New Clean Air Zones

[FROSTYBALLS]

Bradford - to start 26th September 2022: https://www.bradford.gov.uk/breathe-better-bradford/breathe-better-bradford/

Bristol - expected to start 28th November 2022: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/residents/streets-travel/bristols-caz

Tyneside - expected to start November (charging may start later): https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/our-city/transport-improvements/transport-and-air-quality/newcastle-and-gateshead-clean-air-zone

[Yugguy1970]

These zones are a joke, practically any car made in the last 20 years gets no charge.

I even entered a reg from a W reg 3.0 S-type and a 2002 4.4 V8 Landy and got this:

Clean air zone	Daily charge	Zone live	Map	Exemptions
Bath	No Charge	Now	Zone boundary	Bath and North East Somerset Council
Birmingham	£8.00 Pay	Now	Zone boundary	Birmingham City Council
Bradford	No Charge	26 September 2022	Zone boundary	Bradford City Council
Bristol	£9.00	28 November 2022	Zone boundary	Bristol City Council
Greater Manchester	No Charge	Under review	Zone boundary	Greater Manchester
Portsmouth	No Charge	Now	Zone boundary	Portsmouth City Council
Sheffield	No Charge	Early 2023	Zone boundary	Sheffield City Council
Tyneside - Newcastle and Gateshead	No Charge	Winter 2022	Zone boundary	Tyneside - Newcastle and Gateshead

[Cyker]

It's on purpose - Most of them are like the London LEZ, and mainly target HGVs and commercial vehicles, and so won't apply to cars (At least not yet!)

However, some of them, mainly bigger cities, are more like the London ULEZ and those ones will affect the same sort of cars, mainly old petrol and most diesel cars.

[Eddie G]

I can get EV taxi's but EV HGVs? unless I've watched too many episodes of Ice Road Truckers and thought how could you do that with a EV HGV! 

[Cyker]

Yeah I can't see EV trucks being a thing for a while - Most diesel trucks can do maybe 2000 miles, but current EV truck ranges I've seen have been maybe 150-300 miles which is a joke and only useful for last-mile deliveries, and require a lot more down-time for charging. They can't even last a single day driver shift so they'd have to swap trucks constantly, and are totally useless for the sort of long distance hauling trampers do.

The LEZ/CAZ usually just require Euro6 compliance (So DPF, adblue etc.), which most trucks are already compliant with. Mainly it's small independents like my travelling mechanic and my electrician mate who get shafted as they can't afford to keep buying new vans, and old vans are worthless as people are selling them because they aren't compliant!

This is one thing I think governments really shot themselves in the foot by effectively not allowing hybrids - This is one area where a diesel-hybrid would work as the diesel engine would do most of the work and would stay hot, but with a relatively small lithium Battery they could give the truck strong engine braking without noisy jake brakes, and it would assist with moving off from a stand-still, which is where the majority of diesel pollution is produced. If the electric motors powered the front wheels, it could also help them move out from yards that they might otherwise have trouble moving on, e.g. muddy or loose surfaces.

 

[Eddie G]

Good points, it all feels a tad too rushed for my liking, like the amount of EV chargers that will be needed in the years too come and will they be able to keep queue levels down for them? again all sounds tad too rushed with aiming for 2030 and zero new I.C.E cars for sale, Hybrid definitely seems best both worlds.

[Cyker]

Well EVs are a topic for a whole 'nother thread! But I agree - I want an EV and had been saving over 10 years while I waited for one that didn't suck, but they still suck, and thanks to KHAAAN! I had to blow that money on the Yaris Mk4. I think I'll have the Mk4 for many years yet, as I can't see any EV surpassing it any time soon. The only advantage they have over it is running costs, otherwise they're worse in every other respect, and because the Mk4 is so insanely efficient, even the difference in running cost isn't that much vs an EV on public chargers, certainly not enough to justify the 30%+ extra cost and worse utility!

[Eddie G]

KHAAAN! 😁 still the best Star Trek Film by far and same here Hybrid for me until the infrastructure gets a lot better and the price and range of EVs becomes better.

[Yugguy1970]

https://nikolamotor.com/

[Cyker]

Oooh interesting, I didn't even think Nikola still existed, nevermind that they'd pivoted to artics! Interesting that they're going down the hydrogen fuel cell route too, although the fuel costs could be an issue as the per-mile cost of hydrogren is significantly higher than diesel, even at these inflated prices!

 

[Markyswan]

Use to drive in to London before we moved but charges kept going up so had to use the train. The Mayor doesn't like motorists 

[Cyker]

He really doesn't, the hypocritical git that he is...

Just sees us as a piggy bank for his pet projects...

[Big_D]

I don’t go to London anymore unless it is absolutely necessary (for work) and then, only if I can’t do the job remotely. I live about 45 miles from London and although I would love to do the tourist bit, I can’t justify spending £150.00 for train fare for the wife and I for a day in London

[Cyker]

Wise choice! Best to detach from London as much as possible, esp. as he's planning on charging people £5 just to enter London in the future.

The congestion here is getting ridiculous as local councils have blocked off all the sides roads people used to relieve congestion, funnelling more and more traffic into main roads that were already unable to handle the old levels of traffic, and then removed bus laybys so buses have to stop in the middle of the road, causing traffic jams where there were none before.

I'm convinced it's deliberate and malicious - No breathing human could make this many idiotic decisions thinking it'd benefit anyone.

If my work didn't tie me here I'd be out of here in a second!

 

[Markyswan]

I moved to Cheshire and worked in London for years, but it got so expensive to drive in. I'm glad we left and lots more of our friends are also moving out as well 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Update on Clean Air Zones:

Tyneside begins 30th January 2023

Sheffield begins 27th February

Manchester date to be confirmed.