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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Today’s move against petrol and diesel vehicles will move the
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Today’s move against petrol and diesel vehicles will move the narrative on from Brexit
This morning’s big political news is that the Government is set to announce that petrol and diesel vehicles will no longer be sold in the UK from 2040.
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In short, while this will move things on in the short-term, Brexit is there in the background for this policy as it is for almost everything else as well.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2017/07/why-chris-grayling-jeremy-corbyns-secret-weapon
So I'm underwhelmed by this announcement.
The main contributor to growth was the distribution, hotels and restaurants sector, which increased by 1.1%, contributing 0.15 percentage points to quarter-on-quarter GDP growth. Retail trade, except of motor vehicles, and food and beverage service activities were the main contributors to the growth in this sector.
The second largest contributor was motion picture activities, which grew by 8.2% and contributed 0.07 percentage points to GDP growth."
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/grossdomesticproductpreliminaryestimate/aprtojune2017
So the "disgraced national security risk" Liam Fox is the target of a "chicken war" with the "half mad and wholly hated" disgraced and disloyal Cabinet Minister.
Theresa "the unelectable" needs to get back soon from her holidays and stamp her authority on this rabble.
Personally I think the Tories do need to worry about home ownership. But there is a tendency to think that the latest result is all that matters and that because the Tories didn't do as well as expected, things will inevitably get worse for them. What we've just had is an election where the Tories ran a pretty dreadful campaign and the opposition got a free ride to promise the earth to voters. And the Tories still won more votes than Labour.
Has anyone stayed at the new Canary Wharf Novotel? It opened in February (I think):
https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2017/04/19/novotel-canary-wharf-opens/
In the future, the race track might be the only place left to enjoy old fashioned petrol powered cars!
I have no knowledge on this matter, so could do with some educating.
The quantities of chlorite and chlorate, the byproducts from using chlorine dioxide to disinfect poultry, are too low to realistically impact human health. According to data from the European Commission, a person would need to eat 5% of their bodyweight in chlorinated poultry daily to consume their tolerable daily intake of chlorate, or more than 23% to reach the same limit for chlorite.
The average adult woman would have to regularly eat more than two and a half chlorinated chickens a day before suffering any noticeable health effects. The typical man would have to eat nearly three whole birds each day. That is before “the expected decreases in the levels of these [chlorite] residues after processing, including cooking”, according to the European Commission.
Drinking water poses a far greater risk, contributing 99% of the disinfection byproducts consumed in a typical daily diet, with chlorinated poultry making up just 0.3% to 1% of total exposure.
The British government limits the combined concentration of chlorite and chlorate in water at 0.5mg per litre. At that upper bound, eating a whole chicken is roughly equivalent to drinking a glass of water.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56eddde762cd9413e151ac92/t/59747741bf629a8e3d01a494/1500804930480/Chlorinated+Chicken.pdf
That's not to say that they shouldn't aim to electrify railways - especially the Great Western Mainline - but the reason you'd do it is to improve operational performance. The reduction in air pollution is very much a secondary concern.
This is a very cunning move by the govt, since as well as being a good plan it is a very effective theft of Labour's clothes and it focuses attention on the diesel falsifying activities of the filthy Hun. If only it had been in the manifesto...
You know how these things upset Guido's followers and CCHQ-sponsored astroturfers.
GWR electrification should have been started as soon as the WCML electrification finished.
*If* protocol standards can be developed (and they'd probably be international standards), then the power grid can communicate with cars. If there's a power shortage, they could provide a few watts to the grid. If there's too much power, they could soak some up.
If the car believes it won't be used until the next morning, then it could give some energy back to the grid and charge up later.
This is more likely if battery tech improves as much as some hope.
Anyway, the bi modes will be on electric in and out of Paddington. It's the poor people of Bath who will have to put up with diesel fumes.
However, I pay no excise duty, no congestion charge, and no fuel duty on the electricity I use, so how are the Gov going to replace this lost revenue.
I do about 30 miles for £1.10 worth of electric and manage about 7000 miles per year on pure plug in electric. They only appear more economical because of these incentives.
When everything is done by robot, we will have more time on our hands and cycling may become even more popular, as there is no rush to get anywhere
Although as regular readers will know, I'm very bearish about the likelihood of true level-5 cars in the immediate future.
"UK economy sees pick-up in growth"
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40726833
Guardian goes with "grows by just 0.3% amid notable slowdown"
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/26/uk-gdp-economy-grows-slowdown-manufacturing-construction-services
Telegraph "nudges up to 0.3%"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/07/26/pound-comes-highs-against-dollar-ahead-uk-gdp-data/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEjU9KVABao
As for cycling, yes, there may be an uptick in usage if air pollution is reduced but the facts remain that you still turn up sweaty wherever you're going, you're still vulnerable to other road-users wielding heavy, fast metal boxes, and you're still at the mercy of the weather.
It would likely look more like a small factory than a petrol station.
On the other hand, as the market expands, the efficiency of electric should improve markedly as more money goes into R&D in search of the returns on offer in such a bigger market.
