-
New Auto Sales To Drop 75% Due To Longevity & Autonomous
From
Bret Cahill@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 15 04:26:05 2023
U.S. auto manufacturers act like they are digging their own graves transitioning to battery electric and maybe they know best.
The reliability / service life of BEVs is so much greater than conventional drive trains they basically worked themselves out of a lot of jobs.
Then a lot of money can be saved by just not owning a motor vehicle, sharing or renting instead.
The overhead of insurance and taking up space is an incentive to drive.
It's reversed without that overhead. The incentive is to not drive.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
JNugent@21:1/5 to
Bret Cahill on Mon May 15 12:53:53 2023
On 15/05/2023 12:26 pm, Bret Cahill wrote:
U.S. auto manufacturers act like they are digging their own graves transitioning to battery electric and maybe they know best.
The reliability / service life of BEVs is so much greater than conventional drive trains they basically worked themselves out of a lot of jobs.
Then a lot of money can be saved by just not owning a motor vehicle, sharing or renting instead.
The overhead of insurance and taking up space is an incentive to drive.
It's reversed without that overhead. The incentive is to not drive.
That's alright-ish when you're on holiday in a seaside resort (for those
who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like).
But for normal life, in a normal, non-inner-city location, sharing is
not a viable option even when it's available, which it usually isn't.
And renting for every day use is hopelessly uneconomic. It has to be a
car owned by the household, even if, like mine, it is ageing gracefully
(from new).
Insurance circa £200, Road Tax c. £20, servicing, AA membership about
£145 and repairs maybe £300 (all pa). Depreciation sunk over a car-life
of (say) fifteen years), you're talking about an approximate figure of
£1600 - £2000 a year, plus fuel and odd expenditure on tyres, etc.
See how many days you can rent a car for that in a year.
PS: Where was the fairy-cycle mentioned in your post? I haven't been
able to spot it.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
Bret Cahill on Mon May 15 07:05:29 2023
On Monday, May 15, 2023 at 12:26:07 PM UTC+1, Bret Cahill wrote:
U.S. auto manufacturers act like they are digging their own graves transitioning to battery electric and maybe they know best.
The reliability / service life of BEVs is so much greater than conventional drive trains they basically worked themselves out of a lot of jobs.
Then a lot of money can be saved by just not owning a motor vehicle, sharing or renting instead.
The overhead of insurance and taking up space is an incentive to drive.
It's reversed without that overhead. The incentive is to not drive.
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being driven into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 15 16:35:04 2023
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
On Monday, May 15, 2023 at 12:26:07 PM UTC+1, Bret Cahill wrote:
U.S. auto manufacturers act like they are digging their own graves
transitioning to battery electric and maybe they know best.
The reliability / service life of BEVs is so much greater than
conventional drive trains they basically worked themselves out of a lot of jobs.
Then a lot of money can be saved by just not owning a motor vehicle,
sharing or renting instead.
The overhead of insurance and taking up space is an incentive to drive.
It's reversed without that overhead. The incentive is to not drive.
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being driven
into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
What is Khan doing about indoor pollution, that can be as much as 8x that
of outdoors?
Useful list:
Air Pollution: Six top tips from asthma.org.uk
Open windows if you can (be cautious on high pollen or pollution days) or
use extractor fans, especially in kitchens and bathrooms. It’ll help clear any indoor pollutants and prevent damp and mould.
Reduce dust mites as much as possible by regularly washing bedding or using anti-allergy covers. Read more on dust mites.
Avoid aerosols and sprays – go for non-spray cleaning and personal
products.
Avoid strong smells and chemicals – look for mild or unscented products,
and products low in VOCs (Volatile Organic Chemicals).
Don’t smoke. Cigarette smoke is a dangerous asthma trigger. And it can also make you and your child more sensitive to other indoor triggers.
Make sure any heaters, cookers and boilers are serviced regularly. Also
make sure any new appliances are fitted properly with adequate ventilation.
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Simon Mason@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 15 09:37:20 2023
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being driven into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
The latest Motorparc Data, released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), shows car ownership in the country is in decline.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
Simon Mason on Mon May 15 16:41:42 2023
Simon Mason <
swldxer2022@gmail.com> wrote:
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
The latest Motorparc Data, released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers
and Traders (SMMT), shows car ownership in the country is in decline.
Britain gets back in the driving seat with more than a million EVs on the
road
25 APRIL 2023
#BUS & COACH #CARS #ELECTRIC & ALTERNATIVELY-FUELLED VEHICLES #HGVS #LCVS #REGISTRATIONS #SMMT NEWS
Number of vehicles on UK roads grows 0.5% to reach record 40.7 million,
with car ownership rising for first time since 2019.
One in every 32 cars now comes with a plug with 1.1 million electric cars
now in use, and new technologies cutting average car and van CO2 emissions
by -1.6%.
Record numbers of HGVs and vans in service, but buses fall to all time low
with almost 17,000 lost in the last decade.
Industry urges action on infrastructure and incentives to accelerate zero emission transition.
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Simon Mason@21:1/5 to
Simon Mason on Mon May 15 10:01:53 2023
On Monday, 15 May 2023 at 17:37:21 UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being driven into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
The latest Motorparc Data, released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), shows car ownership in the country is in decline.
Don't look at the state of the "UK" car manufacturing data since Brexit - fallen off a cliff!!
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
Simon Mason on Mon May 15 11:15:00 2023
On Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:01:56 PM UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
On Monday, 15 May 2023 at 17:37:21 UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being driven into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
The latest Motorparc Data, released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), shows car ownership in the country is in decline.
Don't look at the state of the "UK" car manufacturing data since Brexit - fallen off a cliff!!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwL3Y09XsAA4w_a?format=jpg&name=medium
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
Simon Mason on Mon May 15 18:22:07 2023
Simon Mason <
swldxer2022@gmail.com> wrote:
On Monday, 15 May 2023 at 17:37:21 UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being
driven into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful
air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
The latest Motorparc Data, released by the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), shows car ownership in the country is in decline.
Don't look at the state of the "UK" car manufacturing data since Brexit - fallen off a cliff!!
But…
Number of vehicles on UK roads grows 0.5% to reach record 40.7 million,
with car ownership rising for first time since 2019.
