Torotrak Share Discussion Threads

[alchemy] 30/1/2017 08:38

You asking? I think piggy bank should be kept stet.Electricity now is cheaper per kWh than other forms of fuel and the effect of this big picture is captured in the RNS.

[jpuff] 27/1/2017 17:29

It was actually me raiding the wife's piggy bank ;). Seriously though is it worth buying a few or are they going bust?

[angus17] 26/1/2017 09:44

For those that like these things. There has just been a 1 trade transaction. Some think these things are signals.

[supernumerary] 25/1/2017 20:19

Interesting couple of pages in this week's Autocar on the Aeristech electric supercharger. I don't have access to online Autocar articles, but I see Car published something similar last year:



Looks to me like a direct competitor to V-Charge; it will be interesting to see which comes out ahead, and indeed whether either survives, which is by no means guaranteed.

[oliversanvil] 25/1/2017 18:34

wrong thread?

[alchemy] 24/1/2017 11:41

Catapult mentioned on Newsnight last night as an item of successful government policy oh that we had benefitted

[angus17] 24/1/2017 10:27

company valued at £10m. many hundreds of millions spent developing something that may or may not work or be usable. IF one of their products becomes commercial all the hard work has been done and a share price many times the 1.9p is quite possible.

Still find it very hard to believe that my volvo isn't fitted with a mechanical kers.

[andrewbaker] 24/1/2017 10:23

The best that can be said is that the price is so low, the potential gain may be several times the risk of loss, which could be total at the current price. The technology will only be bought in a growing business climate where the economy is doing well: no-one will risk new technology for green merits unless there is also a positive financial gain attached. Still: as already said, the price is so low, is it worth a gamble right now? Hhhhmmm ...

[bodgit] 23/1/2017 21:10

Reasonable volume of buys today.......... Good luck all.

[oliversanvil] 22/1/2017 16:34

Prince Charles has said we must act to avoid “potentially devastating consequences” when it comes to climate change, as he warned that future generations will pay the “biggest price” if we don't. --Well ! He is on our side of the fence." Biggest price" £0.019 to buy! Lowest. he means.-----And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

[oliversanvil] 22/1/2017 16:11

/www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/22/60mph-speed-limit-m1-to-combat-air-pollution-sheffield-smart-motorway Just a matter of time!

A proposal to impose Britain’s first pollution-linked speed limits in order to help ease smog over Sheffield is being considered by Highways England.

A 60mph speed limit at rush-hour when vehicle numbers are highest where the M1 runs close to schools and homes in the city could help address air quality concerns, a report commissioned by the agency found.

The mandatory speed limit, if approved, would be in place between 7am and 7pm seven days a week between junctions 32 and 35a.

The suggested initiative follows a Nice study, published in December, which found that “driving smoothly” could ease air pollution. Accelerating or decelerating too rapidly leads to greater fuel consumption and means harmful emissions are being released into the environment unnecessarily, the study found.
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A 60mph speed limit could also help create a smoother journey as drivers would not be be accelerating and then decelerating at pinch points so often, a spokesperson for the AA said.

The plan coincides with Department for Transport (DfT) plans for a £106m “smart motorway”, which is due to launch in March.

The scheme is likely to add thousands of cars, vans and other vehicles to the roads, causing an increase in air pollution. Sheffield already misses EU air quality targets and was highlighted by the World Health Organisation for having dangerously high levels of air pollution.

To mitigate the increased pollution caused by the smart motorway scheme, Highways England, which admits it is a “key challenge”, has been trialling a number of initiatives.

Currently, an average of approximately 120,000 vehicles per weekday use the motorway in Sheffield, according to Mouchel, an engineering consultancy that put together the report.

It estimates that the smart motorway scheme will add a further 5,000-10,000 vehicles a day by opening the hard shoulder to traffic. It stated: “Air quality assessment predicted that operating a [smart motorway] at 70mph, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, would result in significant adverse impacts on air quality.”

The consultancy firm found that the best way to prevent an increase in illegal pollution would be to implement a speed limit.

The AA spokesman said the proposal, if implemented, could provoke anger among road users, who will face fines if they exceed 60mph.

He said: “Car users are always the easy hit when it comes to pollution when actually they are not one of the main contributors. There will be people raising their eyebrows about whether this is just an example of the authorities trying to look like they are doing something.

“There will be a section of car users, who will see that this is not safety-related, and that they are being penalised for emissions that are likely to have come from other sources as well. That same section will say they pay billions of pounds in taxes … and if we’re contributing that amount of money why isn’t it being spent on the road network to deal with the issues?”

He added: “There is a very good chance that the traffic is already moving at that speed during rush-hour.”

Highways England stressed that the speed limit is just one of “a range of other mitigation options” being trialled, and that despite the scheme being due to launch at the end of March, “there is no suggestion of a delay to the scheme on the M1 and there will be mitigation in place for when the scheme opens”.

