Tesla battery researcher unveils new cell that could last 1 million miles?

[janoc]

Off topic: But why did you buy a diesel? The signs that diesel is going to be phased out/banned in large parts of Europe have been on the wall for a long time. It started with the German environmental zones.

German environmental zones are not banning diesels (or at least were not until about 2 years ago after the various activists started to sue cities en masse). In fact, most of those zones are a lot more lenient than the French ones.

The "writing on the wall in large parts of Europe" has certainly not been the case before the Dieselgate.

In fact, diesels were massively subsidized by lower taxes on fuel compared to gasoline because they were/are  consuming less fuel and thus emitting less CO2. Soot pollution that has plagued old diesels has been a non-issue ever since the particle filters became mandatory years ago. For a very long time the consensus was that modern diesels were greener than gasoline cars. The consequence is that e.g. here in France over 60% of cars are diesels, with only slightly smaller numbers in Germany and elsewhere.

Then 2015 rolled in and the Dieselgate erupted. And now suddenly everyone and their grandma wants to ban all diesels outright, regardless of real emissions and to penalize diesel car drivers - as if it was their fault.

In fact, the straw that broke the camel's back and started the Yellow vests unrest in France has been a law on the introduction of a carbon tax and bringing the taxes on diesel fuel to the same level with gasoline - both of this would have caused a significant fuel price hike.

I have bought my Leon second-hand in 2013, when diesels were still the thing to drive. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

[nctnico]

Off topic: But why did you buy a diesel? The signs that diesel is going to be phased out/banned in large parts of Europe have been on the wall for a long time. It started with the German environmental zones.

German environmental zones are not banning diesels (or at least were not until about 2 years ago after the various activists started to sue cities en masse). In fact, most of those zones are a lot more lenient than the French ones.

I have bought my Leon second-hand in 2013, when diesels were still the thing to drive. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Not banning but unless you got a diesel which was nearly brand new you'd end up with a red sticker for the German low emission zones. All this started in Germany in 2008/2009 and it spread to other cities quickly (including a lot of interest from cities abroad). You can't really claim the hindsight defense if you bought a diesel car in 2013. Low taxes or not; governments always lag behind and a car is something you buy to use long term. BTW I bought my current car in 2014 and I switched from diesel to gas/petrol; the enviromental zones where a major drive behind this decission.

And dieselgate was more like an acknowledgement of what everybody with some interest in how a diesel engine works already knew. You can't really get the emissions low for the lifetime of a diesel car without making it horribly expensive. I looked at various diesel cars too but they all had the same problems: the emission control systems cause problems and need expensive repairs. On my previous (diesel) car I simply removed all of it and got a 5% better mileage in return.

[janoc]

Not banning but unless you got a diesel which was nearly brand new you'd end up with a red sticker for the German low emission zones. All this started in Germany in 2008/2009 and it spread to other cities quickly (including a lot of interest from cities abroad). You can't really claim the hindsight defense if you bought a diesel car in 2013. Low taxes or not; governments always lag behind and a car is something you buy to use long term. BTW I bought my current car in 2014 and I switched from diesel to gas/petrol; the enviromental zones where a major drive behind this decission.

Sorry that's just wrong. In 2008-9 is when my car was made, it has EURO 4 compliant engine. Are you trying to say that brand new cars were getting penalized in Germany at that time already? Surely not. In 2013 when I have bought it the zones only started to appear in larger numbers and EURO 4 compliant cars had a green sticker! In fact, they still do.

See here, for example (Moenchengladbach), archived text from 2013:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ARoIkEW7I9kJ:https://www.umwelt-plakette.de/de/info-zur-deutschen-umwelt-plakette/umweltzonen-in-deutschland/deutsche-umweltzonen/moenchengladbach.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=fr

Die mit der Umweltzone verbundenen Fahrverbote gelten seit der Einführung der Umweltzone und lassen derzeit eine Einfahrt nur noch mit einer grünen Plakette (EURO 4) zu.

("The traffic restrictions linked to the low emission zone are valid since the establishment of the low emission zone and permit entry only for the vehicles with the green sticker (EURO 4) from now on.")

BTW, the rule there is still the same, check for yourself:
https://www.umwelt-plakette.de/de/info-zur-deutschen-umwelt-plakette/umweltzonen-in-deutschland/deutsche-umweltzonen/moenchengladbach.html

The green sticker is from EURO 4 and up still. Only the older cars (EURO 1-3) have the yellow and red ones. The current diesel bans in some cities (e.g. Stuttgart) are on top of all this.


And anyhow, I am in France, the German rules are not really so much relevant for me. Here we didn't have the zones until recently, the Paris one was the first, then Lille and few other cities followed suit.

