Ron Ron Ron

It might be best to wait for the 2019 Leaf e-plus with the 60kWh battery and a thermal management system. (read up on the charger-gate problem with the 2018 40kWh model). https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/990157/Nissan-Leaf-2018-E-Plus-new-range-power-new-electric-car https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/18/more-powerful-2019-nissan-leaf-will-have-200-mile-range/

My iPhone 5 is nearly 6 years old and still working perfectly well. Even the battery charge holds pretty well and that's with moderate, always on use. I've always found Apple support at the Apple Store and on the phone to be first class. Both my son and wife have had no quibble replacements of a couple of iPhones and iPod on the rare occasions that there was a hardware issue of some kind.

That's nothing, there have been a number of yards full of hundreds of withdrawn locos in France over the last few years. .

Stopped as planned in advance. No landings or take-offs for something like 30 minutes or more. London City airport was also affected. Looking at FlightRadar24 and another tracking app, it was incredibly strange to see absolutely no Heathrow bound aircraft anywhere over the whole of the SE of England, the Midlands or the English Channel. At that time of day too!!!! Not being able to get up to London for the event, I watched it on TV. A pleasant surprise was that as the formations dispersed on their various pre-planned tracks, the historic Battle of Britain formation turned south towards Basingstoke, before splitting up. The Dakota and Lancaster turned at Basingstoke and headed west, but the Spitfire and Hurricane formation headed for the south coast and Southampton. A few minutes later they appeared at low level right over my house, not far from the Solent foreshore and then proceeded to orbit (circle) 3 times directly around us, before turning off to head for what looked like a low run up Southampton Water, towards the city centre. The noise from the engines of the 5 aircraft circling our house in formation for several minutes was fantastic. What a sight and what an unexpected bonus. .

The visionaries think the future for powering domestic homes, is less binary than that. They talk of a balanced and dynamic mix of electrical electrical energy; self generation from solar and wind turbines where practical, plus externally supplied power (the mains) that will come from a variety of sources that could largely be renewable. Home batteries and so called smart power management are added in the mix. It all sounds wonderful, but I don't know how easy it'll be to integrate all that into millions of properties, much of which are substandard in energy and environmental terms. .

A number of companies are active in this rapidly developing field. Here's one... https://www.pivot-power.co.uk/news/ .

A friend of mine has one. Bought it 2nd hand for a fairly good price. He and his wife have 3 cars between them though, so it's not their only transport. Last time I asked him about it, he was very pleased with it, but I know he's less interested in it as car, than in believing he's doing his bit for the planet. Another mutual pal of ours, regards it as virtue signalling, even though he rather likes the idea of owning an EV himself. .

I recall both GM and the motoring press referring to it as a REX. The Society of Automotive Engineers defines it as a PHEV, as you say. The Wikipedia entry on this car has an interesting section on the terminology. I'd long forgotten about the trick gearbox. That's the 2nd generation Volt, which is still sold in N. America, but not in other export markets. GM Europe now only sell the Ampera-e (a.k.a. Bolt) pure EV, which looks quite interesting as a small family car. .

You are right. The range extenders we've seen so far, use an ICE to generate electricity. The ICE is not mechanically connected to the drive train. The car manufacturers don't seem to be including range extenders in their future plans though. Presumably based on the continued development of battery tech and the increased range ability of the next generation of EV's. Range anxiety is becoming something of a myth. Two range extender EV's I can think of. The original and discontinued Chevrolet Volt (sold in Europe as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera) was a range extender EV. However, the new Chevrolet Bolt (sold in Europe as the Opel Ampera-e) is a pure EV. The BMW i3 is offered with or without the REX option. From what I can see, the new EV's BMW are working on don't include the REX option. .

Most charging (around 90%) presently takes place at home and usually off-peak when there's adequate generation capacity.. From what I've read, that figure is predicted to be between 85-90% when the majority of cars are EV's. The use of Smart car chargers communicating with the supply network should allow for better management of the demand. One new piece of tech that is coming to power supplies is Grid Batteries. i.e. local storage of electricity in banks of batteries, to help smooth out supply against the demand for power. The EV charging point operators are looking at installing battery storage at the busier charging sites. The network electricity suppliers are looking at installing huge battery banks to help bolster the national grid. .

