Pro's and con's for buying an electric vehicle
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But a few days ago, in the late afternoon when it was dark, and there was no wind anywhere in the country, all the traditional sources of electrical generation were working flat out to supply the National Grid. Only the extra power coming across from the Netherlands was keeping us from some sort of blackout somewhere.
I have no idea what would get switched off (deliberately) first, but those who have objected to wind farms close to their homes may yet come to regret that!
You can sit and watch what is happening at GridWatch .
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. . . as long as it is daylight!
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Moved this from the pointless page.
They get £21,500 for the successful sale of the Smart Electric regardless of who pays. That is what is relevant to them and their business!
So who is paying for your car?
And do you think that as you or any other owners are good customers that they will let them al have free electricity and open late in the evenings.
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But you've invested in PVs for a reason I think Kj!? We have a huge amount of solar power down here. In Scotland you have hydroelectrics which produce 12% of your energy. So renewables play a big part across the UK and no doubt will expand in the future. The gov wants energy for EVs to come from renewables.
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Well the existing renewable energy goes to the Grid and is used by all. Very minimal EV usage at present. If they want to match the forecast growth in EVs with a similar growth in renewables they will eventually have to start applying themselves to that.
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'Ecotrickery' run whole fleets of cash pumps, disguised as wind turbines.
They are amazingly efficient at hoovering up government subsidies which are paid for by all of us, including grannies in fuel poverty, to make Dale Vince a multimillionaire (currently over £100 million) under a mildly green badge, rather than using tax payers money to fund healthcare / schools etc.
And I say mildly green, because he will not publish any of his generation figures, but a few years ago, the data from one site was leaked revealing a 16% efficiency, meaning the carbon from building the site would never even be offset during the sites 20 year predicted service!
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2 reasons.....
It helps to keep our domestic bills down, important as we probably use a lot more power up here than those who live further south.
While interest rates are low, we reckon it will eventually give us a better return than just leaving the money in the bank, even though it will take 8-9 years to break even.
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The only consistent renewable come rain, shine or wind is tidal. That doesn't seem to be getting the R&D like the other stuff.
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The battery on the Nissan Leaf is guaranteed for five years. Replacement £5000 or there about. None ha been replaced in the UK since the Leafs introduction in 2011.
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Likewise with our purchase of an EV Kj, an initial outlay but retaining an asset we can resell if needed. We are saving £150 per month in fuel, over the next ten years this could mean £18,000 in savings plus we have a car that is costing us virtually nothing after purchase. Our electricity bills haven't increased much either because we run the car at it's optimum performance level.
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With somewhere in the region do £50 Bn in duty revenues claimed by the Govt, it’s an illusion that today’s low costs for gas/ electric motor vehicle power will remain cheap. The Govt can’t afford not to balance diminishing fossil fuel usage/ income in favour of electricity, in the long term. Fossil fuel conversion through power stations is about 33% efficient by the time it’s delivered to a charging point. Conversion in contemporary combustion engines is close to 50%. Which makes electricity as motor fuel a poor substitute - UNLESS - our electrical energy is supplied from green sources. BUT an ever increasing percentage of our electrical energy is imported, which in turn hides our carbon footprint. Ie if China makes the steel which we use, then they bear the CO2 burden of our own consumption. In reality, China’s per capita CO2 emissions are similar to the UK’s and Noway is a major source of our fossil fuel energy. In short, current propaganda re the future benefits of elecric vehical consumption is flawed under current production models. UK technology and energy distribution has a way to go before we should be ready to invest in battery powered cars - though they may become viable in the longer term, but cheap, never.
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But they are getting cheaper already and they are not being produced in the same way as i.c.e cars, their construction is different. Did you know BMWi3 door panels have hemp in them?.....car production as not seen before. The automotive industry is going through a huge change.
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Hemp?
Is that not just canabis by another name?
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It is but the concentration of the active ingredient in the strains grown is very low.
You do however require a home office licence to grow it in this country.
So it would be no use smoking the door panels.😂
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Out of interest I looked at prices based on my current car Volvo XC60 which I purchased in 2015, now based on buying new cheapest diesel model £36205 currently Volvo are only doing plug in hybrids so would guess when they bring all electric model would cost more. Cheapest plug in hybrid £57600 so price difference £21395. So based on MM figures of saving £2500 per year on fuel it would take approx. 8.5 years just to recoup the price difference, then taken into account cost of insurance I would assume due to price difference cost of hybrid would be more expensive then cost of installing dedicated charging point at home plus extra electricity costs would take even longer. So until the cost becomes more viable in the future I will stick with my diesel model. (Currently Volvo are charging an extra £50 for a 4.5m charge cable)
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Sorry to burst your bubble Bru, but Trabants, which were first manufactured in the 1950s were made from a cotton waste based composite, In the 1980s Citron used composites for several BX panels, and of course Lotus made road cars using composites too. So BMW can hardly claim the chequered flag for hemp in door panels.
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My old Kuga had plastic wing panels.
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I really like the idea of electric cars, but they don't seem practical away from larger cities and towns. They are also price wise, well out of our league for what is, for us, a second vehicle which only gets used as a run about whilst we are at home. We do, however, go to events occasionally, perhaps 200 miles away, and with a return trip in the late evening an electric car could just be a massive pain. Fuel saving for us would also be minimal as we only put about £500 pounds worth of diesel in the car in a year, the VED is £20, and if you factor in the cost of charging an electric car at home there isn't much change.
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I recall GPO Telephones Morris Minor vans in the 1950s having rubber front wings. And surely leather seats can also be counted as a composite? What about my friend's 1907 Renault with wooden wheels . . . ? So use of composite materials has been with us since the begining of the auto-mobile.
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On the YouTube clip I enjoyed seeing the carbon fibre being woven, I vaguely thought....we have a woven car.
I've enjoyed hearing people's comments, I knew some wag would respond to the hemp in the door.
Whatever happens it's a good to hear different views. Happy motoring everyone.
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There's no clutch, Navigateur, it's automatic!
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The car is being paid for through a PCP finance agreement, plus government subsidy and a deposit from myself.
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