To think Electric cars just aren’t practical yet?

[Youngatheart00]

Car is due for replacement (4 year PCP cycle) this autumn.

I love the idea of getting an electric vehicle in theory, I’m trying to make clean choices and also worry about the future value / obsolescence of petrol cars as I’m hearing more and more about manufacturers going electric only well within the next decade.

But our home is a Victorian terrace with no parking. More often than not we are not even parked outside our own home. There isn’t charging infrastructure at most petrol stations. I see some at motorway service stations but clearly it’s not practical to go there each time you need a charge (and there is a greater cost I think?)

I’m drawing the conclusion I’m going to have to go for another petrol vehicle and revisit at the end of the next 4 year cycle, when I’m hoping the electric car infrastructure will be much better developed.

I’ve thought about a hybrid but models from my preferred manufacturers seem limited (and v expensive) and I’m concerned about power as I do like a bit of ‘oomph’ for confidence!

What do others think?

Hello,

YABU, we had an electric car in a terrace house.

Lots of electric cars fast charge in 30 minutes to 80% and have a range of around 250 miles. We charged ours at IKEA, car parks, loads of places really. Of course it’s helpful to be able to charge at home, but it’s really easy to fast charge all over the place.

We currently can’t afford a new car (our lease ran out), however if we could it would be without doubt electric. They are lovely to drive and much much cheaper to run.

Speaking as an electric car driver, they are really practical, nice to drive and cheap to run. Mine is 8 years old and requires no maintenance other than an annual check and occasional tyres, brake pads etc.
It is becoming more practical to drive electric without your own charger on the drive as more rapid chargers spring up in supermarket car parks, workplaces and council car parks, so for instance in my town I could charge up at the supermarket while doing my weekly shop. The roll out of kerbside charging hasn't happened yet. With regard to the silent menace argument, look where you are going! The cut in traffic noise and pollution is huge. Modern electric cars have a range that will take you anywhere, but you do need to do a mindshift, I tend to use the train for longer journeys.

@Frazzled2207 okay, our council page about ECs says you should sign up to a network, so I wrongly thought you had to. When they do become more common, I hope you can pay by contactless bank card, because there are still areas I go where the wifi is very patchy. Manufacturers also need to develop and agree a common fitting for charging.

@ThinWomansBrain yes London is different. It gets way more investment in transport than anywhere else.

Not practical for where I am. Detours can add many, many miles onto your journey and if you are low already on mileage, you're screwed. I'm also not willing to then stop at a charging spot and wait an hour or whatever before I can head off home.

Prices have to come down and charging times must come down as well. I can fill up my car in a few mins, why would I change to something that's going to mean I have to sit in the cold during winter waiting for it to charge when I could be at home? Until then, I wont be buying one.

I know someone who had a mitsubishi outlander, he could only get to his work on electric if he went without heating in the winter :-) ( it was a hybrid but the mpg when not running on electric was woeful)

Just reading how fast charging is not recommended as your main way of charging as it makes the battery last for less time.
I also would not buy an early electric car second hand. I know the lifespan of batteries has been increased, but I suspect the early batteries will not last anywhere near as long. And replacing a battery is very expensive.

Finance wise, my Leaf saves me the £150 a month I used to spend on diesel, the £700 a year I budgeted for repairs, and after 4 years would now be worth as much as I paid for it if I hadn't put so many dents and scratches on the bodywork. It's nippy too- most electric cars have good acceleration. Another thing to consider is that the air quality inside an electric car is better for your children's lungs, and you are contributing to improving it for everyone.
Take a look at zapmap, and where the chargers are in the places you visit regularly, and whether your employer would put in a charger if you commute to work (there may be funding to help). If you can do 95% of your journeys in an electric car then the savings will more than pay for an occasional hire to visit distant family or whatever.

