Luton Airport car park fire

[Dryce]

Sometimes you have to move with the times, ICE cars are on the way out and EVs are taking over even if the uptakes seems a little slower than initially expected.

The problem isn't moving with the times.

It's moving with the imposed rules and paying for it through taxes.

Yes there will always be examples where current EVs don’t suit a particular individual but I’m sure most people could use one everyday if they wanted to

'if they wanted to'.

The problem is that EVs are not sufficiently desirable to the majority.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Only in developed, 1st world, countries. The rest of the world will continue with ancient petrol and diesel vehicles

Just back from rooting, tooting USA, which counts itself as a First World Country.

They're still happily driving around in huge "cheap as chips" trucks and SUV's that simply aren't available from China, Korea and the usual EV suspects.

Yes, there are EV's around, but it's very much a California / tech industry / young white-collar male driver thing.

That's 300 million vehicles. Last year just 0.75 million EV's were sold into the US of A

And ditto Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, and Japan.... all "First World countries" which aren't actually converting apace, despite what they're Green Parties would have you believe.

 

[Dryce]

And ditto Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, and Japan.... all "First World countries" which aren't actually converting apace, despite what they're Green Parties would have you believe.

Not that many EVs in Singapore.

You hardly see any Malaysia - which still controls fuel prices - RON95 petrol is cheap at about 35p / litre.

 

[davymead]

Sometimes you have to move with the times, ICE cars are on the way out and EVs are taking over even if the uptakes seems a little slower than initially expected.

The whole bankrupt debacle of net zero and bloated government dogma is causing vehicle manufacturers into corporate suicide. Look around at the debt that VW are carrying alone against future sales to realise that fields and old stadia full of unsold electric vehicles is the reality of the situation. It just isn’t happening, and the emperor is stood there in the nude for all to see.

 

[st13phil]

I’d like to know what percentage of them are company cars.

In the case of the two examples I've driven, it's 100%.

 

[E55BOF]

You’re assuming that people actually want to embrace change and aren’t going into the discussion with a fixed motive.

I'm assuming you too are in this discussion with a fixed motive.

Sometimes you have to move with the times, ICE cars are on the way out eventually and EVs are taking over even if the uptake seems a little much much slower than initially expected optimistically hoped for.

Yes there will always be examples where current EVs don’t suit a particular individual but I’m sure most people could use one everyday if they wanted to

Fixed that for you....

"Most people could use one everyday if they wanted to". Bottom line is, they don't want to . I'll be retiring soon, and covering less mileage, but I won't want to then either. An EV6 or an Ioniq might well do me then, but why change what I already have and am happy with?

 

[ALFAitalia]

Who are you going to claim from? You would have to prove negligence against the car owner or the airport or car park owners. Unless the car owner did something (or didn't do something) to cause the fire then there is no claim against them. The owners of the car park can't be held responsible for accidental fires. Possibly there might be questions about the quick spread of the fire but that sort of claim would take years to resolve and would cost a fortune to take forward for car owners. There might be a claim against the supplier of the vehicle for a defective product but again that would have to be proved and the costs would be eye watering. Good luck in claiming off a third party I know what I'd be doing!

Why would I have to prove negligence?....there is video evidence that shows which car started the fire....so it his fault. Negligence does not come into it. That's like saying that you could not claim against a guy who handbrake cable snapped and his car rolled into your car (like I did a few years when a car rolled into mine in West Bay Dorset!). He wasn't negligent....it was a fault with the car.....like the one that burst into flames clearly had a fault. His insurance company paid out, no issue.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Not that many EVs in Singapore.
You hardly see any Malaysia - which still controls fuel prices - RON95 petrol is cheap at about 35p / litre.

Wow, that's low. UK RON95 is about 75p a litre, isn't it ? (excluding fuel duty and VAT)

Why is their fuel so cheap? Because it's home grown?

(For elimination of doubt, my earlier comment was more that it's only China and Europe that are really pushing the EV transition forward. The Rest of the First World, and the developing economies are visibly dragging their feet)

 

[Dryce]

Why is their fuel so cheap? Because it's home grown?

Government sets the price. Malaysia is an oil producer.

RON97 is set proportionately higher.

This caused problems when the oil price went up in the late 2000s and the price was held at a point where the government was effectively subsidisng it. This caused complaints where drivers from Singapore were being accused of strategically filling up their tanks in Malaysia before returning to Singapore.

Once a government takes responsibility for setting prices it seems quite hard for them to disengage.

