Petrol head thinks future is electric
I read with interest that middle aged men are the most unlikely to want to drive an electric car. There is one main reason for this. They have never driven one.
As an elderly petrol head no one was getting me into an overgrown milk float. I love the burble and power of my 5.7 litre V8. Then I made the mistake of actually driving one.
Wow. Peak torque the moment
Faulty airbags
The airbag is a fake issue intended to make this Government look good. It imposes a huge and silly cost purely for the sake of making it look like Labour is dealing with a situation that for four years has been dealt with on a voluntary basis and achieved a 35 per cent level of repairs to date. There’s no rush. No one in New Zealand has been hurt.
The facts are, 100 million defective airbags have been produced, resulting in 23 deaths and
230 injuries. The chance of death:
0.00000023, chance of injury is
0.0000023. There must be a thousand more likely ways of dying or being injured. Bald tyres would be much more likely to cause death or injury. This fact has not escaped the attention of the tyre business.
The situation was being managed perfectly sensibly by National. The real airbag problem is in government.
Tony Keegan, Remuera.
Free-to-air TV
My wife and I should have known better. Responding to the hype on TV One that extolled the wonderful coverage they would be giving to the Commonwealth Games, we tuned in and settled down in front of the TV. To our horror the events were punctuated incessantly by tacky commercials and promos. One broadcast that lasted 5.07 mins was followed by a commercial break of 4.02 mins. Yes, free-to-air TV has to be paid for but this is exploitation of the motor starts turning. A heavy battery pack under the floor which lowers the C of G and moves it to the centre of the car so that it goes around corners like it is on rails. An absolute delight to drive.
The sweet spot at the moment is the hybrid which gives the best of both worlds. No range anxiety and around 3.5 litres per 100km. I think the next hybrid will be a battery, super capacitor hybrid. Super
gullible viewers to maximise profits. We fled back to Netflix.
Dr John Reynolds, Torbay.
Gang leaders
I was pleased to read the article about Toko Kopu. I have met several gang presidents over 26 years of visiting men in prison, and Toko is one of them. All of these men are natural leaders, charismatic, intelligent, and very articulate. Those of “lock ’em up and throw away the key” persuasion have no idea of the potential for good of these men.
There can be no doubt about their offending, but there is also no doubt about how their lives can be transformed in prison, and in Toko’s case before prison, through the influence of his wife. With others, I am presently visiting a former Black Power president who recently remarked that it was hate and anger that got him into prison, but love will get him out. I believe him, and am very encouraged to see him progressing on his journey of recovery.
John Newick, Swanson.
Fuel tax
There is an old saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”. The fuel tax alongside the cancelling of road projects and the pending lowering of the speed limit on open roads makes me regret voting for change. I forgive you Bill and National. Please come back and save us from this overt attack on the Kiwi motorist. Kent Millar, Blockhouse Bay. capacitors recharge in under 30 seconds but have limited range.
With the first nuclear fusion power station due to go operational in 2025 hydrogen will then be produced cleanly and cheaply by passing an electric current through seawater. This will be driven by the aviation industry which can power aircraft with hydrogen.
Whatever produces the electricity, the future is electric.
Prison numbers
Your correspondent Alan Wilson was “just asking” if higher prison numbers were the cause of a drop in crime.
Well, it seems the science adviser to the past three Prime Ministers, Sir Peter Gluckman, has just answered: No.
To quote his report, “It is well established that incarceration rates are predominantly independent of crime rates.”
Iain Butler, Narrow Neck.
National did it
The proposal to increase fuel tax nationwide is virtually the same as the National Government have been doing ( just quietly) over the last nine years, putting up petrol by either 2c or 3c a year for most years they were in power.
When they abruptly put up GST, after saying they wouldn’t, we not only had to pay extra for fuel but also for the cup of tea and consequent bed to lie down on.
Fiona Edgar, Henderson.
Abortion law
Terry Bellamak wants abortion law reformed to remove the “absurdity” of the legal grounds. After all, “Any reason for abortion is a good reason.” Bellamak is careful not to mention the embryo, not even once.
Immersed in this denial, she may not notice the absurdity of a legal system in which a river can be a person while a human embryo is not. Gavan O’Farrell, Lower Hutt.