Featured Electric

Exactly how green are electric vehicles when you take into consideration the environmental cost and damage of obtaining and refining the battery materials etc?
Long term I don't think electric is the way to go at the moment.

 

Not sure you can use Noddy as an example these days as he's not PC. You bad man you.
Hasn't he been banned in schools FFS ?

 

This is why I'm glad I'm 60+ and not 16 because I fear the eco fruitcakes will eventually get their way and piss on every petrol head's strawberries. Their measure of a "good citizen" will be how green someone is and what size carbon boots they're wearing which could well make me public enemy No.1.
I currently run 3 petrol motorcycles. I've always had fairly large, uneconomical cars ranging from 2 to 5.3L. I currently have a 20+ year old, large 4x4 diesel SUV, had it almost 17 years so heaven knows how many Polar Bears I've condemned to death in that time and I think animals are deliciuos but I do have some green "brownie points". I've never been on a jet airliner and prior to retiring last year, I cycled to work practically every working day for the last 35 years. So feck off Greta.

 

Here’s my New Year’s wish for you all: I hope you will be able to buy and drive exactly the car you consider the best for your needs and purposes. For us, it was the electric Volvo XC40 we got in February and which we have now driven 11,000 km. It has been a total success, and we will never go back.

Performance? It’s hard to argue with 408 BHP and 660 Nm. Towing our boat? We hardly notice that the boat’s there. With 0-60 mph in 4.2 sec it will out-Ferrari many Ferraris (okay, perhaps not while towing the boat). It’s simply a dream to drive.

Costs? As our government really loves to put tax on cars but has decided to not tax EVs at all, EVs are a bargain in my country. As we have a surplus of hydroelectric power, running costs for an EV in 2020 was 10-15 pct compared to diesel/petrol cars. And as the all-electric XC40 has only one sixth of the number of parts than the petrol XC40, service and maintenance costs are way lower.

Range? We’re closer to 70 than 60, and it quickly turned out that the Volvo has a way longer range than us. When we did the trip up to Northern Norway this summer, we wanted a short rest every two or three hours, and used the opportunity to also top up the battery. At the rapid chargers it didn’t take more time than what we needed for our coffee and a pee, so range wasn’t an issue at all. At home we have a charger in our garage and start each day with an 80 pct full ’tank’, making use of lower night-time power rates.

So our decision was based on egoistic purposes; how could we get the best car available for our money. Who knows, maybe we can save a tree or two as well and I’m fine with that.

Will I retire my classic car and the old Triumph? No plans on that front. I’m filling up and driving both with pride.

 

It will be a very long time before we need to be riding an electric bike, and I bet there will be a rush of vehicle sales in the year before new internal combustion driven vehicle sales are outlawed. By the time I hang up my leathers, us bikers will all be riding around on 40 year old Gixers etc with no MoT or tax to road pay!

 

The focus at the moment and in the immediate future is and will be on incentives to buy electric but sooner or later that will change into penalties for hanging on to old ICE vehicles. I'm just banking on that being after my checkout time.

 

It’s early days and there are a lot of infrastructure issues to sort out. My money js on deadlines being missed but the trend to continue to EV, and perhaps hydrogen as well, depending on the vehicle. Then again, I thought Betamax and MiniDisc were the way forward.

Stanford Uni did some research on the question of how green EV’s are compared to ICEV’s. As you point out, in an economy that uses fossil fuels for power generation, like the US and China, the benefits are lower than some some European countries that have a higher proportion of renewable energy online. It also depends on how long the vehicle remains in service and how often batteries need replacing.

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph240/lambilliotte2/

 

I was reluctant to use the ‘like’ or ‘agree’ buttons in case you thought I was appreciating the idea of your timely checkout. But I do agree (with the other bit).

 

well I would buy an ev if I was only going on short trips ,but to get from Adelaide to Maryborough qld would take forever. so can't go that way. most young people dont know how drive a manual as just about every vehicle is auto, unless you pay extra to get a manual .use to be the other way round. when I was 17 if you bought a holden special it meant you got an ashtray and arm rests. we have come a long way with vehicles so who knows what will be next driverless?

 

I think driverless cars have been over-hyped and are a long way off.

 

Try to keep it that way, they could spoil your day if you expect them to stop or avoid you!

 

The tech for driverless cars is closer than you think but the sticking point, IMO, will be accident liability and the impending litigation when things go pear shaped.
As someone who likes driving/riding I couldn't give a hoot about driverless vehicles but there are many who either hate or can't drive and would welcome such vehicles.

 

Front foglights were the height of cool for me.
SO MUCH SO, i changed jobs once as the company cars it had were mondeo's with foglights.
That really was the only reason.

 

I don’t follow it that closely so I could be wrong but I’m not sure the tech can cope with the near infinite variety of road conditions we encounter. Not to mention the moral decisions we make - do we run over that dog that’s run in to the road or swerve in to the pavement and hit a person?

One other thought. If driverless cars will stop reliably if they detect a person in their way, does that mean we can all start crossing the road without looking?

 

It looks to me like Norway is way ahead of us when it comes to the infrastructure required . It will be some time yet before it's sufficiently organised in the UK to tempt more people to switch over. And with the benefit of massive hydro-electric resources Norway is unlikely to suffer from an overloaded national power grid. Can you imagine 1000's of people coming home, plugging in cars, putting the telly on and making a cuppa? There are proposals under discussion (reported by MAG) to restrict times when electric vehicles can be charged at home. Maybe they could do this via your charge point. I'm not convinced the government is going to hit it's 2030 (cars)/2035 (bikes) target. Personally I think the best way to go is with a mix of ICE and electric vehicles, although when (if?) prices become a little more realistic and they develop longer-range batteries I'm quite happy to go with an electric car...but don't take away my petrol engine bikes!

 

I have a horrible feeling the green lobby will get its own way and ICE vehicles will be banned. Of course there will still be millions of them on the road come 2030, but if the govt. of the day raises taxes to a ludicrous level on sales of diesel/petrol to the private sector, not many people will be able to afford to run ICE vehicles. As a worst case, the govt. could ban importation of fossil fuel supplies for private use, so nobody could run an ICE vehicle at all - job done!

The ultimate aim is of course to do away with private vehicle ownership altogether. This will stop people moving around so much and therefore they'll be easier to control. We'll all be run by tunnel-vision creatures like Greta !

So, I believe the next few years will be the best we have left to enjoy our ICE bikes and cars and that's what I intend to do - fcuk them all !

Cheers

 

It's interesting that almost everyone just accepts that the government can say let's ban new ICE vehicles in 8 years, without any meaningful consultation with the people it will affect (us). People argue and complain on forums like this and down the pub, but how many have actually expressed their views to the people that make these laws? Not many I bet.
I know the predictable response is going to be something along the lines of 'what's the point?'. The point is of course, that if ENOUGH people show they're unhappy with this change then there could at least be a stay of execution, or even a compromise. Don't forget, we voted them in (although I didn't) and can vote them out again.
Not everyone has rolled over and meekly accepted this proclamation. There are some people actively engaged with the government and putting forward our concerns...so you never know.
Just a thought.

 

Good point, well made. It’s only a democracy if we all participate.

 

I think that there's going to be some form of licences around that still entitle you to have an ICE car because of the fact that you cannot charge it at home etc.
eg, if you live almost anywhere without a drive (flats etc).
Can’t see it working otherwise tbh.