OK, so we've a few more years and I'll be well past it/gone by 2040. However, I do have to wonder just how you're going to tow a caravan with a tarted up milk float - unless you fill the van with batteries. Then there's the motorhome folks - 7.5metre wonderbox running on a box full of rechargeable AAs?

It's one thing having a personal runabout running on battery, but another thing towing 1200Kg+ of caravan from Southampton to John o' Groats. I do not believe for one moment that battery technology will make enough progress in the next 10 years or so to make heavy haulage of any sort a practical proposition. Surely development of the hydrogen fuel cell will make much more sense.

Seriously though - apart from anything else this is going to have a huge impact on a rapidly growing segment of the UK leisure market. Any thoughts anyone???

Dont worry, the regulation only applies to cars. This modification will get around the problem....

Don't think I'll be towing to worry about it.
That turbo charged caravan is a hoot.

Quote: Pepé Le Pew wrote in post #7

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As far as electric cars are concerned I agree with what you've said, in particular the enormous difficulty and equally enormous cost of installing the infrastructure to allow every new car owner - indeed, every potential new car owner, no matter where they park their car - to be able to charge it overnight.

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A few years ago a guy was killed on Crickley Hill near Gloucester, he had an electric car, it came out that his "fuel tank guage" was showing plenty of "fuel" left BUT it was insufficeint in power to get his car back home up the hill, he and I think another got out to push the car into a nearby layby (Slad?) moments before making it safely to the layby he was struck and killed.

I've ysed nicad and nimh batteries for years in all sorts of equipment going right back to the mid 70's. Batteries gave come on in leaps and bounds however the rare earth (cobalt somarium) and many other components of electric motors are not "plentiful" so we do need alternatives.

Brian is spot on above about infastructure and the need for vast improvements

New Mercedes AA Class

Most of you have probably seen this by now - cracked me up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEjTwsfqHOY

Surely the only sensible solution is -" clock-work wind up power"- it would solve so many problems

But please don't suggest it -' cause some clown will think it's a good idea !!!!!!!! just like " all electric cars "

I appreciate every caravan owners concerns over this headline but come on, this announcement was made by Michael Gove fresh in his new Cabinet post.

What an interesting question to start a debate on. My view for what it is worth is that it is not a question about vehicle electrification or about battery technology, it is about what the future holds for our transportation methods as a whole.

As a child, exposure to science fiction came through the TV via such programmes as Star Trek, Blake’s Seven, Dr Who and the like (in those days I was never a great reader so relied heavily on visual media). When you look back at some of the things we all thought then were total fantasy they are now in every day life and we take them for granted. Computing in its many and various forms is a fine example. Who would have thought at the time we would all own our own version of Blake’s Seven’s Orac (the talking mobile computer).

I remember my father telling me the discussions he would have when at Cambridge (late 40’s) with friends who were some of the leading science students about space flight. Thier stance was it would be impossible to find a propulsion unit that would enable a vehicle to break the earths atmosphere and gravitational pull, but about 20 years latter it was achieved.

When you look at how quickly technology evolves it will not surprise me that within the next 10 years solutions will be found for things that we currently see as insurmountable problems!
For example I believe that within the next 10 years personal transportation will have completely changed. The development of computer driven car is at the stage of being tested on the road. In 10 years we will not need to own a car. We will using our mobile computing unit to summon a driver-less vehicle to takes us to where we want to go. The source of power? Who knows. How about it being magnetically driven???

Look at the current situation with Amazon who are looking at drone technology to make deliveries. What we see as the current norm, is going to change and change very quickly.

My point is that we are limited by our current experiences and knowledge. My be the question should be asked of a five year old and see what they come up with in their unlimited imagination, that with out doubt is where the future lies and out of the scope of our comprehension.

Just my view and comments for what they are worth.

Clippie

Nice post Clippie. Things are changing so fast and the older ones of us are perhaps limited by our previous experiences. We went to my daughters last weekend and they had just got one of the Amazon Echo things that you say "Alexa" to and it controlled lights and put on music you asked for. Our grandson who is just over two was desperately trying to say Alexa but couldn't pronounce it properly - but it won't be long! That is his reality and transfer that to what Gove is suggesting for 2040 and change is obvious.

However I guess in all of this us Erba people will not want to lose the joy and freedom that our little vans give us and will look for ways to keep it, although probably many of us will be past towing by 2040!
MikeT

Any replacement technology that will require people to connect a cable to recharge their car from the national grid is doomed to failure in so many ways that it is clear Mr Gove does not know what he is talking about and that his advisers are equally clueless idiots.