UK 'Carbon Captured', Battery Recycling Gets Real & Robert's Van Review! Almost Breaking News!

[@johnbridger5629]

CCS always seems to me to be like finding you have a broken water pipe and paying lot of money for mops, sponges and buckets instead of a plumber to repair the pipe.

[@drunkenhobo8020]

You're being generous. It's like buying a very expensive thimble to store the water!

[@ovdtogt1]

It's like being an alcoholic and expecting your doctor to keep you healthy.

[@stuartkenyon1052]

I live in South Australia, and you rightly mention that we regularly hit 100% renewable power generation. This is great news for the Wholesalers, but is becoming a disaster for consumers and businesses, our retail prices have increased 38% in the past 18 months. It turns out that most of Australia’s States and Territories still peg wholesale prices to our Gas price, and our Federal Politicians are too gutless to rock the boat with the Gas miners. So, turns out no matter what the source of power in Australia the actual prices consumers and business pay is directly related to the level of greed and corruption our politicians are willing to accept ☹.

[@od5699]

Yes, and the only problem with renewable energy is their longevity

[@JimClark-s8h]

Same in the UK, electricity priced as if it were produced by gas generators. Such is the Net Zero con, it's about preserving the profit, not the planet.

[@xiaoka]

are you legally allowed to go off grid? It seems like this is even more reason to say screw it and unplug completely (assuming you have real estate for that many solar panels....)

[@stuartkenyon1052]

@@xiaoka great idea, I have recently installed 10 kWh of Solar, we can't legally go off grid, but the Powerwall 3 has just been released here in Australia $17,000 installed, so I'm crunching the numbers on that. Also, to their credit the Federal Govt here has just committed to passing legislation to allow "Vehicle to Grid" connections by end of the year, so waiting on the detail of that process, buying an Electric car has now become a much more attractive option, Solar for daytime, Car to power house at night.

[@seth_sesu]

Robert’s fossil fuel lobbyist impression at 10:50 is pretty much the most accurate I’ve ever seen.

[@davemoore5222]

I was a member of the audience at a talk about CCS around 30 years ago. During the Q&A after the professor’s presentation, one student asked “how much extra petrol would it be safe to use with CCS at the levels he described” - the answer was “none”, we needed the “Carbon Capture” whilst reducing our fuel usage at the same time due to historic excessive CO2 emissions. That was in an effort to keep the climate temperature rise below the value we passed earlier this year.

[@Michael-Wil]

Mercedes did not design or build the battery recycling plant, the IP/design comes from an Australian Company, Neometals and the plants was built by SMS who partner with Neometals in their joint venture company Primobius. Mercedes didn't do any of the hard work they simply stumped up the money so the credit should go to Primobius not Mercedes, Primobius will be selling to anyone that wants a plant, they should be acknowledge here. I would suggest that you contact them as I'm sure they'd love to tell you and everyone about it.

[@markthomasson5077]

I suspect it is really..96% can be recovered…but how much is economic to do so…maybe a lot less

[@Michael-Wil]

@ The main supply for this recycling is defective batteries at the initial manufacturing stage. When a battery lines starts up there will be 30-40 defective batteries, once the line is optimised the waste rate can be anywhere from 15-30% depending what format the cell is, LFP/NMC. If Mercedes didn’t recycle their own waste it would have to be outsourced, which I would guess is more expensive or they wouldn’t have commissioned this plant. Secondly end of life batteries can be recycled by Mercedes which I believe is part of an EU directive saying MVs must contain a set percentage of recycled materials.

[@kophotography895]

I like this Channel, however it does get a lot of things wrong, facts peeps, if you are gonna pick a fight with enemy pick the right facts (weapon)

[@thekaxmax]

​@kophotography895 got a list of one they haven't aelf-corrected? For a better source of data? Get a job with them and show them how to do it right.

[@bobbyllewellyn]

Thank you for the correction and the infomation about Primobius. Not heard of them, but very aware of Neometals

[@JoshuaPritt]

Here for the gripes and rants o' rob.

[@64Pomboy]

Australia has gone nuts for EV’s and Chinese companies are coming here in droves…. No tariffs here! The only working CCS I know of is a tree, so why not plant a billion trees , that’ won’t cost 22M pounds.

[@xiaoka]

I think its 22B pounds.... the problem is that trees don't last forever, the carbon comes out eventually (if the tree burns, biodegrades or otherwise consumed). Its temporarily stored, not permanently captured. [unless they can bury them all in a giant sealed cave or something....] And the space required for all those trees would need a lot of land, which either pushes out farming, natural habitats.... so its not a magic bullet.

[@Kerbezena]

The most promising form of CCS that I know of is "biochar", which basically turns any organic (in the chemistry sense) material into solid carbon, which can they be used as a soil enhancer, for bioremediation etc., and can remain in the soil for…practically…ever.