Considering the huge amount of money being spent on R&D to develop EV's, I think it was inevitable that prices would be high initially. That's one of the reasons why the likes of Audi, Mercedes, Jaguar and Tesla, have started out with more expensive up market models. They need the larger profit margin to make the investment sustainable. Leasing costs naturally reflect the high cost of the vehicles, set against no historical track record on residual values and no past used market. The leasing companies may end up catching a cold on leasing diesel vehicles, if they're not careful. Their financial models and leasing charges are based on residual values 3 or 4 years into the future and as diesel, or at least pure non-hybrid diesel, powered cars are cut from manufacturers product ranges, residual values could start to plummet. Tightening of the screw with increasing tax and other financial disincentives against diesel and ICE in general, can only make that worst. As such we are nearing, if not already at the point where buying a new diesel engined car is a real financial risk, set against the likelihood that future used values are at best very uncertain. For private buyers it's a real gamble and for the leasing companies, it could end up being a sub-prime mortgage collapse scenario, being lumbered with used cars that nobody wants, or that retain much less value than they'd factored in to their financial planning. I'm also looking at changing my car (3.0 litre diesel) and having looked at a few options I'm very nervous of buying a new, or nearly new diesel powered replacement. With achievable 200 - 300 mile ranges now becoming available or soon to be available, EV's are coming onto my radar. Unfortunately the EV's I'm interested in are far too expensive at £60,000 upwards. I've no doubt that in a few years time, EV's will become more affordable and widespread, but for now the timing is not right for me. Maybe my first EV will be the one after the next car I buy? That presents me with a dilemma about taking a punt on the various luxury car models I've been looking at. I might be tempted by personal leasing and let someone else take all the future financial risk at the end of 3 or 4 years. In the meantime, procrastination is the cheapest option. !!!! .

There might be some help on these sites.... https://www.goultralow.com http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/transport-travel/electric-vehicles https://evexperiencecentre.co.uk .

Next Volvo XC90 planned. No more Diesel engines.... http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volvo/xc90/104003/new-2022-volvo-xc90-shapes-up-with-no-diesel-power .

The larger cars in the next wave of EV's are mostly in the premium bracket. A few models are coming with good boot space, but at a high premium. Jaguar i-Pace (first deliveries to customers are due to take place imminently) Audi e-tron Mercedes-Benz EQ-C The first of a range of EV's, under the EQ model brand name. BMW iX3. An EV version of the latest X3 model that has just been launched. Also.... https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/04/the-270hp-70kwh-i3x-suv-will-be-bmws-next-electric-vehicle/ BMW are developing a brand new range of purpose built EV vehicles. e.g. BMW i4 and BMW i5 First ones due out from 2020 onwards. There will also be new Volvo hybrids from 2020. Plus a new range of VW's specifically designed as EV's, are in the pipeline (2020 +) Nissan plan 8 new EV models by 2022. Then there's always the Tesla X, if you are feeling a bit flush???? .

The next battery tech is Solid-State. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_battery .

Beyond 8 year warranties, they expect much longer life from the batteries. There are already plans to re-use the batteries in other applications (commercial and domestic) where many more years useful life can be obtained from them. Beyond simply installing a home charging unit and just using it to charge the EV car, the next generation of smart home chargers, could be integrated with smart domestic power management systems, with domestic battery units, to allow surplus car battery charge to help power the home, for example during the evening. Recharging can then automatically switch in during the night on low rate electricity. .

There has been plenty of discussion over recent years on French and German rail forums, about this ex-military site and its more recent use as a SNCF storage facility. As you say, it's conveniently located not that far from SME at Culoz, Apart from re-laying and extending the sidings, they've added more to the west of the site (seen in the more recent Google Maps aerial view linked to above). Here's a three Capitals set awaiting its fate at Culoz, a few years ago.

