3 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

 

Needs at least half an hour under the blanket, more like three quarters of an hour seems to be wise, personally I would give it a full hour just to be on the safe side.

All fire fighting brigades, and on board car carriers, should have these as well as their BA suits and the whole head to foot clothing as above. 

 

2 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

Needs at least half an hour under the blanket, more like three quarters of an hour seems to be wise, personally I would give it a full hour just to be on the safe side.

All fire fighting brigades, and on board car carriers, should have these as well as their BA suits and the whole head to foot clothing as above. 

 

Just how would that work on car carriers, you need the blanket to seal the air out you can't do that on car carriers, be they road, rail or ship, you cannot do that. Road and rail transporters all have open floors to the trucks as well as securing straps and on sips, you do have flat floors but loads of securing straps tieing the cars down as well as proximity of other vehicles and their securing straps all of which make getting access to the fire impossible and also getting the fire blanket to form a seal with the deck.

17 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Just how would that work on car carriers, you need the blanket to seal the air out you can't do that on car carriers, be they road, rail or ship, you cannot do that. Road and rail transporters all have open floors to the trucks as well as securing straps and on sips, you do have flat floors but loads of securing straps tieing the cars down as well as proximity of other vehicles and their securing straps all of which make getting access to the fire impossible and also getting the fire blanket to form a seal with the deck.

 

Where there is a will.  I would have the EVs fire blanket wrapped as each one is loaded with a blanket that wraps the car up right underneath. Straps then over the wrapped car. As car transporter ships have no segment fire breaks they should adopt better anti fire systems. Needs a reset look at this new paradigm.

 

Stats should EVs are about 20 times less likely to catch fire but chemical fires need more thoughtful solution than just using a 3 inch water hose.

 

Came across this video explaining the problems with adopting Hydrogen

 

In case you can't be bothered to watch, highlights:

 

2019 world hydrogen production sources:

 

Green house gas emission from generating and using per unit of heat energy: (hydrogen is worse than diesel)

 

News to me:

10:37: Renewable fluctuations make green hydrogen production inefficient.

 

13:34: The fuel cell cannot be lower than a few degrees below freezing to prevent icing and degrading the cell. More energy wasted to warm up the fuel cell.

 

14:05: Platinum and Iridium are needed for fuel cell. A fuel cell car will have same problem as cobalt in high performance batteries (LFP don't have rare earth material problem) and catalyst converter theft in ICE cars.

 

 

Despite the problems outlined by the video, I still think hydrogen has its place, but only in areas that battery absolutely cannot work and the cost of carbon emission and inefficiency is built into the cost of the hydrogen fuel.

I skim watched the video as those issues were known to me. They did not mention the huge amounts of electricity required to produce hydrogen. This alone makes hydrogen a non-starter for me, it is far more efficient to use that electricity to power a direct replacement technology. e.g. heat pumps over a  gas ,hydrogen or oil boiler.
 

More on this from Fully Charged show (now Everything Electric Show), I may have shared this before.
 

 

So much electricity is being generated in Scotland and used or not used so not generated that it is being used at distilleries or will be at ports to power ships while in port.

Other uses as well, but it is a location location location thing.

Once the National Grid gets it,s act together and the UK  governments then there might be less waste from the potential of renewables around the UK and in Scotland.

 

My personal view is we need to get building more pumped storage hydro schemes to capture the excess renewables. At present Coire Glas is the most advanced plan for such schemes and should be progressed urgently IMHO. There are opportunities for similar schemes in Wales and Lake District, but NIMBYism gets in the way. We have a lot of wind power in north Wales now, mainly offshore that could be harnessed by more schemes like Dinorwig or Trawsfynnedd.

Us EV/renewables/ wake-up-and-smell-the -coffee-on-climate-change favourite shows, ie Fully Charged, one of the best episodes ever just released by RL aka Kryten.........

When is an EV not an EV plus much more.......

 

    

'Germany spends big to win 11 billion dollar TSMC chip plant'.   (Not French fries.)

 

Simply clever of them.   

 

Now they just need Energy Security without having to burn fossil fuels to keep their lights on.

A deal with Vladimir Putin & Viktor Orban might just do that. 

Edited 9 August, 20232 yr by toot

12 hours ago, toot said:

'Germany spends big to win 11 billion dollar TSMC chip plant'.   (Not French fries.)  Simply clever of them.   