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 15 11:25:51 2023
Startup that hoped to transform UK car production was once valued at more than £800m, but collapsed worth a tiny fraction of that.
A Britishvolt presentation given to investors in June laid out the scale of the opportunity it had seen. In 2028, it thought European battery demand would outstrip supply by 554GWh – enough for 15 Britishvolts, or millions of electric cars. With that
giant opportunity came a giant valuation: it achieved the coveted “unicorn” status of being worth more than $1bn (£809m). Backers included Ashtead, Glencore and the abrdn-owned Tritax from the FTSE 100.
By the end, Britishvolt was worth a tiny fraction of that. DeaLab, an Indonesia-linked suitor, considered a bailout but the talks did not lead to agreement. Its offer would have valued the whole company at only £32m, according to a letter sent by the
executive chair, Peter Rolton, to shareholders. That was equal to the £32m Britishvolt spent on the May 2022 purchase of a German battery cell maker.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/20/britishvolt-britains-battery-startup-uk-car-production
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 15 18:22:46 2023
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
On Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:01:56 PM UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
On Monday, 15 May 2023 at 17:37:21 UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being
driven into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful >>>> air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
The latest Motorparc Data, released by the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), shows car ownership in the country is in decline.
Don't look at the state of the "UK" car manufacturing data since Brexit
- fallen off a cliff!!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwL3Y09XsAA4w_a?format=jpg&name=medium
But…
Number of vehicles on UK roads grows 0.5% to reach record 40.7 million,
with car ownership rising for first time since 2019.
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 15 18:30:14 2023
You’ve been told before that British Volt failed because of a very poor business model.
You should read more business news rather than road.cc rubbish.
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
Startup that hoped to transform UK car production was once valued at more than £800m, but collapsed worth a tiny fraction of that.
A Britishvolt presentation given to investors in June laid out the scale
of the opportunity it had seen. In 2028, it thought European battery
demand would outstrip supply by 554GWh – enough for 15 Britishvolts, or millions of electric cars. With that giant opportunity came a giant valuation: it achieved the coveted “unicorn” status of being worth more than $1bn (£809m). Backers included Ashtead, Glencore and the abrdn-owned Tritax from the FTSE 100.
By the end, Britishvolt was worth a tiny fraction of that. DeaLab, an Indonesia-linked suitor, considered a bailout but the talks did not lead
to agreement. Its offer would have valued the whole company at only £32m, according to a letter sent by the executive chair, Peter Rolton, to shareholders. That was equal to the £32m Britishvolt spent on the May
2022 purchase of a German battery cell maker.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/20/britishvolt-britains-battery-startup-uk-car-production
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 15 11:36:34 2023
Britishvolt has collapsed into administration after last-ditch efforts to secure emergency funding from investors failed, dashing hopes that the start-up would help turn the UK into a battery manufacturing powerhouse.
Founded in 2019, the company had been billed as a potential British battery-making champion, securing investment from FTSE 100 companies Glencore and Ashtead and gaining a £100mn funding pledge from the government.
The group, which had formed a big part of former prime minister Boris Johnson’s plans for a “green industrial revolution”, had planned to build a £3.8bn battery plant in Blyth, north-east England — the rights to the site are the group’s only
big asset. It had also developed in-house battery technology, which was at the prototype stage.
But on Tuesday, any chance of survival had vanished, with EY appointed as administrator to assess options for a sale of the business and its assets.
The vast majority of Britishvolt’s 232 staff were made redundant “with immediate effect” on Tuesday as the business had no funds to continue operating.
The group has for months been surviving on short-term rescue funding and tax rebates, while it searched for a viable long-term owner.
A late takeover offer from a group of shareholders, selected by the board as a “preferred offer” on Friday, was the company’s last attempt to remain afloat, but the company’s creditors refused to back the deal.
Proposed last week, the shareholder offer included a £30mn investment for almost total control of the company, with £128mn of further funding to follow.
The plant in Blyth was widely regarded as the ideal location for a battery factory because of its size, transport links and access to clean energy.
In response to the collapse, the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee has launched an inquiry into the future viability of battery manufacturing in the UK.
The company had also received an offer from little-known Indonesia-linked fund DeaLab, which was on similar terms to the shareholder bid.
Acting chief executive Graham Hoare said the “preferred offer”, which had been supported by shareholders, had “failed at the eleventh hour”.
He told staff the board could not gain the support of “critical creditors”, according to a person who listened to an online meeting of the group.
An all-staff meeting planned for Monday morning to update staff was twice delayed, then rescheduled for Tuesday, when employees were told of the administration. About 26 workers remain at the company.
In a chaotic online meeting, staff were told they had until 3pm on Tuesday to access their work emails to retrieve payslips. However, several found that forwarding messages had been disabled, according to people who witnessed the meeting.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
JNugent@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 15 20:07:55 2023
On 15/05/2023 07:15 pm,
swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
On Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:01:56 PM UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
On Monday, 15 May 2023 at 17:37:21 UTC+1, Simon Mason wrote:
Why do you keep talking to yourself?
It certainly can't be a quest for intelligent conversation!
Same in UK as well.
"New figures show there are now 13,500 fewer polluting cars being driven into central London every day and a significant drop in harmful air pollution, since the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone six months ago."
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/ulez-reduces-polluting-cars-by-13500-every-day
The latest Motorparc Data, released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), shows car ownership in the country is in decline.
Don't look at the state of the "UK" car manufacturing data since Brexit - fallen off a cliff!!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwL3Y09XsAA4w_a?format=jpg&name=medium
"...UK car manufacturing ... fallen off a cliff..."
For an anti-car loony like you... is that good? Or bad?
Make your mind up.
Mind you, I'd have thought that you'd be the last person who wants to
"think" of anything - or anyone - falling.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 15 12:17:11 2023
The company had been struggling for months and had failed to reach ambitious commitments made to ensure additional funding. The company’s administrators, EY, said the UK company did not have sufficient equity for its research and the development of
facilities.
The failure of Britishvolt will severely dent the UK’s attempts to modernise its automotive industry and to put in place the supply chain necessary for the next generation of UK-built electric vehicles.
Hundreds of jobs have been lost and plans to build a massive ‘gigafactory’ in Blyth, Northumberland, to take advantage of rising EV demand ahead of the UK’s 2030 ban of new petrol and diesel cars are now pretty much in tatters. The plant was
expected to employ about 3,000 workers when operating at full capacity and would have been able to supply 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries a year.
