The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Your tales get longer by the minute!
What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?
- Thread starter dave
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What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?
Your tales get longer by the minute!
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Spawning trout and salmon don't do it in small groups. I tried to get pictures but getting close had them all swimming for cover.
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Absolutely 
but they dont like it when people try to watch.
I was surprised to see them so far down the river. It's above the tidal reaches but only about a mile. It's a rapid river with rapids and weirs with fish ladders. I guess this lot decided far enough will do.
but they dont like it when people try to watch.I was surprised to see them so far down the river. It's above the tidal reaches but only about a mile. It's a rapid river with rapids and weirs with fish ladders. I guess this lot decided far enough will do.
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The new petrol/diesel car ban being brought forward by a further 5 years: I must admit, I do have mixed feelings about that.
Think how long the prius has been around..
Yes they need to try and move things along.. but a lot of it just isnt ready yet
Charging infrastructure was being looked at in 2012.. that was in towns : housing estates
Anyone rural..high rise.. or in older properties.. no chance
Me too. I'll be 84 years old by then - if I'm still around - so my motoring needs will have changed from now. I don't think we'll be doing our marathon drives down south any more so perhaps range won't be a problem for us, but for others, on longer journeys, even on fast charging, it will take quite a bit longer to charge the vehicle and it will be sitting blocking the charging bay for that time. Probably people will go for a coffee break whilst it charges so, unlike at a fuel pump, the car could be left occupying that charging space for longer than necessary so denying it to someone else. Then again, if you are going to fast charge frequently I would imagine battery life will be sacrifice?
Then again, just drive around any urban area. Until you get well out into the suburbs I would recon that more than half of the cars you see will be parked at the curb because their owners do not have a private drive, garage or even hard standing. To charge these cars up you are going to need charging stations all over the place - Think like a street full of parking meters?
How about the batteries themselves? lots of rare, expensive and polluting chemicals inside are there not? and how long will they actually give the performance promised in the sales brochure? They are bound to loose capacity with age so what s it's range going to be after 5 years? - especially if it's been fast charged a lot?
Then there's the price. I bought my economical wee Ibiza 1.0 litre brand new in 2016 and got a good discount on it meaning I paid just over £11,000 for it. Just look at what I'm going to pay for a similar sized electric jobbie - It's a joke! I'm also highly suspicious as to what an older one will be worth once people get over the initial ignorance and sales promises and realize the pitfalls, especially batterywise, of buying an older one.
It's a shame because I think driving an electric car promises a good experience. No gears to shift and clutch pedal to pump. By all accounts they perform well on acceleration, especially from rest so should be good to use in town. I'm fascinated to see how it all pans out!
It was great to have my punto twinair back..
But after so many weeks of not moving
The front springs are going 'Boing' like only a grande can
And of course its not a quick fix
But after so many weeks of not moving
The front springs are going 'Boing' like only a grande can
And of course its not a quick fix
I think the Hydrogen fuel cell that Honda was developing should have been the real answer - but its like Betamax and VHS videotapes (remember them?). Betamax was a far better system but VHS was quicker at getting theirs off the ground and qiuickly gained popularity over Betamax.
I think Top Gear's James May suggested the battery way forward was scandelous for pollution not to mention child-labour used for digging out rare chemicals from the earth and earning a pittance for the trouble
I think Top Gear's James May suggested the battery way forward was scandelous for pollution not to mention child-labour used for digging out rare chemicals from the earth and earning a pittance for the trouble
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Fast charging is what most home charging units are capable of (32amp 7KW)
Rapid charging, which is what you seem to refer to (50+KW units at motorway services etc) have little ill effect on the battery if it has adequate thermal management.
Rare chemicals like the Cobolt thats in fuel and burnt off never to be seen again in petrol cars. Which can be recovered from battery.
Most Prius, including the original 1st Gen from 1997-2003, are still on their original traction battery. Most EV battery should out last the car, yes they suffer degradation but tend to slow down when then hit 70-80%, rather than continue to zero which some seem to think happens.
