Richard Branson - "Ban New Petrol Diesel"

[planenut]

Originally Posted by Lovel

......... Planning regulations - Since planners were introduced how many carbuncle buildings, estates have cropped up? In the age long before planning controls many wonderful buildings have been created..........

Planning regulations were introduced after the Great Fire of London i.e. for a reason.

Free thinking and development is vital to progression, but these things have to start somewhere luckily with the modern awareness of H & S, somewhat contradictory.

The rural community will not have too much encouragement in the use of electric powered vehicles and the use of other types of fuelling will bring a greater understanding of the downside of it's use.

We need a new "H.G. Wells".

[guru]

I think that generally the people who are very against electric cars tend to be those who haven't driven one! I'm very fortunate to have spent several years in a hybrid and have also driven a few electric cars now and love them. You have the benefit of instant acceleration which virtually no noise......what's not to like? In addition how much nicer will our city centres be without the constant drone of engines chugging away?
I do understand that electric cars have issues such as range but for a vast majority of people this isn't a problem and indeed the convenience of being able to charge at home and avoid the weekly trip to swap lots of money for a smelly liquid outweighs the slightly limited range.

That said I am a committed petrolhead and I love nothing more then the scream of a V6 or the burble of a V8 however in the same way that steam powered vehicles don't seem very popular these days in a very short space of time the same will happen to petrol and diesel powered vehicles.

The future will be a lot less noisy, smelly and damaging to our health however I will miss the charm of internal combustion.

[Nick Greg]

I too have a hybrid (Honda Insight) and personally I find the experience is absolutely fine. Since becoming a non Rover owner there have been several advantages. 50% improvement in fuel economy, £10 year road tax, a vast improvement in a hip pain that had developed over last year (maybe the Rovers seats weren't doing me any good). Everything works fine too, it has all the gadgets etc. Dead easy to park . Just wanted something smaller and reliable and I believe Honda's are pretty reliable.Its not that slow and in any case I don't drive that fast. Good choice from my point of view. Didn't buy it because it is a hybrid by the way but because I liked it. As far as I am concerned it drives just like any other autobox car. I'll leave the politics to the politicians who I am sure will comprehensively NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- it up as usual

[grivas]

Originally Posted by Dallas

I totally agree.

Just imagine if a new tax got introduced which would depend on size of battery.

The government could use the reason of ''its a drain on the national grid'' the slogan would be 'You drain more, so you pay more'

Watch this space.

Oh dear dear dear,my battery is bigger than yours, well we live in exciting times!.

[Lovel]

Originally Posted by guru

I think that generally the people who are very against electric cars tend to be those who haven't driven one! I'm very fortunate to have spent several years in a hybrid and have also driven a few electric cars now and love them. You have the benefit of instant acceleration which virtually no noise......what's not to like? In addition how much nicer will our city centres be without the constant drone of engines chugging away?
I do understand that electric cars have issues such as range but for a vast majority of people this isn't a problem and indeed the convenience of being able to charge at home and avoid the weekly trip to swap lots of money for a smelly liquid outweighs the slightly limited range.

That said I am a committed petrolhead and I love nothing more then the scream of a V6 or the burble of a V8 however in the same way that steam powered vehicles don't seem very popular these days in a very short space of time the same will happen to petrol and diesel powered vehicles.

The future will be a lot less noisy, smelly and damaging to our health however I will miss the charm of internal combustion.

People are against battery cars because of the hypocrisy of it all. If the powers that be would just let the path towards newer technology occur naturally instead of falsely bucking the market this would help greatly.

Battery Cars:
-Pollution free. No
-Using up earths finite resources. Yes
-Employing slave labour to mine for the raw materials of yet another finite resource. Yes.
-The pollution is not on my doorstep but somewhere out of site. Yes.
-Free road tax. Yes, but how long do you think that is going to last?
-Cause traffic jams just the same as an ICE car. Yes.

I have driven the BMW I3, Leaf and the Tesla on a small race track, and I was impressed by all three in different ways. Looking forward to seeing the new Mini too., but will I purchase something at £25-30k that still costs me half the running costs of a petrol car will and has depreciation that will drop like a stone well no not for now.

Reading a recent test from autocar on the Zoe, New Leaf and eGolf, the cars were all worthy contenders and had some fantastic technology in them, the conclusion was that they cost money per year to charge and they weren't financially viable unless you really packed in the miles per year, the recommendation was a small petrol motor in the end. I think people believe that sustainable electricity comes for free, it does not off course we are all paying for it in our taxes in one way or another.