To not get an electric car?

[Jamesblema]

I was keen to get one as our second car (small-ish run around mainly for DH to do his 25 min commute every week day - we have a larger family car).

My main reasons were the savings on running costs and the benefit to the environment. I figured we could spend 6-8k on the car and then we would save massively on petrol costs. However, taking to the men at our local garage has put me off- they said that electricity costs are almost as much as petrol and repairs on electric cars require specialist mechanics and can be massively more expensive especially when something goes wrong with the battery. They also said that the estimated remaining mileage is often more than you actually have left and you can easily run out of charge and need to stop for over an hour to charge up. The cost of buying a hybrid is putting me off that option too.

So aibu to keep my petrol car at the cost of the environment? Any positive electric car experiences?

@NCForQuestions - I rarely go anywhere where I'd do over 240 miles in one journey; that's the only time I would need to charge away from home

That's quite a bit further than 'tootling' about though
I keep it charged up all the time so never had any inconvenience

If you were doing a commute of over 100 miles each way daily, then I wouldn't recommend it (unless you can charge it at work)

I finally got my first one a couple months ago it is a Genesis GV60 and I absolutely love it.

The biggest push for us to get an electric car was local tailpipe emissions - most kids' activities are about 8 miles away but as they're around the wheel rather than radial public transport is not possible - 20 minutes or 2 hours by train/bus.

Same for our commutes, but there's a lot of queueing traffic that the EV likes (get 5 miles per kWh) but is bad for the diesel's DPF.

We've done Glasgow to Glencoe and back without charging which is about the kids' limit for a day trip travel time anyway...

Would I go electric for an only car, probably not yet, but as a second "runaround" absolutely as slow runaround trips are generally the worst for engine wear and emissions in a diesel ICE

That was the only electric car I tried and liked driving, but the shape was all wrong resulting in a too-small boot. :-/

An electric car and an ICE reach parity for their environmental footprint after about 100,000 miles after that the EV wins.

Could you show me one please?

The Polestar 2 LCA is here https://www.polestar.com/dato-assets/11286/1630409045-polestarlcarapportprintkorr11210831.pdf

My friend has one of the cheaper cars. We took an hour trip to my family. Had to leave her car charging in the park all day and it ran out of charge on way back. No way have electric car. The stress on the journey back was awful. I think maybe if you buy one of the expensive ones might be worth it as better range. They not good as you think environmental anyway and the risk of exploding...one exploded outside my mil house...it's a total no. Wait a few more years as think something else will appear...this might be the betamax to the VHS if you know what I mean....

She hasn’t done 100,000 miles yet……. (Highly specialist car.)

But if you consider that most people don’t keep cars this long, and would have had maybe 2, 3 or more cars in 19 years, I’m saving the production and disposal impact 2-3 times over.

Last post on this as you can't force people to see reality.
Electric vehicles are less carbon polluting - yup; electric vehicles are a step in the right direction - yup; but not green considering cradle to grave - every study posted in this thread ONLY talks about carbon and brushes over the rest of the environmental concerns. Even Elon Musk says that EVs needed to get started so there would be investment to one day make them green which is what is happening. Deforestation, habitat destruction and water pollution further exacerbate the ecological toll. The delicate balance of nature is disrupted, which leaves long-lasting damage that takes generations to heal. The carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions that come with the process of lithium mining, extraction and overall production are worse for the climate than the production of fossil fuel-powered vehicles. A study from The Wall Street Journal in 2019 revealed that 40% of the total climate impact caused by the production of lithium-ion batteries comes from the mining process itself. And so on!

@SOBplus the link you supports everybody else's view not yours.

It seems that many of the people who love their EVs are able to charge at home. It makes sense. Checking on zap map all the charging points within 15 miles of me cost at least 80p/kWh. There is one that's "only" 55p but it's restricted to customers of a business. Meanwhile the overnight EV tariff with my energy supplier is 7p/kWh!

