Electric or petrol cars

Nice they both sound great. I do like the old Landrovers, terrific cars brilliant off roaders as well. I don't have a landy currently but I'm hoping to get one again at some point.

Hello, I run a 1976 Series Three 88 2.25 diesel with an overdrive. I did own a  1986 3.5 V8 Range Rover for a while.    

I prefer manual as well.

What Landrover do you have? I've had a few. Three Discoveries, a Defender and an ex MOD but that was temporary for a friend. 

I would love to convert my Landy to electric but the cost is beyond me at present. I could keep the manual gearbox as well which as you mention, allows better control. As to range, we used to have something called Motor Rail where cars were loaded on to trains and drivers could sit in the carriages on the way to their destination. That could be one solution.   

Peter said:

Am I the only one who thinks it’s sad that hydrogen has been left by the wayside as a fuel option.

As a liquid gas fuel or the hydrogen fuel cell?

Very nice. Love the colour, what a beauty.

I like the classic Minis. My Gran used to have a Mini Clubman which she drove up until she lost her sight. It was brown with a really cool thick coach line. My old man is in to the classics as well he owns a few Jags. I prefer the Fords. I had an Anglia and mk2 Cortina for a time but have been driving a 2.0 Laser Capri though it's starting to rust in the boot floor, struts and o/s sill. Looks good in gold though.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s sad that hydrogen has been left by the wayside as a fuel option.

particularly since old diesel cars can be converted to run on hydrogen.

I’ve worked on most cars, my Love is 1960’s cars. My lifelong special interest has been classic Mini’s, especially MK1’s. I mainly work restoring classic cars now, at the moment I’m restoring a Jaguar E type and a Beetle. I still have my late father’s 1950’s car which I restored and worked on identical ones as a child with him.

petrol is safer, electric is still explosive but isnt a controlled explosive combustion way, so the only explosive and gasses of battery is the dangerous uncontrolled type.... so petrol is safer... but yet were gonna be forced to have electric so yeah we dont have a choice in the future. despite the fact the minerals to make batteries are more scarce than any fossil fuel and destroys the environment more in its mining process. but hey the globalist controlling agenda wants to force us into something so we must comply or they will release another strain of covid against us until we become more compliant lol

What sort of cars have you worked on?

Do you have a favourite car?

The environmental credentials for electric cars are pretty poor compared to petrol cars for those who don't do a lot of milage.

Looking at emmissions as well, electric cars are not really that clean either - they are significantly heavier than petrol cars and they generate a lot of wear on tyres & brake pads as well as  on the roads themselves, leading to more dust generated than we are led to believe. There is a decent article on this here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135223101630187X

Then there is the carbon emmissions from the power they use. Most power genereated around the world still comes from burning fuel so the electricity used to power them comes with its own carbon overhead.

Yes there are benefits of lower HSO2 and some particulates (mostly from diesel) but if you weigh in the cost of mining / processing / shipping the battery materials then they take many years to overtake conventional petrol cars in their carbon neutrality.

And then there is the cost of disposing of the batteries at the end - significantly more toxic than recycling a petrol car.

People here have talked about the issues of accessing charging points and as most people in cities where electric cars are most beneficial, cannot get their own point as they lack a driveway.

Oh and don't mention the capacity of the electrical grid to be able to supply the power to charge all these vehicles - it just isn't there and there are not nearly enough power stations planned to supply this.

My conclusion - a decent concept but the technology and infrastructure are still decades away from making it a sensible reality. I will go with a hybrid n the meantime as it offers the benefits without the drawbacks.

To be honest I am an old petrol head. I’ve worked on cars for 40+ years. I definitely wouldn’t miss diesel engines, they are just dirty and smelly. I don’t think the 2030 target will happen as the grid can’t handle the amount of electricity needed. America sells a gallon of fuel at the same price as we pay for a litre, they won’t follow. I do occasionally work on a Tesla, they have really got their act together. Fully charged in 15mins and only servicing is filling the washer bottle, brake pads and steering joists. Brakes hardly wear as the motor brakes the car very efficiently and creates energy. I did have a chuckle with the Tesla salesman, the interior is marketed as vegan leather, I said, “ you mean vinyl”. No Sir, it’s vegan leather! That’s got to be the best marketing ploy I’ve heard.

