A couple of weeks ago the BBC ran a story titled “Climate change: Electric trucks ‘can compete with diesel ones.'” My (admittedly knee-jerk) reaction was that it was obviously a load of nonsense. (The argument is that (counter-intuitively) by shrinking the size of the battery you improve the truck. That reduces the range but supposedly makes the truck more cost effective.) Anyway I reined myself in and thought: “Jit, you can’t just reject the idea out of hand, you have to read the paper the story is based on with an open mind.” So I went to the journal “Joule” but couldn’t access the paper. Then I went to Google Scholar but couldn’t even find the paper. Instead I stumbled across an article called Electric Vehicles and Psychology by Fabio Viola*, lately published in the journal Sustainability. So I began to read that instead. What follows is a brief review.

1. Introduction

Car owners, Viola says, fret about the reduced range of an EV over a good old-fashioned diesel. What psychological tricks can be used to speed up the adoption of EVs? The plan to ban engines had

“…already put the comics industry in crisis, which has not yet found a single onomatopoeia for the noise of the cars. “Brooomm,” “Drooow,” “Vroom,” and “Roammm” are the standard noises, but now we will have to find something more significant than “Zzzz!”. The matter is serious. To solve the problem, the iconic German manufacturer of Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) performance machines asked for the help of one of the greatest modern composers of movie soundtracks, Hans Florian Zimmer, to create a sound of electric cars worthy of the ICE sisters.”

Yes, that Hans Zimmer^. But there was more. The weedy sound of a Porsche EV could be enhanced by artificially-generated grunt.

“The same philosophy [generating artificial noise for an EV] has been adopted by Porsche in its Taycan luxury electric sports car. The buyer can, in fact, decide to add the Electric Sport Sound to his car, an optional item with a cost of EUR 500, which adds a real soundtrack, both inside and outside the car.”

By soundtrack I don’t think he means REO Speedwagon. An alert is required under EU law, but car makers don’t want people to notice that their car merely exists. They want people to notice that their car is Rarrrghh.

“If the reader is looking for simple answers, the author does not recommend reading the subsequent sections, as few paradoxes are solved.”

Naturally I read on.

2. Finding Early Adopters

Where new tech is concerned you can either be an Innovator, an Early Adopter, in the Early Majority, in the Late Majority, or you can be a Laggard. I’m in the last group, which has to be dragged kicking and screaming to the EV shop:

“The descriptor says it all! Typically, they prefer traditional ICE and will adopt new EVs when there are no alternatives. Laggards are convinced of machinations and have their own ideas on everything, often supported by pseudoscientific reasoning.”

Well, we’ll see. The important people are apparently the second lot, the Early Adopters, the opinion formers, the YouTubers, Instagrammers, etc. There is seemingly a “chasm” between the Early Adopters and the third group, the Early Majority, into which some innovations fall, never to be seen again (possibly the Sinclair C5 did not manage to power itself far enough upslope to even reach the precipice, and the Thingummywig must have crawled into a drain before the Instagrammers latched onto it, or before it latched onto them, face-hugger style). Anyway we need the shiny Early Adopters to cajole, encourage, and generally harass the rest of us into jumping on the EV bandwagon.

3. Chicken or egg paradox

This particular paradox is no paradox at all for anyone who has heard of evolution, because the ancestors of chickens were egg-layers. This particular version of the paradox is that folk are reluctant to get an EV until the charging infrastructure is in place. But no company in their right mind would invest in infrastructure when there are no EVs to charge. Paradox!

According to Viola, the “hegemony of the present” dictates that we human car users want to drive, refuel, and carry on driving. It’s what we’re used to, but it is no good for the Anthropocene. If there was a fighting chance of that being possible for EVs, it could only be done with battery swapping. But that would make the battery less well protected, and we all know what might happen when an EV battery gets bashed (see later).

Viola then enthuses about the panaro, the basket that Italians used to lower down from their windows to receive deliveries of bread. The EV version of the panaro is a jungle of extension leads depending from the high windows of tower blocks down to the street below. Dangerous, but it encourages EV adoption, so it gets two thumbs up. I think the upshot here is that although most charging events will happen at home, the most important infrastructure is still the motorway chargers, so that we stop worrying about…

4. Range Anxiety

If you asked me what my principal objection to EVs was, it might be range anxiety. It might also be that I don’t have a driveway, or that an EV costs more than a normal car, except second hand, when it goes for so little that the only conclusion is that the battery must be shot.

“By range anxiety we mean the anxiety of not succeeding, not reaching the goal, an anxiety of performance.”

This particular anxiety cannot be cured by a rhombus-shaped blue pill. Because the battery is the weak point, we overlook all the good things about EVs. Like the Zimmer soundtrack fitted as standard. Here Viola goes into an interesting aside about the way cars with an internal combustion engine displaced EVs, horses, shanks’s pony, etc, in the early 20th century. Initially EVs were better than petrol cars owing to the lack of reliability of the latter. Then the petrol cars started coming off a moving production line, their power increased by an order of magnitude, they were cheaper… and EVs were just too damn gendered. Men, it seemed, wanted grunt. EVs were not only gentle, they were simple to operate, so they were popular with the ladies (I am paraphrasing the history as given here, don’t shoot the messenger).

“…the limited range of EVs cooled the desire to undertake journeys into the wilderness.”

Where once we crossed the desert on a horse with no name, now we sallied forth in a Model T. Ford, Edison, Firestone and Burroughs went on camping trips, calling themselves The Vagabonds**. Naturally this was done in a convoy of petrol cars, not equines or EVs.

At its simplest, range anxiety happens when we have further to go than the dashboard tells us we can go. This is not usually a problem in a car with an engine that can be refuelled in 4 minutes and when there are petrol stations every 30 miles or so. Naturally when recharging takes a long time, it is preferable to do it at home, or at your destination. This makes abundant sense to me. But there’s a more insidious version of range anxiety, something to do with algae apparently:

“…a phycological anxiety arises “the distance to be traveled is below to [sic] the vehicle’s range, but users irrationally are worried about the possibility to finish the charge””

My apologies to Dr Viola, especially since his English is a hundred times better than my Italian, which is limited to “Ciao, bella!” (probably redundant language these days, even in Italy) and a variety of cussing that I picked up from an actual Italian, but can’t repeat here.

There is though yet another form of range anxiety: rhetorical anxiety. Viola discusses at length Hirschman’s The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy as it applies to EV adoption. Intransigents, or conservatives, are opposed to innovation, but for irrational reasons. The first excuse we trot out for our knee-jerk opposition is the Perversity of the entire project: EVs are charged by fossil fuel anyway, so what is the point? Second, we cry Futility! Buying an EV won’t change the world, so why the hell should we bother? Third, EVs place us in Jeopardy. They are too expensive: we don’t want to burn money on an EV when we could be spending it on something particularly appealing to intransigents, bills for example. Jeopardy also comes into play with range anxiety, because we fear conking out in the middle of nowhere. All these objections seem perfectly rational to me.

But wait. There’s something we’ve forgotten. Most of our trips are actually quite short, so at least our fears re: conking out are groundless! Hm, yes, but if I want to drive to a city 200 miles away a few times a year, what am I going to do? Drive all that way, pull up in the hotel car park on my last electron, and find that the two chargers are both occupied?

Apparently we intransigents are naught but foxes, who declare that the out-of-reach grapes are unripe. That’s a reference to a fable I don’t quite grok. I mean, if the fox declared that some out of reach hens were unripe, or better overripe, a bit too stringy for his taste, I could see it. But how many foxes eat grapes, even if they’re ripe?

5. Things that go boom in the night (actually this section is called “My Cousin Told Me EVs Explode…”)

Here Viola argues that any crash that would cause an EV to auto-incinerate and cremate its occupants would be severe enough that the occupants would be dead anyway before they were burned to ash. So that’s all right then. EVs are a neat little self-extracting ACME funeral service machine if you crash them hard enough. They leave nothing unpleasant for the emergency services to clear up afterwards.

6. Viking Men Paradox

“(about Tesla) It’s a real housewives’ car. You can put all the groceries in the back, and your handbag between the seats in front. If you haven’t bought the stupid centre console, you can do that, at least. That’s what women wanted: a place to put their bag.”

I think that was a comment by a Viking Man. Men Want Big Truck. Women Want Handbag Place. Or something.

7. Autonomous Silver Vehicles

Crusties are going to be zooming around in robot EVs, statim. I mean the elderly are naturally going to gravitate towards these things, because they want to knit as they go, or they can’t see very well, or something, all very demeaning non-reasons which I reject out of hand.

8. Marriage or Cohabitation?

Don’t have an arranged marriage with your EV. Shack up with it first, and you will grow to love it. Then you can marry it. Try one and you will be pleasantly surprised.

9. Conclusions

“The advent of Tesla connected the male and female worlds: for enthusiastic males, the Tesla was a technological advancement akin to that from a Nintendo Entertainment System (1983) to a PlayStation 3 (2006), while for enthusiastic women, it was a refined place to put the handbag.”

Unfortunately for EV enthusiasts, finding psychological ploys, or even phycological ploys, to make people believe that EVs beat cars with an engine relies on a healthy dose of petitio principii. The assumption made is that EVs are better, and that resistance to them is therefore irrational. Well, I like to think of myself as rational, and I also like to think of myself as a very small part of the resistance. If I ever have an EV, it will be because the fuel duty/VED of petrol cars has become so punishing that they have been completely driven off the road. Or maybe dragged off the road. Or maybe left on the side of the road to rust into millions of sad little heaps. And as an intransigent, even if I can’t drive a petrol car any more, I might just walk instead, and sneer impotently in the direction of that BMW whizzing past with its Zimmer soundtrack blaring out.

REFERENCES

* The paper

**A bit about the vagabonds

^ Perhaps in embarrassment, BMW have deleted the story about Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for their EVs, so you have to go to Archive.org to find it.

409 Comments

  1. Presumably, ‘depending from’ should be ‘descending from’. Autocorrect can be such a pain.

    I like to think of the introduction of EV as a transportation autocorrect. We know what we mean to do but someone knows better.

    Like

  2. “I want to drive to a city 200 miles away a few times a year” encapsulates the problem with all the clean and green solutions offered. That sums up my problem with ECs – several times a year I take long trips carrying a big load. Elsewhere the Texas electrical system worked most of the time except when the cold every ten year extreme happened – then disaster. Air source heat pumps for my home may work most of the time but don’t work when I need the heat the most. The arrogance of those who think our concerns about 24- 7 reliability are unwarranted is the true irrational position.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. I live in a small market town, so mostly walk around town. I don’t need an EV for local town journeys. I make a lot of long journeys, whether for holidays or visiting and supporting relatives. An EV wouldn’t begin to work for me, as things stand. My diesel car averaged 67mpg yesterday while making a long journey to support my elderly mother, and the journey used about 1/4 of a tank-full. I couldn’t have got there and back on an EV charge.

    Rejecting an EV on those grounds alone is perfectly rational. That’s before one considers the cost, potential problems with batteries, and the problems for the National Grid if we’re all driving EVs and depending on unreliable “renewables” to provide all the extra electricity that will be needed.

    Oh yes, and what WILL the Government do to replace all the lost diesel/petrol duty and VAT?

    And how are people without drives and garages going to charge their EVs without a massively expensive infrastructure of rapid charging points?

    All rational objections, IMO. For those with a garage and/or drive, and the ability to have a charging point at home, who only drive short distances, fair enough, if they can afford the extra cost of virtue-signalling (and it IS extra cost, even after all the poorest taxpayers have helped to subsidise the virtue-signalling). For everybody else, forget it.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. If anyone has read to the bottom but has not clicked to hear the Zimmer “soundtrack,” you must.

    @John, my writing has a number of acknowledged weaknesses. It has a lightness that may be incompatible with the seriousness of the topic at hand. It also incorporates words or senses of words that should have been retired around the same time as the matchlock. The fifth sense of the verb “depend” at the free dictionary:

    Archaic To hang down: “And ever-living Lamps depend in Rows” (Alexander Pope).

    @Roger, I once saw a petrol tank described as “an organic battery that gets lighter as it discharges.” Seemed like the perfect way to power a vehicle to me. You can even keep instant recharges for the “batteries” in the shed in jerry cans, just in case.

    @Mark, one thing I didn’t have room for was Viola’s admission that, in a lot of circumstances, the uptake of electric vehicles has been by middle-class families as a second car. They can drive into town and back without fear of conking out, they can virtue-signal to their hearts’ content, and they still have the Audi A4 to drive to see the rellies up north. No VED, no fuel duty, easy home charging, what’s not to like?

    Like

  8. @Paul. Try putting that search into youtube. It seemed to me that the connection between the archive page and youtube had broken.

    Like

  10. “bmw zimmer soundtrack” retruns a few things in YT – more than 16 secs – with audio commentary. Second choice even longer talking head …

    I like music but not such a fan of BMW tho I had one as a company car …

    Like

  12. “UK must do better over electric cars – MPs”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57160298

    “The government has no plan to meet the “huge challenge” of persuading motorists to switch to electric vehicles, MPs have warned.

    The Public Accounts Committee said the official target of banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 could be missed without urgent action.

    It also argued that electric vehicles were still too expensive and there were not enough charging points.

    The government said it was on track to meet its targets.

    A spokesman said It was investing £2.8bn to help the car industry and drivers make the switch to electric.”

    Translation: A Government spokesman said it was wasting £2.8Bn of taxpayers’ money to try to persuade taxpayers to buy a product that they neither need nor want, and which in many cases doesn’t work for them.

    “Sales of electric vehicles are by far the fastest growing segment of the car market, but they still only account for only 11% of new registrations.

    The committee warned that this would not get to 100% unless prices fell and charging infrastructure was installed quickly.

    Only 13 electric car models on sale in the UK at the moment cost less than £30,000, its report said.

    It pointed out that the majority of charging took place at home and claimed the government had not focused enough on helping people who do not have off-street parking.

    The committee also said the government needed to develop the skilled workforce and electric power infrastructure needed to support the transition.”

    Goodness knows how much this pointless piece of international virtue-signalling is going to cost in the end.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. “Ford launching electric F-150 truck in ‘huge’ shift for low-emission vehicles
    F-150 Lightning will be most powerful version of vehicle in lineup as Biden says ‘The future of the auto industry is electric’”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/19/ford-f-150-electric-pickup-truck-low-emission-vehicles

    “Ford will launch the electric version of its bestselling F-150 pickup truck on Wednesday, a move that automotive experts called “huge” deal for the shift to low-emission vehicles.

    Joe Biden has pushed for the US to become the world leader in electric vehicles and has proposed spending $174bn of his $2.3tn jobs and infrastructure package to promote the transition from fossil fuels.

    Ford’s F-Series has been the US’s bestselling vehicle since the 1970s. Last year the company sold 787,422 of the vehicles, a disappointing slide amid the coronavirus pandemic from the 896,526 units it sold in 2019, but the number still made it easily the bestselling truck in the US.

    The latest version of the truck will be officially unveiled on Wednesday evening, timed for the California market, which is the largest electric vehicle market in the US.

    The new F-150 Lightning is seen as being so important to the electrification of the US car pool that the president visited Ford in Detroit this week to promote his plans to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure and promote electric vehicles.”

    Right at the end of the article:

    “But the US must tackle significant infrastructure issues if the F-150 and other electric vehicles are to become mainstream. While China has 800,000 public charging locations, the US has only 100,000. Meanwhile Republicans are pushing back against the size of Biden’s infrastructure plan.”

    Like

  14. Mark, I dunno much about the F150 Lightning but I have discovered that thanks to a question from Joe Biden we now know the battery will weigh 1,800 lbs.

    I am also quite confident that it will cost more than the regular version. And a pound to a penny not many people who actually need a truck for their livelihood will buy one over an ICE.

    Like

  15. “Car buyers still sceptical about going electric, says Ford boss”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57200593

    “Consumers are still sceptical about electric cars and switching from petrol and diesel remains “a real challenge”, the boss of Ford UK has told the BBC.

    Lisa Brankin said more government support for the electric car market would be needed ahead of a proposed ban on new petrol and diesel sales in 2030.

    Research from energy regulator Ofgem suggests 6.5 million households plan to buy electric cars by 2030.

    But the number of electric vehicles (EVs) currently in use remains low.

    Research from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) found EVs account for just over 1% of the 35 million vehicles on UK roads.

    However, numbers are increasing, with sales of battery-powered vehicles more than doubling last year while the number of plug-in hybrids also grew by more than a third.

    But Ms Brankin, managing director at Ford of Britain and Ireland, told Radio 5 Live’s Wake Up to Money programme many customers were sceptical about buying an electric vehicle. The carmaker is still the leading manufacturer in the UK in terms of vehicle sales, according to 2020 figures from Statista.

    “We did a survey looking at customer attitudes and we saw that just over 10% of customers were actively considering a battery electric vehicle as their next purchase,” Ms Brankin said.

    “Most other people were still concerned about a number of things – range, the charging infrastructure, the lack of information available to customers and obviously the price as well.

    On the cost of electric vehicles, she said: “We do recognise that that is an issue and that’s why we’ve been calling on government to continue to support the whole range of battery electric vehicles.

    The government’s goal to phase out vehicles which generate tailpipe emissions is part of a wider plan to make the UK carbon neutral by 2050.

    The RAC said in May the UK’s charging network would need to grow “exponentially” to cope as electric vehicle sales surged….”

    Like

  16. “£300m investment to fuel electric car take-up”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57225856

    “The UK’s energy regulator has approved plans to invest £300m in low carbon projects including support for 3,550 charging points for electric vehicles.

    Ofgem said the funds would allow energy networks to build robust electricity infrastructure for installing charging points across UK motorways.

    It said while more people are buying electric cars, others are put off due to a lack of charging points near home.

    Ofgem said a wider charging network would help address “range anxiety”.

    The new funding will support the infrastructure needed to support 1,800 new ultra-rapid charging points at motorway service areas.

    There are currently 918 ultra-rapid charge points in the UK which can add a range of 100 miles to an electric car in around 30 minutes.

    The investment will also allow an additional 1,750 rapid charging points to be installed. In addition to motorways, cities and train stations will also see increased network capacity to support more charging points.

    In total, the UK has nearly 24,000 charging points, which have more than 41,000 connectors – or cables – that can be plugged into an electric car, according to electric vehicle app and website Zap-Map.

    “As drivers make the switch from petrol and diesel to electric, Britain’s cables, substations and other infrastructure need a massive upgrade to support this new demand for electricity,” Ofgem said.”

    Like

  18. “This is how many electric vehicles there are in Cumbria”

    https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/19326218.many-electric-vehicles-cumbria/

    “The number of Cumbrian drivers that are doing green and using electric vehicles has been revealed.

    Statistics from the Department for Transport show that 1,260 ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) were licensed across the county at the end of last year.

    This is an increase of 420 on the previous year when there were 840.”

    A 50% increase! How exciting. Yet out of a population around 0.5M, that’s a risibly small number. Especially when analysed in a little more depth:

    “Overall, ULEVs still only accounted for about 0.4 per cent of all vehicles licensed in Cumbria at the end of 2020 – below the UK average of 1.1 per cent.”

    And:

    “In Cumbria, 697 of the ULEVs licensed at the end of the year were battery electric vehicles – defined as zero emission.

    A further 510 were plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which combine an electric motor with a petrol or diesel engine.”

    Perhaps the people of Cumbria know which way the wind isn’t blowing.

    Despite the obvious fact that the people of the UK don’t want these things in other than very small numbers (and then only thanks to the subsidy regime), we still get the same old tired nonsense from politicians:

    ““This is proof that more people are moving away from diesel cars, as we build back greener and clean up the air in our towns and cities,” she added.

    “With £2.8 billion of government support to encourage their take-up, there has never been a better time to switch to an electric vehicle.””

    And:

    “”With the climate emergency worsening, increases in electric vehicle sales are always welcome,” said Kerry McCarthy, Labour’s shadow minister for green transport.”

    Then there’s this:

    “Across the UK, about 431,600 ULEVs were licensed at the end of 2020 – an increase of 162,300 over the year.

    The majority of the spike – about 101,800 – were company-registered.”

    So most individuals aren’t buying them, most new purchases are by companies for tax/subsidy reasons. That’s going well, then.

    Liked by 2 people

  19. First the hype:

    “Tesla Model 3 becomes most popular battery electric car on UK roads
    Surge in sales for US carmaker in first four months of 2021 pushes Nissan Leaf into second place”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/06/tesla-model-3-becomes-most-popular-battery-electric-car-on-uk-roads

    “The Tesla Model 3 has become the most popular battery electric car on British roads after a surge in sales, as the race to dominate the car industry’s new era heats up.”

    Then the reality:

    “As the cost of making electric cars falls, other carmakers are hoping to create truly mass-market cars that are cheaper than the Model 3, which at a minimum of £40,990 is still out of the reach of many. Volkswagen is rapidly ramping up production of its small ID.3 family car, while BMW hopes that the electric Mini, built in Oxford, will repeat the success of its petrol version.

    Despite the barrage of new electric models, the scale of the challenge of electrifying the UK’s fleet of 35m cars – and actually reducing CO2 emissions meaningfully – remains enormous. The number of Teslas on UK roads is only a tiny fraction of combustion engine models. In 2020 there were almost 1.6m Ford Fiestas in use in the UK, and 1.2m Ford Focuses, according to the SMMT.

    An electric car model will have to garner as many as 500,000 UK sales to make the top 10. The market for secondhand electric cars is growing quickly as the first generation of models is passed on but it will take years for electrics to trickle through to people who will not or cannot afford a new car.

    Carmakers also face a significant challenge in ramping up production of electric cars. Nissan on Friday revealed it had to delay the release of its Ariya electric SUV because of the global shortage of computer chips. Cars already use as many as 100 chips to control functions ranging from air conditioning to entertainment touchscreens, while electric cars are even more reliant on chips to control their batteries. Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, this week said on Twitter that prices were “increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide”.

    The industry is also concerned that efforts to electrify the fleet in the UK and elsewhere will also falter without more public investment in charging points across the country.”

    Like

  20. “As NSW roads minister, I know we have to incentivise electric cars
    Andrew Constance
    A road user charge for EVs should be many, many years off. Not before we have a reasonably priced market”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/10/as-nsw-roads-minister-i-know-we-have-to-incentivise-electric-cars

    “…We can’t spend any more time, or expend any more energy, debating climate change. We need to take action now. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s real or not – regardless of your viewpoint, you will be a beneficiary of the innovation.

    An immediate way we can lead change is to increase the number of electric vehicles on our roads.

    What we have seen in Australia is too much concern around losing tax revenue. There is a belief that as we scale up our electric vehicle market, we will see the dollars coming in from the fuel excise scale down.

    But we need to encourage, not discourage, change for the better. We need visionary thinking to deal with this issue. We need to incentivise the market. We need to see a variation in price points – the notion of electric vehicles as being only for the wealthy must be dispelled – and importantly, we need to do this here and now….”.

    If the people thought it was change for the better, they’d embrace it without the need for a carrot and stick approach from the Government.

    “I travelled to Oslo a few years ago to have a look at what is happening with electric vehicles there. ”

    Yeah, right. How did you get there? Was it really necessary to go? I have a pretty good idea what’s going on in Oslo with regard to electric vehicles, and I found that out on the internet without the need to fly half-way round the world (and back) to find out.

    Like

  21. But how many foxes eat grapes, even if they’re ripe?
    For all your love of archaic language, have you never read the Song of Solomon (Canticles) chapter 2:15?

    John

    Like

  22. An electric coach that was taken from London to St Ives to publicise greenwashingsustainability certificates during the G7 conference has managed to limp back as far as Cullompton, where with luck there’ll be a charging station that can cope with the coach’s big battery.

    3/4 mile from the services! 9% charge… don’t want to celebrate too soon, but…

    URL:twitter.com/ThePlanetMark/status/1404783568614838273

    Arriving into Cullompton Services! Whoop whoop!!!

    URL:twitter.com/ThePlanetMark/status/1404787660737204227

    One of two brand new charging stations at the Jamaica Inn was broken and the other was unsuitable, as was another at Launceston. The driver got the coach as far as Cullompton by doing 30mph on the flat and switching the motor off when going downhill so that gravity could charge the battery a little bit.

    Let’s hope the Cullompton charger works!

    Like

  25. John, foxes are a literary goldmine (they feature quite heavily in Aesop’s fables), but their role in the Song of Songs is a mystery to me. Some of the vegetable references and that to a young hart are a little more obvious, but…

    Like

  26. “UK could be left behind in the electric car race, warns report”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57490100

    “The UK risks being left in the slow lane when it comes to building electric cars, according to a new report.

    Influential green group Transport and Environment (T&E) says as recently as 2018, the UK produced roughly half of all electric cars built in Europe.

    But it claims a lack of investment by UK manufacturers means that by the end of the decade that figure will have fallen to just 4%.

    This comes at a time when the market is expanding rapidly.

    As a result, the Brussels-based non-profit says that, despite being one of the first countries to outlaw the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, the UK will be almost wholly reliant on electric vehicles imported from abroad.”

    Liked by 1 person

  27. “…the UK will be almost wholly reliant on electric vehicles imported from abroad.”

    OR, with a lot of luck, we simply won’t use them, considering the massive grid expansion issues, the massive problems of charging for much UK housing stock, and biblical sized environmental issues their battery production and later dead batteries are going to cause.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. “Electric Cars: Is it time to buy one?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-48108627

    “Electric cars are increasingly taking to our roads but many people still have reservations. Common worries include the price of the vehicles, where you can charge, charging times and the wider environmental costs of manufacturing them.

    Reality Check looks at how valid these concerns are.”

    I confess I haven’t watched it, but I suspect their idea of reality and mine are somewhat different. The fact that the public aren’t buying them other than in tiny numbers (despite the hype about massive percentage increases – a massive percentage increase on a small number is still a small number) suggests that the public agrees with me, not with the BBC. If they were such a good buy, we wouldn’t need the relentless campaigning to try to persuade us to buy them.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. “Brussels drafts death sentence for the internal combustion engine car
    Targets being discussed would end the sale of carbon-emitting cars by 2035.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-mulls-dealing-death-blow-gas-guzzling-cars/

    “New cars powered by diesel and gasoline may have only 14 years left in the European Union, according to new emissions targets under discussion in Brussels.

    Three EU officials told POLITICO that the European Commission is debating setting a zero-emissions target for vehicles sold beyond 2035 — a huge shift from the current trajectory of industry standards that would mark a revolution for Europe’s automakers.

    The details sparked an immediate backlash from the politically powerful German car industry, which has been warning against the Commission’s intentions for months

    “That would not only mean the end of the internal combustion engine, but also the end of plug-in hybrids,” said Hildegard Müller, head of Germany’s VDA car lobby.

    The new rules would come under a revamp of the bloc’s car emissions reduction standards, part of the EU’s Green Deal plan to hit net-zero CO2 emissions by mid-century. The Commission is mulling upping the bloc’s 2030 target to mandate a 60 percent reduction in car emissions, compared to the current goal of a 37.5 percent cut. By 2035, that would rise to 100 percent, the three officials said.

    If the proposal makes it into the final text — due to be published on July 14 — it would then be considered by EU countries and the European Parliament. It’s likely to be heavily opposed by both industry lobbies and countries with economies that are heavily reliant on traditional carmaking.

    While many carmakers are starting to produce zero-emission electric cars, only Volvo and Volkswagen have strategies in place to transition to electric by the end of the decade, according to a new study from green mobility NGO Transport & Environment. VW unit Audi will reportedly stop selling internal combustion engine (ICE) cars in Europe from 2026.

    VW’s German rivals Daimler and BMW are among the least prepared to dump the ICE.

    The industry said the Commission’s plans would force a rapid switch to battery cars, without considering alternatives.”

    Like

  30. The real game plan is slowly being revealed:

    “Climate change: Set target to cut car use, minister told
    By Roger Harrabin
    BBC environment analyst”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57570010

    “Shifting to electric vehicles will still leave the UK with serious transport problems, a report has said.

    The IPPR think tank said emissions will fall, but the number of cars on the road will continue to grow.

    It foresaw a 28% increase in car ownership by 2050, leading to more jams and harm to the economy.

    But the government said it had plans to make transport greener and it was committed to offering people a range of travel options.

    Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in March that car use must shrink.

    The IPPR said Mr Shapps’ long-awaited Transport Decarbonisation Strategy should harmonise with this by committing to peak car ownership by 2030.

    Unless there is a change in policy, car ownership is expected to be driven up by a growing economy and increasing population.

    The IPPR% said failure to tackle this will have negative effects on:

    Health: Walking and cycling (when practical) are healthier than sitting in a car.
    Resources: An ever-expanding car fleet drains raw materials and energy.
    Urban space: Fewer cars would mean more trees, play space, and room for walkers and cyclists.
    Congestion: Traffic jams damage the economy and lead to demand for more and bigger roads.
    Inequality: Allowing current trends to continue will widen the social divide between those who own cars and those who don’t.”

    I liked the last one. Is the plan to reduce inequality by making sure nobody can use cars?

    Like

  31. “UK car industry ‘could lose 90,000 jobs without new battery gigafactories’
    SMMT says government must increase support for electric car production to German and US levels”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/29/uk-electric-car-industry-battery-factories-smmt-jobs

    “Up to 90,000 jobs could be lost in UK car manufacturing unless the government increases support for electric car production to German and US levels, the industry body has said.

    Industry leaders accused the government of being long on words but short on action to help the UK build capacity for electric vehicles, both to support the industry and reach climate emergency targets.

    Not only were more incentives needed for multinationals to build electric battery factories in the UK, but grants for consumers to purchase vehicles, and at least 2.3m charging points nationwide before the end of the decade, according to a new industry report.”

    And there I was thinking that the transition was a win-win, cost-free and all that. Instead it appears the taxpayer is going to be forced to pay for the costs of a transition to a form of transport that, by and large, the taxpayer doesn’t want.

    Like

  32. “Vauxhall set to announce Ellesmere Port electric van”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57700749

    Good news if it preserves jobs. I’m not against electric vehicles, just against being told I must have one when that won’t work for me half as well as my current diesel does; also I remain concerned at how the National Grid will cope if we’re forced to be reliant on unreliable “renewables” and we’re all driving electric cars.

    Yet again, though, we learn that taxpayer money is necessary to make this “win-win” work. Not so much of a win-win, then…

    “Fleet operators are increasingly turning to low-emission options because of the tax advantages they provide.

    For Carlos Tavares, the pragmatic and outspoken CEO of Stellantis, it offers a useful compromise. He has been scathing about the UK government’s plans to outlaw the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 – accusing them of destroying his company’s business model in the UK.

    Now there is a new business model – and with Mr Tavares having previously made it clear that future production in the UK would depend on what support the government could offer, it’s likely help from the taxpayer will be part of it.”

    Like

  34. “Electric cars: UK government urged to prevent ‘charging deserts’
    Competition watchdog investigates dominance of one provider across motorway service stations”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/23/electric-cars-uk-government-urged-to-prevent-charging-deserts

    “The UK’s competition authority has called for the government to intervene in the electric car charger market to prevent “charging deserts” and increase availability in locations outside London, which remain underserved.

    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said it had opened an investigation into the dominance of one provider, Electric Highway, in the fast-charging network at motorway service stations.

    Electric cars are a crucial part of the UK’s plan to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as part of its effort to alleviate the climate crisis, and the government announced in 2020 that sales of new petrol and diesel cars would be banned by 2030.

    However, the industry has long argued that much more public investment is needed to solve a chicken and egg problem: some consumers are put off from buying an electric car because of poor charger availability but charger companies are unwilling to invest until enough consumers have bought them.

    Forecasts cited by the CMA suggest the public charger network needs to expand by at least 10 times by 2030, from the current 25,000 to between 280,000 and 480,000 public charge points. A quarter of UK households – 8m – will be unable to install chargers at home.

    However, a study by the regulator published on Friday suggested Britons faced a “postcode lottery” for access to public chargers. Outside London there are only 1,000 on-street chargers across the whole of the UK, while within the capital there are 4,700.”

    Like

  35. “Hitting global climate target could create 8m energy jobs, study says
    Researchers suggest net increase would mostly occur in renewables sector, with decline in fossil fuels”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/23/hitting-global-climate-target-could-create-8m-energy-jobs-study-says

    “If some politicians are to be believed, taking sweeping action to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement would be calamitous for jobs in the energy sector. But a study suggests that honouring the global climate target would, in fact, increase net jobs by about 8 million by 2050.

    The study – in which researchers created a global dataset of the footprint of energy jobs in 50 countries including major fossil fuel-producing economies – found that currently an estimated 18 million people work in the energy industries, which is likely to increase to 26 million if climate targets are met.

    Previous research suggests that pro-climate polices could increase net energy jobs by 20 million or more, but that work relied only on empirical data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and generalised the results for the rest of the world using a multiplier. But the data varies dramatically across regions, driven by differences in technology and rates of unionisation, among other factors. For instance, extracting 1m tonnes of coal in India takes 725 workers, versus 73 in the US.

    The latest analysis, published in the journal One Earth, combined such employment factors across a global dataset (including key fossil fuel, non-OECD economies such as Russia, India and China) with an integrated assessment model, which combines climate and economic estimates to predict the costs of climate change.”

    Apart from the fact that I don’t believe it, does it not occur to them that if they are correct, then either:

    1. More people producing energy means the process is less efficient and makes it more expensive; or

    2. If it isn’t to be more expensive, then these will be low-paid jobs?

    And at the end of the article, we get this:

    “Johannes Emmerling, an environmental economist at the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment in Italy, another author of the study, acknowledged that the analysis did not account for the gaps in skills.

    People working in the fossil fuel industry do not necessarily have the expertise or the experience to carry out jobs in the renewable sector, but given that there are few estimates of jobs as the world aims to forge a greener future, the focus was on firming up estimates, he said, adding that skills were the next avenue of research.”

    All rather vague and pie-in-the sky, if you ask me. Still, it’s good for yet another headline.

    Like

  36. Mark, as you note, jobs in energy are a cost, not a benefit. You could employ a billion in energy if you wanted to. Give everyone an exercise bike and a dynamo, and pay them minimum wage to pedal as hard as they could. In fact if we get rid of diesel tractors we can increase employment in farming quite markedly.

    That academics can be so stupid, or so committed to the cause that they will just spout untruths deliberately, is a sad sign o’ the times.

    On the electric chargers, I am glad they note the chicken and egg paradox. However, I read today that installing electric charging points benefits from 100% first year allowance. That must soften the blow. Nevertheless, I suspect that there is no money in them. Why? Because nobody would use a motorway charger by choice. The only economic option and the only option reducing battery wear is to slow charge at home. What about long journeys? Well, as the head post notes, a lot of EVs are owned as second cars by folk who use their proper car for long journeys. And too, we hear constantly about how range is increasing. If that is true – I don’t know, but I doubt it – that makes public chargers less profitable. While we must go to a petrol station to fuel our petrol car, we never have to charge away from home if we have a) a home charger and b) sufficient range to get home.

    There were no shenanigans required to build the first petrol stations. Entrepreneurs saw a gap in the market and filled it. EVs are a dead duck.

    Liked by 2 people

  38. We bought a Model 3 Tesla a year ago. Its primary function is for local trips and we have a ICE SUV for longer excursions. I believe we are the low hanging fruit for EV purchases. It is a fun car for those who can afford it and can easily charge at home. We have never used a charger away from home. Tesla have a good network of nifty proprietary superchargers which are great for the wealthy but rather a waste of resources as they can only be used by Tesla owners.

    Once those people who have the wherewithal have bought an EV, I suspect that EV sales will slow significantly. The projections of future EV purchases I suspect are optimistic and should not be based on the rate of take-up by early adopters.

    Like

  39. Is there perhaps an analogy to be made with the replacement of the horse by motor vehicles? The gradual disappearance of stables, food suppliers and veterinarians, and their replacement by garages, petrol stations and mechanics. Some jobs, you could hardly call them professions, like horse dung removers, would go by the board..

    Like

  40. Alan, I think that’s a very reasonable analogy.

    The big difference is that people adopted (petrol-fuelled) motor vehicles en masse, and the private sector rapidly moved in to provide the necessary facilities in the form of garages, petrol stations etc. No Government subsidies, neither carrot nor stick, were needed, because they were so obviously an improvement on the previously available form of transport (horse and cart). EVs aren’t taking off in the same way, nor are charging facilities being rapidly supplied by the private sector, because they lack that necessary element of being an improvement (for most people) on what already exists. For some people EVs are a good idea, and that’s fine. For most people, what we already have does the job better and more cheaply.

    Liked by 1 person

  41. As seen in the Guardian weekend magazine Saturday – an advert for the Renault Zoe at the stellar price of “£199*/month”.

    The * leads to the small print – so small it is almost unreadable:

    Metallic paint shown at £600
    17” alloys not available in the UK

    Then the admission that the offer is certainly well deserving of that *:

    £8,953 deposit
    36 monthly payments of £199
    Optional final payment of £14,228

    Price based on 6000 miles p.a. Excess mileage 8p a mile inc VAT.

    So your £199*/month actually costs you about 9K + 7.2K + 14.2K or about 30 K if you want to own your swanky electric car. Of course this figure includes finance, but it also includes your £2500 plug-in car grant.

    Meanwhile if you would like to consider a petrol equivalent (Clio), it begins at £16,000, not much more than half the cost of the sparky car.

    But what about the cost of the fuel? By the time you’ve accounted for the outrageous duty + VAT that the petrol car gets hit with and the “subsidy” for the electricity that the sparky car gets when it charges at home, you’re still onto a winner, surely?

    Clio 6 l petrol/100 km; 18,000 miles over 3 years = 1740 l
    Let petrol be £1.30/l
    Cost over three years = £2,252

    Zoe 4 miles/kWh; 18,000 miles over 3 years = 4500 kWh
    Domestic rate = 14.4 p/kWh
    Cost over three years = £648
    (Does not include the cost of a home charger, which, by the way, is subsidised by your taxes to the tune of £350 out of the c. £1K cost)

    Public charger rate = 35 p/kWh ish
    Cost over three years = £1,575

    So, as long as you charge at home you’ve made up £1,600 of the 14K difference.

