madness this way lies

[phil d]

Woke up this morning and on the news it was announced that the government plans to ban all new diesel and petrol engined vehicles from 2040,recently there was a warning from UKPN that the current network will be unable to cope with the anticipated amount of electric vehicles on the road,so the clever people in government have decided to massively increase this number by effectively making them mandatory from 2040!

Recently it was announced that there would have to be millions of pounds spent on refurbing the houses of parliament, as, the wiring etc was not to standard and the building couldn't cope with modern use in its current condition. However despite the government doing nothing to increase power production they are determined to force the mass use of electric vehicles, with a corresponding massive increase in power consumption!

It seems to me that they want the houses of parliament done up, because it's important to them, although it's upgrade will not benefit anyone else, yet they come up with a hare brained scheme to cut air pollution, and it will affect everyone.Does anyone in this government actually understand how things work in the real world? I doubt it, the whole network, substations, feeder cables, switchgear, etc, will all have to be replaced/upgraded at a cost of many billions of pounds, to enable this to work, plus those poxy windmills are never going to supply enough power, as I said, madness this way lies.

 

[Blue Duck]

Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted...

Been keeping a close eye on this as my tdi will be affected as will anyone else in  a built up area that runs a diesel vehicle.

http://www.buyacar.co.uk/cars/diesel-cars/460/diesel-tax-proposed-charges-and-surcharges-for-uk-drivers#wrong

Oh and it has nothing to do with poor road planning or the privatisation of the post office.

eadHorse:

 

[Sharpend]

Do you think there will be an uptake by solicitors of the 'been forced to change your vehicle and now can't get to work, then call us for a claim' brigade? 

Oh oh how mad are we humans!  

 

[Blue Duck]

I think a class action against the government & car manufacturers would be in order.

 

[Tony S]

https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/our-services/electric-vehicle-charging/

 

[Andy™]

if you have your own drive then its easy enough to plug the car in. but what about those who only have on street parking? how are they expected to get power to their car? flex over a public footpath? what happens when they cant get parked directly outside their house? extension lead down the street? what about those who do more miles per day that a full charge could cope with? what about commercial vehicles? 

 

[Evans Electric]

Using the basic law of physics that you can't get something for nothing ...would'nt the extra polution from power stations be equal to the combined polution from diesel cars ?

 

[Andy™]

yes but they dont see that. all they see is car is electric, it must be green. where the power comes from to charge it is irrelevant

 

[Sharpend]

So let me see, we are in 2017, 2040 is some 23 years away, by when most of the idiots making these decisions today will be far to old to contest the changes that have happened between now and then, I'll be old enough to worry about the two mile trip to the shop to collect me pension, the car will probably only do local journeys. 

By then some clever little oik of today would have invented a drone jacket which you will don to hover you gently to you destination and vehicular transport will only be for the commercial persons. 

Im still waiting for the fruitition of what scientists were saying 25yrs ago never mind what politicians are saying. I'm sure the scientists were telling me that the earth was moving on its axis and that we'd have the climate of Spain by now! 

Besides if a mr Hawkins is correct then most of us will be in space by then. 

 

[Evans Electric]

Thing with the space travel stuff  Sharpie is the effect it has on the human body .

All the astronauts who spend a good length of time weightless,  have to have reversal treatment for osteo porosis ( bone damage) among other stuff .

Lets face it ,  humans are designed to exist at and around , sea level , on Earth, with sunlight and fresh water, and  between certain temperature peramaters .  

Away from that and we are at a huge disadvantage . 

 

[Tony S]

They can have my tablets for osteoporosis, they’re vile.

 

[Sharpend]

Thing with the space travel stuff  Sharpie is the effect it has on the human body .

All the astronauts who spend a good length of time weightless,  have to have reversal treatment for osteo porosis ( bone damage) among other stuff .

Lets face it ,  humans are designed to exist at and around , sea level , on Earth, with sunlight and fresh water, and  between certain temperature peramaters .  

Away from that and we are at a huge disadvantage . 

