Picture(s) of the day....

[BenC5HDi]

Those Welsh ones have a little bit of a 2CV look about them.

Much more of a look of a Ford Puma if you ask me..

[BenC5HDi]

When you can get fantastic fuel efficiency and relatively good environmental credentials from the likes of the C1 why bother with other forms of energy? The batteries used in electric cars have a terrible environmental impact and as said, the electricity has to come from somewhere..

Hydrogen looks good on initial looks but the energy needed to manufacture hydrogen suitable for use in cars is massive. Again it has to come from somewhere

Quite right Jim. The hydrogen idea is really not a good one at all. If it were, we'd already be using it and the fuel companies would be making money out of us.

[CitroJim]

The hydrogen idea is really not a good one at all. If it were, we'd already be using it and the fuel companies would be making money out of us.

Yes, and it's a bugger to store too...

That little Welsh car looks very attractive... I really do wish them all the best... The Welsh have a good pedigree of specialist car making with the like of Gilburn....

[Gibbo2286]

When you can get fantastic fuel efficiency and relatively good environmental credentials from the likes of the C1 why bother with other forms of energy? The batteries used in electric cars have a terrible environmental impact and as said, the electricity has to come from somewhere..

Hydrogen looks good on initial looks but the energy needed to manufacture hydrogen suitable for use in cars is massive. Again it has to come from somewhere

Quite right Jim. The hydrogen idea is really not a good one at all. If it were, we'd already be using it and the fuel companies would be making money out of us.

You think getting oil out of such places as the North Sea or Antarctica and refining it is cheap?

[bobins]

I think there was an article on the BBC website recently about using Nitrogen under pressure as a form of motive power. The reasoning being, it's effectively a waste product of Oxygen production, can be highly compressed, and is relatively cheap. Obviously there's no form of combustion going on, the motive power is obtained merely from the decompression of the Nitrogen through some form of turbine or pump (?). No good for long haul, but OK for local journeys.
Of course, it is relatively early on a Sunday morning, and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet, so I could have imagined all of the above

[myglaren]

There are a few YouTube clips, one where a refrigerator truck is powered by the liquid nitrogen that also runs the cooling system.
The liquid nitrogen is a waste product from the manufacture of oxygen a CO².

How practical it would be on a large scale is another matter.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Just had a quick look at what one of the major oil companies is saying in its strategy for interest. It comes from Shell Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden, providing an update on the company’s strategy, that sets a clear course for stronger returns and free cash flow. Not surprising as it was a bunch of investors he was talking to! Hardly likely to say if we don't do something quick 1/4 of our petrol and diesel business is going to shrink over the next decade.

We expect to see robust demand for oil and gas for decades to come, in a global energy system in a long-term transition to lower carbon fuels. As well as low oil prices today, we are seeing higher levels of price volatility, due to geopolitical change, the speed of information flows, and the pace of innovation in our sector.

So more of the same, but with the acquistion of BG, and its shale gas interests in Argentina and North America, expectations that the "gas" element of the business is going to bring significant cash flows in.

In new energies, there is potential for Shell to achieve material scale and profitability. As the energy transition unfolds, we intend to establish a portfolio to build on our established strengths in low-carbon biofuels, hydrogen and smart customer solutions; as well as in solar and wind. Many of these activities complement the company’s natural gas strategy today.

Depends what opinion you start out with, but for me uninspiring BS! from the corporates. Viva Riversimple

Regards Neil

[elma]

I'm excited about electric but batteries do need to come a long way. Lithium extraction is just as bad as oil extraction.
If we take the power from solar. Hydro, wind, tidal and other green sources we'd do well. As long as they are charged on the grid it is just transferring the problem.

[CitroJim]

That's sparked a very interesting debate.. Excellent!

[white exec]

Yes - electricity is not fuel, but just a means of energy transfer - but better to run clean vehicles in cities and residential areas.

Controlling the air pollutants from hundreds of thousands of individual vehicles is a logistical and technical nightmare, as all of us here know well. Far better to manage (fossil fuel) pollution at centralised power stations, where emissions can be properly monitored and controlled, and waste heat put to decent use.

