Almost to say goodbye

[Stopeter44]

Although I don't entirely agree with you, your reasoning is sound, so I can't really dispute what you say.

Plus I know as much about power generating as I do about cars, so I use power like anybody, and everybody else, I just prefer it to be clean and sustainable, and that it won't blow up !

[Cyker]

Whatever we do, it'll have to be a mix of things, not just one thing, but with the way economics work, large plants are becoming harder and harder to get started as governments are too shortsighted and apparently incapable of cooperation.

The good things about wind and solar is any knob can set it up, just need the initial outlay to do so and planning permission if required, a few months or so and bam, done.

With a standard nuclear plant, you need much more land and the planning and paperwork is insane. The initial outlay is, I suspect, similar to the GDP of some smaller countries and the ongoing costs are very high partly for maintenance (You do NOT what to skimp on safety with a big nuclear plant!) but also the construction will take *decades* and it just takes one idiot in charge during that time to scupper it. We'd also be dependent on other countries to build it - the Chinese, who will probably backdoor the system, and the French, who hate us because we screwed them over, as we don't have the ability to build them ourselves and they are the only people who build nuclear plants for other countries.

The Hinkley one, if it ever gets built, will probably be one of the last standard nuclear power plants to be made here because just the up-front costs and short-sightedness of governments make it very unattractive with the way economics work and how currency devalues over time due to inflation.

We're well past the golden era when you could build lots of really big expensive things like you could in the past. Just looking at how much overspend has gone into Hinkley and HS2 already!

Me and some mates were even talking about Fusion energy the other day - I think we've missed the boat on that too as even if they can get it to work in the mid-future, it'll be too expensive for any one country to build even a single plant, and the energy output will not be enough to justify the cost.

That's why I was talking about those smaller modular fission reactors like the Rolls Royce ones earlier - Although they only generate MW instead of GW levels of power, just being smaller and cheaper makes the initial outlay much easier to swallow, and I like the idea of having a distributed grid of smaller power stations than a few big ones because it's much harder to disrupt.

I reckon if we could have a few of those for every major city and also blanket the roofs of said cities with solar panels we'd be pretty sorted for power!

 

[Stopeter44]

@Cyker The point I register as the most important in your post is the idea of well distributed, let's call it, micro generators. Where I am there doesn't seem to be a single barn without solar panels on the roof, there are even organisations that build the shelters/barns and then pay a rent to the landowner.

(The French don't hate the English, they just can't stand the idiot(s) at the head of government)

[TonyHSD]

Well It seems my view at the things happening on the uk roads is confirmed, Tesla model 3  is top selling new car in uk officially, but I wonder why Yaris hybrid didn’t come second but corsa or fiesta as usual?! More people needs to try Toyota hybrids to appreciate the tech and have the best of the ice cars. 👍

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-10371191/UKs-10-best-selling-cars-2021-REVEALED.html

[Yugguy1970]

I think Tesla is overtaking Audi as the suburban "better than you" car of choice.

What worries me is that this might mean every other EV becomes filled with pointless tech where you have to navigate 15 submenus to change the wjper speed or waggle your fingers like a **** wizard just to get volume up.

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

31 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Tesla model 3  is top selling new car in uk officially,

Tesla model 3 is the second best seller, behind the Corsa.

[Anthony Poli]

47 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Well It seems my view at the things happening on the uk roads is confirmed, Tesla model 3  is top selling new car in uk officially, but I wonder why Yaris hybrid didn’t come second but corsa or fiesta as usual?! More people needs to try Toyota hybrids to appreciate the tech and have the best of the ice cars. 👍

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-10371191/UKs-10-best-selling-cars-2021-REVEALED.html

Probably the same reason as Tesla in the US getting bad press, they don't pay for ad revenue. 

Ford and Vauxhalls owners probably pay more to get their cars better reviews.

