Cynic-al

A fiat and a suzuki, two of my favourites! It all comes down to £ per vehicle off the production line. They struggle to make anything affordable in the UK without making lots and lots and lots. There are not lots and lots and lots of buyers for things aimed more off road than on, ones which can be fixed with twine and a bush knife, so instead they have gone for higher priced items. We will have to see if Jim Ratcliffes pet hobby project turns into anything!

You could put up a wind turbine! Or do what one of the car programs did and tow it behind an F150 so that the regenerative braking charged the battery.

I think it will be a case of do it and try to keep up. From April the BIK on fully electric company cars is going to be 0%, 1% from April 2021, 2% from April 2022. As a comparison a person earning £30k a year with a BMW 320d company car will pay an additional £360 a month in tax for the perk of driving that car to earn their living. From April a Tesla Model 3 long range will cost them £0 in tax, from April 2021 £8.57 a month, April 2022 £17.14 a month. Based on that I'm sure we will see a lot bigger uptake as who doesn't want a £300 a month pay rise? I'm sure that take up will feed into the charging network and the development of additional vehicles. I think the charging will go down the industry 4 type connected system to allow charge rates to follow generation but they haven't standardised the smart meters yet so I think thats some way off. Possibly the biggest change needed to the generation network is getting the energy in land from all the off shore wind farms that are going ahead. That and upgrading the existing networks robustness, our power was off at work from 7.30 last night, they had to send the night shift home and restart at 6am. It's pretty common sadly. I looked at doing a trip to europe in an electric and the number of contracts i would need for the different charging companies is annoying too. There are some umbrella companies which allow you to use multiple charge points but it needs more work.

I saw them doing the doughnuts at silverstone classic once in the jags, couldn't be bothered to queue, after a while the smell of rubber made me feel a bit sick, hope the passengers had a good stomach Yep I can see the shogun too! Maybe theres only so much you can do design wise with a jacked up box on wheels. What they should've done is that live at the launch. The same car doing it start to finish, now that would've been a show!

Possibly the biggest insult for poor old Land Rover is when this image appeared on my screen I thought it was 3 Isuzu Troopers jumping Although in the 2 tone bodywork they actually look a bit like Suzuki Vitaras. Both great vehicles before this gets heated... By the way that's a screen shot of the video, don't sit there clicking it...

Must have been too long for the van and the driver was Mr T We had a container delivery due at work once, the guy was late so we phoned the shipping company, it was before mobile phones so not a huge amount they could do. Eventually the driver phoned from a pay phone and said he'd been driving round and round and couldn't find us. After a lot of confusion it turned out he had the right village name just the wrong part of the country, he had collected the container from Liverpool to bring to us near Doncaster but gone to a village near Portsmouth instead. Obviously just looked the village up on the map index and didn't check the location.

I guess if its opened and not signed for the driver can be accused of opening it and pinching stuff I think these businesses work well until something goes wrong, then there is noone who can put it right as the operation is just so vast and full of so many temps and people who are poorly paid and don't care that it just isn't worth the effort. I won't bore you with it but I had a big problem with the ebay platform and I could get through to the person who would refund the cost of the listing but I couldn't get to anyone higher up to explain the problem with the platform and try get it resolved. All they wanted to do was give me the refund and clear the complaint off the system quickly. I think that's why the sender often says just keep it and we will send another.

I thought they weren't allowed to let a car advert incite speeding or dangerous driving? Atleast it's 3 years before the first MOT so you'll get a bit of a run out of it. Fun advert, bit like the start of the A-team but "Modified for safety" says it all really. Been quoted £15,500 to repair my pickup after it's minor bump, insurance are thinking of writing it off They say the a-team van used to have bleach put on the tyres to make them smoke when they span as it didn't have the power to do it otherwise

The cheap one I had was a strike start, so you had to tap it on the metal to get it to start cutting but pull it away so it didn't stick and melt. I guess getting the machine to do that is a software issue?

In the old paper days I always signed unchecked on the paperwork, not so easy on a tablet. You could always do the usual and sign M. Mouse then deny any knowledge of it turning up

I bought a new build house in 2004, one of the stipulations of planning was two parking spaces. The builders classed the garage as one space, except they were tiny and everyone used them as a shed, which meant a car on the road at every house. I didn't have a garage and as my house was on a bend I actually ended up with a drive long enough for 3 cars. However they were all in a line so you were always having to go out and swap things around. There was also a 10 year covenant in the contract with the builder which meant that you couldn't alter the front appearance of the property without their permission, so you couldn't pave the grass at the front without their say so. Although I'm sure once all the plots were sold they would be less interested in the appearance. We are leading the way with off shore wind at the moment, although China is set to overtake us. The problem at the moment is they have to be anchored to the seabed which limits where you can put them. There are two test sites around the world where they are testing floating wind turbines. There are 5 installed somewhere near Perth I believe oop norf and 3 installed in Portugal. They claim if they would there is the space to practically install enough to overcome the worlds energy requirements 7 times over. I'm not sure what that would mean for a grid though. I know we have connections to Ireland and France but I wonder if it would need to be more global, or lots of batteries? This is a nifty little site to see how we are doing: https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

It means they don't have to pay their debts, so long as the tax man gets his cut that's all that matters. The suppliers and employees aren't important. Sometimes the director gets banned but there is often a family member or partner able to take on the title.

