Electric cars

[1961_vintage]

Seems abit unfair to lose parking bays for ordinary cars for this 2 ton electric cars ;)

Exactly. Fair enough once these EV's have solar panel bodies and start contributing energy back into the grid when plugged-in and at rest. But until then....

 

[grunge]

They are currently just not as good or as practical as an internal combustion engine. There isn't a ev can that can realistically do over 400miles on a charge in real life conditions. Most cant do anywhere near 300. A friend of ours has a £90k audi electric e tron q4. It does significantly less than 175miles. My 10yr old Audi A6 does over 600 on a single tank at over 54mpg. It takes 5mins to fill. It's done over 150k mls doesnt depreciate really and is therefore massively cheaper to run than any ev car and much more convenient. Until ev cars can get near those stats they will always be second best in most people's eyes as they don't suit the majority of car users lifestyles and budgets. If and when they get there I will buy one.

A work colleague of mine regularly drives from Manchester to his 2nd home in central France and back in his Tesla with no problems. As well as back to Germany to visit his family.

 

[1961_vintage]

A work colleague of mine regularly drives from Manchester to his 2nd home in central France and back in his Tesla with no problems. As well as back to Germany to visit his family.

Tesla infra is definitely geared-up for this. Not sure about the rest.

 

[Blue Maverick]

The place where I work have banned the sales guys from ordering fully electric vehicles as company cars. Simply not practical. The four guys who do have them have all said they knew they had made a huge mistake after a week. Hybrid now for tax reasons is the policy.

Shirley hybrids are the best way, make the electric side upto 40 miles an hour then the normal engine kicks in, this would allow town driving “pollution” free. Then longer journeys on motorways you use normal engine, although these days going over 40 on a motorway is hard enough.

 

[bluevengence]

What if they put wire mesh up over the roads and a pole on the back of the car like at the fair.

 

[Blue Maverick]

I'm on the Octopus Intelligent EV tariff which varies the tariff overnight. The Octopus app controls the car charging, you tell the app what % you want to charge to and then what time you want it to be ready for and then it decides the charging schedule overnight.

0530-23:30 = 39.25p/kWh
23:30-0530 = 7.5p/kWh

The day rate is higher obviously but I never charge the car during the day and our daily home usage is otherwise irrelevant compared to the car. With the app you can however get peak charging priced at the off-peak rate if demand allows for it, the app does it all for you.

Model 3 RWD is 55kWh usable battery so 0-100% is 55 x 7.5p = £4.13 max, nobody charges from 0% so it's always far less.

As for public chargers most decent chargers will have off-peak rates too, the Tesla superchargers definitely do now.

Do you use a proper charger or is it off a normal plug? Obvoulsy one charges quicker than the other does it affect cost?

 

[Blue Maverick]

What if they put wire mesh up over the roads and a pole on the back of the car like at the fair.

Do you get your own pikey stood on your bumper as well

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Is EV insurance as expensive if you can even find it as this article suggests?

‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs

Drivers who ditched petrol and diesel to help save the planet face huge price rises in premiums

www.theguardian.com

 

[Fred_Quimby]

I'm guessing that you don't live in a flat or terraced house with no off street parking. In a perfect world, perfect solutions would work perfectly. As it is our urban infrastructure will never be able to live up to the demands of the 'all electric' war cry.
Only my opinion of course but I dare say people will be having the same argument in years to come when the hydrogen revolution is top of the pops.

I assume that you fill your ICE car up outside your house? Your car stands idle most of the day when you are working or shopping etc. It is getting much easier now to fill up in pubs, shopping centres, car parks etc so not charging at home is much less of a problem.

 

[PPT]

Is EV insurance as expensive if you can even find it as this article suggests?

‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs

Drivers who ditched petrol and diesel to help save the planet face huge price rises in premiums

www.theguardian.com

In the headlong rush to go electric the basics such as refuelling and repairing of the vehicles has been totally ignored.
You also need specialist fire equipment if they catch fire. For me an EV is simply more hassle and cost than it’s worth.