I read an analysis sometime ago that said that in order to get car charging ports in a enough of the country it wouldn’t just be enough to install them the extra load would mean upgrading most of the electricity substations in the country. It also means the electricity baseline has to go up, that is the amount of electricity you can produce without wind and solar. In short it means more nuclear power stations. Which I’m fully in favour of.

lots of people are in favour of nuclear power these days until they want to build the station in your back garden metaphorically speaking.

I personally have a hybrid car, which I like to think is the best of both worlds to come degree. I drive very little so it is cheap to run, I maybe give it two full tanks of petrol a year. 

A family member has a 100% electric car and while they were very pleased with it initially, the practicalities of running it have made it so they are going to trade it in. Travelling as they do, across the UK with kids having to stop every few hours, for an hour or two to recharge is not feasible. It was making their trips so long and disjointed, not to mention the added stress of having to get to a charge point/if a charge point will be available, etc. 

I did a lot of research before getting my current car and I think on balance it is the best option at present.

They need to make available charging points for all the people who do not have garages or driveways. Each street light could form the basis of kerbside charging points. Until this sort of infrastructure investment is made electric cars are impossible to run for very many, perhaps most, people.

I'm a nay. I like the idea in theory and have looked into buying one but it just doesn't work for me at the moment.

They are too expensive currently compared to petrol cars. I'm not convinced of the full environmental benefits after taking into account the impact of the battery production and disposal. I usually keep my petrol cars for at least 12 years and I'm unconvinced that the batteries will last for the full lifespan of the electric car. Replacement is going to add even further to the cost.

The main reason is that the charging structure is nowhere near adequate at the moment, maybe not even for the current number of electric cars. Then the chargers all have different systems are require signing up on apps etc

Like many people I live in a terraced house and have no access to any private off street parking. Assuming I could get a space next to my house it would still mean running a cable across the pavement (a trip hazard).

Much more needs to be invested in the infrastructure and battery production before they become a viable alternative for most people.

I prefer to travel via my feet. I don't like cars at all.

I’ve been driving for almost two years and I started out with a petrol car. Last year I bought one of the new Peugeot 208’s which is a fully electric car, automatic and no nasty exhaust fumes. In fact it doesn’t smell at all except for inside the car which smells really sweet. I find petrol cars much too smelly. I have a heightened sense of smell and find petrol cars upset my sensitivity.

I like that electric cars are better for the environment. I know they aren’t 100% perfect but they are better for the environment more so than petrol is.

I like how quiet they are as well. A loud engine goes right through my ears and as a sufferer of both sensitive ears and tinnitus engines can be annoying at the best of times.

I like that they have a lot of helpful gadgets like cameras to help with reversing and parking. I like that they are automatic, easier to drive than manual. I like how the lights can come on automatically. When it comes to driving and being autistic I have so much to process and think about so the fact the car does a lot of things itself is perfect for me.

Now I’ve driven electric I won’t ever go back to petrol cars. My only negative with electric is that the battery has to be recharged which means I couldn’t go to say from Devon to Scotland without recharging which takes longer than topping up the tank with petrol. But other than that I think they are amazing!

Electric cars are undoubtedly better for the environment. However there are tons of problems with them in terms of practicality. At least if you’re the kind of guy who maybe once in a blue moon wants to drive 200 miles to an event and then 200 miles back in the evening because it’s something you really wanted to do; well with an electric car you can forget it. Not unless you have somewhere to park it that has a charger in the intervening period between the two trips.

and it has to be a rapid charger not just an ordinary plug socket. Just plugging in at your house will take hours and hours to get a full charge.

There was a very simple solution to this problem of a long amount of time it takes to charge your battery which was simply to make electric cars battery changeable. A lot of Electric cars already have a sales model where you rent the battery. it would’ve been a very easy thing to pass a law making it so that every electric cars battery needs to be easily removable and swappable with a generic standard. so instead of filling up with petrol at the pump you could have a machine lift your car off the ground (The batteries are usually mounted on the base of the car) swap out the battery with a pre charged one and pay a nominal fee for the difference in the electricity. Charged battery in five or 10 minutes instead of several hours

but this would’ve required the government to a make Electric car batteries a government monopoly and make them responsible for putting in the infrastructure to do this.

also a personal note I like driving a manual. I like having clutch control. Electric cars are all automatic. they could’ve at least done the courtesy of putting in a fake clutch that we could use for fine control and Station keeping when we want to move a car forwards or backwards a couple of inches precisely or make it hang on a hill without slamming on the break. It’s the way I’m used to controlling a car and I see no reason why they couldn’t of emulated that in an electric car system.