Fossil Fuels

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John
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Fossil Fuels

Post by John »

The new (to us) car we purchased just before our recent break in The Kingdom of Fife wasn't exactly what I had in mind, very nearly but it had to be a diesel. It's a Vauxhall Zafira Tourer with the 2 litre diesel engine, but I wanted an automatic. Petrol automatics, if available, were 60% more expensive, which just wasn't viable.
The whole purpose was to carry us, the two mums and luggage for four and this it did admirably. As regards the issues around pollution it's a recent model and there was never so much as a hint of smoke or diesel smell the whole time. The particulate filter got a good warming with the four and a half hour journey there and back, so that should be totally clear and effective.
Fuel consumption is brilliant, with a range of just over 500 miles and hardly any refuelling during the whole week. Just so much better than our 1.8 Astra petrol car.
So we shall see how it evolves. This week diesel is bad, next week who knows. Even electric cars are not so environmentally friendly once the manufacturing process is factored in. I also don't fancy sitting on top of a massive bank of lithium batteries, which are prone to being a fire hazard. In any event, the range and cost are not tenable at this stage. We saw quite a few electric recharging pints on the motorway, but not one single car using them. It could take quite a while before the electric car takes over. Then we can wonder about how the electricity is generated in the first place.
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Mike
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Re: Fossil Fuels

Post by Mike »

Electric cars are much better for the local environment, you can generate electricity for them cleanly (PVs), central energy generation is also more efficient (power plants) and the only downside is the lithium usage.

All in all I would love to be able to own an electric car.
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Re: Fossil Fuels

Post by John »

Mike has indeed now been running an electric car for the past few months, and was even brave enough to take it to France and back.

Perhaps he'll give us an update?
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Re: Fossil Fuels

Post by Mike »

We love the electric car, it’s a real fun drive and for 95% of our local driving the range is more than adequate.

I find that if we are going long distances it’s best to drive slightly slower (65mph) as there is a dramatic drop off in range as you get to 70mph and the rare time you drive in France at circa 80mph it falls though the floor.

Charging for long distances takes a lot longer than expected, i think my car throttles the charge wattage which is annoying. Instead of 20 minutes 20-80% it takes about 40 minutes.

All in all I won’t go back to petrol and need to think about getting solar panels on the house to trim our charging costs.
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Re: Fossil Fuels

Post by John »

Thanks Mike!

I would ultimately like to see induction charging under main roads, so cars could charge as they go. When they went off the grid the range wouldn't be a problem, picking up charge again when they went back to the A roads or motorways. The downside is that a civil engineering job of unprecedented disruption might be need to fit the system......and probably hundreds of billions in costs.

In the meantime, I really like the idea of solar panels.
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