Electric cars a step nearer mainstream?

[Dave Liquorice]

Fine but you need roughly 4MJ of energy to lift a 1 tonne car through 400m (1300'). Currently this 4 mile/400m section takes about 10mins so you are looking at 24kWh of motor just to do the vertical lift of the car let alone deal with the accelaration after sharp 2nd gear bends... And of course that capacity and more in the battery at the bottom to get you to the top.

Having had the brakes fade to more or less nothing going down this hill in my previous car I don't use the brakes much at all now... They took quite a while to come back, a good 3 miles and they where ventilated discs at the front as well.

[Dave Liquorice]

It can do the 10 mile each way commute fairly well though and while people/companies still insist of people doing that to sit in front of computer screen and occasionaly shuffle a bit of paper it ought to be done.

I never said it was. But an awful lot of trips could be "saved" with decent properly thought out and joined up PT system.

Nearest proper A&E is the far side of Carlisle, I think Hexham also has an A&E but not sure of it's hours but both are best part of an hour away by Ambulance, which one would be travelling in if the injury/illness was that bad. Mind you the wait for the ambulance as it takes an hour to drive in to get you doesn't help. Having said that serious cases are shipped out via Air Ambulance. At least there is a 24/7 Minor Injuries unit at the cottage hospital that's only 3 miles away and has enough kit to at least stabilise and keep you alive, though there is no paramedic just the local GPs and trained nursing staff.

[dennis]

Older cars have to pass less stringent tests.

That is my view, if a car will fail an MOT I want to know so it can be fixed not hidden like some of idiots here would want.

[dennis]

Its easier to drive economically in a diesel.

[Doctor Drivel]

You made that up.

[<me9]

I wouldn't have a diesel for that reason. New ones are /supposed/ to be better, but just look at a recent taxi and you'll see just as much black smoke as of old.

[<me9]

And taxis, and high mileage business users.

[<me9]

Hartside?

[<me9]

Try filling a petrol one up in winter, 10mpg results in frozen brass monkey's assets.

[<me9]

I heartily agree with this. Just follow a modern taxi.

[magwitch]

But my diesel doesn't 'smoke' and never has.

[Andy Hall]

This is another reason for the diesel and for using commecial pumps. Apart from faster delivery, they have the little wire insert on the pump handle which means that it's not necessary to hold the trigger.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It wont be sudden. Fortunately. Cos the infrastructure isn't all there.

However the demand is almost certainly there. I'd say that 5 years on it will be around 20-30%, depending on what oil prices do.

ramping up to around 70% plus in ten years.

[Jon Green]

I've often thought about putting a little (but sturdy) metal eye-pin on my keyring, to replace the missing pin during fuelling. Never got a round tuit, though. American pumps have them, so I don't really understand why UK ones don't.

Jon

[Jon Green]

Are buses still exempt? I never did understand why public transport seemed to have the weakest emissions control of all.

Jon

[Jon Green]

And to understand that the doping on the envelope was the worst culprit, with the hydrogen providing only a second-stage ignition.

Jon

[Jon Green]

Well, given that they'd essentially doped it with thermite, and set up ideal conditions for a static spark to kick it off...seems to me that they were lucky that lightning didn't do the job for them mid-Atlantic. As it was, because it ignited near its mooring mast, most of those on-board did survive, something that's often forgotten.

Jon

[Dave Liquorice]

Yes.

[Dave Liquorice]

Presumably beacuse the operators boards have friends and/or shareholders in high places?

I find the hauliers demands yesterday of an "essential user" rebate rather strange. To me an "essential user" would be the fire, ambulance and police services and only those hauliers involved in the food and/or fuel supply chain. Sorry but F.Bloggs Hauliers Ltd taking a pallet of widgets from A to B is not an "essential user".

[Dave Liquorice]

Those particular round tuits are very rare, I've never got one either.