You'd end up being charged for 'wear' on the battery.
Must admit, I'm concerned that there'll be no investment in the 'too difficult' area of rural infrastructure for charging points. This sounds like an urban policy, designed by people interested and aware of urban environments.
Uber are a bunch of scumbags who are losing a lot of money. They'll probably fold this year but the idea of fleets of rental autonomous cars as taxis is probably realistic. There's a lot of money going into the technology.
Also for JJ: what do you mean by "short-term"? 2040 is a long way away.
We had about 30,000 petrol stations in 1980 which fell to 13,000 in 2000 and to about 8,500 today. About 1,500 of those are supermarket sites, so they do 44% of the volume through 18% of the sites.
Supermarkets sell fuel barely above cost - in 2000 Tesco made about £500k profit on petrol, despite being the biggest fuel retailer, but didn't care it was so little because once there, people go into the shop and spend the real money there. Esso followed by the others started price-matching supermarkets in 1996 but because they don't have supermarket sales to cross-subsidise the margin-free petrol, the net result was that only the biggest of them survived, and all the others have closed.
It is now appreciably hard to find a petrol station in an unfamiliar area. On several occasions we have very nearly run out because we didn't pass one for twenty miles on an A road and those the satnav indicated were all gone.
It will be very, very difficult indeed in the transition between petrol/diesel and electricity. The unavailability of petrol will make current cars very troublesome to operate. On the positive side I will eventually be able to afford a Ferrari Daytona Spyder, although it won't be possible to drive it.
Yes, an autonomous car is useless if it can't work like a taxi. In fact, an autonomous car than will hand control back to the human driver in an emergency is probably more dangerous - as the human may not be paying sufficient attention.
IMO if elec cars are the answer it's the end of private motoring and the car industry. One might as well summon a driverless electric taxi to get to the train station ... or supermarket. Electric taxis could be charged off the 11 kV system, avoiding the huge cost of replacing all the small 230 V cables to houses.
I'll be 87 in 2040. Although I think I'll still be around, I'll be past caring.
Most cars in 1900 were electric. If you think they'll improve, look at the past. The range is similar then and now.
https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2015-0233.html
If I have to go to a 9am meeting at someone else's office I am not going to cycle in to arrive at mine at 7.30, change, and commute over to their office. I'm going to Tube it straight there, which means I'll Tube it home again. So either I pay the maximum daily whack for a Tube ticket or I buy a season ticket and under-use it while also paying for the two wheels.
I think it only really works for people who work flexi hours in one place all the time.
There are fewer petrol stations because cars are much more efficient these days, need to fill up less, and there is far fiercer competition, which consolidates at supermarkets and keeps prices low for the consumer.
Satnavs help people locate the nearest petrol station, or linked apps on their phones.
You should always fill up when you have <50 miles to go.
They're I believe $4bn down so far this year, all VC investors' cash. The investors are losing patience.
If the nations car drivers decide to protest and turn London/M25 into a car park for a week the government will fall.
This is a major reason those towns and many others like them will fall to Labour next time.
I cannot see a solution for the Tories though. If they made planning controls significantly easier, they'll piss-off their core constituency. Any other steps they take to reduce house prices will similarly upset their core voters.
Massive council house building?... Doesn't really fit the Tories core values, nor meet the property ladder desire (though it does help people to have their own place to live). But where would it be funded from?
It might just be the Government following where the market is going anyway, and pretending it's leading policy, as much as anything else.
I take it it's Italy at the bottom?
Season tickets for the tube are for mugs or a few edge cases.
As for the 2nd para, you don't necessarily turn up sweaty, (and so what if you do?), the advent of cycle paths and pedestrianisation means you are not at the mercy of metal boxes (I cycle through a country park as opposed to driving to the same destination on roads) & when you bike it everywhere ypou find plenty of off road short cuts, and the weather has barely ever been bad enough to stop me (once or twice maybe in the last year?)
When I cycled to work I showered there rather than before I left
https://twitter.com/mckinneytweets/status/890138741066670084
There are three broad approaches towards autonomous cars:
1) go for level 5 with no immediate steps. The Google approach, and fair enough.
2) go for high levels, publicise it as 'driverless' and make it the driver's duty to remain alert. Unworkable.
3) Bring in increasing numbers of drivers' aids, perfect them, and move on. What Merc, Volvo etc are doing.
1) and 3) are the honest options. Tesla goes for option 2 which is, IMO, a dangerous lie.
And that matters: it is as much an education of the public as it is technology, and Tesla's pushing the PR of their tech far further than the tech can currently stand.
#GDPDAY
https://cleantechnica.com/2016/08/11/50-tips-slowing-electric-car-revolution/
But I would think more people will do that in the future. I cant see why so many people have to commute to the city when you can do it from home. If it wasn't the way it had always been, we wouldn't expect people to go and sit in large offices together to do work that doesn't require being in the same room as anyone else
How can Canada be ahead when it's not in the EU and only has limited "access" to the the single market?
(Yeah, yeah I know Canada has loads of natural resources... Still pretty funny though)