EV opposition in the media is ramping up

[Tommy]

Can you please keep that information under wraps there are people in far higher places looking for ideas with what they might do next so let’s no give them any, has as been point out earlier road tax is coming soon plus a mileage check could also come and one very important thing we have to remember is we where strongly encouraged to go along this track of electric vehicles to try and save the planet so called but the powers that be appear to have given up on the idea.
What was announced the other day was a kick in the teeth for everyone concerned with EVs and it will cost dearly all concerned as well.
Les

It’s clear to me that this government is beholden to the fossil fuel industry … they can, and should, press forward with green policies, both to protect the environment and to take advantage of opportunities to grow the green economy and benefit us all … time for change me thinks

 

[Rolfe]

We become French in our attitudes rather than British.

Where do I sign up? Aux barricades!

 

[Ian Key]

Might be a tall tale but sort of sums up the French attitude.
The reason they don't have wheel clamps in France is because when they introduced them in Paris the citizens went round filling the locks with superglue, didn't matter if it was their car or not, so it was costing the clamping companies more money to remove the ruined clamp than they were getting in fines.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

Petrol (gasoline) in the USA is cheaper because it does not have the same taxes. However people still get EVs there because its cheaper to run them than ICE.

 

[GaryMG4]

Petrol (gasoline) in the USA is cheaper because it does not have the same taxes. However people still get EVs there because its cheaper to run them than ICE.

IIRC their electricity is around 7c a kWh too.

 

[johnb80]

IIRC their electricity is around 7c a kWh too.

Aye, a lot of cheap coal fired power stations.

 

[tsedge]

More misinformation, fear, uncertainty and doubt, my god the ignorance of this so-called motoring expert is stunning.

 

[Rolfe]

Can't he charge his car at home? Even a granny lead will give you maybe 70 miles in 10 hours charging, so unless you're doing more than about 500 miles a week you should be able to get by just with that if necessary!

800 new (public?) chargers a day? Where on earth is he getting that from? And can't he get his head round the fact that you charge your car while you're doing something else, you don't sit around waiting for it to charge. If you can't do it while you're sleeping, then while you're parked at work, or at a leisure activity.

Anyone with the ability to charge at home and who isn't doing travelling salesman sort of mileages should be sitting absolutely pretty even now. People who can't do that and live in areas where the public charging network is still poor are not going to be able to switch just yet, but that's no reason to damn the entire project.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

More misinformation, fear, uncertainty and doubt, my god the ignorance of this so-called motoring expert is stunning.

Likes the pies doesn't he.

 

[johnb80]

Can't he charge his car at home? Even a granny lead will give you maybe 70 miles in 10 hours charging, so unless you're doing more than about 500 miles a week you should be able to get by just with that if necessary!

Probably too complicated for him and it gives him an opportunity to get his name out in the media again.

800 new (public?) chargers a day? Where on earth is he getting that from? And can't he get his head round the fact that you charge your car while you're doing something else, you don't sit around waiting for it to charge. If you can't do it while you're sleeping, then while you're parked at work, or at a leisure activity.

He's claiming that over 1.8m additional public chargers are needed, I doubt he's taken into account that 70% of EV's will be charged at home and wont need a public charging session every day.

Anyone with the ability to charge at home and who isn't doing travelling salesman sort of mileages should be sitting absolutely pretty even now. People who can't do that and live in areas where the public charging network is still poor are not going to be able to switch just yet, but that's no reason to damn the entire project.

100% agree

 

[johnb80]

I thought I would doodle a few figures into a spreadsheet to have a look at what Mike Brewer was claiming, here's my take on it

 

[Gadget Geek]

More misinformation, fear, uncertainty and doubt, my god the ignorance of this so-called motoring expert is stunning.

He's got a communication problem; he's talking b*ll*cks and we're listening to it! Regurgitating the old arguments without any research.

He mentions growing fuel, I presume he means biofuel, but with an unstable climate, the crops won't grow enough for food, let alone fuel.

And hydrogen to charge batteries to make cars go. He obviously doesn't know how inefficient that method is or where the hydrogen comes from.

If his EV is at the back of the house, why isn't it plugged in and charging whilst he's talking? Because he's an idiot, that's why.

Rant over.

