We are not set up for electric vehicles in this country

[Pollyannaatemyjelly]

We have an electric vehicle. We tend not to do too many long journeys but today it was inevitable. We have visit a very popular destination via major motorways but there is not one fast charger available on our route. I've just stopped on the M5 on what is supposed to be a dual charger (so more than one vehicle can charge) but it's not working. I've had to wait 20 minutes for the vehicle next to me to charge before I can even begin to charge mine. There is no chance this county can become all electric when the infrastructure is so poor.

@mafsfan

Er, pardon? Yes, people who can't afford an E V are just lying. Sure. Talk about bloody unhelpful.

We have an electric car, and a driveway charger where it is charged 95% of the time. Longer journeys do take planning around the availability of fast chargers, or factoring in a longer break with a slower charger. And yes, when you have planned a stop and get there to find the chargers are out of order it's a right pain.

Somebody has to make the initial investment and it tends to be those with more money to spend.

Of course, but it's not helpful for those people to bang on about how amazing electric cars care while simultaneously ignoring the fact that the vast majority of people just can't afford them, no matter how cheap they are to run or what the benefits might be.

it's also not helpful for untruths to be spread around as truths.

I agree with that, but lots of people are giving their real experiences and being told they're essentially talking bollocks or are wrong, which isn't helpful either.

Bit of a stretch!!

I'd said the untruths were some of the bollocks up thread like fires and causing potholes in the road. I never said the cost was an untruth. Pretty sure you already know that though.

You've just described our village too. Half of the properties in the village are rented from one landowner (who likes to say no to any changes) and many are cottages/terraced with no driveways. We're by a village green which means trailing cables aren't an option. And it's a conservation area which can also complicate things.

I've just looked on zap map and the closest public chargers are ten miles away. There's four of them, they cost 65-80p/kWh (when home charging tariffs are a fraction of that) and two of them aren't working!

OP YANBU. I know things may completely change in the next 5-10 years but we won't be getting one either until there's some reliable charging infrastructure around here.

We bought our electric car on the Friday and picked it up the next day. So your scenario is not the norm.

I do agree the infrastructure around electric cars isn't perfect, but it is getting better. I don't think it would be right by 2030 as Boris (arse) wanted it, but hopefully it'll be sorted within the new timescale.

Ours only cost £13000 two or more years ago. Is that really more than a petrol? I mean it’s not cheap but as cars go it didn’t seem much.

Ours only cost £13000 two or more years ago. Is that really more than a petrol? I mean it’s not cheap but as cars go it didn’t seem much.

The secondhand market for petrol is much bigger. You basically have the choice of cars from the last 20 years. Prices start from £1000, so you don't have to buy on finance is splurge on £12k+ at once

Unless you have a large budget there's absolutely no reason to choose an EV over a normal car. Running costs and charging points are not even in the equation

You were quite explicitly and directly replying to someone talking about costs. No stretching needed

They won't be able to as it's Utter horseshite.

Comparing it to a 1976 Cortina😂😂

You compare any modern car to a 1976 Cortina and it's going to be the same story!

Absolutely agree, so many people talking bollocks.

Be interesting to see how they're going to install enough chargers for car drivers who live in tower blocks, or streets of terraced houses with very limited parking once everyone is forced into driving an EV.

I think we need a society that basically has less cars - nobody is going to be forced into driving an EV.
if you’re in a tower block you’ll be in a town, hopefully with public transport access

but near in mind if you do have an EV, unless you’re high mileage you will only have to charge it every 2 -3 weeks, not every day. We don’t need nearly as many chargepoints as EVs.

They don't want everyone driving an EV though - that's the point. They want less cars on the road and this is one way to achieve that - by making car ownership unaffordable for most.

Threads like this always end up descending into anarchy lol

Honestly, this is a huge part of the issue in the UK.

In many countries across Europe, the deal is “Car dependent lifestyles are for rural areas and the outskirts of cities; anyone who lives pretty centrally at high density will be in a position where they don’t have to own a car (or at most, will need one car only, or be in a car sharing scheme etc.).” That means that it all sort of balances out; the need to own a car gets higher in more spacious, loosely populated areas where everyone has plenty of place to put a car on a driveway and charge it; in urban areas where everyone is more squashed together, there is less need to own cars.

The UK, because it isn’t very good at transport policy, has terrible public transport even in big cities, with the exception of London. Even in the CENTER of said cities. So we’ve got millions of people crowded into little terraces and even flats with no driveways, who have only rubbish public transport available and therefore still need to crowd multiple-cars-per-family into their cramped streets (while having fights with their neighbors about it).

Most people here seem to be looking at issues with today’s technology and infrastructure and writing off ev cars without having any appreciation of the volume of r&d going on in the field of sustainable transport. Battery life, range, charging speeds and methods, battery components and production methods etc etc are going to look radically different in 10 years time - the tech is in its infancy right now.

Anyone considered wifi charging….? Electric planes?

https://www.greencars.com/greencars-101/the-future-of-ev-batteries

https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/low-carbon-aviation/hybrid-and-electric-flight

London has plenty of on street EV charging with narrow streets of terraced houses.
There are working examples if you're actually interested.

I think actually that we need to think differently about transport.

Fundamentally people do not like public transport. They want the independence of their own car.
I can think of a dozen scenarios where public transport doesn't work, and it is unlikely to ever work. Then factor in things like weather and being female late at night and it makes the times I would use public transport even less.
And I am talking about within a city, or between 2 decent sized local towns.

So what we should be thinking about is a sort of 'local car' a bit like a smart car. Smaller, lighter weight, and fundamentally mich cheaper than a full car. Something which gets us to all places within 5-10 miles, but mostly local trips. All school runs, local shopping, popping round to friends etc, all done by a 'local car' And giving massive incentives for using 'local car' rather than real car. Things like free parking, use of bus lanes etc.

Then using different transport for longer trips. Either a more convential car, and using car shares, car hires, car pools of some sort, or using public transport.

We need to move away from the idea that everyone is getting on a bus.
I'm not.
But I would happily switch to something else, cost allowing.

The working examples are currently sparse.

As I have pointed out, my council specifically vetoes the installation of EV chargers "immediately outside residential properties" which on a terraced street like mine means they can't be installed at all.

Would you propose this "local car" being something privately owned, or something that could be rented- like a car version of the boris bikes?

I think it would take hours because on busy days there are queues for petrol pumps. It takes 5 minutes to fill a car with petrol and pay. It takes significantly longer to charge a car so you could be waiting a very long time. AND you need the right app for the right charger. And they need to be working.

A few of the taxi drivers in my town have moved to electric cars (partly because of the ULEX and Heathrow runs) and they say the electric chargers often don't work. They don't all have driveways where they can charge their cars easily.

Until the infrastructure is improved, I will stick to my hybrid (which, incidentally, was half the cost of an equivalent electric car when I got it).

I would be totally in favour of car clubs everywhere. We have two cars but could manage quite well with one most of the time. I would totally use a car club if there were one near me.

@steppemum So what we should be thinking about is a sort of 'local car' a bit like a smart car. Smaller, lighter weight, and fundamentally mich cheaper than a full car. Something which gets us to all places within 5-10 miles, but mostly local trips. All school runs, local shopping, popping round to friends etc, all done by a 'local car' And giving massive incentives for using 'local car' rather than real car. Things like free parking, use of bus lanes etc.

These sort of solutions are already in existence and working. There are a couple of share cars along the streets around me, so in theory you rent them for an hour or two for a local trip or even a weekend away and simply park them in the street where there is space when you are done.