Electric Cars: What They Really Mean For You.......on Bbc 1

[ToraToraTora]

anyone watching? .........it's not really viable yet as far as I can see. Main problems are infrastructure, ie street charging. Long journeys are a nightmare,one guy had to pay £50 set up costs to 3 different suppliers just to get home in 10 hours! Giles Coren was featured he wrote a column for the times:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-ive-pulled-the-plug-on-my-electric-car-dwgs9l9hl
....so a way to go methinks.

[New Judge]

My view is outlined in my final answer to this question, Tora:

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1844396.html

[1581960]

One electric car in a two car family (there's an awful lot of those) could be ok for most of those families. Other than that they are only for people who never do long journeys.

[jourdain2]

Of course it's not viable - and won't be for a long time yet. I.m.o. the politicians are all frantically treading water and holding to expected party lines whilst they know that it is not feasible to expect EVs to go anywhere near normal motoring. They have their fingers crossed.

I wrote that we simply couldn't afford one (nor are there any charging points within 10 miles and then there are only 2 and 1 is out of order) and someone - I think it was Zacs-Master said that he and his wife had bought reasonably priced e-cars.

Well my 'new' car cost me £2,000 to move up to paying £6,000 for a 10 year old one and cashing in my last one for £4,000. I haven't seen a reasonably new E.V. for less than £15K and that is just way, way out. Not do-able and no public transport. No way on this Earth that we could pay that. Even then it would have an almost exhausted battery.
Money would be better spent in preparing for warmer temperatures, quite frankly. It was about as warm in Roman times. We have emerged from the mini-ice-age of the 19th Century, that's all - though it behoves us to save energy, recycle etc. - of which I am an energetic pursuer.

The whole thing is lunacy. A luxury for the elite.;

[barry1010]

I watched that and was shocked when that chap said he had to 3 x £50 to charge his car at three different chargers.

He didn't lie but he wasn't exactly truthful either. I've looked in to this and the system is no different to using a credit or debit card at a pay at the pump petrol/ diesel station.

"When you insert or tap your card at a self -service pump, your bank will temporarily reserve an amount from your available balance while you fill up. This could be up to £120."

So he didn't really pay anything for his failed attempts to charge the car.

The company adapting old classic vehicle to electric ammoyed me too. He banged on about the weight of the petrol engine compared to the much lighter electric motor but didn't mention the weight of the batteries.
He charges £28k to convert your old Beetle to electric so it is not a cheaper option.

I won't be buying an electric car anytime soon

[JimF]

I'm quite lucky in that the place I live has a private carpark for residents with enough chargers for everyone - so far! I park up, plug in, and set the charger to charge from midnight to 8am. Then I simply unplug and park in a bay which doesn't have a charger. And, on the increasingly rare occasion that I need to travel further than the approximately 300 miles that a full charge allows me, I use ZapMap to plan my journey and the stop(s) I need to use.

This used to be quite a challenge, but it really does get easier and easier every time, as more and more rapid chargers seem to be being installed all the time.

[ToraToraTora]

then there was the guy who turned up at a motorway service station with 10 chargers.....with 40 people waiting! Oops!

[JimF]

Yep, I saw that, but I can only call it like I see it. Maybe I've been extremely fortunate...

[barry1010]

That long queue isn't the norm for ev owners, though, and they were laughing when they drove past the very long queues at the petrol pumps recently.

[ToraToraTora]

well yes barry perhaps on the odd occasion the poor saps get a laugh but at the motorway services I often see the banks of teslas queuing for a charger as i roar past in the Jaaag! Love it!

[mushroom25]

on a friend's recent trip to scotland, he pulled into a service area on the M6 to find only 1 non-Tesla charger working, and occupied by a guy whose car was charged to 80%, and would be hanging on for the extra hour to get to 100%. after he'd gone, friend calculated he could easily get to service area x on 80%, so charged up, and set off. when he arrived at x, he found the same guy as before, again hanging on for the extra hour to get the charge to 100%.......

[10ClarionSt]

Didn't watch it, except for a small part where Giles Coren met "our Climate Change Correspondent". The whole thing is another attempt to brainwash and condition everyone into the mindset of catastrophic climate change, and thereby grab your money.

[bhg481]

Oh dear:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12338705/One-sailor-dead-23-evacuated-burning-18-500-tonne-cargo-ship-carrying-3-000-cars-North-Sea-Holland-electric-vehicle-caught-fire.html

[JimF]

Mushroom, charging past 80% is seriously frowned upon by EV users for exactly the reasons you mention. The last 20% charges significantly more slowly than under 20% because of the heat generated. Routes planned with ZapMap assume by default that you will charge up to 80% and will be looking for your next rapid charge when your battery has run down to about 10%.

[douglas9401]

My god! The ecomentalists and wide geezers already have a code of conduct in place.

[DTCwordfan]

Not withstanding the 13 pecent of tricity imported and no idea of what the source was, 40 pecent of the UK's tricity came from carbon fuels and it ain't even cold yet...... electric cars are just pushing the emissions problem up the line and out of sight.

Then there's all the energy and pollutants that have been spent in building the current, no pun intended, hydrocarbon-fuel network and the cars - all to be discarded cum 2030 onwards....if....

If the 2030 restraints on new sales do not take place. THe EEC, lobbied by the Germans, has already backed off. sunak is being a tit in that he doesn't want to be seen doing 'a Beer Warmer' of a u-Turn but it's so myopic, the future being hydrocarbon fuels made from the air - and no pipedream as the first large project for this @ 150k litres growing rapidly towards 550mln litres a year has opened in Chile and @ $.75/litre which is in striking range of refinery diesel and gas which are $.64/litre net of taxes/duties/retail margins.... I've written about this topic before in take CO2 from the air, react it with green or white H2 and loads of tricity from hydro or wind and, bingo, make a methanol molecule and synthesise up to Mogas, aka petrol, or diesel/kerosine and, in doing so, the CO2 is locked into a sink from the moment that its sucked into the plant to the tailpipe of the car. This is the future with H2 as well - and the cost shoulf fall with scale-up and the learning curve.....

[DTCwordfan]

https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2022/company/porsche-highly-innovative-fuels-hif-opening-efuels-pilot-plant-haru-oni-chile-synthetic-fuels-30732.html

[DTCwordfan]

https://press.porsche.co.uk/prod/presse_pag/PressResources.nsf/Content?ReadForm&languageversionid=1161389&mode=edit

[New Judge]

//Mushroom, charging past 80% is seriously frowned upon by EV users for exactly the reasons you mention. The last 20% charges significantly more slowly than under 20% because of the heat generated.//

Then that's an immediate and ridiculous drawback. I take it that the range figures which manufacturers quote is that from a full charge. Why on Earth would I only fill my tank 80% full when on a long drive and I know I am going to need more fuel. EV technology gets worse the more I hear of it.

[bhg481]

One of the reasons they give for only charging to 80% is that it is less damaging to battery life. Most people buying EVs will only keep them for a year or two, so why would they bother about battery file? It's the poor souls buying them a few years old that will suffer.

[david small]

This will end in tears and disappointment.