The question is: could all this have been avoided?
Britishvolt’s inability to secure the funding it needed suggests that investors are now less interested in growth and are more focused on profitability.
According to analysts its founders didn’t have a track record in technology development, the business hadn’t secured all the funding needed to build out the factory and there were no big customers.
The company’s timing may also have been an issue having to confront a combination of factors outside of its control such as the pandemic, inflation and increasing interest rates – all of which made it much harder for it to raise the money it needed
to fund investment at a crucial stage of its development.
All of these issues played a part – a long with the government’s failure to provide the funding it had promised – but, according to a number of ex-employees, the business itself got carried away acting like a huge company rather than the startup it
was.
So, what does the future hold? Australian-based startup, Recharge Industries, has been chosen as the preferred bidder to take over the company. Recharge has yet to construct a major project but now has the responsibility for delivering on UK hopes.
Whatever the future holds this is a sorry story which saw a chaotic end to a startup that had enormous ambitions and was billed as a cornerstone of the UK’s electric vehicle industry.
In reality, it should have focused on generating revenues and developing its customer base before growing, and spending, at the rate it did. For many start-ups it only needs a few things to go wrong for everything to be completely derailed.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 15 21:10:11 2023
You’ve been told before that British Volt failed because of a very poor business model.
You should read more business news rather than road.cc rubbish.
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
Britishvolt has collapsed into administration after last-ditch efforts to secure emergency funding from investors failed, dashing hopes that the start-up would help turn the UK into a battery manufacturing powerhouse.
Founded in 2019, the company had been billed as a potential British battery-making champion, securing investment from FTSE 100 companies
Glencore and Ashtead and gaining a £100mn funding pledge from the government.
The group, which had formed a big part of former prime minister Boris Johnson’s plans for a “green industrial revolution”, had planned to build
a £3.8bn battery plant in Blyth, north-east England — the rights to the site are the group’s only big asset. It had also developed in-house
battery technology, which was at the prototype stage.
But on Tuesday, any chance of survival had vanished, with EY appointed as administrator to assess options for a sale of the business and its assets.
The vast majority of Britishvolt’s 232 staff were made redundant “with immediate effect” on Tuesday as the business had no funds to continue operating.
The group has for months been surviving on short-term rescue funding and
tax rebates, while it searched for a viable long-term owner.
A late takeover offer from a group of shareholders, selected by the board
as a “preferred offer” on Friday, was the company’s last attempt to remain afloat, but the company’s creditors refused to back the deal.
Proposed last week, the shareholder offer included a £30mn investment for almost total control of the company, with £128mn of further funding to follow.
The plant in Blyth was widely regarded as the ideal location for a
battery factory because of its size, transport links and access to clean energy.
In response to the collapse, the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee has launched an inquiry into the
future viability of battery manufacturing in the UK.
The company had also received an offer from little-known Indonesia-linked fund DeaLab, which was on similar terms to the shareholder bid.
Acting chief executive Graham Hoare said the “preferred offer”, which had been supported by shareholders, had “failed at the eleventh hour”.
He told staff the board could not gain the support of “critical creditors”, according to a person who listened to an online meeting of the group.
An all-staff meeting planned for Monday morning to update staff was twice delayed, then rescheduled for Tuesday, when employees were told of the administration. About 26 workers remain at the company.
In a chaotic online meeting, staff were told they had until 3pm on
Tuesday to access their work emails to retrieve payslips. However,
several found that forwarding messages had been disabled, according to
people who witnessed the meeting.
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 15 21:52:02 2023
Shortly after 8am on Tuesday, cars and cyclists poured out of Honda’s factory in Swindon, a dramatic reversal of the usual morning pattern.
After formally announcing that it would close its flagship UK plant in 2021, the Japanese carmaker gave its 3,500 workforce the day off to absorb the biggest blow to Britain’s automotive industry in a generation.
In the ensuing traffic, shock quickly turned to anger, much of it directed at Theresa May’s government and politicians in general.
“We pay them to sit in parliament to make the right decision for the future of the country. It is a shame we can’t fire them too,” said Rob, a supplier to the Honda plant, as he drove out of the plant digesting Tuesday’s news.
Rob, who has worked 35 years in the motor industry and did not want give his surname, said he appreciated that the company’s decision was “not only about Brexit”. Instead, he said, it was about wider turmoil in the industry, the push towards
electric cars and the recent trade agreement between the EU and Japan.
The Brussels-Tokyo deal will allow Japanese carmakers to export into the EU tariff free by 2027, undermining the rationale for the UK’s small production base, particularly if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal.
But Rob blamed the government for failing to unite behind a strategy for Brexit that gave carmakers the confidence to see through bad times.
“The government has been so focused battling among itself. They need to bang their heads together,” he said, adding: “Who will be next? Nissan? Will BMW go back to Germany? Now one of them has had the bottle to move, the others could follow.”
https://www.ft.com/content/cba667f8-345e-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Tue May 16 07:45:07 2023
🙄
And now, in the teeth of the news that UK car ownership is at an all-time
high at over 40 million, and in the absence of anything relevant to post, a Blast from the Past:
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
Shortly after 8am on Tuesday, cars and cyclists poured out of Honda’s factory in Swindon, a dramatic reversal of the usual morning pattern.
After formally announcing that it would close its flagship UK plant in
2021, the Japanese carmaker gave its 3,500 workforce the day off to
absorb the biggest blow to Britain’s automotive industry in a generation.
In the ensuing traffic, shock quickly turned to anger, much of it
directed at Theresa May’s government and politicians in general.
“We pay them to sit in parliament to make the right decision for the
future of the country. It is a shame we can’t fire them too,” said Rob, a supplier to the Honda plant, as he drove out of the plant digesting Tuesday’s news.
Rob, who has worked 35 years in the motor industry and did not want give
his surname, said he appreciated that the company’s decision was “not only about Brexit”. Instead, he said, it was about wider turmoil in the industry, the push towards electric cars and the recent trade agreement between the EU and Japan.
The Brussels-Tokyo deal will allow Japanese carmakers to export into the
EU tariff free by 2027, undermining the rationale for the UK’s small production base, particularly if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal.