 

[johnb80]

If his EV is at the back of the house, why isn't it plugged in and charging whilst he's talking? Because he's an idiot, that's why.

Rant over.

I think you're being very derogatory to idiots worldwide here, I feel a complaint coming on.

 

[Rolfe]

There's no doubt we need more ultra-rapid public chargers (that work) so that people can just pull in when they need to charge on long journeys without spending hours poring over ABRP and working out contingency plans for their backup plans. And without queueing.

We also need a lot more type 2 destination chargers in car parks so that people who want to charge while they're at work or at the theatre or having a meal out can do this. This would particularly help people who can't charge at home, but who could get by if they could charge wherever they parked.

We need private communal car parks such as many newer blocks of flats have to be equipped with type 2 chargers. Along with lamp-post chargers and Kerbo type installations for people in terrace houses and tenement flats.

It should be happening faster, because people won't - indeed can't - invest in an EV until the infrastructure is there. But it is happening, and the absolute worst thing to do is to take the pressure off by relaxing deadlines or declaring that it's all just too hard and we should give up and wait for some utopian solution that's actually far less practical than rolling out charging points.

 

[Les burrows]

According to these we appear to be getting there slowly on the Rapid chargers
Les

 

[Tweed98]

I believe it goes like this, that we should have cheaper electricity from renewable sources but that energy is traded on the market at the same price as the much more expensive dirty energy

Home electricity prices have a green tax added to them to subsidise the wind and solar. In the latest energy auction round the government has now reduced the subsidy and also added a stipulation that the wind farms must be built by the winner, as previous winners have not built the wind farms when they realised their bids were too low for the build costs. They were also expecting 60% generation rates but at best the ones built have only been achieving 45%.
This coupled with a massive rise in steel prices, labour costs the last auction round achieved
............zero bids.

Offshore wind has been found to be not as efficient as expected and every MW(h) of potential generation has to be backed up by gas or nuclear so that cost has to be factored in. The turbines have only a 25-year expected life span so they will have to be rebuilt and replaced much more regularly than gas turbines.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Offshore wind has been found to be not as efficient as expected and every MW(h) of potential generation has to be backed up by gas or nuclear so that cost has to be factored in. The turbines have only a 25-year expected life span so they will have to be rebuilt and replaced much more regularly than gas turbines.

About the same life span as a nuclear plant then, only far cheaper to dismantle and replace, and no lethal waste products to dispose of.

As a point of interest, this weekend in the UK, wind generation accounted for over 50% of the total amount required.

GB Fuel type power generation production

GridWatch | Live statistic of UK National Electricity grid by type of generation | Solar PV power Generation | Coal Stations output in Gigawatts | Wind Output Gigawatts | Nuclear energy output |Biomass power generation Output

gridwatch.co.uk

 

[Tweed98]

Hinkley Point C is designed for 60 years of generation.
The site is 6.25 square miles.
Will generate 3200MW come rain or shine or no wind.

Got this off of the Bing AI answer when I asked how much land is needd for 3200MW of wind.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Hinkley Point C is designed for 60 years of generation.
The site is 6.25 square miles.
Will generate 3200MW come rain or shine or no wind.

Got this off of the Bing AI answer when I asked how much land is needd for 3200MW of wind.

View attachment 20320

New construction is now for between 40 - 60 years. Existing reactors are only 30 - 35 years. Also, there is still no long term solution to the nuclear waste disposal and storage.

I'm not anti nuclear, I just think it's not cost effective and decommissioning should have been sorted out before construction of any plant was started. A bit like climate change today, just kick the can down the road and let our grandkids sort it out when we're gone.

 

[Tweed98]

New construction is now for between 40 - 60 years. Existing reactors are only 30 - 35 years. Also, there is still no long term solution to the nuclear waste disposal and storage.

I'm not anti nuclear, I just think it's not cost effective and decommissioning should have been sorted out before construction of any plant was started. A bit like climate change today, just kick the can down the road and let our grandkids sort it out when we're gone.

Apparently the degradation of the existing systems is nowhere near what they expected. The Germans could get another 5 years or so out of the reactors they are closing.

The waste is a problem, but new tech is in development that could re-use it as fuel. A lot of the costs involved with Nuclear are self imposed with judicial reviews, costs of planning etc, the build while expensive could be much cheaper to the same standard. See any infrastructure build of the last 30 years!