    Aha, but what about the VED? You don’t pay that, do you, on electric cars? What does the Clio pay?
    About £140 in the first year and £155 per year thereafter, so £450 over three years.

    Add both together and you knock £2,000 off the 14K difference, which means that the electric car only costs you £12K more.

    That little asterisk sure was a powerful one.

    And depreciation would be a whole ‘nother can of worms.

    [Edit: missed out the word “print.”]

    Like

  42. “Electric car charging prices ‘must be fair’ say MPs”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57963912

    “People must be protected from excessive pricing for public electric car charging, MPs have said.

    Charging an electric car at home is much cheaper than using public charge points.

    This could put pressure on people who are less able to afford it, the Transport Select Committee said.

    The government also needs to make charging infrastructure accessible and reliable, and make sure people in rural areas have equal access, the MPs added….

    …”Charging electric vehicles should be convenient, straightforward and inexpensive and drivers must not be disadvantaged by where they live or how they charge their vehicles,” said committee chair Huw Merriman.

    In addition, drivers who live in rural or remote areas or who do not have off-street parking “risk being left behind”, the committee said.

    The committee said industry must use pricing “to change consumer charging behaviour to a ‘little but often’ approach and at times when the National Grid can meet total demand”.

    Graeme Cooper, head of future markets at National Grid, said that the energy network operator was “working with government to map out where critical grid capacity is needed to enable the faster roll out of charging points”.

    “There will be an uptick in demand for energy so we need to ensure that we are future proofing, putting the right wires in the right place for future demand.”

    He said National Grid would have to ramp up capacity to help achieve the UK’s net zero goals, both by making it smarter, but also putting in more physical infrastructure.”

    It seems to be dawning on them that there are all sorts of problems associated with this, but it hasn’t yet occurred to them that therefore perhaps we shouldn’t go down this route.

    Like

  43. “Leading the charge! Can I make it from Land’s End to John o’Groats in an electric car?”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/28/leading-the-charge-can-i-make-it-from-lands-end-to-john-ogroats-in-an-electric-car

    “Range anxiety hits hard on the A9 in the Highlands of Scotland. For the uninitiated, this is the fear that an electric vehicle (EV) won’t reach its destination before running out of power. I’m driving through some of Britain’s loveliest landscape – mountains, rivers, lochs and firths – but I hardly notice. I’m focused hard – on the road in front, but mainly on two numbers on the dashboard. One is how far it is in miles to where I’m going; the other is the range in miles remaining in the battery. Sometimes, especially on downhill stretches when what is known as “regenerative braking” means the battery is getting charged, I tell myself it’s going to be OK, I’ll make it. But going uphill the range plummets. Squeaky bum time….

    …t’s the hottest day of the year so far, but I can’t risk the air conditioning, because that immediately wipes about 10% off the range. I’ve heard that opening windows makes a car less aerodynamic, so they remain closed. Sweaty bum time, too. Driving as gently as possible, nursing the car along, barely touching the accelerator or the brake, phone unplugged, radio off, I head north in sweltering, silent panic. Guilt-free, though, on account of being emissions-free at the tailpipe.

    I find myself behind a lorry. I tuck in behind, into its slipstream. Potential salvation by Alsop Transport Services of Oban, Argyll. I’m going to surf this baby all the way home. Well, hopefully, all the way to John o’Groats, because that is where I’m heading….

    …It’s not my Enyaq: it has been loaned to me by Škoda. This one costs £34,495 to buy, including a £2,500 government grant. Still a fair old whack, but EVs are expensive: even a little Renault Zoe costs £27,500. The cheapest Tesla is more than 40 grand.

    …Land’s End is a miserable place: expensive parking before you queue up to pay more to have your photo taken by a signpost. But, more importantly, there is a rapid charger there (Gridserve, 30p/kWh). I can get from low up to 80% in about half an hour, as opposed to hours on a slow charger or at home…..

    …One of the really annoying things about Teslas is that they have their own special superchargers, sometimes at the same site; other stations are for Teslas only. We, by which I mean non-Tesla EV plebs, can’t use them, whereas they can use ours….

    …In Carlisle, I meet Anne-Marie from Newcastle, who is having a weekend away from the kids to go swimming in Ullswater. She loves her five-year-old Nissan Leaf, but gets a range of only 80 miles, so she is stopping off to charge….

    …At Gretna, I meet Sarah and Phil from Sheffield, on the way to Hamilton races, although they are going to miss the first race because they are having problems charging their Jaguar I-Pace. The charger at home was tripping all the circuits in the house, so they had to have that fixed. “Then trying to find a superfast charger when you’re out and about is not always possible, because they don’t always work,” says Sarah. Phil says too many companies offer charging: “It should have been three or four franchises from the government and it should have all gone on one app.” It’s a common complaint: that the charging infrastructure is confusing and frustrating – some are fast, others slow, some require an app (EV drivers have screens full of apps), some don’t work at all.

    My own experience reflects this. In Perth, for example, I identify a BP Pulse point. “Ultra fast charging here,” says the big sign, which, after crossing the Cairngorms, is like reaching an oasis in the desert … Guess what, though? It doesn’t bloody work….

    …There isn’t a lot of room for spontaneity with an EV. A sign to Alton Towers? The Lakes? Or Stirling Castle … No waytime for a visit, because it would mean leaving the route, messing with the plan….”

    This being the Guardian, there are also quite a lot of positive comments and plugs (pardon the pun) for electric cars, but all in all it’s surprisingly down-beat for a newspaper that is constantly pushing this agenda. Maybe actually trying one out has given a long hard dose of reality?

    Like

  44. “This predictable electric cars fiasco highlights the intrinsic problem with green targets
    We are heading for a giant national breakdown – though it will conveniently come after the current crop of cabinet ministers has departed”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/28/predictable-electric-cars-fiasco-highlights-intrinsic-problem/

    “If we don’t tackle climate change, it is commonly asserted, we will through our own selfishness leave behind a horrible mess for our children. The same might be said of Prime Ministers’ promises to slash carbon emissions. They love lapping up the praise for setting over-ambitious targets – while leaving their successors to suffer the consequences.

    How virtuous Boris Johnson must have felt when announcing that the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2030 – bringing forward by a decade a target which he had himself inherited from Theresa May. The year 2030 lies just beyond the timescale which Johnson could possibly hope to remain in Number 10, which is just as well given that it is hard to see what his government has done to make it possible to achieve the target. As things stand we have nothing like the network of chargers we would need to switch fully to electric vehicles, nor do we have the electricity grid which could cope if we did. The Commons select committee on transport warns today that owners of electric vehicles may have to be stopped from charging their vehicles during the day for fear of causing blackouts. As things stand, they say, owners of electric cars tend to plug them in between 5pm and 7pm, when they get home from work – and a time when the grid is already facing peak demand.

    UK governments have rushed ahead with proposed bans on petrol and diesel while falling behind on building the necessary infrastructure. Back in 2009 the Brown government announced £20 million worth of seed funding in the hope of building a network of public recharging points by the end of the next Parliament – ie 2015. By January of this year we finally got to, er, 20,000. The government has argued that an extensive network of recharging points is unnecessary because most people will charge their vehicles at home or at work. But that somewhat ignores the 30 percent of motorists who, according to the RAC, do not have anywhere to park their cars except the street. If all 32 million cars on Britain’s roads were to go electric it would mean the owners of approximately 9.5 million vehicles fighting over 20,000 charging points. If, as some people claim, we now have more recharging points than we have petrol stations it rather misses the point – a car only needs to use a petrol pump for a couple minutes at a time. As for recharging, the fastest take half an hour to an hour while most take overnight.

    There is little chance of recharging becoming much easier in the near future. Local authorities are under no obligation to provide on-street chargers, and few have bothered. The district least-supplied with public chargers – Fenland – has just 3.9 of them per 100,000 population. At least motorists there are spared having to push their electric cars uphill when they run out of juice. Even if you can find a charger you face a nightmare of getting it to work. The government has failed to insist on standardisation of the network, with the result motorists face different types of connectors. What about a rule insisting that recharging points will accept cash and cards, and thereby be open to everyone? At the moment, many require apps to be loaded onto smartphones – extending even further how long it takes to charge a vehicle.

    There was an obvious solution: if we were going to go electric, why not encourage hybrids as an interim technology while the recharging network has a chance to develop? You don’t need a hugely powerful engine to constantly recharge the batteries of a car with an electric car, thereby extending its range by hundreds of miles. The job could be done with a small engine powered by biofuels. Instead, the government announced that hybrids, too, are to be banned from being sold new after 2035, guaranteeing that innovation in this field will now cease. Bizarrely, the government is simultaneously introducing hundreds of hybrid trains to the rail network – a form of transport which is vastly easier to electrify.

    Committing to becoming one of the first countries to ban petrol and diesel cars must have felt good at the time. But we are heading for a giant national breakdown – though conveniently enough a little after the current crop of cabinet ministers has left office.”

    Like

  45. “Home car charger owners urged to install updates”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58011014

    “Security researchers have discovered failings in two home electric car chargers.

    The researchers were able to make the chargers switch on or off, remove the owner’s access, and show how a hacker could get into a user’s home network.

    Most of the faults have now been fixed but owners are being told to update their apps and chargers, to be safe.

    Two home chargers, Wallbox and Project EV – both approved for sale in the UK by the Department for Transport – were found to be lacking adequate security when used with an accompanying app for smartphones.

    Cyber-security researcher at Pen Test Partners, Vangelis Stykas, discovered the vulnerabilities.

    “On Wallbox you could take full control of the charger, you could gain full access and remove the usual owner’s access on the charger. You could stop them from charging their own vehicles, and provide free charging to an attacker’s vehicle.

    “Project EV had a really bad implementation on their back end. Their authentication where it existed was pretty primitive, so an attacker could easily escalate themselves to being an administrator and change the firmware of all the chargers.”

    Mr Stykas says changing the firmware – the programming that is built in to the hardware – would allow an attacker to permanently disable the charger, or use it to attack other chargers or servers.”

    Like

  46. “Climate Change: Half US cars to be zero-emission by 2030 – Biden”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58101907

    “President Biden wants half of cars sold in the US by 2030 to be zero-emission vehicles, the White House says.

    Achieving this would reduce carbon emissions and help the US compete with China, a statement said.

    Transport accounted for 29% of US emissions in 2019. Sales of zero-emission vehicles in the US lag behind those in Europe and China.

    The three biggest US carmakers have welcomed the target, though it is not legally binding….

    …Only about 2% of US car sales last year were electric vehicles compared to about 10% in Europe, according to the International Energy Agency. Many of the electric vehicles sold in the US are Teslas, with the company reporting surging profits last month.

    Mr Biden’s move does not go as far as the US state of California, which requires that by 2035 all new cars sold be zero-emission vehicles. Cars produce more than half of all the state’s carbon emissions.

    China is aiming for 20% of cars sold in 2025 to be zero-emissions, rising to half by 2035. The EU meanwhile has proposed limits that would effectively end new petrol and diesel vehicle sales by 2035.

    The White House said Mr Biden also planned to toughen fuel consumption and emissions regulations but did not give details….”.

    Like

  47. Meanwhile, as reported at Notalot: https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2021/08/05/stand-up-to-the-climate-fanatics-some-mps-call-to-scrap-2030-petrol-and-diesel-car-ban/

    A GROUP of MPs have come out to condemn the 2030 ban on new fossil fuelled car sales.

    The group of 13 MPs and Lord Lilley have endorsed a ground-breaking new report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Fair Fuel for UK motorists and hauliers. The report lists seven practical recommendations to lower emissions without banning new diesel and petrol vehicles.

    The main recommendation is: “The Government should immediately remove the threat of the ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles.”

    Liked by 1 person

  48. “Second-hand car sales soar amid shortage of new models”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58150025

    “Second-hand car sales in the UK have more than doubled in the last few months due to coronavirus restrictions easing and a shortage of new models.

    Year on year, the used car market grew 108.6% in the second quarter, with more than 2.2 million vehicles changing hands, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

    The number of sales was up 6.6% on pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

    But petrol cars made up most of the sales, with uptake of electrics slow.”

    Just wait until 2030 – sales of second-hand petrol and diesel cars will go through the roof.

    Like

  49. “‘I’m just not ready to buy an electric car'” – when you click on it, it becomes:

    “Can Americans pull the plug on petrol-powered cars?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58123729

    “US President Joe Biden wants Americans to switch to electric vehicles. Carmakers are on board – but are consumers willing to pull the plug on petrol?

    Tom Beckett, a former truck and bus driver, says he’s driven at least two million miles in his lifetime, and he is all for burning less gasoline to protect the environment.

    But like many Americans, he is “just not ready” to buy a low-emission electric car because of so-called range anxiety – the fear he won’t be able to go far enough on a single charge.

    The 62-year-old lives in rural Arkansas where he regularly has to drive long distances to get around, and electric vehicle (EV) charging points are few and far between.

    “Unless the battery capacity and the range doubles, I don’t think electric cars will ever become a big deal in states like this,” he tells the BBC.

    “People need the confidence to know their cars won’t run out of juice. Otherwise they’ll just stick with gas.”

    Transport accounted for almost of a third of US emissions in 2019 and the White House has pledged to bring this down. But people like Mr Beckett pose a big challenge to a new administration plan to make zero-emission vehicles account for half of all automobiles sold in the US by 2030….

    …But none of it will make much difference if consumers don’t buy in.

    Outside of a few major metropolitan areas, EVs still aren’t very common in the US and the country accounted for just 2% of new EV sales globally last year, compared to 10% from Europe.

    Moreover, while just under half of US adults say they would support a proposal to phase out production of gasoline-powered cars and trucks, a similar proportion would oppose it, according to a Pew Center survey published in June.

    A major concern about low-emission vehicles is price. Even with federal subsidies, EVs and hybrids tend to cost more than pure petrol cars, even though the vehicles are more economical to run….”.

    Like

  50. Mark,

    But I thought that part of the utopian dream was that someday we will all be living in big cities and the countryside would be just left to the wind farms. Problem solved.

    Like

  51. “GM extends recall to cover all Chevy Bolts due to fire risk”

    https://apnews.com/article/technology-joe-biden-business-health-environment-and-nature-bbe51b0c8e644c4448d634fc3c0f3461

    “General Motors said Friday it is recalling all Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles sold worldwide to fix a battery problem that could cause fires.

    The recall and others raise questions about lithium ion batteries, which now are used in nearly all electric vehicles. Ford, BMW and Hyundai all have recalled batteries recently.

    President Joe Biden will need electric vehicles to reach a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half 2030 as part of a broader effort to fight climate change.

    The GM recall announced Friday adds about 73,000 Bolts from the 2019 through 2022 model years to a previous recall of 69,000 older Bolts.

    GM said that in rare cases the batteries have two manufacturing defects that can cause fires.

    The Detroit-based automaker said it will replace battery modules in all the vehicles. In older versions, all five modules will be replaced.

    The latest recall will cost the company about $1 billion, bringing the total cost of the Bolt battery recalls to $1.8 billion.

    GM said owners should limit charging to 90% of battery capacity. “

    Like

  52. “ChargePlace Scotland: Why the ‘world’s largest’ electric vehicle switchover turned into a ‘disaster’ and how a Dundee team are trying to fix it”

    https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-environment/transport/2486779/chargeplace-scotland-why-the-worlds-largest-electric-vehicle-switchover-went-wrong-and-how-a-dundee-team-are-trying-to-fix-it/

    “Massive problems at a Dundee service centre have wreaked havoc on Scotland’s £45m electric vehicle (EV) charging network.

    Drivers are furious with “significant” software issues preventing them from finding and using one of the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network’s 1,800 points.

    Scores of existing charging points are missing from official maps, while others appear available but will not work for many customers.

    EV drivers say the problems are so serious they could set the electrical vehicle roll out – key to reducing Scotland’s transport carbon emissions — “back years”.

    The transport sector is currently the greatest contributor to Scotland’s emissions. Road transport is responsible for the largest share.

    Driver Ian Jones said he would not have bought an electric vehicle earlier this year had he known about the problems.

    “Not knowing whether a charger I need to use will be working causes a lot of stress and anxiety. Mainly because the map is not accurate or the network can fail without warning.

    “I am loathe to recommend that anyone in Scotland, or intending to visit Scotland, buy an EV until they have a proven network.”…”.

    Like

  53. Mark, it would be logical, would it not, for governments and manufacturers to come together to define a standard charger, to which all chargers would adhere, and at which any electric vehicle could charge. We do not as a rule have to worry about which petrol station we should stop at, because we know every one, regardless of badge, offers the same products with the same nozzles.

    You should not need apps, or have to register with the owners. Just drive up on your last 3 joules and put your card in, type in PIN, remove, plug in and go and do whatever you want to do for the next hour or three. (Naive question: if I pulled up alongside your charging vehicle, could I just unplug it and plug mine in, thus getting you to pay for my leccy? Perhaps this explains all the added hassle.)

    Liked by 1 person

  54. “Finding Early Adopters

    Where new tech is concerned you can either be an Innovator, an Early Adopter, in the Early Majority, in the Late Majority, or you can be a Laggard.”

    How long will we all have to wait to discover into which of the last 3 categories our #COP26 president Alok Sharma and Extinction Rebellion founder Gail Bradbrook fall?

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cop26-alok-sharma-climate-diesel-car-b1899950.html

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/23/extinction-rebellion-founder-admits-drives-diesel-car/

    Like

  55. Joe, there are 5 categories! But I think it is safe to say that Bradbrook and Sharma are firmly on the downslope of the normal curve. Late Majority or Laggard for sure. (Perhaps, their hypocrisy having been pointed out, they will uncomfortably lurch forward into the Early Majority. We will wait to see.

    ==

    By the way, the paper that originally spurred me to write on this subject – the one about electric trucks being competitive with diesel ones, as reported by the BBC – is now available, except that it is behind a paywall.

    Click to access S2542-4351(21)00130-6.pdf

    The graphical abstract implies that rather than try to match the capabilities of diesel trucks, electric truck designers should instead reduce battery sizes and therefore ranges, and rely on several recharges for every long trip.

    It is not difficult to spot the obvious problems with this plan. But it is apparently difficult for salarymen to do so.

    Liked by 1 person

  56. What a dilemma for fossil fuel company-hating “Greens”:

    “Shell aims to install 50,000 on-street EV charge points by 2025
    Oil firm sets out plans to provide a third of Britain’s network needed to hit climate targets”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/01/shell-on-street-ev-charge-points-2025

    “The oil company, which has been regularly targeted by climate crisis campaigners in recent years, has pledged to invest heavily in greener businesses and become net zero by 2050.

    This week Extinction Rebellion activists glued themselves to the Science Museum in London in protest against Shell’s sponsorship of an exhibition about greenhouse gases.”

    Of course a target isn’t necessarily the same as reality.

    Like

  57. This reminds us of the new two-tier society we are heading for. According to the front page of the FT (also covering this story) 62% of urban households do not have driveways. Thus, generally below-average income urbanites will be expected to plug in to third-party chargers, costing them more per unit of leccy and causing increased battery wear owing to the higher power.

    Meanwhile, suburbanites with driveways will be able to charge up overnight with their 7 kW home chargers at domestic rates, and preserve their battery life.

    Shell might consider that they will be providing an overpriced service to annoyed people with no alternative, and that the provider of such a service might become less popular as a result.

    Liked by 1 person

  58. At a Shell petrol station in Newark the other day I parked up close enough to the electric charging station to notice the fee: 41p/kWh.

    Now the energy in 1 kWh is of course 1 kWh, or to put it another way it’s 1000 W * 3600 s = 3.6 MJ. How does that compare to 1 l of petrol, I wondered? Referring to the datasheet I put together for Denierland, I find that the energy in 1 l of petrol is 46.7 MJ/kg * 0.692 kg/l = 32.3 MJ/l.

    So for £1.30 you get 32.3 MJ of petrol, and for £0.41 you get 3.6 MJ of electricity.

    Next we must note that of that £1.30, about 50p is the base price, to which 57.95p is added for duty and about 22p for VAT. To be scrupulous we should also note that of the 41p/ kWh for the leccy, about 7p is VAT. The comparison becomes:

    50p for 32.3 MJ (petrol) vs 34p for 3.6 MJ (electricity).

    Now we must acknowledge that EVs are far more efficient at point of use than petrol cars, about 4 times (c. 80% vs 20%). Which in terms of energy at the wheels brings us to:

    50p for 6.5 MJ (petrol) vs 34p for 2.7 MJ (electricity), or

    8p / MJ (petrol) vs 13p / MJ (electricity).

    Of course, once duty etc is added the leccy still wins, at about

    20p / MJ (petrol) vs 15p / MJ (electricity).

    Nevertheless, that sum is already uncomfortably close to parity.

    Like

  59. “Electric vehicle chargepoints set to become next great British emblem”

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/electric-vehicle-chargepoints-set-to-become-next-great-british-emblem

    Electric vehicle chargepoints across the UK could become as recognisable as the red post box or black cab, following the appointment of the Royal College of Art (RCA) and PA Consulting to deliver an iconic British chargepoint design, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced today (9 August 2021).

    Like

  61. Jit: There’s another disadvantage of not having a driveway with an EV. To maximise range and efficiency in the cold, extra steps are required for a Tesla to keep the battery warm and conserve energy. Tesla recommends being plugged in as much as possible when the car is not in use. This uses the charging system, rather than the battery, to retain heat. I have found that to activate the regenerative braking system, our Tesla has to be pre-warmed for about an hour before driving when the temperature is below about 10 degrees C. If you don’t have a driveway with convenient plug so that you can precondition the battery, the range will be reduced in the winter months.

    Like

  62. “E-car chargers will turn off to prevent blackouts”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e-car-chargers-will-turn-off-to-prevent-blackouts-jnm2m86pz

    “Electric car charging points in people’s homes will be preset to switch off for nine hours each weekday at times of peak demand because ministers fear blackouts on the National Grid.

    Under regulations that will come into force in May, new chargers in the home and workplace will be automatically set not to function from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm. Public chargers and rapid chargers, on motorways and A-roads, will be exempt.”

    Unfortunately that’s all I can see – the rest is behind a paywall – but we can see enough to get the gist!

    Liked by 1 person

  63. Thanks Mark. The consultation response is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/electric-vehicle-smart-charging

    The bottom line is that new chargers will have to be “smart” and will come with timings such that peak times are blocked out from use. However, the settings will be capable of being overriden. Government are afraid that a) charging EVs will cause power cuts and that b) people won’t engage with the Brave New World and will therefore be disadvantaged because they will have to pay a higher rate for leccy during peak time. Hence the default settings preventing peak time charging “protects” such folk.

    Of course, this implies time of use tariffs for everyone.

    Also:

    Government will mandate a randomised delay function, to help address grid stability concerns arising from smart charging.

    So it won’t start charging straight away when you plug it in. (I almost wrote a cuss word there.)

    And this:

    Load controllers will become an increasingly important group of organisations as we transition to a smarter, more flexible energy system, yet they also present new and growing risks to the energy system and consumers.

    By this they mean entities with the power to turn off your smart charger or to start energy flowing in the other direction. Such entities, having control over the charge points, will wield a power that will require a high degree of oversight (imagine for example if they were owned by foreign powers who might want to punch us on the nose).

    Welcome to the sunlit uplands.

    Like

  64. “…a smarter, more flexible energy system…”.

    I see nothing smart about all this! It’s bonkers.

    Like

  66. “Electric vehicles divide opinion as car-loving Germany goes to polls
    Election has framed future of automobility as showdown between petrolheads and green zealots”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/20/electric-vehicles-divide-opinion-as-car-loving-germany-goes-to-polls

    “As the country heads to the polls on 26 September, all main parties on the ballot apart from the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) say they are committed to Germany reaching net zero within the next 14 to 29 years, and to curbing combustion engine emissions accordingly.

    The promise – and some say fiction – that these parties offer to voters is that such a historic change can be achieved without risking the world-leading status of Germany’s automobile industry. “Our great challenge is that we remain a car nation that is successful at making electric vehicles instead,” Olaf Scholz, the frontrunner in the race, said in a recent interview.

    The outgoing government claims existing subsidy schemes will suffice for Germany to meet its green targets, forecasting 14m electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to populate its roads by the year 2030. The Greens and the Social Democratic party (SPD) are even more ambitious, by another 1m vehicles.

    But the question is whether the enthusiasm required for a pivot to electric vehicles can be mustered in a country as romantically attached to a car culture of old as Germany….”.

    Like

  67. “Ford announces $11.4bn investment in electric vehicle plants”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58714608

    “Ford has announced a major investment in electric vehicle (EV) production in the US, promising to build its biggest ever factory in Tennessee, and two battery parks in Kentucky.

    Under the $11.4bn (£8.3bn) plan, the carmaker said it will build zero-emission cars and pickups “at scale” for American customers.

    It will also create 11,000 jobs.”

    Will it “create” 11,000 jobs, or will they simply replace the jobs of those workers laid off from building petrol and diesel vehicles?

    And there’s a but:

    “Yet the additional government investment required to make it happen is still in question.”

    And:

    “Outside of a few major metropolitan areas, EVs still aren’t very common in the US and the country accounted for just 2% of new EV sales globally last year.

    The Biden administration hopes to change this with tougher tailpipe emissions rules from 2026 and billions of dollars of spending on new charging points and consumer incentives.

    However, the cash is tied up in two spending bills that Democrat leaders must get through a divided Senate.

    On Thursday, lawmakers will vote on the first – a $1.5tn infrastructure plan – which appears to have enough bi-partisan support to pass.

    But a second, $3.5tn bill – which focuses on widening America’s social safety net – is opposed by every Republican and some moderate Democrats who say it is too expensive in its current form.”

    If you have to force people both to buy them and to subsidise them through Government support, then they’re not as good as the vehicles that they’re replacing, or at least not so fit for purpose for the vast majority of drivers. If this stuff worked for people, they’d be buying them without pressure and without subsidies.

    Like

  68. “UK electric car inquiries soar during fuel supply crisis
    Sellers of plug-in vehicles say petrol shortages are driving people to adopt the new technology”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/27/uk-electric-car-inquiries-soar-fuel-supply-crisis

    Note to Guardian journalist – it’s “enquiries”, not “inquiries”.

    “As petrol stations in parts of the UK started running out of fuel on Friday, business at Martin Miller’s electric car dealership in Guildford, Surrey, started soaring.

    After what ended up being his company EV Experts busiest day ever, interest does not appear to be dying down. This week the diary is booked up with test drives and the business is low on stock.

    “People buy electric cars for environmental reasons, for cost-saving reasons and because the technology’s great,” he said. “But Friday was one of those moments where people said, ‘Do you know what, this is a sign that we need to go electric’.”

    While scenes of chaos play out at petrol stations across the country amid shortages, for many electric vehicle (EV) dealers the fuel crisis has led to an unexpected surge in inquiries and sales.”

    So what’s next? A surge in EV use, surging demand for electricity that’s also in short supply, and blackouts?

    Like

  69. I wonder what proportion of American tradespeople would consider throwing in their existing pickup for an electric version? My judgement of human nature tells me that the large majority would opt for the cheaper, more flexible, reliable, and quick to refuel pickup, i.e. the one that enables them to do their job at maximum productivity without anxiety about the vehicle – which does not mean the EV. Ford can reduce the cost of EVs with the help of government subsidies, but that does not improve their flexibility etc.

    That would mean that for widespread takeup to occur gov’t would have to ban the better option.

    Ford should concentrate on small EVs and try selling them in cities, where they actually have strengths as well as weaknesses. Even there, without coercion, they will remain niche without banning the competition. Sorta like whelks. A whelk stall at a festival would do ok trade, so long as all the alternative food stalls were banned.

    Liked by 2 people

  70. Mark, I’m thinking of writing an A to Zee of annoying Americanisms in British journalism. It will start with ‘alternate’ when ‘alternative’ was intended.

    Liked by 1 person

  71. For purchasers without off-street parking, buying an EV would be like being in a permant queue for petrol. So they would be throwing in a temporary problem for a permanent one.

    I refuse to visit theguardian.com because they wanted me to register before I could read something. I think I left after 0.1 secs when that message popped up, never to return. It would be different if I actually enjoyed reading their climate change ****.

    Like

  72. “The classic cars being converted to electric vehicles”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58578061

    “Oswald is a black 1953 Morris Minor. But he is as quiet as a mouse after having his fossil-fuel drinking heart replaced with a recycled electric motor.

    Previously, the car’s 68-year-old petrol engine would have masked most other sounds. But driving beside the Thames in London all you can hear are a few creaks, and the revving of motorbikes and other traffic passing by.

    The image of electric vehicles (EVs) as sleek and futuristic is changing.

    Oswald is owned by a man called Matthew Quitter, who on a mission to help save old gas guzzlers from the scrapheap, converted him to battery power, and set up a company called London Electric Cars back in 2017.

    Working out of a garage under a railway arch in Vauxhall, the company replaces the combustion engines in classic cars with electric motors and batteries that would otherwise be scrapped.

    These parts typically come from crashed EVs, such as Teslas and Nissan Leafs, that have been written off by insurance firms but have motors and batteries that are not damaged.

    “We’re the ultimate recycling,” says Mr Quitter.”

    Then it’s money, money money:

    “The firm currently charges around £20,000 per conversion, so not cheap. But the company says it aims to drive that cost down to £5,000 to make it affordable for more people.

    While the UK government currently offers a grant of £2,500 towards the cost of buying a new EV, Mr Quitter says they should also consider introducing grants for conversions.

    “It’s a disaster to waste the millions of old [petrol and diesel] cars on our roads, and the governments’ EV rebates are encouraging scrappage,” he says.

    “The government needs to offer affordable conversions on cheap old cars, to make use of the scrapped EV batteries – which have raw materials that are still sky-rocketing in price,” he adds.”

    What on earth is this?

    “Oswald has a 40-mile range…”.

    And this?

    “He adds, however, that some classic cars are more suited to electrical conversion than others. Aston Martins are apparently challenging because their light and nimble nature is “not done as well by electric yet”, while Bentleys and Rolls-Royces are “made to be electric because they are built to drive smoothly”.”

    Then there’s this:

    “But for some classic car enthusiasts electric conversion is sacrilege….

    …He adds that if his Triumph TR8’s four-litre engine was converted to electric it would “turn a fire-breathing, rumbling monster that everyone marvels at, into a rattley, drafty old car.””

    Meanwhile, back to the money:

    “But David Lorenz, founder of the high-end electric car conversion firm, Lunaz, says that the classic car industry “needs to think about what we can do to make them relevant… a viable, sustainable prospect”.

    His firm has received investment from former footballer David Beckham, and charges up to £500,000 for a electric Rolls-Royce.”

    So, yet more evidence that “green” subsidies are simply a means of taxing the poor to cut prices for the rich.

    Like

  73. “New car registrations fall to lowest level for two decades”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58795798

    “New car registrations fell to their lowest levels in September for more than two decades, according to figures from the industry’s trade body.

    The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said new registrations dropped 35% compared with the same month a year earlier.

    Falling car production has been blamed on an ongoing global shortage of computer chips.

    However, sales of electric cars are rising rapidly, the SMMT said.

    While the car market as a whole has suffered through the pandemic, more than 32,000 electric cars were registered in one month in September, almost as many as registered in the whole of 2019 – 37,850 electric cars.”

    The reality, however, isn’t that people are turning to electric cars in their droves. Rather, they’re buying them in small numbers, often (I suspect) because they can’t buy a new diesel or petrol, because they’re not available. Also, of course, the various Government announcements are creating uncertainty that is crippling the new car market, as if the shortage of computer chips isn’t bad enough.

    People do still want diesel and petrol cars, but are perhaps reluctant to pay a lot of money for a new one, in view of the uncertainty down the line. To me, this is the central part of the story, which have been at the front of the article, rather than tacked on at the end:

    “Second-hand car sales in the UK have more than doubled in the last few months due to a shortage of new models.

    Year-on-year, the used car market grew 108.6% in the second quarter, with more than 2.2 million vehicles changing hands, according to the trade body.

    Increased demand led to a rise in sales of older used cars, with only 12.7% of all vehicles sold being made within the last three years, the lowest on record.

    In August, SMMT boss Mike Hawes said many consumers had turned to the second-hand market due to the shortage of new cars at a time of “increased need for personal mobility with people remaining wary of public transport as they return to work”.

    When lockdowns forced production lines to halt, microchip manufacturers diverted the chips that would normally go into new cars to the consumer electronics market, and supply is yet to fully recover.”

    Like

  74. “Discount on buying electric cars could be cut with Cop26 on horizon
    Chancellor locked in a battle over cuts to grants designed to encourage drivers to swap their polluting vehicles for green alternatives”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/10/12/discount-buying-electric-cars-could-cut-sunak-embroiled-cabinet/

    “Electric car grants are set to be slashed under Treasury plans, with Rishi Sunak embroiled in a Cabinet row over the Government’s green agenda just weeks before the Cop26 climate summit….”

    Unfortunately the rest of the story is behind a paywall.

    Like

  75. Mark, from the article, with no sniff of irony:

    There are also concerns that pressing ahead with the plans will undermine the work of Alok Sharma, the COP26 President, who is currently flying around the world in a bid to convince other countries to take bolder action on climate.

    Liked by 1 person

  77. “Fuel duel in the race to power green trucks
    Batteries and hydrogen both have a role in zero-emissions heavy transport.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/fuel-duel-in-the-race-to-power-green-trucks/

    “Millions of trucks rumbling across the Continent keep supermarket shelves stocked, factories humming with just-in-time deliveries of parts and online purchases showing up on doorsteps — but something’s going to have to change.

    Trucks and buses account for about a quarter of the EU’s CO2 emissions from road transport and some 6 percent of the bloc’s total emissions. To hit its goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, the EU needs transport emissions to fall by 90 percent compared to 1990 levels.

    Truckmakers are already developing green vehicles in a bid to meet EU requirements: The bloc’s CO2 standards for trucks mandate a 15 percent cut in emissions by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030.

    That means at least 270,000 battery-electric trucks and 60,000 fuel-cell trucks will have to be on EU roads by the end of the decade, according to Thomas Fabian, commercial vehicles director for automobile manufacturing lobby ACEA — and that’s “pre-Green Deal,” he said. The standards could increase when the legislation is up for a revision next year.

    While there’s no argument that the current system has to undergo a revolution, what’s less clear is how.

    “There aren’t many people yet who would dare to cross Europe with an electric truck,” said Rob Aarse, sustainability policy adviser at Dutch road transport industry group TLN. …

    …Companies making green trucks insist the transformation can be done, but say they can’t do it alone. Beyond investment in charging infrastructure, putting zero-emission trucks on EU roads will also depend on operators shelling out to buy them.

    A conventional truck is cheaper than a green one — and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.

    A diesel truck costs €100,000 on average, while battery-electric and fuel-cell trucks cost around €300,000, according to road transport organization IRU.

    That’s why the EU needs a policy framework that puts a price on polluting trucks, NGOs and truckmakers say.

    “No zero-emission technology will ever have a chance in a market where carbon doesn’t have a price,” Fabian argued….”.

    Like

  78. “‘Ambitious’ UK plans for electric vehicles welcomed – with reservations
    Green groups fear the policy will embed car use at the expense of healthier and ultimately cheaper alternatives”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/20/ambitious-uk-plans-for-electric-vehicles-welcomed-with-reservations

    “Car manufacturers in the UK will be mandated to produce a growing proportion of zero-emission vehicles each year under government plans to cement the transition from fossil fuels to electric cars.

    Targets will be introduced from 2024 for zero-emission vehicle sales, before the 2030 deadline when the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned.

    Environmental campaigners welcomed the move, while manufacturers gave a guarded response ahead of the detail of the scheme being announced. The exact targets and mechanisms will be set out for consultation in spring next year.

    The government said it would also commit an additional £620m to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and targeted grants, as part of its net zero strategy published on Tuesday….

    …The number of public charge points in the UK has doubled over the past two years, but another 40-50 need to be installed a day over the next decade to meet demand, according to thinktank New AutoMotive.

    With transport now the biggest single sector for carbon emissions, dominated by road vehicles, phasing out the internal combustion engine has become a clear, attainable goal for the UK to hit carbon targets.

    However, some have voiced concern over the rush to adopt EVs, with questions over carbon and costs as well as the need to upgrade infrastructure – and more broadly, whether the policy will embed car use rather than greener alternatives such as public transport for generations to come.

    Chris Boardman, Manchester’s transport commissioner, said embracing electric cars risked missing bigger opportunities: “It’s politically the most palatable option, because you’re not asking anyone to do anything they’re not doing already. But EVs don’t solve the problem of your local neighbourhood street being clogged with cars, of rat-running, obesity, inactivity that is costing the NHS billions, of traffic accidents, wider congestion.

    “They are cheaper to drive and so you could lock in car use for generations. It allows people to take the moral high ground and think they’ve done their bit, but it just enables more driving.””

    They’re only cheaper to drive because diesel and petrol vehicles are burdened with massive taxes. On a level playing field, electric cars would lose hands down.

    Like

  79. “Net zero strategy: Tory MPs’ anger over Treasury assessment on high costs
    Treasury document suggests move to electric vehicles could hit poorer citizens hardest”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/20/net-zero-strategy-tory-mps-anger-over-treasury-assessment-on-high-costs

    “Anger is growing across the Conservative party over a Treasury document on the costs of the net zero strategy which MPs claim has been “neutered” – though sources insisted estimates had not been reliable enough to include.

    Alongside Boris Johnson’s strategy to end Britain’s contribution to the climate crisis by 2050, the Treasury released an assessment warning it may need to raise taxes or cut public spending to fund the strategy.

    Multiple government insiders did not deny the document had excluded some high cost estimates, only warning in general terms that there could be “potentially significant implications for the UK’s fiscal position”. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested costs are more than £1tn over 30 years, though much will come from private investment.

