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!

@cakeorwine

I just hope that the infrastructure can keep up with the demand. It is easy to take a few minutes to fill up with fuel.

But if you have a lot of people needing to spend 30 minutes to charge a car, that's a lot of infrastructure needed.

Along with all the issues about people who can't easily access charging points at home.

I don't think this Government is capable of that level of planning ahead.

Once you reach a critical mass switching over you really don't need the government to spearhead it any longer, it will happen just because it will, at some point, make more commercial sense to run an EV charger than it does a petrol pump.

The main problem will be the home charging points especially if it's left to the councils to deal with as it will be

we have about 6 lampposts down our street and approx 35-40 cars parked on road

I thought that too. I suppose, if it can take the power load, they'd have to install extension leads from the lamp posts and maybe have a (rain-covered) socket every five metres or so. Even then, you'd have to have cars all parked pointing the right way and in the exact spot necessary to avoid having dangerous trailing wires.

The plans with smart motorways include provision for wireless charging eventually - coupled with the ability to monitor and charge vehicles per mile driven, to replace the lost revenue on petrol and diesel (although, the way electricity prices are soaring, the tax they get it on that will be substantial). I don't know when this will become a practical reality, or what they will do for people needing to make long journeys where there are no motorways.

We also need to look into car ownership and how people use cars if we want real change.

The World Economic Foundation is telling us that we'll eventually own nothing and be happy. I don't know if 'and be happy' is in the sense of genuinely being happy or 'and lump it'.

Scary though it may seem now, once driverless electric cars are the norm, we won't realistically need to own them at all. As long as there's a ready supply of them, you'd be able to use an app to call for one of the appropriate size and type for your needs and it would arrive in a couple of minutes, take you where you're going and then be off to the next person.

Local councils will no doubt find a way to replace all of the lost parking revenue and turn all the car parks into charity shops and bookies. Taxi drivers will all lose their jobs. Even now, I'm certain that the likes of Uber will be working on plans to eliminate that soon-unnecessary cost that seriously reduces their efficiency and profits - the one currently in the right seat at the front.

I suppose, if you think about how much of their life most private cars currently spend not doing their only job, I can see the logic. Many consumer goods currently spend 99%+ of their lives sitting idle in a cupboard or on a shelf.

If every car could become a 24/7 taxi, we would need far, far fewer of them overall. Not saying that the idea cheers me, personally; maybe that's just my stubbornness, though??

Queue at a motorway service station? Can I ask where?/when?

Centuries ago people were happy

Being haopy doesn't mean you need nothing to change ever

I suppose it was the same as cars slowly became popular back in the last century. Worrying about finding a petrol station.

At least you can carry petrol with you if you run low. I don't think you can carry a spare charging pack.

It will mean a lot of new infrastructure. Pollution wise - I hope we can sort out clean ways of generating electricity. It's not very green if you just generate electricity using fossil fuels and it's also not very green if the process to make the batteries etc uses a lot of fossil fuel energy and creates pollution.

That's unusual

@lameasahorse

I don't see how service stations on motorways could cope. I already usually queue for petrol and that takes minutes to put in. To do this needs a level of -planning and ambition missing from the government.

They mostly won't but only because you're looking at EV charging through the eyes of someone who buys petrol.

Electricity is almost everywhere so your charging options are much wider. Supermarkets, shopping malls, car parks, high streets etc etc. An entire section of a motorway service car park can be set up (much like the Tesla network) to charge more cars than you could fit on a traditional forecourt.

The government doesn't need to do a great deal as the current network is privately run.

Aw it's sad that you wont be able to just carrying on shitting up the planet cause its easier but hey, sure you'll manage.

Actually, thinking about it, driverless on-demand taxis would also solve the problem of long journeys and the apparent flaw that you can't exchange the battery for a charged one.

You will (kind of) be able to 'exchange' the battery - it's just that the new one will arrive in another entire car and you'll have to just move your luggage across, like when changing trains now, and then the car with only 5 reserve miles left on its range will take itself to a local charging point.