Other options include painting barriers with “catalytic paints” designed to remove pollutants from the air and putting piles of “mineral polymer” – made from a secret compound that absorbs nitrogen dioxide – alongside the road.

Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, told the Sunday Times: “Sheffield has already had to close two schools by the M1 because the pollution was so bad, but there are still many residents breathing filthy air — and there will be far more if the motorway gets busier.

“The government has known about this problem but has still expanded the motorway. Now it is trialling these Mickey Mouse schemes which are bound to fail.”

A Highways England spokesperson said: “Smart motorways are central to the modernisation of England’s motorways, reducing congestion and improving journey time reliability by smoothing traffic flows. One of our key challenges in delivering the £15bn government investment in infrastructure is tackling the issue presented by air quality and in order to meet environmental targets we are investing in wider programme of air quality research to help address this.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “We are firmly committed to improving the UK’s air quality and cutting harmful emissions. That is why we have invested more than £2bn since 2011 to promote greener vehicles and support green transport schemes and have set out how we will improve air quality through a new programme of clean air zones.”

The proposal comes as Sheffield’s Green party launch a campaign to tackle the city’s poor air quality. A statement said: “Air pollution continues to exceed legal limits in many areas, contributing to an estimated 500 premature deaths in Sheffield every year.

“We call on Sheffield city council to take action to tackle this public health crisis by urgently agreeing and implementing a new action plan to clean up the city’s air and protect our health.”
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Road transport Pollution Sheffield

[oliversanvil] 17/1/2017 16:21

Active buying? Perhaps???

[oliversanvil] 13/1/2017 07:55

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday accused Fiat Chrysler of installing secret software that allowed more than 100,000 of its diesel vehicles to emit pollutants above legal levels.

The case has echoes of one against Volkswagen, which on Wednesday pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy as part of a widespread emissions-cheating scheme. In both cases, the government focused on software in vehicles that can adjust emissions levels.

[oliversanvil] 11/1/2017 17:40

Under the bonnet customers can enjoy the newly developed 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine as one of the power options. The new VW Golf?[[Further more---BRITISH Formula 1 team Manor Racing is on the brink of collapse after entering administration.

[lefrene] 10/1/2017 13:06

I guess it's a place staffed by 'white coats' no one wants to do grubby stuff like going out and finding customers. Why haven't they gone out and acquired a 'dirty' VW diesel and bolted a V charge to it to see how much it cleans it up? There are going to be a lot of cheap diesels in the USA pretty soon, a $2000 fix might be quite welcome. Bit of a shocker that small diesel cars are actually dirtier than modern big trucks. There should be a huge after-market for retro fitting clean tech. I doubt that TRK has even made a phone call to the likes of VW or BMW. The public have no idea that TRK tech exists, no wonder there is no demand for it.

[supernumerary] 10/1/2017 12:48

I think they're going to carry on massaging the numbers - add a few electric and hybrid motors with fantasy fuel figures, and the fleet average comes down, giving them more freedom on the gas guzzlers than they really should have. Of course the situation isn't helped by people insisting on massive SUVs when modest hatchbacks would satisfy 99% of their needs perfectly satisfactorily.

But I still don't understand why trk don't market v-charge themselves as an add-on for sports cars. I see Lotus are likely to drop their current supercharger and go to turbos - why can't trk do a deal with them? They could do their own manufacturing in those sort of numbers - a few thousand at most - and then sell the kit for other underpowered sports cars like the Toyota/Subaru GT86/BRX, or the Mazda MX-5.

[lefrene] 10/1/2017 12:09

Looks like it's in the dustbin. Quite ironic given the scandals regards widespread emissions cheating by major OEMs. Almost 20 years of tinkering in the shed, but as yet no one wants the product.

[supernumerary] 10/1/2017 10:30

Is Henderson throwing in the towel?

[bodgit] 10/1/2017 10:03

Oh dear.......

[oliversanvil] 08/1/2017 12:34

"We will offer customers of our compact cars and the V-Class an improvement of their cars’ emissions behavior on a voluntary basis. The entry-level engines of our compact cars include one engine variant from Renault (OM 607) in the context of our cooperation with Renault.

"That engine from Renault is adapted to the requirements of our Mercedes-Benz compact models. We have been informed about the software update by our cooperation partner and will of course offer this service to our customers on a voluntary basis. As a result, we will achieve a significant improvement in emissions this year." ????

[oliversanvil] 06/1/2017 22:29

Probably a Japanese Smart will get in
.

[oliversanvil] 06/1/2017 22:26

Hope JAPANESE

[oliversanvil] 06/1/2017 07:56

hxxp://www.reed.co.uk/jobs/principal-development-engineer/31345599