Now they just need Energy Security without having to burn fossil fuels to keep their lights on.  A deal with Vladimir Putin & Viktor Orban might just do that. 

 

Easy to forget that Germany has much more industry than automotive as this article states....

https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/business/germanys-industry-the-most-important-facts-and-figures#:~:text=Four sectors dominate German industry,engineering%2C chemical and electrical industry.

 

Whilst it looks like the German Automotive sector has failed spectacularly to gear up to the transition to EVs and now the big German car makers are spending billions buying up bit of the Chinese automotive industry and setting up joint ventures with Chinese government companies like SAIC the other big parts of the German industry and also trying to update their manufacturing technology but not without problems. Siemens are having some really problems with quality and post install repairs on their wind turbines and their share price has fallen hugely but their are some sectors that are doing quite well and I see that on a daily basis.  For a country with relatively low natural resources thy have to innovate and build their mechanical engineering side, chemicals, pharma.   Partnering with South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese companies will help Germany fight China economically.

 

China, I think, will actually be more concerned by what weather, earthquakes and their own property market is doing than competing with "The West" which China's move to No 1 economic power is just happening as something they have been building for more than fifty years and their success in the flagship automotive sector is evidence of their industrial might but I think their focus is improving their own country, ie city pollution, energy independence with their massive dominance in solar and now wind and there are few industries left they are not leading ie aerospace, but the are working on that, maybe pharma and they need all the improvements they can make in the solar and wind sector to help clean up the world as they are the biggest contributor to carbon pollution input.  They have seen record high temperatures, their water table is lowering causing building collapses, massive damaging storms due to the sea warming so the Chinese will continue to surge ahead in technology over the West, I believe not as a race with The West but to tackle their own environmental problems.  

 

I expect South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese countries and their companies will continue to want to work with both Europe and the US and whilst they will also do massive investment in China as well they will like to see success in Western countries so they do not have too many of their eggs in the Chinese basket. Audi/VW and many other Western automotive companies are seeing their profits disappear as the fail in China and must look for alliances where ever they can.  Taiwan will continue to want protection from China and massive investments like this one can only help promote Western countries to help protect such countries from China's wish to re-integrate Taiwan in to China mainland control.

 

Good luck Germany and mainland Europe in maintaining a strong manufacturing sector, probably a percentage of economy that is more likely to go down than up as the Asian nations power on through the 21st century but they, like the UK, can only do its best to retain as best as possible what it can but as with automotive as you find that you have to go for components to Asian countries you gradually lose control of the overall process and then the only course is one of continuing decline and one is left with businesses like tourism, agriculture/food, leisure, sport and anything else the Asian might want to buy of us Western is exchange for their manufacturing sector goods ie automotive and most other goods we want ie mobile phones, computers, electronics etc..   Empires rise and fall.      

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

What is the manufacturing sector’s share of economic output? 

26.6 percent was the share of gross value added by the manufacturing sector in Germany in 2021. For comparison: in France, the share was 16.8 percent, in the USA 18.4 percent and in Japan 29 percent. 

What is the turnover of the manufacturing sector in Germany? 

2,096 billion euros was the turnover of companies in the manufacturing sector in 2020. The automotive industry led the way with 459 billion euros. 

What are the largest sectors in Germany? 

Four sectors dominate German industry: the automotive, mechanical engineering, chemical and electrical industry. Global players are Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW (all automotive), BASF, the world’s largest chemical company with around 118,000 employees, and Siemens (electrical). With 1.1 million employees, mechanical engineering is the largest industry in Germany, but it is dominated by SMEs. 

@lol-lolthe old dottery guy in the USA just goes and kicks off trouble with China.  

4 hours ago, toot said:

@lol-lolthe old dottery guy in the USA just goes and kicks off trouble with China.  

 

I like Joe Biden and the Democrats and compared to the Republican party at least the Democrats are working on progressing  dealing with climate changes via financial support packages. 

 

Sadly the UK still has the Trumpesque leadership with Sunak and the Con party so we are reneging on out climate pledges at COP26 to the damage of much of the Commonwealth. 

 

Fortunately the sheer economic sense of going over to EVs, mega battery packs, solar and wind is happening anyways despite the lack of UK government direction and impetus. 

 

The disruptive change continues at a pace on consumer demand and choice......

 

 

Was looking for a topic to highlight an observation I've made over the past week. "The tuth about electric cars" - seems perfect !

