GTE... almost there?

[monkeyhanger]

Even if you are getting your electricity for free (free charging point at work?) I can't see why you'd pay the extra for the GTE over the GTD.

You can just imagine all the works electricity bills shooting up 10 fold 
A guy at my wife's work has a Nissan Leaf and he was expecting just to plug it in while there!!

How does the electric / fuel part work I couldn't pick that up? If my commute is 12 miles to work and 12 back could I in theory not use any fuel at all?

In theory, if you drove like you had a 60ps UP! you might not use any fuel at all, but you'd probably add about £1.10 to your electricity bill on a daily basis, which is cheaper than the fuel you'd otherwise use, but will come as a shock on your electricity bill if you don't account for it until that big bill arrives.

[monkeyhanger]

As soon as these electric cars are on the road in meaningful numbers, the free changing/free parking/free congestion charge will stop. Cheaper motoring for greenies (ignoring the extra expense these cars are to buy) is great when the 2% are doing it and the 98% are subsidising it, when that number becomes 10%/20%/30%, that lost revenue has to be made up somewhere.

The immediate future of cheap motoring without huge additional costs in car tech would be an LPG powered GTI, but how long do you reckon LPG would stay at 70p a litre? I'm sure it would be easy enough for them to do a "hybrid" GTI that combusted petrol in the usual way when you want performance, but seamlessly burns LPG for up to 100PS requirements when you're just tootling on or cruising at a set speed, and it would cost very little extra to do. A little space lost in the boot for the LPG tank. I'm sure VW do something similar already (albeit not for the performance models), for other markets.

[fredgroves]

Or Hydrogen:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/toyota-fuel-cell-sedan-hydrogen-2014-6-27

Which actually brings me back to something I said here earlier - the Golf GTE is attractive because it looks like a CAR not a train wreck

[Ian.C]

Only problem with hydrogen cars that need refilling is producing the hydrogen.....It isnt exactly environmentally friendly so sooner or later the TAX will increase substantially.

Ian

[fredgroves]

Depends how you make the Hydrogen... solar furnaces and water works quite nicely with zero polution (unless you start including the polution created in building such a structure).

[Ian.C]

Agreed...but not so well in the UK....and they produce quite small volumes which then need further "polishing" to increase the purity.

Ian

[fredgroves]

This is true, the UK is a less suitable place for a solar furnace (well, Grimsby certainly is anyway!) however the fuel we put in our cars today isn't refined here either, so hydrogen really is a like for like swap as opposed to electric.

I guess one day fusion will finally get (and keep) going and then the options are somewhat boundless.

[Ian.C]

) however the fuel we put in our cars today isn't refined here either

Why do you say that....? 2 of the biggest oil refineries in the UK are on your doorstep...??
On a side note....I see your in Grimsby...so Am I...what car do you have..?

Thanks
Ian

[monkeyhanger]

) however the fuel we put in our cars today isn't refined here either

Why do you say that....? 2 of the biggest oil refineries in the UK are on your doorstep...??
On a side note....I see your in Grimsby...so Am I...what car do you have..?

Thanks
Ian

And I used to work at the huge Esso Fawley oil refinery down on the coast beyond Southampton, it is still going strong.

[fredgroves]

Hmmm ok, that wasn't my understanding - or if that is the case, then its moving offshore (what isn't?)

Ian - I have a Limestone Grey Mk7 GTD