Buying a diesel car nowadays

Status
Not open for further replies.
Some good points made above about green bonds financing electric car research and manufacturing for the big auto makers like GM, they are forecasting 400,000 electric cars by 2024 but they manufactured almost 3 million cars in 2019 (pre covid figures) . I am sceptical about forecasts by big organisations regarding what they expect to do about the "green transition" .
Afterall it is in their interests to give the most optimistic forecasts regarding this transition as that is what everyone wants to hear. However at the end of all these forecasts there is a "cautionionary note" that they can only be held accountable for historical figures from the past but not for forecasts about the future.

I remember at the beginning of 2020 especially around Davos in January 2020 when Greta Thurnberg was in attendance , there were all these announcements by the huge financial funds like Blackrock and the Norwegian Sovereign fund that they were divesting themselves of their fossil fuel investments, it got big headlines and contributed to the further slump in oil prices back then.
Lo and behold when you google how this divestment is now proceeding

"Blackrock tells UK 'no' to halting investments in coal ,oil and gas"
"Can Norway's $1.3 trillion oil fund actually give up oil"
As the saying goes words are cheap
 
BritishOTE="Blackrock1, post: 1803510, member: 98970"]
Is the article not about a decrease in production in the uk ?
[/QUOTE]

This is not just a UK phenomenon, the centre said. It is now expecting electric vehicle production across Europe to be 1 million units lower than expected at 12 million, thanks to the impacts of the rising cost of living, inflation and the vehicles’ affordability.
 
I'm a big fan of EV's. If I was buying a new car I'd get one. They aren't the problem.
Our electricity generation infrastructure is the problem. How the power is generated that goes into our EV's is not in dispute.
 
Purple said:
What British companies make EV's?
There are foreign owned companies making cars in the UK but what British ones are there?
Click to expand...
Who said there were British companies making cars? As i said its about a decrease in production in the UK.
 
Purple said:
I'm a big fan of EV's. If I was buying a new car I'd get one. They aren't the problem.
Our electricity generation infrastructure is the problem. How the power is generated that goes into our EV's is not in dispute.
Click to expand...
The % of renewables on the grid is only going one way, the grid will have to be upgraded to accommodate and that is also happening, whats your point? that we just wait until all of that is done to move to EVs?
 
yes, if the parents stopped driving their kids to school, and the kids walked/cycled. Just because in Eire its the common way, doesnt apply to the rest of the world.
 
yes, you know you are riching those lovely despots of the world, saudi, qatar, ruzzia...
 
Blackrock1 said:
The % of renewables on the grid is only going one way, the grid will have to be upgraded to accommodate and that is also happening, whats your point? that we just wait until all of that is done to move to EVs?
Click to expand...
Well keeping your existing car for the moment would probably be a good idea from an environmental point of view considering the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process for EV's, particularly those using batteries made in China, and the current fuel mix of our electricity generation network. If you are buying a new car then an EV is the best option. If you are buying a replacement car then a second hand car is the best option.
At some stage in the future we'll start using more reliable green energy from France but at the moment there are no plans to build any reliable green energy generation capacity in Ireland, rather we will continue to rely on wind power.
 
fidelcastro said:
yes, you know you are riching those lovely despots of the world, saudi, qatar, ruzzia...
Click to expand...
Yep, we should be building more Nuclear power stations. That is the only reliable green energy we have. Instead we poison the air with the by-product of coal and oil power stations and kill thousands of people. It has been estimated that 8.7 million people die every year from the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels but we are frightened of nuclear power. Madness.
 
There are 100s of wind and solar projects in various stages of development and lots of battery storage facilities also in the works to smooth out the peaks and troughs linked to those renewable sources. Fear not.
 
Blackrock1 said:
There are 100s of wind and solar projects in various stages of development and lots of battery storage facilities also in the works to smooth out the peaks and troughs linked to those renewable sources. Fear not.
Click to expand...
They won't work. If the wind isn't blowing then none of the turbines turn and battery storage is expensive, environmentally damaging and short term. Pumped storage is a better solution at the moment but wind and batteries won't get us through those weeks that we often get in January and February when the sky is clear and the air is still.
In a grid powered by wind and solar there needs to be 40% extra redundant capacity that can be turned on when required. Fossil fuel stations are the only option for that. That is why the oil companies are all pushing wind and solar. Nuclear power doesn't need that extra capacity and so perfectly complements wind and solar.

So, EV's are great if you are buying a new car but they only really become environmentally friendly when they are powered from a grid that has a nuclear & renewable energy mix. Maybe the interconnector to France will be the solution and will complement the nuclear we currently consume that is generated in Wales.

In the meantime the most environmentally friendly thing I can do is keep my second hand diesel car and use it as little as possible.
 
we are unlikely to have a nuclear plant on the island, what we will have is a lot of renewables, a lot of storage and some flexible ccgt to support.

i agree with your final sentiment in principal but the less tailpipe emissions we have the better imo.
 
That's already been discussed.

That article is a bit of a Jeremy Clarkson style rant. It serves him right for buying a F-Pace. They are rubbish. EV's are the future but without a massive increase in our power generation capacity and an almost total shift away from hydrocarbons they aren't the solution.

It's a bit like the way we have high environmental standards in the EU for food production and as a result only produce about one third of the food we could produce so we import the rest of what we need from countries with much lower environmental standards. In that case we've just exported our pollution. It's similar with EV's.
 
Blackrock1 said:
we are unlikely to have a nuclear plant on the island, what we will have is a lot of renewables, a lot of storage and some flexible ccgt to support.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I have to agree with you.
Blackrock1 said:
the less tailpipe emissions we have the better imo.
Click to expand...
Yes, which is why EV's are a good thing but they are not a solution on their own. If you do moderate mileage then the most environmentally thing you can do is keep the car you have. If you are buying an EV then find our where the battery is made. If it's made in China then don't buy the car if your purchase is for environmental reasons.
 
Blackrock1 said:
There are 100s of wind and solar projects in various stages of development and lots of battery storage facilities also in the works to smooth out the peaks and troughs linked to those renewable sources. Fear not.
Click to expand...
The limits of battery power as regards cars don't magically disappear when they are used for grid storage, as I pointed out above the best batteries can only store a factor of 100times less power than diesel can. At full drawdown battery storage can only last just over an hour. No advances in technology are going to change that . Its a physical constraint of electrical storage not a technology issue thats why hydrogen is still the gold standard .
The backbone of the grid is still and will be conventional power stations . I have heard anecdotally that the remaining peat power station in the Midlands is actually now being powered by diesel in order to avoid power cuts during peak periods.
As regards solar , some of the best tillage land in wexford is now being covered in these due to the subsidies, they can never be used for growing crops after these go in due to all the concrete and wiring needed for each individual panel. This is when we need to be growing more crops ,not less to make up for the Ukraine shortfall. The whole thing is barmy
 
Blackrock1 said:
what we will have is a lot of renewables, a lot of storage and some flexible ccgt to support
Click to expand...
As pointed out by @joe sod, battery storage is good for levelling out the peeks and troughs in a single day but of no use when the wind doesn't blow for days or weeks. Therefore we'll end up with the same of more CCGT (Gas and Oil) plants we have now unless we generate or import Nuclear power.
With two interconnectors we'll still be very vulnerable to sabotage or accidents. At the moment we have only one and no large scale LPG storage capacity.
 
what do you mean at full drawdown batter storage can only last an hour?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Menu
Log in
Register