 

The UCI world championships are currently taking place and we've been watching as much of it live as we can. Of course when it comes to cycling, SKODA play a big role in sponsorship. There's lots of team cars running around the area at the moment and although Peter Vardy Kia has high profile sponsorship, many of the teams use their own sponsored Skodas.

 

The Octavia estate seams to be the car of choice although there are plenty of Kodiaqs and the odd Karoq to be seen. But to us Skoda aficiados, the one car that is missing is the Enyaq.  You might see the odd one being advertised / used in the shorter legs of the Tour de France, but for the longer sections - where are they?  Last weeks Glasgow-Edinburgh mens elite race - not a single one. The shorter time trials currently taking place in Stirling - not a single one. And I suspect the same will be true for the Loch Lomond- Glasgow Womens elite this coming Sunday.

 

So it'd appear that even the manufacturer doesn't have confidence in it's EV's for this particular task.

 

If anyone has attended a cycling event then one reason might be these cars get hammered - it was like watching a touring car race as they whizzed around the streets of Glasgow. It may show off the acceleration of an EV but I'd have thought it'd cripple it's range.

 

Thoughts?

1 hour ago, kodiaqsportline said:

Was looking for a topic to highlight an observation I've made over the past week. "The tuth about electric cars" - seems perfect !

The UCI world championships are currently taking place and we've been watching as much of it live as we can. Of course when it comes to cycling, SKODA play a big role in sponsorship. There's lots of team cars running around the area at the moment and although Peter Vardy Kia has high profile sponsorship, many of the teams use their own sponsored Skodas.

The Octavia estate seams to be the car of choice although there are plenty of Kodiaqs and the odd Karoq to be seen. But to us Skoda aficiados, the one car that is missing is the Enyaq.  You might see the odd one being advertised / used in the shorter legs of the Tour de France, but for the longer sections - where are they?  Last weeks Glasgow-Edinburgh mens elite race - not a single one. The shorCzecter time trials currently taking place in Stirling - not a single one. And I suspect the same will be true for the Loch Lomond- Glasgow Womens elite this coming Sunday.

So it'd appear that even the manufacturer doesn't have confidence in it's EV's for this particular task.

If anyone has attended a cycling event then one reason might be these cars get hammered - it was like watching a touring car race as they whizzed around the streets of Glasgow. It may show off the acceleration of an EV but I'd have thought it'd cripple it's range.

Thoughts?

 

Might say more about the VW/SEAT/SKODA etc EV technology in that the VAG has fired a third of its EV line workers  and cut the shifts back on the production.

 

VW, particularly, has had so many problems with its EVs, sales have not been what they hope as cars like the TESLA Model Y are light years ahead of what VAG are producing but at least they know it and are now trying to get much more involved with Chinese/TESLA production technology so they can even survive as a brand another 5 years which is doubtful as VAG are about 200B Euros in debt and need another 200B to get to a place where they can even compete with TESLA, SAIC etc.

 

Sad for the proud people of the Czechia Republic, Slovakia etc that the automotive future of VAG has so badly been handled, as their CEO said the roof is on fire and they need to find 11B urgently.  

 

NOt sure TESLA would have such an interest in cycling, many UK car dealers will go to the wall as the model of UK dealerships in a declining one, maybe Kia might do directly but I would have thought they have their own battles to fight for survival too.   

 

17 minutes ago, kodiaqsportline said:

<snip>You might see the odd one being advertised / used in the shorter legs of the Tour de France, but for the longer sections - where are they? </snip>

 

You see Enyaqs a lot in TdF and not just on short stages. An Enyaq is more than capable of approx 120 miles of longest stage. I'd say maybe another 50 miles for running about / liaison at start end of stage making the cars plenty capable. Skoda only provide official race organiser's cars, team cars are based on team sponsorship. My understanding is that as the specially modified Superbs wear out, they are replaced with an Enyaq. Neutral service cars provided by the ASO (race owners) and sponsored by Skoda / Shimano are Skoda Octavias. The reason for this is Enyaqs are too tall for getting bikes off the centre of the roof rack quickly. It is about being fit for purpose, same as using VW cabrio for doctors car.

 

17 minutes ago, kodiaqsportline said:

<snip>Last weeks Glasgow-Edinburgh mens elite race - not a single one. The shorter time trials currently taking place in Stirling - not a single one. And I suspect the same will be true for the Loch Lomond- Glasgow Womens elite this coming Sunday.</snip>

 

The cars used by the race organisers will be a sponsor to British Cycling (possibly through Vardy) and likely not coming from Skoda directly. If sponsored through the dealership network, the cars will be whatever is available, e.g. nearly new cars and demos. I haven't paid much attention to the cars, are LHD or RHD? RHD will confirm UK sourced.