[Cyker]

 

46 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Well It seems my view at the things happening on the uk roads is confirmed, Tesla model 3  is top selling new car in uk officially, but I wonder why Yaris hybrid didn’t come second but corsa or fiesta as usual?! More people needs to try Toyota hybrids to appreciate the tech and have the best of the ice cars. 👍

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-10371191/UKs-10-best-selling-cars-2021-REVEALED.html

Is the Corsa still used by e.g. BSM as their learner car? That might be why - I nearly bought one after learning in one because I didn't know better (And in fact bought a even worse car when given a choice, a 1.3 Fiesta, instead of a 1.0 Micra, which on later research turned out to be more powerful than the Fiesta and much cheaper to tax!  )

The Yaris has sold a lot more than I expected (I see them everywhere, even some as driving school vehicles, and even the odd GR!), but it'll never be more than the Fiesta or Corsa - It has the motoring press Toyota stigma and is also too expensive to break that barrier, plus the HSD's have not shaken off their reputation for being slow and revvy (Although I like to think I'm helping fight off that view  ).

 

32 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

I think Tesla is overtaking Audi as the suburban "better than you" car of choice.

What worries me is that this might mean every other EV becomes filled with pointless tech where you have to navigate 15 submenus to change the wjper speed or waggle your fingers like a **** wizard just to get volume up.

 

Ugh yeah, this is one thing I hate about almost all the new EV platforms - Hardly any dials, some buttons if you're lucky otherwise touch everything! It is just stupid that you can't even change the smegging wiper settings on the Model 3 without bringing up a touchscreen menu first! :

I'm so glad the Mk4 still has physical tactile controls for most things, and even dials for things that you might want to sometimes change quickly and sometimes accurately (e.g. volume or temps!)

Nothing like being able to click a couple of degrees up, or whip it straight to high without having to look!

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

2021 car sales were well down on pre pandemic levels (approx 30%) -  through Covid, semiconductor and parts shortages, etc.

Sales of diesels fell to less than 15% of sales. BEVs took 11.6%, plug in hybrids 7% and non plug in hybrids 8.9%. Petrols approx 58%.

[Cyker]

Huh, that's interesting, I thought I saw a headline saying EV sales had surpassed diesels!

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

8 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I thought I saw a headline saying EV sales had surpassed diesels!

Suppose it depends whether they included plug in hybrids as EVs. Some lump plug in vehicles together, in which case, plug in vehicles took 18.6% (11.6 + 7).

[Yugguy1970]

Took my daughter to one of those Young Driver sessions.

All the learner cars were Corsas.

Corsas and Fiestas sell because they are easy to drive and considering the new Yaris is auto only it's sold amazingly well..

Before the Yaris we had a Fiesta mk8 and it was an absolute cracker to drive.  More modern than the Yaris and honestly if we could have had the Yaris drivetrain in the fiesta, perfect small car.

[FROSTYBALLS]

2 hours ago, Cyker said:

Is the Corsa still used by e.g. BSM as their learner car?

BSM changed to Peugeot in 2015.

[TonyHSD]

48 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

Took my daughter to one of those Young Driver sessions.

All the learner cars were Corsas.

Corsas and Fiestas sell because they are easy to drive and considering the new Yaris is auto only it's sold amazingly well..

Before the Yaris we had a Fiesta mk8 and it was an absolute cracker to drive.  More modern than the Yaris and honestly if we could have had the Yaris drivetrain in the fiesta, perfect small car.

Exactly my point, Toyota might not be the best looking or best to drive cars but they do have the best drive train from all ice cars and they deliver bev like driving experience but remain actually a standard petrol automatics with greatest stop start technology and good fuel efficiency., plus less emissions., and more reliable.  Once you have a hybrid for some time and you become used to it going full ev afterwards is a step forward into the right direction. , going back to standard ice car is not one but two steps backwards. 

[Yugguy1970]

Yep completely agree which is why we went Toyota, for their decades of hybrid experience.

[Anthony Poli]

It's now 9 months later, for those who are interested in an update.

Still no regrets about switching, even with energy prices going up. The cost for me is still roughly half of the petrol cost that I was using before. Once the new prices come in, it will still be much cheaper for me.

Software updates every 4-6 weeks, keep adding new things. still any negatives are out weighed by the positives.

 

[TonyHSD]

11 minutes ago, Anthony Poli said:

It's now 9 months later, for those who are interested in an update.

Still no regrets about switching, even with energy prices going up. The cost for me is still roughly half of the petrol cost that I was using before. Once the new prices come in, it will still be much cheaper for me.

Software updates every 4-6 weeks, keep adding new things. still any negatives are out weighed by the positives.

 

Thanks for update and for stopping by 👍