I see the new  Ford F150 Lightning EV has over 70,000 pre orders, which I thought would count as a lot, but apparently it's less than for the Tesla Cybertruck.

Saying that those ford pre-orders will probably be actual sales in the end, unlike the cybertruck ones.

39 minutes ago, Mark-UK said:

I see the new  Ford F150 Lightning EV has over 70,000 pre orders, which I thought would count as a lot, but apparently it's less than for the Tesla Cybertruck.

 

The F150 is the best selling truck in the world averaging 900,000 sales/year. 70,000 does sound alot, but wait till them yankees start running out of charge in the interstates, the initial excitement could wear off pretty quick LOL Range is a much bigger issue there than it'll ever be in the UK

EUREKA !!

There may be some real hope for battery powered vehicles. Watch this new YouTube video (25th July 2021) on "Battery Swapping" .............. Now that might work !   (Sorry  the guy is a bit boring - try to stay awake)

 

7 hours ago, unofix said:

EUREKA !!

There may be some real hope for battery powered vehicles. Watch this new YouTube video (25th July 2021) on "Battery Swapping" .............. Now that might work !   (Sorry  the guy is a bit boring - try to stay awake)

Great idea! Just like my 12 year old Nokia, where you can keep a spare battery on charge, and swap it out in about 20 seconds. Whereas my new 'smartphone' (dumb as ***** really), has a sealed case so needs a (very expensive) factory intervention to get a new battery in it... The old ways are the best, eh?

6 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Great idea! Just like my 12 year old Nokia, where you can keep a spare battery on charge, and swap it out in about 20 seconds. Whereas my new 'smartphone' (dumb as ***** really), has a sealed case so needs a (very expensive) factory intervention to get a new battery in it... The old ways are the best, eh?

It's almost as if they want people to keep buying newer smartphones every couple of years... 🤭

14 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

It's almost as if they want people to keep buying newer smartphones every couple of years... 🤭

That, and not supplying any security updates after about a year LOL

The latest government advice released today,

The (Transport) committee said industry must use pricing "to change consumer charging behaviour to a 'little but often' approach and at times when the National Grid can meet total demand".

So, the government are already planning to tell us when we should charge our battery cars! I just can't believe there aren't protests on the streets telling them to stay out of our lives.

More than ever, Ronald Reagan's statement in 1988 that the 9 most scary words in the English language are, "We're from the government, and we're here to help..."

 

23 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

The (Transport) committee said industry must use pricing "to change consumer charging behaviour to a 'little but often' approach and at times when the National Grid can meet total demand".

Lol. So you run out of charge and then hang about until it's the right time to put a few (but not too many!) Volts in? 😀

 

4 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Lol. So you run out of charge and then hang about until it's the right time to put a few (but not too many!) Volts in? 😀

 

Dear Boris,

Your new 'battery' car policy sucks LOL

Also in the news recently has been the story about battery electric lorries taking power to recharge from overhead wires (at the right times presumably). 

https://www.wseetonline.com/rs/2021/07/28/lorries-could-run-on-overhead-power-lines-motorways-in-bid-to-decarbonise-road-freight/

 

24 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Also in the news recently has been the story about battery electric lorries taking power to recharge from overhead wires (at the right times presumably). 

https://www.wseetonline.com/rs/2021/07/28/lorries-could-run-on-overhead-power-lines-motorways-in-bid-to-decarbonise-road-freight/

 

i can see trains going that way too in the future. 🤣🤣

Next thing to do would be lay railway tracks so electric locomotives can pull trains of 50 or more containers with one driver. Would also solve the current driver shortage.

6 minutes ago, mjt said:

Next thing to do would be lay railway tracks so electric locomotives can pull trains of 50 or more containers with one driver. Would also solve the current driver shortage.

then build new houses along the edge of rail track so amazon can use the same track to deliver parcels 

actually the royal mail in the early 20th century were able to catch the mail from a moving train. 

7 minutes ago, mjt said:

Next thing to do would be lay railway tracks so electric locomotives can pull trains of 50 or more containers with one driver. Would also solve the current driver shortage.

Why would you need a driver at all?  Not much steering to be done on a railway track!  

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Why would you need a driver at all? 

Years ago I was on a monorail in Las Vegas (driverless). I must confess that there is something quite terrifying sitting in the front where the 'driver' would normally sit - thankfully, a very short journey LOL

1 hour ago, iantt said:

then build new houses along the edge of rail track so amazon can use the same track to deliver parcels 

actually the royal mail in the early 20th century were able to catch the mail from a moving train. 

