Interesting article in Financial Times today about a company called Torotrack which makes turbo units for engines. Torotrack's share price has collapsed as investors have started withdrawing from engine development in favour of electric power. Evidently this is part of a general trend and effectively shows that investment in engine development is peaking and switching to electric.

Torotrak has been working for six years on V-Charge (a very responsive turbo system) but it wouldn’t have been ready for commercial production until 2020.

And the more the industry puts into electrification, the cheaper it is becoming. The costs of producing 48V mild hybrid vehicles, which have small engines and large batteries, have halved in a year.

UBS bankers now reckon 48V mild-hybrid vehicles will overtake diesel engines within five years. Diesel, it says, will almost entirely disappear from the global car market within a decade. Europe’s biggest cities — London, Birmingham and the rest — already plan to ban diesel from their streets.

It is a version of the Betamax story decades ago when videotape manufacturers battled for supremacy. Betamax, developed by Sony, lost to VHS (video home systems).

Internal combustion engines won’t disappear. Diggers and tractors are unlikely to go electric. Torotrak will continue work on Kers (kinetic energy recovery system) that connects flywheels to brakes to store energy when vehicles stop and boosts them when they start. Nonetheless, last week was Torotrak’s Betamax moment.

In other words my next car will probably be my last with an internal combustion engine 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

In the next couple of years I will more than likely switch to electric, now that the range is starting to improve it makes an electric car more appealing to me. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

dont worry wind farms will supply the needed electricity

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/nor...19583.html


electric energy would suit tractors very well, they need torque and the batteries would add the needed ballast weight to get grip At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

dorsetfreelander wrote:

In other words my next car will probably be my last with an internal combustion engine

Ask your GP for a second pinion.  FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

you could have fully independent suspension with a motor on each wheel, make it awesome off road. Common sense isn't very common.
_______________________________
2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

The reliability is there and its the same half price servicing each year, my daughter runs the only electric fleet of taxis in Cornwall and is retiring her first one bought in 2013.
Her Generation 2 Nissan LEAF 'Wizzy' has been rapid charged 3786 times & Level 2 charged 8925 times in three and a half years, and covered 170,000 miles at 2p per mile.
Granted they have to go some way yet to improve the range but she swears by their reliability and fuel savings compared to the old diesel fleet.

Petrol stations will start selling electricity as well as all the other fuels. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Trying to imagine the chaos at motorway service stations with hundreds of cars all waiting to recharge - look how busy the motorway petrol pumps are today and I would imagine most of these are long haul motorists otherwise you would fill up in town.

My pal has a Tesla (quite amazing) and he has to seriously plan any long haul journey's. MY 09 GS manual in Lago Grey, Wood Co arm rest and side bumper strips - now sold.

MY 15 SD4 SE Auto Orkney Grey with colour coded Bumper Door Mouldings

Last edited by tenet on 7th Feb 2017 11:28 am. Edited 1 time in total

Given the time it takes to charge a vehicle then we can expect to see more coffee shops in garages plus supermarket cut price charging while you do your shopping (spend £x and get £y worth of free electricity etc). The big shock will come when the government decides that it is losing fuel duty revenue and finds a way to tax electrons used for transport. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

The owners of electric cars are currently living in a dream world, being subsidised by us, the owners of gas-guzzlers.

They pay no road tax and they pay no fuel duty - that's why the cost per mile is so cheap, not because they are ultra-efficient.

Once the number of electric cars starts to make a dent in the government's revenue the rules will have to change.

dorsetfreelander wrote:

The big shock will come when the government decides that it is losing fuel duty revenue and finds a way to tax electrons used for transport.

How much would a petrol car cost to run if you removed all taxation so as to make a rough comparison with an electric car ? Jules

you mean similar to the campaign against diesel cars now ?

Now that manufacturers can produce very low emission diesel engines that produce plenty of power, torque, acceleration etc and fall into the zero or very cheap tax brackets, the government has lost out £££££ on revenue (revenue bracketed by their own rules) so they now throw a hissy fit and penalise diesel drivers to claw back lost money.

The government messed up big time, they mis led us into buying diesels, then introduced tax brackets using the wrong emissions criteria, lost out shed loads of revenue as engine designers are generally more intelligent than your average MP, so they are now changing the goal posts in order to justify themselves.

Yes, we will switch to electric eventually, they will change tax rules to keep their cash cow flowing, then better people than them will find a way round that,......and so on.........and so on.......

Correct RogB better people than them will find a way round that,......and so on.........and so on.......

A cars innards will be built around solar body panels with the whole body generating the power source. FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

If there was PHEV that would tow 2000kg then i would look towards it, if the cost was sensible, its a shame the Outlander can only do 1500kg

it would be ideal for my driving and would improve the 24mpg yearly average i get now Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis