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Not in the UK (certainly not on my model, anyway) - mine was delivered with locking wheel nuts. I don't know where bart83 is based.

There are two different basic types of hydropower. You can dam an existing river valley (like the Hoover in US or Three Gorges in China) to create your power-generating 'head' artificially; or you can use something more closely approximating a large mountain stream, with little or no dam needed...

River power is a good solution if you can combine low population density with lots of fast flowing rivers (i.e. mountains). Sweden is the poster boy for this, with its electricity coming from 40% hydro, 40% nuke, 12% wind, 8% other. It's a non-starter in England (and most countries), our...

True, and it's also one of the most efficient means of energy storage. The largest such power station in the UK (and still, I think, in the world) is at Dinorwig near Snowdon. It can produce just under 1.8GW for a little over 5 hours, for a total capacity of 9.1GWh (when it was built in the...

No there isn't. There's a 100MWh (soon to be 200MWh, apparently) battery setup in S Australia, specifically to help stabilise their grid - because they have too much wind power and not enough thermal generation capacity, which caused the whole state grid to fall over a few years ago. The UK...

https://physicsworld.com/a/real-world-tests-of-hybrid-cars-show-higher-than-expected-emissions/ I doubt this will come as much of a surprise to many on here.

I think that's a misunderstanding. You only need to use charge mode if you're towing and you know your journey is going to involve substantial climbing. The reason is that on long steep climbs (as in the Alps or the Rockies) while towing, the power available from the ICE is insufficient to...

It's beginning in the UK, but on our motorways you probably only need about a 10 mile range boost to get you to the next services, where there should be a charging point. I'm not sure how well this concept would work on the prairies. :)

An increasing number of breakdown trucks are carrying large batteries that can be used to provide enough charge to get an 'empty' EV to the nearest charging point.

FWIW I got this message today, exactly 99 days after last adding petrol - the car didn't 'complain' yesterday. I manage to squeeze 14.5 litres into the tank, and it's now happy again. :lol:

If FM's fine and DAB isn't, it sounds rather like a signal issue. Are you near any of the grey areas on this map? http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/images/coverage-map.jpg There are very few areas of the UK where FM is unavailable (mostly Snowdonia and Scottish Highlands), but DAB can be much more...

You can't really 'force' the car between serial and parallel mode. Because parallel is (generally speaking) more efficient, the electronics typically select parallel mode once speed exceeds ~45mph/70kph. The main exception is if you're demanding high levels of power below speeds of...

The WiFi (not fitted to all models) is on all the time.

If it operates the same way as my UK 2016 model, the first twist should switch on the front fog lamps and a second twist turns on those at the rear.

The car does it for you, depending on how much power you demand and your speed - it's all clever electronics and you have relatively little control over the power mode. You get a visual indication of which mode it's in either from the larger panel in the middle of the dash or the smaller panel...

Thanks for your input everyone. It seems it was the brakes binding, for reasons unknown. I reported (a couple of months ago) squealing when travelling round bends, so that was probably it. At least the estimated mileage on the guessometer may improve.

My PHEV has just been in for its 5-year service (expensive enough on its own at just over £500), but I'm told I need a new pair of discs on the front (another £500+). Has anyone else experienced similar? My previous car (Honda Civic VTi) did 140,000 miles over 12 years and never needed new...

Obviously, if you're planning to drive in Scandinavia or over Alpine passes during winter, proper winter tyres are a must (and legally required, too). But for those, like me, in the south of England (say), who see snow once every five years, they're overkill. I just need something that will...

It's almost as though there's a cost to installing electric charging infrastructure that must be recovered somewhere, from someone. As jaapv points out, the more electric vehicles there are, the more the cost can be spread, but early adopters inevitably pay a penalty. Be grateful you aren't in...

You should certainly be able to go without charging for 2/3 days. And with the PHEV you can run the battery down low without the range anxiety that you'd get with a pure EV. Technically, the charge does still reduce when the car isn't being used (to keep the electronics running, including the...