Energy chat, the future of car propulsion

[Tizer]

Just now, StephenFord said:

No doubt, they have planned the stopping of 'hybrid' cars too, which I just can't get my head round at all...

Yes, a bit like Heat Pumps, you need a real Heating System as well for when the supposed green alternative is incapable of providing you with what you need.

[unofix]

By 2032 when the wheels have well and trully fell off the wagon, I hope that I might just still be around to say

"I told you so !"

[iantt]

well, with cop26 at glasgow in full swing and and talk of saving the planet by saving energy. im proud to anounce ive turned the heating off, switched lights off and and turned the heating down on the hot tub. also not using the car at present. 

bye the way the car is at birmingham airport. i flew to tenerife from this morning and come back sunday evening. oh, and told my partner where i was when i got here. she thought i was at work today !    well she is overnight in birmingham hotel and doing a musical. fairs fair!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Wino]

10 hours ago, iantt said:

well, with cop26 at glasgow in full swing and and talk of saving the planet by saving energy. im proud to anounce ive turned the heating off, switched lights off and and turned the heating down on the hot tub. also not using the car at present. 

bye the way the car is at birmingham airport. i flew to tenerife from this morning and come back sunday evening. oh, and told my partner where i was when i got here. she thought i was at work today !    well she is overnight in birmingham hotel and doing a musical. fairs fair!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Nice one but you do realise that all international flights inbound and outbound do not count towards the UKs carbon footprint, so your going above and beyond for the environment atm, well done Sir ! 😄

[mjt]

16 hours ago, Tizer said:

Yes, a bit like Heat Pumps, you need a real Heating System as well for when the supposed green alternative is incapable of providing you with what you need

I can't see the point of air-sourced heat pumps. At the time you need the heat most, when the outside air temperature is below zero, the pump will struggle to extract heat from the air. It must be very inefficient and worse still pretty ineffective but I've never heard any of the "experts" comment on that. Ground source pumps make much better sense as the temperature a few metres below ground is fairly constant. Better still if the system can extract heat from the building in the summer and store it 100 metres underground.

[StephenFord]

15 hours ago, unofix said:

By 2032 when the wheels have well and trully fell off the wagon, I hope that I might just still be around to say

"I told you so !"

LOL, way back on this thread, we both had that same mantra! I do love it though...

My 'told you so...'

Unofix, 'told you so...'

[iantt]

New report out today has calculated there will be a shortfall of 38,000 techs qualified to work on your shining new battery electric vehicle by 2030 . At present there's only 6.5% of techs  in garages currently qualified to work on an electric vehicle. 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

2 hours ago, iantt said:

New report out today has calculated there will be a shortfall of 38,000 techs qualified to work on your shining new battery electric vehicle by 2030 . 

Oh dear, what a shame. Now, question is, does this represent a good business opportunity (training all those techs) and a good employment opportunity (being one of those techs)? Or will it be wasted time/effort because something better will have come along by then. Hmmm.....

[Stevesixty7]

I've loved cars from a very young age, and the ICE has been one of the very reasons why. It will be a very sad day when the rumble of a V8 is heard for the last time. I can remember being in a class at high school 1982, and we were discussing the cars of the future, and the teacher said that they will all be electric one day, and I'll never forget one of my friends saying, "I hope I'll be gone by then" 😂

Nothing can compare to the thrill of the sound and power of a great engine. I've had the pleasure of driving a couple of Ferrari's in my time on a track day, older ones, the 355 and 348, and more recently a Nissan GT-R in the early March just before Covid hit. It's just something else that electric cars can't achieve. Yes, they're capable of fantastic acceleration, but it's not the same. Just my thoughts and opinion.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

8 hours ago, Stevesixty7 said:

I can remember being in a class at high school 1982, and we were discussing the cars of the future, 

Lol, I can remember similar discussions almost twenty years earlier. In a way, I'm surprised that 60 years later, cars are still fundamentally the same - comics at the time were often featuring cut-away drawings of "cars of the future". I don't recall any of them including 300-500kg of batteries, though! 

[Alex.S]

E10 petrol . That’s been a good few months now, my estimated miles on a full tank have gone from 395 to 340ish ! That and nearly £1.50 litre . Is paying the extra for super unleaded worth it? 

[unofix]

I've never noticed any difference with my Focus 2.0 ...................diesel 🤣

[StephenFord]

5 minutes ago, Alex.S said:

E10 petrol . That’s been a good few months now, my estimated miles on a full tank have gone from 395 to 340ish ! That and nearly £1.50 litre . Is paying the extra for super unleaded worth it? 

I'm still on E5 here as NI is still in the EU.  About once/month I fill up with BP super, just because so many folk recommend it, and I'm aiming to keep car for a high miler! I notice absolute no difference whatsoever in MPG, and yes, £1.50/l is very depressing.