    Backbench anger over the alleged neutering comes amid renewed disquiet over relations between No 10 and the Treasury. One of Boris Johnson’s closest cabinet allies, Kwasi Kwarteng, directly contradicted an assessment in the Treasury’s report, saying he did not agree a switch to electric vehicles would hit poorer families.”

    Like

  80. “The bumpy road to India’s electric car dreams”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-58977080

    “India sold more electric vehicles in September than any month previously. Sales have been rising since April – the start of this financial year – and are already nearing the previous year’s total.

    It’s a glimmer of hope for an industry that has been struggling with a global shortage in semiconductor chips, coming on the heels of a period of sluggish growth.

    But it’s only a glimmer. Electric vehicle sales – 121,900 this financial year – account for only 1.66% of India’s 20 million automobile sales, according to the Delhi-based think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

    Some electric vehicle firms, especially makers of two-wheelers, are betting big, but the demand is lukewarm for cars and commercial vehicles like lorries….

    …He said the challenges range from too few charging stations (India has less than 2,000 compared to some 900,000 in China) to battery disposal to resale value (India has a massive second-hand market for cars).

    And then there is the cost. The average price of a car in India is around 700,000 rupees – the cheapest electric car available starts at 1.2m rupees.

    All of this leads to few options, Mr Gulati said, and even those disappear outside of the big metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore – which make up just a fifth of the market. “Ultimately, firms have to create a market for electric vehicles.”

    India’s car buyers are fussy – aspirational but cautious with spending. It’s why Maruti, India’s biggest car maker, has made no move to launch an electric car, saying the prices are still too high. It’s also why foreign brands have struggled to crack the market, and have even shut shop. Ford announced last month that it would stop making cars in India, even as it invested $11bn in electric vehicles in the US.

    And yet Tesla is slated to enter the Indian market soon – it has complained of high import tariffs, and Mr Gadkari has said his government would provide “whatever support” was needed, but the firm should produce locally and not sell Indians Chinese-made cars.

    More foreign firms may arrive when the Indian market for electric cars expands, said Puneet Gupta, the head auto sector analyst at IHS Markit. But he doesn’t see that happening before 2030. Mr Gulati too is sceptical of any immediate surge in electric car sales unless the government introduces a “drastic policy”….”

    Like

  81. The news the Guardian and the BBC won’t let you know about:

    “‘Naive is an understatement’: German safety official tells RT that risk of electric vehicle fires is ‘completely unaddressed’”

    https://www.rt.com/news/538335-germany-electric-vehicle-bus-fires/

    “A series of fires involving electric buses is calling into question Germany’s reliance on these zero-emissions vehicles. “The risk of these fires,” safety regulator Heinrich Duepmann told RT, “is completely unaddressed.”
    Europe is experiencing a green transport boom. Sales have quadrupled since 2018, and one in every ten new vehicles sold on the continent is now fully electric, a share that rises to four in ten when hybrid vehicles are taken into account. In Germany, where the Greens are in talks about joining a coalition government, the number of electric buses doubled last year compared to 2019.

    The switchover from diesel to electricity has not been entirely smooth. Three bus depots were gutted by fire this year alone, with the most recent in Stuttgart last month destroying 25 buses and sending a column of smoke towering over the city.

    The fires prompted the cities of Munich and Stuttgart to suspend use of these battery-powered buses, and Heinrich Duepmann of Germany’s Electricity Consumer Protection Association told RT that he shares their concerns ​​– not just about buses, but electric vehicles in general.

    “The risk of these fires, including in other locations such as bicycle basements or large apartment blocks, is completely unaddressed,” he said. “Also, insurance companies are not yet tackling the issue.”

    The lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles can catch fire if damaged, or in some cases during charging or spontaneously. Lithium burns ferociously on contact with air, and once ablaze, these fires can be extremely difficult to put out. While burning, lithium-ion batteries have been shown to emit toxic quantities of fluoride gas.

    Aside from the fire risk, Deupmann is also concerned that as private electric vehicles become more popular, the country’s electricity infrastructure is “completely undeveloped” to facilitate widespread fast charging.

    “People have been too naive about this,” he said, adding that “naive is an understatement.””

    Liked by 1 person

  83. “Climate change: Should I buy an electric car?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59040632

    “Guto Lloyd-Davies got his first electric vehicle in 2018 and loved it so much he bought another.

    “They’re smooth, there’s no gears… in many respects they’re easier,” he said.

    While the cost of switching and a lack of charging points has put some drivers off, Mr Lloyd-Davies said the cheaper running costs were worth it.

    The Welsh government will announce a plan later to install more charging points, but campaigners say the pace of change has been too slow.

    Funding from the Welsh government has helped launch some electric vehicle projects, but this has not been done at a great enough speed for some.

    …On Tuesday the Welsh government will announce its plan to convince drivers to make the switch.

    Transport generates about 17% of all carbon emissions in Wales, making it a prime target in getting down to net zero.

    The electric vehicle charging action plan aims to boost confidence in electric car use and improve charging infrastructure across Wales.

    There are about 1,000 public charging points in Wales, one for every six battery electric vehicles.

    According to the Welsh government, by 2025 there will be rapid charge points every 20 miles on main trunk roads as fossil fuels are phased out….”

    It’s just a PR piece, and certainly not news. The claim that EVs are cheap to run rather ignores the obvious point that diesel and petrol cars are (relatively) expensive due to the enormous taxes loaded on them. Once diesel and petrol are phased out, that £37Bn p.a. will have to come from somewhere. Anyone who thinks EVs will be cheap to run at that point hasn’t been paying attention.

    Like

  84. Mark, I refer you to my comment of 6 September. My envelope back tells me that, absent duty, petrol is far less expensive already (8p per MJ vs 13p petrol per MJ leccy allowing for the greater efficiency of leccy cars). (This sum is for public chargers so home charging would be cheaper, for those of us with off-street parking.)

    Naturally the leccy car is more expensive so even if running costs were lower, you would have to keep it for a long time to break even. (Of course the lack of VED helps.)

    Then there is the embodied carbon dioxide in the car itself, which seems to favour the petrol car, so again you have to keep the leccy one for a long time before you break even in carbon dioxide.

    Save the planet: buy two electric cars, one to be on charge and the other in use?

    Like

  85. https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1511569/brexit-news-musk-tesla-gigafactory-britishvolt-glencore-blyth-electric-battery-vauxhall

    The government’s plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and hybrids by 2035 will require vehicle plants to shift to producing electric models.

    Ministers have set aside £850m to attract battery investment in the UK.

    Britishvolt wants 200 mill towards their “gigafactory” in Northumberland. I think I read somewhere they want to create 3,000 jobs. That’s only 67 thou per job, if my memory is not faulty.

    Meanwhile, the story is somewhat baffling. ICE cars have been banned from 2030. That would mean that the only cars being made were sparky cars. The audience is captive. They have to buy an EV if they want a new car. How is it then that subsidies are required AS WELL AS BANNING THE COMPETITION?

    Liked by 3 people

  86. “Shock bills for EV drivers after charging glitch”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59347468

    “Hundreds of electric vehicles drivers across Scotland have been presented with huge bills for charging after a glitch developed.

    One driver in Aberdeenshire found a £3,016.22 charge on his account after a 16-minute charge.

    ChargePlace Scotland, which runs the network, said it was aware of the issue and that no money had been taken from customers.

    Teams are going through the data to remove erroneous charges.

    Stephen Trayner, from ChargePlace Scotland, said the figures that were appearing in customers’ accounts were the result of a “pre-invoicing exercise” – but he stressed that they were not actual invoices and should be ignored.

    He said: “We apologise for any inconvenience and upset this internal exercise may have caused but would like to assure customers that any ongoing invoicing issues will be swiftly dealt with by our service centre team.”

    Invoices for the correct amounts should be issued from Monday, he added.”

    Like

  87. “Tesla drivers left unable to start their cars after outage”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59357306

    “Tesla drivers say they have been locked out of their cars after an outage struck the carmaker’s app.

    Dozens of owners posted on social media about seeing an error message on the mobile app that was preventing them from connecting to their vehicles.

    Tesla chief executive Elon Musk personally responded to one complaint from a driver in South Korea, saying on Twitter: “Checking.”

    Mr Musk later said the app was coming back online.

    The Tesla app is used as a key by drivers to unlock and start their cars.

    Owners posted a multitude of complaints online about not being able to use their vehicles.

    “I’m stuck an hour away from home because I normally use my phone to start car,” one owner tweeted.

    About 500 users reported an error on the app at around 16:40 ET (21:40 GMT) on Friday, according to the outage tracking site DownDetector. Five hours later, there were just over 60 reports of an error.

    “Apologies, we will take measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Mr Musk tweeted.”

    Like

  88. Mark, this is no way to access a car. What if you lose your phone? Or its battery runs flat? Does the system fail if you’re somewhere with no signal? What happens if there are power cuts/climate apocalypses? Obviously great strides have been made in car security* – radio entry etc – but there are limits. Is there actually an advantage to getting rid of a key altogether?

    *I once opened the boot of my friend’s Ford Granada with my bike lock key. My SLR which was sitting on the boot flew into the air and landed on the concrete when the boot popped open. Lesson: never try anything if you are assuming failure.

    Like

  89. Jit, my thoughts exactly. Just because you can use new technology, doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea or that it is an improvement on what already exists. What’s the point of abandoning keys? It looks like pointlessly trying to show that Teslas are ultra-modern, but being modern is not a lot of use if you can’t use your car. Maybe it’s to get Tesla drivers used to not being able to drive anywhere when the National Grid is under pressure. ☹️

    Like

  90. As a Tesla Model 3 owner I can shed some light on this. The primary access is a key card which communicates using RFID. The key card is the equivalent of a physical key and I ALWAYS carry it just like you would always carry you car keys. Use of the mobile phone to unlock your Tesla is a secondary option and is not failsafe as noted in the article. The RFID key card is as good as a physical key and in my experience is failsafe. Tesla owners who do not carry their RFID cards are asking for trouble.

    Having said that, the Tesla is surprisingly buggy. It has a lot of cool technology that is fun but doesn’t always work as you would expect. That’s why I would never use a Tesla in autopilot mode. I think we are 50 years away from that. Depending on your driving needs and other circumstances I would still recommend purchasing a Model 3.

    Like

  91. Potentials, thanks for the explanation. First-hand knowledge trumps speculation every time!

    Like

  92. And we have temporary gasoline rationing in SW British Columbia because of the interruptions to supply chains caused by the recent floods. So we Tesla owners are feeling even more smug than usual !

    Like

  96. “New homes in England to have electric car chargers by law”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59369715

    “New homes and buildings in England will be required by law to install electric vehicle charging points from next year, the prime minister is set to announce.

    The government said the move will see up to 145,000 charging points installed across the country each year.

    New-build supermarkets, workplaces and buildings undergoing major renovations will also come under the new law.

    The move comes as the UK aims to switch to electric cars, with new petrol and diesel cars sales banned from 2030.

    Announcing the new laws at the Confederation of British Industry’s conference on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will say: “This is a pivotal moment – we cannot go on as we are.

    “We have to adapt our economy to the green industrial revolution.”

    But Labour said the announcement does not address the “appalling” geographical divide in available charging points.

    “London and the South East have more public car charging points than the rest of England and Wales combined. Yet there is nothing here to help address this.

    “Nor is there help so lower and middle income families can afford electric vehicles or the investment required to build the gigafactories we need,” Labour said.

    The government said the new laws will “make it as easy as refuelling a petrol or diesel car today”.

    It said “simpler ways to pay” to charge vehicles through contactless payments would also be introduced at “all new fast and rapid charge points”.”

    Government announces bonkers plan. Labour says it doesn’t go far enough.

    Like

  97. Government announces bonkers plan. Labour says it doesn’t go far enough.

    Mark, that is par for the course these days. Trying to be objective about it for a minute, this plan is going to work for those identikit sprawling out of town new estates with roads that lead nowhere and where every box house has its own driveway but only a tiny patch of garden. This will also be a chance to charge more for each new-build property.

    However, should a developer want to build a row of terraced houses or a block of flats, problems will ensue. (There may end up being exemptions. You would hope so.)

    But perhaps a more significant problem is that the scheme of increasing the number of charge points does not automagically make EVs a better option than ICE cars. If the government wanted us all to eat carrot chips rather than potato chips, then exposing us all to the choice of carrot chips by building a carrot chip shop on every corner may not make us switch from the faithful potato version, if the latter is still superior.

    Yesterday I saw a story that said that a manufacturer was producing electric jerrycans to provide 20 miles of range with a half hour charge. Don’t worry about range anxiety. If you carry around our £800 battery you can stand around for half an hour and get yourself another 20 miles down the road, as long as you remembered to keep it fully charged! (I’ll find the link if I have a mo.) (And work out the volumetric petrol equivalent, if I have more time than that.)

    Like

  98. That story about the portable batteries: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/motoring/electric-cars-portable-ev-chargers-20-miles-30-minute-charge-2022-release-1306816

    “Electric cars: Portable EV chargers providing 20 miles range on 30-minute charge set to land in 2022”

    UK firm ZipCharge revealed its “game-changing” portable charger, called the Go, which is due to be available to customers from the end of next year. The power banks can provide up to 20 miles of range from a half-hour charge (at 7.2kW), which the provider says is sufficient for the average daily commute in the UK.

    Yours for £49 per month, or “in the region of £800.”

    Assuming that 7.2 kW for half an hour is the battery’s capacity, then it’s 3.6 kWh. The equivalent energy in petrol would need 400 ml. [This is unfair. The battery car’s efficiency is 4 times as high as the petrol cars: up the jerrycan size to 1.6 l.]

    Now looking at it the other way, the original jerrycan held 20 l, so holding an equivalent energy, allowing for the better efficiency of an EV, of 20 / 1.6, or 12.5 times the newfangled battery thingy “go”. Go, or perhaps better, shove it.

    Liked by 1 person

  99. “Builders slam plans for electric car chargers in all new homes”

    https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2021/11/22/builders-slam-plans-for-electric-car-chargers-in-all-new-homes/

    “The National Federation of Builders has slammed government plans to require all new homes to have electric vehicle (EV) chargers as another “stealth tax” on construction.

    The federation fears the construction industry will foot the bill for chargers while electricity companies benefit.

    It said that to achieve planning permission builders are required to fund substations so that electricity companies can provide enough load to new and old developments.

    Costs are considerable – upward of £50,000 for a handful of homes – and neither the builder or homeowner profits from this infrastructure because the electricity companies receive revenue in perpetuity from someone else’s investment.

    Richard Beresford, chief executive of the NFB said: “We support the green industry and a green transition because it is a necessary part of change but due to how infrastructure investment works in practice, once again, the Government is seeking to grow its political capital and advance big business, at the expense of the construction industry and taxpayer.”

    Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing at the House Builders Association (HBA), the housebuilding arm of the NFB, said: “This Government has only been in power for two years and has already introduced four new and stealth taxes on the construction industry. EV charging will be the fifth.

    “It’s a disgusting way to treat a sector who worked throughout the Covid-19 lockdown to help pay for furlough and the impact of Covid-19.

    “The Government needs to think very carefully about how it achieves a green revolution. It must require electricity companies to shoulder this cost, as they will be profiting from these investments in perpetuity.

    “Or perhaps it is time to bring services into public ownership because the Government is not proving able to regulate the sector in a way that doesn’t cost the taxpayer.

    “As we told the Prime Minister during COP26 in relation to retrofitting and onshore renewable energy, it is time the Conservatives began risking some of their own political capital and not simply expecting taxpayers and business to risk their financial capital. The Governments green legacy is looking like taxation and flawed policy, not revolutionary change.””

    Like

  100. “Plan for car chargers in all UK new homes ‘will make access exclusive’
    Industry leaders say Boris Johnson’s plan risks leaving behind motorists from poorer areas”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/24/plan-for-car-chargers-in-all-uk-new-homes-will-make-access-exclusive

    “The prime minister’s plan to mandate electric car chargers across all new homes from next year risks making access to charge points “exclusive”, leaving behind motorists from poorer areas, industry leaders have warned.

    Senior voices in the energy and motoring sectors said the plan for all new homes and buildings to be fitted with car charging infrastructure risks benefiting wealthier areas with space for off-street parking and leaving “blackspots” in areas where homes have less space.

    Instead, they argue, the government should be doing more to make convenient, high-speed car charging more accessible to the public to help give all motorists a realistic opportunity to switch their fossil fuel cars for electric versions.

    Guy Jefferson, the chief operating officer of Scottish Power’s energy network business, warned that the burgeoning electric vehicle market was “less likely to provide for all in our society” without deliberate action to ensure a fair energy transition.”

    Scottish Power (that’s a Spanish company) seem to have an awful lot to say about how UK taxpayers’ money should be spent.

    “Ross Easton, a director at the Energy Networks Association, added that while the plans for more home chargers was “great news for those living in new homes” the government “must make sure access to charging points is not exclusive”.

    “Charging points must be accessible to everyone. To truly ‘level up’ charging point access and deliver on the Cop26 electric vehicle pledges requires strategic planning at all levels of government, nationally and locally,” he said.

    Many modern homes do not have car parking spaces, and the number of new homes built each year in the UK is so small it would take decades to make much difference by this measure alone, according to industry sources.”

    And of course there’s the lobby which doesn’t want us to have cars at all:

    “…Agathe de Canson, of the Green Alliance thinktank, said: “To cut air pollution and tackle congestion more widely we need to encourage more walking, cycling and journeys by public transport. This should be factored into planning rules to ensure new homes are not car dependent.”…”.

    Like

  101. “TV tonight: a deep dig into Tesla’s electric car revolution”

    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/nov/24/tv-tonight-tesla-electric-car-revolution-elon-musk-rare-metal-supply-chain-jimmy-perez-shetland-murder

    “Panorama: The Electric Car Revolution – Winners and Losers
    7.30pm, BBC One
    Elon Musk’s Tesla is a trillion-dollar car company that’s valued at more than all the other major car makers put together. Just about digested that? It’s time to investigate any dark truths behind the electric car revolution with reporter Darragh MacIntyre, who wants to know where Tesla gets the rare metal for its car batteries and how ethical its supply chain is. He meets the African nuns who say Musk needs to do more to protect some of the poorest people on the planet.”

    Like

  102. “Rising lithium prices risk pushing electric car dreams off the road
    With battery costs predicted to soar by 16pc, vehicle makers face a defining choice”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/12/02/rising-lithium-prices-risk-pushing-electric-car-dreams-road/

    “As demand for electric vehicles grows amid a push for a greener economy, carmakers globally are grappling with rising prices of everything from semiconductor chips to copper and aluminium….”

    The rest, unfortunately, is behind a paywall.

    Like

  103. “FIA boss: Electric F1 racing is ‘simply not possible'”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59556016

    “The car industry may be going green and heading for an all-electric future, but the same cannot be said of Formula One motor racing – at least, not for decades.

    That’s according to the outgoing president of the sport’s governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA). “It’s simply not possible,” explains Jean Todt, with a shake of the head and a wry smile.

    “In Formula One, a race distance is about 200 miles (305km). Without recharging, with the performance of the cars, electricity will not allow that,” he says.

    “Maybe in 20 years, 30 years, I don’t know. But at the moment it would be simply impossible.”…”.

    Like

  104. “E-scooters to be banned from TfL network over battery fire risk
    Ban will apply to privately owned e-scooters and e-unicycles even when folded or carried, with fines issued”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/09/e-scooters-banned-tfl-network-battery-fire-risk

    “E-scooters will be banned from the public transport network in London from Monday for safety reasons after a spate of battery fires.

    The ban will apply to privately owned e-scooters and e-unicycles even when folded or carried, after a number of incidents when the electric vehicles have combusted.

    Transport for London and fire services said such incidents, when defective lithium-ion batteries ruptured and caught fire, could lead to significant harm to life and premises, not least with toxic smoke being emitted, potentially in confined spaces.”

    Like

  105. “Motoring groups criticise cut in electric car subsidies”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59669915

    “Motoring groups have criticised plans to further cut the size of government grants towards buying electric cars.

    From Wednesday, the amount has been reduced from £2,500 to £1,500. Electric cars priced under £32,000 are eligible.

    The Department for Transport says it’s targeting the funding at more affordable vehicles.

    The government’s plug-in subsidy scheme has been used to buy nearly 500,000 cars over the past decade….

    …Under the changes announced on Wednesday, the maximum grants for electric motorcycles or mopeds have been cut to £500 and £150 respectively. Previously drivers could get up to £1,500 for both.

    Large electric vans are now eligible for a grant of up to £5,000 – down from £6,000 – with the support for small vans falling from a maximum of £3,000 to £2,500.

    However, the RAC motoring group said sales had grown from a relatively low base, and the government was taking this step too soon.”

    Personally I think EV subsidies are shocking – nothing other than a scheme for transferring money from poor taxpayers to the relatively wealthy who can afford to buy EVs (often as a second car/about town runaround.

    Like

  106. It seems I’m not the only person who thinks like that:

    “The Looking Glass World Of “Climate Injustice” — Part III”

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-12-12-the-looking-glass-world-of-climate-injustice-part-iii

    “n our wacky world where almost nothing makes sense any more, there is no shortage of examples of politicians, let alone self-important academics, journalists, and wealthy elites, looking foolish with incoherent and self-contradictory policy demands. My favorite among all of them is the demand for “climate justice” for the poor while simultaneously seeking action that will dramatically increase the price of energy and things derived from it (e.g., transportation, heat) — an increase that obviously will hit hardest on the poor. The contradiction is so stark that I have dubbed the situation a “looking glass world” and, in a piece this past September, promised a series of posts highlighting the craziness.

    But then I have to wait for just the right news to give a perfect illustration of the absurdity. This week has provided an excellent example….

    …But then another key part of Biden’s environmental agenda is sharply reducing so-called “greenhouse gas” emissions. A huge proportion of those come from automobiles, nearly all of which today have gasoline-burning internal combustion engines. And thus in August Biden announced his plan for a rapid forced reduction in internal combustion automobiles, and their replacement with what he calls “zero emissions vehicles,” otherwise known as electric cars:

    [T]he President will sign an Executive Order that sets an ambitious new target to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles.

    One small problem not mentioned in Biden’s press releases and executive orders: electric vehicles cost substantially more than do gasoline-powered versions. Plenty of lower-end new cars of the gasoline-powered types can be found in the range of $20 – 25,000, and some even for well under $20,000. By contrast, the cheapest electric vehicles are barely under $30,000 — and those have terrible range of under 150 miles. The price of the cheapest Tesla has recently shot up sharply to over $47,000.

    It is therefore no surprise that electric cars appeal mostly to affluent consumers — and almost not at all to racial minorities. In 2018 a market research firm called Hedges & Co. did a study of the demographics of Tesla Owners. Average income of a Tesla owner was reported as $143,177 for a Model X and $153,313 for a model S. As to ethnicity:

    The ethnicity of Tesla owners skews toward Caucasians, at 87%. Owners who identify with Hispanic ethnicity make up 8% of Tesla owners, leaving 5% to other ethnicities.

    The 8% of owners who are Hispanic might seem decent until you realize that the majority of Tesla Owners are in California, which is 39% Hispanic. The 5% for “other ethnicities” includes both blacks and Asians, which for some reason they did not break out separately. My bet is that the figure for blacks was so low, probably less than 1%, that they were too embarrassed to report it.

    Which brings us to the big Washington Post report just out on December 9: “Without access to charging stations, Black and Hispanic communities may be left behind in the era of electric vehicles.” (Ed Morrissey at Hot Air suggests that a more appropriate headline would have been “Come and see the systemic racism of electric vehicles.”). It seems that the WaPo has made the shocking discovery that there are next to no EV charging stations in minority neighborhoods in the major cities of the United States…”

    Like

  107. “UK police trial Tesla cars as fleets prepare for shift to electric
    Positive results may lead to Model 3 cars being adopted by police, paramedic and fire services”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/24/uk-police-trial-tesla-model-3-electric-cars

    “British police have been testing out Tesla cars as part of a drive to electrify more of their fleet, and the results so far are promising, according to a Tesla spokesperson.

    Early findings show “great results” around the suitability of the firm’s Model 3 vehicle for emergency service operation, said Max Toozs-Hobson, emergency services lead at Tesla.

    He told the Guardian that while the average blue light run in the UK was seven to 15 minutes, the Model 3 had been able to take part in runs that lasted four hours on active deployment under advanced driving conditions, and said that “it’s achievable to do over 200 miles of blue light advanced driving with the [Model 3]”.

    Positive results could lead to more Tesla Model 3 cars being adopted by UK police, paramedic and fire services.”

    Let’s hope they have a Plan B, just in case.

    Like

  108. “Plans in England for car chargers in all commercial car parks quietly rolled back
    Only new or refurbished commercial buildings should install charge points, the DfT says, citing fears over cost”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/27/plans-in-england-for-car-chargers-in-all-commercial-car-parks-quietly-rolled-back

    “The government has quietly backtracked on proposals to require every shop, office or factory in England to install at least one electric car charger if they have a large car park, prompting criticism by environmental campaigners.

    The original plan required every new and existing non-residential building with parking for 20 cars or more to install a charger. However, the Department for Transport (DfT) has now revealed it will only require chargers be installed in new or refurbished commercial premises amid fears over the cost for businesses, according to a response to a consultation.

    The move has prompted concern in the car industry and among experts that public charger access will lag behind demand, as sales of electric vehicles accelerate ahead of the 2035 ban on sales of new fossil-fuelled internal combustion engines. A quarter of new cars bought in the UK in November can be plugged in to recharge, according to industry data.”

    Like

  109. Yesterday’s You and Yours: “Will 2022 be the year of the electric car for you?” A snippet that I caught while making lunch and have now transcribed:

    Peter White: Annie is calling us because your EV car stole your Christmas I gather.

    Annie: That’s right –

    Peter: Sorry, it’s Annie Bailey isn’t it, I lost your surname

    Annie: That’s okay, yes –

    Peter: Tell us about what happened.

    Annie: Oh, husband was in quarantine with Covid so rather than spend Christmas on my own I thought I’d drive from Oxfordshire to Norfolk to be with my two daughters, a journey of about 200 miles, I’ve got a Nissan leaf, ex-showroom actually but still not cheap but anyway it’s supposed to do 200 miles but it doesn’t, unless you drive at 30 miles an hour, which you know is a bit slow if you’re going to Norfolk. So I looked for a place to charge en route, I had the zap map, I decided where to charge, I got to the point in Thetford, it didn’t work, but eventually on the helpline to ?BT Pulse? they got it working, it then wouldn’t disconnect, which I gather is a common fault – you remain tethered to the machine until they in head office disconnect you, there’s nothing you can do about it. Eventually got to Norfolk, very nice, but I thought on Boxing Day I’d leave early in the afternoon in case it took me longer than anticipated to get home.

    Annie: Every single charger on my route back was out of order, until eventually, having tried many, I ran out of power – I was actually forced at 11.30 at night having left after lunch to check in to a Travelodge and charge my battery overnight through the bedroom window using my extension lead which I carry in the boot.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012swb

    Available for a year if it is available to you. I also liked the guy who phoned in to say how great his new EV was and how his range anxiety had soon worn off. Some way along his call he let it be known that it was a Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo. Yes, I’m sure 80 grand gets you a very nice EV! Thanks for call. Now get the hell off my radio.

    Liked by 2 people

  110. Looking at the BBC’s review of the papers on its website today, I see that the Times has a headline: “Electric car travels length of Britain on single charge”.

    I haven’t read the whole article, because it continues over the page, and I am only able to look at the front page. However, nowhere in the 8 visible paragraphs is there a statement to back up the claim that the car has actually been driven between John o’ Groats and Lands End (or the equivalent) under power of a single charge. Instead, the paper talks of driving between Southampton and Inverness, and the actual words used are: “…Mercedes-Benz has become the first mainstream carmaker to produce an electric vehicle that can make it from Southampton to Inverness on a single charge.. developing a prototype that could travel 620 miles without needing to stop for a top-up… The commercial model is unlikely to have the full range of the concept car…”.

    Has the Times gone full Guardian/BBC with headlines which aren’t justified by the story that follows?

    Like

  111. Clarkson in a rusty diesel bomber with 200,000 on the clock vs May in the prototype. A race from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Who wins? [I have never watched The Grand Tour – I presume they still organise races between the presenters.] [No, I don’t know what Hammond is driving.]

    Like

  112. “Electric car sales soar, but chip shortage hits market”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59887024

    “Sales of electric vehicles soared last year, but the market as a whole failed to recover from the Covid pandemic.

    More electric cars were registered in 2021 than in the previous five years combined, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

    Yet the industry body said much more investment is needed in charging infrastructure.

    Meanwhile an acute shortage of computer chips left dealers struggling to get hold of many new conventional models.”

    But this, I think is the real story:

    “Overall, 2021 was another dismal year for the motor industry. Preliminary figures from the SMMT show that some 1.65m cars new cars were registered.

    That was a small increase over 2020, when the impact of the first Covid-related lockdowns and dealer closures sent sales plummeting.

    But it was still the second-worst figure recorded in nearly three decades, and 28% down on its pre-pandemic level.”

    Covid hasn’t helped, of course, but politicians are wrecking the car industry. We normally change our car around every 7 years, which would mean starting to look for a new one around now. Having looked, I’ve realised that I can’t find a new car that’s a patch on the one we already own, whether in terms of mpg, annual road tax, servicing costs etc. All new diesels have to have AdBlue, one major ingredient for which is urea, where (as ever) China is seeking to dominate the market:

    “What is urea and AdBlue, and why does a worldwide shortage threaten Australia’s supply chain?
    How China’s export ban could force diesel trucks that need the AdBlue exhaust fluid off the road and lead to higher food prices”

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/08/what-is-urea-and-why-does-a-worldwide-shortage-threaten-australias-supply-chain

    Needless to say we’re going to keep our old car running for the foreseeable future and have postponed (indefinitely) any plans to buy a new one. I suspect millions of others are making similar calculations.

    Like

  113. Mark, if you now look at second hand, you’ll find that everything costs more than it would have a year ago. According to this
    https://plc.autotrader.co.uk/press-centre/news-hub/used-car-prices-rocket-as-inflation-rate-reaches-record-high/ inflation is 26.9% on used. Autotrader helpfully feature a league table of second hand cars with the highest levels of inflation. My knowledge of car models is not what it was when I was twelve, but it doesn’t look like there are any EVs high up on the list.

    That reminds me: a few years ago EVs were showing the highest depreciation rates of all cars. Is this still the case, I wonder?

    With cars being torched in France on New Year’s Eve, I wonder how such nights will go when all cars are EVs?

    Liked by 1 person

  114. Mark, on the Merc EV with 620 miles range: I just saw another story about the same vehicle which claimed the range was “1,000 km”. Funnily enough, 620 miles is 998 km. So it seems likely that Merc’s intention was to build a car with a 1,000 km range, which then became 620 miles in translation: i.e. there is false precision which makes it sound as if the number has been arrived at by real-world testing.

    Like

  116. Dougie, go back up to https://cliscep.com/2021/05/15/i-dream-of-ev/#comment-92274 and read down a couple of comments for something similar. (Not a second meter, but onerous regulations for charge points.)

    You know, these long and occasionally updated threads end up containing a lot of useful nuggets when you read them back. (Reinvigorating old threads with new stories is mostly done by Mark, so thanks to him for that.)

    Like

  117. A refreshingly candid article about EV problems:

    “Streets ahead? What I’ve learned from my year with an electric car
    Record sales and now news of a battery that lasts hundreds of miles. It’s getting better, but going green was tough, admits a reluctant pioneer”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/08/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car

    “…we settled on a Renault Zoe. Of the cheaper cars, it had the longest range: about 240 miles on a full charge, weather and driving conditions dependent. But all EVs are expensive – £31,000 for this small and far-from-luxury car. We opted to lease, paying a small amount of cash and then monthly payments.

    From the outset the whole experience was distinctly lacking in frills; a couple of young petrolheads waved us goodbye with minimal induction to the car and no information about the charging infrastructure, except to “use the Zap[-Map] app to find a charge point”….

    …We were on our own trying to figure out the mysteries of the country’s charging network. BP rang, offering us a charging point outside our house. This domestic charging is cheapest but, living in a London terrace, we were ineligible. Instead we became aficionados of charging lamp-posts, relatively common in our area. But, as often with EVs, there is a catch. Wandsworth borough council does not reserve the parking spaces for EVs, so “ordinary” cars park there, displacing EVs, which are forced to hunt around for one of the faster, more expensive chargers.

    There are numerous providers and not very numerous chargers. Each provider requires you to download its app and subscribe. They all work differently and prices vary. Many chargers are out of order.

    Problems are most visible on longer journeys. When lockdown was relaxed in May we booked to stay at Derek Gow’s rewilding project in Devon. We planned to stop where there were “clusters” of chargers but still got caught out, idling away an hour in a glum corner of Amesbury in Wiltshire, only to discover the charger had stopped working after 10 minutes.

    After that, it was a hunt for other chargers in obscure garden centres, supermarkets and garages. Some worked, some did not, but we began to meet the community of electric adventurers, passing time waiting for chargers by comparing apps, prices and “worst EV journeys”….

    …John had most of the apps on his phone and did more of the technical side, especially midnight trips to find a lamp-post. …”

    Like

  119. “Britishvolt: Electric car battery plant gets government funding”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60066432

    “A firm planning mass production of electric car batteries in the UK has secured government funding for its proposed factory in Northumberland.

    Britishvolt announced plans for the so-called gigafactory in Cambois two years ago, saying it would create 3,000 jobs.

    The BBC understands the government has committed about £100m through its Automotive Transformation Fund….

    …Put simply: If batteries aren’t made here, the chances are carmakers won’t set up shop here either….”.

    At one level, I accept, this is good news. At last, the potential for some “green” jobs to replace a small fraction of the jobs that the “green” drive is destroying. At another level, however, it’s absurd. We now have taxpayers being forced by a mixture of carrot and stick (higher taxes on non-electric cars and fuel; subsidies on electric vehicles paid for by other taxpayers) to buy EVs that they don’t, by and large, want. And now the taxpayer is being forced to subsidise a battery plant in the UK because it wouldn’t have happened if left to the market, and if “batteries aren’t made here, the chances are carmakers won’t set up shop here either.” Next step, no doubt, will be subsidies to EV markers to follow suit and set up or convert plants here.

    We’re almost back to the “good old days” of the 1970s when UK car manufacturing was a headache for governments and a drain on the taxpayer.

    Like

  120. This “gigafactory” – it’s not a gigafactory, it’s a factory – won’t be able to compete on price, so it will require bailouts if it is not to go bust. Good luck competing with China for the raw materials! My prediction is for a further injection of cash in 5 years.

    3,000 jobs for 100 mill = 30 thou per job.

    Like

  121. “How do we make the move to electric cars happen? Ask Norway”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/22/how-do-we-make-the-move-to-electric-cars-happen-ask-norway

    “Two-thirds of all new cars bought by Norwegians last year were electric. Turns out you just need a government with a clue”

    And “Ten years ago, diesel cars accounted for 75% of new sales there. Today they make up just 2.3%. Two-thirds of all new cars sold there in 2021 were EVs and the predictions are that proportion will reach 80% this year. Ye olde internal combustion engine seems destined for extinction in that particular part of the frozen north.”

    With hilarious timing, that article appeared on the same day as this one:

    “More Norwegians want to buy a diesel car, new survey shows”

    https://norwaytoday.info/everyday/more-norwegians-want-to-buy-a-diesel-car-new-survey-shows/

    “Diesel cars are increasing slightly in popularity, and fewer Norwegians say they will invest in electric and hybrid cars in the future, a new survey shows.

    In a survey carried out by InFact for the newspaper Nationen, 18.3% of the respondents answered that they would invest in a diesel car the next time they buy a car.

    That is an increase from 16% last year when Sentio conducted a similar survey for Nationen.
    In the same survey, 34.3% answered that their first choice for their next car purchase is an electric car – compared with 39% a year ago….

    …Car industry experts point out that both record-high electricity prices and long waiting times for delivery of electric cars may be among the reasons why interest in electric cars may have fallen a bit….”.

    Like

  122. The Guardian writer is keen on tipping points:
    “Something similar is going on in relation to adoption of EVs in Britain. The hockey-stick graph is common in consumer technologies.” Good grief. Spare us!
    “Britain hasn’t reached a tipping point with EVs yet, and so the first question is: when is it likely to occur? It needs to be earlier than most people think,”
    There is another outcome that the writer has not mentioned. EVs are quite possibly a niche market. In addition to those who want to own an EV for environmental reasons, the niche is probably defined by others who are able to charge at home, can afford the additional cost and, in Canada for example, can afford to own an ICE vehicle in addition, for long trips, winter driving in the mountains and as security for when the power is out. Based on the survey noted by Mark, the niche market in Norway may be approaching saturation.

    Liked by 2 people

  123. “UK electric vehicle charging network is lagging behind, says Volkswagen
    ‘Charging anxiety’ may prevent the government from meeting its 2030 target for mass adoption of zero-emission cars”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/26/uk-electric-vehicle-charging-network-is-lagging-behind-says-volkswagen

    “The lack of a widespread electric vehicle charging network in the UK is holding back the mass adoption of zero-emission cars, according to carmakers and industry analysts.

    This year is considered crucial for electric vehicles (EVs) going mainstream, but the German manufacturer Volkswagen has warned that a significant increase in the number of available chargers is needed to convince consumers to make the switch from petrol and diesel cars.

    The UK government plans to ban sales of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2030, when ministers hope one in every three cars on Britain’s roads will be electric, compared with one in 100 currently.

    “The key thing now is to ensure that the charging infrastructure not just increases to meet the current demand, but accelerates to overtake the current demand,” said Alex Smith, the managing director of Volkswagen UK.

    “We’ve got to get the charging infrastructure ahead of the game to enable us to progress from the quite specific adoption that we have at the moment into mass adoption. And we’re not there yet.”

