Electric cars

1961_vintage said:
I always wondered where those missing post office millions ended up.
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being ex-military he has obviously signed the OSA. When Mr Bates v the Post office was aired I asked him - not for the first time - about the Fujitsu role and he answered - not for the first time - he is not allowed to talk about it so you never know ............... Alan Bates' compo may well be on the roof in the house across the road from me
 
BimboBob said:
And for those people who don't have a driveway? Or can only afford a couple of grand on a car?
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That's where the infrastructure needs to find solutions to problems. However, there are plenty of public chargers out there and many workplaces offer their own.

The problem is that public infrastructure is too expensive and the government need to start regulating prices as they now do with fuel. It costs me £2.50 to charge to full at home but it's around 10 times more on a public charger. The charging companies are on the same electricity supply as me so it's pure profiteering.

If you can only throw a few grand on a car then either way you're going to be very limited anyway and obviously an EV won't be for you.
 
I'm waiting for all the good folk who bought tesla to save the planet to do the right thing and put them up for sale to show their new contempt for Elon. Should push prices through the floor with some bargains to be had.
 
inbetween said:
That's where the infrastructure needs to find solutions to problems. However, there are plenty of public chargers out there and many workplaces offer their own.

The problem is that public infrastructure is too expensive and the government need to start regulating prices as they now do with fuel. It costs me £2.50 to charge to full at home but it's around 10 times more on a public charger. The charging companies are on the same electricity supply as me so it's pure profiteering.

If you can only throw a few grand on a car then either way you're going to be very limited anyway and obviously an EV won't be for you.
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Worth saying most of the public charging is still a cheaper price to filling up with petrol/diesel.

I agree to incentivise it further it should be a lot cheaper though.
 
meltonblue said:
Worth saying most of the public charging is still a cheaper price to filling up with petrol/diesel.

I agree to incentivise it further it should be a lot cheaper though.
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If the will is there it can be done - look how quickly virgin ripped up nearly every pavement in the country in the 90s to get cable into urban homes.
 
halfmist said:
I have never researched the EV market so this may appear a really strange question to some. Is there a hybrid model available that when the battery is low the vehicle mode can be changed to petrol and some sort of dynamo mechanism kicks in and recharges the battery on the hoof so to speak.
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Self charging hybrid. I have one, 1.5 turbo petrol mated with a 110 Kw electric motor. Used only EV at low speeds, tandem ( petrol powering the electric) & parallel when needed at higher speeds.243 HP, means it has plenty of torque, (530 Nm combined) yet It’s very economical. It uses an energy recovery system to charge the battery when braking or going downhill. You never have to worry about running out of charge, the car automatically decides.
I did want a 100% EV, but I was on a budget, & I was realistically looking at least £10-£15k more for a big family car, maybe next time.
 
meltonblue said:
Worth saying most of the public charging is still a cheaper price to filling up with petrol/diesel.

I agree to incentivise it further it should be a lot cheaper though.
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Is it? A quick Google suggests EVs average about 4 mpkWh. Petrol costs 11p per mile for my self-charging hybrid, so public charge would need to be less than 44p pkWh to be cheaper than petrol.
Can you really get an EV charged reasonably quickly for 44p pkWh?
I toyed with the idea of a plug-in hybrid or full electric but live in a flat so can't have a home charging unit.
 
meltonblue said:
Worth saying most of the public charging is still a cheaper price to filling up with petrol/diesel.
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Is that true? Just a simple look at the numbers....

Public fast charging an 85Kwh battery to 100% is going to cost you around £70. That would give you around 250 miles.

Petrol fill-up for a 50 litre capacity ICE car will cost around £70 but that would give you double the miles.
 
1961_vintage said:
Is that true? Just a simple look at the numbers....

Public fast charging an 85Kwh battery to 100% is going to cost you around £70. That would give you around 250 miles.

Petrol fill-up for a 50 litre capacity ICE car will cost around £70 but that would give you double the miles.
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This is realistic. We bought a Skoda Enyaq 85x full electric with promise of 320 miles per charge. Absolute garbage. Lucky if we get 200 and long term range showing as 2.6 kWh. I used it for regular trips to Etihad, approx 280 mile round trip. Once you hit 80mph on motorway it pisses through electric. Cost me £65 in public charging for the journey. If I use my wife’s 1.2 Polo I can fill it for £55 and still have at least quarter of a tank when I get home.
 
