Electric cars.

We have 2 boxed up sets @Loofah .

Our middle son badgered us for it as a birthday present..almost 30 yrs ago now.

Then found he didn't like it because all the cars kept overshooting the corners/ kept coming off. Ended up causing more arguments than it was worth between our 3 !!!

 

Can you imagine the infrastructure and investment required to produce enough efuel for Europe, not to mention the carbon footprint? Okay, so once it is available the manufactured fuel will only release the same amount of CO2 as it is burnt as it took in during manufacture so it will be carbon neutral. Still, the manufacturing plants will take hundreds of years to recoup the CO2 released in their construction.

 

So bearing that in mind surely oil and coal are carbon neutral,as when we burn them we are only producing carbon that they used to grow in the first place.

Talk about adjusting the goal posts to suit an argument.

 

But with fossil fuels, we are not taking CO2 out of our current atmosphere and then re-releasing it. Fizzy drinks release CO2 into the atmosphere but we are not banning them.

 

So, and not being awkward but when did our current atmosphere begin.
The time scale of the earth is millions of years but we tend to dwell on just the ones since the industrial revolution.
If you go back and look at populations it frightening as how its increased since then.

But we still have this strange idea being drilled into us that the world can continue as it is regarding population but have no impact on the planet.
Carbon neutral is just something they have dreamed up and is unattainable.

 

There was a time in the evolution of the earth when our atmosphere was really nasty indeed, mostly CO2. If we could build a time machine and go back to the early earth we'd just die in seconds.

There was also a time when earth had the opposite problem. After plants evolved but before certain decomposers of lignin came along, the atmosphere became oxygen rich to the point of being toxic.

We can't set our goals based on such ancient past, because that would be effectively dooming most of life on earth.

Scientists set the goal based on the start of the industrial revolution simply because as far as present day species are concerned, that was considered best. Millions and millions of years of evolution led to a pleasant equilibrium. Since the industrial revolution we've been knackering that equilibrium.

I do believe being carbon neutral is attainable. I just think it will take time, and I think it's sad that despite knowing for decades what we're doing, we've only just barely started even talking about it, never mind actually doing much about it.

 

I still never hear population being mentioned, its as if that has no bearing on the subject at all, but to me it is the cause, we are just witnessing the effect.
We are chasing rainbows with this carbon neutral idea, because soon there wont be any usable wild habitat on the planet.

It will all disappear under solar panels, windmills and houses.

 

I am not sure there would be a massive uptake, but some manufactures have invested heavily in to synthetic fuels.

My point is, EU leaders have lead the public to believe that every EU nation was committed to ban combustion engine cars, well it does not look that way. Italy opposed the ban back in 2021, with Portugal taking alliance with them. Nothing has been mentioned since but now Germany has came out opposing the ban, there could be up to 9 EU nations or more that object, yet Brussels lead everyone to believe it was a done deal by all EU nations.

There has been a report circulating by Thatcham Research, regarding batteries of EV's. One of the issues has been, slight damage to the battery has seen long delays for repairs to even cars being written off, which is resulting in insurance companies raising premiums. There is even a report in the USA saying that the battery from the new Tesla Y model is zero repairable.

DISRUPTION TO THE REPAIR PROCESS - Thatcham

EV batteries lack repairability leading some insurers to junk whole cars after even minor collisions | Fox Business

 

If you can make something, you can repair it. As for Fox News, would you believe it if you read it in the Daily Star? Fox still says Trump won the election.

 

My brother is looking at a Kia Soul 64kW to replace his nine-year-old BMW 320D XDrive estate. He is the perfect EV owner. Most of his journeys are no more than 50 miles. He has off-street parking and my sister-in-law has an ICE, for the unexpected long trips.

 

A report is soon to be released regarding the latest consultation of zero emission cars by the UK government. Apparently the government has set out a trajectory for new cars to be sold that are zero emissions. From 2024, of all new cars sold, a minimum of 22% must be zero emissions, increasing to 80% by 2030 before 100% by 2035. For the sales of new vans from 2024, a minimum of 10% must be zero emissions rising to 70% in 2030 before 100% by 2035.