    Sales of EVs have soared in recent years, and almost doubled between 2020 and 2021, rising from 108,000 to 190,000, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). This meant that Britons bought more electric cars last year than during the previous five years combined.

    However, sales have been climbing from relatively low levels, and accounted for just under 12% of sales last year.”

    Yes, low levels indeed. I’m not sure that “soared” is the appropriate word to describe EV sales. Accounting for 12% of a significantly reduced year’s sales isn’t particularly impressive, especially as many of them are hybrids rather than pure EVs. In addition:

    “At the start of the year, there were 28,375 public EV charging devices available in the UK, according to figures published by the Department for Transport. Fewer than 20% of these – only 5,156 – were rapid chargers.

    That is fewer than half of the 66,665 chargers that had already been installed in the Netherlands by 2021, and a third less than the 44,538 chargers found in Germany at that time, according to figures from the EU’s European Alternative Fuels Observatory.”

    Like

  124. “UK car production slumps to lowest level since 1956
    The SMMT said 2021 was ‘a dismal year’, with output down by more than a third on 2019”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/27/uk-car-production-slumps-to-lowest-level-since-1956

    “The lowest number of cars rolled out of British factories last year since 1956, as the industry warned that rising energy costs and further shortages of computer chips will plague its recovery.

    Car production slumped across the UK and the world in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, but many in the industry had expected a rapid improvement. Instead, the disruption triggered a global shortage of semiconductor chips, leading to an even worse 2021.

    Total UK car production fell by 6.7% to just under 860,000, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the industry lobby group. Its chief executive, Mike Hawes, described it as “a dismal year”, with output down by more than a third on 2019.”

    No doubt covid, and shortages of computer chips played their part, but rising energy costs (thanks to net zero) are a significant factor and in the case of car manufacturing I strongly suspect it’s because the push to electric and away from diesel and petrol simply isn’t what the public wants. This paragraph is telling:

    “The number of battery electric cars with zero exhaust carbon emissions produced in the UK rose by 72% during 2021, but it remains only a 12th of overall UK output.”

    Liked by 1 person

  125. “Will road pricing answer the UK’s net-zero car-tax conundrum?
    Politicians dislike discussing how to replace fuel duty and road tax but a clear option is now in view”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/28/will-road-pricing-answer-the-uks-net-zero-car-tax-conundrum

    “Road pricing may promise a fairer, sustainable way to make polluting drivers pay, ease congestion and fund better transport, but few politicians in power have ever wanted to take the flak that would come with introducing it.

    The Treasury has stressed the move from petrol and diesel to electric cars as part of Britain’s net zero strategy will require new sources of revenue to replace billions in lost fuel and vehicle excise duty. However, despite a year of speculation that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was warming to the idea, there has been no mention of road pricing as a possible solution in his budgets…

    …Roads, unlike most utilities, are essentially unmetered, with the way they are paid for failing to reflect when and where they are used.

    Instead the Treasury collects money from motorists via fuel duty and vehicle excise duty. Fuel duty is a blunt tool that charges motorists for how much they drive, and the efficiency of their vehicle. Raising it has become politically toxic – Conservative chancellors have frozen the 57.9p-a-litre levy for a decade – but the bigger longer-term problem is the move to electric cars. That puts fuel duty revenues, about £28bn a year pre-pandemic, on their own path to net zero.

    Vehicle excise duty, worth roughly £6bn a year, is also currently not paid by electric car owners, who are likewise exempt from London’s congestion or clean air charges. That is seen as an acceptable trade-off for the high purchase price of electric cars for early adopters, but car owners driving “for free” could soon feel politically tricky, and in the long term new funding, such as road pricing, feels inevitable….”.

    Yes indeed, all the claims made for how cheap EVs are compared to diesel and petrol cars will, sooner rather than later, run into the difficulty that the Government will need to find a new source to supply all that revenue that it currently receives from petrol and diesel car drivers. Once they’re collecting it from EV drivers instead, and the subsidies to help reduce their higher purchase costs have ceased, and they start having to pay eye-watering amounts to replace their defunct batteries after 8 years (see the recently-reported case of the EV Mercedes Benz driver) then it might dawn on EV users that they’ve actually opted for a much more expensive and much less user-friendly form of transport than those currently available (i.e. diesel and petrol cars).

    Like

  126. “Fuel and excise duty must be replaced with new tax, MPs say”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60251046

    “The UK needs to create a new motoring tax to plug the revenue gap as drivers switch to electric cars, MPs have said.

    The government should tax motorists based on miles travelled as the use of petrol and diesel vehicles decreases, the Transport Select Committee said.

    If no action is taken this year, the UK faces a £35bn “black hole” in its finances, they said.

    The Treasury said tax revenues would keep pace with changes prompted by electric vehicle take-up.

    Sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned in the UK from 2030 and sales of electric cars are already soaring.

    Taken together, vehicle excise duty – better known as “car tax” – and fuel duty that motorists pay at the pump, raise around £35bn a year, but neither tax is levied on pure electric vehicles.

    The committee warned there is likely to be no revenue from existing tax sources by 2040.”

    Some of us have been pointing this out for years. Have our Parliamentary representatives really just woken up to this? Are they really so stupid?

    “If road pricing did come in, what exact technology would be used, who would provide it, and what reassurances could be offered over privacy, given the amount of data captured?

    How could it work alongside the local schemes already in place, such as city congestion charges?

    And when would be the right time? Too early and it might put people off buying electric cars.

    Too late and cheaper driving could lead to more congestion, and electric car drivers who’ve grown used to not being taxed may not react positively to the belated introduction of a charge.”

    Are EV drivers in the UK really so stupid as to think that buying an EV means they’ll never pay the normal taxes for using them that the rest of us currently pay?

    Like

  127. There are two issues here. One is that EV drivers would get an awful shock thinking that they have lower running costs for ever.
    RAC Foundation : “Drivers choosing to go electric deserve to know what is coming next – particularly if the promise of cheap per-mile running costs is set to be undermined by a future tax change. If the Treasury is thinking it can leave this issue for another day but still recoup their losses from electric vehicles they risk a furious backlash.”

    The more challenging issue is that road pricing will require the government to track every car’s movement, every day, all the time. And it would not be anonymous tracking as it would have to be tied to an individual’s road pricing account. I don’t see that ever becoming politically acceptable. Maybe in a few places like central London but right across the UK? Any party that ran on that platform would get pulverized in the polls. Who wants to be tracked by Big Brother?

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/04/uk-road-pricing-transport-committee-mps-electric-shift

    Liked by 2 people

  128. It looks like desperation has found its ultimate expression:

    “Electric car owners will be called on to help Britain avoid an energy crunch as suppliers prepare tariffs allowing them to draw power from parked vehicles at times of low supply or high demand.

    Cars which are charging on driveways are to be plugged into a system responsible for balancing the National Grid for the first time, in an experiment aimed at easing the burden on the country’s creaking energy infrastructure.

    It will lay the groundwork for a national rollout of the technology if successful, paving the way for millions of electric cars to act as a giant battery so that power supply is stable at times of low wind speeds after the transition to green energy.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/national-grid-to-drain-electric-car-batteries-at-times-of-peak-demand/ar-AATHMCd?ocid=msedgntp

    Apologies if this is old news. I haven’t being following this thread particularly.

    Like

  129. John, it has certainly been on the radar for a while, if maybe not in this thread. I can see a number of possible reasons why it won’t work. Foremost among them is human nature, which, being what it is, probably means that returning commuters would not plug their vehicle in over tea time. Why would they? Wait till 9 and then plug it in. Said car owner would be thinking: a) if I plug it in now I may have less power than if I wait – and if it does charge, it will cost me more, and b) if the grid keeps sucking juice out of my battery, won’t the battery be wrecked all the sooner?

    If the grid thinks it can work from a technical standpoint, I’ll have to bow to that because I don’t understand how the grid works. I would have thought that there was no way the leccy could flow back past the local transformer. It might result in reduced apparent demand in the immediate vicinity. Calling electrical engineers for an explanation for dummies.

    As well as AC/DC, there are also the resistive losses to consider.

    Then there is the potential for mischief.

    I wonder if they will make Faraday cages illegal?

    Liked by 2 people

  130. “Zero emissions: How will Wales move to electric buses?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60031144

    “A plan to move the whole of Wales’ bus fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2035 needs a nationwide funding plan, operators have said.

    Unlike England and Scotland, Wales does not yet have a government-run fund to help operators with the cost of green vehicles and infrastructure.

    Newport and Cardiff have made big steps in bringing electric buses into use, but they are the outliers at present.

    Work on a funding scheme is happening this year, the Welsh government said.

    Cardiff Bus unveiled 36 new electric buses in January, which means zero emission (ZE) vehicles now make up almost a quarter of its fleet, four years after the first eight-week trial of an electric bus in the city.”.

    As always, money money money. I thought net zero was supposed to be self-funding, create loads of green jobs and save us money?

    Like

  131. Mark, there are similar issues around our neck of the woods:

    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/local-council/bid-for-millions-for-electric-buses-8682212

    First Buses and Norfolk County Council are keen to secure a share of the Department for Transport’s £50m Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) fund.

    The county council had lodged an expression of interest for a slice of the cash, which would cover almost half the £6.9m cost of replacing 15 of First’s single decker buses with electric single decker vehicles.

    Expensive buses. How much are the diesels?

    Liked by 1 person

  132. Mark,

    I believe a new unit of measurement is to be introduced by the green economists. It’s called the shitload. Unfortunately, it often applies to pounds sterling but never to gigawatts.

    Liked by 1 person

  134. “Car industry calls for electric charge watchdog”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60394567

    “The UK car industry has called for a watchdog to oversee electric car charging prices and the availability of charge points.

    The growth in electric vehicles sales is outstripping the rollout of charging points, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

    It said a regulator is needed to monitor the market.

    The government said it was providing £1.3bn to expand the charging network.

    Over the decade between 2011 and 2021 the number of charge points in the UK jumped from about 1,500 to more than 48,000, according to industry figures.

    But between 2019 and 2021 the number of electric cars on the road increased much faster.

    Moreover, the charge point rollout was uneven, going faster in the south of England than in the north, the industry body said.

    The SMMT called on the government to set up a new regulator called “Ofcharge” – the Office of Charging – to monitor the market.”

    Oh good, another QUANGO< another expensive and useless trough. If they do end up going down this road, let's hope the costs are fully accepted in all government statistics, and let's hope it does a better job than OFGEM (though in fairness, OFGEM has been given an impossible remit by government, being forced to try to achieve mutually contradictory objectives).

    Like

  135. Mark, a bit you didn’t quote:

    Last summer MPs also raised concerns about the cost of public charging, saying it was far more expensive than charging a car at home. Energy prices have soared since then.

    It’s a good job we pick the smartest folk to be our MPs. Did they seriously think a company could buy chargers, lease land, install chargers, employ staff to maintain chargers, pay for vans, spares, training & supply leccy to the public while making a profit, AND charge the same price that the public would pay charging from home? [I wonder if the maintenence folk drive electric vans?]

    “Energy prices have soared.” Yes, and the cost of leccy at the public charger will not be covered by any caps. So it would be interesting to know how much the cost of a kWh is now. I might look into it if I have a mo.

    Liked by 2 people

  137. “Photos: Fire-Ravaged Felicity Ace Adrift off the Azores”

    https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/photos-fire-ravaged-felicity-ace-adrift-off-the-azores

    In the meantime, speculation is mounting over the cause of the fire as well as the full scope of the loss. The trade publication Automotive News is now reporting that it obtained information that there are a total of 3,965 cars aboard of which the largest portion is believed to be Porsche, Audi, and VW, but that there could also be nearly 200 Bentleys and an unspecified number of Lamborghini. The trade magazine first reported that analysts are estimating the value of the loss of the cars, without the vessel, at more than $255 million.

    One of the points of speculation is centering on the possibility that the vessel was carrying electric vehicles among its load. The car carrier industry has been focusing on the dangers of the batteries used in electric cars with some questioning if they could be the source of the fire. Experts noted even if the batteries had not caused the fire, that they are highly explosive and likely contributed to the spread of the fire on the vessel.

    Liked by 1 person

  138. “Car carrier fires and the associated risks with Electric Vehicle transportation”

    https://www.ukpandi.com/news-and-resources/articles/2021/car-carrier-fires-and-the-associated-risks-with-electric-vehicle-transportation/

    “With the COP26 summit dominating recent news headlines and an increasing requirement globally to use alternative sustainable fuels and minimise carbon emissions, share prices for Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturers like Tesla have doubled over the past three months, and car carrier charter rates, particularly regarding transporting EVs, are soaring.

    With this growth and demand has come an increased awareness operationally of the risks involved with transporting EVs on ro-ro and ro-pax vessels. Many ro-ro vessel operators are already carrying EVs and alternative fuel vehicles with a cautious approach. In October this year, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency issued a consultation document regarding the safe carriage of EVs and charging facilities on ro-pax ferries, so the safety concerns are clearly being considered on a wider level throughout the maritime industry….

    …The following are all potential risk scenarios that could arise when transporting EVs:

    Battery fire during on-board charging of the EV
    Battery fire due to increase in temperature from a fire in the surrounding area
    Battery fire after an accidental impact during cargo operation or vessel movement in bad weather
    Fire or explosion due to the escape of hydrogen from the fuel cell hydrogen pressure tank resulting from fire in the lower deck or surrounding area
    Battery runaway due to an internal short circuit resulting from an impact, or poor battery quality leading to fire when the battery internal safety mechanisms stop working
    In addition, a lithium-ion battery exposed to temperatures above 150 °C from a surrounding fire might start to discharge toxic gases with possible ignition. In case of a fire in the vicinity of a FCEV it is possible for the pressure to increase in the hydrogen tank from an external temperature increase. A significant amount of hydrogen could then escape forming flammable mixtures which could be ignited by non-explosion-proof equipment, such as lamps and fans….”.

    Like

  139. “How green are electric cars? – video”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2022/feb/24/how-green-are-electric-cars-video

    “There’s no denying that electric vehicles are what most of us will be driving in the near-future. Countries around the world have pledged to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles over the next few decades, in an effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But with lingering questions over the mining of rare metals, battery manufacturing and electricity consumption, Josh Toussaint-Strauss investigates whether electric vehicles are as green as we’ve been led to believe”

    I confess I haven’t watched it.

    Like

  140. I didn’t expect to read this in the Guardian:

    “‘A really bad deal’: Michigan awards GM $1bn in incentives for new electric cars
    Automakers’ history of taking fat subsidies and overpromising job growth make some analysts skeptical of the deal”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/25/michigan-awards-1bn-tax-incentives-gm-ev-plants

    “…The package is “a really bad deal for Michigan taxpayers”, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of corporate subsidy watchdog Good Jobs First. Michigan isn’t alone: The deal is among a new wave of colossal corporate subsidy packages that lawmakers across the country are cooking up to lure EV manufacturing and more giveaways are in the works. And like other huge corporate sweeteners – notably the $4.8bn used to lure Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn to Wisconsin – LeRoy warns these “trophy deal” announcements may help political campaigns, but are also reckless deals that threaten to blow holes in states’ budgets in the coming decades.

    As the combustion engine is phased out, tax revenue from its production and use will drop off, and states will need EV revenue to replace it. EV manufacturing requires fewer direct and indirect jobs and adding generous subsidy deals further limits its financial returns.

    Already, Michigan has handed out more subsidy deals, worth at least $50m, than any other state, and it has struggled with budget shortfalls stemming from billions it owes on combustion engine tax incentives that have yielded questionable job and revenue returns.

    “You would think after all that history Michigan would be gun shy to do something like this that could bite them,” LeRoy said….”.

    Like

  141. “Boris Johnson’s promise to build 4,000 zero-emission buses makes zero progress
    Only £320m of £4bn needed to build flagship vehicles for ‘green transport revolution’ has been committed by chancellor Rishi Sunak”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/26/boris-johnson-promise-build-4000-zero-emission-buses-green-transport-revolution

    “One of Boris Johnson flagship “green” pledges – to provide 4,000 new zero-emission, British-built buses by the end of 2024 – has been cast into serious doubt by UK manufacturers who say they have yet to receive any orders for new vehicles….

    …Since then, only a fraction of the necessary funds has been allocated, with £320m being committed by chancellor Rishi Sunak in last autumn’s spending review, towards an estimated total of £4bn needed to put 4,000 green buses on the road.

    UK manufacturers say that unless the funds are committed and orders made soon, there will not be time to get the new vehicles into service in time to meet Johnson’s promise.

    Paul Davies, managing director of bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis, which is Britain’s biggest bus builder and the world’s largest manufacturer of double-decker buses, said: “The problem is that we are running out of time to deliver on what was promised. If everything is left until the last minute, the danger is we have to look to overseas companies for quicker and cheaper options when the intention was that they would be British-made.”…”.

    Here’s an idea, don’t build them. There’s no need to look abroad yet again. £4Bn of taxpayer money to build 4,000 electric buses? Seriously? £1M each? And that’s just the extent of the subsidy, not necessarily what they’ll cost in total.

    Like

  142. “Plug in your car … but only Britain’s richer motorists can charge up cheaply
    Drivers with no off-street parking must use public charging points and miss £950 in savings, warns thinktank”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/27/plug-in-your-car-britain-richer-motorists-can-charge-up-cheaply

    “Almost 10 million households in England and Wales risk missing out on savings of £950 a year that come from owning an electric car, according to a study warning that richer households stand to benefit most.

    About a third of households have no access to off-street parking or a personal garage, so will miss out on lower costs from charging the cars using cheaper overnight electricity.

    Switching to those tariffs and away from fossil fuel-run cars could see weekly fuel costs fall from £21 to less than £3 for those who can access them. However, while 76% of the richest households have access to off-street parking, the same is true for only 56% of the poorest fifth of households. The findings emerge in a forthcoming study by the Resolution Foundation thinktank examining Britain’s plans for achieving net zero emissions and the impact on living standards. The switch to electric vehicles has the potential to cut fuel costs, but it reveals the barriers that remain in ensuring everyone can access them.”

    True, but simplistic. It ignores the fact that poor people can’t afford expensive electric vehicles in the first place. Secondly, it ignores the fact that if the number of private EVs on the roads increases, and petrol and diesel cars decrease, then EVs will no longer have cheap running costs, because the government will have to start hitting EV users with taxes to make up the shortfall from reducing numbers of milch cows in the form of petrol and diesel motorists.

    Liked by 2 people

  143. I like the way the Guardian uses the word “findings”. Sceptics said something similar before the ICE ban was announced: that 40% of households had no driveway and would therefore not be able to use domestic electricity to charge their vehicles and would therefore be greatly disadvantaged. Now this obvious fact is described as a “finding.” Like the finding that rain is wet.

    To my knowledge no journalists have pressed ministers on domestic charging in interviews. If they were to have resorted to saying “they can use public chargers” then the rejoinder is obvious.

    I take the point about affordability of EVs, but presumably by 2030 there will be plenty of clunkers with knackered batteries rusting away on forecourts.

    Liked by 1 person

  144. Boris Johnson’s promise to build 4,000 zero-emission buses makes zero progress
    Only £320m of £4bn needed to build flagship vehicles for ‘green transport revolution’ has been committed by chancellor Rishi Sunak

    That division is too obvious, even for typical Guardian readers, surely? A few at least must be wondering how a leccy bus can retail at a cool mill. (Or at least, that requires a million in subsidy per vehicle, which as you note, may still cost the end user an arm and a leg.)

    And bearing in mind the heavy use buses get, how long before these wonder buses will need replacing?

    Liked by 1 person

  145. Is this as good as it gets?

    “New Nottinghamshire solar point can charge 100 electric cars a day”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-60562635

    “A new solar-powered hub could charge up to 100 electric vehicles a day, according to the authority behind it.

    The hub is opening in the car park of Gamston Community Centre in Nottinghamshire.

    Rushcliffe Borough Council said the facility formed part of its carbon management plan and would, in time, largely be powered by natural light.

    It said electric and hybrid users would be able to charge their vehicles up to 80% in 30 minutes.”

    I see those weasel words again – “could” and “up to”. 80% charge, to be able to go not very far, after 30 minutes, hardly compares with the 3 or 4 minutes it takes me at a petrol station to fill up with enough diesel to enable me to drive 700 miles or more. And what does “and would, in time, largely be powered by natural light” mean? How is it powered now? How largely is “largely”? And how long will it take to get there? And by the way (missing from the article) what has it all cost?

    Like

  147. There’s a constant thread running through Cliscep: EVs bad, ICEs good. There are positive reasons for owning an EV and for many, the CO2 emissions are likely the last thing they think about. As I have confessed, we own a Tesla and it’s the best car we’ve ever had. The handling and features are excellent. The maintenance costs are very low and where electricity is relatively cheap like in British Columbia, the running costs are also low. Not contributing to local air pollution is an important issue in urban areas.

    Like

  148. potentilla, there can indeed be positive reasons for owning an EV. It’s horses for courses. Yours works for you, but one wouldn’t work for me, as my wife and I live in a small market town, with the result that we walk into town for pretty much everything we do, and we mostly make long journeys, visiting and supporting family. An EV probably wouldn’t see us get to my mother’s house and back on a single charge. It might not even get us TO our family in Staffordshire, never mind there and back, certainly not in winter with lights, heater and windscreen wipers on.

    The hostility you see here is because of the suggestion by “greens” that they are .”zero” or “low” “carbon” – they’re not. Nor are they environmentally friendly, in view of the mining and associated problems for the raw materials they need, though I take your point about air quality in towns. And because in the UK, we’re all (rich and poor alike) subsidising their purchase (mostly by rich people, since even with subsidies poor people can’t afford them) through our general taxes, and through their exemption from taxes that other car owners pay in large amounts. Finally, our misguided government won’t allow us to buy any new petrol or diesel cars from 2030 – just 7 years away – thus denying us freedom of choice, foisting on us what for many people is a less useful alternative, and at a time when the infrastructure won’t be ready for that. All for a “net zero” agenda that – as recent events demonstrate in spades – makes absolutely no geopolitical sense at all.

    In the UK electricity isn’t cheap – the price is going through the roof right now, and we’re already in danger of brownouts and even blackouts, because of a creaking National Grid and feeble generation due to over-reliance on renewables. Add the extra demand for EVs, and it could all fall over.

    So it’s not hostility to EVs and their owners, as such; rather it’s hostility to the way things are being manipulated regarding EVs in the UK, the lies we’re told about them, and the stupidity of Government policy with regard to them. I hope that helps to reassure you.

    Like

  149. potentilla/Mark

    I too am very happy for folk to buy EVs. I just don’t think its rational to ban the sale of ICEVs. I’m not sure what the stat is – maybe 40% – of UK households with no off-street parking, who would therefore rely on public chargers, supplying leccy at much higher costs than domestic rates. That doesn’t sound like a progressive move to me. EV owners don’t pay fuel tax, VAT on the fuel tax, or “road tax”, and have a subsidy both for the car and the home charger kit. These policies all favour those of us with a bit more dosh, and disfavour those who are “just about managing.”

    Let them compete with ICEVs on a level playing field, and then all we’ll have to complain about is the child labour & the risk that they might go up like Roman candles. I’m sure they’re great in the leafy suburbs but not everyone lives that way. For the government to be so indifferent to that is somewhat perplexing.

    The stats from the Volvo study referred to by Orlowski at Spiked seems to bash even the carbon dioxide savings. I do take the point about the tail pipe emissions in cities. But from my anecdotal observations, most cars have pretty clean exhausts. A small proportion, usually of overworked diesels, produces the lion’s share – I have absolutely no objection to getting them off the road. In theory the MOT now has an emissions test, but I don’t know how well this is enforced.

    Like

  150. Today’s You and Yours on R4 putting my touch typing to the test (I failed). From about 5 to 1 if anyone who wants to listen is still reading this thread. I transcribe the middle bit of presenter Nicola Beckford’s interview with a used car salesman and a woman from Autotrader:

    BECKFORD: Let’s turn to you now Erin Baker [Editorial Director of Autotrader]. Autotrader published a report, “The road to 2030” and by 2030 you won’t be able to buy a new petrol car anyway. How might the current fuel crisis change your predictions?

    BAKER: Well, we’ve seen a drop off on Autotrader from a high of 26% of all cars being looked at being electric in September last year to just 16% of those views being on electric cars in February. So you would think that with prices high at the pumps that people would be turning to electric and they should be – this is a time to get more people converted if we are going to get everyone transitioning by 2030 to electric cars. But we’re seeing that interest in electric cars really slow down, and that really is to do with two things: the continued high sticker price of electric cars, they are still on average 37% more expensive than their petrol or diesel counterparts, and secondly the government slowly but steadily reducing incentives to buy them. And when you couple all that with the increase in energy prices which means that that one thing that offsets the high sticker price, which is the ability for people to charge their cars on cheap electric tariffs, when that is disappearing with the rise in electricity costs, we’re really seeing that slowdown now in electric takeup.

    BECKFORD: That’s interesting because in February, sales figures show that electric vehicles actually grabbed 25% of the market, double of what they did annually last year. Was that a blip then or a trend?

    BAKER: Uh, we think that’s a blip, that’s what the data seems to be suggesting that with the rush of petrol prices, with petrol prices going up, people did then start looking at electric cars in seriousness. Also you have to remember that the (super?) chip shortage which is affecting stock of new cars, which is what is putting used car prices so high, people are still waiting for the electric cars that they ordered months and months ago to come through the system. The overall trend seems to be starting to be a slowdown in electric takeup and at the moment there’s still a bubble of electric car takeup because wealthy people are still coming through the system, more affluent buyers are still able to afford that higher sticker price, but when we exhaust that bubble of more affluent buyers, we are worried that the mass adoption simply won’t happen.

    BECKFORD: Interesting.

    The other speaker was clueless, nonsensically claiming his area was suffering badly with the “onset of climate change”, then went on to talk about how many power cuts they have (implying that they are caused by climate change?) and how that made EVs less suitable.

    Like

  151. Tip for transcription.I set up the tablet for voice typing
    and then I listen to the clip on the lap top on headphones
    Then I simultaneously speak the clip words into the tablet

    Like

  152. Jit, thanks for that. I was annoyed to find that I switched the radio on just as that piece was finishing.

    Like

  153. Oh what a coincidence the same Erin Baker is on Woman’s Hour today doing #PRasnew for Electric Cars
    20% of women are to be SHAMED by @bbcWomansHour management for not conforming to their “shop yourself green” rules

    #BiasedBBC is completely in the pocket of #GreenBlob PR people
    10am Woman’s Hour : Electric Car #PRasNews

    “We know that women are more environmentally conscious when shopping for the household
    – but there’s one area where that doesn’t seem to be the case – cars.
    There are now over 600,000 plug-in electric vehicles in the UK, but *a new study has found that 20% of women haven’t even considered buying an electric car.*
    We speak to Erin Baker, Editorial Director at AutoTrader about why women are less likely to opt for electric vehicles.    ”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00159pw

    … Maybe those 20% could be made to wear GREEN stars on their elbows.

    Liked by 1 person

  154. I think Woman’s Hour is the wokest, most ideologically-driven, programme on the BBC, and that’s saying something.

    Like

  155. “Manchin ‘very reluctant’ on electric cars in ominous sign for Biden’s climate fight”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/15/manchin-reluctant-electric-cars-biden-climate-crisis-fight

    “Faced with rising gasoline prices, many Americans are now looking to switch to an electric car. But the shift away from fossil fuel vehicles has been criticized by Senator Joe Manchin, who has said he is “very reluctant” to see the proliferation of battery-powered cars….

    …But Manchin, the centrist Democrat who holds a key swing vote in the US Senate, has poured scorn on the idea of phasing out gasoline and diesel cars.

    “I’m very reluctant to go down the path of electric vehicles,” Manchin said at the energy conference CERAWeek, held in Houston. “I’m old enough to remember standing in line in 1974 trying to buy gas – I remember those days. I don’t want to have to be standing in line waiting for a battery for my vehicle, because we’re now dependent on a foreign supply chain, mostly China.”…

    …The West Virginia senator’s criticism is ominous for the White House’s hopes of passing major climate legislation this year. The climate elements of the Build Back Better Act, which Manchin’s opposition has so far stalled, included half a trillion dollars in clean energy tax credits as well as major rebates for electric car purchases to drive up their adoption….”.

    Like

  156. “UK government vows 10-fold increase in electric car chargers by 2030
    New target comes after criticism of infrastructure rollout for failing to match surging vehicle sales”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/24/uk-government-vows-10-fold-increase-in-electric-car-chargers-by-2030

    “The UK government has set a new target to increase the number of electric car chargers more than ten times to 300,000 by 2030 after heavy criticism that the rollout of public infrastructure is too slow to match rapid growth in sales.

    The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would invest an extra £450m to do so, alongside hefty sums of private capital. …

    …There were 420,000 pure-electric cars on UK roads at the end of February, according to the comparison website Next Green Car. There were, however, only 29,600 public charge points in the UK on 1 March, according to data company Zap-Map.

    The £450m local electric vehicle infrastructure fund would focus on charger hubs and on-street chargers, the DfT said….”.

    More taxpayer money being thrown at the net zero agenda.

    ALso, it depends on who you believe, but it seems that there could be anywhere between 35 and 40 million cars in the UK. So I’m not convinced by claims of surging EV sales, when pure EVs still represent well under 2% of the total cars in use in the UK.

    Like

  157. Mark, seeing an EV is still fairly rare around here. I still see 20-year-old petrols at higher frequency.

    And the figures you quote imply that there are only 15 EVs for each public charger: how many do they need? If they cover the country with them, they will sit there idle 95% of the time.

    Like

  159. We stayed at a fairly posh hotel on our way back from holiday, as a treat. It had priority parking places for EVs, with free chargers available there I didn’t see anybody parked there or using them all the time we were there, though the other places were full of huge SUVs and ICU cars. Given that I would take advantage of free charging facilities if I was driving an EV, I think it’s fair to assume that none of the guests arrived in an EV.

    Like

  160. “Electric cars: Five big questions answered”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60838192

    Five questions: does the Beeb get any of the answers right?

    1. Why are electric cars so expensive?
    EVs are expensive to make but the price of batteries is coming down. (Is it?)
    The dishonesty begins:

    Melanie Shufflebotham is the co-founder of Zap Map, which maps the UK’s charging points. She says if an EV is charged at home “the average price people are paying is roughly 5p per mile”. This compares she says, to a cost of between 15-25 pence per mile for petrol or diesel cars.

    Great, but what does it cost per mile if I use one of the public chargers? Answer came there none. I call that selectively presenting the preferred data.

    2. Are there enough public chargers for all the EV drivers who will need them?
    No, there is not enough, but as the number of EVs increases, so will the number of chargers. (I think we established yesterday that there are plenty, numerically at least, if perhaps not distributed very well).

    3.What about ‘range anxiety’ – how far can a fully-charged EV travel?

    Peter Rolton, Executive Chairman at Britishvolt, which is building an EV battery factory in Northumberland, says the technology to increase range is improving.

    “A hatchback [car] currently has around 200-250 miles range.” By the end of the decade, he says better batteries will push that distance by many miles.

    Now, I read that at first to say that an ICE hatchback only had 200-250 miles of range. He means an EV. But in the real world, those are fantasy numbers.

    4.What if I am not able to charge at home?
    Aha, now we get to the nub of things. It’s class war brae.

    The majority of households in the UK, some 18 million (65%), either have, or could offer, off-street parking for at least one vehicle. according to data from the RAC. [Sic.]

    At least under this question they admit that using public chargers will cost more than using domestic leccy.

    5.Will we all own cars in the future?
    Here we are treated to a fantasy future of car shares etc – which have worked so well so far – “fractional ownership” as the zap map woman seems to be calling it.

    The key point being – not acknowledged here – that people want the freedom of owning their own car. If they want an EV, they are not likely to want to charge it away from home unless they have to. Levelling up this ban on ICE certainly ain’t.

    Liked by 1 person

  161. I Know I should play the ball not the Woman – but is “Shufflebotham” really her name ?

    seems it is, and to add to your comment above, she say’s –
    “Another area expected to grow is what’s known as ‘fractional ownership’, or car sharing clubs. Melanie Shufflebotham says car sharing could grow in popularity, until driverless cars eventually become a reality.

    “Imagine, just as you’d call up an Uber now, you will have an app to call up an autonomous car to take you where you want to go. In the nearer term I think car sharing is a really important solution.””

    when I started work at Ferranti Defence Systems – Edinburgh in 1973, first thing everybody did was find out who could give a lift into work (car sharing for the new)

    Like

  162. “Will Ford’s new truck finally make Americans buy electric?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61184539

    “…Electric vehicles remain a small fraction of the global car market, accounting for 9% of sales last year.

    And in the US – the world’s biggest carbon emitter after China, where gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and trucks dominate the road – it was even smaller, at 4.5%.

    Analysts say offering electric versions of popular vehicles will be key to convincing the American public to buy electric.

    But whether Ford will be able to convert the large numbers of F-150 loyalists across the country to the “Lightning” remains an open question….

    …For his part, Mr O’Polka says he wouldn’t be able to customise the electric truck to his liking and is turned off by its roughly 300-mile range.

    “In my truck right now, I can get 500 to 600 miles out of a tank and I can fill my tank in about five to eight minutes and be back on the road,” he says. “An electric truck, you can only get so far and then you’ll have to stand and wait [to charge it].”…”.

    Like

  165. “Help to buy EVs in ‘landmark’ New Zealand net zero climate plan”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/16/help-to-buy-evs-in-landmark-new-zealand-net-zero-climate-plan

    “New Zealand will help some people to buy electric vehicles, end its reliance on fossil fuels, lower agricultural emissions, and reduce waste going to landfill, the government has promised in the most significant announcement on climate change action in the country’s history…

    …One of the most significant initiatives is the clean car upgrade programme, which will support lower and middle income families to transition to low-emission alternatives through a “scrap and replace” trial. That will allow eligible families to trade in their vehicles and receive support to buy electric or hybrid vehicles, which will in turn be cheaper to run…”.

    Can anyone explain to me how building new cars to replace existing perfectly functional cars which are then scrapped, is “green”?

    Like

  166. “Brace for a shock: cost-of-living crisis drives up price of electric car charging
    Recharging at home is 43% more expensive than a year ago – but EVs are still much cheaper to run than petrol and diesel cars”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/16/brace-for-a-shock-cost-of-living-crisis-drives-up-price-of-electric-car-charging

    “While petrol price rises may have made the headlines, the energy crisis has also been hitting owners of electric cars in the pocket. The cost of charging at home has risen by 43% for some drivers, while the already higher cost of on-the-road recharges has gone up 25%.

    As energy prices are forced up due to rising costs for suppliers, specialist charging deals for drivers have become more scarce. And now there are suggestions that people may put off the purchase of an electric car as the cost-of-living crisis takes hold….

    …The rising price of EV tariffs means drivers now face paying 43% more than a year ago. This amounts to a rise of about £75 a year for an average vehicle such as a Nissan Leaf or a Renault Zoe, says Ben Nelmes of transport research company New AutoMotive.

    In 2021, the cost of recharging an EV that covered 7,400 miles a year – the average mileage – and was recharged mostly at night was £174. This was based on an overnight rate of 4p/kWh and a day rate of 18p/kWh. By last month, this same charging practice cost £249 a year, based on the best prices then available – 5p/kWh at night and 28p/kWh during the day….

    …Rising costs have also become apparent at public chargers. Instavolt, which operates a charging network across Britain, has increased its prices twice so far this year, first from 45p/kWh to 50p/kWh and then to 57p/kWh. Ubitricity, one of London’s largest charging networks, increased prices from 24p/kWh to 32p/kWh last month.

    Data company Zap Map, which maps public charge points, found that, on average, charging costs increased from 24p/kWh in December to 30p/kWh in February for slow and fast chargers, and from 35p/kWh to 44p/kWh for rapid and ultra-rapid chargers.

    “The price of charging your EV on the public network, or at home, has risen substantially over the past few months with the general increase in electricity prices,” says Melanie Shufflebotham from Zap Map.

    There are 460,000 EVs currently in the UK, according to the Volkswagen Financial Service report, and just 300,000 home charger points installed. Those who don’t have a home charger end up paying more, according to Keith Brown of Paythru, a payments technology company. “One of the big inequities of the emerging EV charging market is the price ‘premium’ electric vehicle drivers pay if they don’t or can’t have a home charge point,” he says. “Domestic supply is taxed at a VAT rate of 5% whereas public charge-point supply is taxed at a VAT rate of 20%.”…”.

    Is anyone surprised by any of this? And, by the way, if EVs paid tax on electricity at the rate that is charged on diesel and petrol, then I strongly suspect that any price advantage would disappear completely, with regard to running costs.

    Like

  167. Mark, something similar from Notalot a few days back: https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/05/12/rac-finally-realise-that-some-ev-owners-will-be-worse-off/

    To this averagely competent observer, it was always obvious that forcing EVs on everyone would be the exact opposite of “levelling up,” our government’s self-proclaimed overarching target. Key is that, as pointed out here and at Paul Homewood’s, poorer people tend not to have off-street parking. They therefore will be reliant on public chargers, which will have to charge more than domestic electricity to cover their costs and make a profit even if the VAT rate is eventually cut to parity.

    EVs are very good for certain roles. Offering them for sale is not objectionable. Some people will actively choose them as the best solution for their needs (though it might be suspected that in many cases this is a second car as a city runaround). What is not OK is to force everyone to have one. If the government really think that in 15 years inner-city terraced streets are going to be lined, not with petrol or diesel cars, but with clapped-out EVs, they are out of touch. Another example of farming unicorns. The target is impossible, but we’ll keep pretending that we’re on the way to achieving it.

    Liked by 1 person

  168. “Will swapping out electric car batteries catch on?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61310513

    “Without even a touch of the steering wheel, the electric car reverses autonomously into the recharging station.

    I won’t be plugging it in though, instead, the battery will be swapped for a fresh one, at this facility in Norway belonging to Chinese electric carmaker, Nio.

