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!

@HesterShaw1

This is quite a niche thing to be worrying about so much.

Yeah. My car is 17 years old. I have no budget for a replacement, and no idea where the cash will come from, so not worried. There are millions of old cars about and maybe I will be able to afford an electric one second hand at some point.

Some manufacturers lend you a petrol or diesel car for two weeks a year when you buy a new eV. Nissan definitely did, not sure if they still do.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll.

Are you going to say the same thing when oil eventually runs out and we have no fuel, plastic, or anything else that's derived from oil?

We are, or have been building up to a point where life is having to go backwards a bit. It's something our children will have to accept as an ever changing 'new normal' as we deplete the earth's resources.

So personally I'm really not that bothered about the minor inconvenience, given we're trying to reverse 100 years of oil burning madness. Sure I love cars but one day people will be wondering why we spent so long blowing poisonous gasses from our vehicles outside of schools etc. killing thousands every year.

We need to lose some personal liberty, convenience and think about giving up a bit of convenience that's put us in this mess.

If it's as terrible as you imagine then electric cars will be superseded by something else or the ban on ICE vehicles will be pushed later.

But don't assume the infrastructure for petrol and diesel will still be there if half the cars on the road have moved over to cleaner, quieter electric. You'll be driving a hundred miles looking for a filling station and wondering if it still has fuel. Look at all the fuel supply issues there have been lately. Lots of range anxiety and queuing going on even with an ICE vehicle.

Also, get the train to Scotland it's way nicer. We hire a car when we get there if we want to travel around

@Againstmachine

Electric isn't the future and never will be , the upgrades to infrastructure, charging points for houses without drives ect won't happen.

I am not sure what Is, only other thing I can suggest is buy a hybrid as it's a halfway house.

I agree with this. No WAY is everyone going to be all-electric by 2030. It's just over 7 years FFS. 2050 MAYBE, but 2030, not a chance. As has been said, the infrastructure is just not there, and won't be within just over 7 years, no way. Also, it takes too long to charge, you get too few miles on a single charge, and there aren't enough charging points of course.

Then there's the price. MOST people don't have £25,000 to £30,000 to buy a new electric car. Most people haven't got a pot to piss in, and won't be able to afford a DEPOSIT on a new electric car, let alone the full price.

As the poster said there ^ electric is NOT the future. Not for everyone. It really isn't. It's an unrealistic, unachievable goal.

I read a fact that was something like 90% of our railway network was built over a short period - i think it was 10 years. I tealised yhat we can put in infrastructure really quickly if there is a desire too (profit in it) There is a lot of work going into reusing old batteries as storage banks too. I think we are entering the age of the battery.

Ffs there is no plan to have everyone electric by 2030

That's when petrol cars stop being sold as new

How many of you buy new cars ?

By 2050 I suspect petrol cars will be a rarity

If you're buying a new car aren't you likely to be doing it on finance? Not many people lay out the purchase price do they?

@deplorabelle

Also, get the train to Scotland it's way nicer. We hire a car when we get there if we want to travel around.

Yes because train fares are SOOOOOO cheap, and trains are SOOOOOO reliable. And hire cars cost pennies to rent!

Meanwhile in the real world, a tank of petrol will get most cars to Scotland from most of England and Wales - around 400 to 450 miles (for roughly £50 to £60.)

And FIVE people could fit in most cars. Same cost back home.

So the cost = £110 for 5 people there and back.

That same journey will cost around £850-1000 in train fares. Then a hire car will cost £30-45 a day!

Queue all the adverts for electric cars

@lameasahorse

Everyone I know who buys a new car buys it outright. I have never bought a new car.

Conversely, I have never met a single SOUL in my LIFE who has bought a car brand new. It's also the worst investment you can make. A new car loses around 15% of its value the second you take it off the forecourt.

@lameasahorse

Everyone I know who buys a new car buys it outright. I have never bought a new car.

Really? I'm a high earner, but I don't know many people who can afford to put £30k down all at once on anything.

We must move in very different social circles.

@Northernlurker

Oh yes and pavement parked cars. How will that work as another poster asked?

So I live in fairly central London where the vast majority of people have to park on the road. Down our - very normal - road there are a couple of chargers and a few Teslas and other electric cars that belong to neighbours that tend to park near the chargers. It is really, really no big deal at all. When more people get electric cars I just assume there will be more on street chargers. The chargers are pretty slim and take up no space on the pavement.

I have no intention of ever purchasing an EV.

This is a bizarre thing to worry about to this extent

[quote lameasahorse]@MurmuratingStarling I know, which is why I don't buy new cars.

@AffIt
I do not know anyone who is a high earner or anyone who buys a 30k car. You can buy a new car for 11k. And the kind of people I know save up for things.[/quote]
There are VERY few cars you could get for £11K. And even THEN many people couldn't afford that. And it would probably be a FIAT or SKODA or something, which will be worth half of what you paid within 1.5 years!

We have had our electric car for over 5 years now and the number of electric cars has increased hugely over those 5 years. We have done over 70000 miles and took it from the Midlands up to Orkney last summer.
We have not yet queued anywhere to charge. We have o ly had benefits. The car was rather expensive but other than tyres and MOTs plus a quick mini service each year costs very little.
The infrastructure is improving all the time.
We need to look for solutions and not problems. When everyone was worrying about fuel shortages and forming queues local to me for diesel We had no worries. There are no perfect solutions and we need to give things a go rather than projecting negativity on hypothetical problems that are many years away.

That's some next level worrying. I mean I'm quite an anxious person. There's a lot of worrying stuff going on in the world. But being anxious over some inconvenience on a holiday you plan to take in about 13 years' time, well, that's impressive.

*@WhateverHappenedToMe

No, you make a lot of very good points. I did say that, if it's how it has to be, then we must accept it; but I just find it dishonest that all the advertising and government is focusing on the positives and completely ignoring the negatives. It's almost like the government increasing taxes and, rather than focusing on the unfortunate necessity of having to do so, insisting that "hey, that makes it a bigger number - bigger is always better, folks!"

That said, it's kind of difficult to see the fairness in all of us ordinary people being forced to compromise our relatively mundane lives further, when Biden laughs in everybody's faces by transporting a fleet of vehicles by plane from one continent to another - for a climate conference - and he is very far from the only one, royal family.

FloBot7 millions of people in the uk don't have a drive though
Around here people park on roads several streets away at times
Big city high rise blocks have minimal parking

But lots of people DO have off road parking and they'll be the first to take a punt on EVs which will lead the change. I live in a very average end of terrace house and have a driveway for one car. The majority of my neighbours in terraces also have off road parking. When my DH lived in a new build flat he had an allocated parking space (5 floors of flats too). Obviously there are Victorian era houses that don't have the space but it's far from the majority these days.