Motorcycle ban

[Deleted User 18408]

Sorry that this link is a duplicate from another EV thread.

From The Guardian,
Rare earth elements hold the key to a carbon-free future, but a new report reveals the UK’s shortcomings and vulnerabilities

The full article is worth a read, but the gist of it is
" CRM. It stands for “critical raw materials”. It turns out that an all-electrical future won’t be possible without secure supplies of certain elements we extract from the Earth’s crust. And we’re discovering that there are rather a lot of these critical elements. A full roll call runs from antimony to strontium via cobalt, lithium, magnesium, platinum, tantalum – not to mention other stuff of which this columnist had until recently been blissfully unaware."

Without secure and affordable access to these CRMs we risk banning the old and not be prepared for the new.

[Data]

I actually find that electric cars are surprisingly noisy - there's a lot of tyre noise and various strange whines from the drive - easily audible to a pedestrian without headphones on. A petrol engine adds surprisingly little at low speeds anyway, assuming its got a decent exhaust! On the other hand, I did have an electric scoot whizz past me in the estate, and that WAS quiet!

Completely agree Grumpy!

My own petrol car is about as quiet as the Kia E-Niro even at low speed. Is it because my Car is very very quiet? No, it's because the E-Niro makes a noise all of it's own and there isn't actually a problem hearing it coming. In fact at speeds under around 18mph, you pretty much cannot distinguish between a modern petrol car and the E-Niro. I'm pretty sure it's the same for most other pure EV's too as they produce an artificial noise to let you know they are coming. I think the issue is with Hybrids that do seem to be exceptionally quiet at low speeds and many older ones don't produce an artificial noise, certainly as far as I can tell from the ones I've driven. My neighbour has a Lexus Hybrid which in EV mode is very very quiet and I think is most likely the sort of car folks are referring to as a problem car. All modern pure EV's emit an artificial sound and it's hard to not hear them coming. It's not an ice engine noise though, and that's the thing that might be confusing people. It's more of a whining noise. You may not immediately recognise it as a car coming. But we are all starting to become accustomed to this. On the move most electric cars make pretty much the same amount of noise as a petrol car with the exception that inside the cabin they are that bit quieter than an ice car.

[richie the 1st]

If some idiot gets killed by a vehicle because he/she can't be bothered to look then it's natures way of stopping them breeding.

to bleeding busy on the phone

[Waldorf]

knight2 wrote:

[/quote]
When eletric vehicles started appearing on our roads there was a lot of discussion about making them emit a noise of some sort so they could hear them approaching and this what I thought ( incorrectly ) you meant. So in that case yes, you're right. What I would say is good luck with that because I think you will have the same amount of success as has been had trying to get cyclist to realise that HGV's are bad for their health. Despite all that has been done and it is a hell of a lot they will still cycle up the N/S of a HGV (or LGV as they are now called) even if it's indicators are flashing and then blame the driver when they get flattened, if they are still alive. I think the same will happen with electric vehicles the onus will be on the driver.
[/quote]

Thank you; I hate to be at loggerheads with anyone.
As has been said so many times: the typed word in forums and so on is so easily misunderstood through lack of inflection of speech and so on.
As for success: I live in hopes but don't hold out much in that department.

[knight2]

Your more than welcome:-)

[Richard1961]

I think the hydrogen powered eletric engine is way forward... there is now enough hydrogen to supply and infrastructure is already there. They just need to adapt at least two pumps per garage to deliver hydrogen...
But currently government is backing plug on eletric engines...as they are biggest lobbyists in parliament.
As a footnote. My friend is an electrician and he is very busy installing special meters in properties for eletric power car charging points. Government has legislated these so they can record and charge a levi on charging vehicles, separately from your domesticeletric meters. ... so pure eletric plug in vehicles will become more expensive to charge in future Hence another good reason to have hydrogen powered eletric engines.

[capitano]

I think the hydrogen powered eletric engine is way forward... there is now enough hydrogen to supply and infrastructure is already there. They just need to adapt at least two pumps per garage to deliver hydrogen...
But currently government is backing plug on eletric engines...as they are biggest lobbyists in parliament.
As a footnote. My friend is an electrician and he is very busy installing special meters in properties for eletric power car charging points. Government has legislated these so they can record and charge a levi on charging vehicles, separately from your domesticeletric meters. ... so pure eletric plug in vehicles will become more expensive to charge in future Hence another good reason to have hydrogen powered eletric engines.