[@bobadams7654]

I've been driving my e Berlingo for about 2 years. Love it. Every thing as u say. Mine has the HUD, panoramic roof and overhead storage. Excellent vehicle. It would be outstanding if the range was better. Summer, cruising at 60mph 155 miles. Winter cruising at 60mph, in Eco. No heater... only 100 miles.

[@keithwilson1554]

This video Should be played in the houses of Parliament 24/7 until the Penny Drops.

[@RichardBergson]

Very disappointed to read in the new NESO report that CCS is touted as part of the race to net zero by 2030. Clearly influenced by the lobbying you spoke of. Also it never mentioned rooftop solar or geothermal or the uprating of new housing standards to include better insulation and solar/heat pump installation as part of the picture. There is such a bias towards large scale deployment which is only the province of very large businesses instead of valuing the the contribution of community-scale solutions.

[@user-pt1ow8hx5l]

With the remedies you propose a lot of power plants can be shut. Problems can be sorted by venturing out to meet the end users! The deeply local is inherently global; just insulating uk houses can work miracles. And, hey, solar is affordable. For society. Especially if power people is given a cheap line of credit....

[@ziploc2000]

All new housing OUGHT to have solar panels, heat pumps and proper insulation and as part of the design requirement, but as you say this takes money out of the pocket of big business. Ah, capitalism.

[@stevejones2310]

​@@ziploc2000capitalism per se is not to blame. It's vested interest and slow witted or corruptible politicians who didn't legislate years ago.

[@alanhat5252]

​@@stevejones2310actually took away regulation! 😮

[@alanhat5252]

​@@ziploc2000Blair's government introduced a requirement for good insulation & solar on all new-builds, commencement was due in the next session of Parliament. The next session of Parliament was the Coalition & they scrapped the legislation. 😢

[@squalloogal]

It’s the Western Australian fossil fuel lobbyist impersonation that makes me smile. Never change Mr Llewellyn. 😊😂👏👏👏👏

[@barryamorris]

@@squalloogal oil doesn’t come from fossils! Panic over!

[@MrAdopado]

@@barryamorris I think a "fossil fuel lobbyist" means a fuel lobbyist who is a fossil.😉

[@scottkolaya2110]

12:57 Thanks for bringing this up. The source article (the one the Guardian references) is pretty technical and I love that. In this case, it's not 33% in general, but 33% in the extreme case where a liquified NG tanker travels so far that the amount of warming of the LNG during the ocean trip is enough to have more "boil-off" than the tanker can use to power itself. As a result it emits Methane (CH4) rather than burned methane (CO2 and H2O). It also claims a pretty high level of unburned CH4 through the ship's exhaust. And since CH4 is 8 times (correction 80x) more potent as a greenhouse gas as CO2 but less lasting (20 years). This of course is compared to Coal burned close where it's dug up and not shipped anywhere. But what it doesn't compare is its final output. For example electricity generation. It only compares the heat output of both in Mj. As if someone is going to put coal they dug up in the back yard in their kitchen stove and Voila, it's instantly burning at peak efficiency and burn it for dinner rather than boiling a pot of water with NG. Or it doesn't take into account the fact that you can have combined cycle electricity generation with NG that you can't have with coal. It seems to just compare "net calorific values." And I agree Coal has a high calorific value, it's just not that efficient at converting heat energy into other energy such as electricity. Coal can't directly run a turbine no mater how many mega-joules, it just old school boils water to make steam to run a steam turbine. Unlike NG that can directly run an exhaust turbine, then use the heat from the exhaust to heat water to run a steam turbine also. The article was disappointing at the conclusion because it didn't address how the different fuels were actually used, it just stopped at calorific heat output as if that's the only thing the fuels are used for. I just printed it out and think I'll be contacting Mr Howarth with some questions.

[@scottkolaya2110]

Oh, look, it's funded by the Park foundation. "a major supporter of the anti-fracking movement"

[@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270]

Not to mention the energy needed to liquify the gas and pump it into the tanker before shipping. Similar problem with crude, getting it out the ground uses energy, shipping it, refining it etc uses even more... but the fossil boys only fess up on the emissions at point of use.

[@scottkolaya2110]

@@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270 The paper addresses the liquefaction as well as all the upstream emissions, but liquefaction only represents 9% of the total.

[@scottkolaya2110]

By stopping at heat and not kWh generated, it appears that NG has more emissions than coal, but if you include the end product (electricity for example), they are about the same if you use LNG traveling over long distances.

[@electroplaque]

First of all, methane is 80 times worse than CO2, not 8 times...

[@rtfazeberdee3519]

CCS... yawn.. why isn't someone battering Ed Milliband with the fact that if it worked then the gas/coal industry could have saved itself.

[@TheHoveHeretic]

A cynic might suggest a reason or two which ticks all the relevant boxes.

