General Chat

Not sure how effective this would be but how about cars with one or two solar panels on their roofs? The government could then try to persuade truck, bus and train owners to convert from diesel (and eventually petrol) by piling up the price of diesel and petrol. It would make a change from inner city local authorities constantly penalising car owners through congestion charges. Why not simply increase tax on fuel? If you've ever wondered why the government hasn't already done that, think what happens in France when the truckies aren't happy then add all vehicle owners into the mix.

Our MPs need to think more comprehensively and outside the box as well as inside. And definitely before they open their mouths or legislate.

Do ou ever wonder what qualifications and experience ministers and their advisers bring to the table? Precious little if the garbage about the 2040 deadline is anything to judge by.

Interesting though JoyLousie
How about the Government put solar panels on everyones homes for free therefore generating solar power for the country.

I am wondering how farms would work / manage using electic vehicles!

Farms are much bigger today than they used to be, & the once small fields are now huge swathes of land, I just can't see the farmers not able to use the various deisel run tractors, combines & the like!!
Would electric farm vehicles work?

Joan.

That's a good idea, Caroline. Wonder if we could plant it in some ministers' minds?

At least put them on all public buildings.

Try here
Http://www.tesla.com
And maybe some of the content will stick.

It is not a good idea to conflate the issues of electrical vehicles and carbon free power generation. For instance Australia is still heavily dependent on coal fired power stations. As a result a Tesla 3 in Oz has a bigger carbon footprint than a srandard petrol driven car. All the same things are changing Queensland has extensive plans for instance.

There is nothing new in heavy duty electrical motive power it has been in use for over a century. The major show stopper for automonous vehicles has been power. Tesla and others are cracking the problem resulting in an unexpected paradigm shift. Whatever they may claim governments have no power over it any more than they could save the sailing ship, typewriter or fax machine. When the writing is on the wall for a technology it tends not to last long.

Now we have two bedrock technologies changing in parallel.
1. Electrical vehicles battery powered with better performance overall than I.C.E.
2. Solar and wind power far cheaper than nuclear and soon to be cheaper than gas on a level playing field.
It is going to create one heck of a rumble starting now not in 20 years time. Brexit by comparison is very small beer.

The Vw saga has shown that Ice perfomance has maxed out. Battery performance has hardly got started.

An incidental benefit will be a slowing climate change.

"Solar and wind power far cheaper than nuclear"
..but for whom, and for how long?
Chances are, those with solar panels who make a profit may find their storage battery costs rising!!
If a private company can fleece the public 9/10 times it will :-|

Rollo mentioned a credit crunch a few posts earlier.

From a car finance point of view, this might shed some light on the thinking

Are the wheels about to fall off car finance?
https://www.ft.com/content/0e651206-0ee1-11e7-a88c-50ba212dce4d

Credit crunch WARNING: Bank of England fears reckless lenders could spark financial crisis
http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/824555/
Bank-England-sub-prime-financial-crisis-debt-credit-car-finance

Going back to the original post, wasn't it based on no NEW petrol/diesel powered cars to be sold after 2040? If so, second hand ones will continue to exchange hands. That would give up to 15 years before they are off the roads. Of course, if continental Europe isn't following suit, there'll be a market for buying there and shipping home.

We do need to exploit natural energy, but the sun may not shine, nor the wind blow. New build houses are required to include solar panels. However the housebuilders only add the bare minimum. Even on a sunny day in the UK, they won't necessarily produce enough energy to fuel the household let alone feed into the grid.
Plant them in the countryside and more often than not, you're taking fertile farm land out of production. You might get a bit of grazing between the rows, but thats about it.
More could be done to harness the methane produced by decomposition in land-fill sites.

"And maybe some of the content will stick."

Well that depends are there any pretty pictures, that always helps or nice music in the background.

Battery power transportation doesn't work; at the moment; too well in extreme temp. which a lot of the world faces at some point in the year.

As Maggie said private companies aren't worried about climate change etc they're worried about profit margins and fleecing the public and Governments for as much as they can get....they might do loss leaders for a while but once you're hooked......

What on earth makes anybody think that the UK will do anything other than follow the herd? It does not have native technology (except in niche areas), economic size or political clout to do anything else.

Consider a bus with electrical motor and power source Tesla type batteries which work fine at -30C. Compared to a diesel bus much better acceleration, regenerative braking, drastically reduced maintenance, zero emissions. Not only is a classic bus now a poor buy but so are used vehicles which will slump in price. This could badly upset leasing company cash flow.

Much the same applies to cars.
Tesla have taken 400 000 orders for their 3 series badly denting BMW sales. Delivery is 2018 not 2040. The auto industry will be switching to electric power as fast as it can to stay alive. selling new ice cars will get tough and used ones even tougher.

Welcome to now.

Solar power and wind power don't create enough energy for habitations/industry, let alone electric cars.
So how is the 'extra' electricity created for electric cars?

At this time "renewable" power sources account for about half of the power fed into the National Grid.

Electric vehicles with batteries when charging the battery draw power from the Nat grid. They do not use solar or wind power directly.

As transport energy usaage based on carbon falls additional electrical power will be essential. The Torys would prefer this to be based on gas, nuclear. Market reality suggest more renewables more wind farms and solar. Probably more acceptable than shale gas extraction in the New Forest.

Sailing boats of course can manage long distances with only wind power while solar power provides all kinds of electronic luxuries unthinkable when I was a youngun learning to sail a Thames barge. UK harbors rathet spoil the savings with exorbitant mooring fees.