Are we being forced to go electric?

[Richard A Thackeray]

My LR has fuel burner, can be remotely controlled to defrost windscreen and provide a bit of heat in the car. I don’t bother as it’s hardly worth the effort. Heated windscreens and mirrors has it cleared in no time anyway! The only thing I’d never not have now is heated seats and front windscreen the rest is not important. Even the Merc we have can self park . Used it once and thought what a complete waste of money . Utter pointless unless your sh..t at parking. In which case stop driving

I considered one of those for my 110CSW, when l had that (a Webasto?)

 

[MrGrumpy]

I considered one of those for my 110CSW, when l had that (a Webasto?)

Yep a webasto , Think it’s standard on LR4

 

[cougie uk]

Fifth Gear Recharged was interesting last night . They tried out two electric vans . A VW and a Mercedes . The range of the VW on a full charge was 85 miles I think . When they filled the vans with washing machines the range was halved . I had a job as a parts delivery driver years ago and I was doing over 200 miles a day and that was without having to spend extra time refueling .

All the Amazon delivery vans in my area are Mercedes electric ones.
Amazon tend to know what they're doing.

 

[MrGrumpy]

All the Amazon delivery vans in my area are Mercedes electric ones.
Amazon tend to know what they're

Not spotted any in my area and their rather large hub is 6 miles up the road . DPD have one , a local delivery van other than that it’s white van man and they ain’t electric.

 

[midlife]

I think l’ve mentioned before in this thread that someone l know at work has just got an electric VW
I saw it again yesterday, for the first time since he got it

I believe it’s a ‘NHS Staff Lease Car’?

He’s not in the slightest bit precocious, but he did tell me that the most difficult decision on Wednesday, when it was frosty around here, was how long in advance should he set the heating to
It can be set remotely, apparently, so he could get into a warm car!

This is a lad, who had 400BHP Imprezas, a few years ago (& 1000cc superbikes(

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Our NHS Trust does both Tesla and VW ID3 electric vehicles on a salary sacrifice / lease type basis. I think the Tesla works out about £450 a month for a model 3. At my age I need my full salary as it's what my pension is based on lol

 

[icowden]

Fifth Gear Recharged was interesting last night . They tried out two electric vans . A VW and a Mercedes . The range of the VW on a full charge was 85 miles I think . When they filled the vans with washing machines the range was halved . I had a job as a parts delivery driver years ago and I was doing over 200 miles a day and that was without having to spend extra time refueling .

Haven't seen it but I am guessing they loaded an e-sprinter with washing machines, even though those are usually delivered by Luton sized vehicles due to the mass and then pretended to be surprised by the loss of range?

 

[CXRAndy]

Some good news

Tesla topped all new car sales in the UK for December.

Tesla is number 1 in Norway. When the model Y is readily available, there will be another surge in ownership.

Talk of the £25k baby Tesla is coming

 

[icowden]

You're describing taxis today. You ring up or order one online, it arrives and takes you where you want to go and you pay for the service. Except taxis have been around the entire time the car ownership has exploded.

For sure, there are arguments such as self driving can be cheaper (no driver to pay) and may become more saturated than taxis. But we shouldn't underestimate the desire to have your own self driving vehicle, parked on the drive. That desire isn't going to go away, people don't always consider personal transport in a logical, rational, cost/benefit approach

I totally agree, but once you eliminate the driver you eliminate a lot of the cost of a taxi, thus it becomes more appealing and owning your own car becomes much more of a luxury decision than a necessity, thus driving down ownership.

 

[icowden]

Tesla themselves also seem to be prepared to recall cars with potential faults (before accidents happen?)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59818800
Not sure why anyone really needs a rear camera in a car (not like a Tesla is a huge arctic with massive blind spots )
And why does anyone need to play games on a car's touchscreen?

Yes, Tesla are very proactive (usually). Almost all cars have rear cameras. In the Tesla's case I believe the rear camera forms part of the self drive array - the car needs to be able to see what is coming up behind, as much as it does what's in front to guide steering, lane changing and braking.

No-one *needs* to be able to play games on the touchscreen. Tesla isn't about providing a bog standard experience - it's about pushing the envelope so that a car journey becomes something different, and sustainable. The vision is for cars to drive themselves whilst passengers relax.

 

[Scottish Scrutineer]

He’s not in the slightest bit precocious, but he did tell me that the most difficult decision on Wednesday, when it was frosty around here, was how long in advance should he set the heating to
It can be set remotely, apparently, so he could get into a warm car!

This is a lad, who had 400BHP Imprezas, a few years ago (& 1000cc superbikes(

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I must say I quite like the iD3 in that colour, it looks smart. Most that I've seen have been grey/silver theme. I think that if we were looking at EVs now, the iD3 would be on the short list. There seems to be decent permutations of range/performance/costs.

 

[Scottish Scrutineer]

Some good news

Talk of the £25k baby Tesla is coming

That surely is where they need to be heading with their market. Sub-£28k, with a range of 200+miles to reduce the range anxiety that many perceive to be an issue, small enough to drive and park in towns.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Some good news

Tesla topped all new car sales in the UK for December.

Tesla is number 1 in Norway. When the model Y is readily available, there will be another surge in ownership.

Talk of the £25k baby Tesla is coming

Never been a huge fanboy of any car but geez
you take the Tesla Flag sh…. ger medal

Better grab these

 

[MrGrumpy]

That surely is where they need to be heading with their market. Sub-£28k, with a range of 200+miles to reduce the range anxiety that many perceive to be an issue, small enough to drive and park in towns.

£28k is a shed load of cash . Comes back once more to used car prices. What they going to look like in future, right now EVs are unaffordable for the many .

 

[Illaveago]

So we are going to have electric self drive vehicles which won't be employing anyone to drive them , not paying road tax , made in a factory which is mainly operated by robots and used by an online business which is hardly paying any tax !
So how is the economy going to run ?

 

[MrGrumpy]

It would seem that’s what some folk want !?