[@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270]

The Citroen Berlingo and cars like it are very popular here in rural France. Everyone around here has land and most have boxy, practical cars and a trailer, used mostly for moving firewood and garden products around. Interesting that the eC3 is selling better here than the Renault 5...early days on those though.

[@alejandrayalanbowman367]

We have lived in Spain for 16 years and have always had a Berlingo - they are fantastic cars and ideal for us having to lug a wheelchair around for the mother in law and we have two dogs. They are fantastic cars, can't wait to be able to afford the Berlingo E

[@henninghghjensen3771]

tks for your optimism - that was much needed on this grey day with very few good news in my arena😀

[@WonkoTheSaneUK]

Installing solar & batteries on the site of old coal-fired power stations is smart, because the outgoing grid connection is already there.

[@samjohnston4945]

Wonderful rant. Well worth the watch. Hoping to retain some of the information for future conversations. But can't forgot the fuel lobbyist impersonation 😅. Thank you.

[@paulc6766]

More good news in Australia. Our "postie" has an electric delivery bike now.

[@FutureSystem738]

Ditto.

[@GruffSillyGoat]

Even if CCS's problems were solved it's use should be focussed on removing the historical CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, and not as an excuse to emit more. Fossil fuels should be displaced by renewables regardless of whether CCS can be made to work or not. Further, those same renewables also displace non-CO2 emissions, like NOx and particulates, that CCS doesn't address.

[@treehugger3971]

Unfortunately NOT all people on the planet agree that it's harmful to burn oil. The US just elected a climate-change-denier president. It is going to be a shit show

[@nickwinn7812]

Well, he certainly isn't a blessing to the world. US businesses however, are very good at driving costs down and as a result they are more interested in building renewables than their new King, and in fact investment in renewables in the US has been strong for some time. Take Tesla for example. Run by the new King's right hand man, but investing massively in battery tech and production, and selling more than it can produce.

[@TheHoveHeretic]

You might think that .... I couldn't possibly comment. 🤐

[@paolopetrozzi2213]

1. The UK "contributes" to 1% of the global CO2 emission. What about the other 99%? Who is going to protest in China and India? 2. Implementing expensive "green" policies in the UK alone has the only result of causing energy prices to increase, impoverishing the entire nation and causing its companies to be less competitive, and close, in a moment when Chinese companies, which means the Chinese Communist Party, are trying to buy and/or destroy the Western companies. 3. Nobody denies the climate change. BUT there is NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that it's due to human activity (CO2); on the contrary, this phenomenon happened many times in the history of this planet, and this is a well-known fact, for decades! Unless people like you consider "science" propaganda articles written by people with blue hairs and rings to theirnosese, people who cannot even decide about their own sex, which they call "gender", and that have their own agenda, regardless of any scientific evidence proving they are wrong. Just ideologically motivated, immature, spoiled Western brats.

[@JK-zw8ec]

Without hydrocarbons and the derivative products, such as nitogen based fertilizers, most people will starve to death. Yield per acre will plummet. Also, plastics. Look around any hospital and realize what would happen without plastics (a hydrocarbon derivative). A computer printed circuit board is not printed on a board of wood.

[@andyxox4168]

Yes, I disagree, sorry to burst your bubble!

[@michaelleiper]

Scotland generates over 100% of it's electricity from renewables. But, a "benefit of the Union" is that we get to pay English prices for electricity, because UK wholesale prices are based on the price of electricity from the most expensive energy being generated at the time in the UK as a whole...

[@patreekotime4578]

Per the Berlingo, even as a rural American, a busy day is doing a 90 mile round trip, at the end of which I am home and could charge up. On road trips I need to stop every 3 hours to use the restroom, stretch and grab a snack anyway. 180 miles range is the least I would consider, but it really isnt that bad. As an urban delivery or repair vehicle it would be perfect.

[@jasonpalmer3154]

We own a E-belingo, and it’s fab, the range issue rarely affects us as we move (slowly) around London. This is a fabulous car for any small business looking to leave gas behind.

[@patreekotime4578]

@jasonpalmer3154 I just wish we would see more options like this in the states!

[@lyzwi6098]

Yep. We have the XL version (not the newer facelift) and tne range is more than fine for us. We can do decent day trips without charging and when we go further away for a few days, we only need to stop to charge as often as we'd stop for comfort breaks anyway with 3 kids and adult bladders to empty.

[@stevedean2516]

I much prefer this format, just like the original show. You could do one a week like this, I'd watch it.

[@Jonathan-g5i]

Love A.B.N and if there's tons of news as you mentioned why not do ABN every week . It also helps deflect the false news/stories that are everywhere 👍🏼

[@rajus0]

My favourite FC/EE show. 20mins if Rob makes my month

[@Gonzie6]

Thank goodness they redesigned the back end of the berlingo! I was starting to think it was never going to change

[@martinutr]

Weekly ABN would be great!!