The urgency for doing something about air quality is becoming acute. The UK is in breach of international air quality standards, and respiratory illnesses now a leading killer. In China, the problem is even more acute - hence their accelerated effort towards electric vehicles for urban use. There are more electrical vehicle manufacturers in China than the rest of the world put together; google to find out just how many. Many of these are now using Tesla technology (under licence), and even European and other floorpans. While Cameron just talks, others are getting on with it.

There are a good number of half decent all-electric vehicles available now, and with a charge-range several times more adequate than the average daily city commute/shop/schoolrun. Not - yet - suitable for vast cross-country journeys, but (a) that is not where the air-quality problem mainly lies, and (b) many families now own more than one car, and it's horses for courses.

The contribution of petrol- and the few diesel-hybrids to the overall problem is, at best, marginal. They offer nothing (sometimes, in the case of petrol hybrids, less than nothing) to reductions in fuel burning on medium and long journeys, and are in all likelihood and attempt by the oil companies to prolong their market. Some hugely expensive London bus hybrids have turned out to actually use more diesel fuel than their conventional diesel equivalents, with problems of unacceptable emissions and reliability; much of the fleet is off-road, apparently.

Tesla-X looks extremely exciting (a projected 257 mile range) and is to be priced aggressively. Then there's Citroen's e-Mehari (Cactus-based), and a raft of more-than-acceptable offerings from Renault-Nissan - small, large and van.

Exciting times, if we put our minds to it.

[myglaren]

I think this may have been the one I saw - sure it was on autoshite but can't find it now.

[bobins]

One of the additional selling points of the Dearman engines is that their energy source - in this case liquid Nitrogen - can be produced in times where there is an electricity surplus i.e low demand times such as night time use of wind farm power.

[Gibbo2286]

I often wonder if we are going about the pollution problem the wrong way, instead of trying to make the vehicles cleaner, an area where we seem to have arrived at a plateau, maybe we should attack it from the streets.

Every road has a rainwater drainage system especially in heavy traffic urban areas, maybe it could be arrange that the drains operate at negative pressure and suck the exhaust fumes to some remote area where the air can be washed and returned clean to the atmosphere.

Call in Sir James Dyson.

On another note I was told by a rep. from a medical supplies company that the reason for the high incidence of asthma cases is not that there's been an increase in asthma but rather that the GPs get bonuses/back handers from reps to prescribe inhalers to everyone who turns up at their clinics with even the slightest chesty wheeze.

[CitroJim]

I agree a bit of lateral thinking is needed and the fumes problem is an immense one, especially for me as I'm particularly sensitive to them - even filling up with petrol I must stand downwind of the pump so as no to inhale the fumes...

I can tell, when riding my bike, those cars with duff cats by the smell of their exhausts...

I like your idea a lot Gibbo

Maybe there's a potential to recycle the fumes?

I still say we need to address the amount of car use too as part of this exercise. If people can cut down their dependence on a car for going everywhere than that'll help enormously...

When I see a neighbour drive her kid to school - a distance of about a mile - I shudder... Kid is no youngster either, she's around 14..

Another set of neighbours are up and down the road in their cars like a fiddler's elbow... Time of departure from the Close to arrival back again is short so wherever they go it's easily walkable...

On another note I was told by a rep. from a medical supplies company that the reason for the high incidence of asthma cases is not that there's been an increase in asthma but rather that the GPs get bonuses/back handers from reps to prescribe inhalers to everyone who turns up at their clinics with even the slightest chesty wheeze.

That has been happening for years and years...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Will they devote R&D to the manufacture of Hydrogen with efficient "carbon-capture" at source, rather than the production of petrol and diesel to be burnt in billions of individual internal combustion engines, from the oil they extract from the earth

...and once the hydrogen has been released what better way of capturing the carbon than some clever materials scientists turning the by-product into carbon fibre and making automobiles out of it!!!

Regards Neil