October 2023
It has occurred to me that the UK bus and coach market seems pretty narrow in its choice of brand. Most coaches (or at least the chassis) I see are Volvo, the occasional Iveco, Scania and VDL. Invariably European.
Why no Asian coaches and buses?
Hyundai, Toyota (the Coaster), Hino, Kia, Nissan, Isuzu, Mitsubishi,.. they all make coaches and/or buses. I wonder what the main reason is for them not being here? Did the EU have some kind of protectionism to bus manufacturers that we have continued?... Read more
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/04/man-forced...l
Do EV's have dual circuit brakes as all other modern ICE cars have? Read more
Subject already raised and we don't want yet another anti-EV thread.
Regarding the specific question about dual circuit you could ask it in the existing thread....
Rolls Royce Spectre is world's most luxurious EV, starting at £300k.
What I don't understand what the long bonnet is for!... Read more
That was interesting, especially, "the average age of a Rolls-Royce buyer has dropped from 56 in 2010 to just 43 – lower than that of a Mini."
A director at a company we use was telling me they have ordered a new Lexus LM 7 seater luxury MPV to ferry staff about as a pool car; this is in addition to a Maxus Mifa 9 they have ordered.
Apparently they had to be quick with the Lexus order despite it costing £87k!
Volvo are also bringing out a luxury MPV.
I take it the luxury MPV market is lucrative for manufacturers? Read more
Rich large families would be my guess The beauty of an MPV over an X5 or X7 for a family or business is the practicality
I think it doubtful that many rich large families would choose an MPV over an SUV, regardless of any benefits in practicality. Image is more important to them than most!.
They may use in one belonging to an executive taxi service taking them to/from the airport though ;-)...
Does anyone know the price of a new TX shuttle?
No price details on the LEVC website, seems odd.
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No wonder they dont sell many!
Thank you for your help
The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world. But to provide that kind of power takes something solar can’t provide — diesel generators.
Investigative journalist Edward Niedermeyer discovered that the station was powered by diesel generators hidden behind a Shell station. Reporters at SF Gate tried to find out how much of the station's electricity was from the generators, but couldn’t get a response from Tesla. ... Read more
Would that mean the average driver 'wastes' 15-20% of fuel on braking?
I guess it would. If you consider how much better fuel economy is at a constant speed, compared to stop-start driving, then it makes sense. Of course, on a motorway regenerative braking does nothing (until you hit traffic and have to slow down)...
Selling electric vans, the sandwich van which turned up at an office I was visiting today was a new 73 plate DFSK electric van
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Just had an interesting weekend with a couple of old friends, one of whom has a shiny new Audi Q4 E-tron. He normally charges at home or at work, so when we met up in Aberystwyth he knew he had to get a charge before he left to his next destination. Off to Tesco to get a charge at the 7kW PodPoint, while they did some shopping. Sadly it stopped for no reason after a few minutes. Same again the next evening. He has a PodPoint charger at home so was using the app on his account. I suggested we try a different charger at another location. This was a rapid charger, and it was the first time he had used a CCS connector (didn't know what the difference was) Anyway, in spite of being a so-called pay as you go, it threw up an error message, so that was no good. Off to a Tesla supercharger but the app was taking ages to download so that was another fail. Finally went to LiDL where there was a rapid PodPoint charger. Success! 45kW charge rate so he had topped up enough while we waited for about 20 minutes. Moral, do your homework and download the apps for as many different companies as you can BEFORE you need them. Read more
No, that happened with diesels of that era. You could either 'give it some welly' to keep up with traffic, or pootle along and slowly release the soot whilst holding up those behind.
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Closing this one now as the subject of Tesla X insurance is running in the EV thread.
Mod...
With rumours that the north of England leg of HS2 is going to be sc***ped (it really should have started in the north if that's the case..), what would you spend the money on instead? Personally I would like to see them invest heavily in the road network, not just on maintenance, but add some new motorways to better link the country east-west, and give existing motorways additional lanes.
If we did do a big single project similar to HS2, for me it would have to be a bridge linking GB to NI. If you think it can't be done, take a look at the Hong Kong-Chuhai-Macao bridge, or the Oresund Bridge, among others. ... Read more
I understand that the Coates family who own most of Bet 365 were pushed to the second highest taxpayers last year having been estimated to have contributed only £460m in tax.
If you have that sort of money whether you pay tax or not is somewhat academic. Betting is a mugs game - but if it is affordable no worse than to cultivate than Michelin star meal or a drug habit.
Browse
As well as being successful here already, Volvo bought Leyland buses, giving their market share a boost. Leyland, of course, had already absorbed, over the years, other major independent bus chassis makers - AEC, Guy, Daimler, Bristol.