Not really, can't compare a budget car to a high spec motor. There unfortunately isn't a comparison currently as most EV's are high end on the tech front. Agreed they need to bring in some budget no thrills EVs to fill the budget end of the market. But then again, you're spending 13-15p a mile on fuel vs 2p on electric if home charging. 11p difference is soon recovered if doing at least average mileage. Not to mention significantly reduced maintenance and service costs.
Pit falls.... you mean the ones that have been disproven, resulting in residuals on a lot of used EV's being extremely strong at the moment :roll eyes:
You've a decade of EV's now, how much more paning out would you want? What's the average life span of a vehicle currently? 13.5 years I saw recently, not sure how accurate that is, but seems about right when you look at the average age of vehicles on the road.
How / Why?
Hydrogen is extremely energy intensive to create.
Why waste energy creating it when you can just put that in a battery and use less energy for the same power output
Think back to @1990
If your car did 30mpg.. you were doing well
Then the TD revolution happened (aided by French CARTAX rules..) .. 50 mpg was perfectly achieveable..
this was still 25 years ago..
Think how the alternative kit has moved on since then..
Range has gone from 60 miles to 180..
Another doubling would make things comparable to ICE
I tend to fuel my work car for 250 miles..
Thats 1 week £22 or around 1/2 tank
Dont see the point of lugging around an extra 30kg... similar would apply in a battery vehicle
Sensible range.. acceptable performance
: smaller battery less weight
When did Volvo proclaim they were going to be ICE free..? 2022..?
If your car did 30mpg.. you were doing well
Then the TD revolution happened (aided by French CARTAX rules..) .. 50 mpg was perfectly achieveable..
this was still 25 years ago..
Think how the alternative kit has moved on since then..
Range has gone from 60 miles to 180..
Another doubling would make things comparable to ICE
I tend to fuel my work car for 250 miles..
Thats 1 week £22 or around 1/2 tank
Dont see the point of lugging around an extra 30kg... similar would apply in a battery vehicle
Sensible range.. acceptable performance
: smaller battery less weight
When did Volvo proclaim they were going to be ICE free..? 2022..?
How / Why?
Hydrogen is extremely energy intensive to create.
Why waste energy creating it when you can just put that in a battery and use less energy for the same power output
I agree in principle.. the motor I needed to rebuild on a helium liquifier was the size of a proper mini..
The Dutch now have a glut of windfarms.. when they are still producing at 2 in the morning they use excess power to liquify fuel..
The electric is enough at current levels.. but when 20 million uk journeys a day rely on it.. we could be struggling
Generating it is the easy part..
Distribution is where the costs get scary
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Just electrified, not full EV iirc.
An interesting point, however I think EVs will equally be the solution via V2G (Vehicle to Grid) capability. During Peak demand.
The Grid itself is fine. Only running at 20% capability as electricity demand has dropped massively over the past 2 decades since lighting has changed to LED, and a lot of good have become a lot better on their juice requirements.
Like you say though, it's the production side which 'could' become an issue, but I can see that being easily overcome to be honest.
I have to err on the side of battery tech, it’s now been around for many years the technology not only works but out performs combustion engines. Yes batteries are expensive but the price has dropped massively in just the last 5 years and aside from the costs of battery cars even combustion cars are shooting up in price.
Electricity can be generated very cleanly and the wind is always blowing her in the UK while there is plenty of capacity in the grid currently they can easily grow the supply with wind farms which means they can just bolt on more power generation as need and the development of new nuclear stations while not ideal will form a back bone to the supply. They are now talking about sizewell C getting the go ahead near here.
All the old arguments can be over come and many of the charging problems can be worked around.
As some one else pointed out the excess power generated over night can be funnelled in to generating hydrogen (though if everyone has there car plugged in over night that probably won’t be much of an issue) the hydrogen produced can be used in either power cells or burned and used to power vehicles like ships and ferries as some countries and Scottish islands have already started doing.
