Electric Vehicles - the truth about, Channel 4

[Corn Master]

More people are moving away from gas - new builds, rental properties, ovens and hobs, even home heating

Wood pellet if you can afford the infrastructure. Prestige properties normally have this

 

[Warden]

@Warden How does winter affect the mileage with lights, heater, etc on more... also low temps affect the batteries,as cold batteries are much less efficient

All fair and valid points, I can only speak from my situation 50 years ago I could have told you to the "Nth" degree everything you could possibly want to know about a cars performance 'today I press a button ,it starts ,press it again it stops, if I manage not to harm myself or anyone else in between that's a win, lol. like all cars how you drive it increases or decreases the mileage range I do not go out to much in the dark or the cold for that matter, my car tells you the mileage range based on your past driving and after charging is often 15 miles or so more than the stated range that is advertised, I am sure the above mentioned must lower that range unless I am going somewhere away from home the next day I usually wait till the range is 50/60 miles then just plug it in at night 174ish miles on clock next morning all at off peak charging, I have had three holidays since I got it and with the consent of the places I have stayed have used my trickle charger to top up while there,"3 pin plug" some I know have gone from London to Scotland but I di not have that sort of confidence in the network of chargers yet. I think the range will become more in tune with petrol cars in the not to distant future.

 

[Warden]

I don't think I could afford one. Where does that leave me and others like me.
Also. If electricity is going to power the future. Why has my electricity doubled in price?

TBH there is an initial layout to go from petrol to electric we had just received a small inheritance which just about covered it (MIL. god bless her soul) they will become more in line as more manufacturers have to compete with each other in the market (I have a MG) we have a fixed tariff with one of the big suppliers so have not seen any increase yet,
I calculated even on our lowish mileage we would be better off within a few years higher mileage would be sooner. the electric price increases affect everything whether petrol or electric. hopefully the government will give help as the switch becomes closer.

 

[RedhillPhil]

I don't think I could afford one. Where does that leave me and others like me.
Also. If electricity is going to power the future. Why has my electricity doubled in price?

"Why has my......"
Because you - like all of us - are paying for the rush to renewables. If the country had ignored the naysayers and prophets of doom in the 1970s we could be enjoying cheap clean nuclear power supplied electrickery.
But they listened to the dreamers.

 

[Arry]

"Why has my......"
Because you - like all of us - are paying for the rush to renewables. If the country had ignored the naysayers and prophets of doom in the 1970s we could be enjoying cheap clean nuclear power supplied electrickery.
But they listened to the dreamers.

The problem with nuclear energy is where to store or dispose of spent fuel rods... otherwise you are just storing trouble up for the future, the half life on a spent fuel rod is summat ridiculous like 20,000 years... there is no such thing as clean energy at the mo... there is always a cost somewhere down the line...
There are options, wind, solar, hydro, which is free other than the cost to develop install & maintain. But vast tracts of area and tech are needed to produce power needed

 

[tipitinmick]

Ultimately the life span of diesel vehicles will determine the supply of diesel I'd have thought.
If all manufacturers stopped producing diesel vehicles today, in 10-15 years time they would all be scrapped or heading that way and if the only alternative was EV then within 10-15 years they'd be the norm, however they'd also have to phase out petrol.

The cost of electric vehicles however is still prohibitive for many, new and used vehicles cost much more than the equivalent diesel/petrol models and that will slow down the uptake.

I’m 54. If I buy a new van in late 2029 I’ll be 62. If that van lasts me 13 years ( which this one has ) then I’ll be 75. That’ll do me then. That’s providing I can get another 8 years out of this one. Dave mate. I think I’m tighter than you.

 

[tipitinmick]

'It's difficult' EV owner 'issues' as mechanics 'don't know how to work electric vehicles'

CAMPAIGNERS are concerned about the number of mechanics who are trained to work on electric and hybrid vehicles.

www.express.co.uk

When I took my van in for its MOT in September a guy in a hybrid pulls up and says to the garage owner ….. “ Can I book my car in for a service please ? “ Garage owner ….. “ we don’t touch hybrids pal “ Guy says ….. “ I’m finding it hard to find anyone other than Toyota to touch it and they are proper ripping me off “. Garage owner simply shrugged his shoulders and said … “ sorry mate “. So with that I said to one of the garages mechanics …. “ you’ll be working on electric cars one day I guess ? “ He said ….. I’ve trained to be a mechanic not a auto electrician. If that day comes in my lifetime I’ll go get a job a Tesco’s “. . I’m thinking mechanics aren’t over enthusiastic about milk floats.