But Rob blamed the government for failing to unite behind a strategy for
Brexit that gave carmakers the confidence to see through bad times.
“The government has been so focused battling among itself. They need to bang their heads together,” he said, adding: “Who will be next? Nissan? Will BMW go back to Germany? Now one of them has had the bottle to move,
the others could follow.”
https://www.ft.com/content/cba667f8-345e-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Tue May 16 03:00:59 2023
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Tue May 16 12:32:03 2023
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Tue May 16 05:43:28 2023
The new MINI Cooper Electric small electric car is due to be revealed later this year ahead of its market release in 2024. It is the first in a series of next-generation MINI models heralding an exciting future for the famous British brand.
It will replace today's British-built MINI Electric – the firm has decided to rename it MINI Cooper Electric. There will be two versions at launch, a MINI Cooper E and a high-performance MINI Cooper SE.
Unlike many other new models, the new 2024 MINI Cooper Electric three-door won’t be built at the historic Oxford factory, but in China instead.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Tue May 16 18:59:35 2023
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
The new MINI Cooper Electric small electric car is due to be revealed
later this year ahead of its market release in 2024. It is the first in a series of next-generation MINI models heralding an exciting future for
the famous British brand.
It will replace today's British-built MINI Electric – the firm has
decided to rename it MINI Cooper Electric. There will be two versions at launch, a MINI Cooper E and a high-performance MINI Cooper SE.
Unlike many other new models, the new 2024 MINI Cooper Electric
three-door won’t be built at the historic Oxford factory, but in China instead.
That should help boost car numbers above the current record level of 40.7 million.
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Tue May 16 12:08:04 2023
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Tue May 16 20:05:58 2023
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Tue May 16 13:16:40 2023
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Tue May 16 21:34:47 2023
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Tue May 16 22:31:39 2023
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Wed May 17 09:32:57 2023
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Wed May 17 02:40:33 2023
Another failure in the offing.
"ir Keir Starmer has told Sky News the UK needs an "improved" Brexit deal with the EU after Vauxhall's parent company warned the future of UK car plants were at risk.
The Labour leader used an interview with Ian King Live to say that his party would seek "a better deal than the one that we've got' to bolster the country's trading relationship with the bloc.
He was speaking after it emerged that Stellantis, which also has Citroen, Fiat and Peugeot among its stable of brands, used a submission to a parliamentary committee's inquiry on electric vehicle (EV) production to warn it was no longer able to meet
Brexit trade rules on where parts are sourced.
The company said its commitment, two years ago, to the Luton and Ellesmere Port factories was based on meeting the strict terms of the deal that 45% of the value of EVs should originate in the EU or UK from 2024 to qualify for trade without tariffs.
Stellantis called for that date to be extended to 2027 or "trade between the UK and EU would be subject to 10% tariffs", it said.
Its submission to the BEIS committee continued: "If we source batteries from mainland Europe and China, as currently planned, our UK Stellantis plants will also be at a competitive disadvantage due to the higher logistics costs that we will face to
transport the batteries from mainland Europe to the UK.
"This is a threat to our export business and the sustainability of our UK manufacturing operations."
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Wed May 17 13:25:51 2023
Whoever would want to buy a Vauxhall, Citroen, Peugeot, or Fiat?
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
Another failure in the offing.
"ir Keir Starmer has told Sky News the UK needs an "improved" Brexit deal with the EU after Vauxhall's parent company warned the future of UK car plants were at risk.
The Labour leader used an interview with Ian King Live to say that his
party would seek "a better deal than the one that we've got' to bolster
the country's trading relationship with the bloc.
He was speaking after it emerged that Stellantis, which also has Citroen, Fiat and Peugeot among its stable of brands, used a submission to a parliamentary committee's inquiry on electric vehicle (EV) production to
warn it was no longer able to meet Brexit trade rules on where parts are sourced.
The company said its commitment, two years ago, to the Luton and
Ellesmere Port factories was based on meeting the strict terms of the
deal that 45% of the value of EVs should originate in the EU or UK from
2024 to qualify for trade without tariffs.
Stellantis called for that date to be extended to 2027 or "trade between
the UK and EU would be subject to 10% tariffs", it said.
Its submission to the BEIS committee continued: "If we source batteries
from mainland Europe and China, as currently planned, our UK Stellantis plants will also be at a competitive disadvantage due to the higher
logistics costs that we will face to transport the batteries from
mainland Europe to the UK.
"This is a threat to our export business and the sustainability of our UK manufacturing operations."
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
JNugent@21:1/5 to
All on Wed May 17 15:25:48 2023
-
From
JNugent@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Wed May 17 15:27:03 2023
On 17/05/2023 10:40 am,
swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
Another failure in the offing.
"ir Keir Starmer has told Sky News the UK needs an "improved" Brexit deal with the EU after Vauxhall's parent company warned the future of UK car plants were at risk.
Make your tiny mind up!
Do you want car companies to be able to build and sell cars or don't you?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Wed May 17 08:25:17 2023
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Wed May 17 08:34:10 2023
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Wed May 17 15:28:25 2023
-
From
Bret Cahill@21:1/5 to
All on Sun May 21 10:37:25 2023
Insurance circa £200, Road Tax c. £20, servicing, AA membership about £145 and repairs maybe £300 (all pa). Depreciation sunk over a car-life
of (say) fifteen years), you're talking about an approximate figure of £1600 - £2000 a year, plus fuel and odd expenditure on tyres, etc.
Sounds dreadful.
See how many days you can rent a car for that in a year.
The Rarámuri must have the lowest overall cost/mile as even energy costs are included in exhaustion hunting wearing sandals made from tires.
PS: Where was the fairy-cycle mentioned in your post?
Now that you twisted my arm (ouch) the lowest cost/mile for those of us with bad knees is cycling.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
Bret Cahill on Sun May 21 17:43:04 2023
Bret Cahill <
bretcahill@aol.com> wrote:
Insurance circa £200, Road Tax c. £20, servicing, AA membership about
£145 and repairs maybe £300 (all pa). Depreciation sunk over a car-life
of (say) fifteen years), you're talking about an approximate figure of
£1600 - £2000 a year, plus fuel and odd expenditure on tyres, etc.
Sounds dreadful.
See how many days you can rent a car for that in a year.
