EV opposition in the media is ramping up

[m4rmite]

I feel for him. Some articles these days are little more than a string of tweets one after another. (Although I have stories that aren't dissimilar going back to 1989 and even 1979 so I'd say local papers have never been great at this.)

The irony is, EVs seem to be a lot less vulnerable to water damage than ICE cars. There was a video of a notorious ford somewhere in England where cars regularly come to grief, but they showed a series of Teslas taking it as if they were amphibious. There was another one of a different EV being submerged in a tank, apparently rated for up to 1.7 metres of water. (Those must be some door seals.)

This will be another one to add to the story I heard in the post office, about how in a six-hour traffic jam, all the EVs ran out of battery and were stranded. Er, HOW???

Rufford ford.

 

[Gomev]

I feel for him. Some articles these days are little more than a string of tweets one after another. (Although I have stories that aren't dissimilar going back to 1989 and even 1979 so I'd say local papers have never been great at this.)

The irony is, EVs seem to be a lot less vulnerable to water damage than ICE cars. There was a video of a notorious ford somewhere in England where cars regularly come to grief, but they showed a series of Teslas taking it as if they were amphibious. There was another one of a different EV being submerged in a tank, apparently rated for up to 1.7 metres of water. (Those must be some door seals.)

This will be another one to add to the story I heard in the post office, about how in a six-hour traffic jam, all the EVs ran out of battery and were stranded. Er, HOW???

In that example from EVM they weren't even local papers, they were big nationals.

 

[Lovemyev]

In that example from EVM they weren't even local papers, they were big nationals.

Multiple journalists reporting the same incorrect facts, then when it was pointed out that the car was NOT in fact an EV one of papers ( another journalist ) corrected the error but still managed to get the facts incorrect by stating the car involved was brand new.
A quick check of the number plate in the photo would been SO easy you would think.
It’s pretty obvious to me that when a fresh car story breaks, if there is the word “electric” mentioned in the arrival, then other journalists will jump straight onto the story in a “Copy and Paste” like style and push it to print before even verifying the facts first.
A bit like copying somebodies homework at school.
Okay if it’s correct, but you are soon caught out if you all get it wrong !.
It comes as no surprise to me that these news papers find themselves in court SO often.
In the rush to be the first to get out a story, mistakes will get made for sure.
EVM makes a very good point that incorrect facts can therefore get reported on a story that has a lot more important than a flooded car park !.

 

[Gadget Geek]

It's my opinion (which may be wrong) that nowadays with online newspapers, the newspaper industry has become even more cut throat and getting an exclusive story out first is even more difficult. "Journalists", and I use the term loosely, used to have time to put a story together before it went to print. Today they just type and send.

 

[emmrecs]

Rufford ford

Yes, but when I went past the end of the road it is on last week I saw a message that it is now closed to traffic, possibly permanently.

As implied by a number of videos on YT, it was a favourite pastime of both locals and visitors to the Rufford Country Park which is directly adjacent to the ford to stand and watch the many different "approaches" drivers take when negotiating it. For the majority of the year it would be barely 6 inches deep but at others, well those videos are well worth watching!

 

[Rolfe]

The really annoying thing is the way that journalists working for established newspapers sneer at mere "bloggers" as irresponsible, not trained, not checking their facts and so on, while they of course are trained professionals and bound by the IPSO code which will punish them severely if they get anything wrong. Whereas in reality IPSO ties itself into pretzels to protect, excuse and justify journalists' lies, and many journalists are not just lazy sods, they're dishonest and working to an agenda.

In a fairly recent case in Scotland a judge justified sending the author of a blog article to prison for saying less about a difficult subject than at least two print journalists had said, by declaring that since journalists were professionals bound by the IPSO code anything they did was OK, but a blogger who criticised what had been said in a newspaper and thereby repeated something deemed unacceptable had no such protection.

Sorry, this is getting off topic, but this is yet another example of the "amateur" internet commentator being far more diligent and reliable than the red-top hack.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Bobby Llewellyn's latest rant.



The prime minister's wife makes a billion pound deal with Shell Oil the day before he announces oil and gas licenses in the North Sea! Funny how no journalists reported that or editors put it on the front page.

 

[Les burrows]

WOW Can you believe it Sunak his us stitch up according to BobbyLew
Les

 

[Rolfe]

Easily.

 

[Ejaydee]

I have just had a argument discussion regarding EV's with a chap I often see when walking the dog. During the discussion he came out with a justification for not introducing EV's that I have never heard before.

Apparently according to him, due to the increased weight of EV's, all roads in the UK will have to be dug up and relaid in concrete to take the strain of more EVs. He argued that the impact of producing the cement and laying all that concrete, will have a much bigger impact on the environment than the EV rollout will benefit. Is this the latest urban myth doing the rounds, or a new one?

When I politely asked him what impact he thought that half a million trucks would be having on the UK's tarmac roads when carrying billions of tonnes of goods around the country and that crumbling concrete roads are being replaced by tarmac in some areas, whilst taking the impact of those trucks, he had no answer. Instead he immediately started a tirade of the usual hackneyed 'negatives' such as:- EV tyre degradation and cost; lack of range; EV fires; battery degradation; lack of national grid capacity; charging times; blah blah, to keep his arguments going. I listened quietly while he spouted forth, and when he eventually stopped for breath, I said " so you like EV's then"?