Just to add, I can not be the only person now ordering shopping online and working for an employer with no car park. Our local council introduced charging for workplace parking so new employers avoid offering car parking to employees.
So for me the supermarket and workplace do not work as a potential charging point. And I can't be alone in that. There would need to be easily available public charging points that do not erode the battery.

No not at all unreasonable.
I also live in a Victorian terrace, mine only has pedestrian access.
There are no charging points where I live, the nearest ones are 6 miles away.

Another thing to consider is that the air quality inside an electric car is better for your children's lungs
Interesting - where is this information from?

I have an electric car, a Zoe. The cost savings for petrol is phenomenal. I have a range of 245 miles max, I charge my car every 10 days for £7. For the equivalent petrol it is £40+. If driving in town I'd be charging a lot less. I did a town drive two weeks ago and used 4 miles of electricity for a 40 mile journey.

I live in the home counties, there are 4 different places I can charge my car in a very small town. My battery is 52kw. It will charge from a 22kw device to 50% in 45ish mins. That's the approx time it takes to do a food shop etc.

The one piece of advice I was given was don't wait to charge. If you are somewhere with a charger, stick it on charge even if only for. 15 mins.

@DynamoKev

Another thing to consider is that the air quality inside an electric car is better for your children's lungs Interesting - where is this information from?

I can believe this. Years ago (7?) we had a diesel and a single panorama documentary about the air quality INSIDE a vehicle persuaded me to switch to petrol the very next day (this is before EVs were widespread).

Another thing to consider is that the air quality inside an electric car is better for your children's lungs, and you are contributing to improving it for everyone

I can see that going EV will contribute to improving air quality for everyone, but knowing how air is drawn into a car, including EVs, I can't see how the air quality inside would be any better than any other modern car on the road.

Do you have source?

I have a Toyota hybrid and find that it's fine for "oomph" when I need it.

I am really not bothered about oomph. I just want a cheap and reliable car that is easy to fuel up without any hassle.

Isn't there an issue with chargers being broken, but the app not being updated to let folk know that, so you turn up to a charger to find you can't charge?

I don't think the infrastructure is ready yet, and I doubt it will be in 9 years time either. Far too many people would have to rely on charging away from home than is currently possible.

I am also pretty pissed to find many service stations have stolen accessible spaces at the front of the carpark to use as charging stations!

A plug in hybrid or ecv doesn't sound practical for you but what about a prius type hybrid?

We have an electric car as our main car, but we do have a charge point in our single-car driveway. We’re by no means rich, as a PP suggested 🙄🙄 the bloody thing is on the never-never.

We don’t pay for public charging where I live, so that’s another plus. It costs us buttons to run. We’ve driven journeys of hundreds of miles with no issues.

I know a guy who has one but doesn’t have a driveway. He can charge it at work, I think, so it works out fine for him. I don’t think it would be practical otherwise.

There is so much ignorance and misinformation about electric carshete, it is really infuriating!!

1. It is more practical! You don’t need to stop somewhere especially to fill up fuel. You charge at home, whilst shopping or whilst peeing at a service station. Any socket can be used! Superchargers are the best though.
2. Range anxiety is not a thing. You know how much charge you have. In the same way you don’t run out of petrol.
3. It doesn’t take an hour to charge, unless you buy a crappy car, you never run to the bottom of the battery. You never rock up to a charger with no spaces. There are apps that relay in real time where there is a free spot, you check before you go. Our car has a screen with a map of all chargers right there with statistics showing which ones you can reach with your current charge available.
4. You won’t be swapping out batteries at petrol stations. They are built into the structure of the car and weigh a lot. In our tesla, the while base of the car is battery.
5. Virtually no servicing is needed. We cancelled our annual service this year.
6. It is cheap.
7. You can log onto different driver profiles so it remembers all the settings you like, including steering wheel position.
8. You aren’t contributing to the premature death of thousands of people.

You are scared of what you don’t understand.