The Rarámuri must have the lowest overall cost/mile as even energy costs
are included in exhaustion hunting wearing sandals made from tires.
PS: Where was the fairy-cycle mentioned in your post?
Now that you twisted my arm (ouch) the lowest cost/mile for those of us
with bad knees is cycling.
Someone on the group is going on a 7000 mile holiday in Europe, and won’t
be going by bicycle…
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Sun May 21 11:07:35 2023
-
From
JNugent@21:1/5 to
Bret Cahill on Sun May 21 20:30:00 2023
On 21/05/2023 06:37 pm, Bret Cahill wrote:
Insurance circa £200, Road Tax c. £20, servicing, AA membership about
£145 and repairs maybe £300 (all pa). Depreciation sunk over a car-life
of (say) fifteen years), you're talking about an approximate figure of
£1600 - £2000 a year, plus fuel and odd expenditure on tyres, etc.
Sounds dreadful.
Does it?
It sounds fine to me.
See how many days you can rent a car for that in a year.
The Rarámuri must have the lowest overall cost/mile as even energy costs are included in exhaustion hunting wearing sandals made from tires.
...whatever that means.
PS: Where was the fairy-cycle mentioned in your post?
Now that you twisted my arm (ouch) the lowest cost/mile for those of us with bad knees is cycling.
Your choice.
Far be it from me, etc...
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Sun May 21 12:51:08 2023
The ULEZ expansion and scrappage scheme will help clear London's air by providing grant payments to successful applicants to scrap or retrofit vehicles that do not meet the emissions standards and switch to cleaner, greener modes of transport.
Following the success of our last scrappage scheme, which saw the removal of more than 15,000 polluting vehicles from London's roads, our new scrappage scheme will support Londoners on certain low income or disability benefits, and eligible micro
businesses (up to 10 employees), sole traders and charities with a registered address in London. Only eligible applicants with vehicles that do not meet the ULEZ emissions standard will qualify for our new scrappage scheme.
The application process for the Mayor's new £110m scrappage scheme is divided into two sub-schemes, based on vehicle type and applicant.
The ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme is for Londoners on certain low income or disability benefits with cars, motorcycles and wheelchair accessible vehicles that do not meet the ULEZ emissions standard.
The ULEZ van and minibus scrappage scheme is for eligible sole traders, micro businesses or charities with a registered address in London, to scrap or retrofit a van or minibus that does not meet the ULEZ emissions standard.
The application process is online, and you will need to upload evidence to prove your identity and eligibility. If you have received a grant payment under the previous TfL scrappage scheme, you can't apply to the equivalent sub-scheme again.
This page provides a summary of both sub-schemes. For eligibility criteria and how to apply, visit our scheme pages and see the related terms and conditions.
Cars, motorcycles and wheelchair accessible vehicles
Eligible applicants can get up to £2,000 for scrapping a car or up to £1,000 for scrapping a motorcycle. For wheelchair accessible vehicles there is a payment of £5,000 to scrap or retrofit to the ULEZ standard.
To qualify for the wheelchair accessible grant payment of £5,000, the vehicle you apply with must have been converted by mobility experts to allow a disabled person to access the vehicle as the driver or passenger.
Options are also available which include a lower payment plus one or two adult-rate Annual Bus & Tram Passes that are worth more than the payment alone.
You will need to live within one of the 32 London boroughs or the City of London and receive certain benefits to be eligible for the ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme. You can only apply for a grant payment to scrap a vehicle that does not meet
the ULEZ emissions standards. The vehicle must be registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to you or someone you live with. If you are claiming disability benefits it can also be registered to your nominated driver. Find out more
about the eligibility criteria, grant payment types and what you need to apply:
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Sun May 21 21:41:12 2023
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Sun May 21 21:48:34 2023
⚠️WARNING⚠️
Your benefits and tax status may be affected
Some low income, means-tested benefits are affected by the amount of money
you have in savings.
The ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme grant payment may be treated
as savings for any means-tested benefits you claim.
If this grant payment is treated as savings, and takes you over the
permitted savings limit, your benefit claims may be affected.
Find out more about this and how benefits can be affected by lump sum
payouts.
TfL will have no liability to you if the ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme grant payment affects any means-tested benefits you receive.
⚠️WARNING⚠️
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
The ULEZ expansion and scrappage scheme will help clear London's air by providing grant payments to successful applicants to scrap or retrofit vehicles that do not meet the emissions standards and switch to cleaner, greener modes of transport.
Following the success of our last scrappage scheme, which saw the removal
of more than 15,000 polluting vehicles from London's roads, our new
scrappage scheme will support Londoners on certain low income or
disability benefits, and eligible micro businesses (up to 10 employees),
sole traders and charities with a registered address in London. Only
eligible applicants with vehicles that do not meet the ULEZ emissions standard will qualify for our new scrappage scheme.
The application process for the Mayor's new £110m scrappage scheme is divided into two sub-schemes, based on vehicle type and applicant.
The ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme is for Londoners on certain
low income or disability benefits with cars, motorcycles and wheelchair accessible vehicles that do not meet the ULEZ emissions standard.
The ULEZ van and minibus scrappage scheme is for eligible sole traders,
micro businesses or charities with a registered address in London, to
scrap or retrofit a van or minibus that does not meet the ULEZ emissions standard.
The application process is online, and you will need to upload evidence
to prove your identity and eligibility. If you have received a grant
payment under the previous TfL scrappage scheme, you can't apply to the equivalent sub-scheme again.
This page provides a summary of both sub-schemes. For eligibility
criteria and how to apply, visit our scheme pages and see the related terms and conditions.
Cars, motorcycles and wheelchair accessible vehicles
Eligible applicants can get up to £2,000 for scrapping a car or up to £1,000 for scrapping a motorcycle. For wheelchair accessible vehicles
there is a payment of £5,000 to scrap or retrofit to the ULEZ standard.
To qualify for the wheelchair accessible grant payment of £5,000, the vehicle you apply with must have been converted by mobility experts to
allow a disabled person to access the vehicle as the driver or passenger.
Options are also available which include a lower payment plus one or two adult-rate Annual Bus & Tram Passes that are worth more than the payment alone.
