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?

”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.”

More practical if you only drive locally, sure. We charge at home except when on long journeys, which don’t tend to involve shopping. Service station chargers great unless they are out of service or occupied. When on a long journey coming off the motorway to find a fast charger somewhere else isn’t what you want to be doing. Supermarkets usually have slow chargers, which are worse than useless if you are low on charge, need to fill it up and don’t want to extend the length of your already-long journey more than you have to.

”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.”

That’s great you don’t suffer from range anxiety. DH does. Probably because if you run low on petrol there will always be plenty of places to fuel up. Not so with electric.

”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.”

See above. If you’re on a long journey and the convenient service station charger isn’t available you’re then having to detour into a town or somewhere for an alternative charger, a hotel or something. Whereas stopping at services is something you’d probably want to do anyway with the kids, that kind of detour is a complete pain.

As I said, we will stick with it when DH changes his car in the autumn, but no way is it as convenient as petrol. Not yet. It’s a question of balancing the positives and negatives, like anything else.

And not all the chargers on the map are publicly available. In my city it has ones in hotel car parks that only guests can use.
But what would especially worry me is being in rural Scotland as there is a real lack of public chargers there. It is okay if you hire a holiday cottage you can charge from. But it is not unusual in rural areas to have a parking space in a layby across the road from a cottage.

And most of the latest cars the batteries are guaranteed to last for 100k miles. That is less than a petrol car. So it makes second-hand electric cars less attractive. The older electric cars are worse.
I think currently an electric car is great if you live in London, as a second car or are a committed environmentalist and happy to pay far more and put up with any extra hassle.

Wow. Another electric car thread that has turned into a long list of perceived obstacles.

I'm happy with my electric car - What Car magazine placed it in the top 5 slowest depreciating cars in the UK.

So that 100,000 mile battery myth doesn't seem to apply here with residuals.

@Ginuwine

Wow. Another electric car thread that has turned into a long list of perceived obstacles.

I'm happy with my electric car - What Car magazine placed it in the top 5 slowest depreciating cars in the UK.

So that 100,000 mile battery myth doesn't seem to apply here with residuals.

How much did it cost?

@flowery
I think it depends on your individual range of circumstances but it absolutely can be, IMO, totally practical.
However it’s easy me to say as we have a home charger as do family members who we visit, do mostly short journeys and long ones only a couple of times a year. For those, a teeny bit of planning as to where we are stopping and where the chargers are at our destination works out fine, or at least had done so far (all our holiday cottages have let us charge through the kitchen window!). For us, overall, it’s definitely easier, cheaper (especially when you consider servicing costs) and just as convenient. But it won’t be for everyone.

As the car ranges increase, more charging points crop up and prices come down, I am optimistic they will become accessible to the vast majority of families.

We’ve had ours two years and it’s quite notable how many more chargepoints there are, and how many more of them you see out and about.

@Ginuwine

Wow. Another electric car thread that has turned into a long list of perceived obstacles.

I'm happy with my electric car - What Car magazine placed it in the top 5 slowest depreciating cars in the UK.

So that 100,000 mile battery myth doesn't seem to apply here with residuals.

Yeah totally agree! I think people are scared and there is a lot of misinformation. They are addicted to their world destroying black gunk. If only it was just them paying the price, I wouldn’t care.

We live rurally, regularly drive 400miles and you know what, our EV is fine as a primary only car!

Not that it matters, they won’t have any choice but to drive electric cars soon, hehe

Average cost second hand car in uk 14k
Average cost electric car 44k

Most people would not be spending 1k a year on petrol

Its expensive

"Wow. Another electric car thread that has turned into a long list of perceived obstacles.

I'm happy with my electric car - What Car magazine placed it in the top 5 slowest depreciating cars in the UK."

How much did it cost and how accessible is it? We need the boot space for 2 wheelchairs and other disability related luggage.

@modgepodge we always get a second hand car and run it till it starts to die, we’re currently on a hybrid, lots of those about at affordable prices!

Anyway my point is that we’re really in the minority amongst friends and colleagues, pretty much everyone else I know leases their car or has a new one every 3 years on a finance scheme. The actual cost of a car from new is irrelevant to these people because they never really own the car or pay the full price.

Yes it could just be who we mingle with but I know a really broad range of people that have cars this way, whether they can really afford it or not!

@Ginuwine

Wow. Another electric car thread that has turned into a long list of perceived obstacles.

I'm happy with my electric car - What Car magazine placed it in the top 5 slowest depreciating cars in the UK.

So that 100,000 mile battery myth doesn't seem to apply here with residuals.

My list only has 1 obstacle - charging. I can't charge at home, don't work in an office and there are no public chargers within 8 miles other than 1 at a hotel (3 miles) and 1 at a nursing home (6 miles). I have only been somewhere I could charge twice in the last 15 months. I doubt anyone would find it acceptable for me to run a cable about 50 metres down a footpath and across the High Street to charge where I can park.