    The technology is already widespread in China, but the new Power Swap Station, just south of Oslo, is Europe’s first.

    The company hopes that swapping-out the entire battery will appeal to customers worried about the range of electric cars, or who simply don’t like queuing to recharge.

    It was certainly straightforward to book a slot on Nio’s app, and once inside the station, all I have to do is park on the designated markings and wait in the car.

    I can hear bolts being undone as the battery is automatically removed from underneath the vehicle and replaced with a fully- charged one.

    In less than five minutes, I’m ready to go again.”

    Funnily enough, I’m also ready to go again in less than 5 minutes after pulling into a petrol station to fill up the tank of my diesel car, and filling it up with diesel sounds a lot easier than this ridiculous palaver.

    Like

  169. “Big carmakers stuck in slow lane over switch to zero emissions, study shows
    Only Tesla and Mercedes are due to meet climate goals with Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and General Motors lagging”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/18/big-carmakers-stuck-in-slow-lane-over-switch-to-zero-emissions-study-shows

    “The world’s largest carmakers are lagging behind on the switch to electric vehicles with only two on the trajectory required to hit the international target of limiting global heating to 1.5C, according to an analysis.

    Tesla and Mercedes-Benz are the only firms out of 12 big manufacturers who are on course to shift to zero-emissions vehicles at a rate in line with climate goals, according to the campaign group InfluenceMap.

    Carmakers around the world are racing to introduce new cars with zero exhaust emissions of carbon, and almost every big brand plans to move to battery electric technology. However, at the same time manufacturers are trying to keep selling their highly profitable diesel and petrol cars.

    The carmakers that plan the slowest adoption of zero-emissions technology are the three biggest Japanese producers – Toyota, Honda and Nissan – while other laggards included South Korea’s Hyundai and General Motors in the US. The analysis, based on forecasts to 2029 produced by the data company IHS Markit, included 12 of the world’s largest carmakers, although it did not include the largest Chinese manufacturers.”

    I find the claims hard to believe. Try to buy a new Nissan diesel car in the UK. I think you’ll find that you can’t.

    Like

  170. Meanwhile:

    “Fifers miss out on electric bin lorries as council accused of ‘doubling down’ on diesel”

    https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-environment/environment/3287093/fifers-miss-out-on-electric-bin-lorries-as-council-accused-of-doubling-down-on-diesel/

    “Fife residents will have to wait a bit longer before noisy, fossil fuel guzzling bin lorries are a thing of the past.

    The region’s local authority has purchased 13 diesel waste collection vehicles.

    A Fife Council waste operations boss said there is not enough charging infrastructure in the region to support electric vehicles (EVs).

    In response, Green MSP Mark Ruskell accused Fife Council of “doubling down on diesel” during the climate crisis…

    …Dundee City Council – regarded as one of Scotland’s leading authorities for promoting EVs – has six electric bin lorries.

    But there aren’t many across Scotland.

    Glasgow, the host city of COP26, only took delivery of its first fully electric bin lorry in October last year – in the weeks before the summit.

    And Fife isn’t ready to invest in them yet….

    …Sandy adds that current EV technology means an electric bin lorry would be unable to complete a full day in north east Fife without needing recharged.

    He says the council is “waiting on [sic] the technology improving”.

    There is also an issue with electricity supply, says Sandy.

    A new substation would need to be built at the council’s Bankhead depot before the council could charge up a fleet of bin lorries stationed there….”.

    Like

  171. “How easy is it to drive across Wales in an electric car?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61505025

    “It’s less than eight years before the sale of new petrol and diesel cars is banned in the UK – and sales of electric vehicles have been rising steeply.

    Yet surveys suggest that concern over the state of the UK’s charging infrastructure is now the number one reason stopping newer buyers from taking the plunge.

    To see if those fears were justified, I attempted to drive up and down Wales in a standard electric car to see how easy it would be…

    …But, having discovered there were only four “rapid” public chargers between Cardiff and Nefyn for my journey, I had to change my journey in order to avoid stopping for a much longer period, and to avoid being stranded in rural mid Wales.

    If you talk to any EV driver, they will tell that planning is key for a long journey. That’s not planning where the best coffee can be found in rural mid-Wales, but figuring out where you’ll be able to stop to charge.

    Some drivers talk of “range anxiety” – a fear that the electric vehicle will not have enough charge to make it to the next working charge point.

    Finding a working charger is one thing – but finding one that will charge your vehicle quickly is another potential pitfall. Rapid and ultra-rapid chargers – capable of charging a standard EV to around 80% in around an hour or less – are the ones drivers seek out….

    …Despite my forward planning, I still reached Aberystwyth with just 15 miles left in the tank. In fact, I had to turn off the satnav, air con and the radio to make sure I had enough power to get there.

    Of the two public rapid chargers within a roughly 25-mile radius, one was already being used. So I headed to a supermarket on the outskirts of town.

    Much to the annoyance of Julie Williams and Matthew Jones, I got there before them.

    EV owners for the past year and a half, they’d driven from Birmingham to the west coast of Wales for a holiday. With no charger at their holiday cottage, they’d had to forgo a dip in their hot tub this lunchtime to find somewhere to charge.

    “You lose hours of your holiday travelling to make sure you have enough charge to get home,” Matthew said.

    “There’s not the services out there to feel confident to go on a journey like we’ve done from Birmingham to know we can go to any service station to charge,” Julie added. “You have to search and hope that they’re working.”

    Snapshot figures for March, seen exclusively by the BBC and supplied by Zap-Map, suggest that at any time around one in 10 rapid or ultra-rapid devices in the UK are out of service.

    Furthermore, a survey of more than 1,000 drivers by the Electric Vehicle Association England (EVA) suggested owners were broadly dissatisfied with their charging experience – rating it 2.16 out of five….

    …Aberystwyth had pretty typical coverage for a small town – a few rapid chargers and a handful of slower or “trickle” chargers dotted around.

    But at our overnight destination in Nefyn, on the Llyn Peninsula, there were fewer than 10 public chargers. They were all slow speed, many on holiday parks or at hotels.

    I had 30 miles left when I arrived. With no public charger at the hotel, I had to leave my car overnight in a public car park, five minutes away. Had this one not been working it would have meant leaving the car even further away.

    Luckily Alex, our cameraman, had his own vehicle so he could taxi me back and forth. Without him, it would have meant even more forward planning. [How green!]….

    …In its EV infrastructure strategy, the UK government set a target of installing 300,000 public chargers by 2030. It pledged £1.6bn to be used “in support of charging infrastructure”.

    But cost is a huge factor – devices aren’t cheap to install. An average rapid charger costs £20,000-£30,000, according to Dr Euan McTurk, a consultant battery electrochemist.

    “And then you’ve got to install them on top of that. A grid connection, if it’s required, might be £10,000- £15,000,” he says….”

    And much, much more in similar vein. Good to see the BBC pointing out lots of problems. Not so good to see that nowhere do they question the wisdom of the plan or the narrative.

    Like

  172. “Electric cars spell trouble for Central Europe
    Green transition will deal heavy blow to region’s car industry if it doesn’t adapt in time.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/central-europe-struggle-keep-up-electric-car-race/

    “In the Czech Republic, the prime minister has blasted the EU’s Green Deal as an “existential threat.”

    The country’s carmakers agree — but say that’s only because the government has failed to prepare for the transition.

    The bloc’s plan to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles by outlawing pollution-emitting internal combustion engines by 2035 — part of Brussels’ effort to go climate neutral by 2050 — has not gone down well in Central European countries whose economies are heavily reliant on the car industry.

    Carmakers, lured by cheap skilled labor and decent infrastructure, have invested billions in the region, spawning a huge network of suppliers and production sites. In the Czech Republic, the auto industry accounts for close to 10 percent of GDP and employs around 500,000 people. Slovakia is even more exposed, with the sector responsible for 14 percent of GDP.

    “When Volkswagen sneezes the whole country catches the flu,” said Lucia Mytna Kurekova, senior economist at the Slovak Governance Institute.

    The transition to electric vehicles could deal a heavy blow to the industry if it doesn’t adapt in time, as EVs contain fewer parts to manufacture and require less labor to the conventional cars, many now warn.”

    Like

  173. “Electric car rapid charging costs soar, says RAC”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61592931

    “The cost of rapidly charging an electric car has risen sharply as energy costs soar, the RAC has said.

    However, electric car charging still remains cheaper than petrol and diesel, the motoring organisation said.

    Rises in electricity and gas prices, in part since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are behind the increased charging costs.

    But fuel prices have gone up more quickly as crude oil suppliers struggle to meet demand.

    The price of charging an electric car on a pay-as-you-go, non-subscription basis at a publicly accessible rapid charger has increased by 21% over the last nine months, the RAC said.

    Even charging at home has been getting more expensive as energy bills spiral upwards.

    The cost of the electricity used to power electric vehicles varies according to the household tariff the customer is on.

    But both rapid charging and home charging are still less expensive than petrol or diesel per mile.”

    That’s twice in the first few sentences that they felt it necessary to stress that EVs are still cheaper to charge than it is to fill a petrol or diesel car. Of course that’s the case – petrol and diesel are loaded with fuel duty. On a level playing field, petrol and diesel would be cheaper by a country mile.

    Like

  174. PS, if they do ever phase out petrol and diesel car ownership, then EVs are very going to be very expensive indeed – the Government will have to replace all that lost tax on diesel and petrol somehow.

    Like

  176. Mark (from yesterday), I am due to revisit the sums involved in fuelling electric vs ICE cars. I am absolutely sure that ICE still wins, even in these times of stupid cost, absent the abusive duty added to fuel.

    Something else just occurred to me too, which I will have to investigate with Mr. Google/ DuckDuckQuack.

    Like

  177. “British drivers put off electric cars after motorist was fined for waiting to charge EV”

    https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1617989/electric-cars-driving-fine-drivers-put-off-EVs-fined-charging-motorway

    “Last week, Express.co.uk reported that Richard Stewart, 64, was handed a £100 fine after he waited in a queue to charge his Jaguar I-PACE.

    The pest control company boss waited for almost an hour to charge his vehicle as all the available chargers were being used.

    Mr Stewart told The Sun that he chose to wait because he was picking up his wife, who is a key worker, from a nearby hospital after she supervised a specialist clinic.

    After returning from a coffee break, which lasted for 50 minutes due to the unavailability of chargers, the 64-year-old finally plugged his car in.

    It then took him 70 minutes to charge his motor before driving off to collect his wife.

    The Jaguar driver received a parking fine for breaking the two-hour stay limit at the service station.

    Mr Stewart’s charging ordeal took him 20 minutes over the allowed stay.

    A photograph of the fine showed that the 64-year-old arrived at the service station at 11.44am and left at 14.06pm.”

    Like

  178. “Traditional carmakers could boost profits by accelerating move to electric
    Analysis suggests electric operations will become rapidly more profitable than petrol and diesel arms within five years”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/01/traditional-carmakers-could-boost-profits-by-accelerating-move-to-electric

    “The world’s largest traditional carmakers could improve their profit margins and boost their value to investors by accelerating the transition to electric cars in the next decade, a new analysis has found.”

    New analysis, eh?

    “The world’s biggest carmakers are all seeking to increase electric car production rapidly in the next decade, as laws in major markets including the EU and UK seek to ban new internal combustion engines as part of the effort to curb carbon pollution from transport. Yet at the same time carmakers still intend to sell millions more vehicles with petrol and diesel engines, in part because they remain more profitable but also because making the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) can include major upfront costs.

    Several carmakers have warned that a too-rapid transition away from petrol and diesel will result in factory closures or job losses. Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares earlier this month raised concerns over possible shortages of car batteries by 2025.

    In the UK and EU, for instance, carmakers are now liable for steep fines if they sell too few electric cars. The UK is also considering a zero-emission vehicles mandate, which would mean half of all vehicles must be pure electric by 2028 ahead of a ban on hybrids, which combine a battery with a petrol engine, in 2035.”

    If EVs were inherently an improvement and more profitable, this surely wouldn’t be necessary.

    “The analysis, commissioned by Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based thinktank, suggested that the legacy carmakers could increase their market values by a collective €800bn (£680bn) if they accelerated the switch to electric cars.”

    Hmm. No link provided, by the way. Finally:

    “The research did warn that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could push back the date when electric cars are more profitable than petrol or diesel by between one and three years, depending on the manufacturer, because of higher battery material costs.”

    Like

  179. Mark, I have some free advice for carmakers, as follows:

    The product you are allowed to sell will be more profitable than the one that is banned.

    However, one must note that increased profits, if real, mean that customers are paying more than they should do. This is likely to be sustainable in the brave new world, since an alternative vehicle will no longer be available.

    Considering that EV versions of cars cost a lot more than petrol versions, carmakers are going to sell a lot fewer than before, which inevitably means manufacturing will be reduced. [I might be wrong here, and would appreciate it if anyone could tell me why.]

    I also have the feeling, but can’t find evidence offhand, that carmakers are already subsidising their EVs by overcharging for ICEs, thanks to the “fleet average emissions” ****.

    Liked by 2 people

  180. “Bristol carbon emissions: Electric bus fleet to be introduced”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-61659300

    “A city transport network is to be ‘decarbonised’, partly by introducing 250 electric buses and 1,000 cycle racks,

    Bristol City Council is aiming to get the city to net zero carbon emissions by 2030 to tackle climate change.

    A big part of that push will be changing how people move around the city.

    Bristol City Council’s cabinet is expected to accept a government grant of £500,000 towards its plans.

    The money will be used to commission several studies looking at how Bristol can speed up plans to decarbonise the city’s transport network, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).”

    Several studies to be commissioned? There’s money to be made out of the taxpayer, that’s for sure.

    “Green logistics service Zedify operates a hub in St Jude’s, and uses cargo bikes to deliver to businesses across the city centre.

    The company received a £100,000 grant from the council last year, and similar ‘last mile delivery’ services could soon be rolled out across the city.

    Council bosses hope to have installed 1,000 cycle hangars and introduced 250 electric buses to Bristol by 2027.”

    Like

  181. “How automakers are earning a bundle while making fewer cars
    Focusing on high-earning luxury cars carries environmental risks.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/automaker-earn-make-fewer-car/

    “…In 2021, the world’s 16 largest automakers increased their profits by 168 percent year-on-year from €50 billion to a record €134 billion, despite sales only increasing by 1.2 percent compared to historically poor 2020 levels, according to an analysis by the EY consultancy.

    That trend is continuing into this year, with carmakers boosting profits by 19 percent in the first quarter — a record for the period — while overall sales slumped by 11 percent, according to EY.

    “Carmakers are currently not keeping up with production, so premium models are taking precedence because their margins are higher,” said Matthias Heck, an auto analyst at Moody’s.

    The strategy makes economic sense — why waste precious components to make cheap cars with a tiny profit margin rather than pop them into a high-end luxury model? But it’s creating climate worries as heavy models like SUVs are higher emitting than smaller cars.

    There’s also concern that carmakers are favoring luxury electric vehicles rather than less profitable and cheaper EVs — which also have a lower carbon footprint.

    The Volkswagen Group increased its profits in 2021 by 75 percent to more than €15 billion, while sales fell by 600,000 units. The carmaker prioritized the allocation of chips and production to its high-margin premium vehicles from Porsche and Audi while neglecting its cheaper Skoda and Seat brands.

    Porsche boosted sales by as much as 10 percent year-on-year in 2021, selling more than 300,000 cars for the first time in its history, and was the most profitable powerhouse in the VW Group, generating €5 billion in profits. By contrast, 2021 sales of the Seat brand fell by 2 percent to around 390,000 units, while Skoda’s output dropped almost 15 percent to some 800,000 units….

    …However, the luxury strategy poses an environmental risk, warned Marion Tiemann, a mobility expert at Greenpeace.

    “Carmakers looking to sell more luxury cars in the midst of a climate crisis, scarce resources and overstretched planetary boundaries are part of the problem, not the solution,” she said.

    The strategy not only makes irresponsible use of resources, but also delays the necessary shift from combustion cars to electric vehicles, she argued, adding that it is also skewing the EV market toward luxury models.

    The approximately 800-kilogram battery pack used in Audi’s luxury electric e-tron SUV could be split to power up to three small electric cars, according to Tiemann….”

    800kg! That’s almost 4/5 of an imperial ton. Just for the battery pack.

    Like

  182. “Scrapping of electric car grants sparks backlash”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61795693

    “Motoring and car industry groups have criticised the government’s decision to end grants worth £1,500 towards buying electric cars.

    The Department for Transport said the plug-in subsidy scheme was being closed with immediate effect.

    It said funding would now be “refocussed” towards improving electric vehicle charging.

    But the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the move “sends the wrong message”.”

    Er, well they would say that, wouldn’t they? Clue’s in the name – selling the things is more important to them than whether the buyers will actually be able to charge and thus actually use them.

    Like

  183. the plug-in subsidy scheme

    Wonder what the acronym for that was…

    Perhaps SMMT are unhappy now because they soon won’t be able to sell the cars that most people prefer, and predict a collapse in demand?

    Dear BBC, there is no backlash from some of us. Do take note.

    Like

  184. This propaganda piece from the BBC actually backfires on them if readers think about what they’re saying:

    “Fuel prices: Could I save money driving an electric car?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-60943322

    “But for now, a typical new electric car remains more expensive than an equivalent petrol or diesel model – ranging from £23,000 to £43,000.

    However, cheaper second-hand EVs are increasingly available.

    The BBC found a number of used five-seater electric hatchbacks for between £8,000 and £21,000.

    Leasing offers another option. According to Leasing.com, the demand for EVs in 2021 was greater than for diesel or petrol cars.

    It says the current average monthly payment for a five-seater hatchback is less than for the diesel equivalent:

    EV £455.93
    diesel £480.22
    petrol £308.48”

    Pushing cheap second hand electric cars at the public, while noting that new ones are more expensive than ICE vehicles, rather overlooks the fact that as well as being more expensive to buy new, they depreciate faster than ICE equivalents. Indeed, the price of second-hand ICE cars is holding very firm at the moment, possibly because new diesels aren’t a patch on old ones. We’re hanging on to our 7 year old diesel for as long as possible, given that the new ones I looked at when I thought about changing don’t seem to be as good (as well as involving a lot more road tax). I guess that makes me green.

    Like

  185. “New Tesla factories losing billions of dollars, Musk says”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61905276

    “Elon Musk says Tesla’s new factories in Germany and the US are “losing billions of dollars” due to battery shortages and supply disruptions in China.

    The multi-billionaire also called the plants in Berlin and Austin, Texas “gigantic money furnaces”.

    Covid-19 lockdowns in China this year, including in Shanghai where Tesla has a huge factory, have made it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to operate.

    In recent weeks Mr Musk has been warning of job cuts at the firm.”

    Like

  187. “Two killed as Nio electric car falls from third floor office in Shanghai”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61919581

    A very sad story, and I take no pleasure in it, but there seems to be more to it:

    “Nio’s initial statement on Weibo attracted more than a thousand comments within half an hour, but was then taken down.

    The last sentence of the statement “not related to the vehicle itself” triggered many angry responses from social media users.

    One comment read “it shows the cold blood of capitalism,” while another said “The last sentence is so indifferent. They [test drivers] came to test the vehicle, but you say [the accident] has nothing to do with the vehicle?”

    Yet another Weibo user said “It should be public security bureau to confirm if it’s an accident or not.”

    The carmaker has since posted a revised version of the statement, which still refers to the crash as an accident but now has “not caused by the vehicle” in brackets apparently to de-emphasise that part of the sentence. All the comments to the new post are now “RIP”.

    Nio is at the forefront of China’s home-grown drive to dominate the electric vehicle industry. It has bet big on interchangeable batteries in its cars as a way to overcome customer concerns about frequent charging.”

    Then there’s this today as well:

    “Toyota recalls electric cars over concerns about loose wheels”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61919424

    “Motor industry giant Toyota is recalling 2,700 of its first mass-produced all-electric vehicles over concerns their wheels may fall off.

    A spokesperson told the BBC that bolts on the bZ4X’s wheels “can loosen to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle” after “low-mileage use”.

    The recall comes less than two months after the car was launched in Japan.

    Car maker Subaru also says that for the same reason it will recall 2,600 electric cars it developed with Toyota.”

    Like

  188. “‘It keeps on going’: driving the world’s first production-ready solar car”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/25/keeps-going-driving-first-production-ready-solar-car-lightyear-0

    Something of a misleading headline!

    “In optimal conditions, the solar panels can add up to 44 miles a day to the 388-mile range the car gets between charges, according to the company….

    …But whether the company’s gamble on solar will pay off remains to be seen, said Jim Saker, professor emeritus at Loughborough University and president of the Institute of the Motor Industry.

    “You’re having to pay an awful lot of money and have solar panels stuck on the car for just 44 additional miles. The question mark at the moment is the fact that, in reality, is that actually worth it? The actual concept isn’t bad. It’s just whether the technology is actually viable to make it economically sustainable for anybody wanting to do this.”

    Sales of the Lightyear 0 would probably be limited to a handful of early adopters, he added. “But in reality, it’s not a commercial proposition at the moment.”…”.

    Like

  189. “Five countries seek to delay EU fossil fuel car phase-out”

    https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/five-countries-seek-delay-eu-fossil-fuel-car-phase-out-document-2022-06-24/

    “Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania want to delay a European Union plan to effectively ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035 by five years, according to a document seen by Reuters.

    The policy is a key pillar of the EU’s plans to tackle rising transport emissions and speed the shift to electric vehicles, as the bloc strives to cut economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels….

    …A Bulgarian official, who did not wish to be named, said climate policies needed to consider economic and social factors such as the “the significant differences” in purchasing power between EU countries.

    Brussels says the 2035 date is crucial because the average lifespan of new cars is 15 years – so a later ban would stop the EU reaching net zero emissions by 2050, the global milestone scientists say would avert disastrous climate change.

    Some EU governments have rallied behind the 2035 target, but Germany’s finance minister said this week the EU’s biggest car market would not support it….”.

    Like

  190. “I was fined £100 for charging my car at a motorway service station
    The time limit for free parking is two hours but I had to wait 30 minutes just to get the use of a charging point”

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jun/30/i-was-fined-100-for-charging-my-car-at-a-motorway-service-station

    “I stopped at Abington services on the M74 to charge my electric car. I had to wait over half an hour for a connector to become free, then spent an hour and a half charging. Ten days later, I received a £100 penalty charge for exceeding the two-hour free parking period. Like most people, I’ve never spent more than two hours in a motorway service station and it didn’t cross my mind to buy a ticket. Others should be warned that when charging, it’s easy to run over the limit.”

    Like

  191. Bit strange to report that
    cos 26 May 2022 The Sun reported ” a £100 parking fine just for waiting in line to charge my electric car”
    Richard Stewart, 64, pulled into Pease Pottage services on the M23 service station to charge his Jaguar I-PACE ..”

    The Number PLate Recognition computer cameras recognise your licence plate and log if you were there one second over 2 hours , then they automatically send you a fine in the post.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/18684899/furious-slapped-motorist-100-parking-fine-electric-car/

    Like

  192. “Electric cars sold in UK passes half a million despite supply chain issues
    A fifth of the electric cars on British roads were made by Tesla, the US electric car pioneer”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/03/electric-cars-sold-in-uk-passes-half-a-million-despite-supply-chain-issues

    “The number of electric cars sold in the UK has surpassed half a million, according to analysis that underlines the rapid growth in demand despite supply chain problems caused by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The UK reached the milestone in June and the number of electric cars in the country is likely to overtake France later this year, according to Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive analyst.

    The number of electric cars on the UK’s roads has soared from fewer than 100,000 in 2019 as carmakers have started to produce them in large volumes to meet tightening regulations on carbon dioxide emissions, and impending bans on petrol and diesel cars that will come in by 2035 in the UK and EU.

    The figures mean that pure electric cars account for about….[drumroll]… 1.2% of the 40.5m cars on British roads…”.

    Put whatever spin you want on that, but the take-up is pathetic, considering the punitive taxes on ICE vehicles and the subsidies granted to those buying EVs (combined with the lack of tax – yet – on EVs.

    Like

  193. “Exeter electric car charging points removed”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-61911605

    “Electric charging points for the public to recharge cars are being removed and replaced due to “teething problems”.

    The plan to install 16 rapid charging machines on streets around Exeter was supposed to put “Exeter on the map with the UK’s most sustainable cities”.

    But the charging points that were installed are being taken away.

    The project has been funded by Innovate UK and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, part of the Department for Transport.

    Rapid Charging Devon, the organisation which is managing the project, said private company Gamma Energy would be meeting all of the costs of the withdrawal of the machines and their replacement with different models.

    Some charging points were put in place in 2021 but workmen were seen removing some of the points in early June 2022.

    The area where the charging machines once stood is now marked by a bollard.

    In response to questions from the BBC, Rapid Charging Devon issued a statement which said some of the rapid chargers were “not working as consistently as we would like”.

    It said rather than continuing “with an intermittent service, we have decided to replace all the chargers with a different model”….”.

    Well, it’ll all be intermittent if we have to rely solely on renewables in future…..

    “Neither the initial cost of the project, nor the cost of replacing the machines, has been made clear.

    A spokesperson for the Department for Transport declined to comment on the situation in Exeter, but said it was investing £1.6bn in charge point networks across the UK.”

    Transparency?

    Liked by 1 person

  194. “UK new car sales fall to lowest level in June since 1996 amid chip shortages
    Rising costs push up prices and drivers wait more than 12 months to take delivery of some models”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/05/uk-new-car-sales-chip-shortages-prices-delivery

    “New car sales in the UK fell by almost a quarter last month, the worst June since 1996, as global chip shortages hammered the industry, according to industry figures.

    Global shortages of components such as semiconductors continue to hamper manufacturers’ ability to keep up with demand, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

    Registrations of new cars were down 24% last month compared with June 2021, according to preliminary figures from the trade body.”

    No doubt a shortage of chips is part of the explanation (and is more evidence that globalism is far from an unalloyed good), but it never seems to occur to them that people aren’t buying new cars because they still want ICE cars, but the taxes on new ICE cars are punitive, and that the new ones aren’t as good as the old ones, due to “environmental” standards. I have previously mentioned on here that we’ve delayed replacing our 7 year old car, because looking at the new alternatives, it makes more financial and other sense to keep the old one. As for this, if you want to destroy car sales, then this is the way to do it:

    “The government is planning to adopt a zero emission vehicle mandate, which will require manufacturers to sell a certain percentage of those cars and vans from 2024. Nelmes urged ministers to ensure the level is stronger than the proposed 22%.”

    Like

  195. “Electric police cars ‘running out of puff’ on way to emergencies
    The blue lights and sirens drain the batteries and there are not enough charging points, a Police and Crime Commissioner warns”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/05/electric-police-cars-run-puff-way-emergencies-says-commissioner/

    “Electric police cars are running out of charge when responding to emergencies because the blue lights and sirens drain the batteries, it has been suggested.

    Officers using environmentally friendly vehicles in rural areas are also struggling to locate charging points, raising questions about their effectiveness.

    The vast majority of constabularies in England and Wales now include electric vehicles in their fleet, with the Metropolitan Police pledging to be 100 per cent electric by 2030.

    Despite being one of the country’s smallest forces, Gloucestershire Constabulary has the second biggest number of electric vehicles in the country.

    With almost 90 battery powered police cars on the county’s roads, electric vehicles make up a fifth of the force’s entire fleet.

    But the local Police and Crime Commissioner, Chris Nelson, has acknowledged there are issues with the cars responding to some emergencies.

    He said vehicles using their lights, radio and heater were in danger of “running out of puff”….”

    Like

  196. Thanks Mark.

    It seems rational to believe that police cars in say London could be electric without too much loss of function. I don’t think that is the case where the mileage driven is much higher. Even if chargepoints are multiplied, we don’t really want our cops sitting about charging their vehicles for half the time. There is also the question of resilience to extended power cuts. In such circumstances, chargers running on diesel would be required.

    Like

  198. Perhaps I’m super-sensitive, but I regard this as another misleading BBC headline:

    “EV range to improve as new charge points announced”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-62651570

    In fact, the range of EVs will remain as poor as it is now. It’s just that when you’re running low after driving not very far, you’ll now be able to stand a chance of plugging in at a few more places and waiting ages while you charge up before your next short drive:

    “Drivers of electric vehicles (EVs) will soon be able to take advantage of a network of more than 1,000 new charge points across England.

    They will be created in Dorset, Durham, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk, Kent, Barnet, North Yorkshire and Warrington.

    The winners of the pilot also include Midlands Connect – with Lincolnshire as a lead authority.

    The network would include faster on-street charge points and petrol station-style charging hubs.

    It will also create a commercial EV charging infrastructure, the government said.

    The £20m scheme, which is part of a wider £450m project, supports the government’s drive to encourage more motorists to go electric as the country moves towards net zero, the Department for Transport (DfT) said.

    The scheme would help residents without private driveways to have better access to EV chargers, as well as growing the charging network across the country, the DfT said.

    It would support the nation’s uptake of zero-emission vehicles and enable more people to drive and charge “without fear of being caught short, no matter where they are”, it added.”

    At least they acknowledge one of the key problems with EVs and one of the many reasons for low uptake.

    Like

  199. “California to approve plan to ban sales of gas-powered cars by 2035
    The vote, hailed as a victory that could guide other states, comes two years after an executive order for zero-emission vehicles”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/24/california-ban-sales-gas-powered-cars-2035

    “California is expected to ban the sale of new gasoline vehicles by 2035 as the state takes dramatic steps to reduce emissions and combat the climate emergency.

    In a vote on Thursday, state regulators are expected to approve a plan to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars over the next 13 years in America’s largest auto market. The move is being hailed as a major victory that could point the way forward for others…

    …The vote comes two years after the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order requiring the sale of new cars to be zero-emission.

    In 2021, only 12% of new cars sold in California were zero-emission, according to Carb. The new rule would require the state reach 35% of sales by 2026, 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. It would not affect cars that are already on the road.

    The measure, which Sperling said he was almost certain would pass, will be among the first of its kind and set an example to other states that often look to California when setting their own standards. Sperling told CNN the proposal faced “surprisingly little debate” and resistance from car makers, which have ramped up production of electric vehicles. General Motors has said it plans to sell only electric vehicles by 2035…”

    Like

  200. From the Guardian today:
    People who use electric vehicles will be badly hit by the energy price cap rise, new analysis shows.
    According to the RAC, the cost of a full charge at home for an EV with a 64-kilowatt hour battery – such as a Kia e-Niro – will be 33.80 under the new cap which comes into force on 1 October. This is compared with 18.37 under the current cap, and 13.69 for last winter’s price limi
    The figures represent the cost when using a seven-kilowatt charger.
    EVs have soared in popularity in recent months, ahead of the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK from 2030.
    Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show there was a 50% increase in registrations of pure electric cars during the first seven months of the year compared with the same period in 2021.
    Rod Dennis, a spokesperson for the RAC, said: “The impact of the energy price cap increase will certainly be felt by drivers who charge their electric cars at home, with a full charge of a typical family-sized electric SUV costing 84% more from 1 October than it does under the current cap.

    “Despite recent falls in the price of petrol and diesel, the cost of charging at home is still good value compared to paying for either fuel, but again underlines just how the rising cost of electricity is affecting so many areas of people’s lives.
    “We’re also aware that public chargepoint operators are having no choice but to increase their prices to reflect the rising wholesale costs they’re faced with, which will heavily impact drivers who have no choice other than to charge up away from home.”

    I would be interested to know whether charging at home in the UK is really “still good value” compared with gasoline or diesel if the equivalent fuel taxes were applied to electricity.

    Liked by 1 person

  201. potentilla, the answer to the question in your final paragraph is a resounding “no”!

    Like

  204. Just in time for electricity prices shooting up!

    “County Durham secures funding for 100 electric vehicle charging points”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-62686770

    “Some 100 electric vehicle charging points are to be rolled out across County Durham after it secured £1.25m.

    The region has the lowest number of facilities in the UK with 3.1% outlets, compared to London and the South East with 42.5%, Durham County Council said.

    It is one of nine areas to get a share of a £20m from the government’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot.”

    That’s a cost of £12,500 per charging point.

    And it’s worth repeating that when ICE vehicles arrived on the scene, people bought them as soon as they could afford them, and an infrastructure of petrol stations grew up naturally, without state intervention. The reason? Because they were better than what had gone before and people wanted them. If EVs (and associated infrastructure) can be rolled out only by a combination of government carrot and stick, bans and subsidies, then they’re no good. It’s that simple. If they were an improvement on ICE cars, people would want to buy them, and the market would provide (including the charging infrastructure).

    Like

  205. “Electric cars rekindle transatlantic trade war
    Europe is incensed over a generous subsidy encouraging US consumers to ‘Buy American’ when it comes to greener cars.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/electric-car-rekindle-transatlantic-trade-war/

    If you thought transatlantic trade wars were a forgotten relic of Donald Trump’s presidency, think again.

    The EU is threatening to pull out the big guns if Washington doesn’t change its new tax credits for electric vehicles, which will incentivize U.S. consumers to “Buy American” when it comes to getting a greener car.

    Since the Europeans are pinning their industrial ambitions on the transition to electric vehicle technology, the dispute will be the elephant in the room when EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis meets his U.S. counterpart Katherine Tai (virtually) on Thursday.

    “This has the potential of becoming a new Airbus-Boeing,” said one EU trade diplomat, referring to the 17-year-long transatlantic trade war over subsidies for the plane makers Airbus and Boeing.

    It seems “saving the planet” plays second fiddle to trade. Surely unnecessary trade (e.g. the US selling EVs to the EU, the EU selling EVs to the US) involves emitting unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions?

    Like

  206. “Scotland to miss target on ditching most diesel buses”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-62794789

    The Scottish government will miss a key target to remove the majority of diesel buses from public transport by next year, according to a report.

    Transform Scotland found only about 16% of the bus fleet will be electric or hydrogen powered by the end of 2023.

    Its analysis of 10 transport goals stated that while some of the commitments were on track, progress in other areas had slowed or stalled.

    Transport Scotland said it was “right to aim high”.

    The SNP’s 2021 Holyrood election manifesto pledged to “remove the majority of fossil fuel buses from transport in Scotland by 2023”. The ambition was repeated in ministers’ Programme for Government….

    …The goal would require more than 1,850 of the country’s 3,700 licensed buses to be converted to zero-emission vehicles, according to Transform Scotland, a national alliance for sustainable transport.

    The organisation’s report, Stuck in Traffic, has been published ahead of Tuesday’s 2022-23 Programme for Government announcement.

    It found there were approximately 280 zero-emission buses operating in Scotland, with funding awarded for another 325.

    On this trajectory, more than 600 buses, 16% of the fleet, would be decarbonised by the end of 2023….

    Like

  207. bit o/t – but as I’ve said before a “Target” is just that, it’s a wish list dreamed up to give sound bites.
    “Transport Scotland said it was “right to aim high”.”

    no, you knew it was never going to be met, so why say it in the first place, what’s wrong with being realistic.

    wonder how much money has been wasted on this type of bull across the UK ?

    Liked by 2 people

  208. Dougie: EV buses are firmly a luxury item. If bin lorries are any guide, EV buses cost twice what their diesel counterparts do. Replacing all 3700 is likely to cost about a third of a billion quid. (I have not done the sums, and will do if I have time.)

    Like

  209. It’s World EV Day tomorrow!

    https://www.worldevday.org/

    World EV Day™ is a global movement, driving change, together. A day of celebration of emobility, and a day to shift the transition to sustainable transport with consumer, business and policy outcomes.

    This year, World EV Day™ was mentioned in the UK parliament, and celebrated by the White House’s top climate advisor. In 2022 we will continue to ask businesses across the world how they will #DriveChange to support the shift to emobility

    World EV Day™ works with its partners to either create digitally led creative campaigns, or provides the tools and channels for our partners to work on their own campaigns.

    Like

  213. Mark – “World EV Day™ is a global movement, driving change, together. A day of celebration of emobility, and a day to shift the transition to sustainable transport with consumer, business and policy outcomes.”

    is it just me, or does that sound straight out of the blade runner movie – ie sci/fi

    Like

  215. Mark, apparently there are not enough chargers. But as I mentioned at Notalot, there are more charging stations than petrol stations (though maybe fewer chargers than pumps). I screenshotted this from zapmap for my recent diatribe but didn’t use it in the end:

    Like

  216. As I also mentioned there, chargers are likely to operate at a loss, and the more there are, the more they will stand idle. Anyone who can will charge at home, so the charging stations are only going to be catering to a subset of EV drivers. [Until we street-parking plebs are forced into them.]

    Like

  217. “Making Batteries for All These EVs Will Require Over 300 New Mines
    Satisfying global demand for lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite will literally take hundreds of new mines by 2035”

    https://jalopnik.com/making-batteries-for-all-these-evs-will-require-over-30-1849532003

    Major carmakers seem to agree that EVs are the next step for the industry, but a lack of raw materials is going to be the next hurdle the industry must overcome.

    Demand for raw materials and the metals used to make EV batteries such as graphite, lithium, cobalt and nickel is already outpacing supply. According to Benchmark analysts, unless 384 new mines are up and running in the next ten years, the EV transition will be indefinitely transitional as carmakers struggle to source battery metals.

    Like

  218. What a shame that the person you quote does not know that graphite is not a metal.
    Isn’t it also strange that curtailing carbon emissions might be hindered by the scarcity of a carbon allotrope?

    Liked by 1 person

  219. The article looks at the demand for EVs and storage so it’s not all down to EVs.
    Unfortunately it doesn’t give a split between the two users.
    It also expects recycling to lower the total demand but doesn’t mention re-purposing, where old EV batteries are used for storage so there may be less material available for new units.

    Like

  220. “Why EVs are a flop in Cyprus … so far
    The market for zero-emissions passenger cars on the island is ‘still at an early stage in its development,’ the EU says.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/electric-vehicles-cyprus-charging-points/

    …Charalampos Theopemptou, leader of Cyprus’ opposition Green Party and an MP, argued that cutting €10,000 from the price of a new EV still leaves them out of reach for many.

