could charge up at the cheaper rate, drive say 250 miles and then charge up again in the cheaper period.

Hopefully this is something that is going to become more common, should do when there is cheap, zero or negative cost to the Public charging networks so they can pass much of this on and both User and Network benefits.

Of course the first 200 miles of our EV journeys are nearly always using our 7 or 8p per kwh electricity from Home ie 2p a mile energy cost so this could be if one has driven the first 250 miles, charged, done another 250 or so miles, charged on the Plunge price lecky again and done another 250 miles.

Sounds like another road trip to see how low a very long journey, even with a couple of Public charging stops could be. Could be like our Day and Night home electricity usage differing rates where we get the average cost down to half or below of the Headline rates of Public charging non discount rates or the Day time electricity rates.

38 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Five hours of 20% plunge prices from 1100 to 1600 today with Octopus Electroverse and maybe other networks.

One could charge up at the cheaper rate, drive say 250 miles and then charge up again in the cheaper period.

Hopefully this is something that is going to become more common, should do when there is cheap, zero or negative cost to the Public charging networks so they can pass much of this on and both User and Network benefits.

Of course the first 200 miles of our EV journeys are nearly always using our 7 or 8p per kwh electricity from Home ie 2p a mile energy cost so this could be if one has driven the first 250 miles, charged, done another 250 or so miles, charged on the Plunge price lecky again and done another 250 miles.

Sounds like another road trip to see how low a very long journey, even with a couple of Public charging stops could be. Could be like our Day and Night home electricity usage differing rates where we get the average cost down to half or below of the Headline rates of Public charging non discount rates or the Day time electricity rates.

I've just swapped back to intelligent 🐙 as I have 2 EVs now both sort range

2024 Enyaq 50 and an 2021 MG5

The Enyaq needs charging tonight as only 18% left 😳

Just now, Redestate said:

I've just swapped back to intelligent 🐙 as I have 2 EVs now both sort range

2024 Enyaq 50 and an 2021 MG5

The Enyaq needs charging tonight as only 18% left 😳

Two Hours of Free electricity today, starting in 20 minutes, and just announced another hour tomorrow, unusually 11 AM to noon.

My Scenic is Short Range as smaller battery ie nominal 60 Kw instead of the 87 kwh most have bought but I find it absolutely fine. Was doing regular Worcester to Heathrow and Liverpool which is almost 250 miles and managed that fine. Just did Worcester to Dartmoor and back with just a 65% charge in Plymouth which cost less than £32 even thought Gridserve which is a non - Octopus Electoverse supplier of course so no discount or lobbing on the house bill.

ICE owners probably fail to appreciate that we can be hyper accurate with our charging of just the right amount to get us home and then tap in to our mega cheap lecky. Something wiesel, dino-juce buyers cannot be anywhere near as precise about.

I do go under 10% sometimes, have been 12 miles below 0%. Only at minus 11 miles did I get a performance restriction warning. I think Renault's have quite sizable buffers.

5 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

ICE owners probably fail to appreciate that we can be hyper accurate with our charging of just the right amount to get us home and then tap in to our mega cheap lecky. Something wiesel, dino-juce buyers cannot be anywhere near as precise about.

That is only applicable if you are just doing city driving, but if you have been out on a longer run and did some destination charging when you got there, then on your return trip, something happens on to cause the road to be completely shut and a long detour or a long wait with the heater etc in use, then you could be in a spot of bother. For instance the other day the M5 was completely shut due to a car transporter which had 7 BYD Atos catch fire on it and lengthy diversion routes were in force.

13 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Two Hours of Free electricity today, starting in 20 minutes, and just announced another hour tomorrow, unusually 11 AM to noon.

My Scenic is Short Range as smaller battery ie nominal 60 Kw instead of the 87 kwh most have bought but I find it absolutely fine. Was doing regular Worcester to Heathrow and Liverpool which is almost 250 miles and managed that fine. Just did Worcester to Dartmoor and back with just a 65% charge in Plymouth which cost less than £32 even thought Gridserve which is a non - Octopus Electoverse supplier of course so no discount or lobbing on the house bill.

ICE owners probably fail to appreciate that we can be hyper accurate with our charging of just the right amount to get us home and then tap in to our mega cheap lecky. Something wiesel, dino-juce buyers cannot be anywhere near as precise about.

I do go under 10% sometimes, have been 12 miles below 0%. Only at minus 11 miles did I get a performance restriction warning. I think Renault's have quite sizable buffers.

enyaq is on and I can secluded times with my wallbox charger so set to go off at 2pm

36 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

For instance the other day the M5 was completely shut due to a car transporter which had 7 BYD Atos catch fire on it and lengthy diversion routes were in force.

