Electric vehicles

[Cobbs]

Just a note to all all the doomsday sayers about the electricity grid can't cope.... here a couple of facts for you.

The UK's electricity consumption has been declining since 2005, when it peaked at 357 terawatt-hours. In 2023, the UK's electricity consumption was 266 terawatt-hours, its lowest level of the century

Like what you're saying and I'm your side in this discussion, but any chance you could let us know the source of that? It just might go some way to convincing more people...

 

[Delaney]

Like what you're saying and I'm your side in this discussion, but any chance you could let us know the source of that? It just might go some way to convincing more people...

I cannot imagine electricity usage going down over Covid.

 

[Cobbs]

I cannot imagine electricity usage going down over Covid.

I can - think about all those closed factories and so on. Not saying I know it did though, which is why I was asking for the source of the figures.

 

[Sachakins]

Like what you're saying and I'm your side in this discussion, but any chance you could let us know the source of that? It just might go some way to convincing more people...

https://www.enerdata.net/estore/energy-market/united-kingdom/

Power Consumption
In 2023, electricity consumption declined by 3.3% to 267 TWh, after a 4.5% decrease in 2022. In 2021, it rebounded by 1.2% after a 5.2% drop in 2020. Between 2005 and 2019, electricity consumption declined on average by 1.2%/year. In 2023, electricity consumption was 25% below its peak level in 2005.

Households are the main electricity consumers (35%), followed by services (29%) and industry (29%).

 

[MikeJhn]

That is all very well and your experience is valid but think of the principle next time you see it.
If you have someone hogging a middle lane of a three lane motorway, you no longer have a three lane motorway as all traffic has to go into the outside lane to over take.
This means you now have a dual carriage way and the traffic responds accordingly.

Watch it in motion and how it causes huge congestion in the middle and fast lane with the slow one being essentially empty.

It is single handedly the biggest cause of congestion on motorways and the government decided to spend hundreds of millions putting in extra lanes (mostly by taking sway the hard shoulder) for the same behaviour to go on.

Not so, the single handedly biggest cause of congestion on motorways is the miss conception that there are slow and fast lanes instead of the middle and outside lanes being for overtaking.

In the UK we could take a lesson from most of those who drive in Europe, the lane discipline is much better on French and German motorways.

 

[AJB Temple]

Not so, the single handedly biggest cause of congestion on motorways is the miss conception that there are slow and fast lanes instead of the middle and outside lanes being for overtaking.

In the UK we could take a lesson from most of those who drive in Europe, the lane discipline is much better on French and German motorways.

I think you might find that traffic density is a factor. France is more than double the area of the UK and has about 38 million vehicles. The UK at less than half the size in land area and has around 34m vehicles. Suggests different density. We live part of the time in Germany and although I agree lane discipline is better, you do have that guy in a Mercedes coming up behind you at 155mph .....

 

[niemeyjt]

Now Volvo has abandoned plans for all vehicles to be electric by 2030.

 

[woodieallen]

As an HGV driver who travels everyday up and down the M1 I’ve found that the issue isn’t so much a deliberate act to hog a lane but seems to be more one of individuals having absolutely no idea of :
1- what the speed limit actually is
2- their immediate surroundings
3- how to maintain speed or proximity
4- what lane they should actually be in
5- what technology their vehicle has or how to use it

6 - How a gearbox works
7 - What that funny pedal under their right foot does

 

[Delaney]

Not so, the single handedly biggest cause of congestion on motorways is the miss conception that there are slow and fast lanes instead of the middle and outside lanes being for overtaking.

In the UK we could take a lesson from most of those who drive in Europe, the lane discipline is much better on French and German motorways.

Sorry aren’t you agreeing with me?
I don’t see where are views differ.

 

[Delaney]

I can - think about all those closed factories and so on. Not saying I know it did though, which is why I was asking for the source of the figures.

https://www.enerdata.net/estore/energy-market/united-kingdom/

Power Consumption
In 2023, electricity consumption declined by 3.3% to 267 TWh, after a 4.5% decrease in 2022. In 2021, it rebounded by 1.2% after a 5.2% drop in 2020. Between 2005 and 2019, electricity consumption declined on average by 1.2%/year. In 2023, electricity consumption was 25% below its peak level in 2005.

