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So, bye bye fossil fuel cars - it was great while it lasted.

I suspect we get rid of the top 10% of offending vehicles we will remove half the problem.
It will get sorted and this 2040 is just sending a signal.


Mike
 
Awesome posts guys, fascinating stuff all round.

Personally, hard to see how things will pan out but what we have now is not scalable. It has to end up with a fuel cell, radical advances in electricity storage or forget the daft idea of us all carrying 'electricity' with us but we pull it from somewhere 'roadside' as needed (a la near field charging in some form) as we travel along. Besides which in twenty years surely automotus non self driving will surely be the norm more than not?

Or we just wait for the newly announced VW T12:

 
Great find! - 40/50 miles + 40/50 mph from his lead acid batteries & planning to swap out for lithiums "to get a couple of hundred miles". Currently recharges on 220v mains in 2.5 hours.

Phase 2 here

Clearly they look to get a bit more sun where he is, but it'll soon be that warm over here too apparently ... Not bad for a bloke in his shed & makes me wonder how much lighter the Apple plastic car will be & how much further / faster it'll be able to go with several billion dollars proper R&D behind it?

An industry guy on Newsnight claimed electric cars are now coming down in price 30% YoY annually & will be like-for-like cheaper than IC in 2020/21.
 
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Just think how cheap petrol/diesel might be with the Oil Companies trying to shift the unwanted smelly stuff with all energy being produced by the 10 million wind turbines then gracing our once green and pleasant land.
Saudies living in poverty, the cost of running a classic V8 Mustang being peanuts compared to vehicles running on megga expensive elec-trickery. Who know'what the future holds, one thing I do know I won't be around to see it!
 
The other thing to add is it's virtually all political and any 'eco' do-gooding is a small part of how Government direction and policy is directed.

Why on earth even in this frequently dull and dark country when as I understand it a 17sq mile solar area could supply most of the country's needs or if every single house had around eight solar panels and that would service each house is it not even building regs that every new house built must have a solar roof? Crazy!

The answer of course is that would give power to the people - literally - and Governments and the huge global companies that control the production, distribution and finances of oil that make the world tick and fill Government's coffers would lose control and revenue and that could never be allowed to happen.
 
Max-Felix said:
The other thing to add is it's virtually all political and any 'eco' do-gooding is a small part of how Government direction and policy is directed.

Why on earth even in this frequently dull and dark country when as I understand it a 17sq mile solar area could supply most of the country's needs or if every single house had around eight solar panels and that would service each house is it not even building regs that every new house built must have a solar roof? Crazy!

The answer of course is that would give power to the people - literally - and Governments and the huge global companies that control the production, distribution and finances of oil that make the world tick and fill Government's coffers would lose control and revenue and that could never be allowed to happen.
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Follow the money every time.
My last new house was fitted with three pin florescent light bulbs throughout to comply with the latest building regulations, low and behold the hopeless/expensive LED lights developed into the miracles of power and efficiency we are all fitting to our homes and the florescent lights are now history, we have no idea how the future will pan out.
 
As an electrical engineer, who has spent many years working on energy storage, I can tell you that the government approach is a joke. Battery cars are a joke, the whole thing is being driven by Tesla who will make millions from this, and the Lithium mine owners. Hydrogen Fuel Cell makes far more sense for trains and cars and lorries, However batteries do work well for buses especially in a city and are far cheaper than trams and far more flexible.
if you have a big 30 Amp socket installed at home, it will only put in around 22 miles an hour, you standard uk socket will give you less than half of that. but you could have a second supply installed in your home to give around 50 miles per hour of charge. and every one will want to plug in at the same time. in the evening when HS2 is sucking around 20 megawatts of energy from the grid.
Add into this that fact that a Tesla will typically give you only 66% of what it says due to heating and air con and the raid and big TV in the front and you will find that on a long distance journey you will spend 20% of the journey charging and hence the journey will take 20% longer. Hence all service stations will have to be around double the size to accommodate cars charging. However imagine london underground switching to hydrogen fuel cell, you can scrap all the cables, the substations, the rectifiers, the power stations, the transformers and a massive reduction in heat generated during running hours and all that they leave behind is water. As things stand there is now only really Japan and Korea that are pushing hydrogen fuel cells (HFC).
The whole agenda is being driven my a few rich individuals and the governments desire to just push as much consumption through the economy as they can.
great video here
 
sbmcd said:
Whatever we end up driving it will not be electric or powered by batteries, hydrogen seems to be the only viable alternative. Until then I shall enjoy my diesel VW.

While the government give the appearance of being concerned about pollution we have the major causes being ignored.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1812235432124568&id=100000143877871
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Couldn't agree more.
Just remember, the 40,000 premature deaths the environmentalists keep banging on about is in fact 40,000 Whole Life Equivilents.
What this means is approximately 30 days decrease in an increasing Life Expectancy of someone living in the UK. As someone mentioned on Question Time " 30 days less in the Dementia Ward of your local Nursing Home " for the forthcoming Trials, Tribulations and Tax increases for this ill-thought out Plan.
 
hirsty said:
Why not look at it as good news then? No more stink & noise clogging up the cities - naysayers have held this back far too long.

23-years ago you'd never have been able to imagine a Tesla S - we'll all be just fine :thumb
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I think you might be living in cloud cuckoo land. What about the HGV's, supertankers container ships etc, they're not running on fairy dust! Once again it's pick on the general law abiding public!
 
BagmanJim said:
I think you might be living in cloud cuckoo land. What about the HGV's, supertankers container ships etc, they're not running on fairy dust! Once again it's pick on the general law abiding public!
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saw a bit on TV recently where large ships switch to heavy oil when in international waters (no legislation applies there) and have emissions the equivalent of about 1 million cars per day.
Aircraft aren't mentioned as yet.
 
It would be more efficient all round if the Government, and others, managed the situation.
1. ALL vehicles to conform to a minimum Euro5 emissions protocol by 2040, Petrol and Diesel. 1st Standard that includes DPF. MOT to test presence and function of ALL anti-pollution equipment
2. Clean Air Zones excluding Vehicles that do not conform to Euro5 or above, with a phased introduction over 5 years. Petrol and Diesel.
3. Research into upgrading vehicles to Euro5 standards, if possible.
4. Similar policy for Non-Vehicle Diesel/Petrol/Heavy Oil/Jet Fuel engines applications regarding upgrades to these to conform to an International Standard.
5 Scrapage Scheme starting with Non-Euro vehicles, then Euro1 so on with 1 class/year upto Euro4. Depending on vehicle numbers could be over a longer time interval

In 5 years, or more, All vehicles will be Euro5 compliant or greater.

In the meantime the Government and Motor Manufacturers can promote All Electric, Hybrid or Fuel Cell vehicles to their hearts content.

It'll never happen. Too many vested interests, Government, Big Business and even the Environmentalists for anyone to look out for the Little Man/Taxpayer caught in the middle.

Rant Over. 9 days to my Road Trip to Italy.
 
If all the cars on the planet would be electric there would be not enough electricity .
There is just ONE problem ....we are with to many on this planet ....
Thesame with the shortage of food , water , clean air , homes&building space , waste , outfishing the sea's , ....
If there still was the population from about 50y ago there was no problem at all....
just my 50cent;)
The earth can not take the ammount of people living it at the moment.
 
I think that when I am 93 and travelling around in Albert 4th I really won't be too fussed how it's powered, I will be more fussed about how I am powered :shocked
 
The way things are going in North Korea at the moment I think this is the least of our worries :Nailbiting
 
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