The Ford Capri Laser Page

So we now cannot buy petrol cars after 2035, will next move be to ban using all petrol cars soon after, do we need to design an all electric upgrade or are we hoping demand for fuel is low, pump prices drop and we all get 2.8s

I understand the arguement for electric but I haven't yet seen anyone show how the infrastructure to support charging will be done or paid for, how will government get tax if we are not buying fuel and what is the overall environmental costs when you factor in the massive power generation required to support millions of elec cars and also how we will do green disposal of the batteries and all the potent materials they contain at least an old capri can be recycled

Somebody recently posted a link to a company that can install all the electric gadgetry into a classic car.
It's not cheap though, they reckon on it costing somewhere between £20-60K.
https://www.electricclassiccars.co.uk/

Andrew.

I like their optimistic 20k to pesimistic 60k quote

Yes I just can’t see how people will charge these cars . Also us classic cars will find to fill up . At least we can mix the pumps up and put 1000 volts In by mistake

I cant see petrol cars being banned, no other previously popular form of transport has been .
This whole electric car thing is a crock of shit at the moment . Sure there are some fine cars out there but its all very well running on electric but we are still heavily reliant on fossil fuels to charge the things. And the prius is fully dependant on them ,to say nothing of the enviromental carnage making them......should have been called the pious .
I have had a few as rentals and they are no better on fuel than anything comparable in size.
If one was a dillagent eco terrorist hell bent on doing ones bit to destroy the world.....buy a Prius

I was reading about a new electric Honda (I think) the other day. Bleedin' ugly (not unusual these days though) and despite range not being that great it actually had a favourable review but it wasn't much bigger that a Fiat 500 and a heavily discounted price still put it in 2.0 petrol family estate car territory so instead of my Mazda 6 I could have a small car that has less than half the range and can't carry anything much more than the weekly shopping. I know change has to start somewhere but it needs to change an awful lot more to get me interested.

And ( as you allude to ) most of the issues are both fundamental and obvious (if ones head is not in the sand .....) so , with that in mind ,why do the people that buy them buy them? I mean its all a bit "fake sausage at the vegiterian bbq " ( she was a lesbo too , so yeah ,big issues with the real thing ),... with practicality and value for money largely out the window,.....whats next , image?

The whole thing is so ill-thought-out.... As it stands electric cars are an only really an option for people who make short commutes (unless you are willing to pay serious ££££). Even then, imagine if you worked at say a call centre with 500 other people half of whom decided to buy an electric car in the next 12 months; where are the all the charging points? The vast majority wouldn’t be able to charge their car away from home. Having said that, I think battery technology will improve very quickly now and the range of the cars themselves will become less of a problem. What will be an issue is the roll out of charging points as people will still expect to ‘refuel’ quickly and conveniently. The only solution I can think of are ‘battery stations’ where you can simply swap the battery pack for a freshly charged one in a minute or two. That will need standardisation of battery packs obviously. Even then, the cars and batteries need to be produced, the electricity needs to be generated and life expired batteries need to be disposed of, none of which is good for the environment. Unfortunately the majority of people simply believe anything they’re told so will enthusiastically embrace electric cars and commend themselves for helping the environment. Many will be the same people who bought diesel cars because Tony Blair told them to....

The only input I shall offer with this is that I think we should all get out and have fun in our classic cars right now.

Because one way or the other, time is looking very limited for us all, it seems to be that this all consuming electric mindset will be well within our lifetimes now, and running an old petrol car will either be too expensive (high tax, high costs, etc.) to be viable, or just too hard to actually get hold of fuel.

Can't help but wonder what will happen to vehicles such as tractors, and generators and so on.

pbar wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 9:07 am Can't help but wonder what will happen to vehicles such as tractors, and generators and so on.

Paul,
I think there will always be petrol, but it will become a `specialist` product for such things as you mentioned (generators etc) where it will be the only realistic option (let`s be honest , what difference do generators make in the overall scheme of things?). You`ll just buy it in gallon tins from B&Q: back to the early days when you bought `automotive spirit` from your local chemist. It will still be available but it will be prohibitively expensive and you`ll travel miles to find a supplier: Lambo/ Ferrari owners will cope. Your advice is correct - use it while you can, it`s days are numbered, as are we all.

Its all just a buy buy buy consume consume thing. I appreciate that petrol and diesel make fumes come out.... but the thing is, what do most cars spend most of their time doing?