[@maramé.r]

Surely state subsidy for electric vehicles is precisely what most people want and will increase the transition away from combustion cars. The Chinese government is doing the right thing in making affordable EVs available, especially for countries such as the UK who have few made locally. The Chinese MG is one of the most popular EVs in the UK

[@oliverkirk3343]

I honestly love this show

[@bikecommuter24]

love a good Robert rant😆

[@waynecartwright-js8tw]

My brother worked at Collie power station driving the big tipper trucks of coal. Glad to hear its stopping burning dirty contaminated stuff.

[@forgotten_world]

Such a shame. What an important renewable project could be made with £22Bn.

[@AlanTov]

Great form here Robert. Keep fighting the fight!

[@marquisdemoo1792]

CCS is to me the environmental equivalent of sweeping the dirt under the carpet. The thing about LNG is that you can wind up generation very quickly when required and switch it down when not, whereas with coal you have to keep burning.

[@paulaschofield]

Here in New Zealand we recently charged our EV on 99% renewables from the grid, yet chatting to my family in the UK we pay a lot more for electricity and prices are increasing massively over the next 4 years to improve the resiliance of the network. We are also 3 years into slowly scrapping the low user tariffs, so daily fixed chargings are doubling each year for 5 years. With so much renewable energy I don't understand why we are paying so much more than the UK for power. We have no subsidies for EVs, solar or energy efficient heating and our government recently introduced per km tax for EVs more than doubling the running cost.

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

That's strange, because I just googled the average unit price in NZ and UK and it says NZ is $0.33 which = £0.15, and the average in the UK is £0.24 so it's more expensive in the UK. There are a lot of different tariffs on the UK though. Some people have very cheap EV specific tariffs that work at specific times of night. Maybe they were taking about one of those? I assume you did do the currency conversation correctly?

[@addsfour3499]

MG4 electric sold, on sale, brand new, for under 20k pounds. No tarriffs here in australia thank you very much

[@nickwinn7812]

Citroen E Berlingo. I like the idea of turning it on with a key! I guess I'm showing my age. 180 mile range and rapid charging would meet all of my needs. Citroen seem to be the only established European car company to have really embraced the transition. Keep it up!

[@JuliaHopewell]

The colour and size remind me of our old (1997) Landrover Discovery (TDI of course!). 😬 It still ran well after 25 years; but sadly too much work/cost for us to attempt a conversion. We still have our old Hilux ute;, but getting ready for an EV when we can afford it; as we don't drive much nowadays. Loved the test drive in Harrogate last May. Would seriously consider this one. I still like to be higher in the vehicle for pre-emptive driving. Great video as always. Thank you, Mr Llewellyn; from back in Oz.

[@dan3885]

There was a show on TV the other night "can scientists save the world" they had a segment where carbon capture was bounding along in Iceland and the carbon was pumped down in to basalt rock underground, they made it sound like it was working?

[@FrunkensteinVonZipperneck]

Film produced by Mr Biggy Oleo

[@FutureSystem738]

Working? ROFLMAO.

[@Danothebaldyheid]

This is right - there are some techniques that will be necessary to capture carbon for a liveable planet - olivine capture being important amongst them. Whether fossil fuel companies will be any good at doing this is another matter entirely..

[@RonStanley-u4h]

I couldn't believe it when the Labour Govt announced this massive support for CCS. The excuse of course is to support certain "hard to transition" industries. I'd love to hear more about alternative approaches to keep those industries, like glass making and cement/concrete, keep going without burning stuff.

[@alexmckenna1171]

I'm about to patent my design for a Carbon Trap - based on the typical wooden mouse-trap, it features a small block of zeolyte and silica instead of the cheese. As soon as the carbon dioxide is attracted from the air, it turns the bait into solid carbon,.and the trap snaps shut. The resulting graphite is then used to make pencil lead. This I feel will prove even more efficient than the current technology they are trying to foist on us.

[@stevedean2516]

Sounds great, but watch some bugger come along and build a better carbon trap!

[@nickwinn7812]

I love the idea of carbon neutral carbon. Where can I buy your pencils?

[@skierpage]

great idea. Global graphite production is about 2 million tons annually. Claude-AI thinks fossil fuel production then burning the crap results in about 10,000 million tons of carbon (not CO2, just carbon). So everyone needs to buy 5,000x more pencils and other graphite products a year and you've got a sustainable circular business!

[@FrunkensteinVonZipperneck]

Do mice eat the pencil lead?

[@timoliver8940]

We need a humane version of this so as not to squash the carbon to death……..

[@GrahamWathey]

The money for CC would be better spent insulating the dreadfully cold housing stock. The figures for burning gas would significantly drop and more people would use heat pumps instead.

