(electric cars) aibu to think that this won't work?

[greenacrylicpaint]

currently stuck at a motorways service station.
there is a long queue for the chargers of which a few are not working.

imagine summer holidays. how is that going to work? train long distance and then cars/bikes locally?

I'd say it was more exponential than linear.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electric-vehicle-charging-device-statistics-january-2022/electric-vehicle-charging-device-statistics-january-2022

The annoying thing with the EV infrastructure is that the government has purposely left it to commercial businesses to sort out. Some councils have invested but mostly I think it's down to businesses to spot the areas where they can maximize profits.

This is problematic because it ends up being a bit chicken/egg. Consumers won't buy cars if the infrastructure isn't there and business won't invest if they don't get a return. Also most EV owners (like me) have drives so mostly don't need the network, except on occasion. It's a stupid scenario which needed huge government input to get things going. Especially when they want to ban ICE sales from 2030.

Tory governments are 'small goverrnments', they believe in the market sorting things out, look at housing, utilities, transport etc etc

(unless of course its their cronies getting contracts to supply PPE etc)

And this is what people voted for so there isnt really any surprise at this

I would love an EV, but we do 200 miles motorway driving to get to my parents, usually with no breaks (definitely not if I'm alone) and the ones that would possibly be in my budget second hand simply don't have the range, we also have to use the local pub car parks for parking at home and have no way to plug it in so we would HAVE to charge on the go

I'm also wary of how potentially difficult it is to repair, my mechanic's shop is a 2 minute walk away, I've never seen an EV in there but I assume they can do standard stuff like mot/tyres etc but what about the other stuff? Do they have to go specialists/manufacturers? (I know telsa want you to only have work done via them), how much more expensive is that compared to the standard cost of maintenance on a petrol/diesel car? I don't know if it is, I've not looked into it for the reasons i gave to start with, but I expect it must be----

For me its the combination of lack of range (in what would be my price range) and the time spent charging up. We do a lot of long journeys and theres no way I want to be spending 40 mins (and thats assuming you get a charger right away and no waiting) extra on journeys that take long enough as it is. I resent stopping for petrol and that takes about 5 mins!!

My price range for a car is about 5k, once my current car bites the dust, I would be looking to spend that, perhaps my car will last another 5 years, perhaps more if Im lucky, its only done around 120k and I could get that again out of it I reckon.

For that money, I wont get an e car that has the range I currently have although presumably servicing, tax, mot etc would be much cheaper, as well as the electric.

Electric cars and their batteries are very heavy. I read somewhere the other day that when electric vehicles are the norm, that multi storey car parks will need rebuilding in order to be able to cope with the extra weight.

I think hybrids are the current solution. I have a self-charge hybrid which I like, but I would happily replace our petrol car with a plug in hybrid when it needs replacing. It's easy to charge at home and then use petrol for longer journeys.

I don't want fully electric until there are fast chargers everywhere though. It takes less than 5 minutes to fill up with petrol and as bellac says, that is annoying in itself. 45 minutes simply isn't feasible.

There seem to be loads of chargers around where I live but a taxi driver was telling me that most of them don't work :(

More anti EV scaremongering unfortunately.

There has been a massive boom in huge SUV's over the last 10-20 years. Most of which, are heavier or as heavy as EV's. Mine weighs just 1300kg. A range rover weighs over 2000kg but no-one has been making a fuss about the rise of SUV purchases.

Thinking logically about it, what do you think a business will do? Spend millions on knocking down a huge multistorey car park and building a new one, or mitigate the extra weight by reducing the number of spaces and charging more?

The same applies to bridges. They're not going to rebuild them all but most likely regulate the number of cars allowed at any one time.

The car will do around 3h between charges at motorway speeds, 5 people on board & holiday luggage. When fully charged it shows about 520km range on the screen but we get a bit less than that in practice with gradients and a heavy load.

Here on holiday we have been charging while supermarket shopping, getting full in 50 minutes while we shop on a CCS charger in the car park.