You will need to live within one of the 32 London boroughs or the City of London and receive certain benefits to be eligible for the ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme. You can only apply for a grant payment to
scrap a vehicle that does not meet the ULEZ emissions standards. The
vehicle must be registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to you or someone you live with. If you are claiming disability benefits it can also be registered to your nominated driver. Find out
more about the eligibility criteria, grant payment types and what you need to apply:
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Sun May 21 21:55:19 2023
Usually when you talk to motorists in a line of traffic - one of the perks of my job - it takes a while to get people willing to engage with a camera crew.
Many drivers unsurprisingly won't wind down the window.
But when it comes to the ULEZ - the Ultra-Low Emission Zone expansion (or ULEX as some have called it) you can gather usually negative opinions very quickly.
ULEZ covers inner London at the moment and vehicles that are not compliant have to pay £12.50 a day to drive within the North and South circulars.
From August, the mayor wants to expand it out to cover the whole of the capital.
This is based on the concept that the "polluter pays" - it's trying to encourage you to switch to a cleaner vehicle or use public transport.
It is a policy some might think doesn't affect that many vehicles in the capital as almost half of households in London don't own a car.
However, car ownership varies across London - from 26% of households in Islington to 75% in Richmond.
Transport for London (TfL) says 85% of vehicles that drive in the zone are already compliant.
It also estimates the expanded ULEZ will affect 200,000 vehicles, although it expects that to drop quickly.
Sadiq Khan wrote to the prime minister on Wednesday, asking for central government funding for a targeted scrappage scheme aimed at helping people retrofit or replace vehicles that are not compliant.
As the commentator Dave Hill from onlondon.co.uk has said, some thought this was a policy whose bark was worse than its bite. Change was already happening as people moved away from older cars anyway.
The polling from YouGov commissioned by City Hall in October 2022 also showed 51% of Londoners asked supported ULEZ while 27% didn't.
Anecdotally, from talking to a line of car drivers, that perhaps doesn't seem to ring true.
Many drivers and outer London residents are furious at the concept that some may have to pay to drive.
There are many lining up against the expanded ULEZ, including councils, motoring groups, City Hall Conservatives and residents.
The policy is now being dissected with arguments over very specific statistics. One example is a line in the official independent assessment report by the firm Jacobs.
It is being seized by opponents like the Conservatives on the London Assembly.
The exact line is here from page 47 where it says the "Proposed Scheme is modelled to result in a minor reduction (-1.3%) in the average exposure of the population of Greater London to NO2 and negligible reductions (-0.1%) in average exposure to PM2.5".
That is enough for opponents to say it will make little difference to air quality.
City Hall has responded by saying it was "important to understand the impact of this policy in absolute terms".
"For example, although NO2 concentration reductions are smaller in percentage terms than for the central London ULEZ, in absolute terms there is a much larger volume of NOx emissions saved equating to 362 tonnes. This is in comparison to the 240 tonnes
saving we saw in central London," a spokesperson said.
Illegal levels
Health experts though say away from the detail, what we should be focussing on is there is no safe level of pollution and any level of pollution is potentially harmful. Pollution can cause asthma and serious lung and cardiovascular conditions.
London air pollution levels are frequently found to break both UK legal and World Health Organization (WHO) limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and WHO limits for PM2.5.
World expert on air quality, Prof Frank Kelly from Imperial College London, says expanding ULEZ will improve the health of Londoners.
"There is nowhere in London still that does meet the WHO air quality guidelines so that means everywhere you go the air you are breathing is having some impact on your health," he said.
"Absolutely expanding the ULEZ will benefit health because the ULEZ will lead to an improvement in air quality and traffic emissions and that means air quality will improve and when we see improvements in air quality we see health benefits."
Clean air campaigners want much more than expanding the ULEZ. They want wood burners to be controlled much more and more to be done to reduce other sources of pollution.
Ruth Fitzharris is from the campaign group Mums for Lungs. Her son was recently treated in hospital after suffering an asthma attack aggravated by pollution. She welcomes the expansion of ULEZ.
"Next we need more to bring down the levels of air pollution so that we can actually live and bring up children in a place where the environment is conducive to health and not actually negative impacts on our health," she said.
The politics around the expanded ULEZ have become increasingly toxic and adversarial.
The scheme will face judicial review paid for by council tax payers.
Has the mayor overreached? Should clean air really this be a role for central government and not devolved city mayors?
Health experts are clear it will improve health. Some think ULEZ is going too far, others not far enough.
The questions for London are - how much pollution is acceptable, how fast should the change be and who should bear the cost?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 22 07:49:23 2023
This article raises the question about what is coming next when the
expanded ULEZ ceases to bring in revenue, air quality is found to be very little affected, and people die in the same numbers as they did before the
zone was implemented. Khan needs income…so where is it to come from?
Also note that some 80% of asthma cases are caused by viral infections.
What is Khan to do about that?
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
Usually when you talk to motorists in a line of traffic - one of the
perks of my job - it takes a while to get people willing to engage with a camera crew.
Many drivers unsurprisingly won't wind down the window.
But when it comes to the ULEZ - the Ultra-Low Emission Zone expansion (or ULEX as some have called it) you can gather usually negative opinions very quickly.
ULEZ covers inner London at the moment and vehicles that are not
compliant have to pay £12.50 a day to drive within the North and South circulars.
From August, the mayor wants to expand it out to cover the whole of the capital.
This is based on the concept that the "polluter pays" - it's trying to encourage you to switch to a cleaner vehicle or use public transport.
It is a policy some might think doesn't affect that many vehicles in the capital as almost half of households in London don't own a car.
However, car ownership varies across London - from 26% of households in Islington to 75% in Richmond.
Transport for London (TfL) says 85% of vehicles that drive in the zone
are already compliant.
It also estimates the expanded ULEZ will affect 200,000 vehicles,
although it expects that to drop quickly.
Sadiq Khan wrote to the prime minister on Wednesday, asking for central government funding for a targeted scrappage scheme aimed at helping
people retrofit or replace vehicles that are not compliant.
As the commentator Dave Hill from onlondon.co.uk has said, some thought
this was a policy whose bark was worse than its bite. Change was already happening as people moved away from older cars anyway.
The polling from YouGov commissioned by City Hall in October 2022 also
showed 51% of Londoners asked supported ULEZ while 27% didn't.
Anecdotally, from talking to a line of car drivers, that perhaps doesn't seem to ring true.
