Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

[Slenver]

I was reading the reviews for the MG4 lastnight.

It sounds pretty good. The council spec one is only £25k. Quite tempted.

Yeah, reviews have been great for it. Still not sure about the looks though! It'll all be Chinese cars soon

[Slenver]

Macan is going all electric on the next model cycle too. That's pretty bold from Porsche, the Macan is their best selling model and their ticket to the bank.

Yes, but won't be till 2024 and the last rumours were that they'd keep the petrol model for some time as well to overlap.

I think an electric Macan makes a lot of sense though. It was popular from launch as the most affordable Porsche, and they killed off the diesels after all the diesel fuss, despite them being the cheapest, most popular and easily most economical model. If they can do an EV that's faster, more refined, cheaper to run than petrol and as cheap to buy then I think they'll be onto a winner. Taycan sales prove there's a market for EV Porsches, though admittedly it's still a lot smaller than current petrol Macan sales.

[Mussels]

I was reading the reviews for the MG4 lastnight.

It sounds pretty good. The council spec one is only £25k. Quite tempted.

I know a chap that works for a multi-brand dealership that stock MG. Support is terrible with common parts unavailable, they struggle to find mechanics willing to work on them.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I can't see me ever driving anything but a big 4x4 again, we just went to visit my daughter and I can take a shortcut to her apartment across the desert and miss out a load of traffic lights, so it was up the curb, across the sand and pop out the other side, you can't do that in a 911.

Get your order in now!

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-ger ... akar/46456

[Docca]

Out here in Barcelona, it’s noticeable how many more EVs there are. Motorbikes, Vespas (!!) and even government stuff.

My buddy gave me a lift in his Merc EQ something - lovely. Really well turned out.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I was having a coffee on the back of my boat early yesterday when this chap went past on his commute...

Wouldn't work where I live, all the car park barriers are for RHD only.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The French are currently in the process of (potentially) making it a legal requirement for car parks with over 80 spaces to be covered in solar panels.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonrei ... e3ac074c5b

No word on whether Liz Truss thinks this is a waste of land use.

[Mussels]

France has a bit of an advantage with that, maybe we should insist on something powered by clouds.
Truss?

[demographic]

France has a bit of an advantage with that, maybe we should insist on something powered by clouds.
Truss?

Yah, Truss is soo last month Tory fashion, darlinks.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Truss?

She was (and presumably still is, but no-one cares now) against building solar panels in the UK because 'it takes up agricultural land'. This is depsite, IIRC, the NFU saying that's bollox.

[mangocrazy]

Truss?

She was (and presumably still is, but no-one cares now) against building solar panels in the UK because 'it takes up agricultural land'. This is depsite, IIRC, the NFU saying that's bollox.

She was once a fossil fuel company (Shell?) employee, so remembers her roots.

And doubtless gets rewarded handsomely for doing so.

[Count Steer]

Truss?

She was (and presumably still is, but no-one cares now) against building solar panels in the UK because 'it takes up agricultural land'. This is depsite, IIRC, the NFU saying that's bollox.

NFU member: 'Will oi get more £ frum moi solar faaarm or frum they there mangelwurzel subsidies?'

(They're not going to say it's NOT bollox are they? ).

[KungFooBob]

My FiL (an accidental farmer) has been offered more than a field is worth for a 20 year lease to put panels on it.

I can't work out why the energy company wouldn't just buy it outright for less money. Assume it's some tax fiddle.

[Kneerly Down]

Don't laugh, but I'm picking up a Vauxhall Ampera next week.
I'm not wanting to put many 10s of £k into an electric only car and the Ampera does seem a pretty good implementation of being able to do most of my local mileage almost solely on electric, which are 30 mile return trips to the local office, 36 miles for the supermarket and not worrying about range for the other several hundred mile trips.
Our other normal local journey is 18 miles return but involves going from sea level to over 1,000 ft and back down to sea level and is really punishing on fuel economy...will be interesting to see how it hits the electric range and how much it regenerates on the downhill sections.

[KungFooBob]

Don't laugh, but I'm picking up a Vauxhall Ampera next week.
I'm not wanting to put many 10s of £k into an electric only car and the Ampera does seem a pretty good implementation of being able to do most of my local mileage almost solely on electric, which are 30 mile return trips to the local office, 36 miles for the supermarket and not worrying about range for the other several hundred mile trips.
Our other normal local journey is 18 miles return but involves going from sea level to over 1,000 ft and back down to sea level and is really punishing on fuel economy...will be interesting to see how it hits the electric range and how much it regenerates on the downhill sections.

They've not made them for almost 10 years, be interesting to see what the actual real world range is.

EDIT:

Assumed they were full leccy, seems there's versions that are hybrid/range extender.

[Horse]

Don't laugh, but I'm picking up a Vauxhall Ampera next week.

Drove one for a couple days, a few years ago.

It worked, took three of us, comfortably, several hundred miles, quite happily.

I'd have one. Well, then, be interested to know how the battery is doing.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The solar farm opposite my work has a bunch of sheep mooching about in between the panels.

[Horse]

The solar farm opposite my work has a bunch of sheep mooching about in between the panels.

Can't eat a robot mower

[Mussels]

My FiL (an accidental farmer) has been offered more than a field is worth for a 20 year lease to put panels on it.

I can't work out why the energy company wouldn't just buy it outright for less money. Assume it's some tax fiddle.

I'm currently considering a couple of fields (£70k-£100k each for 3-5 acres) to plant trees, I can't find any woodland to buy near me, so I thought I'd create my own, it's currently used for arable crops. It might not be any good for my lifetime (as a woods to enjoy) but my kids/grandkids will benefit from it, I'm aiming to leave a small sustainable estate to my kids, with the ability to grow their own food, take water from a natural spring on my land, and coppice woodland for fuel (if it's not banned by the clean air goons by then).

I'm about to look into grants or carbon credits, I was going to do it anyway, but someone suggested I could get a grant or return on it, so it's a bonus if I do. I hadn't considered using it for solar, but then I'd lose the use of the land.

You can get paid for planting trees, companies will also pay you to put their trees there and they take the grant.
I think the minimum is 1 hectare, so about 5 acres.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I've done a few charity days planting trees for forestry england....just turn up with a spade and fill a field with little saplings they've already cultivated. Apparently the survival rate is actually quite low, but they deliberately overplant and thin them out later.

Plus Deer get 'em, the horny bastards. I dunno though, maybe Iccy would like a bit of target practice. We've got more Deer in this country than at any other time in the last 1000 years supposedly.