[@paulgoffin8054]

But we *do need* CCS. You're right, Stop Burning Stuff. But we will also have to get round to removing excess CO2 from the atmosphere too.

[@stigohara4961]

The Citroen is the nail in the coffin for my VW T3 1.6 Turbodiesel. (In Britain you call it the T25) I will have a closer look into this one.

[@geirvinje2556]

In Norway the drop in gasoline sale is 12,3% from the same month last year. For diesel it was 11,9%. Norway are a head in the transition, so I expect the same numbers other places in some years. In the meantime, we enjoy that the UK are buying our gas, getting richer by the hour 😂!

[@georgegeorgiy3516]

Thank you, Robert, for another brilliant episode. 👏 😊

[@SisGuitarGAS]

Agree with you about the Berlingo Robert. We had one for a year but in the end the range was the killer for us. Please make one with a bigger battery Citroen!

[@markthomasson5077]

For me the range I could live with, especially with that fast charging. Bothe equate to my bladder filling and emptying times!

[@davidvestey6014]

But it would have to be 180 miles when the weather is cold and wet which means 250 miles in summer. 80 summer is probably 125 winter, which is not enough in the south west of England

[@SisGuitarGAS]

@ agreed. We struggled to do more than 1% per mile in winter (ie about 80 miles max between stops)

[@lyzwi6098]

We have a 22 reg XL 7 seater and, although the battery size annoys me in theory (it's smaller than our Renault Zoe battery!!), I actually find the range fine in practice. Any daytrippable distance we can do the round trip without charging. When we go further afield for a holiday we only charge as much as we'd have stopped for a comfort break anyway. It's absolutely fine. We decided against a Nissan e-nv200 as that really does have a tiny range (and chademo charging).

[@nicemandan]

I just checked my electricity bill here in BC with the hope to dazzle you with cheap electricity prices, but it works out at around 80 quid per mwh. Although it's mostly hydro electric (95% or something ) there is some gas power in the mix, so that's probably what keeps the prices high.

[@addsfour3499]

Robert, please stop holding back and really tell us what you think. Great stuff as always

[@stacysanders-w3e]

Con job is the prefect description of all things electric

[@ianhamilton3113]

Which EV's did you drive and what was the con/s compared to ICE?

[@johndoyle4723]

Thanks, I agree CCS is a non starter. Carbon dioxide emissions from cement manufacture are predominantly from the process which releases the CO2 from the limestone, yes remove or reduce the fossil fuel as much as possible, but much harder to reduce it from the calcining process.

[@acefoxuk]

Thank you Robert, always love these 👌🏻👏🏻

[@victorsvoice7978]

The problem in WA is that new houses still install gas cooktops. Gas should be banned from all new housing developments. Solar and battery storage should be the only choice for new properties. Or heat-pump hot water systems.

[@nickwinn7812]

Make that and solar thermal and heat pumps.

[@rickhurst9058]

Thanks for the positive news (renewable energy transition)! A gripe though - with all car reviews here and on fully charged, one thing you nearly always miss is carrying capacity when the seats are down - obviously the eBerlingo can carry huge loads, but many people use their hatchbacks like vans, and I always want to know - can you fit a bike in the back without removing wheels, does the front passenger seat fold flat so you can carry a long surfboard?, or a pack of 2.4m long wood from B&Q etc. For niche points - can you throw an airbed in the back and sleep in it (Tesla yes, ID Buzz yes), with the air conditioning or heating on all night (Tesla yes, ID Buzz no).

[@drunkenhobo8020]

I've never seen Robert look as small as he did in that Berlingo. It's bloody huge inside!

[@petermizon4344]

I ALWAYS FILLED MY DIESEL UP BEFORE IT GOT EMPTY, ITS WHAT YOU DO LOL SAME WITH ELECTRIC

[@HB-zs5pp]

Robert, as always I love your reviews of cars. It’s a van it’s great….. might not go as far or as fast but it’s great!

[@5nowChain5]

Someone needs to bug the fossilfuel industry meetings to expose just how much a bunch of idiots they consider governments to be.

[@ralpharmsby8040]

Unfortunately many governments are a bunch of useless idiots.

[@hellcat1988]

It's hard to have hope over here in america, that things will get better, when you look at the election results, and realize that people don't WANT things to get better. They want them to get worse.

[@marks-0-0]

Yes gauranteed free speech, secure borders with legal immigration, lower inflation and taxes and no more wars... it all sounds terrible. Biden just okayed Ukraine to use US/UK guided bombs sounds like a way to make things better you say.

[@drunkenhobo8020]

Making the future worse to own the libs.

[@FrunkensteinVonZipperneck]

Cogent Comment. What people fear most is … change.