So you charge a battery to charge a battery. Makes sense I guess but as they get old what will the efficiency be like? Maybe the charger would be a good use for batteries which are too old for the cars. 80A is quite a lot, I couldn't have 2 cars charging at full rate without blowing my fuse. I wonder if they can talk to each other or limit the demand somehow? Agree the tyre wear increase is a smaller problem but someone smarter than me needs to look into the effects on the water course etc. Although I sound it I'm not anti EV, I'm just not prepared to be the guinea pig. That's why I think they should be pushing it in delivery vans to learn from and develop rather than domestic cars. Maybe that doesn't give them enough scale for the battery factories?

They don't care and won't take responsibility. They can only cope if the computer had a box your question fits in. You could try the iva route but I don't think it would fit in and you might be really unlucky and they make you scrap it as it doesn't fit their box either. I think the axles are pushing your luck but otherwise your ok. I think your only real problems are if it's not roadworthy and you get pulled or you have an accident. If you have a bad accident they will pull it and you to pieces regardless of what paperwork you have as something you have done was clearly wrong for the accident to happen. I remind you of this story, this car had an MOT https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/dec/08/gresham-land-rover-river That said if it were mine I would consider having either an MOT or an unofficial inspection done for my own piece of mind, and a piece of paper to back it up never hurts as it shows you've taken steps to ensure it is fit for use.

We also need to make sure we don't do a 'diesel' and just concentrate on one issue. The government pushed us down the diesel route to reduce co2 whilst overlooking the nox. The weight of electric cars means a lot more heavy metals are being released from the tyres which ends up in the water course. I guess less travel would be the ideal. Charging in a few minutes is ideal, but who is going to upgrade the infrastructure to cope? Transferring 100kw worth of electricity in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours in a fair leap! Will we have to increase domestic voltage to cope, have a high voltage supply for the car then step it down for the sockets etc? Or just have the high speed chargers out and about and accept the overnight charge at home? If you had say 3 cars plugged in overnight how long would my 100 amp supply take to charge them and run the tv, oven, fridge, lights, phones etc etc?

Gas power stations are twice as efficient as coal as the gas turbine runs a generator then the waste heat from the exhaust creates steam which also drives a turbine & generator. LPG vehicles are cleaner than petrol, you can run an LPG forklift inside a warehouse but you can't run a petrol or diesel inside for that reason. The big problem I see with gas is a lot of it comes from Russia, I have images of Putin with his shirt off laughing as he turns the big gas valve to shut us off. There are a couple of power stations around here that digest willow and pump the methane into the gas main but I don't know how efficient it is. All the fasttrac tractors bombing around can't be good for the CO2 of the project. I believe by a certain date Leaving home with a full tank in an EV is assuming you have a house with a drive. I've lived in terrace houses where you park somewhere on a street hopefully within 500 yard of your house. Unless they are going to put charging points in like parking meters you have to charge elsewhere. Public charging points or maybe your place of work. I've also spent a fair few nights in crummy motels where there currently aren't any charging options. A few hotels have maybe 4 charging points, but if I'm travelling I drive for as long as I can then crash, if I had to go out in the middle of the night to unplug to save the tesla charge after it's finished charging I'm going to be pretty grumpy. I accept 80% of my driving would be fine with the 300 mile range from home, but there is only the tesla that offer that at the moment. The golfs and nissans that offer 100 miles just don't cut it and if they're not being charged by renewables it's seems a bit of a wasted effort. Also, a tesla can't carry the kit I need. Then there is the cost, frankly I can't afford one yet. I accept it's coming and am not against it, but I will let everyone else be the test bed for the time being.