I thought for a second or too he might just have a jab at me, instead he spun on his heels and stormed off with a mouthful of expletives!!! Rather annoyingly, he disappeared before I had a chance to offer him some FACTS.

I guess he and I will not be engaging in light conversation in the coming weeks. ?‍

 

[Rolfe]

I had something similar from a woman I was chatting to over coffee after church. Including how the cars were terrible for the roads. I said, you shouldn't pay attention to everything you read in the Daily Mail. She said she never reads the Daily Mail, and I believe her, she's not the type. But for sure she has been listening to people who read the Daily Mail, or people who listen to people who read the Daily Mail...

I said, well, everything you've just said is word for word the Daily Mail's campaign against electric cars, and most of it is simply not true. She looked a bit sceptical, and the conversation drifted off somewhere else.

 

[Ian Key]

There are two types of people in this world, believers and those that know the truth. All the arguments, all the troubles, all the wars etc are caused by the believers.

Apologies. I went all philosophical for a moment. Now where are those tablets ?

 

[Ejaydee]

I had something similar from a woman I was chatting to over coffee after church. Including how the cars were terrible for the roads. I said, you shouldn't pay attention to everything you read in the Daily Mail. She said she never reads the Daily Mail, and I believe her, she's not the type. But for sure she has been listening to people who read the Daily Mail, or people who listen to people who read the Daily Mail...

I said, well, everything you've just said is word for word the Daily Mail's campaign against electric cars, and most of it is simply not true. She looked a bit sceptical, and the conversation drifted off somewhere else.

Is it just the Daily Mail, or do other papers also try to rubbish EV ownership? I have read on lots of forums that the Daily Mail is the main protagonist, but are others the same?

I gave up reading any newspapers about 20 years ago when I realised none of them spoke for my views (which are down the middle politically). They seemed to be either heavy right wing, or equally heavy left wing, and whenever anything was reported, it was slanted the way they wanted it to be viewed. I just wanted an unbiased newspaper that reported the news as it had happened, and not put their own political opinions on the articles and as I could not find one, I stopped reading them.

 

[Robf]

The problem with the roads is actually caused by the increadibly heavy fuel delivery lorries, I beleive they are thinking about banning them from all inner city roads?... Allegedly

 

[Ejaydee]

The problem with the roads is actually caused by the increadibly heavy fuel delivery lorries, I beleive they are thinking about banning them from all inner city roads?... Allegedly

That is nice one to remember!

 

[Rolfe]

The problem with the roads is actually caused by the increadibly heavy fuel delivery lorries, I beleive they are thinking about banning them from all inner city roads?... Allegedly

That's a good come-back!

 

[m4rmite]

The problem with the roads is actually caused by the increadibly heavy fuel delivery lorries, I beleive they are thinking about banning them from all inner city roads?... Allegedly

44 tonnes max for any hgv, unless an abnormal load.

Tbf i never thought about how many fuel lorries frequent the roads, nice one to remember

 

[siteguru]

If you really want to grind their gears, tell them that soon all EVs will be transported on transporters (wagons) pulled by electric trucks (tractor units). ?

 

[tsedge]

I thought EVs were so heavy that there was a big risk of my car sinking through my drive and ending up in New Zealand. So I invested in some special weight-resistant tape and put that down on the drive first.

The car wasn't as expensive as the automatic fire-suppression system I built around the drive perimeter and the store and stock for the new tyres that I need to change every week.

The neighbours are now used to the regular blackouts when I plug the car in and I am coping well with the 6 miles of range that I get from a full charge: exactly matches my average daily journey, although it does take 11 days to charge the car up, which is a bit of a downer.

To make life easier I invested in a car transporter and now I use this to move my EV about....

wakes up back in the real world

Whaaat? Eh? Oh, just a bad dream! Phew! ?

 

[Tweed98]

IApparently according to him, due to the increased weight of EV's, all roads in the UK will have to be dug up and relaid in concrete to take the strain of more EVs. He argued that the impact of producing the cement and laying all that concrete, will have a much bigger impact on the environment than the EV rollout will benefit. Is this the latest urban myth doing the rounds, or a new one?

Concrete production is bad, around 8% of carbon release comes from the production of concrete. Mostly because of the heat used to break the ingredients of the cement down. It will improve but lots of other nasties are released and not sure how much they can be captured. There are alternatives to cement but are way more expensive.

No idea about relaying the roads, every vehicle going over them will incrementally damage the running course and the bearing course the heavier the vehicle the more the damage. The new super heavy trucks are causing problems already then subsequent vehicles will enlrage the damage. It is mostly that people like SUVs like the ZS rather than nice little estates like the MG5!

I think the EV community should watch out for being holy than though and ignoring the damage that the heavier batteries cause, less than trucks but more than similarly sized ICEs, It'll only give them ammunition. The ideal option would be EVs with short range batteries that could be easily added too for longer journeys. 95% of my journeys are less than 15 miles. Its a shame that's not really possible.