23 hours ago, mjt said:

And there you have the reason why they're foisting smart meters on us. They give the supplier the ability to cut your supply at the click of a mouse.

Which is why I would never opt for one...

17 hours ago, mjt said:

Here's one for Stephen . . . . .

I actually saw that report on the Merc self destructing, but didn't mention it on here. You can only highlight so many EV fires before folk think you have a grudge... 🤣

Toyota North America has announced that they will be persuing the further development of petrol engine vehicles. They had previously stated that they would be developing gasoline hybrid vehicles as well as electric vehicles and variants of each.

So, it took something like 72 hours for a major manufacturer to make a statement regarding the thrust and breadth of future product development as a result of the election of Donald Trump. 
I expect that the others, with the exception of Stellantis, will be making similar announcements within the next two months.

I use to feel genuine sympathy for Londoners having Sadiq Khan for their mayor. Though that all dissipated when y'all voted him back in power a few months ago.  There were 3 candidates running on a ticket to abolish ULEZ & Congestion charges, one (Howard Cox) promised to do it on day one of taking office. Apparently there is a forthcoming report due soon (which I'll post here when done) showing ULEZ hasn't reduced emissions whatsoever, but has generated £Millions in income for the Mayors office.

In the last few days it has been exposed that Khan had abandoned a plan, 'project Gladys', that proposed to be a Pay Per Mile scheme of £2/mile. Yes, it was abandoned but does illustrate the mindset of the man. He hates cars, and plans to price them out of the reach of us ordinary folk. He has already spent £150 Million of local London tax payer money on the abandoned project.

His grasp over London citizens must be something like Stockholm syndrome! I do hope that next time there is an opportunity to get him out of office, that the locals use their vote to do so...

2 hours ago, StephenFord said:

I use to feel genuine sympathy for Londoners having Sadiq Khan for their mayor. Though that all dissipated when y'all voted him back in power a few months ago.

You mean turkeys who vote for Xmas deserve to be stuffed?

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

You mean turkeys who vote for Xmas deserve to be stuffed?

Or, folk voting Labour expecting something different than 'tax & spend' LOL

Vaguely back on energy, had a few smiles at the COP 29 conference.

It seemed a bit like the old one about throwing a party and no-one showing up. Well, not quite but there were few big players in evidence.

Meanwhile the Azerbaijani president, apart from lambasting the French for their colonial crimes, seems to have taken it as a marketing opportunity for selling his country's oil and gas to anyone wanting to buy.

You couldn't make it up, etc.

Oh dear:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/electriccars/article-14078213/Ford-slashes-production-two-newest-EVs-Capri-Explorer-SUV-low-demand.html

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Vaguely back on energy, had a few smiles at the COP 29 conference.

I remember the COP held in Glasgow where they had a fleet of over 100 EVs. They had to charge them up using diesel generators as no viable electric supplies 🤣

Ford really needs to step back and take a breath. The electric vehicles are not selling. The reasons for this are manifold. I could  stand up and rattle off more than ten of those reasons without even looking at notes! This whole “thing” was an example of government meddling in markets and business planning that requires years of research and countless tiny steps and course corrections along the way.

Government is incapable of doing that.  It matters not if it is an American government or French or any other government. People who have a vote have been wasting it on politicians who say that their policies are the best answer. It’s never been the case that government is better at markets than the business sector. If SOME aspect of it was better for a short period, it was because the force of government prosecution made that tiny little thing seem to work better for a while.

46 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Oh dear:

Well now, yesterday I saw one of these Capri abominations in the wild for the very first time. Finished in a very fetching shade of 'battleship grey' perhaps not what Ford have called it. To be honest my first reaction wasn't so much as "Oh dear" more a case of "WTF !!!!!" 🤣

1 hour ago, unofix said:

Finished in a very fetching shade of 'battleship grey' perhaps

I can see why all the publicity shots have been "vivid yellow"! 

It's pretty much in line with all the other electric SUVs on the market I guess. Ford have just made a rod for their own backs by using that name and lines like:

"The legend is back"

and

 "Sports car soul in a practical SUV"

All the reviews I've seen have rated it as a perfectly acceptable electric SUV, but emphasised that sports car it is not (neither was a 1300 Capri to be fair). What it's USP is supposed to be compared to others on the market I'm not sure, and in that grey colour it looks even more like the Explorer which it basically is. Just a way to make a bit more cash off the same underpinnings.

VW have done the same thing with the ID4 and 5 I suppose, ditto Volvo with the XC40 and EC40, etc, etc, but without the "legend" bullsh*t.

 

d" is back

It's not to bad in white, but still not my thing. 

Other manufactures are able to produce sensible sized EVs for sensible prices. 

We done quite a few explorers but I think at the expense of the mache e. They have slowed down. 

