Electric everything.

[al_yrpal]

The thought of the demise of 'banshee' motorbikes fills me with hope. As an ex V8 Stag owner I must admit driving past a high brick wall was a temptation to floor it. The air cooled lump in my Camper doesnt stir that desire.

I have been to many car shows, breakfast meets and classic rallies...all uniformly boring!

Big article in todays Torygraph on EVs

Al

[Mick F]

.......... As an ex V8 Stag owner ......

Saw a red Rover SD1 yesterday. V8 3.5L excellent condition.

[Jdsk]

With global weather patterns changing for the worse hydro-electric generation must have the potential to play a more significant role.

An amazing fraction of the world's damnable rivers has been dammed already. But I don't know how much more can come from hydroelectric generation. Any numbers, anyone, please?

What else hasn't been mentioned on the grid front... geothermal and tidal generation, and the importance of interconnects in an economy based on renewables.

Jonathan

[rjb]

With global weather patterns changing for the worse hydro-electric generation must have the potential to play a more significant role.

An amazing fraction of the world's damnable rivers has been dammed already. But I don't know how much more can come from hydroelectric generation. Any numbers, anyone, please?

What else hasn't been mentioned on the grid front... geothermal and tidal generation, and the importance of interconnects in an economy based on renewables.

Jonathan

Solar panels in orbit tethered to the ground, so unaffected by clouds. It's suggested that they could be arranged so we're always in sunlight day and night.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2020 ... from-space

[Stevek76]

What about cycling?
This is a cycling forum eh?

Well they're far more effective at sustainability than an electric car.

The amount of battery in an electric car could've made 50-100 ebikes.

[Mick F]

What about cycling?
This is a cycling forum eh?

Well they're far more effective at sustainability than an electric car.

The amount of battery in an electric car could've made 50-100 ebikes.

What about the rest of my quote?

Discounting wind, which route is quicker?
One where it's flat for 50miles, or one where it's 50miles of up and down hills?

Say a mile of 25% up and a mile of 25% down.
What about two miles on the flat?

Electric power to propel a vehicle, needs to consider the hills ...........

City flat, is easy.
City flat is easy ............. cycling as well as EV efficiency.

Go into the rural hills of the country, and mileage and average speed drop considerably ....... as does the power consumption.

[RickH]

Remember with an EV you can recover quite a bit of energy on the downhills & when slowing using the regen braking.

I remember an extreme example on a video (fairly sure it was Fully Charged Show on YouTube maybe 4 years ago). It was a press launch of a new EV somewhere mountainous (possibly Majorca) where they drove the demo cars up to a lunch in top of the mountain. Then they had to return to where hey started. The presenter commented that the return trip was something like 70 miles & the remaining range indicated was in the 30s. He set off back to the start & when he finished the remaining range was more than it was at the top of the mountain.

OK you don't get everything back but I'm yet to find a car that will unburn petrol or diesel when you use engine braking.

[Jdsk]

Remember with an EV you can recover quite a bit of energy on the downhills & when slowing using the regen braking.

Yes. And with less wear on the friction brakes and less particulate pollution.

OK you don't get everything back but I'm yet to find a car that will unburn petrol or diesel when you use engine braking.

: - )

But you can do it mechanically:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerat ... cal_energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_e ... ery_system

Jonathan

[Mike Sales]

Won't electric cars still pollute our roads with danger?
At least until robot drivers are perfected.

[biketips666]

These people who "drive for pleasure" that you quote are very small in number. Otherwise the roads would be jam-packed on a Sunday afternoon. The time when they are jam-packed is in the morning and the evening, when people are driving out of necessity, to get to work.