The old GPO documentary film "Night Mail" gets repeated on Talking Pictures TV now and again - quite interesting.

Spotted this a couple of years back about Amazon using rail in the US:

https://www.rtands.com/rail-news/20478/

https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/uk_ev_charging_market_study/

3 minutes ago, eddie eastwood said:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/uk_ev_charging_market_study/

But how could that be? The government have told us this is the way the transport will go. Just as they told us in the late 1990s that diesel was the fuel of the future, even offering sizeable subsidies in the sale of diesel cars to help the population switch from petrol.

Surely they know what they are doing, right? Initially stating another benefit that the cost of diesel was almost half that of petrol, until they got the number of diesel cars up. Then hiked the tax on the fuel up so much it ended up more expensive than petrol, where it has remained ever since.

It's almost as if they don't learn from past mistakes, more importantly, we don't learn that government is possible of making errors, of monumental proportions - again, how could this be? 🤣🤣🤣

19 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

It's almost as if they don't learn from past mistakes, more importantly, we don't learn that government is possible of making errors, of monumental proportions - again, how could this be? 🤣🤣🤣

It's OK Stephen, they have a plan 😀

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/transport-decarbonisation-plan

41 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

It's OK Stephen, they have a plan 😀

 

Now, who doesn't love a government plan 220 pages in length LOL Will have a good old read of it when I get a second...

Though highlights seem to include, "with the aim that half of all journeys in towns and
cities will be cycled or walked by 2030..." (That'll please Halfords)

"We will support car clubs to go fully zero emission..." I wonder how the E Type Jaguar club will feel about that LOL

"We are supporting the development of battery and hydrogen trains ..." Oh goody, they may accidentally discover that hydrogen for cars is a runner!

46 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

" Oh goody, they may accidentally discover that hydrogen for cars is a runner!

I was looking at the sub-plan (if that's a thing?😀) about the transition to zero carbon cars/vans by 2035 and got to page35 iirc before hydrogen even got a mention.

Seems that Cummins are also looking at hydrogen ICE:

https://www.ivtinternational.com/news/engines/testing-of-hydrogen-fuelled-internal-combustion-engine-underway-by-cummins.html

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Now, who doesn't love a government plan 220 pages in length LOL Will have a good old read of it when I get a second...

Though highlights seem to include, "with the aim that half of all journeys in towns and
cities will be cycled or walked by 2030..." (That'll please Halfords)

"We will support car clubs to go fully zero emission..." I wonder how the E Type Jaguar club will feel about that LOL

"We are supporting the development of battery and hydrogen trains ..." Oh goody, they may accidentally discover that hydrogen for cars is a runner!

the company in the industrial estate next to ours at work are developing hydrogen fuel cell trains. there was a trial a few months back on a mainline that got sone publicity. 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200227-how-hydrogen-powered-trains-can-tackle-climate-change

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/07/toyota-bet-wrong-on-evs-so-now-its-lobbying-to-slow-the-transition/

Had to smile today about the Government's spokesperson on green issues. She has made news in  most of the papers by saying she is hanging on to her old diesel because of "range anxiety" which has prompted various people including the President of the AA to say the average EV has a range over 200 miles and can be quickly recharged on a rapid charger.

Not where I am at the mo (top of the Yorkshire Dales). One 7 kw charger here, only accepts payment by app, and if you don't have your own suitable cables with you, hard luck. Next nearest chargers are 15 miles away, but I understand they are the same. The nearest "rapid-ish" chargers are about 25 miles away.

"They" seem to forget that some people don't live in big cities or near motorway service areas, or be able to afford a Tesla.

From long term tests so far, few EVs live up to their range claims. I guess the nearest EV equivalent to a Fiesta at the moment would be a Corsa E or one of its cousins. Claimed range 209 miles - Autocar  found theirs managed about 125 in cold weather.

 

 

31 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Had to smile today about the Government's spokesperson on green issues. She has made news in  most of the papers by saying she is hanging on to her old diesel because of "range anxiety" which has prompted various people including the President of the AA to say the average EV has a range over 200 miles and can be quickly recharged on a rapid charger.

I think Allegra Stratton is brilliant for speaking some common sense, a great rarity in the current government!