Many drivers and outer London residents are furious at the concept that
some may have to pay to drive.
There are many lining up against the expanded ULEZ, including councils, motoring groups, City Hall Conservatives and residents.
The policy is now being dissected with arguments over very specific statistics. One example is a line in the official independent assessment report by the firm Jacobs.
It is being seized by opponents like the Conservatives on the London Assembly.
The exact line is here from page 47 where it says the "Proposed Scheme is modelled to result in a minor reduction (-1.3%) in the average exposure
of the population of Greater London to NO2 and negligible reductions
(-0.1%) in average exposure to PM2.5".
That is enough for opponents to say it will make little difference to air quality.
City Hall has responded by saying it was "important to understand the
impact of this policy in absolute terms".
"For example, although NO2 concentration reductions are smaller in
percentage terms than for the central London ULEZ, in absolute terms
there is a much larger volume of NOx emissions saved equating to 362
tonnes. This is in comparison to the 240 tonnes saving we saw in central London," a spokesperson said.
Illegal levels
Health experts though say away from the detail, what we should be
focussing on is there is no safe level of pollution and any level of pollution is potentially harmful. Pollution can cause asthma and serious
lung and cardiovascular conditions.
London air pollution levels are frequently found to break both UK legal
and World Health Organization (WHO) limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2),
and WHO limits for PM2.5.
World expert on air quality, Prof Frank Kelly from Imperial College
London, says expanding ULEZ will improve the health of Londoners.
"There is nowhere in London still that does meet the WHO air quality guidelines so that means everywhere you go the air you are breathing is having some impact on your health," he said.
"Absolutely expanding the ULEZ will benefit health because the ULEZ will
lead to an improvement in air quality and traffic emissions and that
means air quality will improve and when we see improvements in air
quality we see health benefits."
Clean air campaigners want much more than expanding the ULEZ. They want
wood burners to be controlled much more and more to be done to reduce
other sources of pollution.
Ruth Fitzharris is from the campaign group Mums for Lungs. Her son was recently treated in hospital after suffering an asthma attack aggravated
by pollution. She welcomes the expansion of ULEZ.
"Next we need more to bring down the levels of air pollution so that we
can actually live and bring up children in a place where the environment
is conducive to health and not actually negative impacts on our health," she said.
The politics around the expanded ULEZ have become increasingly toxic and adversarial.
The scheme will face judicial review paid for by council tax payers.
Has the mayor overreached? Should clean air really this be a role for
central government and not devolved city mayors?
Health experts are clear it will improve health. Some think ULEZ is going
too far, others not far enough.
The questions for London are - how much pollution is acceptable, how fast should the change be and who should bear the cost?
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 22 02:11:19 2023
The first year of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion to inner London has achieved a dramatic reduction in emissions and air pollution, and a huge increase in the share of vehicles that meet the ULEZ standards, according to a major new report
from City Hall and peer reviewed by Dr Gary Fuller at Imperial College London.
Despite huge progress, the whole of London still exceeds the World Health Organization’s guidelines for air quality, and over half of deaths attributable to air pollution are in outer London.
Around 4,000 Londoners die prematurely every year due to toxic air, and the report published today shows that the Mayor’s air quality policies, in particular the ULEZ and LEZ schemes, are having a transformative impact - cutting the number of older,
more polluting vehicles seen driving in London and reducing the levels of harmful air pollution.
The ULEZ was introduced in central London in 2019 and expanded to inner London in October 2021.
The central London ULEZ had a clear impact – in its first 10 months of operation, it helped reduce road transport nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by 35 per cent and CO2 emissions by 6 percent in the zone.
The landmark report shows that the ULEZ expansion has built on these benefits, with harmful nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels 46 per cent lower in central London and 21 per cent lower in inner London than they would have been without the scheme.
The number of older, more polluting vehicles in the zone has also continued to reduce significantly, dropping by 60 per cent since the inner London expansion came into operation in October 2021– an average reduction of 74,000 polluting vehicles every
day seen driving in the zone. Overall, there were nearly 50,000 fewer vehicles seen in the zone on an average day – a reduction of almost five per cent compared to the month prior to the expansion.
The Mayor announced last November that the ULEZ will be expanded across all London boroughs in August 2023 to help bring the air quality and associated health benefits to the five million people living in outer London.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “The evidence from this landmark report is clear – the ULEZ works. This is beyond dispute. It has already reduced toxic air pollution by almost half in central London and by over a fifth in inner London,
transforming the quality of air for four million Londoners. "
“But there’s still more to do. Toxic air is a matter of life and death, with around 4,000 deaths in London attributed to air pollution in 2019. It’s also stunting the growth of children’s lungs and causing people to develop life-changing
illnesses, such as cancer, lung disease, dementia and asthma.
Other key findings in the report include harmful nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations are revealed to have reduced further than originally predicted, and are estimated to be 21 per cent lower in inner London and 46 per cent lower in central London than
they would have been without the ULEZ.
Crucially, NO2 levels have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, indicating that even as traffic levels have risen, cleaner vehicles have had such positive impacts on emissions that air pollution levels continue to be far below what they would have been
without the ULEZ and other policies that the Mayor has implemented.
Christina Calderato, TfL’s Director of Strategy and Policy, said: “This report is further clear evidence that the ULEZ is highly effective and does what it is designed to do, protect Londoners’ health and significantly reduce pollution. It is great
to see that significant numbers of people have moved away from older, more polluting vehicles and some of the most deadly emissions have been cut by a quarter. With London still exceeding WHO guidelines and those in outer London disproportionately
suffering as a result of the capital’s filthy air, there is no stronger case to support the zone covering the whole of the city."
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
JNugent@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 22 15:15:05 2023
On 22/05/2023 05:55 am,
swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
Usually when you talk to motorists in a line of traffic - one of the perks of my job - it takes a while to get people willing to engage with a camera crew.
Many drivers unsurprisingly won't wind down the window.
But when it comes to the ULEZ - the Ultra-Low Emission Zone expansion (or ULEX as some have called it) you can gather usually negative opinions very quickly.
ULEZ covers inner London at the moment and vehicles that are not compliant have to pay £12.50 a day to drive within the North and South circulars.
From August, the mayor wants to expand it out to cover the whole of the capital.
