Interestingly only tonight I was reading an online article from the boss of Citroen who has declared the SUV sector to be dead, too big and heavy to be converted to EV use as they are, they'd need huge batteries to have any kind of range which would only add to the problem. The environmentalists are jumping on their high horses already proclaining them to be unneccesarily heavy and fuel inefficient so they are apparently getting a bad reputation, sometimes takes a while to see the light!
The Citroen fella points out that they are far from aerodynamic which has a big effect on range, really?
Make a car with the frontal area of a van and expect a different outcome? He went on to point out that we used to make cars of as little of 700kgs yet now 2,200kgs is the norm, so why make them so huge! I do hope that things do turn back to being more sensible.
Apparently in France they are judging EV cars on road tax cost by weight, so that shows they are thinking along the right lines, that may start to get rid of the stupid gimmicks and bits we really don't need.
Saying that though, GMC have built an EV version of the Hummer which weighs over 4,000 kgs so can't be driven on a car license unless like most of us on here you have a C1 catagory through Grandad rights on your license. So not everyone has got the message! But then they were always a bit out of the ordinary anyway.
Todays news that the proposed BritishVolt factory has gone makes me wonder if that was anything more than a corporate money grabbing scheme where they took Government grant money without actually doing anything much, my gut feeling on the whole EV saga, I still refuse to believe that it will happen as so much of it is just decades away from being ready, more that it's just the stick beimng used to beat manufacturers into doing something half way house. Triumph are making big noises about electric motorcycles not being the way, so much so that they are a long way along with renewable fuels for keeping using combustion engines. The Moto2 engines that they supply will next year be used with E40 fuel, with 100% reneweable the aim before the end of the decade.
Now, we know there are huge issues with Ethanol fuels for road use with the corrosion and damage to rubber items but Triumph are pressing for this to be the way forward rather than going electric. There's a world of difference between fuels being developed purely for race use and those for everyday road use, but it all filters down in time.
I for one would much rather have to change the whole fuel system on the integrale, fuel tank/lines/injectors etc to enable whatever blend of reneweable fuel may be available in the future rather than fit an electric motor in its place.
Getting the fuel companies on board is another issue says Steve Sargeant (Triumph Operations chief) yet I'd say that the vast majority of the petrol stations that are around now would be happy to have a future in much the same vien as they operate now where customers pull up and fill up rather than having to convert to havimg 50+ power points lined up, which lets be honest still wouldn't be enough. There's already reports of arguments and fights breaking out with accusations of queue jumping and people taking too long to recharge whilst multiple cars await there turn to plug in, imagine the carnage when we all have to do the same! It's for that reason aside from the other issues that I just can't see it ever, ever happening. It's just like the fella that really wants £2,500 for his car so you advertise it for £2,795 and have bartering room.
Councils and big companies do it all the time, ask for more than they need so once the other side batters them down a bit everyone gets what they feel is a good deal.
The government is saying this EV only thing by 2030 as a stick to make the makers do something, there will be a compromise along the way so all sides will feel they've come out on top.
