Recent content by 3sheds

Interesting perspective. Thank you. Great questions. I guess the question is which parts of the process are more profitable as these are the parts of the process you'd most want to onshore to the UK, and could command a higher wages for workers and better returns on capital employed. According...

I agree with much of what you say. The only bit of nuance I'd point out is that China has gone from buying most of its cars from foreign manufacturers (either manufacturing in China or abroad) to being able to cover all its domestic demand by Chinese production by Chinese manufacturers. It's...

I only recently saw this deal but from July 2025, Leapmotors started leasing a medium to large EV SUV, the C10, for only £175 per month. Here are the forums where people are raving about it. It interested me because: 1. People on piston heads forum are going crazy for it. They are not...

Thanks for your response, @Rolfe Yes I agree that charging congestion is still a problem, and could get worse again as more people buy EVs. Also its frustrating that google maps and zapmaps aren't really good enough / reliable enough to use, especially on android auto while driving alone. Agree...

Last Sunday driving back home from Christmas break I discovered that Leicester Forest services has finally installed a decent number of working rapid chargers... and they worked without a hitch! We regularly make a 130 mile trip from Cambridgeshire to Derbyshire to visit family. Its west along...

That's true. I wouldn't expect the cashier in a petrol station to be able fix the charger. But I would hope they could know how to help a customer start a charging session if it was playing up or if the menu system is too complicated for elderly people etc ( as many are). Also i'd expect them to...

Very true. And also when it's working the whole screen should show the price by default.

But it's not really the same thing. The charger is branded Shell, and the filling station is branded Shell. Also Instavolt chargers generally work well. I think if they were generally unreliable and resulted in lots of complaints, McDonalds would end their partnership with them. McDonald's are...

Then I guess the question is how to make the private franchises allies in the transition to EVs and not opponents. The idea of having EV targets, mandates and fines for the car manufacturers is to cajole/force all car companies to become EV manufacturers. Once they start manufacturing more EVs...

Understood, but if I go to the cornershop and there's no milk to buy, the owner doesn't then tell me to call his supplier to fix the problem for him.

But from a strategic point of view, Shell filling stations could still make money after the transition as convenience stores located next to ultra rapid chargers. BYD is already rolling out 1megawatt chargers and cars capable of filling a battery in 5 mins. Falling costs of batteries makes it...

I know it's not a surprise, in some ways, but shouldn't their attitude be changing now more than 20% of new car purchases are EVs? Its not a niche market anymore, but staff and management at Shell don't seem to have caught up with the new reality.

Today on the way back from dropping off family members at Heathrow I stopped at a Shell garage in Kings Langley near Watford. I tried scanning my card and touching the screen to activate the rapid charger. After a little trial and error it gave me a message that the CCS was out of order...

After managing for a while with duct tape we finally got round to putting on magnets using the same kit you used today. It was a little bit tricky because I think our flap is a bit misaligned. However we managed to make it work by sticking one magnet ontop of another (IE doubling up). One way of...

Glad you got you car back but all the hassle sounds like a nightmare. I can understand why you thought £500 was inadequate.