Powerless

The BBC have had a go at Boris Johnson today.

Unusually.

Political reporter Jennifer Scott was much harsher than Laura Kuenssberg would have been.

Good.

Basically, Johnson made a speech which was supposed to promote electric motoring and green business to the CBI.  But he lost his place and waffled on about Peppa Pig World for a bit making a few lame jokes.

Embarrassing.

An earlier version of the Jennifer Scott story had lots of motoring references about him taking the wrong turn and other such also lame jokes.  That version seems to have disappeared.

Probably for the best.

Now, talking about electric cars and the BBC and embarrassing, did you see Top Gear this weekend?

After a promising series opener last week with a very moving tribute to Eddie Kidd, this week they went caravanning using luxury electric cars as their tow-cars. It included a puerile and pointless attempt to lap their cars around the top of a mountain while eating stronger and stronger chillies culminating in Paddy McGuinness spitting out a mouthful of milk over Freddie Flintoff and the interior of a Mercedes EQC.

They then had to drive to Barnard Castle (which brings us back to Johnson embarrassment) without recharging - and they ran out of charge.  Actually, Chris Harris did get there but only by ditching his caravan so the whole exercise was a waste of time.

There is only one solution to both of these situations.

Trailing Sockets

Car+Driver have raised an interesting question today:

How do you charge a electric truck that happens to be towing a trailer?

Gosh that looks strange.

 

Is it a horsebox?  Is it a caravan for shy people?

 

Just two of the many more questions that the article throws up.

 

Such as:

 

How much weight can an electric vehicle tow?

 

What does it do to the range? Can you trust the range computer on your dashboard?

 

Are caravan sites going to have to have extra charging sockets next to where you connect your caravan to the mains electricity?  Or will you have a cable running from your electric car or truck through your caravan window and plugged in next to the TV?

 

Car+Driver's main concern though is, given that charging point bays are designed to be driven into by cars, do you have to unhitch a trailer and leave it somewhere?  That trailer in the picture looks a bit hefty to be manhandled.

 

It looks like the manufacturers of electric trucks haven't thought that one through either - apart from Rivian - their agreements with charging companies specify that they will need space to accommodate vehicles that are towing trailers. They say that they will also make sure there is room for this type of charging in its own charging network.

 

Final question:

 

What is the best thing to carry in a trailer pulled by an electric vehicle?

 

Answer:

Motorway Madness

I saw a story on the BBC News Website this lunchtime concerning a car and caravan being driven the wrong way down a motorway.  There was  a still from some Dashcam footage showing a van avoiding them.

The story said that there had been a collision and an air ambulance had been called but there was no news of injuries.

I thought it might make a good story to do an item on.  Especially since I got a Dashcam for my birthday a few weeks ago.  And also because the BBC had this story at the weekend about Norfolk and Suffolk Police releasing Dashcam footage of bad driving.  Including one example I wrote about last month.

Then, unfortunately, tragically in fact, news emerged that three people had been killed including the elderly couple in the Subaru Forrester that was towing the caravan.

Motorways are supposedly the safest type of road to drive on.

But you still get bad driving.

Like this divvy blonde woman in an A-Class.

It doesn't look that bad on the video but I was travelling at 80mph with NOTHING behind me when she noticed Junction 4 was coming up:

Now, the Norfolk and Suffolk Police have been inviting people to send in Dashcam footage so I wonder if Merseyside Police do?

 

Well, returning to the BBC, we find this story from July.

 

It's about a Website which allows visitors to upload videos before sending footage to the right police force.

 

It's here and was set up by Nextbase - the Dashcam manufacturer.

 

I won't be using it for that footage though.

 

But I thought about it for this two junctions later:

Although I've not got a clear view of his number plate.

 

He was very fortunate that the rest of us had our wits about us and that there wasn't a car coming along the outside lane.

 

I'm assuming it was a "he"

 

And he probably thinks that he is a very good driver when in reality, it is the other motorists who are preventing his accidents.

 

And he has been very lucky.  So far.

Everything's Getting Smaller

We used to buy our Coca-Cola in 2 litre bottles.

Then suddenly, last year, they became 1.75 litre bottles.

For the same price.

Were they hoping we wouldn't notice?

Apparently not.  And we're supposed to be happy about it too.

That's still three-quarters of litre more than some Mondeo drivers will be getting though.

This car review from The Telegraph caught my eye this week.  It's of the Ford Mondeo 1.0 EcoBoost.

Don't know why they used this picture though - that's a Ford Mondeo Titanium Tdci.

The review is by Andrew English who is described as "Motoring Correpondent, Telegraph Cars" - I wonder what other sorts of correspondent Telegraph Cars have.  He gives it three out of five stars.  Andrew English also provided the review for Auto Express and gave it 3 out of 5 stars there too.

He says that the engine looks small in the engine bay - I would have liked to see a photo, the nearest I could find anywhere was this Ford diagram:

He also quotes Ulrich Koesters, Ford’s vehicle line director for larger cars, who says: “most customers do not trust that such a small displacement engine has enough torque to pull a large car like the Mondeo.”  I can well believe that - it would be a concern of mine - even though it is turbo-charged.

I am guessing that this car is being aimed at the fleet market where engine size and economy play their part with tax incentives.  I have visited a few Ford dealerships over the past year or two and you never see a Mondeo on the lot.  I guess Focuses and Fiestas have gotten bigger so these have taken over the family car market along with the SUVs, people carriers and German upmarket marques.  So when I say "Everything's Getting Smaller" that doesn't include Focuses or Fiestas (or Corsas or Golfs or just about any other car too)

Can't see the average sales rep being happy driving one of these although it does have a claimed top speed of 124mph - but it might struggle if you put some passengers in it.  Probably won't be a big hit with the Caravan Club either.

Unless...