 

[Fireblade929]

What nobody tells you when you buy an electric car | Hagerty UK

Buying an electric car isn't straightforward. This is what James Mills wishes he knew before taking the plug-in plunge…

www.hagerty.co.uk

 

[rudd]

as possibly the only poster (so far) who actually has one have to say cannot fault it ,yes the public charging system needs some serious additions to their numbers (I have a home charger in my garage) costs about £3.50 a charge needs charging twice a week (overnight) against £50/60 per week on diesel maybe more now have not bought any for quite a while, my wife only the other day said we seem to have a lot of money in our current account since we got the Electric car,£300 to £400 a year against £3000+ a year on diesel the mileage range I can see would be problematic for some users for me its not and it is improving each year there is a newer version of my car that does 100 miles more per charge, servicing costs are less no road tax (at the moment) As I have said before they are not for everybody (yet) but very few people that have them say they prefer the ICE ones.

Have you considered what happens when you get stuck in a traffic jam in the winter?
Heater on, lights on, radio on.
How long before flat battery happens - and to all the other electric cars in jam, now causing a bigger jam?

 

[rudd]

Because of demand... more demand draws higher prices... which is why I asked the question, how are countries going to produce the power needed...???

I can see in the future electric bills being on a par with fossil fuel prices if a better electricity infrastructure is not developed

The Sun per day puts out more power than the whole earth can use in a year.
Theres an awfull lot of empty desert around the world which could be utilised for solar farms or new technology utilising steam turbines driven by the sun.

 

[Arry]

The Sun per day puts out more power than the whole earth can use in a year.
Theres an awfull lot of empty desert around the world which could be utilised for solar farms or new technology utilising steam turbines driven by the sun.

Just needs someone to buy the real estate and fund the building of the plant

 

[Fireblade929]

Have you considered what happens when you get stuck in a traffic jam in the winter?
Heater on, lights on, radio on.
How long before flat battery happens - and to all the other electric cars in jam, now causing a bigger jam?

Shoppers stuck in 3 HOUR queue after Tesla runs out of battery on Westfield ramp

SHOPPERS were left furious after a Tesla ran out of battery at the exit of the carpark at Westfield. The car caused three hour tailbacks, with drivers stuck on the narrow sloped spiral exit ramp at…

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[rudd]

So why have we got more demand on electricity now than say last year or the year before that or the year before that.
Purely because people are driving around in electric cars? Or because the population has increased in this country and more people are using it, Brexit or some

Because EU signed up to clean the world and shut down all the coal powered power stations.
Wind power / hydro power only works when theres wind and even then has to stop if there is to much.
Nuclear power stqtions being built but will take years to come on line.
Solar power is way forward, stop wasting money elsewhere and give every household in UK solar power on their roof
Build massive solar farms in the deserts.

 

[rudd]

Just needs someone to buy the real estate and fund the building of the plant

Easy that.
The Arab nations who supply oil have the land to build on and can self finance using their billions made in oil revenue.
Investing in their own future and the demise of their current revenue lines.

 

[rudd]

I do wonder what todays super sized container vessels that move over 90% of goods and world trade all over our globe will run on in the future?
Currently disel - and an awfull lot of it!

May invest my pension in the sail making business!

 

[Warden]

Have you considered what happens when you get stuck in a traffic jam in the winter?
Heater on, lights on, radio on.
How long before flat battery happens - and to all the other electric cars in jam, now causing a bigger jam?

Yeah like the one that shut theM1 last week for hours because of a diesel spillage the lights I believe run off a separate battery and I imagine would last day's I. could live without heating but if it did breakdown the AA is part of the service package so in effect no different to any car needing assistance.
There used to be a saying you can see the fuel gauge going down on some cars some people seem to think it's like this in winter in an electric car not so entering second winter and been in a few big jams never been a problem.

 

[RMNDIL]

Just bought a new car and it's a nice 'clean' diesel. There's no way i'm having a PHEV when going the 520 mile round trip to Durham. Sure the PHEV was actually a bit cheaper but no AWD option anyway. My sister really fancied a Hybrid (low emission zone, 'congestion' charge, call it what you like etc coming her way soon) but could not find any garage even remotely close which would service & maintain it.

Things have to improve a LOT yet. I'll look again in 3 more years and see. We might even have some chargers somewhere which actually work and don't need a 1/2 hour queue to even start using them.

Power cuts in the future will be interesting.

 

[Dave]

Power cuts in the future will be interesting.

That is a point - can you imagine what it would have been like in 70's/80's when the unions would literally pull the plug at every dispute, when candles were a necessity on the weekly shopping list, when you couldn't guarantee the lights would stay on and had to rely on coal fires to get through the winter disputes.

It'd be alright with the roads full of electric cars needing charging, it was bad enough a few months back when the petrol supplies were supposedly going to run out (well according to the msm anyway)

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Because EU signed up to clean the world and shut down all the coal powered power stations.
Wind power / hydro power only works when theres wind and even then has to stop if there is to much.
Nuclear power stqtions being built but will take years to come on line.
Solar power is way forward, stop wasting money elsewhere and give every household in UK solar power on their roof
Build massive solar farms in the deserts.

I though France had recommissioned a few coal fired power stations recently.

 

[Arry]

Just read an interesting article in the FT... apparently scientists are close to developing a nuclear fusion reactor with the first working power station by 2030... could be a game changer