Proposed 'Tyre Tax' - what about all the crap airlines emit over cities?

 

Want clean air in cities?

Start with air travel

There are now proposals to tax vehicle drivers even more than just the 80% of tax duty they pay on their fuel, any ULEZ cash cow 'congestion charge' to now 'possibly' encompass a new tax on tyre and brake particles debris from the vehicle.

Given that in cities, London for example, the traffic speed is probably averaging around 11mph if you are lucky when there aren't eco pillocks gluing themselves to the road or walking slowly in front of traffic, then you'd be lucky to generate any serious amount of either brake or tyre wear debris particles as you pass through the ville.

As Halfords have rightly advised, the cost of living might mean people neglecting to replace worn tyre and brake parts due to the cost issue, heaping more tax on these and other users is just little more than window dressing. And not making the roads safer.

A jet airliner can generate the same amount of emissions during takeoff and climb to altitude (10 minutes at most) as a family car would produce in 10 years, yes that's right, 10 years of average motoring about 75,000 miles worth.

So the elephant in the room is literally the elephant in the sky, with most air travel being holiday traffic and largely unnecessary - including shipping Green Beans grown in Africa to Britain as examples. 

The airlines especially upon takeoff are burning thousands of litres a minute to get into the air and that is dropping back down over the UK. Nice and green? 

However, unless China puts some more effort in reducing their output, we here are wasting our time and hobbling ourselves and our economy and standard of living, just to placate and indulge anyone who wants to impose taxes as the whim takes them.

And worst of all, electric vehicles being heavier due to their battery weight wear their tyres out quicker than their petrol and diesel equivalents and contribute to the tyre particle debris situation. 

Green isn't it? 

Don't forget though that those tyres are made up of fossil derived Oil. 

Jets for Ukraine - Simple - Give Polish MIG 29's to Ukraine, give Poland F-16's in exchange - it is not rocket science......

 

Mig 29 - Polish Air Force -

Ukraine wants these, so why the fannying about?

What is going on with politicians, can they not see the obvious? 

The Ukraine Jets question has been kicked around between Politicians for some time and to my mind it looks like they are missing the unmissable elephant in the room...... 

The MIG 29's that Poland has in their air force and for which Ukraine has already asked for.

Ukraine does not need more modern Jets from the UK or USA - Jets that it will need to learn to fly and maintain and the UK can't really afford to give (such as the modern Typhoon, Tempest, F35 etc). 

Time is pressing. Give Ukraine what it can use, now.

Ukraine needs the MIG 29's that Poland has and wants to give Ukraine, in exchange for receiving donated F-16's into the Polish Air Force stock in exchange.

It really is that simple. 

Also note, that Ukraine already operates MIG 29's and knows how to maintain them. 

So, why can these politicians who are making these rather ridiculous statements about 'supplying jets to Ukraine, in the future', of a type they will have to learn to operate and maintain, not just seeing the blindingly obvious reality that the jets the Ukrainians want are already in place, 'next door' in Poland and available now.

Answers on a postcard please.

March 23 2023

Appears someone did listen.

Eco morons - what happens in 2030 - are you going to ban the sale of internal combustion engined military vehicles????

 

That will need some battery....

another chapter on the rank folly of Net Zero

I was thinking the other day when Tanks were being discussed, why hasn't one of the Net Zero fundamentalists suggested that Tanks and Military vehicles and equipment (generators, cookers etc) be powered after 2030 by Battery?

Well, its about that damn stupid. I wonder why someone has not proposed or mentioned it?

Give it time.....

As with JCB and the Tractor manufacturers, they can see that the Battery vehicle application is just not going to work with this ridiculous foray.

I don't expect China gives a toss?

Used EV Car sales 'rocketing' - but is this now the end of the electric dream and a race to get out of them before they become worthless?

 

Electric Dream or Electric Nightmare -

Is this the start of the end of the road for Electric Vehicles?

The sales of second hand electric vehicles is now reported to be rocketing, but what does this actually translate into at street level? The end of the electric dream?....

At Christmas, many EV owners decided to travel to long distances in their electric vehicles, however the reality of their oeuvre being the answer to future transport came crashing down around them for a number of reasons. 

Why?

With 1 charger for every 39 electric vehicle, this was hurdle no.1. Second was the availability of a charger to fit their plug-in socket, as very stupidly, no one thought at the outset of the EV project to unify the size and layout of the plug to a one size fits all unit. Third was the Charger being actually working, Four was the cost of the frequent charges and Five the having to leave a 50 mile range reserve to find the next charger available.

Not exactly a cocktail for the most pleasant journey experience?

As expected at this time, the public charging points were oversubscribed with demand and queues for the next available charger formed. (And the charge supplier can set whatever price they like & you have little option but to charge up, you can't bring the 'fuel' to the car in a container like you can with a Petrol or Diesel one.)

Fast forward two months to February and a friend recently stopping at a motorway service station noted that there were NO electric vehicles resident at any of the charging points.

Now, you would expect that some commercial travellers and ordinary motorists might be actively using the road network with their EV's, yet it was strange that the chargers seemed to be so empty. The reality of long distance EV use seems to be now realised - it isn't viable or worth it.

A report of 'record second hand electric vehicle sales' tells its own story - after the EV hype a few years ago, a lot of these vehicles are now approaching the 'sell or bust' scenario. 

Reports that the used EV sales are 'booming' is explainable, people now seeing the charging cost, the battery life issues, difficulty with charging and that they are not getting Dealers wanting to buy their used EV's is causing panic amongst EV owners and they now want out. 

A garage owner said recently he had a customer full of how good her new EV was, a few months later she had ditched it for a Diesel due to the running costs.

Battery life and the cost of charging are the key operating factors I see as driving this used EV  'sales boom', or quiet and rapid exodus, which I see as the true reality.

Get out whilst you can is the thought. 

With an EV's average 7 years of battery life and the fact that many EV's are built around the battery, once the battery fails, they are effectively scrap.

Expensive scrap, that costed the owner half as much again as a Petrol or Diesel car and with a third of the lifespan of those types. And the EV's really do cost the Earth both to produce and use and that's without factoring in the costs to human health and the modern slavery implications of the materials for the battery. 

My analysis is that the factors against the EV have now become blindingly apparent, Mazda has now brought out a NEW Diesel car - manufacturers have been hedging for some years as to go fully electric or wait and see how this EV fad pans out before truly abandoning Petrol and Diesel vehicle manufacturing. 

Mazda's move seems to show that the long watch is over and the manufacturers are seeing that they have to keep an internal combustion vehicle engine option available. 

EV battery ingredients are finite and controlled mainly by China, internal combustion vehicle ingredients are not - and with Net Zero synthetic Petrol and Diesel fuels available fairly cheaply that is likely to be the final nail in the EV coffin.

UPDATE March 2024

The used car industry is now struggling offload used EV's and to sell new EV's. Consumers have woken up to the fact that the EV is the wrong solution, at the wrong price and without the infrastructure to support operation.

The future is not electric now.