[@skierpage]

Most of the U.S. electorate is drowning in a cesspool of misinformation. They have no idea that the majority of new generation in the USA is wind and solar, that there is near-universal acceptance among scientists that human activities are causing extremely rapid global warming, that 1.2 million EVs were sold in 2023 and sales are up in 2024, that a gasser burns a dozen times more gasoline than the weight of a recyclable EV battery... Crucially, they don't know that the U.S. economy under Biden did very well coming out of Covid-19 compared with most other countries.

[@rogerphelps9939]

Most of them are clueless. They either deny climate change or it is well down their list of priorities. It will take a lot more extreme climate events to bring them to their senses.

[@nasirkhan2875]

Yes dear I am from Pakistan and here the solar rooftop I gaining big trend . Specially in 2024 there has been considerable improvement in solar rooftop

[@neilm9400]

I always wondered about separating gas price from electricity price? If it happened how would it effect prices, since alot of housing stock uses gas?

[@robotsofmetal]

Robert, Mate, your Aussie is top shelf. Keep saying Kwinana!

[@andyroid7339]

Robert - you've touched on the U.K.'s electricity pricing. Please would you consider making a video investigation (ask Imogen please) on marginal pricing and why the U.K. needs to work hard to destroy this pricing structure and thus the 'spark gap'.

[@pinkelephants1421]

That £22 billion targeted at UK CCS would be far better spent on setting up & implementing a dedicated training & installation national insulation scheme. The sheer volume of avoidable greenhouse gas emissions would positively DWARF that of any CCS boondoggle, whiz-bang, lick your finger, point into the wind and hope for the best white elephant.

[@toyotaprius79]

22:29 imo the compromises are several fold like the lack of a 2+1 front row but still more appealing than the VW BUZZ or Caddy PHEV. The Berlingo is more honest, less posh faff, not trying to be a Tesla; if the Berlingo wasn't so SUV styled it would be more aerodynamic and wheel skirts don't hurt on a Citroen. The ID BUZZ has 0.29Cd it's not to be sniffed at. There should be a smaller electric Nemo van, there should be a lovely Xsara, C3 or C4 Picasso EV those cars served Citroen, families and small businesses well. Imo a true rebirthing of the ë2CV with its true longitudinal suspension is sorely needed, icon factor aside it was a highly flexible chassis platform that looks very close to a skateboard ev design.

[@stevenjones916]

*UK January - October 2024* Diesel: 106,610 *DOWN 12.8%* Petrol: 888,925 *DOWN 1.8%* Hybrid: 224,239 *UP 11.1%* PHEV: 138,775 *UP 22.5%*

[@lookoutleo]

Love my leaf, heatpump and octopus energy

[@ianhamilton3113]

Good onya.

[@paulsmakingmovies1451]

Love almost breaking news. One thing I'm concerned about is that when fossil fuels become less in demand the price will drop significantly and governments and industry will start using them more for economic reasons. I'm glad you brought this up and worth exploring more

[@hemanthkumar5438]

It cannot go cheaper than a point, where it becomes economically infeasible to pump oil from ground, refine, transport and sell.

[@GruffSillyGoat]

Oil and gas production is a constrained and skewed Keynsian market system, supply and demand responses do not follow the normal expection. The oil producers have high and jagged production costs that are supported by significant subsidies. Without which production is high risk, with periods of highly uneconomical production. As demand drops and the role of fossil-fuels displaced, subsidies will wane and production risk exposure increases. This will drive up fuel prices as the consumer more directly carries the burden of production than the state does currently (via taxes and financed debt).

[@skierpage]

It's a risk but less money will be invested to maintain production. Also the high-cost high-emissions oil production like the utterly despicable tar sands in Alberta will become uneconomic... ahh, who am I kidding, bought politicians will just increase subsidies. If only we had a rising CO2 tax everywhere on Earth, then the market would sort this stuff out.

[@kennethstealey1311]

I do wish that you could do an ABN every week.

[@paulmeredith6102]

The best carbon capture devices are mussels and oysters "The carbon sequestered in the shells of the mussels harvested amounts to 218 kg CO2-eq per tonne of mussels harvested and for oysters, the equivalent figure is 441 kg CO2-eq per tonne of oysters harvested".

[@simonmasters3295]

I like that you have it calculated.

[@clacton17]

UK must get rid of Gas and Oil asap.

[@kennethburke5827]

And if we do, what exactly would that achieve? Boasting rights at the next COP gathering? A medal from Greta Thunberg? Being the first highly developed country to volunteer to be poor and cold is sheer stupidity, not something virtuous.

[@eivis13]

I once read an article about a Bentley driver swapping a petrol engine for a diesel one (not sure which one, but i'mma bet it's at least a V8 (again, read this probably a decade ago at this time)). He regretted the Bentley for having a relatively small range (i think it was 400-500km). After the swap it was doing something like 1200km or more (again unsure right now which engine was swapped in). I feel the same way about a MY08 prius and a MY03 Corolla - same tank - anywhere from 300km to 400km more range without too much nit picking.

