Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms EU ICE Exemption!

I went to visit the MGB workshop on Monday as I had to drop my sons car off with him at a nearby workshop. My car was still at the trimmers and we didn't go to have a look but I had a look at a couple of other MGB's in progress and asked some questions I had

We also had a bit of a talk about electric cars. He is visiting Frontline in the UK in April and will be driving an Electric Mini, Frontline has also built an electric MGB he is going to try. He said they told him they have used the 6 speed MX5 gearbox with a Hyper 9 motor connected to it so you can change gears. He said that talking to the guys they have got great performance and driving experience but not a lot of range so he in looking forward to trying it.

But he feels that for the UK electric cars are fine but the distances here are too big to make it practical. To get to where you want to tour is often 1000km away, where from Frontline the Cotswolds are maybe 15miles away.

For example today I am leaving for 10 days to tour the Great Ocean Road with the Canberra MG car club, there are 10 cars, a MGA, MGTF and mainly MGB's. We are driving 500km the first day and 400km the next day but then about 100km each day for 5 days followed by 400km each day for 3 days on the way back. I was hoping to take my car but as it has taken longer than expected I will be driving my Skoda (with some tools and water for the other cars as it is rather hot and they could overheat.

Say the Great Ocean road trip was being done by 10 electric converted MGB’s instead of petrol cars. Most classic car conversions seem to have about a 160 to 200km range. Certainly enough for the Great Ocean road once there as we are only doing fairly short distances sightseeing each day, however to get there means fully charging 4 to 5 times. Maybe going on your own would not be too bad as hopefully you can find some chargers along the way but if 10 electric MGB’s turn up then it could take a long time for them all to be charged up to go to the next location.

Anyway he feels he will end up doing electric conversions in the future as the market will want it and he expects Mazda will stop building engines at some stage fairly soon. So if Frontline and companies here are looking at alternatives because they can't get engines I feel it is engines not fuel that is the issue. Yes anyone can build an engine but Frontline, Morgan etc. rely on buying a new engine and getting the benefit of a lower price from mass production.

He is also converting his demo car to a Haltech computer to see how it goes. Frontline use OMEX and being local are fine, he uses cars that Frontline ships here after tuning and has had no issues, but he wants to make sure he has a local option in case he needs to source engines elsewhere.

Apart from the price I feel an electric original mini would be very cool for driving around Canberra.

I think the Super 3 is outside this EU allowance, as it registers as a trike.

& yes it's an interesting question, whether the EU is allowing for 1000 cars to be sold in the EU, or if they're limiting the exemption to manufacturers who sell fewer than 1000 cars in the EU. The Autocar article says "manufacturers that register fewer than 1000 cars annually" - so conceiveably Rolls Royce, Mclaren, Lotus, and maybe Aston Martin could qualify.
Whether they think it's a good thing for their corporate image to be manufacturing ICE cars is another matter. More likely I guess they'll be offering hybrids, which run on synthetic fuels.

The thing politicians need to phase out and eventually ban is fossil fuel, not the engines that use it.
& encourage the production & distribution of synthetics - which if nothing else loads the cost onto the private sector (fuel companies0 and motorists, rather than the public purse having the cost of rewiring the country.

Will

The secondary factor to consider if ICE/ syn fuels is the solution is the emissions from them. Diesel was pushed a few years ago for mpg improvement with the NOx part apparently ignored until it came back to bite.
It’s all very well developing synthetics but what raw material sources? How will the powerful oil industry react?
Urban clean air zones will expand. This SHOULD balance with improved EV use and public transport . Not so easy elsewhere though. ULEZ/Congestion charging is also providing an income source.
My last adventure into London just before Covid entailed a hotel outside the ULEZ zone and the using decent tube/ buses. Public transport back home in West Wales is poor. Even my 60 mile commute to Cardiff when working there was a no-go by public transport.

I don't have the article (at least for now) but in a recent IET* news apparently 5 Conservative London Councils are to challenge the expansion of the London ULEZ in court.

(*IET - Institute of Engineering Technology)

Graham the ULEZ extensions are no longer about the environment but a back door tax being imposed by Sadiq Khan because he's not capable of managing the budget for London.

Yes...target the motoring cash cow!
In our county council’s budget proposals they mentioned buying and running a second speed camera van as a means of generating income. Blows the safety argument away. Also it would not be a cheap start-up and maintenance. We are already seeing widespread speed limit reductions and even road closures during school drop off/ pick up times.I would love to see the projections for income! Likely to be using some very speculative figures for justification as that seems the norm for public financed projects.

ULEZ definitely nowt to do with environment, if it was it would outright ban said vehicles, as it is if you have a vehicle belching out tiny particles that would kill the population, it's okay just pay to do it.

Oh Mark you cynic, good aiming!

The last time I drove in London about 3 years ago I didn't notice any reduction in traffic since ULEZ. I am sure Sadiq isn't using the income generated to improve the environment.

I would never drive into London because public transport there is so good. Well, when they are not striking. I can be in Kings Cross around 2 hours from leaving home if my connection at Doncaster works out, so driving is a no brainer when you can have breakfast and read the paper on the way down.