 

17 minutes ago, kodiaqsportline said:

<snip>So it'd appear that even the manufacturer doesn't have confidence in it's EV's for this particular task.</snip>

 

Given what I've said regarding Enyaqs in the TdF, I don't agree.

 

1 hour ago, kodiaqsportline said:

<snip>If anyone has attended a cycling event then one reason might be these cars get hammered - it was like watching a touring car race as they whizzed around the streets of Glasgow. It may show off the acceleration of an EV but I'd have thought it'd cripple it's range.</snip>

Unlikely it would have it's range crippled. In general EVs do better in an urban setting than on a fast road. The reason is regenerative braking, where a lot of energy is recovered to the battery while braking. Zooming around the streets of Glasgow would be fine, hard acceleration followed by hard REGEN braking will not cripple range and an Enyaq will certainly have enough range for the 170 mile road race.

My thought is I would be surprised that someone went to a cycling race to watch Octavia Estates get hammered but then many if not most seem to go for the sponsored goodies that are thrown to the crowd from the support wagon, tat worth less than a centime usually.

As Ford recoil from the world back in to its North America backyard BYD buys Ford massive Brazilian car plant so BYD can make electric cars for Brazil/South America meaning all continents will shortly have EV available to buy at prices similar or below ICE vehicles and their cities can benefit from cleaner air....... 

 

 

 

Big car companies ie recently Toyota, releasing a car not ready for the market, the BZ4X, and Bjorn Nyland telling them what is wrong and now for the BYD Alto3......

 

 

 

Edited 13 August, 20232 yr by lol-lol

Uncle Bjorn at it again.

 

Meanwhile, mainstream media......

 

4 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Uncle Bjorn at it again.

 

Meanwhile, mainstream media......

 

 

1. Journalists failing to research, person whose car is it used odd language and said gearbox was automatic/electric
2. Failing to listen to the person that this had happen to, car is a diesel
3. Error repeated across three major "news"-papers
4. Journos who do not know their cars
5. Not full retracted and corrected

Click-bate journalism and lack of quality control at these 3 rags.

 

6 hours ago, lol-lol said:

 

1. Journalists failing to research, person whose car is it used odd language and said gearbox was automatic/electric
2. Failing to listen to the person that this had happen to, car is a diesel
3. Error repeated across three major "news"-papers
4. Journos who do not know their cars
5. Not full retracted and corrected

Click-bate journalism and lack of quality control at these 3 rags.

 

6. They said it was a brand new EV car costing £22,000.

7. A new car with a 2014 number plate 🤥

8. There is so much to this story. 

Regardless of the story… vw cars are too slow to charge, have horrible entertainment system and the brake/suspension set up was nasty.

The ID3 was available at a good price point, but not sure if that’s true.

 

I’d suggest they need a new platform, so maybe they should hurry up with the PPE for Audi.

While charging i just read on my phone an article in The Sun that popped up.

Published 13th August 2023.  'Jon Rogers' seems to be the journalist.

 

Carwow's Matt Watson (that well known Motoring Journalist who,s videos get linked here often) driving 'in the dark' the cars with the longest claimed ranges.

Seemingly he drove them until they ran out of energy and he had to call the breakdown services to help him out.     Really ....   

If he had not his own recovery arranged then knock us down with a feather and slap him hard with a kipper..

 

'He was trapped in the middle of the night'. 

 

Maybe someone could link this article because i am not trapped having charged during the night while driving and again now before having a wee sleep. 

 

There are a load of more articles, dealers closing, mechanics losing jobs, ICEd EV bays etc etc. 

 Rupert Murdoch must not have invested into EV,s. 

 

 

Edited 14 August, 20232 yr by toot

@cheezemonkhaiWhat do you regard as too slow to charge? 11kW 3-phase is pretty much standard on all EVs and VW cars support this. VW 77kWh battery cars charge at up to 170kW DC and even my 2021 ID.4 can now charge at that rate with the software updates VW have released. The 58kWh battery cars can charge at 125kW (owners report actual speeds can be higher). These speeds are competitive with anything else on the market in my opinion.

Edited 14 August, 20232 yr by Luckypants