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.

What makes you think I hadn't done that which kind of proves my point. There were no charging points close enough to be convenient to my route except for the motorway. As I said in my OP, I was at a major tourist destination yet there was only 1 50kwh charger within a 3 mile radius. There were technically 4 charging points at the services but as two were out of order I ended up having to wait.

I own my house but it's situated in a courtyard. So,no drive. No idea how I'd manage an electric car.

Electric corsa we looked at in 2020, fiat do a tiny electric also, Dacia spring is due out next year as a small electric around £17k

17k is over four times what we can afford to spend on a car.

Saying "you can get them cheaper" is irrelevant when "cheaper" still means "extortionate" and is well out of the price range of most people.

DH and I both rely on our cars for work and neither of us spend more than 4k on either of our vehicles. I genuinely can't afford 17k!

Yes I am aware. I am not stupid. We looked at this.

As I have said repeatedly and you haven't grasped, £20k for a car is the big limiter. The upcoming Dacia is the one I think will start to 'break the market' because of the price point.

As I said, DH and I bought BOTH our cars for less than £22k. Price is a big deal. And I really echo this point
They are only really for fairly well off people and company car drivers not the wider public.

The number of people who can't grasp that a lot of others can't afford more than £10k on a car, and you need the lower end of the market as well as the second hand market to develop.

Battery technology isn’t there yet and there isn’t the capacity in the National Grid for everybody to have an electric car.

This is also a really good point. We've had an issue with electric locally. Many substations are at capacity for the number of properties they serve already (often due to a lot of new builds without additional substations being added). There was a new service added which needed a road closed for weeks whilst they built and extension to the next substation because the local one was over capacity. Adding electric charge points isn't going to help matters. Solar panels will set you back the best part of £10k. If you can even install them (can't if you rent or your house isn't suitable).

If you think about in these terms it's not necessarily just about the cost of the car. It's the cost of putting in your own charge point (if you can) and potentially the cost of solar panels...

We don't have street charging or any off-road parking so he'd be reliant on one of the two public chargers in the area, neither of which are close to our house.
I think this is a really valid point. I wouldn't currently buy an EV if I couldn't charge at home. Environmental issues aside, I think that the biggest advantage of having an EV is being able to charge at home - I have got so used to it now that I find it really annoying and inconvenient when I need to take my ICE car for fuel. But if you are fully reliant on the current commercial public chargers I can see that an EV would be neither practical nor financially viable for many people. Some joined up thinking is required, probably at national government level, to deal with that. Whether it is developments in battery technologies, charging technologies and infrastructure or the development of other alternative fuels, solutions have to be found, as whether we like it or not we can't continue to rely on fossil fuels indefinitely. I don't think we are anywhere near it being feasible for everyone to drive an EV yet, but there is definitely scope for more of us to do so.

@margotrose - new. I’m talking new. You can’t get that many new cars for £17k now can you? So the comparison that electric is expensive’ is not correct when your comparing like for like ie new for new.

You can get secondhand electric of course and the price will vary like petrol by age, mileage etc. saying it’s £65k on Austria trader for 400mile capability is a poor comparison, you can buy a brand new Tesla model 3 for less than £65k.

@RedToothBrush - ok. You believe that. Our 2022 new electric costs us less per month than our 17 year old corsa did.

The public charging infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with the purchase/registration rate of electric vehicles, that’s for sure (I have an electric car). The best thing to do re motorway charging is to actually come off the motorway a mile or so and charge at local points. They are usually less busy, cheaper and more reliable. Use an app to plan your stops.

Around a week ago, a couple of YouTubers drove an EV and a Diesel from John O'groats to Landsend.

The EV story: Q_

How many people buy new?

Many people buy nearly new. There isn't the number of cars in circulation for that yet. That's again part of the issue. The market is still in its infancy and not fully developed enough.

My friends have ordered an electric. It took two months to get the charge point in. The waiting list for the car is at least six months possibly longer (By contrast we walked into the showroom and had my car by the end of the week)

In that kind of market there isn't a nearly new market. That cuts a whole pile of people out.

There were SO many reasons we didn't go for an electric in the end. We very much were interested and open to it. But it just wasn't the right time.

Ignoring the tiny Citroen Ami (because they're pointless for anyone with a family), the cheapest petrol car on the market right now is the Kia Picanto at 13k.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/best-cars-vans/351901/top-10-cheapest-cars-buy-2023

The cheapest electric car (that isn't the Citroen Ami) is a Smart Car which costs 22k, and the next cheapest is 26k - so, double the cost of the similarly sized petrol equivalent.

https://heycar.com/uk/guides/cheapest-electric-cars

So yes, price is going to be a huge factor. People looking for a cheap, new family car are not going to go electric.

YABU...

