Electric cars, Emperor's new clothes???

[GeoffL]

Most cars here are at auction at 4 years old as they require a mot and dealers who take them as trade ins dont want them as the brains may give trouble ,so thay dont sell them to public.
Very few cars here as old as your car at 2001,i must of had the oldest at 22 years old,folks here roll there eyes if your car is more than a few years old,you do have to keep up with the jones.

FWIW, I tend to run cars into the ground rather than update them and I don't think I've had a car that was less than 15 years old by the time I got rid of it and a couple have been over 20. Strangely, the MPV I bought to replace the Dispatch has an NI registration. Perhaps the NI ethos is the reason why it made its way over to mainland UK!

 

[trevskoda]

One other thing about our cars is,they dont get serviced after warrenty,garages who are ment to service them dont bother but just a rub with a rag round filters etc, the new to me car i bought with 27 th on clock came with all service history,i yo ho the spark plugs were very rust and big gaps,oil was like tar and the filter was almost welded on,back wheel bearings broke up because never adjusted,i had to take a 5ft lever to remove wheels as they were stuck to hubs,brake pads were down to almost metal and i had to fit a new ign coil pack,not only the above but it would not go over 45mph as a old boy used it,i gave it some redex and a couple of down the glenshane pass blow outs before i could get her to do over 90mph,all sorted now,over here you would be better getting a chimp to do the service work.

 

[rugbyken]

 

[tonybvi]

Funnily enough I was just reading about the new mobile supercharger that Tesla has developed to cater for peaks in demand. They hope to be able to deploy them early next year to wherever they anticipate really heavy demand. They are powered by the Tesla “megapack“ - each megapack has 3MWh of storage capacity and a 1.5 MW inverter. Too late to help the poor souls in Kettleman City though.

 

[GreggBear]

Are electric cars the Emperor's new clothes I wonder? The cost to the environment of building and running the damn things then the leftovers even after recycling them... I hear of four year old Leafs with batteries on their way out and replacement batteries costing more than the car is worth! The inconvenience of long charging times and so few charging points. Imagine the carparks we use now full of electric cars... wheres the money coming from for all the charging points needing to be installed. And now we are looking at destroying the sea bed in an effort to find the minerals required to make batteries?
All that versus further developing the vastly improved diesels or other fuels like cow-farts so I can continue to enjoy roast beef.
Im not a luddite, really I am not but I just think EV's are not the (only) solution.
There, thats off my chest.
K

Damn right! Not many years ago we were told diesel was the thing of the future with big grants to buy into it. Once we all had diesel motors we were told we were heathens killing the planet & must be heavily taxed! Bollocks! Now electric is the saviour of mankind & we must all play at that. Once everyone has one the "truth" will out & yet again you will all be taxed for running your "unfriendly" motor. The bigger a just make it up as they go along, its all lies & it's all designed to get the dollar out of your pocket to be sent up the tree to the elite who already have far more than they need/deserve/could ever justify having......

 

[trevskoda]

I hear a monty python coming on,im looking up at him,but i am looking down on him because .

 

[Dunfillin]

I've just been wandering around a one horse town in Scotland and was surprised to come across a charging point,just shows the infrastructure is getting better all the time.

Loadsa money up there !!

 

[tonybvi]

Loadsa money up there !!

Not in my house since I bought my electric car!!

 

[Deleted member 4703]

Global warming debunked, well one guys view anyway. (Lots of swearing)

 

[Andrew9999]

EV's may not be the long-term answer, although technology is improving all the time, and maybe hydrogen is a better long-term solution but if you are concerned about global warming then EV is the way to go, if you can.

Public transport is the way to go. EVs just move the pollution somewhere else... and even then their brake dishes etc still generate as much small

 

[Jenrai]

I just dont care. Its not my future so I drive smoke eat fart drink whatever I like.

 

[Tidewatcher]

Bear in mind the theory of "The Half Life of Facts" based on the same theory as the half life of nuclear isotopes. Every fact can have an estimated half life. The longest half life can be found in mathematics. The half life of medical fact is looked at as around ten to twenty years which means that around thirty percent of fact stated today will be disproved within ten to twenty years. The trick is knowing which thirty. Applying this to vehicles it looks as though ten years is around the mark as stated previously with the fact that diesels would save the planet ten years ago but will now destroy mankind. So how many of the "facts" concerning electric vehicles will be disproved in ten years or so? Bear in mind this is a fatuous theory in itself which has yet to stand the true test of time!