Households are the main electricity consumers (35%), followed by services (29%) and industry (29%).

so there was a covid bump?

 

[Sachakins]

so there was a covid bump?

Don't know, but interesting observation.

 

[MikeJhn]

Sorry aren’t you agreeing with me?
I don’t see where are views differ.

The fact that you think there is a slow lane and a fast lane and not an inside lane and two overtaking lanes.

 

[Delaney]

The fact that you think there is a slow lane and a fast lane and not an inside lane and two overtaking lanes.

‘fast’ or ‘slow’ is relative.

 

[Blackswanwood]

As a further burden is put on the grid, they will ha e to stagger charging times, likely by location. You will then find that there will no longer be a cheaper tariff time as all times, will be considered peak.
The price to charge at home will end up as expensive as the stations.

You can’t cheat the system. The argument today that you’re saving money will soon upset those who need to raid your little piggy bank.

I doubt that and there’s a stat in a post earlier that shows how the UK’s electricity consumption has fallen. Are you basing your theory on any hard facts?

You do seem to have a pessimistic outlook on everything.

 

[Scruples]

Oh, like sports cars make other bits look bigger?

That, and it's more likely that someone will 'pull a bird', as they used to say the 60s, in a sports car than and SUV.

 

[GuitardoctorW7]

https://www.enerdata.net/estore/energy-market/united-kingdom/

Power Consumption
In 2023, electricity consumption declined by 3.3% to 267 TWh, after a 4.5% decrease in 2022. In 2021, it rebounded by 1.2% after a 5.2% drop in 2020. Between 2005 and 2019, electricity consumption declined on average by 1.2%/year. In 2023, electricity consumption was 25% below its peak level in 2005.

Households are the main electricity consumers (35%), followed by services (29%) and industry (29%).

I wonder if that may be partly down to advances in lighting technology.? Most of my lighting is now LED of some sort, which uses substantially less electricity, and they have come on in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. I needed some 100w incandescent for a light bulb limiter I made, and it was really hard sourcing them.

 

[Chris Puttick]

Just a note to all all the doomsday sayers about the electricity grid can't cope.... here a couple of facts for you.

The UK's electricity consumption has been declining since 2005, when it peaked at 357 terawatt-hours. In 2023, the UK's electricity consumption was 266 terawatt-hours, its lowest level of the century

Not about total consumption, it's about peak loads and the huge shifts in consumption patterns. Having a small EV as a second car and an interest in data, the car's consumption is off the charts compared to all else, despite working from home, a large garden office/gym and an increasing predilection for large woodworking machinery. The only thing that uses nearly as much power as charging the car is charging the storage - which is another shift in consumption times.

 

[Rhossydd]

I wonder if that may be partly down to advances in lighting technology.?

To a small part and all electrical kit has become more efficient over the years.
However a large part of this drop in demand from the grid must come from the steadily increasing amount of PV solar generation across domestic and commercial premises, dropping demand and sometime even becoming negative demand to the grid.

 

[Terrytpot]

At the risk of alienating any HGV drivers on the forum, the principal impediment to progress is when three lanes become two as one HGV with an imperceptible speed advantage over another hogs the middle lane in an overtaking manoeuvre at ~60mph.

The majority of motorways have more than two lanes available to use which surely leaves a lane free for cars who can legally exceed 60mph to get past…compare that to hgv’s who are not allowed in the extreme right hand lane (unless it’s a 2 lane motorway) and as such only have a choice of sitting in the inside lane (which a lot of the time I prefer as quite often it moves quicker) or trying to pull out and overtake in a lane full of cars who have no intention of pulling back in as they don’t want to use the “slow lane” and don’t want their visibility impaired by trucks and who most of the time seem perfectly happy to match the speed of the vehicle they should be overtaking even though it’s travelling substantially slower than the posted speed limit and there are no obstructions forward of them preventing them from overtaking and pulling back in…
Ps: no alienation taken

 

[Sachakins]

I wonder if that may be partly down to advances in lighting technology.? Most of my lighting is now LED of some sort, which uses substantially less electricity, and they have come on in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. I needed some 100w incandescent for a light bulb limiter I made, and it was really hard sourcing them.

Yes advances in customers using more efficient devices has certainly helped.