I didn't say it was going to happen merely some people believe it will happen, however where would we all go for a holiday??? 

 

[phil d]

yes but they dont see that. all they see is car is electric, it must be green. where the power comes from to charge it is irrelevant

I saw something on tv a bit back and they were saying that in most cases, the carbon footprint of the processes used to create an electric car is far higher than the carbon footprint of a typical ordinary car throughout it's lifetime.

And that's before we get onto producing the electricity to charge it.

As for parking, well that's going to open up a whole new can of worms isn't it! My lad lives near a school, half the time you cannot get near his back gate for parents dropping kids off at school, if you say anything to them you get "well I have to drop my kids off", my attitude would be, "you only live local, try walking, I live here.

I went to their house the other week to drop some stuff off, a woman was parked right outside their back gate, I had to park further away and carry the stuff down the road, the awkward cow watched me struggle, then when I'd finished she drove off! I had the last laugh though, I went down the day after, boxed a car in, then made them wait until I'd picked up what I wanted. It would be impossible for him to charge an electric car, they even park on the zig zags outside the school, yet they, the same people who park illegally, would be the first to moan if one of their kids got hurt as a result of illegal parking.

 

[Blue Duck]

A few things puzzle me about it though...

Fuel tax? There will have to be some kind of replacement, like a "road tax" and that would have to be calculated using a tachograph or by gps?

What about the EU, brexit and all that ****? We currently buy electricity from the French the Dutch and others, will we be buying power from them at an extortionate rate to fuel our cars? Will they even have enough to spare? 

Also need a way of recycling all them cells rather than dumping them in Africa.

Seems a bit poorly thought out, why not spend all that money on making hydrogen fuel cells a more viable option!?

Meh.

 

[binky]

the national grid would need updating to boot, and how does all that electric get paid for?

 

[bluetobits]

What about motorcycles, are they to be banned also? And classic cars that people drive to rallies a couple of times a year for pleasure. 

 

[Sharpend]

There's a reason why WiFi is available in vehicles Duck!?!

 

[phil d]

Last night I received a rather interesting missive from the DVLA, I subscribe to one of their development groups, here things are discussed that are being considered. It's quite an interesting thing to belong to, as the information I get is often far more detailed than that that gets passed to the general public. anyway here's a brief resume of last nights briefing.

Basically, along with the bit that got into the national press, about the banning of petrol and diesel vehicles being made from 2040, there are also plans being discussed by the government to force people out of conventional vehicles, these include the following, 1) massively increase the cost of road tax on conventional cars,currently certain vehicles,4X4's for example pay around £500 a year in road tax, under new proposals being discussed, you could potentially pay around the same to tax your little Nissan Micra!

2) plans to do away with MOT tests, not only for electric cars, but also electric vans, as this it is believed will encourage not only Joe public, but also small firms to "go electric".

Now correct me if I'm wrong,but, apart from the motive power, aren't all these vehicles the same? They all have brakes, steering, suspension, a body, all components which, so we are constantly told, must be regularly maintained and checked to ensure safety. In a nutshell, it would appear that it will be ok for you to drive an unsafe unroadworthy vehicle, so long as it is electrically propelled"

3) "hit squads" of vehicle inspectors who will have carte blanche to roam the road network and pull over any, and as many conventional vehicles as they so wish, and subject them to an intense examination regarding the emissions, regardless of whether or not the vehicle is belching out clouds of smoke!

When you read this article it is clear that the government intend to force everyone to go electric, like it or not, drive a conventional motor and potentially you could be pulled over for an examination every time you go out, it is I fear the start of a dictatorship.

 

[ruston]

I wonder if this means we will have to go back to sailing ships and air ships . I mean they will take some putting in those charging points in the seas and oceans, not to mention cloud base alpha . X(

 

[ProDave]

I have found the "solution"

I read of someone that restored an old trolley bus. To power it, he tows a trailer with a diesel generator. It is still legally classed as an electric vehicle, and he legally uses red diesel to power the gennie.

So the solution to the range issue is tow a trailer with a diesel genny running. Not even any emissions test needed.