Are we being forced to go electric?

[icowden]

Do you always buy brand new ? That's a huge cost there then.

To be fair to @vickster the second hand EV market is both limited and expensive at the moment compared to the second hand ICE market. There's also probably a higher level of worry due to the repeated mantras that somehow the battery is going to stop working as soon as a car is second hand.

 

[vickster]

If I can get a new car with fully warranty for say 30k, but a year or two old used for 27k say, I'd go new.
I expect if I am in the market for a new car in 5 years say, I may well go electric (if there's something appealing)... if I needed to in a year, probably not

 

[Cerdic]

Just like the early combustion engine vehicles. Didn't stop those being made and sold by the millions

Well I was talking about battery life. EVs haven’t been sold in reasonable numbers for very long. It will be a while before the average person will be confidant buying an older EV because his mate Dave has a twelve year old Leaf and his batteries are still good.

The analogy with early internal combustion powered cars doesn’t really hold up; their competition was the horse! Even then, it was still forty-odd years before ‘ordinary’ people started having cars.

EVs should be an easier sell because people are already using something very similar! EVs are simpler to drive, cheaper to run and maintain, ranges before recharging are much better now, and the recharging network is starting to be very visible giving more confidence to the worriers.

The big thing holding back sales, in my view, is the initial purchase price. Even a Fiat 500 is thirty grand! That’s insane money! The Chinese can make a little city commuter for £4000.

 

[lazybloke]

Anyone got more than one EV charger at home ? Son No1 is looking at a new car an EV . Thinking ahead , that’s going to be a PITA if more than one wants to use the charger ?

Get a 2nd fast charging point fitted. A typical domestic supply can cope with 3 of these being used simultaneously.
Feel free to subsidise your son's motoring costs if you wish - but better if he factors in the charger installation costs when he budgets to purchase his EV.

Or he could save money and trickle-charge from any 13amp socket. It's a simple and quick DIY job to fit a waterproof 13amp box on the outside of a house - Amazon sell them as extension leads, so no need to involve an electrician.

Otherwise, I imagine there are EV owners who have no driveway or dedicated parking space, and cope by using public chargers.




Or, simply share the existing charger at home. Stepping outside the front door to swap charging cables doesn't sound onerous.

 

[Scottish Scrutineer]

I had a look at current EVs...not one of them appealed to me in terms of practicality or more importantly aesthetics! They're all huge, fugly or both!! Once there is a small, good looking estate with decent range at a sensible price, I may consider!

My friend has just ordered a MG EV5 which is an estate with 200+miles. I haven't seen it yet but his comment was large enough boot for golf clubs etc

 

[Scottish Scrutineer]

Yes, they have the SUV one over the road, it’s a big car for one person.
I expect the Focus has got bigger since I had one. I couldn't fit anything wider or longer than the Skoda on my drive and I don’t believe in parking on the street when I have a driveway. Is there an electric Focus estate that size...not a hatchback? Those dimesions are longer and wider than the Skoda estate. According to the Ford UK site there's no electric Focus yet anyhow (only a mild hybrid whatever that is)

https://www.ford.co.uk/cars/puma
EV, about Focus size, but an SUV. BTH Estates are very much a niche segment these days

 

[vickster]

https://www.ford.co.uk/cars/puma
EV, about Focus size, but an SUV. BTH Estates are very much a niche segment these days

So I'll be sticking with ICE for now (until the market sees the error of its ways )

 

[Electric_Andy]

I watch a Youtube guy called ChrisFix. He made a video about reconditioning a Prius (hybrid?) battery. I'm sure it would be a similar task on any EV, would just depend on whether you can get hold of the correct battery pack from a crashed car or something, or if you're willing to buy new battery internals (if that's a thing). I suspect that this sort of job is not well known throughout our network of privateer garages but in time it might be run of the mill stuff. It certianly doesn't look as labour intensive or tech-dependant as replacing a modern ICE.

View: https://youtu.be/Q3RCdrh666w

 

[MrGrumpy]

Get a 2nd fast charging point fitted. A typical domestic supply can cope with 3 of these being used simultaneously.
Feel free to subsidise your son's motoring costs if you wish - but better if he factors in the charger installation costs when he budgets to purchase his EV.

what makes you think I’m paying ! Believe me I ain’t a cash cow ! If he does indeed go ahead it’s his cost to bare . However I’m trying my best to convince him not too !

 

[gzoom]

If your car is so fast and heavy why is it much easier on brakes than the equivalent petrol car?

I know nothing about Electric vehicles as my interests lie firmly with old classic stuff so I'm not trying to be argumentative. I assume this car of yours is quite expensive to buy in the first place?

As others have said its because most of the slowing down is done by the motor as it uses the kinetic energy to recharge the battery. Actually if driven 'sensibly' the brake pads/discs on any EV can last 100K miles, but equally even just a half a dozen hard stops from high speeds will be enough to wear out the brake pads on modern SUVs.

The other surprising thing is how good traction control systems are on EVs. I use to get through a set of tyres quite easily on a higher powered combustion car after 10-15K, with our current EV tyres are lasting 25K+ miles. I think its because its actually very hard to get wheel spin in an EV with a decent traction control system.

Cost of our car was high, but thats not different from any other higher performance combustion cars. All 'fast' fully sized SUVs seem to start at around £70K these days regardless of powertrain .

 

[fossyant]

Which car survey shows leccy cars almost twice as likely to break down, and Tesla's being the worse. Apparently things like motors and batteries are good, but the software is an issue.

 

[icowden]

Which car survey shows leccy cars almost twice as likely to break down, and Tesla's being the worse. Apparently things like motors and batteries are good, but the software is an issue.

I think it's either a flawed survey (although a link to it would be useful) or you have misinterpreted relaibility as "breaks down". EVs have very little that can break down and seldom do. Breakdowns will usually be due to tyres (punctures). Reliability on the other hand is different. It's well known that Tesla have issues with quality control and minor fixes being needed. But they still seem to rate the highest for satisfaction...

 

[fossyant]

OK break down, as "not going" - twice as likely to 'not work'. Survey is in the press. Tesla being worse out of all leccy models. Software seems to be a big issue.

It's why JRL cars are crap, they 'break' too often. God, an electric JRL car will be a nightmare.

 

[Alex321]

This is the Which press release of the survey
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2022/0...-suv-you-can-buy-is-electric-and-made-by-kia/

One thing to note though in the accompanying text is that they say the results are heavily influenced by Tesla being by far the most unreliable, but also the most popular - accounting for a quarter of all Electric cars.

 

[Deleted User]

Not that it really matters to me but, if you want an electric car then have one and if you don't, well don't.

Why argue the t*ss if you're not interested in owning one?