    “How many people have the money to buy a car that expensive?” he asked. “It’s a good thing to promote electric cars, yes, but who are we subsidizing with this scheme?”

    There are also concerns about how much sense it makes to switch to an electric car on an island where the vast majority of electricity is generated by burning oil.

    Cyprus’ electricity supply “will actually make you think twice, because you’ll be charging an electric car with expensive electricity, produced by heavy oils,” Theopemptou said….

    Like

  221. “Car dealer Peter Vardy hits record sales as demand soars”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-62993119

    For me, this was the interesting part of the story:

    …Group chief executive Peter Vardy said last year was “unprecedented” for used vehicle sales and margins, with used cars appreciating in value month-on-month and demand at an all-time high.

    He added: “We seized this opportunity by empowering our centralised stock buying teams and launching our GoodBye Car product, purchasing vehicles directly from consumers. These actions resulted in our used vehicle turnover increasing by 59%….

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people are seeking reliable used cars going forward to see them beyond 2030 because they don’t want EVs.

    Like

  222. Mark; this is mainly fallout from the chip shortage. Manufacturers’ output has been limited so they have prioritised top-of-the-range stuff with the highest margins. New cars are in short supply and lead times are horrendous. So folk have turned to the used market with the result described.
    A lot of people are going to get caught out when things calm down, having overpaid for a pre-owned vehicle. That could happen quite soon if the forecast recession suppresses demand.

    Like

  223. Expected to eat fish n’chips this evening, so reading about a chip shortage gave me a short, but intense frisson.
    Why aren’t other countries falling over themselves to supply the demand for chips. Start up costs could be paid by industries losing profits hand over fist for want of these essential components.

    Liked by 1 person

  225. Alan; If only it was like opening up a chippy! Unfortunately a state-of-the-art semiconductor plant is a massive investment (at least $5 bn, iirc) and takes years to reach production. I’ve read somewhere that the US is trying to re-establish its manufacturing capability, prompted by a review initiated by Trump of materials and components critical to national security. Apparently they realised that many of their leading weapons systems and other infrastructure are dependent on foreign-sourced chips, principally from Taiwan. If China decides to invade….
    Complicating the picture is the stranglehold China has on many key materials required for chips, electronics, renewables, etc..

    Like

  226. Hurricane Ian has been some really bad weather for those in its wake.

    It’s also revealed further problems with EVs in extreme weather

    There’s probably a witty sum up but I’ll leave it here.

    Liked by 1 person

  227. “Inflation and soaring bills putting brakes on switch to electric vehicles in UK
    RAC says one in seven drivers want EV as next car and one in three want hybrid model but cost of living crisis is delaying move”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/14/inflation-and-soaring-bills-putting-brakes-on-switch-to-electric-vehicles-in-uk

    …The proportion of drivers who now do not know when they will go electric has increased from 36% to 42% year on year, while those expecting to do so in the next five years has dropped from 17% to 15%. The proportion who think they will be in an electric vehicle over a 10-year horizon has dropped from 25% to 21%….

    Not very impressive figures, given the carrot and stick already adopted by the Government (high taxes on ICE vehicles, subsidies for EVs). It never seems to occur to these people that EVs were priced out of the range of most people anyway. There has to be an excuse for why people don’t want them.

    Like

  228. Mark, I saw an article about EV sales which said that roughly 2/3 are bought/leased as company cars. That seems likely to continue as long as the govt allows the huge tax breaks.
    Demand is still very high with long waiting times for most models so many folk buy cars from stock which are usually highly-specced (ie highly profitable). Manufacturers generally have been prioritising their top-end models which explains some very healthy profits despite lower-than-normal sales.

    Like

  229. “Done deal: Europe scraps the car engine
    Brussels shunts aside industry complaints to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/how-the-eu-ditched-the-combustion-engine-zero-emissions-green-deal/

    After nearly 150 years of economy-pumping service, the internal combustion engine is bound for the scrap heap.

    In talks that concluded Thursday night, EU lawmakers agreed to set a zero-emissions sales mandate for new cars and vans by 2035. The deal secures a first win for the European Commission as it looks to push through a major package of green laws — and sacrifices one of the Continent’s biggest industrial products: the gas-guzzling car engine.

    “The agreement … sends a strong signal to industry and consumers: Europe is embracing the shift to zero-emission mobility,” said EU Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans, following four hours of negotiations.

    In confirming the engine ban, Brussels has swerved senior German politicians, automaker captains and parts of its once all-powerful car industry that had fiercely lobbied against betting solely on battery-electric vehicles as part of efforts to tackle transport emissions…

    Like

  230. “EU to go easy on deadly car pollution
    The EU’s draft new exhaust emissions rules won’t do much to clean up smoggy city air.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-car-pollution-co2-emissions-rules/

    When it comes to cleaning up car pollution, the European Commission wants to go nowhere, fast.

    The EU executive is working on an ambitious plan to ban the sale of new CO2-emitting combustion engine cars by 2035. But it’s opting to take a pass on reining in other killer emissions from conventional cars like ammonia and nitrogen oxide, according to documents seen by POLITICO.

    The Commission is expected to unveil the latest revision of its non-CO2 exhaust emissions rules, dubbed Euro 7, on November 9.

    A new technical annex, obtained by POLITICO, shows the new standards won’t be more stringent than the current Euro 6 norms for gasoline cars. That means carmakers won’t need to invest in innovations that could reduce light vehicle exhaust pollution this decade….

    …The Euro 7 rules will be widened out from exhaust pollutants to also include particle pollution from brakes, which would also apply to EVs, but those new standards won’t apply until 2035, according to the document….

    That final paragraph above is the reason I’ve put this here.

    Like

  231. In the other thread we talk about the rise in home wood burning
    So measures in cars/roads where particulates usually disperse and don’t affect your life much
    ..whilst you you get a much bigger dose at home from wood burning.

    Like

  232. “EV charger designed ‘for UK-wide rollout’ may never be made
    Winner of government tender was unveiled at Cop26 as one that would ‘stand the test of time’”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/06/iconic-ev-charger-commissioned-for-uk-by-grant-shapps-may-never-be-made

    It was meant to join the red phone box, the London bus and the black cab as a symbol of modern Britain. Yet a so-called iconic design for a UK electric car charger commissioned by Grant Shapps, then transport minister, is likely to remain on the drawing board after the government admitted it may never be made.

    The government put out the tender for the contract in June last year and revealed the winning design, by the Royal College of Art and PA Consulting, at the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow a few months later….

    …However, the Department for Transport has now admitted that the charger may not be installed on Britain’s roads. It conceded last month that “the concept is not intended for manufacture or deployment”, in response to a freedom of information request by Tom Riley, who writes the Fast Charge automotive newsletter.

    The government added that the project “helped raise awareness and generate excitement of [sic] the UK’s electric vehicle programme”….

    Like

  233. “Dramatic Recent Increase in U.K. Electric Vehicle Battery Explosions And Fires”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2022/11/08/dramatic-recent-increase-in-u-k-electric-vehicle-battery-explosions-and-fires/

    Startling new evidence has emerged showing a dramatic increase in fires caused by exploding electric vehicle batteries in the U.K. There was a sharp rise last year, particularly in London where fires jumped from 32 in 2020 to 102 in 2021 and already 98 recorded in the first half of this year. The information comes from a recent Freedom of Information request made by the health and safety consultancy CE Safety, who contacted all 50 fire and rescue services. Statistics were unavailable from 11 services, including Scotland, leading CE Safety to suggest these results “only tell half the story around this trend”.

    Electric vehicle (EV) sales have risen of late and the fire trend, notably in London, is undoubtedly growing. In Merseyside, there were 16 fires in 2021, and so far there have been 13 for the first half of this year. The number of scooters catching fire is much higher than other vehicles across Britain, but in London electric cars are the prime fire culprit, followed by bikes, vans, buses and motorbikes.

    EV battery explosions are a much more serious fire incident than conflagrations in internal combustion vehicles. Explosions can occur very quickly, triggering the release of highly toxic gases. They are very difficult to extinguish, and present considerable safety issues for fire workers who tackle the blaze. Since they are chemical fires, it is not possible to extinguish them by cutting off the oxygen supply. The fire often takes hours to control, and can reignite hours or days after it was thought to be out.

    The risks involved with large lithium-ion batteries have been known for some time, although the desire to promote ‘green’ transport means discussion is often muted. Paul Christensen, Professor of Pure and Applied Electrochemistry at Newcastle University, notes that a lithium-ion battery stores a huge amount of energy in a very small space. “Since 2008, the adoption of such batteries has outstripped our appreciation of their risks,” he notes. Batteries can catch fire if perforated, but, “more worryingly”, contamination of just one cell during manufacture can lead to a spontaneous fire. “Even the most experienced and careful manufacturers have defective electric cells passing through their very careful quality control systems,” he adds…

    …EVs are expensive and likely to become more so as the world scrambles to buy limited supplies of minerals. A recent alternative energy report for the Finnish Government by Professor Simon Michaux found that “in theory” there was enough global reserves of nickel and lithium if it was used exclusively for EVs. More cobalt, however, would need to be discovered. But it gets much worse, since batteries have a working life of only eight to 10 years and will need to be regularly replaced. As with many Net Zero projects, the EV experiment belongs in Alice in Wonderland territory. Michaux is slightly more measured in his commentary: “This is unlikely to be practical, which suggests the whole EV battery solution may need to be rethought and a new solution is developed that is not so mineral intensive.”

    In the meantime, a typical EV battery weights one thousand pounds. According to a recent essay published by the U.S. think-tank Heartland Institute, it contains 25 pounds of lithium, 60 pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds of cobalt, 200 pounds of copper and 400 pounds of aluminium, steel and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells. It is noted that to manufacture each battery you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, it is said, you dig up 500,000 pounds – about 225 tonnes – of the Earth’s crust for just one battery.

    EV sales have been soaring in the U.K. of late. But the ‘green’ credentials of EVs are a far cry from their popular portrayal, and safety concerns in the future about their batteries are only likely to increase.

    Like

  235. “Exploding e-scooter battery sets Hampshire house alight
    Footage released by fire and rescue service shows how blaze took hold at property in Bordon”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/14/exploding-e-scooter-battery-hampshire-house-alight-fire

    An exploding electric scooter battery caused a house fire in Hampshire on Sunday, which led to a man being treated by paramedics.

    Crews from Hampshire fire and rescue service (HRFS) were called to Bordon, a small town in the east of the county, just after 7pm. They found a blaze caused by the battery pack, which was charging when it blew up.

    Firefighters in breathing equipment put out the fire before ventilating the house. A video from the scene shows a fire burning through a cover over the electric scooter. A car port was damaged.

    HFRS warned people to follow fire safety advice.

    A couple living at the house were evacuated, and a man was treated by paramedics. The fire occurred a day before the start of Electrical Fire Safety Week, which is run in partnership with the Home Office.

    Blazes involving batteries on e-bikes and e-scooters have become more frequent as the modes of transport have increased in popularity. In recent months others have broken out in Shepherd’s Bush, Stepney Green and Camden in London. The fire in Camden three weeks ago led to the evacuation of 12 people.

    E-scooters are banned from Transport for London services after a fire on a tube train in Parsons Green in 2021.

    Like

  236. “E-bike batteries have caused 200 fires in New York: ‘Everyone’s scared’”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/14/new-york-e-bike-batteries-fires-delivery-workers

    New York City delivery workers have to deal with an array of threats: speeding cars, volatile weather, armed robbers and app algorithms that can “deactivate” them if they don’t rush to customers quickly enough. Lately, workers have added another to the list – their electric bikes bursting into flames.

    The powerful lithium ion batteries used in small electric vehicles are responsible for a growing epidemic of fires. This year, there have been about 200 fires and six deaths, according to the New York City fire department. This month, an e-bike fire inside a Manhattan high-rise apartment became an inferno that injured nearly 40 people and forced firefighters to evacuate residents using ropes.

    Like

  237. “World Cup 2022: Wales-Qatar electric car bid falls short”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63667078

    Instead of driving into Doha ahead of Wales’ first game against the USA on Monday, they flew in with a trophy – the car’s wheel trim to hand to the players, as well as hundreds of messages of support from back home.

    In fairness, a carefully planned journey nearly made it, and they seem to have been undone by a prohibition on right wheel drive vehicles in Saudi Arabia. Still, you might have thought they’d have checked that before they left. And there’s a nice irony in them flying in to the World Cup in the end.

    Like

  238. “Rwanda’s electric vehicle push has a faltering start”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63622624

    Known as the land of a thousand hills, Rwanda might not be the obvious place to launch electric vehicles.

    The rugged, rural terrain would be tough on any car, but particularly models that have to lug around heavy batteries.

    But Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame wants to transform the economy of the tiny, landlocked country.

    A key part of the plan is to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the nation’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, which account for 40% of the country’s foreign exchange expenditure.

    So, the government has launched a range of incentives to encourage electric vehicles.

    Electric cars, their spare parts, batteries and charging station equipment have been exempted from VAT, import and excise duties.

    Meanwhile, electric vehicles can be charged at a heavily subsidised electricity tariff. The government also offers rent-free land for charging bays…

    …Germany’s Volkswagen was one of the first beneficiaries of the government strategy…

    …However, three years later, only 20 of the cars are on the road and they have been removed from the ride-hailing service. Instead they ferry customers from several high-end hotels, the international airport and the Kigali Convention Centre.

    “The unevenness in road infrastructure and the height of speed-bumps turned out to be too challenging for the e-Golf, which has a relatively low ground clearance,” says Allan Kweli, head of operations at Volkswagen Mobility Solutions Rwanda.

    There was particular concern about damaging the underside of the car, where the batteries are located….

    Like

  239. “Switzerland, Facing an Unprecedented Power Shortage, Contemplates a Partial Ban on the Use of Electric Vehicles
    It turns out that you can have battery-powered cars, or you can have renewable energy, but you can’t have both.”

    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/switzerland-facing-an-unprecedented

    Electric vehicles, which politicians have heavily subsidised as one of their primary policy responses to climate change, are just now crashing against that other great arm of the green agenda, namely renewable energy. You can’t drive everyone into ever greater dependence upon the electrical grid, while also orchestrating an energy transition to wind (which hardly blows in Germany, except in the north) and solar (which generates no meaningful power in the depths of the Central European winter). Gas from Russia was the magic ingredient that kept the whole renewables charade going, and we’re out of that now. There’s no way to cover up the failure; not even the green-friendly German media has any excuse or messaging angle here.

    Like

  240. “UK new car sales rise as industry leaders say recovery ‘within grasp’
    Increase for fourth consecutive month, with almost 143,000 new vehicles registered in November”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/05/uk-new-car-sales-rise-as-industry-leaders-say-recovery-is-within-grasp

    Sales of new cars in the UK have risen for the fourth month running, with purely electric vehicles accounting for a fifth of the total….

    …Dealers warned that the cost of living crisis could be slowing the uptake of cleaner vehicles. Ian Plummer, the commercial director of Auto Trader, said: “Even though sales of electric cars have jumped more than a third in the past year, there are big question marks over how long this will last. Our data shows the cost of living crisis and high electricity prices are turning people away from EVs.”

    He said Auto Trader’s figures showed battery EVs accounted for only 19% of its retailers’ sales leads in November “compared with more than a quarter in June”….

    Like

  243. “Investigation reveals cause of fire on Scotch Street, Whitehaven”

    https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/23171572.investigaton-reveals-cause-fire-scotch-street-whitehaven/

    A FIRE in Whitehaven which saw two casualties taken to hospital has been found to have been caused by the failure of a battery on an e-bike…

    …Angela Opie, Cumbria FRS’s Group Manager for Prevention said: “It’s incredibly concerning that we are continuing to see a rise in incidents involving e-scooters and e-bikes.

    “When these batteries and chargers fail, they do so with ferocity and because the fires develop so rapidly the situation can quickly become incredibly serious…

    …“We would also suggest people try not to charge them when they are asleep, so that if there is an issue they can react quickly.”…

    Like

  244. “German e-car sales target called a ‘pipe dream’
    The government’s optimistic target of having 15 million electric vehicles on the road by the end of the decade looks out of reach, say researchers.”

    https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-berlin-electric-cars-ev-sales-target-is-a-pipe-dream-electric-cars-batteries/

    Germany’s electric car dreams are in trouble.

    A year ago, Berlin pledged to have 15 million battery-installed vehicles by 2030, but it’s likely to fall well short of that, according to experts warning that slashed subsidies and production bottlenecks will slow sales.

    “Only with a lot of luck will the target be half reached,” warned Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the Center for Automotive Research in Duisburg, who’s forecasting just 7.2 million registrations by the end of the decade.

    He based his calculation on the impact of the government’s cut in consumer electric vehicle (EV) subsidies announced this month, but Germany’s flagship industry is under pressure on many more fronts.

    “The federal government’s target for 15 million electric cars on Germany’s roads by 2030 will be missed by a wide margin,” said Dudenhöffer. “With the new funding guideline for electric cars, high electricity prices and rising battery costs, the market in Germany will collapse in the next few years.”…

    Like

  246. “Tesla fined $2.2M in South Korea for exaggerating driving range of EVs
    Tesla exaggerated the driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness as well as the performance of its Superchargers, South Korea’s antitrust regulator said.”

    https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/tesla-fined-22m-south-korea-exaggerating-driving-range-evs

    South Korea’s antitrust regulator said it would impose a 2.85 billion won ($2.2 million) fine on Tesla for failing to tell its customers about the shorter driving range of its electric vehicles in low temperatures.

    The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said that Tesla had exaggerated the “driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles as well as the performance of its Superchargers” on its official local website since August 2019 until recently.

    The driving range of Tesla cars plunges in cold weather by up to 51 percent versus how they are advertised online, the KFTC said in a statement on Tuesday.

    Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment.

    On its website, Tesla provides winter driving tips, such as pre-conditioning vehicles with external power sources, and using its updated Energy app to monitor energy consumption but does not mention the loss of driving range in sub-zero temperatures.

    In 2021, Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, a South Korean consumer group, said the driving range of most EVs drop by up to 40 percent in cold temperatures when batteries need to be heated, with Tesla suffering the most, citing data from the country’s environment ministry….

    Like

  247. “UK new car sales hit 30-year low but electric vehicle demand soars”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64165689

    New car registrations in the UK fell last year to their lowest level in three decades, new figures show.

    Despite a recovery in the second half of 2022, a continuing parts shortage hit production lines.

    Meanwhile, demand for electric vehicles continued to grow and they accounted for almost a fifth of new car sales.

    I haven’t accessed the original report yet, but I note that even the Guardian doesn’t claim “almost a fifth” in respect of new car sales:

    “Electric car sales reach record high in UK despite supply chain disruption
    Tesla’s Model Y was stand out performer as EVs surpassed sales of diesel cars for first time, while total car sales fell by about 2% from 2021”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/05/electric-car-sales-reach-record-high-in-uk-despite-supply-chain-disruption

    Throughout 2022, electric cars represented almost 17% of sales, surpassing sales of new diesel cars for the first time.

    “Almost 17%” sounds like a sixth to me, and certainly not almost a fifth. More misinformation from the BBC, pushing an agenda with propaganda.

    Neither the BBC nor the Guardian tell us how many were pure EVs and how many were hybrids, so far as I can see (though I’m happy to be corrected, if I missed it). Both articles make it clear that car sales are well below pre-pandemic levels (down by 700,000 or by a quarter on 2019). Neither report gives us a clear trend line for numbers of EVs sold, as opposed to their percentage share of a declining market.

    Like

  248. From the Autocar website (quoting the SMMT):
    “During 2022, component shortages led car makers to prioritise deliveries of (more expensive) zero-emission vehicles. Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 16.6% of full-year sales which sent them above UK diesel volume for the first time. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) accounted for only 6.3% of sales, a decline on the previous year, but more conventional hybrids (HEVs) also rose in popularity to capture an 11.6% market share. “

    Liked by 1 person

  249. Thanks Mark. It looks as if the DfT data tables have not been updated yet, so I can’t investigate the official statistics. Regarding the target of 300,000 chargers – well, they are going to be idle most of the time, because anyone who can will be charging at home.

    Anecdotally there are more EVs around these parts – I have noticed quite a few large cars salting the herd, including BMWs and Mercedes. Almost certainly with a larger environmental footprint than a 1.0 petrol.

    Like

  250. Thanks Mike, that’s useful information. Interesting that the figures might be skewed by a policy of deliberately prioritising EVs because they are more expensive and more profitable.

    Like

  251. Mark, I suspect EV production is also prioritised because it reduces the CO2 intensity of the manufacturers’ “fleets”.

    Like

  252. Meanwhile this opinion from Howard Cox in The Sun: “Electric vehicles are the Betamax of transport – govt should scrap the all-electric deadline to avoid economic disaster”

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/20942130/government-should-scrap-electric-vehicle-deadline-economic-disaster/

    A good way to put it. Not that EVs do not have a role. But not every vehicle can be electrified. That should be obvious, even to the “servants of the people” who are enacting the ban on engines. [Rumour has it that Betamax was a better platform than VHS.]

    Like

  253. “Tevva begins first high-volume production of electric lorries in UK
    Startup firm making 7.5 tonne truck at Essex facility after receiving European type approval”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/11/tevva-electric-lorries-trucks-high-volume-opens-in-tilbury-essex

    This was the line that shocked me:

    The Tevva trucks will have a 140-miles range from a 105kWh battery, which is nearly double the size of those used in a standard electric car.

    140 miles isn’t much use for many businesses using HGVs.

    Liked by 1 person

  256. Bill, you are quite right – my error, too quick to comment. That said, it’s still an awfully small range for a workhorse vehicle.

    Like

  258. Tucks up to 7.5 tonnes are labelled HGVs but can be driven by anyone with a standard C1 driving licence. ie no additional HGV licence is required.

    Since TfL give the long-term general traffic speeds in outer London as 12 mph, which would need around 11.5 hours of total driving before the battery was discharged, I suggest the 140-mile range would be more than adequate for an urban environment where the majority of these trucks are likely to be used.

    Out of interest, the TfL speed figures for Central and Inner London are 4.4 and 7.2 mph respectively.

    Like

  259. Bill, thanks for your input again.

    It provoked in me a trail of thought, but I don’t know the answer. Is there an efficient driving speed for EVs, at which the battery is under least pressure and least charge used, just as, say, ICE vehicles generally achieve highest mpg at speeds of 50-60mph? I was wondering whether EVs crawling along crowded city streets would see rapid draining of their batteries, just as my diesel car, which achieves 70+mpg on a good long-distance drive, might be down to 30-40mpg if crawling along with slow-moving city traffic with lots of stops and starts?

    If not, fair enough – 140 mile range (assuming it is truly achievable in all weathers and conditions) might be adequate for this sort of vehicle. On the other hand, if 140 miles is what it can achieve in optimum conditions, and slow-moving stop-start city traffic is less than optimal for battery life, then it might not be much use at all.

    Can anyone enlighten me?

    Like

  260. Interesting video from one of the better-known motoring gurus where he explains the sudden surge in EV sales at the end of the year:

    Like

  261. Mark, Aiui EVs are at their most efficient in slow and stop-start motoring because losses to aero drag, etc are very low and regenerative braking minimises the overall power consumption. A lot of them have variable regen which can be set to allow “one-pedal” driving where the mechanical brakes are rarely used, bar emergencies.
    Otoh, motorway cruising at high sustained speeds absolutely murders range (power consumption is approximately a function of the square of the speed, or something like that). That’s why, in my experience, it is rare to be overtaken by an EV on the motorway but you see lots bimbling along at 55 – 60, dicing with trucks and/or blocking the middle lane.
    HTH

    Like

  262. Mike, thanks for that helpful explanation (re EV range), and also for the interesting video before it. The video is particularly interesting, both the info shared in it, and because it seems to have been made by someone who is signed up to the net zero, climate change agenda, and yet he is sceptical about EV policy, having owned and sold an EV because it didn’t work for him.

    Like

  263. Interesting, if true:

    “Switch to electric cars delayed as MPs admit charging isn’t up to scratch and that EVs are too pricey”

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/21019043/switch-to-electric-cars-delayed/

    THE upcoming ban on petrol and diesel cars in 2030 has been pushed back by the Scottish government.

    MPs have decided to push back the switch by two years to 2032.

    As reported in The Times, speaking at Holyrood yesterday energy secretary Michael Matheson said that charging and cost were the reasons for the delay.

    Ministers have concerns over how long Scotland’s charging infrastructure is taking to progress.

    It seems this is an under-reported (presumably because it doesn’t support the prevailing narrative) part of the Scottish government’s energy review.

    Liked by 1 person

  265. Mike, the BBC has that story now too:

    “Tesla cuts prices by up to a fifth to boost demand”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64266471

    They seem reluctant at the BBC to talk about how much Teslas cost (even after the price reduction), the only (brief) reference I can see being to the cheapest model:

    The lowest priced new Tesla Model 3 in the UK is now priced at £42,990. Model Y vehicles start at £44,990.

    Liked by 1 person

  266. “Summer holidays see people queuing to charge electric cars for first time in Australia”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/15/summer-holidays-see-people-queuing-to-charge-electric-cars-for-first-time-in-australia

    Australians are familiar with holiday frustrations: queues at theme parks, traffic jams at the beach, competition for Boxing Day bargains. But this year, some discovered a new source of stress: delays when charging their electric cars.

    Queues at some charging stations in the week after Christmas saw drivers forced to wait up to 90 minutes to get back on the road.

    The scenes played out in regional areas between capital cities as electric vehicle owners set off on big road trips – some for the first time.

    A long article then proceeds to put a positive spin on it.

    Like

  268. Some pushback…..
    Apparently Wyoming is bringing forward legislation to ban the sale of EVs in the state from 2035.
    I thought it was a spoof but a quick check on DDG turned up a number of confirmatory reports.

    Like

  269. Interesting article picked up by NALOPKT:
    https://www.carscoops.com/2023/01/norwegian-shipping-company-bans-electrified-vehicles-over-fire-fears/?mc_cid=ebb411a2d1&mc_eid=4961da7cb1

    It’s a bit of surprise because Norway is heavily committed to EVs so this ferry company knows it is cutting off a lot of potential customers. The other local company – Hurtigruten – has not followed suit which is puzzling.
    If other ferry and transport companies follow this lead, things will get interesting!

    Liked by 1 person

  270. “Huge increase in electric vehicle usage needed for UK to meet net zero target”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/04/huge-increase-electric-vehicle-usage-needed-uk-meet-net-zero/

    Even the criticisms of the deluded Net Zero policy are themselves deluded.

    The Government’s ability to meet these targets has been met with scepticism by experts who point to supply chain issues, lack of chargers as well as cost, as major barriers.

    The experts forgot to mention range anxiety and the problem that a large chunk of the population do not have a way to charge at home.

    Like

  271. The U.S. Coast Guard is warning the shipping industry of the extreme risk of loading electric vehicles (EV) with damaged Lithium-Ion onto commercial vessels.

    Marine Safety Alert 01-23, issued last Friday, addresses the issue and provides recommendations to vessels, ports, shippers and regulators. The safety alert comes about four months after Hurricane Ian made landfall in South Florida as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds at 150 mph. In the aftermath of the storm, first responders encountered numerous EV fires where investigations have determined were caused by exposure of the Lithium-Ion batteries to saltwater.

    Saltwater exposure can severely harm Lithium-Ion batteries, leading to a chemical reaction that creates a high fire risk.

    Liked by 1 person

  272. “E-car sales plummet in Germany following subsidy cut”

    https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/e-car-sales-plummet-germany-following-subsidy-cut

    Registrations of new electric vehicles collapsed in Germany following cuts in buyers’ premiums at the beginning of the year. Registrations for battery electric vehicles dropped about 83 percent to 18,100 in January from 104,300 in December, when many people rushed to receive the full subsidy, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). The share of e-cars fell to 15 percent in January from more than 55 percent in December, while total car registrations dropped three percent, car industry association VDA said.

    The government decided in mid-2022 to reduce support payments for new e-cars, arguing they had become increasingly attractive for buyers even without support payments. Last year, e-car buyers received up 6,000 euros from the state when buying a new vehicle, plus up to 3,000 euros from the car manufacturers themselves. At the start of this year, support for battery electric or fuel cell cars dropped to 3,000-4,500 euros.

    The lower support rates are likely to dampen e-car sales throughout the year, VDA said. In total, it expects sales of about 510,000 battery electric vehicles in 2023, eight percent more than last year; and sales of about 250,000 plug-in hybrid cars, a drop of 30 percent compared to 2022. On balance, total EV sales will fall by eight percent this year, the lobby group estimated. Given the lower support payments, “it’s important to strengthen people’s trust in e-mobility in different ways” to keep e-car sales up, VDA head Hildegard Müller said. Customers still can’t rely on easy charging options anytime and everywhere, Müller argued, which should be remedied quickly to ensure EVs are attractive to buyers even without a premium….

    “Net Zero is destroying Britain’s car industry one by one”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8798bc5e-a652-11ed-bd82-83899bf0b5fe

    High energy costs and an eroding automotive supply chain in Britain are making Nissan Sunderland, the country’s largest car plant, uncompetitive, the carmaker has admitted.

    Speaking at the formal unveiling of a reborn alliance between the Japanese company and its longstanding partner, Renault, the French carmaker, executives at Nissan said the Sunderland plant needed “government support”.

    It came as the executives confirmed that an electric replacement for the old Micra model aimed at Nissan carbuyers in Europe would be built at Renault’s new ElectriCity manufacturing complex in northern France.

    In London to unveil a simplified and equalised cross-shareholding between Renault and Nissan, Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s global chief executive, praised the Sunderland factory as a “very important and a core plant”, but added: “The UK is challenging and we need a supplier base.”…

    “Ben Marlow: Britain’s imploding electric car industry should admit defeat”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/06/britain-will-never-create-homegrown-electric-car-industry/

    Britain is deluded to think it has any chance of creating a competitive homegrown electric car industry.

    America has the entrepreneurial nous and vision of Elon Musk, as well as the financial and industrial might of Ford. With backing from Warren Buffett, China’s BYD is on the cusp of overtaking Tesla.

    Volkswagen has set aside more than $100bn (£83bn) to spend on electric cars, and is planning to create a separate battery manufacturing company entirely from scratch.

    In the UK, Britain’s electric dreams are being spearheaded by Lord Botham, who I am willing to bet knows considerably less about clean car technology than he does about the dark art of swing bowling…

    …It would make far more sense to scrap the entire Britishvolt project. That a business valued at £700m only 12 months ago is expected to be sold for less than £10m when some of the biggest carmakers in the world are pumping tens of billions of pounds into new electric car technology sums up Britain’s efforts.

    This country is light years behind the rest of the world and without a battery factory building programme, it can give up any hope of catching up. China has hundreds of gigafactories in the pipeline; continental Europe is on course to have 27 gigafactories by the end of the decade, a sixfold increase on forecasts made just three years ago. Similar numbers are planned in the US.

    Industry executives think eight more are needed to maintain current UK car production of 1.5m vehicles a year if all models become electric, while the Faraday Institution estimates it could be as many as 10. So far, we have succeeded in building one – next to Nissan’s sprawling Sunderland plant – and tellingly it is Chinese-owned….

    Like

  273. Admittedly this is about hybrids, not pure EVS:

    “Major plug-in hybrid cars pollute more than official measures suggest
    BMW, Renault and Peugeot PHEVs all exceeded carbon dioxide output claimed in standard lab tests, on-road tests show”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/08/major-plug-in-hybrid-cars-pollute-more-than-official-measures-suggest

    Popular plug-in hybrid cars emit significantly more carbon dioxide than official measures suggest, according to new on-road tests by academics that add to concerns over the true impact of cars sold as better for the environment.

    Cars from BMW, Renault and Peugeot all emitted much more than standard lab tests had claimed, with the BMW 3 Series in particular emitting more than three times advertised, according to the research by Austria’s Graz University of Technology.

    Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) combine a small battery with a traditional petrol or diesel engine. Carmakers say they can offer the best of both worlds by allowing owners to drive long distances while retaining the ability to drive with zero emissions. However, campaigners argue that the cars are more polluting than claimed.

    The research found that BMW’s 3 Series emitted 112g of carbon dioxide per kilometre, three times its official rating of 36g. Peugeot’s 308 polluted 20% more than its official rating of 27g, while Renault’s Megane was 70% above the official test of 30g.

    Tests by independent groups, including UK consumer group Which?, have repeatedly found that PHEVs burn more fuel than the laboratory figures suggest. Burning more fuel adds to running costs and increases polluting carbon emissions.

    Personally, I think PHEVs offer the worst of both worlds, and I really don’t see the point of them.

    Liked by 1 person

  274. “Taking the Tesla to Truro? Warnings over lack of electric charging points
    Holiday spots risk being overwhelmed this summer as many are not ready to deal with rise in electric vehicles”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/18/taking-tesla-to-truro-warnings-lack-of-electric-charging-points

    When the Nissan Leafs and Teslas flock to the seaside this summer, the arrival of their well-off drivers should be good news for British tourism.

    But tourism leaders have warned that places such as Dorset, Cornwall and North Yorkshire risk being overwhelmed by the demand for charging points for electric cars, putting off tourists from returning in the future.

    One in three new cars sold in December was electric, and rural and coastal areas are in danger of being left behind as operators scramble to add more public charging points.

    Dorset has 133 charging devices, a rate of 35 per 100,000 people, which is slightly below the national average. But the Jurassic coastline gets 3.6 million overnight visits a year, most of them in the summer, forcing tourists to compete with locals for charging points.

    Seasonal demand means holidaymakers are likely to see a repeat of the Christmas chaos when Tesla drivers had to queue for hours at service stations, according to Martin Cox, vice-president of the British Holiday and Home Parks Association.

    Cox, who also runs two holiday parks in Dorset, said: “If that snowballs in July and August, then we’re going to have friction in our area because people are not going to be able to go anywhere. In Dorset, they sell 35% more petrol and diesel during peak weeks. This summer, we will probably see people queuing at EV points and people arriving late at our accommodation because they’ve had to wait to charge their car.”..

    Like

  275. “Tanni Grey-Thompson raises car charging point access concerns”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64776960

    Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is calling for improved access for all users of electric vehicle charging points.

    The 11-time Paralympic gold medallist, who uses a wheelchair, said she had to opt for a diesel vehicle rather than an electric model as “accessibility is being ignored”…

    …”If they aren’t accessible I would have to take someone with me – it’s just ridiculous – accessibility is being ignored,” said Baroness Grey-Thompson.

    “I can look on my sat nav and find a garage and some pay points but if they are not accessible, I don’t know what I would do – I would just run out of charge.”…

    Like

  276. “Italy and Germany oppose EU ban on petrol and diesel cars by 2035”

    https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/02/23/eu-to-ban-petrol-and-diesel-cars-by-2035-heres-why-some-countries-are-pushing-back

    Italian Transport Minister has called the new law economic “suicide” for the EU. He said it was “ideological fundamentalism” that would benefit China and harm the European car industry.

    The European Parliament has approved a new law banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2035.

    The new rule – part of a larger effort to combat climate change in the EU – will speed up the bloc’s transition to electric vehicles. Cars currently account for around 15 per cent of all CO2 emissions in the EU.

    The legislation demands that carmakers cut carbon emissions from new cars by 100 per cent. In practice, this means no new fossil fuel-powered vehicles will be able to be sold from 2035 onwards.

    The approval on Tuesday is one step before the law gets a formal rubber stamp and comes into effect.

    But some countries are pushing back against the change.

    Italy is home to big car brands like Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, which are heavily reliant on combustion engine vehicles. Around 270,000 people are directly or indirectly employed by the automotive industry in the country.

    Italian Minister for Transport Matteo Salvini has called the new law economic “suicide” for the EU. He said it was “ideological fundamentalism” that would benefit China and harm the European car industry.

    The country’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajan has also sought to dilute the legislation, calling for a 90 per cent reduction in carbon emissions rather than 100 per cent.

    On Saturday (25 February) Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said that Italy wants to team up with France and Germany to slow the pace of laws to cut emissions from vehicles.

    He called on the European Commission (EC) to take a “pragmatic” approach to climate change regulations. While speaking to the TGcom news channel he said he wanted to build an alliance with France and Germany to soften the impact on the industry and consumers.

    Others warn that neither Europe’s industry nor the general public is ready for such a dramatic shift.

    The European People’s Party Group – a centre-right political group in the European Parliament – say the law could lead to people driving older combustion engine cars after new sales are banned because they can’t afford an electric replacement.

    Claims that electric cars are cheaper have been rendered “null and void” by the soaring cost of energy, argues German MEP Jens Gieseke of the European People’s Party. Opponents of the legislation also say that car batteries are being produced abroad rather than in the EU.

    Like

  277. So much so obvious to “deniers”. These countries seem to have left it too late. It’s about time politicians learnt the most powerful word in the world:

    No.

    Like

  278. “EU countries delay vote on landmark law to end sales of CO2-emitting cars
    Germany questions support for rules that would effectively make it impossible to sell combustion engine cars from 2035”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/03/eu-countries-delay-vote-on-landmark-law-to-end-sales-of-co2-emitting-cars

    European Union countries have delayed a planned vote next week on the bloc’s landmark law to end sales of new CO2-emitting cars in 2035 after Germany questioned its support for the rules.

    No new date for the vote was given and a spokesperson for Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said EU countries’ ambassadors would return to the topic “in due time”.

    After months of negotiations, the European parliament, the Commission and EU member states last year agreed to the law, which would require all new cars sold in the EU from 2035 to have zero CO2 emissions – effectively making it impossible to sell combustion engine cars from that date.

    But EU countries still need to rubber-stamp the decision before it can take effect. EU countries’ ambassadors on Friday cancelled the vote that had been planned for 7 March, the spokesperson for Sweden said.

    That has put the law on ice days before it was due to receive final approval. An attempt to block or change an EU policy this late in the lawmaking process is highly unusual.

