Are EVs really the answer in the future? I do not think so.

[Lancpudn]

Originally Posted by stevestrat

If its a time critical delivery add an extra portion of beans to the trucker's breakfast. There's even an in cab refuelling option.

LOL Beanz Meanz Milez.

[bl52krz]

:Ideal on a long run, but hope I am not behind you. :.

[Mark190]

As an HGV driver myself you have prodded me into life here! Trucks are there purely for the reason of supply and demand, belching out particulates? I don't think so. Maybe 40 years ago but not today. Trucks have vertical exhausts today so nothing is being ejected at ground level but even so are modern commercial vehicles not subject to stringent Euro 6 regulations? Our vehicles where I work practically emit nothing but water vapour after the Ad Blue system has done its job. A quick look up at the exhaust on my truck which is now 12 months old and the outlet of the exhaust pipe is clean like new and not black and sooty like in the old days. Just saying.

[Mark190]

Originally Posted by MGJohn

That maybe the impressive case but what of the unseen stuff!

Not just seeing the black and blue stuff out of the exhaust pipes which concerns folks like me, its the unseen stuff that is the bigger worry.

I shaped up to pass a nice new Mercedes Diesel recently in my aged Rover 620ti. The driver did not want to be passed by an old Rover and floored the loud pedal. Cue two twin streams of black stuff out of the twin exhaust pipes. That's just the stuff I could see. VAG diesel cars when flooring it much the same or worse.

Not that long ago, I attended a pre-booked "while you wait" MoT appointment with me arriving a little early. Ahead of me being tested was a modern German Diesel. I observed the emissions part of the test. The tester arranged the engine revs so that the exhaust could clear the system. This resulted in a thick fog of stuff throughout the Industrial Unit. It took over a minute to clear. Speaking to the tester later I remarked no way would that thing pass the emissions part of the test. However I was wrong. It did pass. Apparently "They all do that"... now where have I heard that before.

I have no real axe to grind as I drive Petrol Turbos... Oh Unclean MG John! What irks me is that these were penalised during the Diesels Good, Petrols Bad con-trick and still nothing done to redress that unfair imbalance.

I don't think many people realise just how technologically advanced modern heavy trucks are. All they see is a big threatening heavy vehicle with no regard at all as to what is going on underneath. The truck manufacturers spend millions developing engines and automatic transmissions that really are state of the art pieces of kit adept at moving heavy weights along the road as efficiently as possible. Obviously they need to be serviced and maintained to a high standard as well. Getting back to this particular discussion about the possible eventual switch to electric vehicles, an earlier post mentioned the 40ton plus freight trains on rubber pounding the highways day and night and the fact that they cannot be replaced by an equivalent electric vehicle? Well i am inclined to agree at the moment for me the diesel engine is a fantastic invention that's been around for some time and is only now really being developed in conjunction with modern technology that we didn't have before. Where we are at now in 2019 the diesel engine in my opinion simply cannot be beaten for shifting heavy loads around the country. Battery technology is advancing at a pace i know but i am not aware of anything in the near future to compete with the diesel on the same scale so the Government may be attempting to phase out diesels or indeed all internal combustion engines to a point but for me in a heavy lorry weighing 44 tons diesel is King!

[bl52krz]

I used to be in heavy transport, and if anyone should be dead from inhaling diesel particulates, it should be me. 60 hours a week for many years until hours came down. There is so much ‘devilling ‘ of diesel fuel, that it makes me think that somewhere along the line, some companies must be in for a big payday. Shell being one of them. They have begun a move into the electric and gas supplying industries. Why? Because that is where we are going to be paying through the nose to keep the lights on and keep warm this time of the year. Come on people, wake up to what is going on around you, please.

[Comfortably Numb]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

I used to be in heavy transport, and if anyone should be dead from inhaling diesel particulates, it should be me. 60 hours a week for many years until hours came down. There is so much ‘devilling ‘ of diesel fuel, that it makes me think that somewhere along the line, some companies must be in for a big payday. Shell being one of them. They have begun a move into the electric and gas supplying industries. Why? Because that is where we are going to be paying through the nose to keep the lights on and keep warm this time of the year. Come on people, wake up to what is going on around you, please.

There are also people who have smoked 20 fags a day their whole life and not contracted cancer, but it dioesn't prove that tobacco is harmless, you are just lucky not to have the kind of physiology that reacts like that.
Shell, and other fuel suppliers have realised that the writing is on the wall as far as fossil fuels are concerned, from the Paris Accord to the depletion and increasing cost of finding and collecting oil, including the massive fines and bad press when they have a hugely polluting spillage or leak, they are future proofing themselves by investing in a variety of alternative energy and motive power solutions. Just good business sense, really.

[Comfortably Numb]

Modern turbo diesels are remarkably efficient and driven correctly, produce less CO2 (which is not strictly a pollutant), and comparable NOX and particulates to petrol engines. However, hitting the accelerator pedal hard at low revs, produces very inefficient combustion, as the turbo is unable to pump sufficient air into the engine. This is why heavily laden trucks and buses are so polluting in urban areas; their constant starting from traffic lights, often as the driver floors it while he is creeping towards them in too high a gear, is in sharp contrast to the truck cruising at 60mph+ on a motorway.

[marinabrian]

I surely cannot be alone here, surely this is a forum for car enthusiasts, not one for domestic appliances surely

Electric cars have no soul, even the likes of the exciting (sic) Tesla.

The debate over when the powers that be force us to hang up the keys to "real" cars in favour of souped up milk floats, those with vested interest in riding the populist bandwagon of environmental concern, ramming bus lanes, idiotic traffic calming, obscene amounts of road furniture that actually create congestion not ease it etc etc etc. will rumble on I fear.

Over and out

Brian

[Mike Trident]

Hear Hear Brian!

[Pueblo_Boy]

Well said Brian!

How much fuel is wasted every day slowing down and then accelerating away from sleeping policemen? In this Nanny state, almost every roundabout seems to have sleeping policemen in front of it! If you can't see a roundabout in front of you and heed the signs, you shouldn't be on the road!