Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Lithium battery fire

You're point is very fair Peter.

It's easy to blame the car vendors for foisting the battery stuff on us but they were given a fire alarm to do it by the legislators.
Those timescales to develop a full new product result in partially baked 1st Gen.

There must be people at VW/Audi and all the others tearing their hair out after the reversing on the dead by date etc etc etc.
When all this stuff comes out in 10 years it is going to be very interesting.

Surely the current generation of diesel cars with Plusblue addative to reduce NOx emissions have largely resolved that problem. I am surprised at how few full hybrid and plugin hybrid cars have diesel engines. In fact, off the top of my head I can't think of one.

I still believe that the future is in hydrogen fuel cell cars. We still have a long way to go to manufacture an distribute sufficient green hydrogen, and lithium batteries will still be required, but not to the degree of a BEV. The ideal future is perhaps something like a plugin fuel cell hybrid. Short trips made on pure battery and then the "range extender" fuelcell cuts in, even while stopped in traffic or parked for a coffee, to top up the relatively small battery pack. Then, when available, or overnight, the car is plugged in to bring it up to full charge.

For us petrol heads there will probably be a pretty valid bio petrol before long.

I have looked at Diesel Electric PHEV a few times and the MB 300de platform is good.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mercedes/e-class/108894/mercedes-e-300-de-long-term-test-review

When you come to replace the Jaguar it might be worth a look.

Without question the Plusblue additive has gone a long way to clean up the diesel emissions, and I'm looking at a diesel car for myself having driven the wife's Euro6 Mercedes SLK 250d, as we also need a four seater. Other than when in regenerative mode, when its burning the residue in the DPF, the diesel emission are amazingly clean and do not smell at all of the combustion cycle, one used to experience in older diesels. Hopefully the finding of the massive deposit of naturally occurring hydrogen in France's coal mines (and hopefully elsewhere), will lead the way to its use more widely with current ICE technology.

I've long argued for hydrogen.

Many of us are old enough to remember the arrival of "New High Speed Gas" from the North Sea, replacing "old" town gas. What seems to be conveniently forgotton is that town gas contained from 10% to 40% hydrogen, along with hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. The exact structure depended on the design of the gasworks and the source of the coal.

If the gas distribution system of the day could cope with town gas it can cope with a blend of 25% hydrogen mixed with natural gas, reducing CO2 produced by space heating by 25% virtually overnight. Most modern gas boilers will require only a change of the burner jets. This should be the first priority.

EVs are fine for local "shopping trollies" but as Peter G argues, hydrogen powered fuel cells would be better.

And remember, any engine that can be modified to run on LPG can be converted to run on hydrogen.

We just need to get the politicians and Civil Servanys out of the decision chains, as things stand they are scientifically clueless.
Or worse.