Diesel T6 Depreciation and What's around the corner

A study by a top uk university apparently states that if every street in the uk has just one electric vehicle plugged in to recharge, the National Grid wouldn't cope. Little thought has gone into the practical side of electric vehicles. The current swing to petrol will lead to panic levels of CO2 and another knee jerk reaction, annnnd diesels will be rack in favour.
Hydrogen cell units are the real future IMHO, hydrogen is the most plentiful gas available and the exhaust is pure water.

But when, at the most it’s only a thought, but I’m inclined to agree.
 
I got talking to a customer that moved into one of the houses we built and he is a wind turbine engineer, near to where I live are a lot of wind turbines (cornwall) and we were chewing the cud talking about his line of work when he told me the transformer that converts all the energy created by the turbines had been replaced x4 times in the last two years at £500,000 a time due to the fact that the grid that was installed in 1915 simply couldn't cope and the government or the power suppliers weren't prepared to pay to upgrade it so as previously stated in the thread I don't think we need to worry about our dirty diesels, I for one won't be selling mine as I can see the price of electricity rocketing when everybody switches to battery cars and hopefully diesel comes down in price :thumbsup:
 
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I believe that modern ceramic technology exists, whereby an engine can be built that pretty much won't ware out. But suspect manufacturers would resist going down this route as it eliminates designed in obsolescence. Huge marketing dilemma there. Offer a 100 year warranty in your sales pitch. 'The only car you'll ever need. Once you've all got one, we'll go bust':(

But on a serious note, looking at current concepts, I think even manufactures accept there is a move towards non personal ownership of cars for day to day transport. We'll just uber/google/Insta-tweetface and a pod will arrive at our door. Just like Knight Rider back in the 80's. ;) Algorithms will calculate optimal speed and route and even who else to collect on the way to pod share with.

The big problem will be the transition period between such automation and conventional cars. Imagine how as a driver you could exploit the programmed safety reactions of an automated car. You'd end up never giving way again. Plus the legislation required will be a minefield too.

So yeah, I agree with those above who say enjoy it while we can. Soon actually owning a car will be just for those who are not of a lazy persuasion and like the joy of driving a vehicle and /or can afford it as a hobby.

So let's drive? (Once I've filled up with diesel)........................(And found some adblue) ;)
 
Its taken many, many years to develop the diesel engine to become as refined, economical and, ' clean ', after everyone moved over to it from petrol. ( which I remember at the time was the environmental bad guy ).
I think its obvious that petrol will not become the, ' new diesel ', as we are rapidly moving across to hybrid/electric vehicles.
But, despite hybrid/electric vehicles having been around a little while now, its development is constantly changing, and whats the latest cutting edge battery/motor tech today will be old tech within a very short period. ( remember buying the latest PC back in the 90,s ?. Its tech/processor was old news by the time you'd inserted your first floppy disc ).

I'm not keen on having vehicle that no one wants after 5/6 years of ownership due to it having technology that seems in the dark ages compared to what would be currently available.
 
I can’t see them being able to produce an electric powered van that is economical to buy and cost buttons to run. If they do make one it will only be able to carry a small box as the amount of batteries needed to power it would be huge. If they made one to carry load then it would have a range of 50 miles lol. Maybe when there is a breakthrough in battery/power storage we may get electric vans but until then it is unlikely to be viable. They can maybe get away with passenger cars etc but think we will be a while before the diesel is dead yet. The daft thing is the boats that deliver all these shiney new electric vehicles spew out more toxins than all the vehicles on board lol. Just my 2p :thumbsup:
 
Another important factor is that EV’s need charging from electricity. Thats pretty basic, but as of today the share of renewables is around 20%... so there is a big probability that ev’s for the next 20 years still will be fueld by fossils... Maybe in a more efficient way, but by far still pretty close compared to an efficient diesel with regards to CO2.

In the cities its not only NOx that is a problem, its space and parking. EV’s will in not change that either.

Finally a Tesla x weight almost 2.5 tonnes. Heavy cars will cause more wear on roads and generation of dust and particles thats not quite good for us either.

Its really pretty easy: the future will bring all sorts if technology. Its not one solution that fit all purposes, except a VW bus :)

As you in England say, Keep calm and carry on...
 
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We'll see what VW used vans offer me as I've asked about changing my van (102 euro5) to a Kombi - Paid £17400+VAT last March (I didn't do my research into vans, I just wanted a Transporter), hopefully I ain't lost enough to put me off..

I agree with dieseldonkey in that ownership will not be an option for the normal Joe public - automated taxi app service you'll pay so much a month for so many miles per year.

Those owning EV's will have battery wall packs (Tesla) stuck on the side of their homes, trickle charging from the grid / solar - this will then charge the car without causing a high demand on the grid - will also power your house if needed during a power out.
 
What happens if you can’t get your EV parked anywhere near your house?
 
I requested an all electric smart car when mine went in for a service, it still had the price tag in the car @£20k. And I'll tell you now ,unless things greatly improve the future is not looking as rosy as they say.
It was lovely to drive but the range was far from ideal.
 
I work on a lot of the stations were electric is produced. To supply our wonderful land. We are only producing 5% more electricity than this country needs. And in most occasions were are having to buy in electricity from over sea’s to cope. The new environmental friendly stations we are building to replace the old ones are only producing 40% the electricity as the older one. So in affect for every old station that gets decommissioned/ closed down we need to build 3 new ones to get any gains. So for this electric car farse we need to be building at least 6 new for every old one. At least
 
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