Nothing. Sitting around not moving. So an electric car might be cleaner in terms of actually driving it, but making the thing and getting it to the dealership must be be an enormous carbon cost.

With regards to the availability of petrol.... I think we'll always be able to get it, maybe in cans at the shops like the Americans.. but we'll have it for the foreseeable, because of the importance of the duty that goes into the bottomless coffers.

pbar wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 9:07 am The only input I shall offer with this is that I think we should all get out and have fun in our classic cars right now.

Because one way or the other, time is looking very limited for us all

Well said good sir.

Major_Tom wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 10:52 am because of the importance of the duty that goes into the bottomless coffers.

Ah yes, assuming petrol does `go` - where are they going to find the staggering amounts of revenue they will be losing? You can`t just slap it onto Electricity, can`t do that cos it has other uses like heating OAPs etc. Have an entirely separate electrical network of on-street points, billable at point of sale? 30m cars, 8m parking spaces - how does that work? Every home has to have a charging point installed, billed other than the domestic supply? Quite a big undertaking, and that`s before you even think about WHERE all this extra electricity comes from???. I shall watch with interest.

stevemarl wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:08 am Ah yes, assuming petrol does `go` - where are they going to find the staggering amounts of revenue they will be losing?

They will simply shift it towards something else, they are experts at it! Internet tax? That's already been mentioned I think. When things become popular or a necessity that's when they pounce. None of us know what new 'things' we shall have in the future, but we can be sure that the tax man will be looking at it. And I should think electric cars will be taxed heavily in the future, just as soon as most people have one.

I miss being a kid on budget day, and hearing everyone's dread in anticipation of how much beer, fags, petrol will go up

Wait a minute cant we just convert to hydrogen or something?

There are a lot of rich knobby influential people with hugely expensive old cars who , hopefully wont tolerate being told they can no longer drive them , and the farm / industrial equipment previously mentioned....an electric rescue helicopter....cant see it. Petrol might get expensive but I bet we will still be having Sunday drives right up untill we have to give up due to age related issues .

Some good info on www.diyelectriccar.com

I personally can't see it happening, as already said there isn't and won't be the infrastructure to support it, think of all those nuclear power stations that will need to be built to keep up with demand. I read a report saying petrol will be cheap as company's producing it will lose market if all this SWITCHOVER takes place.

I am just hoping something terrible happens to Greta Thunberg and all of these NEW vegans get sick. I get fed up of virtuous people preaching, when they are all hypocrites.

Right I am off, rant over, I have Beef to eat, beer to drink and diesel to burn. I may even chop down a tree and throw a plastic bottle in to the river.

P. S. If you want something amusing to do it is ro watch vegan food recipes on YouTube followed by some BBQ beef cooking and some abattoir filming. Then when people watch vegan cooking it will also say other viewers also watched......

Could also watch some electric virtuous products and then people chopping trees down and setting fire to diesel.

I am the Technical Author and Compliance Coordinator for a firm that builds wood chippers.
The new Stage V emissions regulations coming in this year mean our existing diesel products cannot be made any more.
The cost of fitting compliant diesel engines with all the DPF gadgetry will raise the price of the chippers by around £5k.
So now we're looking at petrol. The engines are less fuel efficient, the fuel is more expensive, but we can sell them cheaper.

Already we are starting to look at hybrid power, with a view to going fully electric as the technology advances.

Now, if I could come up with a cost effective way of creating bio-fuel from wood chippings I'd make a fortune (and a self-sustaining machine )

ESSEXV6ESSEX wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 6:40 pm I personally can't see it happening, as already said there isn't and won't be the infrastructure to support it, think of all those nuclear power stations that will need to be built to keep up with demand. I read a report saying petrol will be cheap as company's producing it will lose market if all this SWITCHOVER takes place.

I am just hoping something terrible happens to Greta Thunberg and all of these NEW vegans get sick. I get fed up of virtuous people preaching, when they are all hypocrites.

Right I am off, rant over, I have Beef to eat, beer to drink and diesel to burn. I may even chop down a tree and throw a plastic bottle in to the river.

P. S. If you want something amusing to do it is ro watch vegan food recipes on YouTube followed by some BBQ beef cooking and some abattoir filming. Then when people watch vegan cooking it will also say other viewers also watched......

Could also watch some electric virtuous products and then people chopping trees down and setting fire to diesel.

Loving your work mate, do keep it up