Currently the biggest down side I see is a materials issue, copper may not be in such abundance that they can get enough of it, but I suspect the use of these materials will change.
Electricity can be generated very cleanly and the wind is always blowing her in the UK while there is plenty of capacity in the grid currently they can easily grow the supply with wind farms which means they can just bolt on more power generation as need and the development of new nuclear stations while not ideal will form a back bone to the supply. They are now talking about sizewell C getting the go ahead near here.
All the old arguments can be over come and many of the charging problems can be worked around.
As some one else pointed out the excess power generated over night can be funnelled in to generating hydrogen (though if everyone has there car plugged in over night that probably won’t be much of an issue) the hydrogen produced can be used in either power cells or burned and used to power vehicles like ships and ferries as some countries and Scottish islands have already started doing.
Currently the biggest down side I see is a materials issue, copper may not be in such abundance that they can get enough of it, but I suspect the use of these materials will change.
I got a job ad popped up at the top of this reply Andy
'Careers at AWE' ( hm govt..as was)
Crikey.. they must think I'm
'young and capable'.. I probably was once
'Careers at AWE' ( hm govt..as was)
Crikey.. they must think I'm
'young and capable'.. I probably was once
OP
OP
The biggest problem with is going to be charging, people cant even find a parking space so how the hell will they find one with a charging point?
For the last 10 years the governments solution to cut car use was to build homes with no parking to try and put people off buying a car, it didn't work so now we have even less homes with parking than we did 0 years ago and its growing.
New homes with no parking so everyone blocking the streets for fire engines, no time to train techs to service electric cars, cars wont be services correctly causing electrical fires in these narrow streets, electrical fires that cant be put out with water.
For the last 10 years the governments solution to cut car use was to build homes with no parking to try and put people off buying a car, it didn't work so now we have even less homes with parking than we did 0 years ago and its growing.
New homes with no parking so everyone blocking the streets for fire engines, no time to train techs to service electric cars, cars wont be services correctly causing electrical fires in these narrow streets, electrical fires that cant be put out with water.
Once again I find myself marveling at what a great resource and source of knowledge our forum and it's members is! - and thanks M E Pandas for advancing me up the ladder a few rungs.
I'm not at all "anti electrification" I like driving automatic vehicles but have never owned one - except for several DAFs - because I dread the cost of repair should it go wrong. In fact I make a point of trying to hire an automatic when on holiday. I see electric as a simple way to go "automatic".
I know quite a lot about ICE powered vehicles, having earned some of my living repairing and maintaining them, but I know little to nothing about electric traction and their control systems. However I suspect they will be much much more reliable than the good old ICE - especially as it's now swamped with electronics.
Hopefully the Ibiza will have at least another 5 reliable years in it and I'm sure, mostly because the government is pushing electric so strongly, that rapid and innovative progress will be made over that time. Also, because it interests me so much, I will become more knowledgeable and I'm sure my next car, quite probably my last? will be electrically powered.
I'm still daunted by the prices I see them costing. I do see a few cheaper options, like that weird looking Renault, but for even a lower range "proper" car you seem to be looking at around the £30,000 mark. I could have bought nearly 3 Ibizas for that! I "get" what you are saying about running costs but that is a slow return on investment and by the time I've borrowed the "extra" money (I can afford to buy something in the ICE Ibiza price range but I can't lay out £30,000) to buy the electric vehicle that eats into the fuel savings.
So, basically, I want to! But I'm not convinced, and the "up front" cost is a massive psychological barrier for me (and many other older people I suspect?)
no time to train techs to service electric cars, cars wont be services correctly causing electrical fires in these narrow streets, electrical fires that cant be put out with water.
In all honesty most of an electric car service consists of checking the tyre pressures and wiping it over with an oily rag, you don’t need to touch the battery the motor or the control systems. It’s comparable to when you take any normal car in for a service the garage don’t need to touch the electric windows.
One of the charging solutions is the possibility of lamp posts on the street having an ev plug in point. When the revolution comes there will be no shortage of charging options.