Agree generation needs to be green, that's why I like the idea of removable packs. Someone with a special trolley swaps them out at the 'petrol station', sticks them in a charging rack and gives you a full one. The roof of the supermarket and carpark are covered with solar panels and wind turbines and they adjust the charge rate according to generation, only taking off the grid if they're running out of charged packs. Charge time needs to be improved and they're going high voltage to help achieve this, but I don't think many people realise how much energy you have to get into a car for a 300 mile trip. It's not just having enough charge points it's the generation and transmission which is going to be huge too. Especially as we are going for off shore electricity big time at the moment where typically there aren't that many power cables. If I'm travelling for work I do look at where the charge points are, if they're not at a hotel it's pretty impractical, and if you have to go out and move your car once it's charged it's cutting into your sleep too. There are a couple at the tunnel but the idea of sitting around kicking your heels then getting to your hotel late and getting even less sleep isn't appealing. I went to disney last year, each car park had about 4 charge points right at the front, I wished I had an EV to get the best spot, until I came out almost every day to see all 4 bays full and 3 or 4 cars with dad in sat waiting for a charger. So basically you drive to the theme park, sit in the car until someone else leaves after a full day of fun, then sit at the charging point until you have enough charge to get home. Great day out! Really they should be refining the technology on all the delivery vans out there. The government have allowed the 3.5 tonne weight limit for light commercial to be exceeded by about a tonne I believe for an electric vehicle. They do a regular route, lots of miles and are charged at night in a fixed point.

Definitely a separate starter and the alternator doesn't drive. It's not officially a 'mild hybrid', that's just me being grumpy as both my car annoys me as does the phrase mild hybrid.

My conventional car battery on my diesel car doesn't charge beyond 80% to allow capacity for the 'regenerative braking' via the smart alternator. They call it a mild hybrid. With a volt meter in the cigarette lighter you can see the voltage sits at around high 12s then when you lift your foot off the accelerator it goes up to high 14s. It's great for a caravan as it also discharges your caravan battery to 80% You can buy a box to go on the caravan to overcome this. Some sort of DC-DC supply with outputs for the fridge and battery. The car also struggles to turn over on a cold morning so they clearly haven't adapted the starter motor to cope. The voltage when I get in in a morning is usually around 11.8v. Maybe the regenerative braking is partly why they don't allow a full charge on the tesla?

So mine went off for repair, I went to enterprise to collect my like for like hire car. "Here is a brand new ford focus sir, your the first to hire it!" "That's like for like with a double cab pickup is it?" "Well it's all we have. Ok I will take it." Noticed a draft around my neck, rear window was a little open. Pushed the button to close it, went up then half way down. Must be some sort of incorrectly set anti trap feature but I didnt want to drive around in a car with both rear windows open so took it back. The only other vehicle was a 9 seater vito minibus, I accepted figuring i could do a few airport runs or something, they quickly washed it and off i went. 10 miles down the road got the warning message "oil level too high". Tomorrows job to sort that. I need to start charging by the hour, I've done pretty much nothing else for 2 days. Stupid accident

I believe the most panels they will allow on a domestic supply where your back feeding through the meter is 4kw. Dont know why that limit is imposed though. Nissan are putting their ex vehicle batteries on the grid. There was talk of 'smart' chargers which talk to the grid via your 'smart' electric meter. When you plug your car in to charge it doesnt just charge at the maximum rate, it charges based on supply availability, even taking energy back out of your car if generation is low. The charger learns your pattern of living so ensures the car is charged for your usual get up time. Let's hope you never have an emergency!

Security of tank, pipework under car etc. Shutoff valve working at tank / engine bay, emissions of vehicle and correct operation. I've never known them x-ray an lpg tank or a pressure test or anything like that. I don't think they want to take on liability for work they haven't done so not sure how easy it will be to find someone. I'm no expert though

Yeah but remember a petrol engine at 35% efficient is 35% of £1.30 per litre so going from 35% to 45% would be a good direct saving. A solar panel is 10% efficient at £0.00 per sun ray so the cost is more based on how many panels to get your 100kw charge and their life span. Going from 10% to 20% efficient reduced the number of panels you need upfront but it doesn't effect the running cost as directly. Using sea water to make batteries? The perfect solution! It'll stop the sea rising save the polar bears... and Withernsea! Not sure the underwater data centres will help with the temperature though. The big improvements we have seen with motors at work are more accurate manufacture means smaller air gaps and more efficiency, they're lighter too. Also motors driving hydraulic pumps tend to be servo motors so the machine can match supply to demand. Traditional motors used to run flat out all the time and just pump the unused oil back to the tank. The servo motors maintain a small excess flow just to lubricate the valves and so on. The machines have heat exchangers that we send cooled water through and they have the valve open nearly all the time to keep the oil down to the 45 degree operating temperature. When we went onto the servo drive machines we had to have a warming cycle put in the software as the oil wouldn't stay up at 45 degrees during the normal operating cycle. So that's an improvement in feedback, processing speed and control software more than anything.

I would be careful flail mowing on an open top machine. My grandad used to do it for a living, their tractors had 'bullet proof' glass in and one had a 4" piece of wire stuck half and half through the glass.

Well it looks better than my car at the moment 😖 Silver van hit something slippery in the toad and ended up in the field. White van hit it and came onto my side of the road. I went onto the grass to try avoid it but it hit my front quarter, went all down the side and did the rear quarter. Everyone was alright so 🤷‍♂️