[@thelaserhive3368]

3.5 miles per kWh for such a chunky car is actually pretty good! Also it seems that looking on good old Autotrader there are quite a lot of nearly new examples of these for sale in the sub £25k bracket. Not bad really.

[@frejaresund3770]

I have been enjoyed, so thank you for sharing.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

CCS and Nuclear electricity are both efforts to retain traditional big energy. Nuclear electricity for grid central generation.

[@narvuntien]

Perth mentioned! Hello from Perth o/ I am in the middle writing something about the grid right now.

[@ericwolff6059]

"Nuanced and subtle episode" Yeah right. ;-). We will wait and see. :-D

[@Jaw0lf]

Great updates and renewables are cheaper than oil. Business look at running costs so will opt for the cheapest and thankfully that is renewables.

[@kathyfrench2651]

I have a retired friend who spent almost his entire career working on CCS. I wonder whether the thought has ever dawned on him that he was played by the oil companies who knew about the impact they were having on world temperatures as far back as the 70's. And all to enable them to keep raking in profit (and government subsidies) for as long as possible. Absolutely criminal!

[@TheHoveHeretic]

Have you ever discussed with him what the work entailed? It might prove interesting to test your assumptions. There are actually *several* established methods of sequestering atmospheric carbon. That much is straightforward chemistry. *Economic* sequestration is an entirely different question. Regardless of dying dinosaurs lashing out, even with a successful 100% transition, CCS would still have a role in reversing the damage done by our uppity species of modified chimp.

[@m_m_1_9_7_7]

I love that the vehicle is dirty. Makes me believe you even more than usual.

[@davidwatkins594]

Renewables may be cheaper in some countries, but in the UK, the energy companies that are building and installing wind turbines in the North Sea are demanding 40 pence per kilowatt from the Government, just to recover the cost of the turbine and its maintenance, within the turbines expected lifetime. Now that is 15 pence per Kilowatt more than UK consumers currently pay for electricity, produced by imported Gas. Now renewables really don't seem cheaper to me. UK already pay the highest in Europe for energy and we will continue to be fleeced by the energy companies, no matter how they produce electricity.

[@rikardekvall3433]

When will a VW Caddy L2/ Transit Connect L2 for all of us electricians/plumbers / carpenters/ bricklayers that need the space and range???

[@kalebdaark100]

I've never understood why they keep putting smaller batteries in all the vans, especially as they start being able to do V2L (very useful in a work van).

[@addsfour3499]

Norway went electric on the back of oil sales, west australia is doing the same thing with gas

[@jbmaru]

When the new generation of batteries is available, there will be a healthy market for EV battery upgrade...

[@gregbailey45]

As the demand for petroleum products declines over the coming years, the economics of extraction become less and less viable, this will help push the price of liquid fuels back up, and up, and up, until operating a petrol or diesel powered car will become untenable.

[@barrymurton8988]

And putting battery storage on an old PS is a no brainier, it connected to the grid! So why isn’t it happening in the UK? You can also use those locations for wind and solar!

[@beetooex]

I'm convinced we should look again at heating with wood fuel. It is absolutely possible to build small domestic stoves that produce very little particulate pollution. Coppice woodland of native broadleaf species can produce appropriate fuel and provide crucial wildlife habitat. If you design the woodland correctly you can harvest efficiently with machines whilst basically maintaining a nature reserve. It's crazy how we've picked the worst ways to obtain and burn wood in the UK.

[@rogerphelps9939]

No. You need a pretty big land area to provide the fuel for just one stove. Photosynthesis is extremely inefficient. Then there is the particulates and NOx emissions which has led them to be banned in many urban areas.

[@mariebaxter473]

We are all doomed i tell thee , Came for the Berlingo , as i did 230,000 miles with the oil burner version , and would love another one but not too sure about that 170 miles real world range . come on Citroen lets have a bigger battery?

[@johnnodge4327]

170 miles is fine for most drivers. We do about 18k a year in our Ioniq 5, but seldom use the full battery in one drive, it's normally a few miles here, another few miles there, repeating over and over, which adds up to about 1500 miles per month. As the car is charged most nights, there's always plenty of range for the next day's driving. A huge battery capacity simply isn't needed IMO.

[@12vLife]

Here in the US where I'm driving a 2018 Promaster City Cargo Van (AKA Fiat Doblo). I love the van which is highly customize as a micro camper and mobile off grid construction van. It's had a very rough life with an engine and transmission replaced by the dealer. I'm keeping her alive until we see an EV Cargo Van that size returning 400 miles and able to add 200 miles in 30 minutes. Realistic to think we might see that by late 2026? I think so but only if the Koreans, Chinese or Japanese are allowed reasonable access to US commercial van markets. Not sure how much space and time Ford and Chevy need to build that van, but there has been zero interest.

