12 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

I don't like it when I can't find something...  I live in a small studio flat, there aren't exactly many places for things to hide!! 😮

Just spent a good 30 minutes going through a 'misc' box looking for something that isn't there.

But on the plus side, I found a newspaper (remember those!) with an announcement from my 13th birthday...and car ads on the reverse...gave me a giggle seeing a 2004 Mondeo up for £18k and a 2003 Fiesta for £10k! 

 

Lol I know the feeling. When I got my new phone I was looking for where my old phone was as not everything gets transferred to the new one. 

Its funny looking at these cars and now and looking at the prices then 😂. My zetec s you can get for under £2000 now. 

First thing I read today is plans to now ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 or earlier. Was 2040.  I'm still confused as to whether they mean just petrol/ diesel or hybrids also? 

If not hybrids then manufacturers will just chuck a small battery in the boot and justify calling it a mild hybrid like the puma

Oh, well, hopefully I've got another 30 yrs driving ahead and can't afford a new vehicle anyway so a second hand car from just before the cut off dates should see me out. Lol 

3 minutes ago, iantt said:

First thing I read today is plans to now ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 or earlier. Was 2040.  I'm still confused as to whether they mean just petrol/ diesel or hybrids also? 

If not hybrids then manufacturers will just chuck a small battery in the boot and justify calling it a mild hybrid like the puma

Oh, well, hopefully I've got another 30 yrs driving ahead and can't afford a new vehicle anyway so a second hand car from just before the cut off dates should see me out. Lol 

Hybrids will also be banned from sale in 2035 now.

But that's still 15 years away...look at the differences that have happened with cars even in the last 5 years, let alone the last 15!

It's all a bit vague as Ian says, but I have seen a couple of mentions which say sale of "fossil fuel" cars will be banned, which is a clearer way of putting it, though most of the papers do say "petrol/diesel". 

I've seen a couple of reports lately from respected professional bodies, such as the IMechE, and consultants, such as Ricardo, which suggest battery technology is a big waste of scarce resources which have their own problems of disposal etc. They suggest we could achieve the same or better results quicker and certainly cheaper by sticking with i/c based technology and concentrating on cleaning up the fuel, eg biofuels or synthetic fuel. 

That is not actually at odds with a ban on "fossil fuel", so we shall see what happens. 

Another thing of course is we need some clarity on the position of existing petrol/diesel cars come 2035, otherwise people will be afraid to buy a new petrol/diesel from around 2030. Only 10 years away, so not that long to develop a wonder battery that gives 350 miles range from 3 minutes charge and does not use finite supplies of rare materials that are sourced from countries with poor standards on working conditions etc.

 

 

Edited February 4, 20206 yr by Eric Bloodaxe
Extra paragraph

23 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

It's all a bit vague as Ian says, but I have seen a couple of mentions which say sale of "fossil fuel" cars will be banned, which is a clearer way of putting it, though most of the papers do say "petrol/diesel". 

I've seen a couple of reports lately from respected professional bodies, such as the IMechE, and consultants, such as Ricardo, which suggest battery technology is a big waste of scarce resources which have their own problems of disposal etc. They suggest we could achieve the same or better results quicker and certainly cheaper by sticking with i/c based technology and concentrating on cleaning up the fuel, eg biofuels or synthetic fuel. 

That is not actually at odds with a ban on "fossil fuel", so we shall see what happens. 

Another thing of course is we need some clarity on the position of existing petrol/diesel cars come 2035, otherwise people will be afraid to buy a new petrol/diesel from around 2030. Only 10 years away, so not that long to develop a wonder battery that gives 350 miles range from 3 minutes charge and does not use finite supplies of rare materials that are sourced from countries with poor standards on working conditions etc.

 

 

They specifically mentioned the ban including hybrids on the report I heard, though of course that could have been misunderstood.

One of my old car mates works at Porsche and has been talking about the new Taycan recently.  The battery tech in that seems to be pretty good, looking at around 250 miles to a 'tank' and around 25 minutes to fast charge up to 80% while on a run.  Obviously that's longer than a 5 minute fuel stop, but lets face it, most drivers will need the loo and a drink or some food after 250 miles so it'll be easy to kill that time.  He lives in Norway where electric cars are really common now (about half of all sales over there!) and they have a much better infrastructure with charging points all over the place.

I don't know how long it'll be before that sort of tech is in 'normal' cars though...or how long before the UK infrastructure makes it useable for us.  

9 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

He lives in Norway where electric cars are really common now (about half of all sales over there!) and they have a much better infrastructure with charging points all over the place.

Yes, we've been a few times and I've been struck (not literally!) by the number of Teslas over there, I believe their tax regime is very favourable to electric cars and they have green numberplates which I think lets them go places other cars can't. In a place like Norway with abundant hydro power it does make sense.

18 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

They specifically mentioned the ban including hybrids on the report I heard, though of course that could have been misunderstood.

No, I've seen that too, in reports that say no petrol/diesel, even a tiny range extender engine would be excluded under that definition. 

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Yes, we've been a few times and I've been struck (not literally!) by the number of Teslas over there, I believe their tax regime is very favourable to electric cars and they have green numberplates which I think lets them go places other cars can't. In a place like Norway with abundant hydro power it does make sense.

Bit ironic when Norway is one of the larger oil and gas extractors  in the world . A very rich country with only 10% of the UK population to get in to electric cars. 

57 minutes ago, iantt said:

Bit ironic when Norway is one of the larger oil and gas extractors  in the world . A very rich country with only 10% of the UK population to get in to electric cars. 