@Sparrowsong Your number 1 is my issue. Not everyone can charge at home, like lots of people I do not go to the supermarket and instead order online groceries. I rarely use service stations.
So no I am not scared, I just know it would be an extra hassle. Before I bought things online yes it would have been easier.
But the big barrier is the price of the cars and that chargers are rarer in some parts of the country. So Scotland and Ireland still have fairly large rural areas with no public chargers.

@Firstbornunicorn

We have an electric car as our main car, but we do have a charge point in our single-car driveway. We’re by no means rich, as a PP suggested 🙄🙄 the bloody thing is on the never-never.

We don’t pay for public charging where I live, so that’s another plus. It costs us buttons to run. We’ve driven journeys of hundreds of miles with no issues.

I know a guy who has one but doesn’t have a driveway. He can charge it at work, I think, so it works out fine for him. I don’t think it would be practical otherwise.

You're rich enough to pay the monthly sum - not everyone is.

@Sparrowsong

There is so much ignorance and misinformation about electric carshete, it is really infuriating!!

1. It is more practical! You don’t need to stop somewhere especially to fill up fuel. You charge at home, whilst shopping or whilst peeing at a service station. Any socket can be used! Superchargers are the best though.
2. Range anxiety is not a thing. You know how much charge you have. In the same way you don’t run out of petrol.
3. It doesn’t take an hour to charge, unless you buy a crappy car, you never run to the bottom of the battery. You never rock up to a charger with no spaces. There are apps that relay in real time where there is a free spot, you check before you go. Our car has a screen with a map of all chargers right there with statistics showing which ones you can reach with your current charge available.
4. You won’t be swapping out batteries at petrol stations. They are built into the structure of the car and weigh a lot. In our tesla, the while base of the car is battery.
5. Virtually no servicing is needed. We cancelled our annual service this year.
6. It is cheap.
7. You can log onto different driver profiles so it remembers all the settings you like, including steering wheel position.
8. You aren’t contributing to the premature death of thousands of people.

You are scared of what you don’t understand.

What is the purchase price? My car is 16 years old and cost 5k 7 years ago. There is nothing in the kitty for replacement.

Like additional roads, an electric car just transfers the problem. The material for the batteries is not mined by the fairies but by someone else's kids. And buying a second hand one at the moment is nuts as the batteries don't last.

Electricity prices are already rocketing and will do so again, even more as petrol tax revenues reduce. The people with electric cars now are doing fine but don't expect that to last. budget for a German 32p a unit or more , and remember that will be the cost for all your electricity.

I was reading an article the other day about the S curve associated with technology take up in the population. Essentially most new tech has a gentle upward curve of adoption, then the successful ones have a near vertical slope and then the vast majority of people have it there is no more room for growth and the slope goes back to nearly horizontal, and the graph looks a bit like an S.

So this article was speculating that electric cars are following the same path as mobile phones and internet connection. It starts off expensive and awkward/slow/glitchy to use and the majority of the population can't see themselves ever using it. Remember back to the start of the internet when it was dial up? Plenty of people just didn't see the point of it back then, it was slow, it tied up your land line, it bumped you off unexpectedly, you paid by the minute for the phonecall plus you often had to pay a subscription to something like AOL, you had to have a computer and there wasn't all that much you could do online once you got there. It was for the well-off and/or nerdy. But it got better, cheaper and faster and now we all use it without a second thought.

So currently we are still in the well-off and/or nerdy phase of electric cars but if it follows the same trajectory as mobile phones or the internet then electric cars will undergo a rapid increase in usage and usability with a corresponding drop in cost and increase in infrastructure.

@murbblurb the rapid chargers make the batteries last for less time, as does topping up whenever you see a charger.
I think electric cars will become cheaper and the technology will get better.
I would worry at the moment that if you install an electric charger in your home it will become obsolete.
Someone in my street does have an electric car and the cable stretches across the pavement to the road to charge the car. That is a trip hazard for disabled/visually impaired people and I think should be made illegal.