Vocal Voices

The government says they are going to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2035. Really?
It could happen I suppose but I don't see any signs of the extra power stations being built that will be needed if we all end up in battery powered cars.
Plus, are they going to ban diesel powered lorries, trains and ships? Which are very polluting. I can't see people being very happy being told they can't drive a petrol car when Eddie Stobart is still trundling around in 44 tonne trucks with huge diesel engines.
Then there are planes as well!

I can't see it somehow, for a start how will people without garages at home charge them? Don't you need a docking station of some sort?

Scotland is 2032 and has been for a while. Norway is 2025 and it has been driving demand like mad. Norway is now ~50% for EV vehicles on the road.

I challenged the whole grid issue and got back the following.

1. Whilst transport is more than electric today, half of it is trucks, busses and shipping.
2. EV's are 50% more efficient in energy use than FF cars.
3. EV's can charge overnight when you sleep or slowly throughout the day
4. EV'S do not charge every day nor for the whole day

Estimates vary but around 30% uplift in the grid is estimated for transitioning every personal vehicle in the UK today. With the current grid able to charge EV's overnight at a rate of around 2m per year (current UK car sales).

Charging prices could force overnight charging.

Yes flats, street parking and charging are an issue, but they have 15 years to sort it.

Setting the target now drives change to EV and the build out of grid and charging Infrastructure.

It is viable if the government do what needs to be done. One of which is to complete Hinckley point C and then another one in the pipeline.

The part of the street I live on has 52 dwellings, only on-street parking, and seven lamp posts. Sort that out and the tens of thousands of places like it in 15 years! And at the same time sort out the thousands of tower blocks, maisonettes, the miles of terrace houses.... yeah, right.

And whilst all that infrastructure stuff is being done they are going to sort out the increase in the baseload electricity supply!

There are currently approximately 265,000 electric cars and another 9,000 Evans on UK roads, with a few hundred of other buses and lorries all serviced by 29,500 charging points.. They are all part of the 38.9 million currently registered vehicles, of which 32.5 million are cars... the sort of vehicles the government wants to do away with. EVs make up 0.009%. In order to 'go green' we are going to have to swap out 2,167,000 vehicles every year for 15 years, yes, every year for 15 years!

At present there are about 10 cars per charging point. If that stays roughly the same we will need about 3,500,000 of them.

As things stand this stuff is in the same league as the 'grow your own' foody dream.

I didn't say it wasn't. I said it was not impossible or quite as bad as it was painted.

Most of those chargers in the UK are 7kw. Which means it will take all day to charge a moderate sized EV battery.

My work has 4x7kw chargers per car park and one of the car parks takes 2,600 cars.

My daughter was looking at one but is in a new build with shared off street parking which is 50m from her house. No chance of an electric supply and her route to work is a charger wasteland.

But, simply put, if we do not try then we will never do it and we have to get off FF. There really is no choice on that.

So whilst it looks really bad today, with 15 years of funding, ideas, power grid upgrade and charging initiatives and we will be at least part ready for those 2.5m vehicles.

If you want to check it out, there is a V2G standard in the UK which will use EV power to stabilise the grid and balance renewables.

By 2100 there will be so many second use EV batteries in the UK, that with judicious use of laws to mandate re-use of these batteries we could mitigate even a ful week slump in wind power.

The possibilities are there. Taking a realistic viewpoint is key but nothing will happen unless we stick a stake in the ground to force investment.

" End of petrol and diesel cars?"

Yes, I'm afraid it will have to come, like it or not.

Humans just cannot continue to putting more and more vehicles of the roads worldwide.
That would undoubtedly bring about impossible conditions. We must just put a stop the way we are damaging the planet.