[quote Youngatheart00]@Twoforthree yes!! I totally agree about the danger of not hearing the car engine. I wonder what the solution is there.....[/quote]
If you drive a hybrid or electric car, you come to terms with this very quickly and drive accordingly in car parks and other areas with a lot of pedestrians. I’ve been driving a hybrid for ten years and I haven’t hit a pedestrian yet!

[quote PinkPlantCase]@modgepodge we always get a second hand car and run it till it starts to die, we’re currently on a hybrid, lots of those about at affordable prices!

Anyway my point is that we’re really in the minority amongst friends and colleagues, pretty much everyone else I know leases their car or has a new one every 3 years on a finance scheme. The actual cost of a car from new is irrelevant to these people because they never really own the car or pay the full price.

Yes it could just be who we mingle with but I know a really broad range of people that have cars this way, whether they can really afford it or not![/quote]
I think you mingle with very different people to me. Virtually everyone I know buys second-hand cars and runs them into the ground, Lease is viewed as far too expensive.

Various virtue-signalling posters expounding the virtues of their cars are refusing to say how much they cost - dodging the fact that many (most?) of us can't afford a Tesla or indeed an electric car of any kind.

@Sparrowsong

Not that it matters, they won’t have any choice but to drive electric cars soon, hehe

It depends. If it is not practical for too many of the population, the date will be put back. The government will not enact a policy that means a large section of the population can't drive. It would cause economic chaos for a start with many people outside London having to leave their jobs.

I said most current cars are guaranteed that their batteries will last for 100,000 miles. Some of the most expensive electric cars have batteries guaranteed to last for more miles. Most people do not buy the most expensive petrol cars and will not be buying the most expensive electric cars either. So the average matters.

[quote PinkPlantCase]@modgepodge we always get a second hand car and run it till it starts to die, we’re currently on a hybrid, lots of those about at affordable prices!

Anyway my point is that we’re really in the minority amongst friends and colleagues, pretty much everyone else I know leases their car or has a new one every 3 years on a finance scheme. The actual cost of a car from new is irrelevant to these people because they never really own the car or pay the full price.

Yes it could just be who we mingle with but I know a really broad range of people that have cars this way, whether they can really afford it or not![/quote]
But they obviously can afford it, somehow.
We are outliers where we live for the age of our vehicles but our budget is allocated elsewhere.
I don't know anyone who leases a car (that is to say no-one I know well enough to discuss this kind of thing leases), but I imagine some of our neighbours probably do.

@DynamoKev

Various virtue-signalling posters expounding the virtues of their cars are refusing to say how much they cost - dodging the fact that many (most?) of us can't afford a Tesla or indeed an electric car of any kind.

The list price for a Yaris is £21k. From experience I know Toyota dealers are very amenable to a good haggle. You could probably get £2/3k off that.

@Ginuwine
@Sparrowsong

How much did your electric car cost?

The list price for a Yaris is £21k. From experience I know Toyota dealers are very amenable to a good haggle. You could probably get £2/3k off that.

Eh? I was asking (see above as I've done it again) the posters saying there are no barriers to getting an electric car how much they cost. Nothing to do with buying a Yaris.

@DynamoKev

Various virtue-signalling posters expounding the virtues of their cars are refusing to say how much they cost - dodging the fact that many (most?) of us can't afford a Tesla or indeed an electric car of any kind.

I totally agree this is a point that's often skirted over on threads about electric vehicles.

In all the people I know including family, friends and neighbours I only know 2 people who have ever brought a brand new car straight from a dealer. I know a handful who pay monthly for their cars and literally everyone else has brought their car sefon, third or fourth hand after either saving or part exchanging their old vehicles. I'd wager that none of those cars cost over 10k.

Just googled and 1.6 million people in the UK lease cars, with another 3.4 million company leased cars on top. All the finance experts always say that leasing is good if you like to always have a fairly new car. Otherwise, it is an expensive option.
1.6 million new cars are bought every year and 7.9 million second-hand cars sold in 2019. Given people buying a second-hand car or new car rarely sell it after only 1 year, you can see the majority of car drivers do not lease their cars.

@skirk64

Don't get an electric car as a main car. They are suitable for people who own multiple vehicles because the electric can be used for short journeys and the ICE for long ones. But if you don't have offroad parking at your home they are completely impractical. Things may change, with more charging points being made available, but that will coincide with more people getting electric cars so there will still be competition for them.

Remember too that electric vehicles are not a silver bullet for environmental concerns. There is no plan for dealing with the mountains of scrap batteries at the moment. From an environmental point of view, an efficient petrol car is still the best option. (Presumably you may not be that bothered about the environment of course, if you're replacing a car every four years - by far the greatest impact is done in the creation of the car, not its running, however it is powered.)

This is a very sensible post. Absolutely agree about the 4 year thing.

I want to get an Electric Range Rover, to replace my expensive to run diesel one. We would still have DH's car as petrol powered for now, although he may need to get a bigger one for long journeys. Is the range as good as JLR say?