On my previous (diesel) car I simply removed all of it and got a 5% better mileage in return.

Good way how to fail the compulsory technical inspection and possibly get a large fine on top as well. That's not something I would brag about in a public forum.

[nctnico]

Not banning but unless you got a diesel which was nearly brand new you'd end up with a red sticker for the German low emission zones. All this started in Germany in 2008/2009 and it spread to other cities quickly (including a lot of interest from cities abroad). You can't really claim the hindsight defense if you bought a diesel car in 2013. Low taxes or not; governments always lag behind and a car is something you buy to use long term. BTW I bought my current car in 2014 and I switched from diesel to gas/petrol; the enviromental zones where a major drive behind this decission.

Sorry that's just wrong. In 2008-9 is when my car was made, it has EURO 4 compliant engine. Are you trying to say that brand new cars were getting penalized in Germany at that time already? Surely not.

I wrote 'near new cars'. You are not getting the point though. It is not about the rules that are applied right now but foreseeing the rules that are going to be applied in the future. You are complaining about the fact that your car is not allowed in some cities. All I'm saying is that you could have foreseen that. Not by looking at rules which apply to your car at the time of purchase but looking at where governments are going and how much support there is from the public. It is pure risk assessment.

For my next car I'll take a long hard look at a hybrid. Diesels will get banned for sure in many cities and there may be a chance non-hybrid gas/petrol cars face similar restrictions in 10 to 15 years in some cities.

On my previous (diesel) car I simply removed all of it and got a 5% better mileage in return.

Good way how to fail the compulsory technical inspection and possibly get a large fine on top as well. That's not something I would brag about in a public forum.

Nope. Perfectly legal. I actually got compliments about the low amount of sooth that came out of the tailpipe at the annual inspection.

[janoc]

I wrote 'near new cars'. You are not getting the point though.

No, you aren't getting what I am saying. My car has been made in 2009, when you were claiming "that all this started in Germany in 2008/9". That means it wasn't "near new", it was new! And it has been also sporting a then brand new EURO 4 classification.

And even 4 years later in 2013 when I have bought it, there were no restrictions on these diesels, only on old ones (EURO 1,2,3 - but that was applying to both gasoline and diesel engines) and no such diesel-specific restrictions were being planned. I am not sure what is so difficult to comprehend on that. I am not that stupid to buy a car where I know that I won't be allowed to drive it few years later anymore.

All I'm saying is that you could have foreseen that. Not by looking at rules which apply to your car at the time of purchase but looking at where governments are going and how much support there is from the public. It is pure risk assessment.

The governments were busy subsidizing diesel and VW (and others) were still busy pushing diesels as a more ecological alternatives to gasoline in 2013. Sorry, you are just wrong here. The big political push to ban diesels from cities came only after 2015 and the VW emission scandal. Then everyone suddenly woke up with the feeling that something has to be done and the pendulum swiftly moved to the other extreme.

Nope. Perfectly legal. I actually got compliments about the low amount of sooth that came out of the tailpipe at the annual inspection.

Perfectly legal as long as your country doesn't measure anything else except soot emissions on diesels (which used to be the case until 2015 too). Not the case anymore in many places and unauthorized tinkering with emissions-related equipment (EGR valve, catalysator, DPF filter, etc.), is a reason for instantly failing the check when discovered.

[nctnico]

I wrote 'near new cars'. You are not getting the point though.

No, you aren't getting what I am saying. My car has been made in 2009, when you were claiming "that all this started in Germany in 2008/9". That means it wasn't "near new", it was new! And it has been also sporting a then brand new EURO 4 classification.

And even 4 years later in 2013 when I have bought it, there were no restrictions on these diesels, only on old ones (EURO 1,2,3 - but that was applying to both gasoline and diesel engines) and no such diesel-specific restrictions were being planned. I am not sure what is so difficult to comprehend on that. I am not that stupid to buy a car where I know that I won't be allowed to drive it few years later anymore.

I beg to differ on the latter  I'm sorry but you didn't do your homework before buying your car. I bought my current car early 2014 (so not long after you bought yours) and (again) a big part of the decission to buy a gas/petrol one instead of a diesel one was the spreading of the low emission zones. Ofcourse the zones wheren't planned back then to ban euro 4 -yet- but it shouldn't take much imagination that euro 4 &5 (euro 6 was already announced) where soon too be banned as well. After all the low emissions zones are constantly adjusted to ban the oldest cars (which is more or less their design & purpose). Maybe dieselgate woke you up but banning diesels was already brewing for a while before dieselgate happened. But this is getting wildly off-topic.