Electric cars.

The issue with these EV battery fires has been a lack of guidelines to develop fire safety in both the cars and the recharging infrastructure.

Yet you have these environmentalists that tend to focus on we should be subsidizing the EV revolution greater and installing charging points at a faster rate, all well if the safety of those that tackle fires have the appropriate training and equipment.

The European Union only this year established a task force to develop fire safety guidelines, you would of thought this would of been priority within the EU states before pushing the EV agenda.

Are we prepared to tackle the risk of EV fires?

 

New chargers that were recently installed at a carpark in Ambleside which is just opposite lake Windermere.

 

That could be a shocking experience.

 

Slightly off topic but about batteries.
I'm Seeing in the news about batteries causing fires in rubbish at recycling centres, I just wonder what you have to do to these batteries to get them to burst into flames.

I just hope that some of the kids dont find a way of setting them off, because if its possible they will.

 

They are now calling battery fires the same as peat bog fires, "Zombie fires" and they are causing more fires at waste recycle plants and in properties than first thought. In 2020 it was estimated that 250 fires at waste recycling plants and inside refuge collection trucks was caused by lithium-ion batteries, that related to batteries causing 38% of these fires. New reports suggest those figures were not correct and 700 fires annually are caused by poorly discarded batteries.

Wait until there is more HGV trucks going electric, when your having batteries that can weigh up to 4 tonnes then distinguishing one of these or controlling it will be considerably more difficult.

JANUS FIRE CAUSES TRAFFIC CHAOS IN MELBOURNE | Truck & Bus News (truckandbus.net.au)

 

Over the last 6 weeks two new EV charging points have opened at two retail parks in our area. The one nearest my home is operated by "Instavolt" with eight chargers and a maximum power of 160kWh @ 85p per kWh. Morrison's is only 100 metres away and petrol is 135.9 with local independent stations charging 137.9.
Electric Vehicle (EV) Rapid Charging Station - Whitehaven (instavolt.co.uk)

New car registrations for November were released a week ago with 156,525 units being registered. This is the markets best November since 2019 with only 96 less units being registered in November 2023. HEV's and PHEV's have still shown good growth but new registrations of BEV's has declined by 17.1% of those registrations, 5603 new BEV's were sold by the retail sector.
A lot of sites are using the, problems in the supply chain for the drop in new BEV's registrations where the likes of the RAC and This is Money, say it is down to the high costs of public charging points.

 

And what's the bet, that by the end of 2024 the governments target of all new car registrations, 22% must be fully electric will be missed. The market share for BEV's in 2023 was 16.4% compared to 15.1% in 2021, highly unlikely the 22% mandate target will be made.

I think 2024 will not be a good year for the uptake of BEV's in the UK and other countries. The French have reacted to the US regarding subsidies. The French had in the past offered up to €7000 in subsidies on all electric cars up to a set price, they will continue to do so but now only to cars manufactured in the EU. In 2023 Chinese manufactured cars accounted for 33% of all subsidies paid out as it made their cars more affordable compared to European equivalent models. The Tesla model s and the MG were in the top 4 of most registered BEV's but now they will not qualify for the subsidies.

One of the main reasons why the uptake in BEV'S is stalling is affordability, so why stop the subsidies to imported BEV's if they are so concerned about climate change, more like protectionism. He is pushing Brussels to have an EU directive that all members only offer subsidies to cars manufactured with in the Bloc.

 

SMMT have released new car registrations for 2023 and there was 1,903,054 new registrations, a 17.9% increase on 2022.

Even though there was a 17.8% increase in fully electric car registrations, the market share on BEV cars has actually slipped from 16.6% (267,204 units) in 2022 to 16.5% (314,687 units) for 2023. Now the UK mandate on zero emission cars is now in force @ 22%, then if total new registrations for 2024 are exactly the same as 2023, then 418,671 must be fully zero emissions.

Even though the sales of fully combustion engine cars has increased the market share has also declined by 1.6% (petrol) and 1.3% (diesel). The MHEV, HEV and PHEV are the sectors that have increased their market share.

I think we are the only country that has a yearly mandate on how many new car and van registrations must be fully electric and has zero subsidies for private sales.

 

I thought I heard that manufactures will be fined if they dont sell something like 22% per year, by a certain date.
Who thought that one up, the chancellor.
It would serve them right if all car manufacturers just got out of the country.

 

Obvious sign of the dumbing down of folks. Lets plug in the Electric car to recharge. The electricity is made by coal etc. SMH

 

But we have gas I believe, mostly imported, cant rely on the wind, we really need to get some nuclear reactors going, but there seems to be lots of feet being dragged for some reason.
Strange how Nuclear was considered dirty and, for the UK at least, not worth continuing with, after being a world leader in the 60s.