Petrol prices rise, despite demand falling

ILW

DavidMorganGuru wrote: »

Huge progress in electric cars of late. Electric motors are getting more efficient and lighter weight. Solar panels are getting very efficient now, the new generation use a lot of silver because its the most reflective element and could be on every electric car roof.

Also new battery technology using silver and silicone are far better than any battery tech till now. They can hold more power and last longer. These new silver batteries have zero discharge rate, if you charge them 100% they will still be 100% charged months or years later. Never has there been a battery as good as these.

A practcal electric car for everyday use still does not exist at any price.

wellused

Platinum in catalytic converters, apparently it breaks down and now our roads are coated with a microscopic layer of the stuff. Give it enough time and we'll all be millionaires.

jay213

How much do the goverment take out of the petrol price again? I think its something like 80-90 pence per litre..... for that reason I dont understand why people in general go on about the cost off a barrel of petrol on the markets, when we pay so much through the goverment adding tax on top. The goverment make more money than the people who drilled the oil and shipped it over here? maybe I'm missing a key point?

It would be good for electric cars to take off, but I believe the people that could make it happen, dont really want it to happen. Look how much the oil industry, car companies and all the goverments would lose if they wasnt selling us petrol. The goverment couldnt run all these money making schemes under the guise of pollution reduction taxes etc.... and think of all those millions or billions they would lose from not getting that oil tax money every year.

lewisa

jay213 wrote: »

It would be good for electric cars to take off, but I believe the people that could make it happen, dont really want it to happen. Look how much the oil industry, car companies and all the goverments would lose if they wasnt selling us petrol. The goverment couldnt run all these money making schemes under the guise of pollution reduction taxes etc.... and think of all those millions or billions they would lose from not getting that oil tax money every year.

Whatever replaces oil will be taxed just as heavily.

Whatever replaces oil the mega-conglomerates that currently provide us with oil will instead provide us with the replacement.

Electric is just a stop-gap technology that gives mis-informed eco-warriors a warm fuzzy feeling, but wont take off en-masse because it takes longer than 30 seconds to fill up.

My bet is on hydrogen taking over from oil, when that happens is anybodies guess, but when it happens there will be 80p of tax on a unit of hydrogen.

Derivative

PasturesNew wrote: »

... and it's still cheaper for most people, on most journeys, to use a car than public transport.

I doubt that.
It's cheaper for people who are in rural areas or without decent bus routes.

Of course, if you exclude the cost of the car, maintenance, MoT, road tax, and just look at petrol, you can make any journey look cheap.

RenovationMan

PasturesNew wrote: »

... and it's still cheaper for most people, on most journeys, to use a car than public transport.

Depends where they are going. Most people just make comparisons based on the cost of petrol and not on the real cost of motoring. Parking costs alone in a City can cost as much as a train ticket, this is before you factor in the cost of the car, the servicing and maintenance, road tax and any congestion charging or tolls.

ruggedtoast

ILW wrote: »

A practcal electric car for everyday use still does not exist at any price.

I beg to differ. The Nissan Leaf costs only £26,000, or £399 per month on lease for three years.

And after having spent a grand on a charger, with a night time tariff you can fill up for only £1 and travel about half way to where you want to go before it conks out.*

Here is one in action.




*Tow truck and / or night's stay in a Travel Tavern may cost significantly more than £1

RUN_RABBIT_RUN

i thought we'd gone a few too many posts without talking about silver so thought i'd better mention it again.

silver

think about it

posh*spice

Demand is falling in the US too

U.S. fuel demand dropped to a 15- year low for the month of December as gasoline use fell, the American Petroleum Institute said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-20/u-s-fuel-demand-falls-on-weaker-gasoline-consumption-api-says.html

ChiefGrasscutter

lewisa wrote: »

My bet is on hydrogen taking over from oil, when that happens is anybodies guess, but when it happens there will be 80p of tax on a unit of hydrogen.

Plenty of it around I'd fully agree.
Snag is its rather expensive/difficult to extract into its pure state as hydrogen really does like to bind with other elements rather securely - and all this is going to cost energy to do.
But who know maybe this issue will be solved in time......who can tell.

Each time I hear of a new oil field being discovered and the usual over optimistic estimates of the Ultimately Recoverable Reserves quoted (URR) I just work out exactly how many days of current world consumption that represents - usually it's a few weeks.