New cars are carbon intensive to build - all that steel and plastic - whether they're ICE or EV. And batteries are particularly carbon intensive to make so nearly half of the embedded/embodied carbon in the life of an EV is produced before it's even left the factory. And lithium mining is a real issue (although hopefully less environmentally damaging sodium batteries may be on the way).

I was a Green Party member until recently. They do promote zero emission vehicles like battery EVs but many diehard environmentalists say that rather than worry about EV vs ICE we should just be avoiding private cars whenever we can, through walking, cycling, public transport or taxis. A petrol moped is a better option in the transport "hierarchy" than an electric car!

But when this isn't practical - like an unavoidable daily commute which has to be by car - then the "Green" recommendation is sometimes to get the smallest/lightest car for your needs, buy it second hand (but not a banger), use it as little as you can and keep it for as long as it's reasonably efficient rather than changing for new every few years. So for some a second hand EV might fit the bill but then so might a small-engined ICE car.

If our next car ends up being an ICE car we'll keep it for a decade, use it as little as possible and not feel guilty. But then we don't live in an urban area, don't have to commute and don't have access to charging at home.... everyone's situation is different.

Absolutely, I would never recommend one to anyone who cant charge at home

I was on the motorway last week and there was mile after mile of flashing messages saying no ev charging at service stations. I’m not sure what had gone wrong.
We then spent an hour in a traffic jam caused by a car running out of electricity in the middle lane.
It really put me off, if this is a regular occurrence what happens if you are going a long way?

The angst on here over EVs is always good for a laugh.

if it suits your lifestyle, have one.
if it doesn’t, don’t.

that simple. Bit like having kids really 😂

I recently bought a new (to me) car. I would have liked an electric but it is our only car and I worried about charging it on long journeys.

I went for a plug in hybrid instead. Best of both worlds in my view. All my local motoring is electric and very cheap (we have solar panels and our own charger) and on long journeys I have the security of being able to stop at a petrol station.

My brother's EV gives him anxiety about the charge situation

personally, if you are are spending 6-8k, I'd go with a petrol car that can get fixed easily by someone local wtih readily available parts if there are problems. id worry that spending that little on an EV means that you are going to get a shit EV. But you can get a decent petrol for the money.

Thanks all! Seems conclusive that buying a cheaper end electric car would be a disaster. I’ll hold off until my current car packs in and then look at how much money I have for a hybrid

It's absolutely not conclusive

Plenty of people who actually own EVs have said overwhelmingly positive things. There has also been a lot of misinformation posted - as there always is with EVs.

My guess is you will believe what you want to believe.

The maths might tell a different story though.

And as with all of these sorts of things, you need quite a lot of detail in order to establish whether or not electric cars are a good purchase - detail for whatever reason people are often unwilling to provide.

I have a plug in hybrid. It works well for me. A bit too well in the respect I don't use much petrol with it at all.

I am worried though about not running the engine. It only gets fired up once every couple of weeks. Which is not great as engines really do need to be run.

good decision op.
We recently changed our car and had a good budget for a new one.
We spent weeks researching EVs but all the conversations and internet searches pointed towards not going EV.
I think a better technology is around the corner. I suspect EVs are the new Betamax.

There really aren't any better technologies round the corner. EVs are the future for personal everyday domestic transport.

yep, we will see

Got one of each. Love driving the electric and great to charge at home. Cheap to run too. BUT range anxiety is real, charging in some parts of the country is a joke and for longer journeys on unknown roads, I’d rather take the petrol car. Which rather makes a mockery of the cheaper to run electric car if I don’t use it on long journeys…

we should just be avoiding private cars whenever we can, through walking, cycling, public transport or taxis.

This just isn’t practical in large parts of the country. I have to commute to London 3-4 weeks a month. Despite living about 20 miles from Cardiff I’m in a public transport black spot. Have to drive to the bus or train. And then getting back late at night as a lone female I want to get off the London train and into my car, not onto a train (provided it’s not cancelled) which still leaves me 4 miles from home.