If only it were that simple

Hydrogen is less energy-dense than petrol and diesel, making hydrogen powered ICE very inefficient and ineffective.

On top of that, and despite the stories that they only produce water as a by-product, they emit an unhealthy amount of NOx.

Hydrogen fuel cells (used as a hybrid system to charge batteries powering electric motors, ) by contrast, are a great idea.

Funnily enough, I'm an electrician too. What the new EV charging ( smart meter) regulations actually say is that all new EV chargers sold from July this year, must have smart capability.

What it's for is to allow EV chargers to be remotely switched to take advantage of off peak electricity.

It can be overridden by the user to allow them to charge at peak rates but that obviously costs them more.

(To add a Maxi Muppets admin point, you are welcome to state your views on this but please don't make two separate posts, one on a new separate topic, saying the same thing. One has been deleted this time)

[Data]

I think the hydrogen powered eletric engine is way forward... there is now enough hydrogen to supply and infrastructure is already there. They just need to adapt at least two pumps per garage to deliver hydrogen...
But currently government is backing plug on eletric engines...as they are biggest lobbyists in parliament.
As a footnote. My friend is an electrician and he is very busy installing special meters in properties for eletric power car charging points. Government has legislated these so they can record and charge a levi on charging vehicles, separately from your domesticeletric meters. ... so pure eletric plug in vehicles will become more expensive to charge in future Hence another good reason to have hydrogen powered eletric engines.

There certainly isn't the infrastructure for hydrogen & 'green hydrogen' is still in its infancy. Currently it's a very dirty fuel regarding CO2 production during the manufacture of it. For those that don't know, currently the majority of hydrogen is produced by burning oil or gas! So you convert one fairly efficient (oil or gas) fuel to a less efficient fuel, producing huge amounts of CO2 in the process. In addition, hydrogen is stored under pressure. Unfortunately, it needs very special storage tanks to prevent the hydrogen from leaching out of storage. Car fuel tanks also need to be very specialised. Even with special tanks the hydrogen gradually seeps away. It's incredibly hard to store. There are some tanks that can store it without loss but these are incredibly heavy & massively expensive.

As Capitano says, the 'special meters' are nothing to worry about. My neighbour has one. It's yet another case of unjustified internet worry which seems very prevalent in this thread with lots of myths & half truths, and quite extreme views from some individuals probably due to lack of information.

The thing here is battery tech is moving at a pace. Lithium Ion batteries are brilliant, but after this initial rush for them the demand will slowly switch to other types that do not require rare earth elements. Some of those new batteries are ready or near ready for production. It's unlikely seabed mining for materials will be driven by EV batteries, at least, not for long, although now it's been discovered other things may drive it. The BBC forgot to say that. Sodium batteries as just one example, require no rare earth elements yet will give fantastic performance. There are other types to.

We can't afford to delay EV introduction. Ice cars produce a massive amount of CO2. EV bikes will come with long ranges & fast charging soon. There's no need for this almost E10 type of hysteria fuelled by the left wing media & YouTubers who want to make money. And trust me, you can make large sums of money making YouTube videos denigrating just about anything! I have ex colleagues who are actually developing EV engines & batteries. There isn't anything bad about EVs or the batteries coming. It will also be possible to swap out lithium ion batts for alternatives at some point in the future. I'd also remind folks that all lithium ion batteries will soon be fully recyclable in special centres. This is already happening on a smaller scale, mostly because there are few lithium ion batteries that currently need recycling.

[Data]

Just an aside note. Bro has been to Edinburgh & back in the EV. He meandered to various cities on the way up & on the way back. He covered 835 miles. Total cost to charge the EV was £10.40 for the entire journey. This was the cost to fully charge it before leaving home. All other charging was free. His best range from 100% down to 5% was 289miles travelling mostly at 60mph. I must say he was travelling light, by himself. No shortage of charging facilities on the main routes he said. Sounds pretty good to me!

[OneFootInTheGravy]

I will freely admit that I am more than a little naive when it comes to all things EV related. I am curious though, how was the rest of the charging on his trip free? I was under the impression you had had to pay to use public EV charging points, or are there other charging options available?