The government doesn't need to do a great deal as the current network is privately run

Can I remind you of VHS and Betamax?

We need standards, co-ordination and regulation.

@Trulyweird1

Well now let's be fair to the useless idiots in charge in the Highlands. They have at least managed to find some cash that they haven't nicked to buy some chargers.

However, your electric vehicles will rattle themselves to pieces on the roads with all the potholes.

The thing to consider is that it's much easier to generate and transport electricity than it is petrol. With petrol you need dedicated facilities and you need to physically transport it around the country to those facilities and everyone who uses a car needs to go to the facility to get petrol.

With EV cars although it takes longer to charge a car - and it's not that much longer with new battery tech and superfast chargers - far less cars will actually need to use public chargers than currently need to visit petrol stations. So to some extent the issue of how you manage a car needing to charge for 30 minutes rather than filling up for 5 balances naturally.

Great reset coming soon, already starting on this thread

Centuries ago people were happy

Being haopy doesn't mean you need nothing to change ever

Maybe - although I rather think that many people weren't happy, as we'd understand it, especially those with the most horrendous jobs and still living in poverty - but I guess it depends whether we define happy as ecstatically joyful, content with your lot or just not knowing that it could be/have been any different.

Absolutely: happiness does indeed often come from changing your circumstances and striving for better/nicer circumstances.

@cakeorwine

The government doesn't need to do a great deal as the current network is privately run

Can I remind you of VHS and Betamax?

We need standards, co-ordination and regulation.

I will admit that the industry needs regulating but the standard is already CCS. The Japanese did use chademo but are changing to CCS too.

So how does this recreate a betamax/VHS scenario? The only thing that will be different is cost and kW capacity.

@lameasahorse

I would love a car club. Although in theory, we have one in our city, the nearest car is over a mile away.

We have one and the car is across the road from my flat!! I must admit I love it and am torn between wanting more people to know about it because I think they're great, and wanting to keep it quiet so I am more guaranteed to be able to use it! With that, taxis, public transport and hire cars i don't need my own car.

I appreciate it wouldn't suit everyone, but I think that's the point. We don't need a solution that suits everyone, it will be a combination of different solutions.
That last bit is a general comment and not really part of the reply to you specifically!

@User843976

Great reset coming soon, already starting on this thread

Even that wouldn't cause rioting in britain.

driverless taxis would be brilliant but would need a lot of excess in the system to meet demands at peak times,

That's the main flaw in it, probably. I'm guessing the solution would be presented as bigger cars being shared with others going to the same/nearby destination, and then those a little less near but in the same general direction - all better for efficiency in resources. We might end up with basically a bus, but it being sold to us as cutting-edge progress!!

So how does this recreate a betamax/VHS scenario? The only thing that will be different is cost and kW capacity

Just ensuring that all manufacturers are 'singing from the same hymn book' - you don't want to buy a car and only find that you can charge from company A's chargers and not company B's. If someone takes their car to another country, then they should be able to easily charge their car there without having to worry about compatibility.

Also - if it's mandated that all new cars must be electric, then Government has a responsibility to ensure there is decent charging infrastructure across the country - and not leave it up to the markets.

So Government (And Governments) have a role and a responsibility here - and should not just leave it to the free market

@Northernlurker

Are you ok? It's not like you to fret about something so random?! It's another 13 years before it will supposedly become impossible to buy petrol/diesel vehicles. You can buy one in 12.5 years and run it fir years...

I don't actually think we'll go fully electric anyway.

Don't want to get into here, but they are not the answer to climate control.

I'm worried about you, is there something else worrying you.

(Constant namechanger, old MNer)

The idea that we will eventually own nothing and be happy feels a bit off - because someone will own the stuff we borrow/rent and they will be getting a lot of money. Unless we nationlised cars. It will be like the uk housing market all over again but for everything.