Times broadcasting a discussion with ex BP exec and Farmers union lead about what could happen with diesel cost and supply and rationing for "non-essential" users ie the public not engaged in essential services.

My son in law picking a 80 KWh ID Buzz tomorrow to replace his diesel VW Caddy so he can keep working as he is self employed and no, or ridiculously expensive transport powered by fuel means not being able to get to work and get paid or net profit being squeezed massively....

Anyway. Talking about it will make no difference. Up sh!t creak without a paddle happens on occasions in the UK. Sometimes Labour in power & sometimes the Tories. People someplace will make a killing out of it as usual. The Labour Party are at their wee swarree. Balls, Buffets & Banquets.

Edited yesterday at 14:011 day by Evolution13

14 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

My son in law picking a 80 KWh ID Buzz tomorrow to replace his diesel VW Caddy so he can keep working as he is self employed and no, or ridiculously expensive transport powered by fuel means not being able to get to work and get paid or net profit being squeezed massively....

He may well need some luck with a Buzz - they do not appear to have a particularly good reliability reputation - I've seen a lot of posts about them dying for no apparent reason.

Just now, Evolution13 said:

Anyway. Talking about it will make no difference. Up sh!t creak without a paddle happens on occasions in the UK. Sometimes Labour in power & sometimes the Tories. People someplace will make a killing out of it as usual. The Labour Party are at their we swarree. Balls, Buffets & Banquets.

Indeed, not giving much at all away but Excise cut expected I think. Not that helps farmers already running on RED diesel and claiming the VAT back so they are not paying any tax on their vehicles that run purely on RED.

The excise cut would help the non VAT registered diesel driver and road haulage then many big haulage firms charge a fuel surcharge so fuel rises get passed on to customers and they would benefit from Excise cut not all haulage firms who have already negated fuel price rises.

Extra VAT take already helping UK government coffers since 28th of Feb. I would expect fuel duty to go down from 52.95 p per litre to 44.6 per litre which with the VAT would mean a cut of over 10 p a litre but oil companies have to be watched to check they do not just trouser much of it as it appeared their profits jumped massively from Q1 to Q2 this year, be interesting to see their Q3 profits in a few days time.

Looking forward to the zero VAT on electricity units and standing charge kicking in in 34 hours time.

1 minute ago, skomaz said:

He may well need some luck with a Buzz - they do not appear to have a particularly good reliability reputation - I've seen a lot of posts about them dying for no apparent reason.

Tried to persuade him to go for the Kia PV5 but no joy.

IDs have had numerous issues with their software. VW been just about the bottom of the pile for their software compared to other brands but they finally seemed to have got it together with some Chinese help.

The new Cupra Raval, ID Polo, Epiq seem to getting great reviews and maybe the new king of the small EV. Lets hope sales match the press reception lese VW etc or they may be in more trouble than they are now which is hard to imagine.

Silver one S-i-L gone for so he will have to get a surf board I suppose. Dont know if he sat in the Kia but at 6'5" maybe his height might have been an issue in the Kia as I generally found Hyundai and Kia on the dinky size but I expect they have got better in that regard to accommodate, Dutch, Nordic and US supersized people, come to think of it I did have a Sportage on hire in Alberta /BC and it was roomy in the front. awful fuel consumption form its NA 2.4 litre engine but petrol was about the same price as bottle water especially in Alberta / Manitoba / Saskatchewan where they extract about 4.5M barrels a day and send nearly a million a day to Vancouver to ship to Asia, now missing out California to their loss. Shame don't pipe to Thunder bay to send down the Lakes to Europe.

Edited yesterday at 13:551 day by lol-lol

Might be worth another attempt. I heard that the buzz is no longer being mzde, support might be difficult soon.

Swansea fuel station getting ahead if itself......

They must me reading your posts about the doom and gloom coming to us soon and decided that it was happening now. 🤣🤣

Just now, Graham Butcher said:

Might be worth another attempt. I heard that the buzz is no longer being mzde, support might be difficult soon.

In US and even being extended non production for another year so 2028 before it may restart presumably if the Democrats get back in.

European production and sales have been quite strong though tweaks to production schedules have occurred to match sales. VW are now producing a LFP battery chemistry with a 60 ish battery and range of only 200 miles on a good day so again production will be tweaked depending on how well that sales and presumably we will see sodium and solid state versions too eventually.

