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Fossil fuel cars waste hundreds of times more raw material than their battery electric equivalents, according to a study that adds to evidence that the move away from petrol and diesel cars will bring large net environmental benefits.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"Are Electric Cars the future of Low Carbon Transport?"
(677 posts)- Started 14 years ago by chdot
- Latest reply from Baldcyclist
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Posted 3 years ago #
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My friends who have a hybrid had to switch the smart meter off as they kept looking at it rather. Than the road.
Can cars be programmed to not exceed 30 mph? That would (Ave helped me when 8ntried to drive, kept look8ng at the speedometer
Posted 3 years ago # -
Mine has a speed limiter you can set but it's a bit faffy whilst driving and it just cuts the power to the drive train, the engine still revs when you go over the speed limit setting so it's not very efficient. Probably only really useful for average speed sections on main roads.
Posted 3 years ago # -
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Grants to buy electric cars to be cut to £2,500
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Posted 3 years ago # -
Interesting to see that EcoLarder have added to their transport fleet with an electric van. They do have an Urban Arrow very smartly branded but with two shops a cargo bike may have limits. I know that sounds like heresy but e-vans are here and can't be uninvented. We did cover brief of child transport and vegetable boxes which standard UA can do - albeit maybe only 4 boxes for delivery. We added a trailer too to increase load potential. Too large a bike like the Untitled Oats UA XL was thought to be trickier to share between staff members so you have option between huge 2 wheeler or going for a trike.
History of load carrying / couriers always seems to go from bike to larger vehicle as businesses grow.
Nice to see they have two shops now - veg boxes are good btw.
Lastly the advent of zero emission vans means that arrangements at Victoria and Cockburn St are maybe correct.
Also a cargobike topic but posted here.Posted 3 years ago # -
No issue with e-vans for bona fida deliveries.
The problem comes if trying to replace the entire UK’s 17 million car fleet with EVs as “like for like”
Posted 3 years ago # -
@neddie - totally agree. EVs are generally heavier too. Think East Coast Organics were first I'd been aware of using a van powered alternatively on a regular basis. Before that City Couriers led the way with an LPG van as an addition to their bike fleet in 1990s.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I was nearly reversed into by the driver of an East Coast Organics electric van while cycling nearby the SKELF last autumn. The driver gave me a sheepish wave after stopping.
Posted 3 years ago # -
You Can't EV Away Congestion, Thoughts On Electric Vehicles.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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Electric bus service with bike carrying.
Markus tried out the other day.
Maybe been on the carrying bike by PT thread already?His tweet - looks good.
https://twitter.com/reizkultur/status/1383684292094480387?s=19
Posted 3 years ago # -
Never mind e-buses. Micro e-vehicles are starting to appear.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Again, there were extra costs involved to buy and fit the charger, but you can make use of a grant from the Energy Saving Trust.
Surely should just be a loan? People using the much more environmentally option of an e-cargo bike borrow the whole sum from EST and have to work out secure parking. Rishi gets 20% tax too on an option which should be zero rated in my view.
Elsewhere in article an EV owner says that it's worth going electric so you don't feel guilty about driving.Fully expect lots of public space to be taken up with chargers and parking. Meanwhile we argue about 100 yards of cyclists lane on Lanark Road.
Finally - everyone is going camper van crazy. Will these be electric soon? If so expect Highland roads to be hammered.
E-bikes of course also rely on extractive industries but are much less demanding on planet - particularly if they replace an older car.Posted 2 years ago # -
The curse of 'white oil': electric vehicles' dirty secret
'...if everyone were to adopt “rational forms of transport” – such as trains, trams, e-buses, cycling and car-sharing – then demand for passenger vehicles of all kinds would shrink overnight.'
Posted 2 years ago # -
@Laidback, "everyone is going camper van crazy."
Accountants and bookkeepers, apparently.
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'I run my business from my pimped-up camper van'
By Angie Brown (not her again!)
BBC Scotland News"We decided to pimp-up the camper van so we could have all the technology needed to work in any part of Scotland."
The van has a wifi system, which involves a router being cabled to an antenna on the van's roof that links up to satellites. It allows them to pick up 4G data signal in more places and is more reliable than a mobile phone so they can travel to remote countryside.
