I am giving in.

[Drago]

Mrs D does alright. All her weekly motoring is on electric power. When she goes to see her family at the weekend she can just about make the 37 miles to their house on battery power, and then just uses the petrol engine to drive home.

Indeed, since she got it just before christmas it has avaeraged almost 142MPG. The Leaf only manages about 125MPGe, so why bother?

 

[cougie uk]

So every time he goes to his dads house he gets free fuel from his dad.
I’d be annoyed if people turned up at my house and expected free electric top ups. imagine turning up and asking for a Gerry can of unleaded.

If he's got a 25kwh battery and charging from flat to full it's probably costing all of £3.50.

I'd slip my dad a fiver and he can keep the change.

Dunno about your parents but mine can't do enough for me. I come home laden with stuff like Crackerjack.
The odd bit of electrickery us neither here nor there.

 

[Landsurfer]

I'm with Drago .... if you have to plug it in to make it work .... it won't work .... hybrids are the future ... plug in's are a user of Generation Power ... which will never be green .... or clean .... or save the planet ...
I'm expecting Boris to come on tv next week and tell us that wearing a mask while charging our electric car will save us from C-19 ... anything is possible ...

 

[Beebo]

If he's got a 25kwh battery and charging from flat to full it's probably costing all of £3.50.

I'd slip my dad a fiver and he can keep the change.

Dunno about your parents but mine can't do enough for me. I come home laden with stuff like Crackerjack.
The odd bit of electrickery us neither here nor there.

My parents wouldn’t care, but it’s a bit cheeky expecting to charge your car at someone’s house.

 

[Salad Dodger]

My diesel Peugeot suits me very well at the moment. I don't do many miles, but I do carry a lot of music gear around from time to time, and it's a very useful car for taking stuff to the tip, or for bulk buying logs for the fire.
If the car lasts another 6 or 7 years I will be 70 by then, and probably content to have a small electric car to poddle about in. I guess that, by then, I won't want to drive long distances anyway.....

 

[roubaixtuesday]

So in other words it’s useless, I’ve been in a courtesy car this week as the van is kaput, again, in seven days I’ve put 860 miles on it, the majority of which has been on the motorway at 70 mph, it would have spent more time charging then being driven, I’ve filled up twice with petrol, at 55 mph I wouldn’t get any jobs done.

Latest electrics have a range of 200+ miles and recharge in as little as 40 minutes on super chargers. At that point, the issue isn't range any more.

 

[snorri]

Just a thought, not making any particular points but there have been many changes in private cars, fuel, technology, costs, in the two years since this thread started!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Latest electrics have a range of 200+ miles and recharge in as little as 40 minutes on super chargers. At that point, the issue isn't range any more.

The issue is price, also I'm still not convinced that changing our 13 year diesel that only does >5K a year is doing more damage to the planet than buying a new Electric

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I wonder if electric cars are like bikes? My e-bike has a stated range of 60 miles. In reality I've never got more than 40 out of it. Depending on terrain, it can be as little as 20 (hard ride home that day). For anything up to 20 miles on flattish terrain it's the dogs dangles as you can relax, take your eye off the gauge and just let it do it's thing. I'd imagine it might be just as stressful in a car with whatever stated range. Firstly, it won't get that range. Secondly, terrain will impact things greatly. Thirdly, running heating, lights, demister, air-conditioning will all draw power. So will you drive around with one eye on the gauge all the time?

 

[MontyVeda]

So every time he goes to his dads house he gets free fuel from his dad.
I’d be annoyed if people turned up at my house and expected free electric top ups. imagine turning up and asking for a Gerry can of unleaded.

No... he stops for half an hour each way because one charge won't cover the 100 mile journey. By sounds of the 'screws' at his dad's home, he'd be lucky to charge his phone there!

 

[MontyVeda]

I wonder if electric cars are like bikes? My e-bike has a stated range of 60 miles. In reality I've never got more than 40 out of it. Depending on terrain, it can be as little as 20 (hard ride home that day). For anything up to 20 miles on flattish terrain it's the dogs dangles as you can relax, take your eye off the gauge and just let it do it's thing. I'd imagine it might be just as stressful in a car with whatever stated range. Firstly, it won't get that range. Secondly, terrain will impact things greatly. Thirdly, running heating, lights, demister, air-conditioning will all draw power. So will you drive around with one eye on the gauge all the time?

Pretty much. In the middle of winter when you're low on charge, turning off the heater is going to make a difference to your available range... which isn't ideal.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A mass switch to electric vehicles would be an environmental disaster. Really we ought to be collectively moving away from private car ownership.

 

[Beebo]

A mass switch to electric vehicles would be an environmental disaster. Really we ought to be collectively moving away from private car ownership.

That will happen when cars become self drive

 

[Drago]

A mass switch will simply never happen. There aren't wnough rare earth metals to manufacturer enough electric motors, batteries and electronics to replace every ICE car with an electric one. 10-15% is the most optimistic estimate, and once cars are reserved for emergency and essential services there will be very few left for the public to buy.

Even worse, the Chinese control the lions share of it, so without some major geopolitcal upheavel the 10 to 15% of car numbers will likely be very optimistic.

People need to get used to the idea that the days of personal car ownership are simply numbered, and they can duck, dive and dodge all they want with talk of electrification, but for most of us its going to be public transport or bicycles. Most of us here are ahead of that curve. Even so, some people will kick and scream all the way, as if that will somehow delay the inevitable. I'm going with the flow - when my car expires i'll finally stop doing the SAR work and won't replace it, and ill be living the dream.

 

[DRM]

I wonder if electric cars are like bikes? My e-bike has a stated range of 60 miles. In reality I've never got more than 40 out of it. Depending on terrain, it can be as little as 20 (hard ride home that day). For anything up to 20 miles on flattish terrain it's the dogs dangles as you can relax, take your eye off the gauge and just let it do it's thing. I'd imagine it might be just as stressful in a car with whatever stated range. Firstly, it won't get that range. Secondly, terrain will impact things greatly. Thirdly, running heating, lights, demister, air-conditioning will all draw power. So will you drive around with one eye on the gauge all the time?

You've nailed it, plus in my experience replacement battery packs (48v) for a pedestrian electric fork truck is £12,000, so the car soon becomes a write off, then for business use you can't just rock up at a job & expect to plug your car/van in, also we don't generate enough elastictrickery to charge all these electric vehicles.