East Level 2 said:
Is it? A quick Google suggests EVs average about 4 mpkWh. Petrol costs 11p per mile for my self-charging hybrid, so public charge would need to be less than 44p pkWh to be cheaper than petrol.
Can you really get an EV charged reasonably quickly for 44p pkWh?
I toyed with the idea of a plug-in hybrid or full electric but live in a flat so can't have a home charging unit.
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Depends where you charge it but before I had my home charger installed, I charged at a bp pulse station and the price was absolutely comparable to what I was paying in diesel for my old car (a VW golf). It was a lot cheaper than my wife’s car (admittedly a discovery sport!)

It’ll vary on how people use it though. To be clear though, I’d never advocate for someone to buy an electric if they don’t have home charging. I’m lucky in that I get subsidised charging at work too.
 
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Really_here said:
Been biking myself since the mid 70's and I 'only' have an old VFR800 these days but that's plenty fast enough for me. Some of the latest bikes are completely over the top with 200+ mph top speeds and prices wayyy over 30k with ridiculously over complex electronics and even 'downforce wings' now! There is a worrying decline in bike sales and most 'superbikes' are bought by older riders who from what I've seen spend most of the time posing to each other and never speed. Even those riders are now downsizing to smaller cheaper simpler machines. You're dead right it is bloody good fun and such a shame that youngsters these days will miss the fun I had growing up with bikes in the heady days of reasonablly cheap bikes and petrol, no cameras etc.
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Oh Yes. Those two strokes we leaned to ride on back in the day which provided us with such cheap thrills will never be experienced by new riders today. I started on a Yamaha RD200 in 1975, and I was blown away, almost literally, the first time I opened the throttle in first gear. When the rev needle hit 4,000 rpm, it was all systems go and it's probably impossible now to convey what 22 BHP could feel like back then.

I bought a Honda CB400F after passing my test in 1976, 37BHP, a four stroke that didn't have the zip of a 2 stroke, but it was so much fun with the way the power and gearbox worked together.

I bought a Kawasaki Ninja 1000SX 18 months ago. It wasn't because I wanted to pose and massage my ego with anyone, truth be told I largely avoid biker haunts due to too many fragile EGO's on bikes with stupid power, but for the simple reaon I had always bought middleweight bikes and as I was getting older, I thought I'd like to see what a powerful bike was like before I got too old to find out.

I'm pleased I found out what they are capable of, namely the relaxing way they can breeze past other vehicles on the road with minimal effort, but would I buy one again?

Probably not.

They are not as much fun as a middlweight bike, and fun is the whole point of biking.
 
Tesla model 3 business lease up in Sept. If you'd had asked a few months ago, I'd have been 95% sure I was getting another. Now that is at almost 0%.

Thinking something a bit bigger and definitely staying EV (next to no tax, free charging at work etc).

Kia EV3 & Skoda Elroq are the 2 I have seen so far. Anyone got one of these?
 
Thaksins Love Child said:
Tesla model 3 business lease up in Sept. If you'd had asked a few months ago, I'd have been 95% sure I was getting another. Now that is at almost 0%.

Thinking something a bit bigger and definitely staying EV (next to no tax, free charging at work etc).

Kia EV3 & Skoda Elroq are the 2 I have seen so far. Anyone got one of these?
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I hope when you hand it back you tell them why.
 
Looks like the build quality of Chinese EV's is not all that great. I haven't seen shutlines like that since they stopped production of the allegro!!
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If EV cars are so great, why is the government having to force people to buy them? 1 in 10 private new private car purchases was an EV last year. They are not popular.
 
Churchlawtonblue said:
If EV cars are so great, why is the government having to force people to buy them? 1 in 10 private new private car purchases was an EV last year. They are not popular.
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Nothing wrong with the cars, other than the range. However many people live in flats or in houses without private parking, and the public charging infrastructure is crap and expensive.
My hybrid averages 60 mpg which currently works out at 10p/mile. A quick Google suggests a typical EV will do 4 miles per kWh but many public chargers are significantly more expensive than 40p/kWh, particularly fast chargers.
There's also the possibility of hydrogen powered cars with ranges in excess of 1,000 miles and quick re-charging on the horizon, however there's only the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo available in the UK at present (with lower ranges), and there are very few refuelling sites.
 
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