Do we know what caused that fire? Which vehicle was the first alight?

8 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

Do we know what caused that fire? Which vehicle was the first alight?

Doesn't appear to be the tractor unit or the car above it. Could a trailer tyre burst into flames?

6 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

Do we know what caused that fire? Which vehicle was the first alight?

Don't think we do, could have been several things on the article rig which were on fire which them set the BYDs alight. Becoming logical to tie down some of the large high temperature fire blankets, curtains to stop fires from trucks spreading to EVs.

Quite simply to do and prevent the loss of quarter a million pounds of cars. Blankets could be used thousands of times and would not be surprised for insurance companies to demands such measures. We move around 4m finished cars per year, very high value ones in sealed trucks or containers and I would expect to see increased fire detection and retardation measures being implemented.

Edited 4 October, 20254 Oct by lol-lol

5 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

Doesn't appear to be the tractor unit or the car above it. Could a trailer tyre burst into flames?

Brake fire was one theory put forward, like with Albon's fire in F1 yesterday, hybrid car of course, lots of power, powerful brakes just going sky high temperatures in the brakes so it even melts and starts to self combust all around it with temperatures of 1000 K plus.

We don't actually know precisely what caused the fire at this stage, but what we can 100% rule out is the tractor unit caused it or diesel caused the fire as the tractor unit and indeed th BYD that was above the tractor unit were not involved in the fire at the outset as this photo taken at the scene proves, so diesel on this occasion cannot be blamed.

I see brakes overheating has put been put forward as a theory, but surely, if the brakes were getting that hot, they would expand even more and jam the trailer brakes full on and stop the lorry altogether?

On my diesel Kodiaq, if the hand brake is on, the car will not go anywhere, the same on my Superb wouldn't either.

Edited 4 October, 20254 Oct by Graham Butcher

https://www.ttclub.com/news-and-resources/news/article/tt-talk-truck-and-trailer-fires-what-our-data-tells-us/

Trailer fires.

Edited 4 October, 20254 Oct by Stonekeeper

Then that also by definition suggests driver error as well as I cannot believe that such issues don't have some physical influence on the way that the vehicle feels when driven.

This is food for thought, and it looks like it is NOT restricted to just EV's but the more recent cars of all kinds of power train which may have a phone app for it is well, but most modern cars are connected in some form or other to the internet, and so your security and your car etc could very well be exposed and at the very least, open yet another avenue for car theft? This data theft has just occurred to the 2 people who the MacMaster is talking to, are the ones who have had their data compromised and they are actual software engineers and they are saying that it would be possible for hackers to take control of a car armed with the information that has been harvested. Scam messages have already been received following the data breach.

What are you thoughts about this??

10 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

the more recent cars of all kinds of power train which may have a phone app for it is well, but most modern cars are connected in some form or other to the internet, and so your security and your car etc could very well be exposed and at the very least, open yet another avenue for car theft?

This is the extend of the Renault data breech, officially from Renault. I am affected because I was in contact with Renault for my parent's Megane purchase.

•	First name & surname
•	Gender
•	Phone number
•	Email address
•	Postal address
•	Vehicle Identification Number
•	Vehicle registration number

ID fraud, yes; phishing attack, yes. Just like every other data breach.

How could those information open up an avenue for car theft?

On 09/10/2025 at 08:24, wyx087 said:

This is the extend of the Renault data breech, officially from Renault. I am affected because I was in contact with Renault for my parent's Megane purchase.

•	First name & surname
•	Gender
•	Phone number
•	Email address
•	Postal address
•	Vehicle Identification Number
•	Vehicle registration number

ID fraud, yes; phishing attack, yes. Just like every other data breach.

How could those information open up an avenue for car theft?

Good thing about Renaults, like Skodas, thieves usually don't want to steal them, i am fine with that, to me and advantage.

Got my electric rental car allocated to me from Lusbon airport, given a Pug 308 instead of 2008, quite nice and that is unusual for a Renault fan to say any Stellantis car is nice.

Have rented ICE cars in Europe before and the experience with EV or ICE is stark.

ICE cars the hire companies can take a deposit for as much as 200 Euros, charge you 50 Euros to drive it to the garage to top it off plus the fuel.

EV, bring it back with 70% plus battery and no charge, 10% to 69 % a 30 Euro charge, 35 Euros if less than 10%. It is almost worth not charging it up but then my hotel has 4 ultra rapid chargers and I think it is 30 cents per kwh plus 30 cent connect fee and Octopus Electroverse card words her supposedly.

The choice is simple, be smart or not.