Waiting for a recharge
When are people going to notice that making electric cars compulsory would/will limit them to travelling relatively short distances from home without a break, assuming they can afford one at all?
Green groups have urged the government to demonstrate its commitment to clean growth by accelerating the proposed ban on diesel and petrol engine cars and vans, reports Utility Week.
In a new report published today (25 August), the Green Alliance of environmental charities and groups has called on ministers to require all new cars and vans to be zero emission by 2030.
In its air quality plan, published last month, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set a target that petrol and diesel should be banned by 2040.
Its report, Why the UK needs an ambitious clean growth plan now, estimates that bringing forward the ban to 2030 could reduce UK foreign oil imports by more than 50 per cent by 2035.
The report also says the government should not delay any longer the publication of the clean growth plan, which climate change minister Claire Perry has said will appear following Parliament’s return from summer recess in September.
Continued here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Not likely in the UK, but imagine a hurricane evacuation with electric cars. Out of charge = out of luck.
Also hurricanes or any strong winds often cause power cuts.
Re Hurricane Harvey:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott earlier Friday urged people to leave low-lying areas and said: “If you don’t get out, you could be in the area without power, without water, without necessities for at least a week, if not longer.”
[bold added]
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-harvey/category-4-hurricane-harvey-makes-landfall-texas-n796206
Update 3:15 pm UK time: multiple power outages reported e.g. 165,000+ customers in Corpus Christi.
http://outagemap.aeptexas.com.s3.amazonaws.com/external/default.html
And if they manage to pull off emissionless cars, what then? What will be their next target?
Just imagine what these groups would have done to cities 110 years ago with the road apple problem….
Roger,
Road to nowhere?! I suspect it is a road to much worse than nowhere. It is a road to economic disaster. It is somewhere that you don’t want to be. Countries that don’t do this stupid green stuff will dominate the world, sooner than later. China pretends to do green stuff. China does token green stuff, but they have a better plan. Russia does not even pretend.
Alex
…In a new report published today (25 August), the Green Alliance of environmental charities and groups has called on ministers to require all new cars and vans to be zero emission by 2030….
What’s wrong with 2020? Or, indeed, 2018? We need to act NOW to save the world!!
[reply] take it easy there 😎
The Greens don’t have enough power yet to ban gasoline cars outright. But they are after power, not against cars. Pre-WW2-Czechoslovakia was a Drive-on-the-Left country. Endless discussions how difficult and expensive it would be to switch to Drive-on-the-Right. Then Germans occupied Prague, and the next day everybody drove on the right. It was Germans, not the Greens, but it shows what to expect – difficult decisions taken decisively.
Finally, a use for smart meters.
All the greens and their hangers on should be on registered smart meters that set the amount of electricity they can use using only the electricity generated by renewables – not enough renewable electricity being generated, tough, they do without.
This would have a twofold application. First it relieves pressure on the grid and second it should show the greens the stupidity of trying to rely on renewable energy. I doubt the greens would learn from having a restricted electricity supply that fluctuates throughout the day because renewable energy is a religion for them.
Spot on, Ivan.
Teach these green morons about the real world.
Its report, Why the UK needs an ambitious clean growth plan now, estimates that bringing forward the ban to 2030 could reduce UK foreign oil imports by more than 50 per cent by 2035.
What utter nonsense! All they would accomplish is to shift the energy consumption from cars to the electric utilities who use…coal and natural gas. And worse what most of the green morons don’t realize is that while electric motors are highly efficient at the point of use, the transmission, distribution and finally storage batteries are highly INEFFICIENT. There will be zero savings because of all the losses occur BEFORE any practical work is done. A good analogy would be the electric water heater, 98% efficient in converting electricity to heat, 60% or more losses sending it from the utility at point of generation. Versus a gas fired water heater which is over 90% efficient in conversion. The upshot, a gas fire water heater loses 10% whereas an electric water heater loses over 60% (.98 x .60).
Battery storage systems are grossly inefficient, the recovery of electric input is somewhere on the order of 50%. So a full electric car run on battery storage will have an overall efficiency of 29%
(.60 x .50 x .98).
The more practical route for energy conservation is the 48V hybrid assist at the point of use. This would boost the 35% thermal efficiency of the internal combustion engine another 10% or more.
[reply] re hybrid assist, see: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2017/08/12/panic-over-for-europes-diesel-makers-as-mild-hybrid-technology-comes-to-the-rescue/
I think electric vehicles should ONLY be allowed to charge from windmills and solar panels. Otherwise they are not ‘saving the planet’, merely transferring the CO2 “pollution” to another place. If you want green then by golly be truly green.