4 minutes ago, iantt said:

It's not to bad in white

Yes that does seem to be the default colour for a Transit Van 🤣

On 11/6/2024 at 4:46 PM, Scottman said:

The fact that every vehicle has the ability to track and transmit data including cellphone data and conversations is an issue.

I don't know what YOU do or where you travel or what you speak about on your phone, but do you really think that the Chinese are interested??? 

And I don't see that it's any more of an issue than the cellphone that you keep in your jacket pocket, assuming that you have one (a phone, that is, not a jacket!).

The Chinese are very interested in everything from the free world. By “everything” I mean all and any raw data that can reveal your passwords or purchase patterns, including credit card numbers or other personal information. There are many Chinese websites that only exist to vacuum up personal data. The products that are sold are just the gravy. The meat is personal data.

all of it is a Chinese government priority. They have been literally waging war on the free world since the early 90’s. You probably don’t see much mention of that in your news media coverage.

Wandering off topic into the realms of phones. Two friends of ours suffered major hacks to online accounts/data. In both cases the investigation led back to mobile phones. In one case the only possibility seemed to point to a phone paired with her car, and the "ripples" affected everyone on her contact list. People she knew (including us) started to be bombarded by spam/scam emails and calls etc.

18 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

... In one case the only possibility seemed to point to a phone paired with her car, and the "ripples" affected everyone on her contact list.....

This 'full integration' has always concerned me. Your phone contains every aspect of your life, yet folk are quite happy to replicate it on their car. I doubt they'd leave their house with the door open/unlocked, yet quite happily make all sorts of personal data available for theft. We live in odd times...

14 hours ago, Scottman said:

The Chinese are very interested in everything from the free world

Interesting theory - I'm highlighting the word 'everything' - but I suspect there is little or no evidence for this, just what YOUR news media tells you.  I'm sure the Chinese do spy on things which are of military / political significance.... as the UK and the US spy on them (hopefully!). I just don't think that they will get any mileage (pun intended) from looking at my travelling patterns, or indeed 99% of the population.

I am far more concerned about fraudsters hacking into my online bank account - I think that is a far greater risk.

But as we've seen recently at the highest level, everyone has a different take on things. You think I'm naiive and I think you're paranoid 😉

I think I'm making my comments to hopefully help people feel a little more relaxed/comfortable in their everyday life. If we're not careful we'll all end up putting Faraday cages around our toasters and washing machines.

 

13 minutes ago, alanfp said:

Interesting theory - I'm highlighting the word 'everything' - but I suspect there is little or no evidence for this, just what YOUR news media tells you.

Oh the irony, 5 minutes ago I posted this on another thread...

I have an account with Casio UK who recently emailed me to say they experienced a data breach with my details taken - so the Chinese will have all my info anyway now 🤣

Last year my partner was the victim of a massive data breach on Boots payroll which resulted in a 3 year subscription to 'anti theft data' web protection.

Companies large and small are vulnerable, and now keep our data in the electronic equivalent of a cardboard box! Nothing you can do unless you want to live off-line...

Reading this mornings papers, I spotted an article in the business section under the  headline "Ministers prepare to relax EV sales rules".

It goes on to say the Transport and Business Secretaries will.be holding talks with carmakers next week, apparently in response to the threat of job losses. The Unite union is also in talks with Government and industry on reforming the ZEV mandate.

Dare we hope for at least a small outbreak of common sense? 

9 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Dare we hope for at least a small outbreak of common sense? 

Did I miss something, or are Labour still in charge?? 🤣

2 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Did I miss something, or are Labour still in charge?? 🤣

The Transport Secretary is still the pink haired lady so I assume so.😀

The article I was reading raised the suggestion of purchase subsidy for EVs bought privately.

Now, I may well one day buy an EV, when/if I find one that I would want to drive, meets my needs, is the best value, etc. But I don't think my purchase should be subsidized by other taxpayers, many of whom won't even have a car themselves.

I don't really think that one would work politically though, not a good look: "Government leaves OAPs shivering after dropping winter fuel allowance, to fund handouts for Tesla buyers" etc.😀

And now it starts...

Vauxhall just announced 1100 job losses in their famous plant at Luton which they'll be closing due to UK's accelerated conversion to EVs.

Though never worry, Ed Milliband has promised 1000s of new 'green' jobs to replace them. Though it may be a rather long commute to China...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/breaking-vauxhalls-luton-plant-close-34191063

 

 

 

5 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Vauxhall just announced 1100 job losses in their famous plant at Luton which they'll be closing due to UK's accelerated conversion to EVs.

Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK (Sunderland) has gone on to a 4 Day a week production, which began last week. I expect in Nissan speak we will see "separation by agreement" that's voluntary redundancies to the rest of us, in the near future 🙄