Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

Hi Brue, As the OP asked for opinions I was just saying that, so far as I can see, there are millions who, unless there are significant changes/improvements, could not consider a pure EV-and that's not because they/we/me are dinosaurs!

As you say we are all free to make our choices, and if I was able to run an EV in anything approaching the convenience I have now I would consider it, but I just cant see that happening any time soon,and definitely not while we want to tow a van.

At the moment there is a lot of positivity around EVs, but like most things there are always, at least, two sides to the story, however, right or wrong, I can see the 'definitive dates' becoming aspirational dates' as the reality that we are just not set up to switch in the numbers talked about kicks in.

 

Ours MH, using the on board gadget, returns slightly less  (29.3)mpg to those quoted by AD

You are right about the efficiency of modern diesels my 2.2l Mercedes E Class is returning over 29.8 mpg towing 1500kg now after 5 years of year on year improvement.

So certainly not more economical. It has only done 6000 miles though, so might improve a bit yet.

I suppose the main economy over when we were towing, is we now have linear tours with shorter hops. Rather than visiting a place for a week and travelling out / back from it.

"I suppose the main economy over when we were towing, is we now have linear tours with shorter hops. Rather than visiting a place for a week and travelling out / back from it."

That may be true for the Caravn V MH scenario but, in the context of the OP, then means that rather than having a base, which one would assume would have a charge facility, you could be more reliant on public charging locations as you travel your linear route?

As for MPG, worst we ahve had was 16.8 MPG, in a 2.7 L Twin Turbo petrol Audi Allroad, and best is 33 in Audi Q5 2L diesel on a day that we were on the motorway within a few minutes and cruised at 56 MPH for hour after hour-incidentally our MH buddies who were with us had a very similar MPG in Autotrail.

Reading through the many posts it's clear that many believe the issue is underpinned by the rapid depletion of fossil fuels. It isn't, is about the detrimental effects of these on the planet. That is what is driving this clamour to find alternatives.

+1, geez even the USA are on board👍🏻

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They still have a fair way to go to match the decimation of our industry, which in 2019 stood at 2 million tonnes.☹️

Where the United States gets its coal
In 2019, about 706 million short tons of coal were produced in 23 U.S. states. Surface mines were the source of 62% of total U.S. coal production and accounted for 65% of the total number of mines. About 0.5 million tons, or less than 0.1% of total coal production, was refuse recovery coal.

A short tonne is 2000 pounds. The Americans always like to complicate measurements.😂

Yes, AD there are reserves enough, although depleting, to destroy the planet several times over if we continued to use at that rate.. Sadly the money, the technology, the desire  or more importantly, the time does not exist to solve this. Hence the direction now adopted.

Reserves are low in the uk, look up how many years we have left and why we need renewables rather than be reliant on supplies from elsewhere. Even the USA is running out of natural gas, about 84 years left if I recall. I think we have around 20-50yrs supply offshore. Renewables are essential, it just so happens that this will reduce our carbon "footprint" at the same time.

We are still wasting fuel in the meantime which is why vehicles with alternative renewable power are needed.

Brue there are vast reserves of coal still under my feet in Yorkshire.My late Father in Law was in a senior management role in the Coal Board and he used to shake his head in sorrow at the waste of such resources by the deliberate entombment of them.Clean coal technology was not allowed to develop sufficiently in the UK before pilot plants were shut down and the technology was sold to US interests.Contentious statements to some, perhaps,but that was his well informed view.That is now all "water under the bridge" as the years and the political agenda have moved on.

We are not actually short of exploitable energy resources in the UK but the wisdom of such exploitation of them is open to question.The technology to do so (acceptably) and the political will to do so are also all in short supply.

I cannot help but question how "green" EVs actually will prove to be in the long run,given the issues around:what is in their batteries and how it is to be obtained,how the batteries will eventually be recycled and just how the vast amounts of electricity to charge them all, is to be generated.

I am not in any way  arguing for a return to a coal based energy economy(that ship sailed years ago) but I have lived long enough and seen enough to be very sceptical about "quick fixes" driven more by political imperatives than realism.