Electric cars.

This is a compressed air battery, they do exist and there are a few larger stations using caves and so on as you say.
Compressed-air energy storage - Wikipedia
You can also do it in cylinders but you need a lot of them.

There are also kinetic energy ones where they spin a chunk of metal extremely fast in a vacuum, and reduce its speed to recover energy.
The largest scale is using gravity: you lift something heavy (like water!) up into a big area (like a mountain lake) and then let it fall down and recover the energy from the gained kinetic energy as it falls.

 

Wimbledon: Electric double-decker bus catches fire during rush hour

Obviously using a charger bought on E bay.

 

I'm seeing adverts for a Nissan Quasimodo or some such motor and the slogan says powered by petrol driven by electric, it then says unplugged.

Is there a point to this, or is it just another hybrid.

 

I have been doing a little bit of research to see how the new car market has performing over the years to see if we are being priced off the road, this is car sales in general.

So I tried to find the sales of 2019, pre covid for comparison, which is not so easy as most of these sites have stopped showing a chart of historical statistics. I could only find a site that gave figures of new car sales up to 2018.

So in 2018, there was 1,222.849 new registrations in the fleet sector compared to 1,085.381 in 2023, a drop of 13% roughly. Private sales in 2018 were 1,052202 compared to 817,673 a drop of 29% roughly.
Now when you do an average from 2013 to 2018 the drop of in sales of private cars compared to 2023 is 39% roughly where as fleet sales have had a drop off in sales of 15% roughly.
With such a drop off in new private sales, I wonder if it will be the demise of car dealerships that deal in new cars, most new Tesla cars are sold online.

I pulled some invoices from a basic Kia Picanto I took out on a 3 year lease in 2017. This was based on 10k miles annually, non maintenance and was 3+35 monthly payments of £136.57.
From a comparison site, the basic Kia Picanto on the same length contract, now is 3+35 monthly payments of £266.77. So when they said fully electric cars would soon be parity with a combustion engine car is not down to electric cars getting cheaper the cost of a combustion engine car is catching up with them.

When our current lease ends in August 2026 I would say that will be the end of me taking out a new car on contract. Can't justify paying in excess of £266 per month just for a small hatchback which excludes insurance, maintenance and fuel, regardless of fuel type. Priced off the road, pure and simple.

 

Right, thanks FC, I thought there must be a difference, but I cant see the point.
I know all electric vehicles have have a power station in tow but this sounds slightly stupid.

 

I agree about the rise in interest rates plus shortages of raw materials due to Covid and a plummeting pound due to Liz Truss, but that does not justify the huge increase in monthly payments.
From what I have heard, car dealers are under investigation for inflating costs on loans on both new and second hand cars, could be the new PPI scandal.


UK car finance: ‘millions of drivers could get payout’ as watchdog investigates | Financial sector | The Guardian

 

Also, manufacturers have been focusing on building cars where there profits don't take a hit.
Historically, the best selling cars in Europe will be down two main reason's, affordability and they all tend to be small hatch backs in general.

Europe: 1972-2022 Historical Data available.

Not everyone wants a large car even if they could afford one. Some or most of these subsidies don't help those on lower incomes. Some of these subsidies take into account range and weight of the car, the better the range of the vehicle will contribute to getting maximum subsidy, but then the car is less likely to fall into the affordability bracket, both new and second hand.