We have a (low) 200 miles per charge EV, and a (high) 800+ miles per tank diesel estate. Both are fine for long and short journeys but need different sorts of planning. Both are stressful if you drive them to almost empty with no options, and then start to try and make a plan. Neither is stressful if you plan ahead and make sure you have options. The EV will go for about 4 hours at a realistic UK average speed before a 20min stop and a fast charge. The diesel estate will go along way across Europe on a tank, but the softie humans still need a wee, a coffee and a driver change more frequently, often about every 4 hours....

The infrastructure for both is already here....

It just adds a lot more stuff to do and plan - work out where the chargers are, make sure you’ve downloaded all the apps, choose one and a back up, go and move the car once it’s charged etc. And then that for charging at home, as well as on long journeys, for those of us without driveways. I’ve got enough mental load as it is.

It's to get cars off the road, of course everyone isn't going to be able to have an electric car as they will have to use the bus, cycle or walk, if you haven't got two pence to rub together it's not for you.

At the moment EVs are really only for city living people with larger car budgets.

Until the price point changes (a lot) and until charging points have decent geographical coverage outwith cities (in Scotland) then I won't be switching.

PS public transport is absolutely pish outwith the cities so that's not going to get me out of my petrol car either.

Yes, but that's it. We stop for 30 minutes or so, go to the loo and get a drink and a snack. We may also get petrol on the longer journeys.

We don't want to spend x minutes (or hours) waiting to get onto a charging point and then wait another 45 minutes for the actual charging to happen.

That's why I think a plug-in hybrid is the answer - you can charge at home, and then if you can't charge easily en route, you just use petrol until you can.

It also assumes you are doing your travelling on motorways with service areas. If you are using A roads and stop at a pub, there (probably) won't be charging points.

Oh and the app thing. At the moment, I go to a petrol station and use my debit card. No having to mess about downloading apps, uploading details and having to find the right sort of charger for the right app.

It's a total nonsense.

In terms of weight, as people have mentioned the weight, surely hybrids are worse as the have an engine and the battery to cope with?

But just referencing the OP, yes I am put off EVs at the moment for two reasons, one is cost, like others on the thread, my top price for a car is 4k and I need a range of around 350 reliable miles, not fantasy miles.

Its a shame as I would like to stop paying so much for petrol but I have long and unpredictable and short notice trips to make quite a lot. My OH has a very long commute which would require a predictable range of at least 200, he wouldnt have anywhere to charge it during the day either so we have discounted it for him also (not to mention we simply cannot afford one for either of us right now)

This thread is electric car classic

All current electric car owners - we love it, no problems. Had several for years

Everyone who doesn’t own one - it won’t work, charging problems, cost, mileage etc

God Im sick of hearing this

For us when we're doing a long drive, the last thing I want to do is spend time hanging around a petrol station or services on the motor way,, we try to plan little stops at small cafes or pubs if we actually want to eat

But if the journey involves the inevitable stop to fill up with petrol/nip to the loo, I can easily spend 20-30 mins queuing up to come off the motor way, trailing round the car park for a space, parking up, going into the services which are miles from the only space you can find. queuing to use the loo, queuing to buy a coffee, trudging back to the car, loading up the car with scalding coffee in the drinks holder which you then snag your leg on because you're trying to rush and off I go

I am not adding on another 45 mins on top of that farce to charge up a car. No way.

@timetochangethering

Oh and it's PETROL and DIESEL that is up to 20 times more likely to catch fire than electric. That one always shocks people and it is completely true!

And you're more likely to be bitten by a Yorkshire terrier than an XL Bully. The point is the consequences are wildly different. Your other points are fair, but it doesn't help anyone to underplay the risks of lithium ion.

@bellac11 - we drove 1000km+ there and then back through several countries this summer. We never charged at motorway ( but did stop for wee and to check out charging options). We charged at accommodation, outside restaurant, in multi-storey car park in a city, and at a random parking spot on beach. Motorway services are where many people do stop though on long drives, hence why people say it’s just a 30 min charge and can do whilst there

Except that there are electric car owners on this thread who have said they've had issues with finding charging points and doing long journeys.

I'm not against electric cars, I think they're a good idea, but I am realistic about what most of the population can afford and where they live. If you don't have access to your own guaranteed charger then it's not going to be easy to own one.

Where I live, there are four public charging points within a 20 mile radius. That's it.

dont forget WEF do not want us to have our own houses,the goal is we rent cars call them as we need them (claus said our cars are unused and 90percent of the time not in use so waste of resource),as for our homes aim is everyone renting no house ownership, travel super limited what is it one return flight a year is the aim?

Might be okay if you use it a to b inside a town/city,electric bike would be fine too.

I personally would not want to go on a motorway,especially in the winter driving for long distances in a toy car.