Edited yesterday at 14:421 day by lol-lol

7 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

They must me reading your posts about the doom and gloom coming to us soon and decided that it was happening now. 🤣🤣

Dont kill the messenger. I am surprised the Times, C4 and others are peddling but then it is a click bait world.

I am just getting the pop corn in to watch on !

15 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Might be worth another attempt. I heard that the buzz is no longer being mzde, support might be difficult soon.

I think it's a pause in production of the Buzz to clear out existing stocks. Likely to be back being made in late 2027 / 2028 by all accounts?

VW Group have had plenty time now to sort out Snagging Faults with the ID Buzz, and all the other VW Group new models or new generations with faults / issues. Now they have a new issue to get their Dealerships & Authorised workshops to deal with. Which Skoda's in which regions of the globe that might be affected would be handy to know. For Skoda owners / drivers. ** NoteVW Caddy 11 years of production from 2013.

Edited yesterday at 14:461 day by Evolution13

2 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

VW Group have had plenty time now to sort out Snagging Faults with the ID Buzz, and all the other VW Group new models or new generations with faults / issues. Now they have a new issue to get their Dealerships & Authorised workshops to deal with. Which Skoda's in which regions of the globe that might be affected would be handy to know. For Skoda owners / drivers.

I lost my faith in the VAG Group about a decade ago and have been happy with Renault and even Dacia pretty much since then.

All the Germanesque car makers have had a lost decade but they have finally woken up and started to produce good cars again. Mercedes winning European Car of the Year, BMW knowing making some standout cars though still very pricey and VAG finally producing a well designed EV ie the ID Polo and its spin off the Epiq and Raval, not sure about the A2, the original one was silly and not sure new one is much better.

World is so much more competitive now ie Kia, BYD etc.

One doesn't have to go electric...

www.facebook.com/share/r/14tt366Bf9k/

and in Gosport ....

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by lol-lol

Discussion on US diesel export ban gathering pace but US apply pressure on those European countries with large strategic reserves ie other than UK's meagre 42 day reserve of course.

12 hours away from VAT coming off home electricity so these two factors accelerating the transition to electric from fossil fuel.

Current Costco prices in Sheffield - nowhere near the gouging being undertaken by the big brands:

18 minutes ago, skomaz said:

Current Costco prices in Sheffield - nowhere near the gouging being undertaken by the big brands:

Cracking prices. Use to be ASDA as well guaranteed to be several pence cheaper but now only Cosco and a few independent ones substantially cheaper. They say there is no cartel but it looks like one with a few garages actually breaking out with higher prices not lower ones.

Looking forward to a trip to Cosco with one of the kids who has a car though they are the ones who have just change main vehicle from Caddy to Buzz but they also have a petrol Fabia and Toyota 2+2 cars so only started tge transition today.

1 minute ago, lol-lol said:

Discussion on US diesel export ban gathering pace but US apply pressure on those European countries with large strategic reserves ie other than UK's meagre 42 day reserve of course.

12 hours away from VAT coming off home electricity so these two factors accelerating the transition to electric from fossil fuel.

A prime example of how the lack of forethought and planning will always bite you on the bum is because we have numpties running the show who, through their process of chasing an idealistic dream and goal, have clearly demonstrated that no matter how noble the end goal is, you must always plan for the worst-case scenario. Part of that planning is in decommissioning the wells in the North Sea. For those that were supplying Grangemouth, we failed to put in place an agreement with those countries that we granted licences to for the extraction of oil that we, the UK, should have an automatic access to the finished product in sufficient quantities, alongside the countries doing the extraction and processing, at market rates. If the US can ban the export of finished products, so can other countries, and if that happened, we would be up **** creek without a paddle, and that includes all of those with EVs, as we still need access to oil, and that will always be the case, and about 99.9% of everything that we all take foregranted in the shops, hospitals, DIY sheds, etc., all got there via roads and using diesel.

On the other hand, common sense might suddenly spring back to life, and the illegal war be stopped, and everything return to normal again, about the same sort of chance as winning the jackpot on the lottery. This could well turn out to be the perfect storm and could be far more catastrophic than the problem of climate change, even though everyone is actually living a longer life than our predecessors ever did.