[@mariebaxter473]

@@johnnodge4327 On a bad day ive covered 300 miles but tend to average 150 as i work around London but live on the south coast, so would be tricky as a work van?

[@gregarnot5066]

Air Liquide is one of many companies which removes CO2 from the atmosphere The price last December was $660 USD per metric ton of liquid CO2

[@nickwinn7812]

Very useful it is too, but it is released back into the atmosphere by the welders, pubs etc that use it, not stored to save the climate.

[@skierpage]

@@nickwinn7812 yes, is that cost just the capturing or does it include sequestration/storage? There isn't nearly enough demand for CO2 for it to be a circular economy; the biggest use of of CO2 is to inject into ^%$#@! oil and gas wells to increase production.

[@stephensimpson5283]

I really love a "Robert Rant"

[@MrKOenigma]

I've seen 2 Skywell cars already in Nuremberg Germany (maybe it was the same car on two different occasions) I think I've heard of a collaboration with "Euromaster" a tyre shop....???

[@Nino500]

On the E Berlingo. I like them; always liked the ICE versions BUT I drive the ICE van version every day and the body is exactly the same shape. THOSE A PILLARS! They're so chunky right at your eye level, especially when you're coming round a right hand bend and you can't see what's coming the other way! There's a MAHOOSIVE and very dangerous blind spot. I'm very surprised you didn't notice it. It's very apparent when driving on country lanes. Other than that, it's great. I'm sort of used to the blind spot after 16 months of daily use but it still catches me out now and then. Also, I'm sure it could safely tow 1600kg, like the ICE version. Are Citroen are so worried about range loss that they've downgraded it to a useless 750Kg?

[@jonathanbarnes7981]

They have probably lowered the carrying capacity due to the total weight of the van due to things like bridges carrying capacity or for example things like multi story carparks where the bridges and carparks wernt designed to carry the type of weight these vans are due to the batteries and then the additional load inside the van ... thats alot of weight sat in a small area on 4 wheels where the total weight is distributed on the 4 points so you could be in a car park chilling then you might hear a creak as the steel wasnt designed for the weight or for example the bolts might not be made for the additional weight and stress on the bolt holding all the frames up ... its a crazy world we live in but the country isnt designed for the additional weight of electric cars and vans .... another easy example is man hole covers there not really designed and made to carry the additional weight of batteries

[@jonathanbarnes7981]

Another easy example of the batteries being a twat for weights of vans ... the new electric vw camper that electric had to be fully revamped due to the total weight as it came up as a hgv vehicle due to the weight of it 😂😂😂😂 its funny as fuck 😂😂😂😂

[@johnnodge4327]

Unlikely anything to do with bridges and carparks. Range Rover's and Land Rover Discovery's weigh far more than a Berlingo, even the EV version.

[@Nino500]

@@jonathanbarnes7981 Utter rubbish!

[@Nino500]

@@johnnodge4327 Exactly, and they're rated to tow 3.5 tonnes. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with total weight. The Renault Kangoo EV crew van is rated to tow the same as the ICE version at 1600Kg. I'd guess is because they don't want complaints about how short the range is when towing heavier trailers. If you live 5 miles from the harbour and want a family wagon that can also take your boat to and from the harbour, you're not going to worry about range.

[@RichardFraser-y9t]

If you use enery that produces 10kg of CO2 to capture 10kg of CO2 then its not going to work.

[@Roamor1]

Thank you.

[@dougtheslug6435]

I haven't watched you in a while but I like this new format, I re-subscribed today. I would like to add though that I think they're making claims that natural gas is worse then coal because nobody is heating and cooking with coal anymore, it was mostly used for producing electricity. You can't say that about gas, it's used for producing electricity, heating, cooking, gas BBQ's, some cars trucks and machinery, home/work generators. Also I like that Berlingo van, I doubt we'll see it he in my neck of the woods in Canada.

[@simondehaas8784]

I would like to see development of battery recycling plants in the UK that would buy a scrap car and take the battery out. I had hopes we would see setting a floor of a few £k on scrap EV values, but it doesn't seem to exist commercially yet. I guess there aren't enough scrap EVs yet.

[@ralpharmsby8040]

A recent Panorama programme showed a new CCS system in Iceland. It was huge, used a lot of power, dissolved the Co2 in water which was pumped underground into basalt rock. It can extract what sounds like a large amount of CO2... until they said it was what is released by the activities 7000 people a year.... Not exactly planet saving.

[@TheHoveHeretic]

The UK Government's policy towards CCS is depressingly reminiscent of the British Railways' 1955 'Modernisation Plan', which wasted years and £millions.

[@pangit9999]

Im glad that Berlingo isn't fast, can you imagine what White Van Man would be like if it had Model 3 performance?!!😅

[@milesprowerdavis7658]

He's a funny guy with important things to tell you