    German transport minister, Volker Wissing, reiterated on Friday that the use of synthetic fuels should remain possible after the 2035 deadline and that the European Commission’s promised proposal on how to make this happen was still missing.

    “We want climate-neutral mobility,” and to do so means being open to all conceivable technologies, he told a news conference.

    A non-binding section of the EU law says the Commission will make a proposal on how vehicles running on CO2-neutral fuels can be sold after 2035, if this complies with climate goals. But Germany’s transport ministry wants clearer assurances….

    As a side issue, this is more evidence, if needed, that the EU is simply Germany’s poodle.

    Liked by 1 person

  279. “Caravan parks ‘can’t cope’ with rising numbers of electric cars”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-64901247.amp

    Holiday park owners have warned the government they will not be able to cope with the rising numbers of electric cars.

    One Somerset park holds a thousand static caravans, but has only three electric charging points.

    The owner has been told the National Grid can only support a few more, leaving most electric car drivers unable to recharge on site.

    Alan House said: “The reality is it just won’t work on a holiday park.”..

    …To install hundreds of charging points would be a massive job, Mr House said.

    “The whole park would have to be dug up, big new cables laid.

    “The supply to the site from the Grid would need to be quadrupled, if not more.

    “And holiday parks are in remote areas, at the end of the line.

    “That’s why people come. The grid couldn’t cope with it.”..

    …Martin Cox chairs the Holiday and Home Parks Association. His park is on the Dorset coast, near Bridport.

    He has six chargers for 500 vans and has been told that is his limit.

    “In our area there just aren’t many places to charge an electric car.

    “So instead of enjoying themselves and visiting local attractions, they will be driving around trying to find a charger.”…

    Like

  280. Speaking of trying to find a charger:

    “Climate change: Couple set for Pole-to-Pole electric car challenge”

    One of the most common questions we get asked is how we’re going to charge the car in the polar regions where there’s no electricity source,” Mrs Ramsey said.

    “There will be a wind turbine and full double solar on this device which will be towed along, harnessing the renewable energy sources – the wind and the sun – to power the car.

    One imagines that there is quite a bit of scope for things to go wrong here, so that they are putting other lives at risk as well as their own, and why?

    She explained: “It’s to dispel common myths that people have when they question electric vehicles – things like range and how far can they go.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-64964294

    Like

  281. JIT,

    You beat me to it. I note a few things about that article. The BBC tagged it under climate change. Why?

    The couple in question will take 10 months over the trip. They also took months to do the Mongol Rally in 2017. The vehicles look massively expensive, plus they don’t go to work for close to a year at a time. Who is funding them, and why?

    As for dispelling myths about range anxiety – they’re not myths. Do people really want to buy a car costing over £100,000, and towing a trailer with extra kit like a mini-wind turbine and sun panels, when normal ICE cars are available? I think it’s crass and it’s stupid. No wonder the BBC made it front page news.

    Like

  282. Jit, from your BBC Link –
    “There are also some mod-cons, such as a coffee machine in the boot. And there is a drone launcher, so the couple can film their journey.”

    “We have put the right measures in place and are working with the right people. With our passion and belief and the car being capable I have every confidence that we can do it.”

    wonder who & how much “the right people” might be paying for this stunt?

    ps – image quote from the article says “Penguins in Antarctica are one of the sights awaiting the couple”.
    but no info on how they will get from South America to Antarctica in a leccy car, or any car for that matter!!!

    Like

  283. Somehow missed this at the time (September 2022): “Data reveals extent of electric vehicle fires around the UK”

    Which electric vehicles catch fire the most?
    Broadly speaking, the number of scooters that catch fire are much higher than other vehicles across Britain, however London’s figures change this ratio dramatically to electric cars being the primary culprit of fires, followed by bikes, vans, buses and motorbikes.

    There are a few surprising vehicles that come up in the data again and again, such as mobility scooters, golf buggies, forklift trucks and hoverboards or Segways. In London, 19 buses have had to be extinguished in the capital but there were very few in other regions.

    I don’t really believe that 19 electric buses could have caught fire in London, “the capital”, in the last 5 years without it being all over the news. I think.

    https://cesafety.co.uk/news/data-reveals-extent-of-electric-vehicle-fires-around-the-uk/

    Like

  284. Oh, there were supposed to be 500 electric vehicle fires in London in the last 5 years. I do wonder whether there was some confusion between “electric vehicle” fires and “electrical fires” in vehicles.

    Like

  286. Mike, the idea of having to plan ahead where to charge, and to have a Plan B and a Plan C would not inspire me to undertake any long trips in an EV. I see the EV owner who started thread decided to use their ICE for the trip instead. Kind of says it all.

    Like

  287. Regarding the imminent ban on ICE vehicles, what you might call a tale of two headlines.

    First, the BBC:
    “New cars sold in EU must be zero-emission from 2035”

    Second, the Telegraph:
    “Net zero ban on petrol cars in chaos after Brussels climbdown”

    Liked by 2 people

  288. Mikehig: Thank you for the term technonumpty. We’ve all been there – and we’re certainly all headed there! (The young script-kiddies just don’t know it yet.) I will reuse this word.

    Like

  289. Richard, you are welcome.
    It’s a large and growing club. A few days ago a chum picked me up in a brand new courtesy car while his – older – machine was in for service. It had multiple touchscreens and “haptic” buttons. We were totally lost!

    Liked by 1 person

  290. A bit OT, but…

    Forbes Advisor has just found the ’10 slowest stretches of road in England’*.

    https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/car-insurance/which-roads-are-adding-the-most-minutes-misery-for-motorists/

    Forbes looked at (or, more probably, just glimpsed) National Highways stats about roads that are part of England’s Strategic Road Network. Some key core important headline findings:

    1) England’s slowest road is the mostly 30-mph-limited 1.2 miles you’d use to head north from Harry Tuffins supermarket in Craven Arms to the A489 turnoff opposite the Britpart depot at The Grove.

    2) The fourth slowest is when you’d head south for 1.2 miles on the same route from The Grove to Harry Tuffins.

    3) The fifth slowest: ‘A49 southbound between B4368 near Craven Arms (north) and B4368 near Craven Arms (south)’.

    4) The ninth slowest: ‘A49 northbound between B4368 near Craven Arms (south) and B4368 near Craven Arms (north)’.

    #3 and #4 refer to a 100m stretch between two roundabouts that includes a frequently used pedestrian crossing.

    Stats, eh?

    ===
    *Forbes also said ‘in Britain’, which perhaps excuses the headlines in The Daily Mail and The Shropshire Star.

    Like

  292. “The Guardian view on the electric car revolution: targets are not enough
    Editorial
    The government must do its bit to make new electric vehicles more affordable if mass adoption is to be achieved on the road to net zero”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/25/the-guardian-view-on-the-electric-car-revolution-targets-are-not-enough

    …Amid ongoing economic headwinds, data has emerged that suggests a drop-off in current demand for electric cars, despite notable public enthusiasm for their adoption in principle. Auto Trader, which hosts the country’s largest car sales website, reported this month that inquiries in relation to new electric vehicles had fallen significantly compared with last year.

    A number of factors are likely to be involved. As interest rates and inflation remain high, the upfront cost of a new electric car makes it more expensive in the short term than a petrol or diesel one. Falling oil prices may have diminished the immediate incentive to switch. At the same time, despite repeated pledges by Whitehall, the rollout of charging infrastructure continues to be too slow and is not keeping pace with sales….

    …The net result is that while sales of electric vehicles are growing in absolute terms and company fleet sales are strong – partly as a result of specific incentives to employers – the electric share of the new vehicle market is not accelerating as it needs to. For mass adoption to take place in tough economic times, the government needs to do much more to make electric cars affordable through creative grants and subsidies…

    If the only way it can be made to work is by endless and expensive use of subsidies it demonstrates that they’re not fit for purpose and people don’t want them, despite the Guardian’s somewhat desperate claim that there is “notable public enthusiasm for their adoption in principle.” [my emphasis].

    Like

  293. There are ructions in the market at the moment. Tesla have cut prices without warning which has pissed off a lot of recent buyers and hit residual values.
    The second-hand market is struggling with loads of cars coming to the end of their company-car leases. Dealers are refusing to take EVs, even in part-exchange. Autotrader has over 600 Porsche Taycans listed and they’re not moving.
    The big problem is that 2/3 of new sales are for business users, driven by the BiK benefits. However those don’t apply to used vehicles so there is much less incentive to buy
    Interesting times….

    Liked by 1 person

  294. Indeed Mike, as reported at Notalot: https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/04/27/big-selling-electric-models-are-among-the-most-depreciating-used-cars/

    To which like you I ascribe to the very cheap initial lease thanks to BiK and then nobody wanting to buy them after 3 years (with no such tax benefit; leases are only available for new cars, as far as I know).

    Meanwhile, there is this at UnHerd: https://unherd.com/thepost/chinese-cars-pose-an-existential-threat-to-europe/

    As sceptics have been noting for quite a while, the “zero emissions vehicles” will be made in China, not the EU/UK, thanks to materials supply, energy costs, and labour costs. A conspiracy theorist would draw the conclusion that this self-destruction is deliberate.

    Liked by 1 person

  295. A couple of letters in today’s Telegraph:

    SIR – We are being urged to switch to electric vehicles (report, April 26).
    I have owned mine for a year, after buying it second hand when it was about a year old. During this time I have discovered that its average range is 186 miles, compared with the 250 advertised. In cold weather this has dropped to between 140 and 150.
    I now find that its value has declined by nearly 30 per cent in the past few months, and apparently this has happened to most other EVs. I have spoken to two different dealer networks locally, and both told me that they can’t sell electric cars at present. Customers seem to have found out about the challenges of owning one.
    I am unsure whether to keep mine or switch to petrol or diesel. The Government’s hope that most people will adopt these cars is a pipe dream.
    Philip Kimberley
    Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – Your article, “Why it could be well worth waiting to go electric” (Your Money, April 15), considers the issues around buying used electric cars. A major element in the decision is the finite life and cost of batteries.
    Batteries represent a large proportion of the total cost of an electric car, and the used car purchaser will surely be reluctant to take on not just the cost of the car but also the declining battery capacity and high probability of expensive battery replacement during ownership.
    John Bath
    Clevedon, Somerset

    Like

  296. Jit; The surge in EV exports from China is only just starting. So far it has been virtually all European/US brands (some Chinese-owned) which get their vehicles manufactured there: Tesla, Volvo, MG and (soon) Mini that I know of.
    Very soon there will be a flood of new names entering the markets, undercutting the resident manufacturers.
    Europe is going to be squeezed between the Chinese and America, now that Biden’s profligate subsidies make it attractive to manufacture in the US.

    Mark; there are similar tales of woe on the EV threads. Without the company/personal tax benefits, used EVs have to compete against ICE cars on their other, less significant “advantages”: low running costs (with home charging); zero VED (for cheaper cars); no ULEZ or congestion charges; lower maintenance, etc.. Inevitably that means their values are sinking back to their ICE equivalents.
    That said, the fears over battery life and the need for imminent replacement are overblown, from what I have read. For a start, virtually all EVs have and 8 or even 10 year battery warranty (or 100k miles). Also feedback from older vehicles generally show batteries lasting very well (there are quite a few Teslas that are over 10 years old).

    Like

  297. “Northern Ireland new car sales continue to rise in 2023”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65483868

    Sales of new cars in Northern Ireland continued to recover in April according to industry data.

    Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show there were 3,432 sales, up 6.8% on the same month in 2022.

    So far this year 16,750 new cars have been sold in Northern Ireland, up 17.4% compared to the same period last year….

    …In the UK as a whole, April was the ninth successive month of growth, with an 11.6% increase to reach 132,990 registrations.

    However that was still 17.4% down on pre-pandemic volumes in April 2019.

    Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said the new car market is ‘increasingly bullish, as easing supply chain pressures provide a much-needed boost”.

    I’m guessing (which is all I can do in the absence of more information) that this means EV sales aren’t going well – if they are, then I would expect the BBC to make a big thing of it. Meanwhile:

    “Ford Is Losing Roughly $60,000 For Every Electric Vehicle Sold”

    https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/03/ford-losing-tens-of-thousands-per-ev/

    Ford lost tens of thousands of dollars per electric vehicle sold in the first quarter of 2023, as the division remained on track for roughly $3 billion in yearly losses, according to the company’s Tuesday evening earnings report.

    Ford’s electric vehicle division — which was separated from its traditional gas and professional-grade vehicle departments in a late March reorganization — lost $722 million in the first three months of 2023, while selling just 12,000 units, according to the company’s first quarter earnings report. This amounts to a roughly $60,167 loss for each vehicle sold, according to calculations made by the Daily Caller News Foundation. ..

    Like

  298. It’s impressive that articles like this can appear in the Guardian, but unimpressive that apparently nobody on the editorial staff reads them, since their editorial line remains unremittingly the same regarding all things net zero:

    “I’m glad you’ve bought an electric vehicle. But your conscience isn’t clean
    John Naughton
    First, you’ve got to drive a long way before you overcome your EV’s embedded carbon debt. And then there’s the trouble with the minerals in its battery…”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/06/electric-vehicle-conscience-clean-batteries-carbon-emissions

    …True, there’s nothing noxious coming out of your exhaust pipe, because you don’t have one; and the electric motors that power your wheels certainly don’t burn any fossil fuel. But that doesn’t mean that your carbon footprint is zero. First of all, where did the electricity that charged that big battery of yours come from? If it came from renewable sources, then that’s definitely good for the planet. But in most countries, at least some of that electricity came from non-renewable sources, maybe even – shock, horror! – coal-burning generating stations.

    Even if all the charging energy came from renewable sources, you’re still not in the clear. Your lovely new vehicle comes with a kind of embedded carbon debt. The factory that made it – the industrial plant that shaped and stamped and assembled all that steel and glass and plastic and rubber into a vehicle – emitted a lot of CO2 in the process. So you will have to drive a long way before the savings of CO2 that you would have emitted in driving the same distance in a fuel-burning car exceed the carbon emitted in its manufacture…

    …But carbon emissions are not the only way these vehicles impose a burden on the planet and its inhabitants. If you look at an EV, what you’re really looking at is a giant skateboard with wheels at the four corners. The “board” is the battery, and it’s huge. The composition of a typical battery (by weight) looks like this: lithium 3.2%, cobalt 4.3%, manganese 5.5%; nickel 15.7%; aluminium 18.9%; other materials 52.5%. Many of these materials have been mined, shipped around the world and put through complex chemical processing before being assembled into a battery. These processes all have carbon footprints, and quantifying them isn’t easy, but they’re certainly substantial.

    The environmental costs of the battery supply are only part of the story, though. It also has a human toll. Take Nickel. About two-thirds of the world’s supply comes from Indonesia, which is building nine new smelters to take advantage of the boom in demand. Local communities are understandably fearful of the impact of extraction and processing on their environment.

    Then there’s lithium, some of the largest current reserves of which are in the salt flats of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. The metal is extracted by evaporating the basins’ salt water, which threatens the limited water supplies and displaces local communities. So no free lunch there, either.

    But worst of all is cobalt, which mostly comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the Washington Post 15% of that country’s mining operations are in the “informal” (unregulated) sector, which employs upwards of 200,000 people (including thousands of children, some as young as six) working in unregistered and badly ventilated mines.

    This is what the Post calls “the underbelly of electric vehicles”. I would have added the adjective “dark” if I’d been composing the headline. It rather takes the shine off the EV bubble. These vehicles are innovative, enjoyable to drive and definitely play a role in reducing emissions. But it comes at a cost that we proud owners don’t pay.

    Like

  301. Mark: there’s a good article HERE by Mark P Mills (Manhattan Institute) covering much the same ground as the Guardian piece to which you provided a link, but in rather more – and impressive – detail.

    Liked by 1 person

  302. The collapse in car manufacturing in the UK is now being blamed on Brexit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65612295

    This argument seemingly depends on the rules of origin, where too-high a proportion of parts from outside the EU or UK will mean that the whole will be subject to tariffs. What I don’t understand is how Brexit affects this. The comments under the article, the surface that I skimmed at least, are almost uniformly from furious remainers.

    This may be another example of gaslighting – blaming the death of car manufacturing on Brexit, rather than all the other reasons that contribute, primary among them Net Zero and the EV mandate itself. So many things “obviously” flow from that: the need to import materials, the high cost of energy and the consequent closure of steel plants, demand destruction caused by a more expensive product. This is not a race that the UK can ever win, whether in the EU or out of it.

    Liked by 1 person

  304. Thanks Robin. Some cogent points there, like:

    Allianz says that the Chinese government identified electric vehicles as the future competitive battleground in the late 2000s and invested heavily in the sector.

    “Chinese authorities recognized the potential of EVs to address other critical issues such as air pollution and energy security.,” it says.

    “But support to EVs was also clearly identified as a major opportunity for the domestic industry to leapfrog from being a tier-two country in legacy engine technologies to a leader in alternative energy technologies.”

    However, there are some off-the-wall ideas such as that:

    Another significant factor at play is the longevity of EVs and the possibility of autonomy. EVs currently get 4-5 times more milage [sic] over the life of the vehicle compared to ICE vehicles and many believe that the million-mile battery is just around the corner.

    The commenters seem to be rather sanguine about China’s motives.

    Like

  305. Jit,

    As you say, the idea of long-lived batteries does seem off-the-wall, at least for now, since it doesn’t chime with current reality, so far as I am aware. The record for a diesel engine, on the other hand, is over 3 million miles.

    Like

  307. Speaking of China (as we were a few comments back):

    “China overtakes Japan as world’s top car exporter”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65643064

    China says it has become the world’s biggest exporter of cars after overtaking Japan in the first three months of the year.

    Officials figures released in the last week China exported 1.07 million vehicles in the period, up 58% compared to the first quarter of 2022.

    At the same time Japan’s vehicle exports stood at 954,185, after edging up 6% from a year earlier.

    China’s exports were boosted by demand for electric cars and sales to Russia.

    Last year, China overtook Germany to become the world’s second largest car exporter.

    According to China’s General Administration of Customs, China exported 3.2 million vehicles in 2022, compared to Germany’s 2.6 million vehicle exports.

    The shift away from fossil fuels has helped fuel the rise of China’s motor industry…

    That reference to the shift away from fossil fuels would be a reference to the west’s industrial suicide. Much of the electricity used in China’s EV plants is generated by coal.

    Like

  309. Thanks Mike – some interesting stats there. They are somewhat confusing – seeming to be the “depreciation of the depreciation” rather than the overall depreciation, which makes some sense when talking about how depreciation has changed over time. Perhaps these changes are inevitable in a world where there is a limited pool of people willing to switch to an EV.

    I daresay most people will have bought their new EV on a lease scheme, so won’t be affected by the resale value. It would presumably affect the profitability of dealers.

    Like

  310. Jit, Yes, it does seem a bit double-dutch!
    The SMMT says that about two thirds of new EVs are bought as company cars so it will be the lease companies and business owners who will be hurting, alongside the private buyers.
    There seems to be a growing problem as more and more EVs come onto the second-hand market when their lease/PCP/etc expires. All of the tax incentives only apply to new vehicles so there is much less interest in used EVs.

    Like

  311. “I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped
    Rowan Atkinson
    Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV. There are sound environmental reasons not to jump just yet”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/03/electric-vehicles-early-adopter-petrol-car-ev-environment-rowan-atkinson

    Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles. I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms: fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.

    As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis…

    …If the lithium-ion battery is an imperfect device for electric cars, it’s a complete non-starter for trucks because of its weight..

    …But let’s zoom out even further and consider the whole life cycle of an automobile. The biggest problem we need to address in society’s relationship with the car is the “fast fashion” sales culture that has been the commercial template of the car industry for decades. Currently, on average we keep our new cars for only three years before selling them on, driven mainly by the ubiquitous three-year leasing model. This seems an outrageously profligate use of the world’s natural resources when you consider what great condition a three-year-old car is in. When I was a child, any car that was five years old was a bucket of rust and halfway through the gate of the scrapyard. Not any longer. You can now make a car for £15,000 that, with tender loving care, will last for 30 years. It’s sobering to think that if the first owners of new cars just kept them for five years, on average, instead of the current three, then car production and the CO2 emissions associated with it, would be vastly reduced. Yet we’d be enjoying the same mobility, just driving slightly older cars.

    We need also to acknowledge what a great asset we have in the cars that currently exist (there are nearly 1.5bn of them worldwide). In terms of manufacture, these cars have paid their environmental dues and, although it is sensible to reduce our reliance on them, it would seem right to look carefully at ways of retaining them while lowering their polluting effect. Fairly obviously, we could use them less. As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible…

    …Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing: we’re realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we’re going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created. We should keep developing hydrogen, as well as synthetic fuels to save the scrapping of older cars which still have so much to give, while simultaneously promoting a quite different business model for the car industry, in which we keep our new vehicles for longer, acknowledging their amazing but overlooked longevity.

    Friends with an environmental conscience often ask me, as a car person, whether they should buy an electric car. I tend to say that if their car is an old diesel and they do a lot of city centre motoring, they should consider a change. But otherwise, hold fire for now. Electric propulsion will be of real, global environmental benefit one day, but that day has yet to dawn.

    Like

  312. It appears there is a disconnect between western governments and car makers on the one hand and the general public on the other. While we hear that car makers are going all-in for EVs because of government mandates, the public remain quite sceptical. Scepticism is not surprising given the poor state of the charging infrastructure in most countries. This was highlighted on BBC Panorama…. “Electric Cars: Is it time to buy? ” that demonstrated how useless the charging network is in the UK. It is actually worth watching especially the part with a woman trying to charge from home with her car blocking the sidewalk. The only EV that makes any sense to buy right now is Tesla because of their excellent charging network that actually works when you need it.

    So I was interested to read the following in the Globe and Mail which indicates that Toyota is not yet drinking the EV Kool-Aid:

    “For decades, activist investors have been the tails wagging corporate dogs.Typically, these rabble-rousers put pressure on companies because things are going wrong – sales and profits are headed in the wrong direction, operations are broken, or senior management is incompetent or corrupt.

    And then there’s Toyota. Last fall activist investors, including progressive pension funds and asset managers in the U.S. and Europe, decided that being the best-selling automaker in the world three years running and leading the green revolution with its groundbreaking hybrid models wasn’t good enough. They pushed to oust board chair Akio Toyoda, its president and chief executive officer at the time.

    The reason? Mr. Toyoda wasn’t drinking the electric-vehicle Kool-Aid quickly enough, was being cagey about the company’s climate lobbying efforts, and favoured a multi-option pathway to carbon neutrality that included hybrids, hydrogen and gas options, as well EVs.

    In revealing remarks before he stepped down in January, Mr. Toyoda said executives who disagreed with a single-option EV strategy had felt silenced by the strong-arming of the environmental lobby. “They think it’s the trend so they didn’t speak out loudly,” he said of management.

    This week, however, Toyota shareholders re-elected Mr. Toyoda to the board at the company’s annual meeting. Now, along with Koji Sato, the automaker’s new president, they will see if they can placate the EV fervour of the activist flank and still run a successful company.

    The challenges faced by Mr. Toyoda and Mr. Sato reflect the increasing power of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement to push agendas that may put the viability of companies at risk.

    There’s no suggestion the motivation of the ESG faithful isn’t well-meant – but it isn’t always practical when it comes to business sense. And in Toyota’s case, the company has raised legitimate concerns that a rapid, wholesale shift to EVs is perilous for the business, the supply chain and even the environmental health of the communities activists seek to protect.

    Since EVs typically are built using about one-third fewer components than conventional gas-powered cars, suppliers to Toyota would feel the impact and jobs would be lost, a strong cultural as well as economic concern in Japan. There are also worries about ample global supplies of lithium, the main component in EV batteries. And there is the infrastructure – the lack of charging stations and the impact on power grids and the supply of clean energy from a massive shift to EVs in a short period of time.

    Those concerns are exacerbated by EV mandates in certain places. In California, New York and other states, for example, all new car sales must by EVs by 2035. In California, where the power grid is already weak and subject to regular rolling shutdowns, the shift could be beyond problematic.

    The U.S. infrastructure issues are so acute, Ford and General Motors recently announced deals to plug into Tesla’s charging network because the Biden administration has been slow to make a national grid a priority even though it is foundational to its green agenda.

    Now, under Mr. Sato, the company has pledged to make EVs a more significant part of its product mix – but it will be a mix. Toyota plans to introduce 10 EV models by 2026, and projects EV sales of 3.5 million by 2030 – about 30 per cent of total sales. Mr. Sato has not backed off the multi-option strategy of Mr. Toyoda, saying he would “absolutely not waver at all” from a lineup that includes EVs, gas vehicles, hybrids and hydrogen-fuelled cars.

    “Our most important way of thinking about a carbon-neutral future is to prepare a variety of options considering local differences in energy and economic environments as well as society and culture,” Mr. Sato said. “Electricity, of course, but also hydrogen, and transiently hybrids and plug-in hybrids, are all promising technologies. We want to find possibilities in all options.”

    The strategy may not be fashionable enough to appease everyone, but it makes sense. The dangers of rushing headlong into total EV immersion are not insignificant – and for Toyota, there are clearly worries it would put the business at risk.

    Will it work? Those who bet against Toyota do so at their peril. The company didn’t become the world’s largest automaker by accident. But Mr. Sato might soon find that, sadly, as with his predecessor, he too will have to bow to these activist investors.”

    Liked by 1 person

  313. Like

  315. Aiui, these batteries act as accumulators to smooth the demand on the local distribution network: Tesla have been using them for years. This allows rapid charging without overloading the supply.
    As for the fire risk, the article did not quote any examples so it probably hasn’t happened – yet. Also, whenever I’ve seen charging points at filling stations, they’ve been well away from the fuel facilities so I’m guessing that there are rules about safety distances, etc..

    Like

  316. Apologies, something went wrong with that post. Try again….
    VW is slowing it EV production. From an article on the Autocar website:
    “Wulff indicates demand for electric vehicles is up to 30 per cent below originally planned production figures.
    “We are experiencing strong customer reluctance in the electric vehicle sector,” he told the North West newspaper.
    Wulff said production of ID.7 saloon had originally been planned to start in July but has now been delayed to “later this year”.
    In an interview with the North-West newspaper, the minister of economic affairs for the state of Lower Saxony, Olaf Lies, commented on the measures introduced by Volkswagen at Emden, describing them as “understandable”.
    “The registration numbers of electric vehicles continue to be high, but what concerns us is the current dip in demand – not only at Volkswagen but across all manufacturers,” said Lies.”

    The last sentence must be a worry for the manufacturers.

    Like

  317. @Mikehig – thanks for the comment above.
    ““The registration numbers of electric vehicles continue to be high, but what concerns us is the current dip in demand – not only at Volkswagen but across all manufacturers,” said Lies.”

    so they are making lots of EV’s but nobody wants to buy them, wonder why the “dip in demand” happened.
    price maybe?

    Like

  318. Dougie; I don’t know anything about what subsidies and tax breaks may be available in Germany but price has to be a factor.
    In the UK two thirds of EVs are sold as company cars which generates huge tax savings for the user and/or company. There is now a growing surge of EVs coming onto the market at the end of their company lease/whatever. These are proving hard to shift as none of the tax breaks etc apply to second-hand cars. So used values have plummeted causing lease companies to rethink their economics and to boost their monthlies.
    Private buyers have had a double whammy. Prices of new cars are higher because of chip shortages, yadda, yadda and trade-in values have crashed.
    There’s quite a shake-out going on: it will be interesting to see where it finishes.

    Liked by 1 person

  319. I think a dip in demand was always likely because EVs are a niche market. Here in British Columbia most EV owners can afford two cars, an EV and an ICE for longer trips. Plus they have a driveway and can charge at home. Once that niche market is satisfied there are unlikely to be many more buyers. Except for Tesla charging networks are inadequate.

    Like

  321. “My new Hyundai Kona electric car won’t charge fully – I want a refund”

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jul/03/new-hyundai-electric-car-charge-refund

    Back in mid-January I took delivery of a new £35,000 electric Hyundai Kona. When I collected it from the Slough dealership, it was only 70% charged but I was told that this was down to a fault with their charger.

    But when I later tried to charge it, it would again only reach 70%. I was advised to run it down and to try again using a third charger but the same thing happened.

    By April I had had enough and took it to my local dealer in north London. A week later, it informed me that the car had been sent to Tilbury, where Hyundai has its main repair place, as the battery was faulty and needed replacing.

    I then spent the next few weeks trying to find out when it would be fixed but to no avail. After nine weeks, and no indication as to what was happening, I asked for my money back. It was on a lease purchase agreement.

    Everyone at Hyundai I speak to utters the same mantra: “We understand your frustration but we cannot help you.” Can you?…

    The Guardian’s answer is interesting:

    When electric vehicles work as they should, they are fantastic, and the Hyundai Kona has won many plaudits as being one of the best value EVs around. However, we are increasingly discovering that dealers of all manufacturers do not have the facilities, or the expertise, to fix any that develop serious faults – particularly where the problem lies with the battery.

    Earlier this year BMW had to recall 14,000 over concerns about the electronic software controls inside its car batteries. Tesla was named this week by What Car? as the third worst brand for reliability behind Citroën and Land Rover…

    Like

  324. Now this:

    “This rush to electric cars is a colossal mistake
    Only China and the rich will benefit from this hasty transition to an all-electric future.”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/07/03/this-rush-to-electric-cars-is-a-colossal-mistake/

    And this:

    “Volkswagen to cut electric car production in Germany due to ‘strong customer reluctance’ as demand for battery vehicles slumps”

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/volkswagen-to-cut-electric-car-production-in-germany-due-to-strong-customer-reluctance-as-demand-for-battery-vehicles-slumps/ar-AA1dfz5w

    Volkswagen, the UK’s most popular car brand for the last two years, is cutting production of electric vehicles (EV) due to a decline in consumer demand.

    In what has been dubbed an ‘unprecedented move’, the German car giant is set to scale back EV outputs at one of its biggest production facilities in Emden, northwest Germany, due to ‘strong customer reluctance’ to buy battery-powered models.

    The move comes after company executives said demand for Volkswagen’s fully electric cars is down 30 per cent compared with forecasts.

    Manufacturing of petrol and diesel cars is said to be unaffected, according to the Times….

    Like

  325. According to an article on the Autocar website it’s not just VW that is seeing a drop in demand:
    “In an interview with the North-West newspaper, the minister of economic affairs for the state of Lower Saxony, Olaf Lies, commented on the measures introduced by Volkswagen at Emden, describing them as “understandable”.
    “The registration numbers of electric vehicles continue to be high, but what concerns us is the current dip in demand – not only at Volkswagen but across all manufacturers,” said Lies.””

    I’ve not seen any mention of a general fall in demand in Germany so this might be a bit of arm-waving since, aiui, Lower Saxony is a major shareholder in VW…..

    Like

  326. “Damaged electric cars ‘quarantined’ over fears they will explode”

    In yesterday’s Telegraph, the claim that damaged EVs cost more to handle than ICE vehicles, requiring 15 m spacing:

    Electric cars that sustain minor bumps are being kept 15 meters apart in repair yards over fears they might explode, adding to insurance bills.

    And

    But the practice threatens to increase costs for the insurance industry by more than £600m, costs which ultimately could be passed onto drivers in increased premiums, according to a report by automotive risk firm Thatcham Research.

    Oh good.

    I found this comment interesting also:

    Rapidly depreciating values mean the cost of replacing a battery outweighs the cost of the car after just one year, leaving insurers no choice but to scrap the car, it said.

    Everything is going great, guys.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/insurance/car/damaged-electric-cars-quarantined-fears-explode/

    Liked by 2 people

  327. From the Globe and Mail: UNSOLD ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE PILING UP – PEOPLE LIKE THE IDEA BUT ARE NOT BUYING THEM:
    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-unsold-electric-vehicles/#comments
    “It will be interesting to watch how activists will view the glut of EVs through their green-coloured glasses. The reality of nearly 100,000 cars baking in the summer heat does not fit their narrative very well.”

    Some auto-industry observers are calling it a “field of dreams” moment, but if electric-vehicle makers can’t figure out how to bridge the gap between consumers’ curiosity in the products and their willingness to buy them, it may become a nightmare on Main Street.

    The supply of unsold EVs on U.S. dealer lots has swelled 350 per cent so far this year, to more than 92,000 units in June. That’s about three months’ worth of inventory and nearly twice the industry average, according to a new report from Cox Automotive, the people behind the Kelley Blue Book auto-pricing guides.

    With the average new EV costing US$64,000, that’s about US$6-billion in stock collecting dust – and all at a time when dealers are offering huge incentives for the summer sales season. Among the biggest losers – Genesis, the Hyundai luxury brand, sold only 18 of its high-end US$80,000 EV sedans in June, and some Audi and GMC EV models topped the 100-day inventory mark, Cox said.

    By comparison, dealers have only 54 days’ worth of gas-powered vehicles on their lots, less than the usual 70-day threshold. The average cost of a gas-powered car is about US$30,000, less than half the price of the average EV.

    Automakers such as Toyota and Honda are taking advantage of the opportunity presented by buyers’ hesitancy on EVs and spending heavily on advertising their hybrid models. On average, hybrids cost about US$39,000, not counting charging equipment for plug-in models, which can add a few thousand dollars more to the total outlay.

    To be sure, like any statistic, unsold inventory is only one test of the industry’s health. EV boosters will point to strong year-over-year sales increases in the first half of the year as a more telling indicator of consumer demand. But beware the law of small numbers – EV sales account for only about 7 per cent of all new-car purchases – and they have flattened. So, it doesn’t take many units to move the needle.

    While high interest rates and lingering inflation may be partly to blame for soft sales, the real story behind the unsold EVs is that while consumers may be interested in the concept, they are wary of buying them. The two big reasons for this gap between curiosity and purchase: price and charging concerns.

    Horror stories of drivers and their families getting stranded in the record heat during summer vacation road trips when their EVs run out of juice have become commonplace.

    Like the South Florida family I know who got stuck in a traffic jam in their Tesla just about 15 kilometres from home after a trip to Disney World near Orlando. After an hour of stop-and-go, and having turned off the air-conditioning in the 35-degree heat to conserve juice, they finally made it to an exit that took them to a service station with EV charging stations.

    But relief was still more than an hour away – the lineup to use the chargers was long and winding – and when they finally plugged in, the electrical grid was so overloaded charging took longer than expected. The final 15 kilometres of their journey took more than three hours – a trek marked by frustration and near dehydration.

    Interestingly, the current glut of unsold EVs may lend credence to the view of Toyota’s former president and chief executive officer, Aiko Toyoda, who favoured a multioption pathway to carbon neutrality that included hybrids, hydrogen and gas options, as well as EVs.

    The reason: He believed a wholesale shift to EVs was not practical right now, and that even in the future, EVs will not be the silver bullet for all places and all uses. Each country, region and community will have different needs and will develop critical infrastructure at difference paces.

    It’s a strategy that got Mr. Toyoda turfed last year by environmentally obsessed activist investors who believed he was dragging his feet on the company’s development of EVs.

    Despite the coup, Mr. Toyoda’s successor, Koji Sato, has vowed to stay faithful to the multioption strategy. And Mr. Toyoda has been re-elected to the board by shareholders.

    It will be interesting to watch how activists will view the glut of EVs through their green-coloured glasses. The reality of nearly 100,000 cars baking in the summer heat does not fit their narrative very well.

    More concerning, if EV makers can’t solve the problems of high prices and low charging availability, industry consolidation and a slowing of development may be the next bump in the road.

    That, in turn, may spook the EV car market even more, perhaps to the point where even if automakers build them, buyers may not come.

    Liked by 1 person

  328. Thanks Potentilla. I have not been keeping track of this. Looking at it today in light of your comment, I discovered that used EVs now have a federal tax credit in the US. If even that can’t shift them, things are bleak indeed.

    There is some noise regarding protecting the 2030 ban on ICEs in the UK, as, e.g. here.

    Like

  329. Now that Justin Rowlatt has returned from his CO2-spewing flight to Spain (where he went to tell us it’s hot there), he’s written this piece for the BBC, and it’s worth a read:

    “Electric cars are the future, but is the UK ready?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66222554

    Although it’s full of the questionable narrative that really ought to be checked by BBC Verify or by a Climate Disinformation reporter (EVs “help us tackle the biggest challenge of our era, climate change.”), it’s a reasonably balanced review of the pros and cons of EVs, and surveys much of the territory involved in the EV debate.

    Like

  331. Thanks Mark. So far this has only been picked up by Sky, the Daily Mail, & Reuters – at least according to Google News. Hopefully it will burn itself out before sinking the ship.

    Like

  332. In searching for this news item I found a few other EV fire stories.

    “Lydden Hill: Officials blame rallycross fire on car battery”

    A fire that caused the World Rallycross Championships to be scrapped for two days started in the battery of an electric car, organisers have said.

    Nine fire engines were called to Lydden Hill race track in Wootton, Kent, after reports of a major fire shortly before 09:00 BST on Friday.

    World championship races were cancelled on both Saturday and Sunday, although some other racing continued.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-66283019

    Don’t worry, guys. EV fires are far less frequent than ICE fires. What next?

    “Homeowner questions EV safety after fire destroys her Nocatee home”

    “It was parked in the garage, about 22 hours and then it caught fire,” [homeowner] Ruotolo said. “I was at work. About 8:30 and my husband heard a hiss and a pop, and he went into the garage full of smoke. It engulfed in flames and exploded.”

    Ruotolo said the car wasn’t even charging when it went up in flames. Her home of five years is soot-filled and she spent much of Thursday morning evaluating what personal belongings are worth saving.

    https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/07/20/homeowner-questions-ev-safety-after-fire-destroys-her-nocatee-home/

    Like

  333. “E-bike battery fires spark call to regulate like fireworks”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66304564

    Batteries for e-bikes should be as tightly regulated as fireworks, heavy machinery or medical devices because of the fire-risk they pose, a charity has said.

    In June, a woman and two children died in a fire linked to an e-bike battery.