 

[Cookies]

Nearest town to us has 2 public charging points . Next nearest 6 points .
Think I will wait a bit.

 

[tonybvi]

Nearest town to us has 2 public charging points . Next nearest 6 points .
Think I will wait a bit.

Wrong!! We don’t need charging points near our house as we (as do the majority of EV users) charge at home. What we need are charging points that are just within the range of our electric vehicles - in my case 200 to 250 miles away but for most electric cars 50 to 100 miles away.

 

[Cookies]

Wrong!! We don’t need charging points near our house as we (as do the majority of EV users) charge at home. What we need are charging points that are just within the range of our electric vehicles - in my case 200 to 250 miles away but for most electric cars 50 to 100 miles away.

You won't be driving near to us then will you if it's the end of your range .
If I forgot to charge at home and thought it's ok I'll charge up while I shop I couldn't.

 

[Ardachaidh]

Public transport is the way to go. EVs just move the pollution somewhere else... and even then their brake dishes etc still generate as much small

First moving pollution - depends on the source of the electricity. We have pv panels so charging at home is green. A number of charging point suppliers get their electricity from renewables. Yes, there's still pollution from brakes, etc just the same as other vehicles. No better no worse. But no diesel particulates responsible for tens of thousands premature deaths and millions suffering chronic ill health.

I agree public transport is the way to go, but this was about private transport and ev's. In other forums I've argued that we need to tax and legislate private transport (to a great extent) off the roads, get freight onto rail, stop building roads, get people walking and cycling for all those short (and often unnecessary journeys) etc etc. Of course it won't happen because we have no proper integrated transport policy. All we have is governments frightened of the motoring lobby. We also need to stop flying, especially long haul flights.

One proposal worth considering is for high speed coaches, which could be powered by hydrogen if we had far sighted politicians prepared to invest.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/dec/05/comment.politics (13 years ago and nothing has changed)

Coach Transport – Alan Storkey

www.alanstorkey.com

 

[trevskoda]

Fact is you dont get something for nothing,and here lies the problem,even those who use solar at home,did you think the just came from nowhere,making them and transporting never mind the chap who drove to you home in his dirty diesel and used electric to drill the holes to mount them,and then the extra cupa tea you made him all used a fuel of some sort,nothing for nothing.

 

[Ardachaidh]

Fact is you dont get something for nothing,and here lies the problem,even those who use solar at home,did you think the just came from nowhere,making them and transporting never mind the chap who drove to you home in his dirty diesel and used electric to drill the holes to mount them,and then the extra cupa tea you made him all used a fuel of some sort,nothing for nothing.

No of course not. Everything has a cost, economists call it externalities and it's never included in the cost of something. I think I said ages ago on here if we had to pay the true cost of fuel, including all the externalities from global warming to ill health to slave labour, we could never afford to buy it. But some things come out positive on the balance sheet and we should aim to do that which is positive, such as install pv, stop flying, eat local and in season, cut out waste etc etc. Those who think, like Trump, we can just carry on and do nothing, or talk down initiatives like renewables because they to have externalities too and don't look at the balance sheet, are a danger to the generations to come.

There are 2 types of errors we can make when considering hypotheses: False positives and false negatives. ie there is anthropogenic global warming when there isn't or there is none when there is. If it's the first and we take the precautionary approach the worst that can happen is that we spend a lot of money and get a clean environment. If it's the second and we do nothing then we probably will become extinct. I favour the precautionary approach which will give us a better world in which to live. But I think politicians will do nothing, egged on by those who don't care, because they are too comfortable.

Happy Christmas (from a sunny Spain).

 

[2cv]

I wonder how they will manage to tax this. We’re doomed long term anyway, whatever man does is relatively very insignificant.

 

[in h]

EVs don't use brakes much: regenerative braking is far better. The issue is tyre dust, not brake dust.