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

[Taipan]

New type of roadside charger being installed now.

[Yorick]

New type of roadside charger being installed now.

Why didn't he just put the car on his drive?

[Taipan]

New type of roadside charger being installed now.

Why didn't he just put the car on his drive?

Battery was flat...

[Yorick]

New type of roadside charger being installed now.

Why didn't he just put the car on his drive?

Battery was flat...

Needs a proper charging system

[Dodgy69]

Bloke at work picked up a Nissan leaf from Aberdeen to Telford. He said it was on charge more than it was on the road. it was the little battery one though, about 100 miles.

[Felix]

Today is day 10 of a charger being installed at a house in the next street. May be the last day as i seen the whacker plate being dragged off a motor. Apparently the job was not planned well is it was different company's doing different jobs but FFS, 10 days.

[ZRX61]

Commercial building burned to the ground in LA area tonight. They haven't said if it was a Tesla maintenance shop or a dealership, but there's at least 7 fewer Tesla's now.

[Taipan]

Harry on why he ditched EVs and PHEVs in favour of returning to a diesel...

[Mr. Dazzle]

S'Certainly true what he says about Tesla and efficiency. Tesla batteries are very good, their controllers are very good and their motors are very good. The rest of the car is a bit shite. But Tesla are all about being an EV, they're an EV tech company first and everything about their cars is about the EVness of them. Also shouldn't overlook the fact that Tesla have much more experience at making batteries, motors etc. for a sensible cost 'cause they're 10 years ahead on that front.

All of the other manufacturers are basically playing catch up on that EV aspect. They can piss all over Tesla in terms of build quality, luxury etc. in the same way as Tesla (nearly) piss all over them in EV drive tech. So that's what they do, they build big luxury cars 'cause that's what they know how to do.

It won't be that way forever, or indeed for very much longer. All the other OEMs are seriously upping their game in this field. A lot of it is through buying companies like the one I work for

[Taipan]

I think his point about EV sales is very valid though. Why buy one now, knowing they're hoping to dramatically improve in efficiency in the next few years. Plus the winter usage/range issue. He is also bang on with the battery health needing to be displayed, like on phones. All 3 points are a massive issue for resale.

Also, his point about private transport only making up for around c7% CO2 gases, makes you wonder why you'd even bother with EVs. Like Harry, I'm someone who likes the idea of EVs, but also the same as him, i'll be sticking with diesels for some time to come i think.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah I'm not sure where he got that figure of 7% from, but I wasn't paying full attention.

Doesn't seem to tally with ofish Government stats?

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... stics-2022.

Someone get a calc, is 52% of 91% of 24% the same as 7%?

Transport produced 24% of the UK’s total emissions in 2020, and remains the largest emitting sector in the UK. The majority (91%) of emissions from domestic transport came from road vehicles (89 MtCO2e). The biggest contributors to this were cars and taxis, which made up 52% of the emissions from domestic transport (51 MtCO2e), Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) (19% of domestic transport emissions, 18.6 MtCO2e) and vans (16% of emissions, 16 MtCO2e).

[Saga Lout]

52% of 91% of 24% is 11.1%. That includes taxis so 7% for private cars sounds about right.

[Mr. Dazzle]

There's certainly a lot more to it than just saying "private cars are only 7%".

If you accept that the UK does need to reduce emissions down to early 1990s level (not talking about whether that's required, just assume it is for a moment) you can see that trasnport needs to pull alot more weight. Virtually all of the improvement to date has been down to better power stations, wind farms etc., then a bit from better home insulation and the like plus improvements in industry.

Transport has basically done fuck all*. It's one of the harder nuts to crack and hence why it's coming last. That 7% will steadily become bigger and bigger until it's really obvious Transport needs to do more.

*slightly unfair, emissions have stayed level while total miles covered has gone up loads

[mangocrazy]

So basically the consistently more and more stringent Euro2/3/4/5/6 regulations have had a net effect of diddly-squat?

[Mr. Dazzle]

They've let us all drive further and more often with less impact.

They're also about air quality don't forget, not just CO2.

[Yambo]

So basically the consistently more and more stringent Euro2/3/4/5/6 regulations have had a net effect of diddly-squat?

I suspect that somebody somewhere has made a few bob out of them . . .

[mangocrazy]

Really? I'd like to see a graph giving miles driven as part of the comparison. You'd hope and assume that the EuroX ratchet has all been for a good reason, other than just keeping a lot of people in paid employment.

[Mr. Dazzle]

EuroX regs aren't really about CO2, they're about CO, NOX, unburned hydrocarbons etc. That's why you have those wheelie bin cats and so on, to deal with those emissions, not CO2. CO2 is tackled though of course, partly through road Tax but mostly through fuel being expensive Plus manufacturers have "fleet wide" numbers they have to hit, but they're different (fudged ) based on the kind of cars you make.

Euro 7 is gonna consider brake pads

EDIT: 'ere you go, mileage per person climbed steeply pretty much until the 1990s, slowing down in the late 90s and then sloping downwards in the early 21st century, so in all that period from the mid/late 80s up until early 2000s car usage per person was climbing a lot, but emissions stayed pretty flat. And of course, there are a lot more people now...

That "-3% since 1972" is a bit BS though right? That's 2020!

[Taipan]

So basically the consistently more and more stringent Euro2/3/4/5/6 regulations have had a net effect of diddly-squat?

No, its ruined some otherwise perfectly good motorbikes...

[mangocrazy]

I think his point about EV sales is very valid though. Why buy one now, knowing they're hoping to dramatically improve in efficiency in the next few years. Plus the winter usage/range issue. He is also bang on with the battery health needing to be displayed, like on phones. All 3 points are a massive issue for resale.

Also, his point about private transport only making up for around c7% CO2 gases, makes you wonder why you'd even bother with EVs. Like Harry, I'm someone who likes the idea of EVs, but also the same as him, i'll be sticking with diesels for some time to come i think.

I'm with PieTin on this. EVs are just at the start of their developmental curve and whatever you buy now will be out of date in 5 years or possibly less. This is reflected in residuals, which are awful for EVs. They're also far too fucking expensive new and battery life and range are to an extent unknowns. The concept of EVs is great, but they need about 20-30 years before they become mature tech. I'm sticking with dirty diesels for the forseeable.