8 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

A prime example of how the lack of forethought and planning will always bite you on the bum is because we have numpties running the show who, through their process of chasing an idealistic dream and goal, have clearly demonstrated that no matter how noble the end goal is, you must always plan for the worst-case scenario. Part of that planning is in decommissioning the wells in the North Sea. For those that were supplying Grangemouth, we failed to put in place an agreement with those countries that we granted licences to for the extraction of oil that we, the UK, should have an automatic access to the finished product in sufficient quantities, alongside the countries doing the extraction and processing, at market rates. If the US can ban the export of finished products, so can other countries, and if that happened, we would be up **** creek without a paddle, and that includes all of those with EVs, as we still need access to oil, and that will always be the case, and about 99.9% of everything that we all take foregranted in the shops, hospitals, DIY sheds, etc., all got there via roads and using diesel.

On the other hand, common sense might suddenly spring back to life, and the illegal war be stopped, and everything return to normal again, about the same sort of chance as winning the jackpot on the lottery. This could well turn out to be the perfect storm and could be far more catastrophic than the problem of climate change, even though everyone is actually living a longer life than our predecessors ever did.

Oil moving thru Hormuz is pretty much back to pre Gulf war levels but it is several other factors adding to the landed cost.

• Insurance premiums are sky high, millions of USD per trip for Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

• Egypt put up the Suez transit costs massively

• Some Suezmax ships circa 140 kt or less still choose to take the South Africa route rather than Suez.

Cost and tome, time is money, mean even if flows are back to normal the additional elements are stacking up landed cost.

Saudi is reportedly going to discount crude picked up from Damman ie East coast ports to encourage tankers to go there.

With strategic reserves at such a low and winter coming up fast some tough decesions and bidding will occur.

9 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Oil moving thru Hormuz is pretty much back to pre Gulf war levels but it is several other factors adding to the landed cost.

• Insurance premiums are sky high, millions of USD per trip for Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

• Egypt put up the Suez transit costs massively

• Some Suezmax ships circa 140 kt or less still choose to take the South Africa route rather than Suez.

Cost and tome, time is money, mean even if flows are back to normal the additional elements are stacking up landed cost.

Saudi is reportedly going to discount crude picked up from Damman ie East coast ports to encourage tankers to go there.

With strategic reserves at such a low and winter coming up fast some tough decesions and bidding will occur.

Makes my comments all the more pertinent.

On the topic of fuel prices and price gouging, there is a site dedicated to the price of fuel, and for those that are not aware of it, it is petrolprices.com

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Graham Butcher

12 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Makes my comments all the more pertinent.

Relying on any energy supply from such a distant and troubled area has always be dodgy and from personal experience being caught up in the Iraq - Iran war 1980 - 1985, hundreds of thousands died, and trouble has been off and on since then.

British renewable are the answer, incl nuke, with fossil fuel just as backup.

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

Relying on any energy supply from such a distant and troubled area has always be dodgy and from personal experience being caught up in the Iraq - Iran war 1980 - 1985, hundreds of thousands died, and trouble has been off and on since then.

British renewable are the answer, incl nuke, with fossil fuel just as backup.

But we didn't need to be reliant solely on the importation of oil from those areas, did we? I used to work within the oil industry, and we are sitting on some massive oil fields that we should have a major stake in. The profits from that alone would also help to finance your beloved transition from burning fossil fuels to cleaner technologies. The entire world should have known that there was never going to be an everlasting supply of oil to be used as a fuel alone. What they should have been doing is using the profits from that to research other solutions before the supply begins to dry up.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by Graham Butcher

2 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Oil moving thru Hormuz is pretty much back to pre Gulf war levels but it is several other factors adding to the landed cost.

What about volume of oil getting through Bab-al Mandab Strait?

39 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

But we didn't need to be reliant solely on the importation of oil from those areas, did we? I used to work within the oil industry, and we are sitting on some massive oil fields that we should have a major stake in. The profits from that alone would also help to finance your beloved transition from burning fossil fuels to cleaner technologies. The entire world should have known that there was never going to be an everlasting supply of oil to be used as a fuel alone. What they should have been doing is using the profits from that to research other solutions before the supply begins to dry up.

A mere 1.5B barrels it is estimated and even going for those dodgy economic last dregs would not get us past half our current need for oil.

Gas is in better shape so pergaps ws should ve looking at more LNG cars like Dacia and a few others do. Also much less polluting the liquid fossil fuel.