Electric cars - so worried

[Northernlurker]

I keep worrying about being forced to buy an electric car when I change my car in a few years.
Reason being the long journeys and (mostly) self catering we love. In Scotland.
We need a range around 50% higher than the current max. It's no good saying charge it on the way if there are no fast chargers. Been looking at details today, even the fastest chargers need just over 30 minutes. Thousands of people drive UJ the Highlands and Islands annually. There won't be anything like enough chargers to cover that. We can charge overnight using an ordinary plug but it's not going to hit the max. Feel like we will spend the whole time worrying about finding a free charger in the middle of nowhere.
How is this ever going to work? It takes two Minutes to fill up a tank with petrol, electric is going to take hours!

We have a fully electric car and it's brilliant. We've had it 18 months and only ever charged it at home but we do also have a diesel estate for rare long journeys. We're waiting for longer range before we upgrade the second car so I'd probably just give it a bit longer then switch over when the range works for you or on-journey charging gets better.

There will be a big house price dip because many are not suitable for heat pumps and ev ownership

NB I'd be glad to have a 30 min stop on long journeys.

[quote lameasahorse]@Lunar27 I didn't know it is just a cable. So all those charging points in my city saying there is a charging point for both is effectively only one charging point? Because that means there is a long way to go where I live. There really are not that many and I live in a City.
My nearest is about 15 minutes walk away in a pub car park and seems to be pretty well used. There are a fair few in chargeable car parks like NCP, but you would have to be parking there anyway. But not lots outside of that.
I am not against any of this. I just dont think it will happen in the timescale the government has set out. There is too much still to do to make it feasible.[/quote]
I don't know, you are likely able to charge two cars simultaneously. Many can.

What city do you live? Where I live, we started at the same time as everyone else but have 327 public chargers and growing. They're everywhere.

So it's easily possible.

Many people drive classic cars, vans, buses & motorbikes now
Anything over 40 years is tax free in the UK

There will always be petrol heads & people who like steam engines, traction engines, tanks, monster trucks. The age of steam has been long gone, but its still around

I expect in the future that coal, petrol, diesel transport will be highly taxed due to pollution & electric transport will be free from tax

OP I live on west coast of us (so long mountain drives very common). At the local ski areas, 2/3s of the cars are Subarus, the other 1/3 are Tesla’s. This is not an issue. They don’t install 1 charging point, 20 get installed. We live in a city where loads don’t have drives. People just run cables over the pavement. I know that probably sounds bad but in practice it’s not a big deal/noticeable. Some people route them under the payment, again it’s not caused any problems.

@lameasahorse

Thanks. That's not great but not the worst either. Should be easily rectified but needs the will of the council more than infrastructure itself.

If it's easy to install at home then it's no problem to equip a car park. It's just motivation and money. A CCS charger requires a three phase supply, so more difficult but most people in cities only need 7kW for every day use.

I bought a 2nd hand hybrid last year before the prices started increasing. Best thing I ever did, very reasonable price and 50/60 euros a month, even though its used daily. And no charger needed.

There’s not enough resources to build all the required electric vehicles, so you needn’t worry yet.

www.treehugger.com/why-electric-cars-wont-save-us-there-are-not-enough-resources-build-them-4857798

Electric is better for emissions but not remotely convinced it’s the future.

Aside from the charging infrastructure, if everyone switched to EV tomorrow the national grid couldn’t cope and in the UK we produce electricity by burning a lot of fossil fuels still. Plus issues with mining lithium for batteries, poor battery life and therefore the overall carbon footprint isn’t great.

Has anyone mentioned green hydrogen yet - cleanest fuel there is. Hydrogen fuel cells being used more in haulage and that type of transport and requires ‘filling up’ just like petrol stations.

Things will look v different in 13 years in a way most of us can barely imagine.

I'm so tired of people saying that it's not a big deal to run charging cables across the pavement to their car. Of course it's a big deal for people who are jogging, pushing babies, in wheelchairs, etc.

Why do you assume that there won't be any more charging points put into motorway service areas within the next 13 years, and that their charging speed won't improve?

I wouldn't have thought that waiting 30 minutes is too dreadful, anyway. By the time you've been to the loo and grabbed a coffee your car will be ready.

@WimpyKidYouNot

I hear about hydrogen a lot but unfortunately car manufacturers just aren't investing in that right now. Certainly not at the same scale as EV so you must know something they don't.

Like it or not, the near future is EV. Might not be the future but most definitely for the next 20-30 years at least (or the rest of my lifetime).

@lameasahorse

Sorry to hear that. I didn't realise.

In that case I'd imagine they'll be more reliant on private companies taking the initiative, which really shouldn't be an issue, other than having the staff dedicated to the job!

I find having to have heat pumps more concerning. With the car situation we will probably end up getting a newish diesel in the next 5 years for towing, long journeys and carrying large things and swapping my pootling around car for a small electric car for local journeys and visiting places where diesels are banned, I imagine lots of people will have that sort of set up if they have 2 cars

There will still be many used petrol cars out there, at the point where you are absolutely forced to buy an electric car in maybe 10 years time or more, the infrastructure and batteries will be there.

@User843976

There will be a big house price dip because many are not suitable for heat pumps and ev ownership

No, the deadlines etc will be pushed back because they're simply impossible to meet.

@tttigress

There will still be many used petrol cars out there, at the point where you are absolutely forced to buy an electric car in maybe 10 years time or more, the infrastructure and batteries will be there.

Used cars last 20 years + so more like the 2040-2050 period when they finally start to disappear.

@1Week2Day3Month

Many people drive classic cars, vans, buses & motorbikes now Anything over 40 years is tax free in the UK

There will always be petrol heads & people who like steam engines, traction engines, tanks, monster trucks. The age of steam has been long gone, but its still around

I expect in the future that coal, petrol, diesel transport will be highly taxed due to pollution & electric transport will be free from tax

Electric cars won't be tax free as govts need the tax revenue.