Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
Electric car to be built in UK
Telegraph: Nissan Leaf to be built in Sunderland after carmaker gets Government support
Good news this, but thanks to government support?!
The £5000 government subsidy for electric cars must apply to imported cars too.
Perhaps we should thank a weaker £pound instead (for which we can thank our spendthrift Govt!).
Posted by mountain goat @ 04:17 PM (757 views) Add Comment
17 Comments
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1. cat and canary said...
An old fellow, sat on his porch, overlooking the plains of south africa, suddenly sees a truck racing towards him. The truck stops, the Japanese driver gets out and shows him the payload of 100's of exhausts in the back,
"these are for you" the driver exclaims.
"no there not! take them away" cries the old fellow.
Two weeks later, a similar thing happens again, only this time with a truck load of brake pads. Again the old man sends the Japanese driver away.
Two weeks later, it happened again. Frustrated, the old man challenged the Japanese driver, saying
"look, im an old man..."
"...i spent 27 years in jail to free the people of south africa..."
"....what do i possibly want with so many car parts?!"
at which the driver replies "so you are not Nissan Main Dealer?"
2. str 2007 said...
Very good C&C.
I'm a little vexed today at seeing 'zero emissions' written down the side of a Nissan Leaf on telly.
I wonder how they're producing the electricity these things run on for 100 miles.
But don't worry they ave an inbuilt sat nav to show you where the charge points are and which are in use. The North East plan to have 700 such points.
I think Nissan have successfully opened a gap in the market for someone to invent a satnav that will locate Nissan Leaves with flat batteries blocking the way.
I shouldn't be so negative but really this is heralded as a major break through for the environment, whilst this government seem to encourage flight by subsidising aviation fuel. And yet I have to pay £400 tax per year on my Golf that does 7000 miles. And our family hasn't been on a plane in over 6 years.
In fact I will punch the next person that tells they've bought a more environmentally friendly car in the same sentence that they tell me about their foreign holiday.
Sorry, rant over.
3. str 2007 said...
BTW everyone
I've just down loaded Google Chrome and it has a spell checker for typing on here. So if I make any more spelling mistakes you can blame them.
4. cat and canary said...
str2007, heh heh, enjoyed the rant!
i've never come across a comparison of the carbon produced to make and provide electricity to power these cars versus the carbon produced by petrol based vehicles. So you have a good point!
Nor have I seen a study on how much extra energy the national grid would have to produce to support 30 million electric vehicles in the UK!
Nor have I seen a study if the planet has enough natural resources to mass produce billions of large batteries
Electric cars are a right step if you want to shift the pollution producer off the streets and back towards the energy suppliers.
But without developing low polluting, energy sources, its not feasible, not yet anyway.
Perhaps one day, laser fusion will be the answer to this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8485669.stm
5. mountain goat said...
Str 2007 - Electricity to power these things? Quantum dots to harvest the excess heat caused by global warming of course silly!!!
6. Simon said...
So the Govt are subsidising imports of electric cars to the tune of £5,000 a piece with taxpayer money ?
Do they have any concept of the cost of all these unilateral initiatives ?
Or do they just think we are made of money ?
How much would our national electricity consumption increase to replace our fleet of petroleum vehicles with electric ? Double ? Quadruple ?
7. luckyjim said...
Mahatma Ghandi walked barefoot most of his life, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him quite frail. And with his odd diet, he had bad breath.
This made him a -
super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
8. p. doff said...
Well, I hope they're more successful than that other saviour of the universe - those energy saving lightbulbs we are being forced to use. Has anybody else noticed that they don't last very long? I've had two fail recently and they lasted a fraction of the time the old type did, cost loads more to produce, and will pollute if not disposed of correctly. (though Wayne and Waynetta Slob will probably just chuck them in the bin, so hurrah for job creation and the new bin police).
9. p. doff said...
BTW What's happened to Freemanphil? He could probably make a good connection between lightbulbs and the illuminati ....... moan...
10. luckyjim said...
I think p4ac has been banned again. Like your lightbulbs, he never lasts very long.
11. paul said...
@cat and canary
Making jokes about accents is less funny these days, not because foreign accents aren't funny but when the entire joke hinges on it, its a bit of an anti-climax.
12. p. doff said...
Well, I thought the play on words was a bit amusing - but there again I've just got back from the pub so my judgement could be a bit clouded.
13. cat and canary said...
...heh heh, luckyjim! yep, somehow though paul, the older i get, the more i appreciate really s%&$ jokes!!!
---
Why are there so many Chinese living in London? ...because usually, when arriving at Heathrow or Gatwick, they go straight for the nearest taxi, climb in, and say to the driver "er.. Harrow"
14. letsgetreadytotumble said...
80% of our electrickery is fossil fuel based. That is, a polluter. By burning fossil fuel to produce electricity, and then converting electricity into mechanical power, there is a further inefficiency term. Therefore electric cars will cause more pollution, than if the fossil fuel had been burnt directly to produce the mechanical power. Further, batteries are very heavy and how much extra pollution will be formed basically transporting these things around.
This thing is purely politically motivated. No logic has been exercised.
15. cornishman said...
The main problem with generating electricity from wind turbines is that it isn't always windy.
The batteries in electric cars will act as a massive reservoir for wind-produced electricity if there are enough of them.
16. 51ck-6-51x said...
letsgetreadytotumble
On the surface of it one would think that you are right:
Both vehicles and power stations of the fossil fuel driven type burn fuel. Cars harness this energy directly into mechanical power whereas power stations harness this energy into electrical power, often via a two stage process of heat and mechanical motion then transmit this power down lines to end users.
However:
1) Fuel has to get to both the car and the power station, although in the latter case there is an efficiency of scale.
2) Individual cars are used as needed often for a relatively short journey during which the efficiency is nowhere near optimal, whereas power stations tend to be run for longer periods (turning on a coal station is pretty expensive, but a gas one, not so much).
3) Batteries are an energy reserve, much like a dammed reservoir with a pump, which are used today to smooth out the real demand although more efficient (pumping water is quite expensive, charging batteries is less so). The greater our energy reserves and the more efficient they are the less reliable our power station output needs to be, giving more flexibility on power station scheduling and hence allowing more use of natural sources such as tidal and wind power.
17. mountain goat said...
Reducing car emissions in cities would be good too.
The other reason having this factory is good because it creates/preserves jobs and means we develop and hold some expertise in what is likely to be a growing industry in the future.