Blog 21- EV is not the only way!
JCB chairman Lord Bamford shows off the engine (Courtesy of JCB)
JCB UK, has announced their debut of the zero-carbon emissions hydrogen-fuelled engine
This endeavour was made possible through the 100 engineers and a £100m investment at the Derbyshire factory over the course of a year.
Already incorporated into a prototype backhoe loader and a telescopic handler, JCB boasts of being the first construction equipment manufacturer to produce a fully operational hydrogen-fuelled engine. Along with the engine, a mobile hydrogen refuelling unit has been designed for easy transport and access to job sites.
The Government seems to be on a one track policy that EV’s are good and everything else is bad! This despite the lack of investment in a national infrastructure of charging stations. This policy is wrong. ICE vehicles still have a great and long future and need developing just as in the above article. Innovation must not be stifled in the EV cause as a ‘one horse’ policy will always exclude potentially better and at least alternate systems.
EV’s do not achieve anything like the WLTP claimed range and the recent cold snap has proven that those very optimistic ranges are even less! A Cornish journalist recently had a trial with the new Volvo C40 EV. This was a top of the range model. He drove from his home near Plymouth to a family get together in Bristol, a distance of about 140 miles. He charged it to 100% full at home and departed in the sub zero temperatures that we recently endured.
The 280 mile range shown before he started quickly dropped to 180 and continued to reduce, so that he felt that he had to stop at Taunton Deane Services to top up to 80%. 40 minutes later he was under way again and having arrived at his destination in Bristol with about 15% battery remaining. He plugged into a 13amp socket and whilst he was there it added another 10% to the battery. He departed Bristol and again just about made it to Taunton Deane where another 40 minute wait saw the battery back up to 80%. This was just enough to get back home.
The cost of charging at the Motorway Service Areas and the domestic charges came to £88. Had he used his own BMW 3 Series diesel his costs would have been £55 and he’s have been time richer by 80 minutes. So no benefit there with an EV in either cost or time, and the Government has already announced that EV’s will soon be paying Road Tax as well, and possible Road Fuel Duty?
If you only ever charge up at home or at someone else’s cost, and only travel short distances there is some sense in owning an EV, so long as you don’t have to pay for it in the first place!
Fuelcard Frank
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