Malaysian drivers pay in other ways - there are tolls on long distance inter city motorways and some urban motorways and

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Having just driven from the UK to the Nurburgring via France, Belgium, Netherlands and of course Germany we saw maybe 3 EVs the entire trip.

Plus just spent a week in Andalusia in Spain driving around, again maybe 2-3 EVs if that. Was very suprising!

 

[SmartAmg]

Having just driven from the UK to the Nurburgring via France, Belgium, Netherlands and of course Germany we saw maybe 3 EVs the entire trip.

Plus just spent a week in Andalusia in Spain driving around, again maybe 2-3 EVs if that. Was very suprising!

Yep, that is as suprise, Karl.

 

[Will]

Having just driven from the UK to the Nurburgring via France, Belgium, Netherlands and of course Germany we saw maybe 3 EVs the entire trip.

Plus just spent a week in Andalusia in Spain driving around, again maybe 2-3 EVs if that. Was very suprising!

I find that amazing. Just driving around where I live (not in London and hardly a suburb either) I see several EVs every day.

Maybe they’re just not on your radar - I find it hard to believe there were only three on the whole journey from Cambridge to Germany!

 

[KillerHERTZ]

We (the UK) purchase more new cars than any other country I'm sure I read + more of a push from our government perhaps?

Also, I didn't venture into any major cities which possibly makes a difference, with less of an infrastructure in the countryside perhaps.

Not talking about the UK

 

[markjay]

We (the UK) purchase more new cars than any other country I'm sure I read + more of a push from our government perhaps?..

Car Sales by Country | Global Car Sales Data | 1. China 2. US

Top 25 countries for car sales per year. This list of car sales by country includes global rank, number of units sold, and top car brands within each country listed.

www.factorywarrantylist.com

 

[clk320x]

We (the UK) purchase more new cars than any other country I'm sure I read + more of a push from our government perhaps?

Also, I didn't venture into any major cities which possibly makes a difference, with less of an infrastructure in the countryside perhaps.

The Netherlands is big on EV. Electric vehicles continue to charge forward in the Netherlands.

As is Belgium.

EV Charging Index: Expert insight from Belgium

With strong EV adoption, Belgium government is preparing the country to lead e-mobility.

www.rolandberger.com

 

[Will]

We (the UK) purchase more new cars than any other country I'm sure I read + more of a push from our government perhaps?

Also, I didn't venture into any major cities which possibly makes a difference, with less of an infrastructure in the countryside perhaps.

Usually there would be plenty on the major road networks from Cambridge to the tunnel?

Obviously if you only saw three you only saw three but I’d probably have seen 30 before hitting the M25 or whatever - I saw three just crossing the river earlier where I live on the way back into town!

If you think something like one in fifty cars is an EV at present that’s an awful lot of them when there’s 30+ million cars

Just googled ‘how many EV in UK’ and this comes up:

More than 1m electric vehicles now on UK roads

The figures from the SMMT also show that one in five electric vans are registered in the south-east.

www.fleetnews.co.uk

Figures seem to vary a little but it seems around 1 million EVs in the UK and around 1/2 million plug in hybrids (plus all of those regular hybrids that have been around for the last two decades now!)

There’s probably quite a lot out there that you maybe didn’t see

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Usually there would be plenty on the major road networks from Cambridge to the tunnel?

Obviously if you only saw three you only saw three but I’d probably have seen 30 before hitting the M25 or whatever - I

There’s probably quite a lot out there that you maybe didn’t see

I wasn't talking about the UK. They are everywhere here. I meant in the rest of Europe

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Car Sales by Country | Global Car Sales Data | 1. China 2. US

Top 25 countries for car sales per year. This list of car sales by country includes global rank, number of units sold, and top car brands within each country listed.

www.factorywarrantylist.com

What's the amount % per number of Cars in each country though?

 

[Will]

I wasn't talking about the UK. They are everywhere here. I meant in the rest of Europe

That wasn’t very clear!

Still a very surprising number even if you’re only counting from France to Germany.

 

[Will]

Even more surprising when Germany has quite a significant number of EVs too:

The stock of plug-in electric cars in Germany is the largest in Europe, and represented 2.5% of all passenger cars on German roads on January 1, 2022.[23] As of December 2021, cumulative sales totaled 1.38 million plug-in passenger cars since 2010,[11][24] of which, 1.184 million were still in circulation at the beginning of 2022.

No idea on the total number in 2023 but even a while ago about 1 in 40 cars electric over there?