I wouldn't be surprised if the big supermarkets and the likes off Costa, Burger King and McDonalds, don't get in on the charging act. The whole idea of "fuelling" up your vehicle is going to be transformed. Bear in mind that for very many drivers, most of the time, they will not need to use remote charging stations that frequently, if at all. In various videos there is reference to the deployment of high capacity fast chargers. The new EV's that will be able to take advantage of fast charging, will only need to be on charge for 10 - 30 minutes at one off these remote charging points. In future, that is hoped to be down to around 5 minutes or less. Something that is often overlooked. When needing a recharge away from home, or a workplace charging point, it isn't always necessary to obtain a full charge. A smaller top-up to say, 60, 70 or 80% of charge may be all that's required. .

New Motion - now owned by Shell https://newmotion.com/en_GB .

The predictions are that decline in the number of new pure ICE vehicles being sold, particularly cars, will accelerate during the next decade as the car manufacturers introduce whole ranges of new EV and Hybrid vehicles, followed by increasing financial and tax incentives designed to speed up the transition. The oil companies appear to be preparing to meet these changes, so although initially we may see a few charging points being installed on petrol station forecourts, in the longer run I suspect that those forecourts will eventually be remodelled to cater for the much larger number of EV's that will be in use by the end of the next decade. They may open up new dedicated charging stations as well. There is a fly in the ointment for the oil companies though. With petrol and diesel, virtually a 100% of refuelling takes place at filling stations. We have to go out, or stop off to refuel. That reliance on using filling stations is about to change. With pure EV, some 90% of charging currently takes place at home, or a place of work. There are various predictions that with vastly increased numbers of EV's on the roads, for those people who are able to charge their car at home (e.g. off street parking), and/or at work, on average around 85-90% of their charging needs will be met in this way. As battery ranges improve (as they are doing), for most people, the need to use other charging points will reduce, meaning only very long distance journeys will require charging to take place at a remote EV charging site. How viable will it be to maintain the current number of filling station locations in the future? .

I've been taking more of an interest in the EV field over the last few months and finding that the expected (i.e. planned) growth in the adoption of EV's will not be a stand alone issue. Many players in the field of promoting and providing energy solutions for EV's, are concentrating their efforts to combine EV's with the wider adoption of renewable energy and integration into the home and workplace. Battery storage and local electricity generation have a large part to play in this. At the recently held, Fully Charged Live show at Silverstone, a series of short talks were given in front of live audiences. Fully Charged have put some videos on their YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJrJnOq-gyY

It's a shame Oppo have pulled out this sector. Apart from the headphones, they had one of the best, more affordable, portable headphone DAC's in the 2nd generation HA-2SE. The last examples of this DAC are being sold off by retailers at full price or full price plus. Full price is not that usual when clearing stocks..........which to me says something. .

In this Google aerial photograph of the storage facility near Amberieu, you can see lots of withdrawn TGV sets. The 6 former working NoL sets can be seen to the right hand side, nearest the mainline. This photo was probably taken about 2 to 3 years ago. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/01500+Ambérieu-en-Bugey,+France/@46.0207755,5.3393145,915m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x478b519abb88eac7:0x657891bcbe1e0195!8m2!3d45.958436!4d5.359556

I think it was just 4 out of the 7 NoL sets that were leased to GNER for approximately 4 to 4.5 years. GNER used them while the IC225 sets went through the Mallard upgrade programme. Only 3 sets carried the GNER livery. After the GNER lease ended (2005 if my memory serves me correctly), all 7 sets were kept in storage at the North Pole depot at OOC for a couple more years. In 2007 the 6 working sets were transferred to France on lease to SNCF, as jools1959 says. n.b. Before going to France, one NoL set was kept as two half sets, to provide spares. I don't think this one was ever used in service. I think one of these half sets was transferred to Temple Mills when it opened and Eurostar vacated North Pole, sometime later to be towed to France to join the other half as spares. No they were retired from service a few years ago (see the Fat Controller's comment above). A couple of the NoL sets have been scrapped while 3 other sets were still in storage in SE France as of late last year. One set was split and the power cars sent elsewhere (one is in the NRM in York). .