Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

The views or jury on Hydrogen is still out however I suspect it will be limited to buses and commercial vehicles only. I am however surprised there isn’t more development in synthetic fuels or fuel sources (VW are one of the few) and never understood why oil or petrol from coal has been abandoned given it is actually a very clean fuel after refining. Germany used it successfully in WW2 as did South Africa in the apartheid era. Nevertheless I am considering a used plug-in diesel hybrid as a step towards possible full EV when they are practical and affordable tow cars. The Govt and Councils are using the current situation to ‘back door’ more anti car legislation and in particular make driving into cities in ICE cars costly at best, outright banned at worst. I have seen a draft strategy for the council for which I work and the anti diesel anti petrol ill informed rhetoric is worrying. So with a hybrid I will be able to park free and charge free too, at least for a while and the diesel means it will Still tow long distance too. 

 Hope you enjoy your hybrid if you get one. 

Are you aware of this,

"Brake dust produces more of the most harmful kind of air pollution than vehicle exhausts, a new study finds. Researchers have found that the metal-particle dust created by scraping the brake pads accounts for a fifth of tiny particulate pollution on the roads." 

As our old science master taught us the petrol/diesel engine turns heat into movement then brakes turn movement into heat 

Along with fine dust particles of rubber from tyre wear and shoe soles..... 

Realistically, fully-electric cars in their current form (rechargeable) are impractical for most purposes, unless you are disabled and need to travel locally.

By in their present form I mean - the concept of a rechargeable car is wrong, - the impact of having to install the infrastructure to charge them in the required places is just too horrendous to contemplate - after all, you don't have fuel lines going to your home, place of work, or where you park on a day out do you?

However a system where you swop-out the battery for a fully charged one would be a different matter entirely ...

However a system where you swop-out the battery for a fully charged one would be a different matter entirely ...

which is the case when your fork truck battery is flat ... go and get another. However, at work for example, there are various batteries that have presumably had their day because it will show 100% to start with & then very quickly only 20/30%, but then it recovers some after you've left it a while. Sod's Law would say that you would end up with an ageing battery when you swapped it.

We've been trying (unsuccessfully) to replace our car and out of interest looked at hybrids. The impression I get is that their kerbweight is significantly higher but as the gross train weight is similar to the diesel version it results in a smaller braked trailer weight.

We're currently tied into Peugeot finance so we've been looking at the 508SW.

The 2L diesel automatic model has kerbweight of 1540 kg and braked trailer weight of 1800 kg.

The hybrid model (1.5L petrol) has a kerbweight of 1745 kg but braked trailer weight of 1340 kg. 

Hybrid technology feels that it's the worst of both worlds so perhaps the point is academic.

We have just purchased a Kuga 2 ltr diesel Ecoblue MHEV this does not plug into mains the 48 volt battery is charged when braking etc, the electric motor I believe just assists when you pull away. Alas we have not had chance to tow with it yet and the way things are going I don't think the caravan will going any where this year

We have and tow with a PHEV, the PHEV is fitted with an energy flow meter.

You will be surprised how energy is recovered when slowing down and breaking, you also be very surprised how much energy is required to accelerated from a standing start or accelerating up to speed.

You will feel the benefit pulling away from junctions and roundabouts especially with your caravan in tow.