I take it you don't venture out into the countryside much at weekends?
Lakes,Dales,Peaks,Moors all rammed,especially with motorbikes on a Sunday.There are known 'meets' all over the UK that myself,and 1000s like me,ride to most Sundays.Do you think we do it just for a nice cup of coffee!?
Matlock Bath is like Blackpool prom on a Sunday,ditto Devils Bridge,Kirkby Lonsdale

I live in Yorkshire. I went to school in the Dales. I am familiar with the occasional weekend disturbance created by a small number of motorcyclists determined to deafen us all whilst proving something or other about their beloved machines. The number of motorcycles is very small, compared to motor cars:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/312 ... d-kingdom/

Do you seriously think all the Porsche,Ferrari,Aston,Lambo etc owners use them for necessity

I "seriously" think they buy a car out of necessity, and they buy a powerful sports car because they can afford to, and they enjoy the power. I used to enjoy the power of my 3 litre 250 bhp car. But I didn't enjoy the cost of the petrol, or the damage it did to the environment. I enjoyed the 292 bhp of the BMW 330 I hired last week. But that enjoyment had nothing at all to do with how the power was generated.

I have no sentimental attachment to the idea of 4 (or 6) cylinders rattling around inside a block of metal, waiting for a spark to arrive at just the right moment to ignite just the right mixture of petrol and air, in order to generate some kinetic energy, and a lot of heat, most of which is released uselessly, to keep the birds warm. I also look forward to not having to pay people to maintain such a ludicrously complicated power generator.

The drivers of sports cars you mention are such a tiny minority they are irrelevant.

Cars newly registered in 2018, in the UK - 2,367,147
https://www.statista.com/statistics/299 ... d-kingdom/
Porsches sold in 2018, in the UK - 12,437
https://www.statista.com/statistics/385 ... d-kingdom/
Porsches represent 0.5% of new cars.

Ferraris are less than a tenth even of Porsche:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/695 ... or-region/
Aston Martin? Yeah, right:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/385 ... d-kingdom/
Lambourghini, well, they're absolutely crushing sales of the Ford Focus:
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/mot ... s-in-2017/

I think your view on this is skewed (apparently the word "biased" is now banned from the forum - or maybe it was you who complained to the mods?). You have affection for vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine, and you gather for "meets" (as you put it) with people who share your interest. I think you are making a mistake based upon your own hobbies and your social milieu.

EDIT - feel free to check my figures. One poster has already spotted an error.

[[XAP]Bob]

I think you're looking at the wrong numbers - there are ~30M cars on the road, certainly not 30M new ones per year.

[biketips666]

I think you're looking at the wrong numbers - there are ~30M cars on the road, certainly not 30M new ones per year.

Oh yes, thanks. I've corrected the figures. It turns out the proportion of new cars which are Porsches is slightly less tiny than I originally stated.

[Psamathe]

My own (current) opinion is that EVs are a step in the right direction but are not a real answer and need to be combined with many other solutions. We need to travel less (e.g. more working from home and not wasting hours commuting). In some areas vehicle sharing, walking and cycling, fewer bigger shops by more people, etc.

EVs seem to be being pushed as a means to keep doing exactly what you are doing now but "doing is without pollution". I don't think maintaining existing transport habits is enough.

Ian

[Jdsk]

My own (current) opinion is that EVs are a step in the right direction but are not a real answer and need to be combined with many other solutions.

I don't know what "not a real answer" means. They are necessary but not sufficient. And, as you say, many other interventions are needed in transport, and in many other areas of life.

EVs seem to be being pushed as a means to keep doing exactly what you are doing now but "doing is without pollution".

Who's doing that pushing, please?

Jonathan

[Psamathe]

My own (current) opinion is that EVs are a step in the right direction but are not a real answer and need to be combined with many other solutions.

I don't know what "not a real answer" means. They are necessary but not sufficient. And, as you say, many other interventions are needed in transport, and in many other areas of life.
....

Not sufficient is a better way of phrasing it (or maybe I should have said " are not a enough of an answer ...."). So much of the talk (press Gov., etc.) is only about switching ICEs to EVs but little about the other necessary changes.

....

EVs seem to be being pushed as a means to keep doing exactly what you are doing now but "doing is without pollution".

Who's doing that pushing, please?

Jonathan

Thinking about press, all the talk on infrastructure, dates to end new ICE car sales (Gov.), etc. No one person/group specifically, just ICEs bad/EVs good no talk about less travel and all the other changes we need to be making. I feel over-focusing on just one aspect of the challenges.

Ian