This is based on the concept that the "polluter pays" - it's trying to encourage you to switch to a cleaner vehicle or use public transport.
It is a policy some might think doesn't affect that many vehicles in the capital as almost half of households in London don't own a car.
However, car ownership varies across London - from 26% of households in Islington to 75% in Richmond.
Transport for London (TfL) says 85% of vehicles that drive in the zone are already compliant.
It also estimates the expanded ULEZ will affect 200,000 vehicles, although it expects that to drop quickly.
Sadiq Khan wrote to the prime minister on Wednesday, asking for central government funding for a targeted scrappage scheme aimed at helping people retrofit or replace vehicles that are not compliant.
As the commentator Dave Hill from onlondon.co.uk has said, some thought this was a policy whose bark was worse than its bite. Change was already happening as people moved away from older cars anyway.
The polling from YouGov commissioned by City Hall in October 2022 also showed 51% of Londoners asked supported ULEZ while 27% didn't.
Anecdotally, from talking to a line of car drivers, that perhaps doesn't seem to ring true.
Many drivers and outer London residents are furious at the concept that some may have to pay to drive.
There are many lining up against the expanded ULEZ, including councils, motoring groups, City Hall Conservatives and residents.
The policy is now being dissected with arguments over very specific statistics. One example is a line in the official independent assessment report by the firm Jacobs.
It is being seized by opponents like the Conservatives on the London Assembly.
The exact line is here from page 47 where it says the "Proposed Scheme is modelled to result in a minor reduction (-1.3%) in the average exposure of the population of Greater London to NO2 and negligible reductions (-0.1%) in average exposure to PM2.5".
That is enough for opponents to say it will make little difference to air quality.
City Hall has responded by saying it was "important to understand the impact of this policy in absolute terms".
"For example, although NO2 concentration reductions are smaller in percentage terms than for the central London ULEZ, in absolute terms there is a much larger volume of NOx emissions saved equating to 362 tonnes. This is in comparison to the 240 tonnes
saving we saw in central London," a spokesperson said.
Illegal levels
Health experts though say away from the detail, what we should be focussing on is there is no safe level of pollution and any level of pollution is potentially harmful. Pollution can cause asthma and serious lung and cardiovascular conditions.
London air pollution levels are frequently found to break both UK legal and World Health Organization (WHO) limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and WHO limits for PM2.5.
World expert on air quality, Prof Frank Kelly from Imperial College London, says expanding ULEZ will improve the health of Londoners.
"There is nowhere in London still that does meet the WHO air quality guidelines so that means everywhere you go the air you are breathing is having some impact on your health," he said.
"Absolutely expanding the ULEZ will benefit health because the ULEZ will lead to an improvement in air quality and traffic emissions and that means air quality will improve and when we see improvements in air quality we see health benefits."
Clean air campaigners want much more than expanding the ULEZ. They want wood burners to be controlled much more and more to be done to reduce other sources of pollution.
Ruth Fitzharris is from the campaign group Mums for Lungs. Her son was recently treated in hospital after suffering an asthma attack aggravated by pollution. She welcomes the expansion of ULEZ.
"Next we need more to bring down the levels of air pollution so that we can actually live and bring up children in a place where the environment is conducive to health and not actually negative impacts on our health," she said.
The politics around the expanded ULEZ have become increasingly toxic and adversarial.
The scheme will face judicial review paid for by council tax payers.
Has the mayor overreached? Should clean air really this be a role for central government and not devolved city mayors?
Health experts are clear it will improve health. Some think ULEZ is going too far, others not far enough.
The questions for London are - how much pollution is acceptable, how fast should the change be and who should bear the cost?
There's a Commons debate on 26th June.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Spike@21:1/5 to
swldx...@gmail.com on Mon May 22 14:24:24 2023
swldx...@gmail.com <
swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
The first year of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion to inner London has achieved a dramatic reduction in emissions and air pollution,
and a huge increase in the share of vehicles that meet the ULEZ
standards, according to a major new report from City Hall and peer
reviewed by Dr Gary Fuller at Imperial College London.
In the usual peer-review process, you don’t know who the reviewer is.
In narrow fields of scientific endeavour, it’s pretty easy to guess, and tailor your research and report accordingly.
--
Spike
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
swldxer1958@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Mon May 22 08:22:39 2023
Air pollution is damaging people’s health and cutting lives short. It affects us all – from when we are in the womb through to old age. But some people are far more vulnerable to toxic air, including children, older people, and people with chronic
illnesses. And across Greater London, as in many other places, we’re seeing some people disproportionately exposed to higher levels of air pollution, including people from low income households, people from ethnic minorities, and outdoor and transport
workers.
In addition to disproportionate exposure, a study by the University of the West of England found that in the UK people from low income households tend to contribute less to the problem by being less likely to own a car and less likely to use it as often
as people on higher incomes.
London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone
The Government’s own research shows that Clean Air Zones (CAZs) are the most effective way to quickly reduce illegal and harmful levels of air pollution in urban areas – a guarantee that they protect people’s health, fast.
London first launched a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in 2008. This covers the whole of Greater London but crucially only applies to heavy duty vehicles, such as lorries, buses and coaches. It does not affect emissions from cars, which are the biggest source
of illegal air pollution in the city, or vans.
In 2014, in response to increasing pressure, including ClientEarth’s first legal challenge against the UK Government for failing to meet legal limits of air pollution, the then Mayor of London proposed an ‘Ultra Low Emission Zone’ (ULEZ) for
central London that would apply to all vehicles, including cars, from October 2020.
The ULEZ has subsequently paved the way for CAZs put forward by the UK Government. They work by setting minimum emissions standards and vehicles that do not meet these standards are discouraged from entering the zone by having to pay a charge if they do.
Whilst the initial proposals for the ULEZ were a welcome first step it was clear that a bigger, better ULEZ was needed sooner to ensure that legal limits for air pollution were met in London in the shortest time possible.
Following further legal victories against the UK Government, the current Mayor of London consulted with Londoners and brought forward the implementation of the ULEZ by 17 months. It launched in 2019 and we know it’s already working.
In the first 10 months of the central London scheme, the city saw a significant improvement in the air quality. The number of the most polluting vehicles dropped by 17,396 on average: a reduction of around 49%. Without bold policies like this, it would
have taken a whopping 193 years from 2016 for London to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)