Electric cars and their batteries are very heavy. I read somewhere the other day that when electric vehicles are the norm, that multi storey car parks will need rebuilding in order to be able to cope with the extra weight

Do away with SUVs and make cars smaller to compensate (if this is true, which I very much doubt)

Theres lots of articles about it if you google, but it does puzzle me because surely vans and lorries use those car parks too and they are very heavy?

I'll just reassure you that roads and bridges are designed to take the weight of fully loaded lorries and a small increase in car weight is no issue. The load allowances for car parks are pretty generous but any one thought to be a risk would be repainted to fewer spaces.

Is it correct that the electric batteries won’t charge under -15? So pretty useless in many Eastern European/half of America in winter? And do the batteries need swapping out every few years? Aren’t they extremely expensive still?

You’re right, it won’t work. I don’t understand EV hype. I’d rather keep my petrol car, thank you. Then switch to hybrid.

Wee currently have an ev with a 180 mile range and have ordered one with 280 miles range. Last month we drove from the nw to Cornwall and had no problems charging. The place we stayed at had a charger for each guest. We would never go back to petrol.

Thanks. I honestly thought as much but was just indulging the OP.

It's a non issue ultimately and just adds to the list of ridiculous anti EV articles. I'm quite amazed that people just suck it up without really thinking.

Yes I meant it to the person you were quoting!

I don't think that's true. People drive EV's in Finland and they have -20 degree winters. People also drive in Canada and many parts of America with no need to swap out batteries.

More scaremongering I suspect.

No, it's not true. It's just slower to charge in lower temperatures.

And garages are a thing.

Only a smidge over 50% of UK homes have garages.

What is the one with 280 mile range (still quite low)

The range on a diesel VW Passat with a full tank is around 650 miles.

I can’t imagine a garage being of much use unless it’s heated? I noticed cars plugged in whilst in Finland (before electric cars were a thing) apparently to ensure the engine isn’t too cold before turning it over as the cold starts do serious damage to ICE.

I think we need major changes before everyone takes on board the ev thing: batteries degrade over time and should last 10 years, according to EDF Energy. There are what, 4 places in Europe where they can currently be stored once removed and can’t be recycled (at the minute).

My car is an 06 plate, there’s no way I’m replacing it til it literally falls apart. I’m a bit concerned that we (as a country and the world in general) are just not set up to succeed with evs just yet. You need a drive to charge, in an ideal world. Not sure what people in flats are meant to do. I know I sound very doom and gloom, but I just think we don’t yet have the set up, but I understand the urgency with which the industry has moved, it is essential.

Yes, you do sound doom and gloom. Disproportionately so.

People that live in flat will do something similar to what people do with ICE now. Do you have a petrol pump at home? No. The difference is that you can charge a car literally anywhere, instead of just a petrol station. This makes EV's infinitely more flexible.

Sure, charging times are currently not on par with petrol/diesel but this will change. Also it only really matters if you're looking to charge in a hurry. Most other times you can happily wait a few hours if you're out to dinner/cinema/shopping/walking the dog etc. etc.

I've owned an EV for about 4 years and the battery is still tip top. I don't expect this to change. The beauty of an EV in cold weather is that you can precondition the battery and cabin. This warms up the battery ready for use and also defrosts the car so it's nice and toasty warm with no scraping to do. Unless you live in places where they have blankets on engines then the cold is very damaging to the myriad parts. You shouldn't thrash a cold engine either. No such issues with an EV so they're also perfect for short journeys.

You say that your car is 2006. Fine. By the time you change it (maybe 5-10 years) you can buy another ICE. By the time that one dies, EV's will be significantly better than they are now and they pretty good already. The infrastructure should be well evolved by then too.

Eh? My uncle lives in the very north of Norway where temperatures like that are very much the norm and now the majority of cars are EVs.

it’s true it can take a bit longer to charge in the cold. But there was no difference in ours in the recent cold snap which got to at least minus 9. And it wasn’t kept warm in a garage.