Liam and Lauren each have a workstation with laptops and iPads.
The van also has a kitchen, which they built, a boiler for hot water and a shower, a chemical toilet and a diesel heater.---
Liam says they plan to be away at least half of the year but have kept their home in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, as a base.
Since they converted the van they have been to the Cairngorms, the Aberdeenshire coast, the Scottish Borders, Arran and the Lake District.---
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58025876
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I'm sure the locals in various beauty spots appreciate the extra diesel fumes and the chemical toilet waste.
Oh look! Responsible parking up too. These are exactly the kind of people who give camper vans a bad name...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I wonder if/when they will get green hydrogen up an running as a viable alternative fuel source. I don't think electric is the answer for many of the larger vehicles on our roads and in our fields.
Hmmm.. If the gas network became a hydrogen network could you fill up a hydrogen car at home? though probably more sensible to have hydrogen stations rather than everybody having compression equipment at home (or could a car have a built in compressor?).
Posted 2 years ago # -
It’s likely that campervans, and even trucks, will become battery electric. Because hydrogen is absurdly inefficient by comparison. (Unless the fossil fuel industry / marketeers get hold of it and somehow convince people they “need” to use hydrogen)
Posted 2 years ago # -
{To be fair, if I lived in Coatbridge I'd probably be depressed and want to get away from it all too}.
/balancePosted 2 years ago # -
“
Electric cars: the issues that planners need to consider, by Cliff Hague
As the government ramps up its plans to encourage the purchase of electric cars, planners must think about how neighbourhoods will change, and adapt their thinking around travel and mobility.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
Cars, whether electric or otherwise, back in vogue in the UK after a brief flirtation with bicycles last year.
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The 26% slump in bicycle sales and related kit at Halfords comes after the retailer benefited from a bike boom last year as commuters and families switched to two wheels as a way to exercise and get about without using public transport.
Halfords results marked a switch back to cars a year on from the UK-wide lockdown, with sales of motoring kit up 48% in stores, while the group’s 374 garages experienced a near 44% uptick in trade. Those figures contributed to an overall 10.5% rise in sales for the group.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
The 26% slump in bicycle sales and related kit at Halfords comes after the retailer benefited from a bike boom last year
what interests me is the trends, or even just what the position is compared to 2 years ago. It is a pet peeve that most journalists look back 1 year only (or are they just quoting what is in the company PR pack?)
Even if we just look back 1 year further, a 43% boom followed by a 26% reduction means we are still growing by ~ 10% Year on year.
Agree with supply shortages that this may not continue, but a bike is for life, not just for Christmas, so hopefully the bikes bought in the last 2 years are out there being ridden...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Press release churnalism.
I had noted that Halfords' sales were up 43% in 2020. Not that much of a "boom" though. Mostly "high end" bikes apparently, so more leisure riding than transport presumably. Which somewhat undermines the presumption of bikes as an alternative to public transport. More like bikes as an alternative to sitting on the couch while on furlough or WFM... Lockdown ends, back in the car.....bike languishes in the shed.
See for example:
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Mintel estimates that there were 2.5 million bicycles sold in the UK in 2019, at a value of £940 million. Volume sales were flat compared to 2018, while expenditure increased by an estimated 2% and average pricing by 3%.
https://www.bgateway.com/assets/market-reports/Market-Report-Bicycle-Retailing-March-2021.pdf
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The total number of bicycles sold in the UK in 2020 reached an estimated 3.3 million units, data from market intelligence agency Mintel has revealed. This is a 22% rise on the 2019 sales. Although e-bikes are yet to play a key role in volume to the same degree as in other European markets, they have pushed the market value over the billion-pound barrier.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
"a 43% boom followed by a 26% reduction means we are still growing by ~ 10% Year on year."
Actually that means sales are growing by ~2.8% a year. The perils of compounding percentages...
Posted 2 years ago # -
(sqrt((1 + 0.43) * (1 - 0.26)) - 1) * 100
Posted 2 years ago # -
so hopefully the bikes bought in the last 2 years are out there being ridden...
I've been looking for the flooding of the market of used bikes for about 6 months now, nothing so far. Either they're being used or stuck in the garage. But if they're mostly high end ones I'd expect them to get moved on.
Posted 2 years ago #
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