Peter wrote:
But almost nobody will post anything critical of their own country
I don’t think that is true. I have been fairly critical of the German government in the Ukraine thread and also the various threads on renewable energy. Further above in this thread I merely pointed out the way legislation and political thinking are currently pointing in the EU and Germany, without explicitly endorsing it.
I do believe we have to lower our usage of fossil fuels massively, both for strategic reasons and due to climate change. I don’t think the way forward is very well planned and thought through yet, however, and the topic of cars is a prime example. People will not want to ditch their cars easily, with the exception of young urban people who for the most part cannot park a car anywhere anyways due to simple lack of space.
In communities like my own, outside the big cities but with lots of people commuting to work, cars will be very hard to replace. BEVs are well suited for daily commutes but the charging infrastructure will be a problem for ca. 50% of the population, as repeatedly pointed out by @Peter . So far the political will and funding to speed up the process of establishing this infrastructure fall far short of what’s necessary to reach the goals of BEV users – afaik in Germany they aim for 15 million BEVs by 2030, which would be almost a third if Germany’s currently fleet of cars, which are – on average – driven for 11 years.
Fascinating. I had no idea that exploitable natural hydrogen was a thing – nor had most people, I suspect.
MedEwok wrote:
I don’t think that is true.
Lots of discussions here about various subjects have shown that it isn’t true.
172driver wrote:
Here’s an interesting article about naturally occurring hydrogen in Science:Looks like there may be more of that stuff occurring naturally than we thought
Many thanks for this very interesting article which certainly puts the viability of hydrogen as a source of power into another light. I had never heard of relevant natural hydrogen deposits before.
Silvaire wrote:
Meanwhile in the automotive world regulations on new car emissions and safety rose markedly in the same period and old classic car prices are through the roof for people who want at least one car that is unburdened by government control.
People don’t buy classic cars out of ideology. People buy classic cars because they are nostalgic and want to relive their youth or they want a hobby.
NicR wrote:
A couple of k upfront, and around £900/mo for them both on a lease. I was paying a similar amount previously when I leased 2 × ICE cars.
This is why I’ll never have a new car. Each of those is costing you more than my aeroplane is costing me! I think it’s quite something when you can run a vintage Auster for less than the running costs of a new car.
I don’t recall that
I don’t either. I do remember how diesel cars have evolved and their demise in later years. Even when I was a little boy (early 70s) there were diesel cars. Mostly these were used by taxi drivers. They were more expensive to buy, but much cheaper to run due to diesel being cheaper and these cars used less of it due to higher efficiency in diesel engines. They had lots of low rpm torque also, but unbelievable low power.
Then in the 90s came turbodiesel. Now the power was similar to gasoline cars, but with much more low end torque. More expensive to buy, but vastly more fuel efficient.
Then came the newest generation with common rail, turbo, fully digitised engine control etc. Much better than any gasoline car ever made, and they soon become the “standard”.
But particle emissions became a thing, and new gasoline engines came. Typically the TSI series from VW. These new gasoline engines were similar in torque and power to diesels, but cheaper and lighter, and no particle emissions. At that time in Norway, EVs were already taking over. Then came the new hi-tech hybrid Wankel from Mazda 
alioth wrote:
People don’t buy classic cars out of ideology. People buy classic cars because they are nostalgic and want to relive their youth or they want a hobby.
Not necessarily. Well, ok, it depends what you mean with “classic cars”. But why people stick to the known and will shy away from being trial rabbits for new technology has not much to do with nostalgia but rather reluctance to spend insane amounts of money for something they do not place any faith in just yet.
And the elephant in the room there will be price. You can get a lot more car for your money if you stick to 10-15 year old cars than if you buy new. And with the current devaluation of most people’s wages and the money in general, most people simply do not have the money to buy EVs or even if they don’t see why to shell out those insane prices if they can get something which suits them much better for a few thousand quid.
alioth wrote:
This is why I’ll never have a new car.
Exactly. I drive a Camry, which in Europe is an upper class car costing 60 k or more new. I bought my 2nd Camry for less than 10k, the first for just about 10k. For that money, I could never have afforded a new car so I took what I could get for the money.
If I had to replace my car now, which I’ve had for 20 years or more and which is my 4th since I started to drive in 1983, I would go for something from the mid 2000’s with again a cap of 10k CHF/EUR as maximum I would spend. Maybe that would be enough to buy a hybrid but looking at the market today, more likely another 10 year old Camry or similar.
Silvaire wrote:
If unprecedented EV-only regulations were to stick, given the cost and more so the range limits I can see an automotive world emerging that’s similar to the current GA world, with many people choosing to drive and maintain older cars because within government created market forces it will make more sense to do so.
That is what is happening even now. Of course however regulators are trying to suppress that, by putting hurdles and hassles for older cars higher and higher. E.g. my car needs to pass technical inspection (where it may or may not pass despite being in very good condition) every 2 years, newer cars every 5 and they were once talking about leaving EV’s out of that circuit at all. We had this before, when catalysers arrived in the 90ties I believe it was: Older cars without them would be failed more often and with more expensive demands to repair than newer ones, forcing them out of the market. (Most were sold to Eastern Europe where they were a breath of fresh air (pun intended) vs the Ladas, Moskwitch or Wartburgs pesting the air, not to speak of the infamous busses which could only be seen from the front once the engine was running.
I guess we may see the same again. ICE cars will be sold off to Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa where they will run for decades, while Europeans sit on bicycles or take up mortages to buy luxury sedans they don’t want nor need, just because that is all the government allows them.