That's very true - probably why so many of them can afford Teslas. It's not so easy for poorer countries to go green.

The reason Norwegians buy Teslas and electrics is because they're often cheaper than equivalent ICE.

My ST is something like twice the price in Norway, possibly more, where the Tesla is the same price as over here. I'd probably buy one too in that case.

Basically the fossil fuel cars are heavily taxed, the electrics are not. This also means there is a lot more older cars on the road, Norwegians properly run their cars in to the ground, it's cheaper to bring parts in and keep the car going, I bet they don't have as many new cars sold per person over there as the UK. They won't have the PCP "throwaway" attitude to cars. That also skews the new car figures, because the fewer people who do buy new are buying electric.

They also have much better infrastructure than we have, be that internet, power, etc. Even over much more difficult terrain than ours and more sparsely populated.

The oil money is mostly going in to a savings pot for the country, for future use. Like a national "pension". People still have to work and Norwegian businesses still need to make money like any other countries business.

14 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

The oil money is mostly going in to a savings pot for the country, for future use. Like a national "pension". People still have to work and Norwegian businesses still need to make money like any other countries business.

Yes, I think they certainly had the right idea there. I remember years ago talk of using our North Sea revenues as a "breathing space" while alternative technologies were developed and put in place for power generation - nuclear, hydro, wind, solar etc. - never seemed to happen, though, so now we're playing catch-up.

When you price up the Dressing Pads for my dad and had a shock.

The nurses use 4 of these pads a week and come in a box of 10,rang up 2 chemists to see the price of a box of 10..........£50..yes £50 for 20cmx40cm pads.

Went on ebay and new sealed range from £17 to £25 so the chemist are charging the NHS around £25 more,this world has gone mad.

I'm started to get irritated by this weird ring tone I'm hearing from peoples phones whilst I'm travelling to uni. Sounds like the theme music to jurassic Park. @iantt I think you might know it 😂

2 hours ago, zain611 said:

I'm started to get irritated by this weird ring tone I'm hearing from peoples phones whilst I'm travelling to uni. Sounds like the theme music to jurassic Park. @iantt I think you might know it 😂

Why? You saying I'm a dinosaur? 😂😂😂

Why? You saying I'm a dinosaur? [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

If the cap fits [emoji57]

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Sure it's not your cap that fits? 

Sure it's not your cap that fits? 

[emoji1787]

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

I don't like the further news with the CoronaVirus. Looks like one of the cases has come to a London hospital which is only 20 minutes away from my uni. Think I'm gonna stop going for the moment 😅

 

52 minutes ago, zain611 said:

I don't like the further news with the CoronaVirus. Looks like one of the cases has come to a London hospital which is only 20 minutes away from my uni. Think I'm gonna stop going for the moment 😅

 

I had a medical appointment yesterday....  Failed yet again, major panic attack out the front in full view of all the passers by... absolutely ideal.   But while I was there a Chinese couple walked past coughing...   Needless to say I did not stay any longer!! 😮 

 

Maybe you could put some masks around your Uni with this poster??

18 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I had a medical appointment yesterday....  Failed yet again, major panic attack out the front in full view of all the passers by... absolutely ideal.   But while I was there a Chinese couple walked past coughing...   Needless to say I did not stay any longer!! 😮 

 

Maybe you could put some masks around your Uni with this poster??

Coughing or ugly or both. Lol 

49 minutes ago, iantt said:

Coughing or ugly or both. Lol 

Will you adopt that 'coughing' sign iantt 😂? 

@TomsFocus I decided to not go uni today so went hospital to volunteer. Probably doesn't help both ways 😂

 

39 minutes ago, zain611 said:

@TomsFocus I decided to not go uni today so went hospital to volunteer. Probably doesn't help both ways 😂

 

The struggle is real 😅 I hovered my finger over the "Buy it Now" tab of Ebay last night for almost 5 minutes contemplating the purchase as the item's were shipping from China 😷😬

I then didnt bother purchasing; what I'm wanting is a few RJ11 telephone head crimps and a crimper only 5 GBP from China, as I have an old phone which I want to mount on to the wall in my attic, 

However it can wait as I dont want to risk getting anything for now 😂 

Also regarding missing education; I pay €70 per week for our sons pre-school year Its a contract i have to pay whether he attends or not goes 4 hours per day and learns nothing, just sing songs and colour pictures;

Had we sent him when he was 4 then the government pays for the year but since we sent him when hes 5 then i have to pay for the year despite paying on average €15,000 per year income tax 🤷‍♂️

Anyway hes only been in there a total of two weeks since Christmas; 

Been out with chest infection; on two antibiotics then back one week before being out again with a virus condition called "slapped face" which looks like we roughed him up a bit. 

All three kids now off school since Tuesday with chesty coughs, 

I've told them; when you get working kids; it's ok to take sick days and in some jobs they may even still pay you; but in education you only have a certain amount of days which cant be returned you cant go in on Saturday or Sunday to learn the parts which other people did on the previous Wednesday or Thursday, 

So my advice to you is go to college man, I'm sure if you told the patients in the hospital that you skipped education to help there dying assess I'm sure those that have had the hip replaced would give you a reasonably good kick. 

Personally I work 48 hours per week and havent missed a day since 13th April 2013 and I now find myself looking for a second way of making money 😂 

 

1 hour ago, zain611 said:

@TomsFocus I decided to not go uni today so went hospital to volunteer. Probably doesn't help both ways 😂

 

That's probably worse!!   Depends what ward you're on though...