It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
What about buses, taxis and lorries? Are they suddenly going to go electric too? Until they solve the issue of decent battery life and being able to travel a realistic distance, electric vehicles aren't the solution at the moment. They need to be working on hydrogen cell technology as a viable alternative but that's at least a decade off.
Lots of busses run on hydrogen.
At least the technology which has been developed to make diesel cars "clean"(ish) won't be entirely wasted because it can be applied to those. I've already noticed some buses have been fitted with no-idle systems. If that was applied to all lorries and delivery vans it would probably make a significant difference in towns.
As with all these things there will be a lead-in time, but since most vehicles don't have a life expectancy of much more than ten years these days any start has to be a step in the right direction which will work though in a few years.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
In the short term, petrol is the solution. It might give off marginally more CO2 (although in real world situations I'm not sure there is much in it) but it gives off a lot less nasty particulates and NOx.
I've said it in other threads already, but it's wrong to heavily penalise drivers who have already bought diesels under existing tax rules in good faith. What you can do without hurting anyone is increase road tax on newly registered diesels. Set it at £100 per year extra - £2 per week. For those who genuinely need to drive diesel it won't kill them, but for someone who does 10k miles per year it would make a diesel more expensive to drive than a petrol. It would also be less desirable second hand three years down the line. It would halve the sales of new diesels overnight.
I would put 1p a litre rise on diesel duty as well. It would be largely token, but it would reinforce the message.
Oh hang on wait
Certainly in Glasgow we could start by having about 50% less empty buses charging about the place!
I can charge overnight on cheap rate, and the charging network is huge nowadays nationwide, It maybe slower than you can refill at the petrol station but then again I'm retired & in no hurry anymore. Hell I can even plug in on most supermarket car parks which have designated charge bays for nowt whilst I do my shop these days.
I think diesel cars are going to restricted as to where they will be able to drive in the not too distant future especially cities, then it will be towns & it will snowball.
No tax on BEV's & cheap as chips recharging is hard to ignore, for me anyways.
Hydrogen cells are the future, not battery, except for short distance urban driving.
Or in the context of this thread, Diesel Excised for Road Vehicles.
"The differences between a hydrogen ICE and a traditional gasoline engine include hardened valves and valve seats, stronger connecting rods, non-platinum tipped spark plugs, a higher voltage ignition coil, fuel injectors designed for a gas instead of a liquid, larger crankshaft damper, stronger head gasket material, modified (for supercharger) intake manifold, positive pressure supercharger, and a high temperature engine oil. All modifications would amount to about one point five times (1.5) the current cost of a gasoline engine."
Plus hydrogen is very low density so you get about half the range of a diesel for the same tank size.
Between Uber-type services and driverless cars I don't think most people will actually own their own car in 30 years either.