[iantt]

3 hours ago, unofix said:

I've never noticed any difference with my Focus 2.0 ...................diesel 🤣

I haven't noticed any difference either with my Mondeo 2.0  ................diesel🤣 still 70mpg minimum. 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 minute ago, iantt said:

I haven't noticed any difference either with my Mondeo 2.0  ................diesel🤣 still 70mpg minimum. 

Lol. I haven't noticed any difference either with my petrol, as mentioned on the E10 fuel thread.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Spotted there's a programme on Channel 4 tomorrow at 8.30 pm - "The Truth about Electric Cars" - might be worth a watch.

Also Panorama on BBC 1 7.30pm Wednesday  has a feature "The Electric Car Revolution - Winners and Losers".

In other news, I see that Johnson Matthey, best known for catalytic convertors, have pulled the plug (!) on their electric vehicle battery venture, after deciding it could not make a worthwhile return on the investment. They are however planning a £50 million factory to build components for hydrogen fuel cells.

[StephenFord]

32 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

In other news, I see that Johnson Matthey, best known for catalytic convertors, have pulled the plug (!) on their electric vehicle battery venture, after deciding it could not make a worthwhile return on the investment. They are however planning a £50 million factory to build components for hydrogen fuel cells.

I keep saying, battery cars are the betamax of transport - easy way to tell, the government are backing it! Roll on VHS and then CD, and it ain't 'battery!

[unofix]

3 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

battery cars are the betamax of transport

To be fair I don't think it's made it as far as betamax, we are more still at the Phillips VCR2000 state 🤣

[StephenFord]

1 minute ago, unofix said:

To be fair I don't think it's made it as far as betamax, we are more still at the Phillips VCR2000 state 🤣

Or even Laser Disks! You use to have to watch a movie using 3 or 4 different discs as it all couldn't fit on one - it just didn't have the range 😁

[Wino]

3 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Or even Laser Disks! You use to have to watch a movie using 3 or 4 different discs as it all couldn't fit on one - it just didn't have the range 😁

Still getting by with one of these ...........

[Mark-UK]

Oh Betamax, as used for years  by the media and TV industry due to it's  better quality than VHS, and it's follow up Digital Betacam  becoming industry standard for professional video recording, production, and broadcast.

VHS won the consumer market  not because of quality but better marketing.

 

Johnson Matthey dropped out the battery market because it was so far behind the cost to catch-up would be prohibitive, it's shares dropped up to 20% on the news.  There will be several companies that try to hold on to their old technology and markets for too long they miss the boat and go under.

 

The UK government to announce all new houses and most new-build supermarkets, workplaces and buildings in England will have to have EV charges installed  which will add around 145,000 charging points a year starting 2022.

 

As for E10 in NI you have just a few months left of E5 as NI joins the rest in spring 2022 ( you are not in the EU, but still in the single market, a different thing from the full EU membership)

[StephenFord]

13 minutes ago, Mark-UK said:

Oh Betamax, as used for years  by the media and TV industry due to it's  better quality than VHS, and it's follow up Digital Betacam  becoming industry standard for professional video recording, production, and broadcast.

VHS won the consumer market  not because of quality but better marketing

The Sony MiniDisc was launched in the early 90s as a 'replacement' for the CD. I was in the music retail industry at the time and remember telling the MD of Sony UK that it was doomed to failure (a very brief chat!). It may have been technically superior, BUT, offered no substantial increase in quality/usability over the already ubiquitous CD. It was quietly dropped within 2 years.

The public are not stupid, nor in the habit of being conned by technology, just because a manufacturer states it is brilliant.

Most will see through the failings of battery cars as opposed to a 'refillable' car to full range in a few minutes, not hours. Watch last nights episode of Top Gear (series 31, episode 2) to illustrate the primary issue...

 

 

[mjt]

18 hours ago, unofix said:

To be fair I don't think it's made it as far as betamax, we are more still at the Phillips VCR2000 state

Actually the Video 2000 was technically vastly superior to VHS. I had one for a while and was impressed by the ability to smoothly fast-forward and reverse. Unfortunately the public very often are fooled by the financial clout of companies pushing inferior products like VHS.

[StephenFord]

1 minute ago, mjt said:

..Unfortunately the public very often are fooled by the financial clout of companies pushing inferior products like VHS.

and 'battery' cars...

[Eric Bloodaxe]

45 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Watch last nights episode of Top Gear (series 31, episode 2) to illustrate the primary issue...

Yes, very amusing wasn't it!😀 Interesting to see what an effect towing a caravan had, though. Wonder what the touring caravan fraternity will do.

Also the Government have announced measures in England that they say will add around 150k charging points per year. This, a Downing Street source says, means that driving an electric car would become "as easy as refuelling a petrol or diesel car today". Really? Have they found a new type of charger that gives you 350 miles range in under 5 minutes?