    Currently, manufacturers can self-declare that e-bike and e-scooter batteries meet safety standards.

    But campaigners Electrical Safety First says these batteries should instead need third-party approval before sale.

    Cambridgeshire Fire Service said the bike was the “most probable cause” of the fatal blaze in June, and it is investigating the e-bike that was left charging in the flat.

    Meanwhile, the London Fire Brigade said it has been called to a fire caused by these batteries once every two days on average in 2023….

    Of course, these problems aren’t restricted to electric bikes. Electric cars and buses are exploring into flames too. Such events might be relatively rare, but it’s still a serious issue. I am increasingly nervous about taking an overnight ferry from somewhere like Aberdeen to Shetland, knowing that there might be one or more EVs on the ferry below my sleeping berth. When are the authorities going to wake up?

    Like

  334. Regarding the Fremantle Highway, according to Reuters, the fire is less intense than before, so hopefully it won’t sink. Also according to Reuters, the cargo included 498 electric cars:

    Ship charter company “K” Line said on Friday that there were 3,783 vehicles on board the ship – including 498 battery electric vehicles, significantly more than the 25 initially reported.

    I like a bit of understatement on a Friday evening. And there are those – thanks to Mike for the link to the John Cadogan piece on Open Mic – who want to believe that EVs had nothing to do with it.

    The Dutch coastguard said on its website on Thursday that the cause of the fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying, “The fire started in the battery of an electric car”.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/carrier-ablaze-off-dutch-coast-carrying-almost-500-electric-cars-2023-07-28/

    Electrek really wants this not to be yet another story about EVs going up in flames:

    So let’s take stock:

    An official statement in writing says the cause is unknown.
    There is nothing from officials in writing mentioning the speculation about electric cars.
    We don’t have a direct quote, and we don’t have a name for the spokesman who supposedly said that EVs were “presumably” involved.
    The misreported information seems like it could be a misinterpretation of a direct quote that we do know of.
    At least one media organization has now walked back their reporting.
    It was confirmed to us over the phone on the Coast Guard’s press line that it has not come to a conclusion as to the cause and that this is all media speculation.

    Surprise! Media is misreporting the source of a Dutch cargo ship fire

    [This electrek piece is the 4th hit on a Google search for news on “Fremantle Highway” just at this moment.]

    Liked by 1 person

  336. “Electric Vehicle Charging Stations 10 Years Behind Schedule”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2023/07/29/electric-vehicle-charging-stations-10-years-behind-schedule/

    Analysis shows ministers are at risk of missing their goal for 300,000 public EV charge points by 2030, with only 3,870 installed in three months. At its current rate, the target will be achieved 10 years behind schedule. Will the Government now rethink its insane plan to ban sales of ‘wet’ cars in 2030?

    Like

  338. In fact Jit it’s only 25% of Tory voters – with 68% opposed. But I think the key finding – that the Tories would be very foolish to ignore – is this: 55% of all respondents said that ‘Policies to reduce carbon emissions should only be introduced if they do not result in additional costs for ordinary people‘ best reflected their view (the figure was 66% of Tory voters). Another 5% thought policies to reduce emissions should not be introduced at all. That’s an extraordinary finding. If it’s an accurate reflection of public opinion (and I suspect it is) it means the implementation of net zero would be extremely difficult – probably impossible. Details here: https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/li3arml6jo/TheTimes_NetZero_230726.pdf.

    Liked by 1 person

  340. I recently bought a new diesel car from my local VW dealer, so determined am I to have a reliable vehicle after 2030, given that my wife and I mostly make long journeys. Along the way, they picked up my email address, and today they sent me an email pushing EVs at me.

    Interestingly, they nowhere mention price, but when I followed the link to their website, and after a lot of digging, I did find the prices and was shocked. My new diesel is looking like a bargain!

    Anyway, among other things, I was told in the email:

    Some good news. Lead times are now improving for the ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5 electric models. So, if you’re looking for a new electric vehicle, now’s the time to order.

    I’ll bet they are – very few people want them!

    Like

  341. You can understand why VW (and indeed all car manufacturers) are getting jittery:

    “Kemi Badenoch raises job loss concerns over net zero car ban”

    Kemi Badenoch raises job loss concerns over net zero car ban

    Paul Homewood quotes from the story in the Telegraph:

    Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, is pushing Cabinet colleagues to water down net zero rules on electric cars that come into force in January.

    Car manufacturers are warning they will not be able to hit a requirement that 22 per cent of new vehicles they sell in 2024 must be zero emission models that are completely electric.

    A manufacturer will be fined £15,000 for every polluting car sold over the limit, unless they can somehow buy in extra allowances from another company.

    Mrs Badenoch is understood to be concerned about the requirement, known as the zero emissions vehicle (Zev) mandate.

    A spokesman for Mrs Badenoch said: “If major car companies employing thousands of people are saying that there’s a problem, then it’s her job to look at ways to ease that problem.”

    Net zero has become a central issue for both the Conservatives and Labour, with Rishi Sunak under mounting pressure to delay the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles.

    Last week, The Telegraph revealed that Honda and Toyota were publicly urging a softening of the rules amid fears that they would be breached if implemented as planned.

    Mrs Badenoch’s spokesman was also quoted saying “Honda and Toyota are not the only manufacturers who have raised concerns” and “Kemi has been raising their concerns with colleagues in the Cabinet”.

    The accuracy of the remarks, first reported by the Politico website, was not disputed by the Business Department….

    Like

  342. Mark, the story was also on the front page of the Times and the Telegraph. The policy is a stupid one – effectively ending car production for domestic supply by Toyota (who as far as I know don’t make electric cars). It will also necessitate manufacturers cross-subsidising EVs by raising the cost of ICE cars until enough demand for EVs is generated. No doubt the quota will be achievable for leased vehicles given all the EV tax breaks.

    But the inevitable consequence of the quota will be to reduce overall sales – well, it makes sense only if that’s what the government want.

    Liked by 1 person

  343. The likelihood, as Paul says, is that manufacturers will reduce the number of petrol and diesel cars they make, which people want, so they can reach the target of 22% EVs, which fewer and fewer people want, whose second hand value will be virtually worthless. This is how you destroy an industry.

    Liked by 1 person

  344. Mark – from your comment – “Car manufacturers are warning they will not be able to hit a requirement that 22 per cent of new vehicles they sell in 2024 must be zero emission models that are completely electric.
    A manufacturer will be fined £15,000 for every polluting car sold over the limit, unless they can somehow buy in extra allowances from another company.”

    wonder how this mad fine has only come to the public attention 1yr before it’s due to be implemented?

    as Jaime says “This is how you destroy an industry” & end car travel for most Brits.
    hopefully with these mad mandates (if reported in MSM) will waken voters up about this net zero madness.

    Like

  345. dfhunter,

    I was vaguely aware that car manufacturers were about to face fines for not selling enough EVs, though I didn’t know how large the fine would be, nor was I sure of the date of its implementation. It has certainly received very little publicity. My awareness (however vague that was) was one of the things that led us to buy a new diesel this year, because it seemed obvious that the outcome would be that ICE cars would become much more expensive – whether in an attempt by manufacturers to level the playing field (it couldn’t involve EV prices coming down to do that) to avoid the fine, or to recover enough extra money to pay the fine.

    It is, of course, absolute madness.

    Like

  346. “China ‘will use electric cars to spy on Britain’”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/05/china-will-use-cars-to-spy-on-britain-ministers-fear/

    The Telegraph can also reveal that UK-based car manufacturers could end up effectively having to subsidise cheaper Chinese imports if they fail to meet targets for phasing out petrol engine sales.

    Under proposals being consulted on for a zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, 22 per cent of companies’ new car sales in 2024 will have to be zero emission models, with the proportion rising to 80 per cent by 2030.

    If manufacturers fail to hit the target, they will have to either pay fines or buy “credits” from companies that exceed the target, with Chinese electric car companies and Chinese-sourced Teslas expected to benefit in particular.

    A government spokesperson says everything is going as planned.

    Like

  348. I’m not sure if this is the right place to put this, but if Jit doesn’t mind, it seems as good a place as any:

    “Will electric flying taxis live up to their promise?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66252187

    In a year’s time the Summer Olympics will be underway in Paris.

    The athletes will, of course, be hoping to make history, but so will one aviation start-up, Volocopter.

    If all goes to plan, its two-seater electric aircraft, VoloCity, will be carrying passengers around Paris. It will be the first service in Europe to use an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) aircraft.

    Dozens of companies around the world have been developing EVTOL aircraft, promising quieter, cheaper and emission-free aircraft, that can land right in the heart of cities….

    But:

    …some would argue that the biggest challenges lie ahead for Volocopter and its rivals. In the coming years they will need to show that there is a market for their aircraft.

    Batteries remain the biggest problem. They remain heavy and expensive, which curtails the range and limits the cost advantages of EVTOL aircraft, over helicopters, trains and cars.

    The VoloCity has a range of 22 miles, which is enough for short city hops, but is not very far compared to the range of a helicopter.

    Mr Bauer acknowledges the challenge: “What is hindering us is right now the battery technology, which all the peers are right now working on.”…

    Liked by 1 person

  350. Mark : 08 AUG 23 AT 6:07 AM

    Had a read from your BBC link. A few questions from your comment & the BBC article spring to mind.
    “If all goes to plan, its two-seater electric aircraft, VoloCity, will be carrying passengers around Paris.”
    so 1 will be the pilot, with room for 1 passenger, wonder what the uptake for that will be & at what cost.

    “Mr Bauer acknowledges the challenge: “What is hindering us is right now the battery technology, which all the peers are right now working on.”
    He says that more powerful, cheaper batteries will emerge, allowing Volocopter to build a bigger aircraft that will be able to offer services at lower prices.”

    sounds like a sound investment (wing & a prayer type).
    sure BBC will send Justin Rowlatt for 1st flight over Paris.

    Like

  352. Mark – Me neither, think they watched S/F movies as children.
    from your 2nd link above, liked this quote –

    “The problem is that manufacturers are loading up the “supply chain” with EV’s on dealer lots, but they’re not seeing the “demand” for EV’s coming from the public. The current EV ownership profiles of the elite owners are that they are:
    * highly educated.
    * highly compensated.
    * multi-car families.
    * low mileage requirements for the families’ second car, i.e., the EV.
    Current EV owners are dramatically different from most of the vehicle owners.”

    “highly educated” – well that is debatable.

    Like

  353. An interesting throwaway – but revealing – line in the Guardian’s response to a request for help in its consumer section:

    “I’m paying to lease an electric car that has been off the road for months
    After a minor accident, my Jaguar I-Pace was taken away and replaced by a petrol Ford Fiesta”

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/aug/15/im-paying-to-lease-an-electric-car-that-has-been-off-the-road-for-months

    I wonder how many cars – electric or otherwise – are now off the road awaiting parts? I suspect a surprising number.

    As my colleague Anna Tims has reported, motorists are often waiting months to get their cars back on the road after minor shunts because of global parts shortages. And the problem appears to be getting worse rather than better. If you have an electric car in particular, I’d be driving it very carefully, as dealers often struggle to fix them.

    Like

  354. “Europe hits roadblocks in the race to switch to electric cars
    Despite progress towards a 2045 zero-emission goal, the high price of EVs has created a headache for governments”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/26/europe-roadblocks-race-switch-electric-cars-evs-zero-emission-goal

    European countries are struggling to persuade people to switch from combustion engine cars to electric ones, experts warn.

    Europe sells 10 times more electric cars today than it did just six years ago, according to the International Energy Agency, but its fleet is cleaning up too slowly to meet its climate goals. Governments across the continent are struggling with the price-tag of electric vehicles, which can cost several thousand euros more upfront than comparable ones that burn fossil fuels.

    “What we have learned is that it’s not enough just to incentivise electric vehicle purchase and ownership,” said Julia Poliscanova, an analyst at campaign group Transport and Environment. “You also have to disincentivise the purchase of conventional cars at the same time.”..

    …Marc Lüers, managing director of online marketplace Carwow, said that the German car market had “flipped” since the war in Ukraine, with demand for electric cars in particular suffering from rising inflation and falling subsidies.

    Apart from the price of the vehicle, he added, “the two largest concerns of electric vehicle-buyers in Germany are charging infrastructure and the price of electricity”.

    Just seven EU countries offer incentives for charging infrastructure, according to the ACEA….

    Like

  356. A poor article. A few seconds on the web showed that the Fiat is not the cheapest EV. There’s little evidence for the claim of battery degradation after a few years. Moving a broken-down EV is no different to ICE: if it’s 2wd, trolley the driven axle; 4wd needs a flatbed. And so on.
    He must have done his research in a bar or on the DM website.
    I’m no fan of EVs but this sort of unresearched smearing is as bad as the spurious claims made about the climate.

    Liked by 1 person

  357. The BBC summary of the Times story today about Sunak’s plan to press ahead with banning ICE vehicles is:

    The lead story on the front page of the Times says that Rishi Sunak is planning to phase out petrol and diesel cars on a “strict timeframe”, despite pressure from within the Conservative Party for the government to scale down its net-zero plans.

    The Times website is behind a paywall, so I can’t supply more info, but if true, we’re doomed (and so are the Tories).

    Like

  358. “Chinese electric cars will reduce UK emissions but what about rivals here?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66820791

    The UK is facing a dilemma: should it fight the rising imports of Chinese electric cars with big new tariffs, in the same way the EU has threatened to do this week? Or should it allow them to continue? Keeping open to the imports in would make it easier for the UK to hit its goal of no new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and it would make electric cars cheaper. But the UK car industry could be damaged.

    The British car industry is showing off its green electric future at a Bedfordshire racetrack, and behind the marques, some familiar, some less so, there is a new force.

    China is cornering the market in electric vehicles….

    …China has cornered the market in electric vehicle batteries. Indeed, many of the new car companies, including Byd, started off as battery manufacturers….

    …There are also more-established brands, such as the Volvo-linked Polestar, and the formerly Oxford-based MG cars, which are being shipped from China.

    Moreover, most Teslas in the UK in recent years have been shipped from China, made in the Shanghai Gigafactory that was built in six months in 2019.

    In total, China has already overtaken Germany for overall global car exports, and will overtake Japan this year, becoming the world’s top exporter, according to figures from Moody’s Analytics.

    This is no accident according to Andy Palmer, the former Aston Martin and Nissan boss.

    “Twenty years ago, I was sitting on the board of [Chinese carmaker] Dongfeng. It was the decree of the Chinese government that Chinese car companies needed to leapfrog over western companies and the best way of doing that was to adopt new energy vehicles, as they called them at the time. That ultimately, of course, meant battery-electric vehicles,” he says.

    That strategic planning for dominance in this sector meant China carved up capability on batteries, motors and the raw materials supply chains stretching across the world…..

    …It is intriguing that the Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch did this week cite competition from China in her push to get the EU to delay the Brexit trade deal restrictions on the electric vehicle trade.

    But there is an extra twist on this issue for carmakers in Britain, which some privately describe as “farcical”.

    In a few weeks’ time the government will introduce its Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, designed to force carmakers down the path towards hitting targets to eliminate the sale of the combustion engine.

    If a car company misses its target that 22% of its sales are electric, starting in January, it will either face fines of £15,000 per vehicle, or have to buy a surplus credit from a company that has sold lots of electric vehicles.

    It happens to be the case that the Chinese-made import brands are mainly all electric.

    The net result of all this, fear some in the car industry, is a system where existing UK manufacturers, including of hybrid cars, will pay thousands of pounds to subsidise electric imports.

    Essentially, UK factories, which face competition from Chinese electric imports, could have to subsidise them….

    Like

  359. “Firefighters tackling lithium battery blaze at Essex warehouse”

    Incident Commander Howard Midwood said: “Throughout the night we’ve had somewhere between 40 – 50 firefighters wearing breathing apparatus tackling the fire inside the building and we’ve also been using an aerial ladder platform to pour water from above.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-66838370

    Bare bones at the BBC, but at Loadstar:

    Breaking out in the small hours of Sunday morning, another lithium battery fire, this one at a UK warehouse for mobility scooters

    You know, the sort of vehicle that disabled people park in their hallways. The BBC thought that the involvement of mobility scooters was not worthy of note.

    https://theloadstar.com/lithium-batteries-blamed-for-blaze-at-uk-warehouse-storing-electric-scooters/

    Liked by 2 people

  360. “Electric car rules could cost carmakers billions”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66889029

    New Brexit trade rules covering electric vehicles could cost European manufacturers £3.75bn over the next three years, an industry body has said.

    The rules are meant to ensure that EU-produced electric cars are largely made from locally sourced parts.

    But manufacturers on both sides of the Channel say they are not ready.

    The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) also warned the measures could reduce output from EU factories by 480,000 vehicles.

    And they said customers would pay the price.

    The main problem lies in so-called “rules of origin” which come into force in January. They apply to shipments of cars across the Channel under the terms of the Brexit deal, the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

    They will effectively ensure that electric vehicles will need to have batteries produced in either the UK or the EU.

    Cars that do not meet the criteria will face 10% tariffs – or taxes – when transported across the Channel, in either direction.

    The rules were designed to protect the European industry from cheap imports.

    But because battery production in Europe has not ramped up as quickly as expected, carmakers are struggling to meet the new criteria.

    It is a serious problem for European manufacturers. The UK is by far their largest export market, with 1.2 million vehicles arriving at UK ports last year….

    Like

  361. ““Electric Car” Explodes on Driveway and Sets Fire to Family Home After “Battery Malfunctions””

    https://dailysceptic.org/2023/09/25/electric-car-explodes-on-driveway-and-sets-fire-to-family-home-after-battery-malfunctions/

    …One man told the Echo that after speaking to the owners of the car this morning they believed the cause of the fire was a “malfunctioning electric car battery”, although this has not been officially confirmed by the fire service.

    He said: “I was in bed and heard this popping noise. It sounded like fireworks going off.

    “I went outside with my mum and there were bright lights with a car up in flames over the road.

    “The owner was in the house when it happened but got out. She told me this morning that the car was only a month old with a thousand miles on the clock and the car battery malfunctioned.”

    One woman said: “I heard tyres popping and people came out to see what was going on. Someone started screaming and people rushed out to help.

    “I saw it happen and it looked like the fire was coming from where they charge the car. The whole thing was up in flames by the end. …

    Like

  362. Oddly it says the fire was put out in ten minutes, which doesn’t sound like a battery fire.

    Like

  363. From an article in the Telegraph:
    “Britain’s biggest motorway service station provider has brought in marshals to police “charge rage” among electric vehicle drivers battling for access to plug-in points.

    Moto chief executive Ken McMeikan warned the UK’s motorway service stations are facing growing “public disorder” due to a lack of grid connections preventing him from installing enough car chargers to meet the surge in demand.

    It means many motorists are facing long waits, with angry drivers confronting staff and each other over the lack of charging facilities.”

    Like

  364. Coming soon to a driveway near you:

    ‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs”

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/30/the-quotes-were-5000-or-more-electric-vehicle-owners-face-soaring-insurance-costs

    “There’s also an issue around technology and skills in the repair networks,” Baxter says. Indeed, the Institute of the Motor Industry has predicted a shortage of about 16,000 electric vehicle-qualified mechanics come 2032. “They’ve not got to the stage they are with traditional cars in terms of expertise. If you dent a door, that’s straightforward, but if something has damaged the battery, in particular, they haven’t caught up with that.”

    But I thought that the battery was supposed to be the best bit.

    Like

  365. It’s not just electric cars; insuring any vehicle has become much more expensive this year. Insurers cite a rise in the cost of claims as the reason for the increase in premiums, but increases of 50-100% compared to last year is a bitter pill to swallow and hard to justify. Car repairs HAVE become more expensive because manufacturers are building in computerised technology which prevents garages from simply repairing a vehicle – they have to get special permission in the form of computerised codes from the manufacturer now in order to repair newer vehicles. This costs more and delays repairs. But the manufacturers make more money. Our garage repair man told us this when we took our old Skoda in – which fortunately is so ancient that it doesn’t even have a computer! My advice is if you’ve got an older car, stick with it, even though the government will keep raising your vehicle tax because of ’emissions’, even though you’ll be banned from driving into towns and cities. I suspect that as more EVs hit the roads, the cost of insurance for all motorists will start to spiral out of control, making car ownership an unaffordable luxury for many. But then that’s always been the intention of the eco-fascists – to abolish private car ownership. We’re being priced off the roads – insurance, vehicle tax, fuel, maintenance costs.

    Like

  366. John,

    Interestingly that Guardian article includes quite a bit about some insurers simply declining to insure EVs. That shocked me, and it ought to send a signal to our lords (and ladies), masters (and mistresses) in Westminster. But of course it won’t.

    Like

  367. Mikehig,

    Sorry you had to wait so long to be released from Purdah – I have just spotted your comment languishing undeservedly in spam.

    Like

  368. Mark, Thanks for that – I was wondering what had happened to that comment.

    It’s not just EVs that some companies are refusing to insure. I’ve read about the same problem hitting Range Rovers.

    Like

  369. The BBC tucked this story away on the Scottish section of its website:

    “‘I was kidnapped by my runaway electric car'”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67005620

    A driver has told how he was “kidnapped” by his runaway electric car and forced to dodge red lights and roundabouts.

    Brian Morrison, 53, from Glasgow said he was heading home from work on Sunday night when he said his brand new MG ZS EV became stuck at 30mph.

    The brakes would not work and he had to dial 999 from inside the car.

    Police were forced to stop the runaway car by allowing it to slowly crash into their police van.

    A roadside repair mechanic later said they had “never seen” anything like it…

    …Police asked Mr Morrison to throw his electronic key through their van window before driving off, and then tried forcibly shutting off the engine – but nothing could stop the car.

    He was also asked to hold the power button for a couple of seconds which also failed to stop it and the entire dashboard lit up with faults.

    Officers decided to get him to crash into the back of their van before he got into a more built-up area….

    Like

  370. “Electric car sales to private buyers fall sharply”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67017972

    Sales of new electric cars to private buyers fell sharply in September compared with the same period a year ago, latest figures show.

    The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said sales to private buyers fell by 14%, but overall registrations of electric cars rose almost 19%.

    The growth was entirely driven by company fleet buyers.

    The car market as a whole showed strong growth in September, but sales are still below pre-pandemic levels….

    Like

  372. I am struck by how much EV scepticism one can find coming from certain elements of the mainstream media. Take this article, for example:

    “Why electric cars are NOT green machines: The environmental benefit of EVs may never be felt as their production creates up to 70% more emissions than petrol equivalents.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12256823/Why-electric-cars-NOT-green-machines-environmental-benefit-EVs-never-felt.html

    “Electric cars need to be used for tens of thousands of miles before they offset the higher releases, with VW’s e-Golf becoming more environmentally friendly only after 77,000 miles, according to the manufacturer’s own figures. But there are fears that many such vehicles will never hit their mileage target as owners upgrade to newer models, leaving swathes of used electric cars sitting unwanted on garage forecourts.”

    Like

  373. “Electric Cars May Become Uninsurable”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2023/10/22/covid-vaccines-are-driving-excess-deaths-parliament-told/

    …Jonathan Hewett, Chief Executive of Thatcham Research, the motor insurers’ automotive research centre, said a lack of “insight and understanding” about the cost of repairing damaged electric car batteries was pushing up premiums and resulting in some providers declining to provide cover altogether.

    Electric cars can be particularly expensive to repair, costing around a quarter more to fix on average than a petrol or diesel vehicle. Experts have previously warned electric vehicles are being written off after minor bumps because of the cost and complexity of fixing their batteries….

    Like

  375. There’s real irony in this graphite story.
    I stumbled across this article from last year:
    https://news.sky.com/story/inside-the-arms-race-to…

    Most of it is out of date so skip to the end where it talks about the Humber Refinery’s production of “synthetic graphite” from petroleum coke – the only such plant in Europe. This is sent to China for further processing whereupon they limit how much they return to us – and the rest of the world.

    Liked by 3 people

  378. “UK drivers make claims of ‘incredibly scary’ malfunctions with electric cars
    Motorists locked inside their cars, while an NHS doctor said her BMW iX accelerated to 65mph and then crashed”

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/29/uk-drivers-make-claims-of-incredibly-scary-malfunctions-with-electric-cars

    An electric car owner has claimed her vehicle’s autopilot engaged without warning and accelerated to 65mph, zigzagged across the road and caused a serious crash, the Guardian can reveal.

    The alleged incident involved a doctor, Ravpreet Kaur, who was travelling in Buckinghamshire with her son in the family’s £80,000 BMW iX. Her husband said they were lucky to escape unhurt.

    The manufacturer has strongly disputed the claims, saying that an investigation had found nothing wrong with the car.

    This latest claim has emerged four weeks after Brian Morrison, from Glasgow, said he had been “kidnapped” by his electric MG.

    In that incident, he said his car would not slow down from 30mph or turn off, forcing him to do a controlled crash into the back of a police van.

    Now other owners are claiming they have suffered similarly serious technology failures in their electric cars.

    Kaur, who lives in Uxbridge, west London, said that she was taking her four-year-old son to nursery school near Gerrards Cross when the car unilaterally engaged its driver assist (cruise control) suddenly.

    She said that without her doing anything the car went from 50mph to more than 65mph, and the car’s left lane sensors started to malfunction…

    …Chloe Scott-Moncrieff and Oli Jones, a couple who live in Hampshire, said they have also lost faith in their electric car. After a first year of fairly trouble-free motoring in their £52,000 Hyundai Ioniq 5, they said their car started spontaneously draining its 12-volt battery, forcing them to buy an instant charger usually carried by AA and RAC patrol vehicles.

    “The back doors locked out of the blue for several days, then the windows. Then there were these spontaneous draining sessions of the 12-volt battery; you could never tell when this would happen, and the car wouldn’t start. This happened all over the place. In April, the car refused to move as we tried to leave the Channel tunnel and we had cars stacked up behind us,” said Scott-Moncrieff.

    The final straw came when Jones found himself locked in to the car, completely unable to get out….

    Like

  380. This essay – The Political Risk of Mandating EVs for Everyone – by the excellent Mark P. Mills is a ‘must read’. His concluding paragraph:

    ‘The realities of physics and engineering mean that politicians pushing for an all-EV future run a high risk. Quite aside from the eventual discovery that EVs will disappoint with only a tiny impact on global CO2 emissions, the bigger impacts will come as consumers find vehicle ownership costs and inconveniences both escalating. That will lead to unhappy voters motivated by the key underlying reality: A car is the single most expensive and critical product used by the overwhelming majority of citizens.’

    Liked by 1 person

  382. When the ICE motor vehicle manufacturing industry has been destroyed because it has been intentionally made uneconomical by meddling politicians, it won’t really matter that EVs completely fail to live up to expectations and very few people end up buying them because they are too expensive and too impractical – not to mention downright hazardous. We will be left with a dwindling supply of secondhand ICE vehicles, which will become ever more expensive to purchase and to maintain, as well as being heavily taxed by government. End result – personal vehicle ownership will become an unaffordable luxury for many.

    Like

  383. The debate Mills’s article was based on:

    His opponent was something of an Elon Musk fanboy, who seemed to seriously believe that asteroid mining was imminent.

    Like

  384. Anybody give a number on how many small petrol stations with food/drink for locals will shut?

    Like

  386. Ross Clark has an interesting article in the Speccie entitled ‘Will Rishi Sunak’s electric car targets backfire?. It can be found here . A few extracts:

    ‘…the government has left in place most of the targets on the way to what had been the outright ban in 2030. Under the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, from next year each manufacturer will have to ensure that 22 per cent of the new cars they sell are zero emission (which in practical terms means pure electric as there is a dearth of hydrogen-powered cars on the market). If they fail to do this, they will have to pay severe fines of up to £15,000 per vehicle. The target will increase to 28 per cent in 2025 and 33 per cent in 2033.’

    ‘Electric cars sales have stalled at around one sixth of total cars sales for a couple of years now, but so far manufacturers have not faced a penalty for that. So what happens now that they are going to be penalised?’

    ‘It is hard to imagine that manufacturers will want to take the hit of hefty fines. If they cannot persuade enough of us of the merits of their electric range, the simplest answer will be for them to withdraw their petrol cars from the market. … That will result in a lot less choice for motorists, and may end up with some manufacturers withdrawing from the UK market altogether.’

    ‘The Zero Emission Mandate is arriving at a particularly difficult time. Some insurance companies have temporarily withdrawn from insuring electric cars owing to a lack of data on repair costs. They can be especially high in such vehicles owing to the high cost of batteries and the exposure of those batteries to physical damage in an accident. Moreover, the secondhand value of electric cars has been plummeting, which doesn’t help.’

    Ross concludes:

    ‘It all adds up to a pretty negative brew for manufacturers. The likely result of net zero will be a much-shrunken European car industry – as it can’t afford to sell us petrol models and relatively cheap Chinese-made electric cars (manufactured with the aid of copious quantities of coal power) undercut its electric offering.’

    In other words, the whole shebang is a ghastly and wholly unnecessary mess. I recommend that this is read in conjunction with the Mark P. Miles essay posted above.

    Liked by 2 people

  387. The top comment on the Ross Clark article:

    ‘What sort of insane Marxist would think it’s a good idea to fine companies for not selling enough of something people don’t want to buy?’

    Liked by 3 people

  389. So it would seem Jaime, but I cannot believe that’s their intention. Most probably it’s sheer stupidity.

    Like

  390. If it is stupidity Robin, it is extraordinarily persistent and stubborn in the face of reality. Even the stupidest of people eventually wake up to their error of their ways when the evidence is staring them in the face.

    Like

  391. Jaime: do you seriously believe that the government actually wants destroy the domestic motor vehicle manufacturing industry?

    Like

  392. Robin, IIRC one of the points made by Mattew Goodwin in his recent book “Values, Voice and Virtue” was that Western governments look to their international peers for legitimacy rather than to their electorate. Hence, if (as seems true) every governmental effort is to be made to achieve Net Zero targets then whatever stands in the way must be destroyed. It is just the price to be paid by ordinary people for the ‘luxury beliefs’ of the governing elites.

    The one chink of hope I have is that Sunak, having been Chancellor and now PM, knows (i) the whole Net Zero project is monumentally expensive, and (ii) moving towards rescuing both fossil fuels and reality may be the one way he can save his premiership and his party (and the country!) from even deeper immiseration and hardship. So far he has made the tiniest of baby steps away from the abyss. With the King’s speech tomorrow we may see whether (or not) he is trying to set himself/the country free, or whether (as I fear) he is only pretending.

    Regards,
    John.

    Like

  393. Robin,

    “Jaime: do you seriously believe that the government actually wants to destroy the domestic motor vehicle manufacturing industry?”

    It’s not a question of belief; it’s an assessment of the available evidence and deducing what is most logical and likely from that available evidence. I conclude that the most reasonable interpretation of the government’s behaviour is that they do indeed have the intention of destroying or seriously damaging the domestic and European motor manufacturing industry. This opinion is further backed up by an assessment of the government’s exceptionally deleterious behaviour in other areas: notably climate change policy in general, public health policy, energy policy, foreign policy and online ‘safety’ policy.

    Like

  394. John, people up and down the UK believe that Net Zero is a good policy. This is the result of a decade of promises from on high that it is all the things the sceptic knows it isn’t. So although when individual policies begin to bite opposition can be vociferous, the underlying belief remains that such policies (e.g. ULEZ) are not necessary to achieve Net Zero. We have been told that we can have our cake and eat it, and few are as obsessed as we sceptics in digging behind the hype to find out what Net Zero really means. So I don’t think international standing is so important. We have spent a decade feeding a monster that won’t be put back in its cage.

    Jaime, we are on the train to Electric Utopia, and even as one or two folk are nervously looking out of the window and wondering whether there is less land ahead than there ought to be, a voice is coming over the tannoy to announce that very soon we will be arriving at our final destination.

    Liked by 3 people

  395. Jit; thanks for that last paragraph which raised a chuckle. It put me in mind of those kids’ cartoons where the character runs off an edge into mid-air and then realises the predicament. As Douglas Adams put it, “hanging in the air in much the same way as bricks don’t”. We will shortly know the feeling…..

    Like

  396. John: regarding Net Zero targets, it certainly may be true that the government’s position is that ‘whatever stands in the way must be destroyed’. It certainly would seem to be so. On the other hand, it could possibly be true that Sunak understands both your points (i) and (ii). However, the King’s speech this morning didn’t indicate the slightest move towards setting ‘himself/the country free’. Assuming Sunak does understand your points, why was that? And the answer I suggest is simple: when it comes to major issues (such as immigration), he has proved to be weak – and cowardly.

    No, as I’ve said to you on the Net Zero Policy thread, our best hope is that the policy will prove to be completely unachievable – and that this will happen quite soon. Current problems re EVs are one example of how this is happening already. These are not problems that can be ‘destroyed’ whatever the government’s position may be.

    Best – R

    Like

  397. Jaime: I agree that the most logical conclusion from available evidence may be that the government wants to destroy the domestic motor vehicle manufacturing industry. But my question still stands: do you seriously believe that that is their intention?

    Like

  398. Jit: I’m not sure that people believe Net Zero is a ‘good policy’ but research certainly indicates that they support it. However research also indicates that they do not support Net Zero policies that impact their personal and family circumstances.

    Like Mikehig I loved your last paragraph although I’m not convinced that it’s really a good analogy.

    Like

  399. Hello Robin,

    Thank you for these comments. I understand and agree with your argument as far as it goes i.e. the Net Zero policies may indeed prove unworkable in the relatively near future. My worry is what happens then?

    Using the logic of the group-think which our major parties are drowning in, it cannot be the policy that is wrong. It must be, therefore, that we are not trying hard enough. Hence, we will need more of the pain rather than less, irrespective of Labour or Conservative government or, perhaps, even with a hung parliament.

    In short, how will we escape the doom-loop? I don’t yet see how our much diminished democracy can correct the ship of state. What are your thoughts one and all?

    Regards,
    John.

    Like

  400. John, you say:

    ‘My worry is what happens then?’

    A good question. And obviously I don’t know the answer. But I agree that our ‘leaders’ are most unlikely to accept publicly that the policy is wrong – although I’m pretty sure that there must be some who have their doubts. So what might happen? Well it’s hard to see how for example they could force people to buy a car they don’t want or cannot afford. Likewise, although they could make heat pumps obligatory, how would they deal with the costs of bigger radiators and enhanced insulation. They cannot force millions of people to pay money they haven’t got. And, in any case, there aren’t nearly enough skilled tradespeople to do the vast amount of necessary work. Then there’s the wind power conundrum. I suppose they could decide to pay suppliers the huge subsidies they’re now insisting are necessary – but they cannot, for example, make the materials shortages go away. Nor can they resolve the need for massive grid re-engineering by wishing it away – not least because there aren’t nearly enough skilled electrical engineers needed to do the necessary work. As for wind intermittency, no one knows a practical solution to that.

    So they’d be faced with practical problems they couldn’t resolve but couldn’t ignore. But they’re politicians and one thing that politicians are good at is finding palatable excuses for not following a previously announced policy. And that I suspect is what would happen.

    Best – R

    Like

  401. PS to the above: this exchange (John and myself) should really be moved to the UK Net Zero Policy thread. Mark?

    Like

  402. Robin,
    Thank you. The outcome you envisage seems quite likely to me since, as you say, politicians are very skilled at finding arguments for not following previously key policies. However, we need them not simply to tack away from their entrenched position but essentially to completely reverse direction. Politicians are not good at that – too much egg on face – unless they are completley new brooms untarnished by the failed policies of the past. Since the alternative parties seem, to date, to have little traction with the electorate I ask myself, “Where within the existing main parties are tomorrow’s Churchills to counter today’s Chamberlains?”

    If there is no-one to reverse course then we may be saddled with a partial change of direction. For example, a major expansion of nuclear while tight constraints on fossil fuels are maintained by the slightly modified all party group-think at Westminster . Those would be tough times to add to the many recently experienced.

    [Regarding thread discipline. Sorry if I am in the wrong one! These topics are so cross-cutting that I find it difficult to know where to comment.]

    Regards, John.

    Like

  403. Study from the US finds that EV mileages are lower than their ICE counterparts:
    https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1007100

    One explanation could be that they are mainly used for local runs, commuting etc while higher-mileage drivers stick with ICE. Or maybe it’s a quirk of the US market with its huge distances so may not relate to countries like the UK.
    Whatever the reason, if it does apply to other countries, it would have implications for the lifetime CO2 comparisons.

    Like

  407. I just came across this lovely comment:

    Imagine we lived in a world where all cars were EVs, and then along comes a new invention, the “Internal Combustion Engine”! Think how well they would sell: A vehicle half the weight, half the price that will almost quarter the damage done to the road. A vehicle that can be refuelled in 1/10th of the time and has a range of up to 4 times the distance in all weather conditions. It does not rely on the environmentally damaging use of non-renewable rare earth elements to power it, and use far less steel and other materials.

    Just think how excited people would be for such technology, it would sell like hot cakes!

    I’ve no information about the author.

    Liked by 3 people

  408. Green Crime: An Electric Car, Wind and Solar Crime Wave
    Green energy feeds a cycle of copper theft and environmentalist crime.

    Hmm … THIS could be a bit of a nuisance.

    This special guide from the US Department of Energy contains a wealth of fatuous comment, e.g: ‘This issue not only affects the convenience of EV owners but also poses a threat to the growth of EV adoption’ and ‘… the impact of theft on EV owners goes beyond the financial cost. It can also be a significant inconvenience, as EV owners may not be able to charge their vehicles and may need to find alternative charging options’. Wow – what insight!

    Like

  409. According to Pierre Goselin at NoTricksZone:

    “After vote in Brussels last Monday evening, a majority of the European Parliament favored a Commission proposal that would no longer automatically classify electric cars as climate-neutral vehicles.” This means:

    “In the proposal, the CO2 emissions of electric cars would depend on the electricity mix used to charge the car, meaning electric cars would not necessarily be classified as “electric only”.”

    Pigeons, meet cat……

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.