What's the next part where the price will go through the roof?

[Laverda Dave]

It is a fact there is not enough raw materials world wide to make the number of batteries required just for the UK to go electric by 2030 or 2035 depending what report you read. In addition, if we go electric as planned every petrol station will have to be turned into the size of a football pitch full of chargers. And then there's the people who live in flats in large towns and cities. Housing developers now are only interested in building blocks of flats to maximise their returns. London is full of new developments of flats, they are fitting them into every tiny corner of land. How are these people going to charge their vehicles (and park them). There is a government policy to change the way we travel and personal transport is at the bottom of the list.

[royhall]

There will be plenty of petrol for the life of our classic bikes but it will be expensive and full of crap.

[Sesman]

The sub station won’t melt I’m afraid. Although you might plug your car in when you return home at tea time, the smart grid won’t let you charge until much later. Most commutes are less than 100miles round trip, so charge replenishment  time won’t be a problem either. As for raw materials and ‘production capacity’ you may revise your opinions when you see the number of industrial scale battery plants being built. I know cos I’m involved in building them.

Relatively at least, Fossil fuel is finished, with fission coming a close second. We are going  electric and it’s coming to you soon. As for charging points, take a look at the New Building Regulations Part L. And yes, there will be a work revolution and large scale office space will become a thing of the past. And yes, public transportation will also be reenergised, for those who choose to travel.

[royhall]

Ahh Utopia land. It's actually the land of fairy tales. The reality does not match the hype. So now we have to charge the car when Big Brother dictates it's okay, that's yet another nail in the plans coffin.

None of what is being said is actually achievable at all let alone in the next 8 years. Sorry to rain on the parade but this is being pushed by politicians so it just wont happen (it should happen, and it needs to happen) but it just wont. There's neither the will to change nor the vast sums of money required to make it happen.

The only person I know that actually wants an EV wants a Tesla for the performance, all the rest say they wouldn't buy one in a lifetime, all planning on keeping what they have until it drops. If all the plans come to together it still wont be enough to stop GW, one large office block takes less to heat that 500 individual homes. Power use went through the roof during the work from home period of the pandemic. More GW. When they admit the problem is population explosion then they can try and deal with it. Genocide anyone? 

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I think all MPs, civil servans, then local councilors  should be forced to use electric cars paid for by themselves (no grants) then be made to trial heat pumps before they ban gas boilers. If that eventually works out then all Political Party Members then finally the public. A nice considered roll out.

I think I am right that they tried heating the Albert Hall with heat pumps about a hundred years ago and it did not work - using the Thames as the ground heat source - seem to think it came up during a Thermodynamics  lecture.

[Sesman]

Not sure we are anywhere near reality…yet.

[Sesman]

Heat pumps, now that’s something I evidentially know something about. I certainly wouldn’t entertain one….until I have to.🤔

[Oddjob]

No one seems to have mentioned Hydrogen power. Getting a motorcycle tank to accept Hydrogen may be an easier solution than electric. Plus Hydrogen is an non exhaustible solution, so long as there is water there is Hydrogen.

[Sesman]

Yes, hydrogen is being used very effectively, being heavily promoted in some sectors for embedded generation. The emergence of the net carbon zero programme, I suspect it will raise its profile further.
The big issue with hydrogen is production and transport….it’s mostly used on the site of production for that reason alone.

[royhall]

Hindenberg.

Plus it takes more energy to produce the hydrogen than is in the hydrogen. Good idea to use surplus wind power to make hydrogen on offshore rigs next to the wind farms as a sort of battery, but not really mass production. Unlikely to ever make it to personal transport more chance of use for HGV etc.

Don't forget that all these wonder solutions also have a carbon footprint that needs to be taken into account. Absolutely nothing about any form of energy is green, this is the problem. The manufacture of new machinery of all sorts produces huge amounts of carbon.

But don't worry about petrol for our classics, it will still be around long after most of us are gone. Strangely Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe but combines so easily with other elements that it rarely occurs naturally in a usable form. Again a carbon footprint to get at it.

A million great ideas and not one of them is feasible in the real world. They know GW cannot be stopped, due to massive population explosion. Transport is just a small section of the problem. They really and quickly need to get a grip on the real causes of GW and cut the bullshit.

[Bryanj]

I refer to somebody in the pasts comment.

You can tell when an MP/CIVIL SERVANT/COUNCILOR is lying  as their lips are moving!

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I am of the blinkered view that Global Warming (GW) is not primarily a man made issue - interesting that there are no research funds available in the UK if you want to study for a Doctorate  to prove  that GW is not  a man made problem.

I think before the next election that our Nigel should form a political party to scrap the proposed ban on Gas Boilers & ICE propulsion. They would get my vote!

[Sesman]

I agree. I can’t help thinking it’s just a push to generate a whole new world industrial economy…..but I’m a pessimist.

One things a cert, we will be unconscious participants without collective influence.

I mean, I never heard of objection when the new modern pension was unleashed, effectively robbing the over 50s of ten years worth of SERPS/SP2 contributions amounting to around £3500 a year in pension.

Have we lost the thread here…?

[Oddjob]

I always wondered why someone didn't sue the Government for breach of Contract, they made a contract with everyone to pay pension at 65 or 60 if you were a woman, yet they broke that contract and no one said a thing.

I had to work an extra year because I missed the cutoff date by a few months, cost me another year of NI contributions and a loss of £700 a month in pension payments.

Also we were still in the EU when this happened, so they were supposed to conform to EU guidelines on pension age yet they ignored all that. They retire much earlier in France for instance.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I always wondered why someone didn't sue the Government for breach of Contract, they made a contract with everyone to pay pension at 65 or 60 if you were a woman, yet they broke that contract and no one said a thing.

I had to work an extra year because I missed the cutoff date by a few months, cost me another year of NI contributions and a loss of £176 a month in pension payments.

Also we were still in the EU when this happened, so they were supposed to conform to EU guidelines on pension age yet they ignored all that. They retire much earlier in France for instance.

Wendy had to work another 6 years her pension age moved from 60 to 66 as she was born in 1954.