Guest Post: Dave and the Nemesis
Transport, Wind Car
Here’s a guest post for you from Ecotricity staffer Dave. He was recently asked to put the Nemesis to the test as a commuter vehicle! Here’s his thoughts:
A few weeks ago I was asked if I would mind driving the Nemisis for a few weeks. We apparently needed to get a few miles on it and test it in ‘normal’ daily use – whatever that means?
I work in the Ecotricity offices in Stroud and live in Worcestershire, a daily commute of about 51 miles in each direction, assuming that I take no detours on the way home. My normal mode of transport is either a diesel VW or a motorcycle that each do around 50mpg for the journey (over £12 per day in fuel).
Well, the chance to drive a car like the Nemisis was too good an opportunity to miss so of course I welcomed it with open arms, I mean the chance to drive a super car that would do 0-100mph in 8 seconds doesn’t present itself every day! (more…)
2012 – the Year of the Electric Car..?
Transport
One Saturday, mid-November 1896, a small group of pioneering motorists set off in some of the first horseless carriages – their plan was to drive from the Metropole Hotel London to the Metropole Hotel Brighton. We know this now as the London to Brighton run.
Their aim was to demonstrate and promote the recently invented motor car. In addition, they celebrated the new Road Act, which that year raised the speed limit from 4mph to 14mph and removed the need for a man to walk in front of each motor vehicle waving a red flag. Quite a breakthrough for drivers of the day.
The cars taking part that day included those powered by electricity, steam and the internal combustion engine (petrol): back then it was a three horse race, technology wise. The internal combustion engine eventually won out of course. Fast forward to today and we take for granted the quite incredible travelling capability of modern cars. We Britons collectively drive 250 billion miles a year in our 30 million cars – all but 2,000 of which have internal combustion engines. (more…)
More thoughts on ‘garages’ of the future – they won’t exist!
Transport
Here’s our revised, mocked up vision of ‘the petrol station of the future’.
We’ve been discussing the charging of electric cars in previous posts and I’d suggested a vision of rows of charging posts and it taking 20 minutes or so to fill your car up while you surfed the net or otherwise chilled out. In a nutshell. (more…)
A week in the life of….
Energy, TransportIt’s been an interesting week in the world of renewable. As mentioned yesterday, the G published leaked details of the Government ‘Renewable Energy Strategy:
“Revealed: UK’s blueprint for a green revolution”
So – we may actually be entering into a second industrial revolution (more…)
Petrol Stations of the future – swap shop or not?
TransportThanks to Simon for your comments on Petrol Stations of the Future (and to Will and to Chris also). I started writing responses, but again this is quite a big topic so have turned it into a new post instead (for those who have just joined the thread – you can read the first post in the transport series here, the second which has a little video is here, the third here and the fourth here).
Simon – you make a couple of good points there. The idea of sitting around for 20 minutes while your car charges will be a bit of a challenge for some people, (more…)
I’m no Jeremy… Part 2
Transport, Wind CarI was in Norfolk yesterday meeting the team that are building the car for us. We’ve reached the end of the feasibility phase (the donor car is in absolute pieces). We shot some more film on the day and now have enough to make a short promo to tout to the TV companies, to see if any of them want to follow the project from here – the building and testing of the car. Here’s a short clip to give an idea of where we’re coming from. See this other blog post for more info on the project.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz4mGpwJlSM
I’m no Jeremy Clarkson (let’s get that straight…)
Transport, Wind CarBut I am a bit of a petrol head. I like fast things, mostly bikes. People ask how I can be both a petrol head and an environmentalist – fair question. Well nobody’s perfect, I’m certainly not. We all live in the real world, the one in which we make compromises and promises to do better, and occasionally do do the things we know in principle, it would be better if we didn’t. Life and the need to live a better (zero carbon) one is a journey, there’s no overnight solution and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over things we can’t change right now. That said, by the way, I only did 3,000 miles in a car last year, I’m getting to grips with it. (more…)
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