To think there are no real perks to driving an electric car?

[MyHeartyBlueShaker]

You’d think there would be more incentives - cheaper parking, easier charging access, or some kind of priority. But in reality, it often feels like there are just extra costs and hassle. What are the actual rewards?

Or if you live in an on street terrace or any other property where you have no parking or easy reach of a socket.

the other downside is the initial expense. My neighbour’s 5 year old EV cost more than triple my 3 year old ICE. if you don’t have the money for the initial purchase that’s a pretty big downside.

neighbours are already considering changing it as things are starting to go wrong. They had calculated they would recoup the cost of the initial purchase within x years, but it hasn’t lasted that long. The cost to repair whatever sensor is alarming is astronomical.

😂

They are much more likely to catch on fire than an electric

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/20/do-electric-cars-pose-a-greater-fire-risk-than-petrol-or-diesel-vehicles

We have a Porsche Cayenne and a Tesla X. We're getting rid of the X because Elon's an unbearable cunt, but we both very definitely prefer driving it to the Porsche. It drives like a dream.

Actually planning on getting rid of the Porsche in the next year or so and going to a Polestar (unless a much better option comes along).

I agree, we currently have a Tesla and before that we mostly had BMW's and do still have one now.
We won't be selling The Tesla despite agreeing that Musk is indeed a Cunt as I like the car and we would loose too much money on it now
But as for saying electric car owners have never driven a nice car thats stupid, we always had nice cars

Has @TizerorFizz said which EV they have? I’m most intrigued to know which one is so awful!

What about if you have no charger at home, cheap or not

Well, I am in that position in one of my homes, and I use kerbside chargers - just plug the car in overnight when it needs charging. Maybe once every couple of weeks. There are 20 or so within a 10 minute walk, and more being installed all the time. This is in a large-ish market town/city in the south. Round me they vary from in cost from 30p to 60p kWh, so between 8p and 16p a mile. But they could charge up to 70p a kWh and they'd still be cost neutral with petrol, for me. Other cars / usage patterns might vary :)

@Tryingtokeepgoing In cities - yes. In the countryside and small towns - no. It’s a massive issue if you cannot charge at home. Also street chargers are way more expensive so not cost effective for many now.

I’m 50/50 on these OP. But was does disturb me is that you don’t hear them coming & could easily get run over by them.

All I can say is that's not my actual experience. But I don't mind if it doesnt work for you. I only do around 20,000 miles a year, and even when I am in location where I can't charge off-road (which I am for around half the year) it is still the most cost effective way of running the sort of car that I do. It is a lot cheaper and more convenient than petrol, but then I only do around 20,000 miles a year nowadays.

I am sure there are some places with fewer chargers where it might be more of an issue, but in over 10 years of driving an eV I haven't encountered them :)

Indeed. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that EVs are 3 times more dangerous to pedestrians than ICE vehicles in urban environments.

https://jech.bmj.com/content/78/8/487

They don't need to offer incentives because they are forcing people to but EVs through government policy.

Where does your info come from?

We live in a rural county in a village 7 miles outside of the nearest small town. There are more rapid and other public chargers closer to our home than DH’s office in north London.

It depends on the area. In Powys in Wales there are 151 chargers - the county covers 2,000 square miles.

Edited to add - these are DfT figures.

2 in our town of over 20k people

I live in the centre of town, in a network of Victorian terraces. These houses were built before anyone had cars. No one has a drive and there is not nearly enough parking for those who live here. We commonly have to park one or two streets away. There are no lamp post chargers and even if there were, they couldn’t possibly fit enough in to accommodate everyone’s electric car. I can’t foresee a time when we will ever be able to have one.

Of course. We’re not far from you and it surprises me how many there are in the relatively small rural area around us compared to where DH works which is prime commuter belt around London and there are fewer chargers as close to his office.

My point is that Tizer has tried to make themselves the voice of all things anti EV on this thread with sweeping statements, whereas most people commenting that they like their EVs are commenting with personal experience and from their own perspective. Some posters are posting with the expectation that they can make sweeping generalisations without providing any evidence, anecdotal or proven fact, to back it up.

One would hope they would see you, although one can generally hear bicycles and electric cars

Of course you could. You just wouldn't be able to charge it at home.

It would cost you more money to run than someone with a driveway and be more inconvenient as you would have to wait at a charger to charge it up, Probably a couple of times a week depending on your usage pattern and car range. But the fueling costs probably wouldn't be that much more than a petrol vehicle.

Paying more because of your house format/location is not unusual in motoring. For example people with terraced housing often have to pay more for insurance because their car is not kept off road on a driveway.

There are 2 on street chargers about half a mile from my house and then some at the supermarket/retail park just over a mile away, why do some places have so many and others so few. I often walk around town and haven't seen any more in my vicinity. It's hard enough to park on some of the terrace house streets, let alone charge a car.

More people who live in the countryside have houses with driveways where charging can happen at home.

not many rows of terraced houses with on street only parking in the country side

Actually lack of chargers is a bit like FTTP broadband, we only got that about 2 years ago and some places still haven't got it. Some places are forever left behind

I’m talking about everyone, not just me personally. In this network of terraces, there are several hundred houses. Not everyone has a car, but some households have two. Are we all going to be queuing up regularly at the local supermarket charging points (I think they have 3, maybe 4)? I don’t think so, it’s unworkable.

Pretty much. It's only once a week. It will get easier as the # of charges increase. Plus I think as time goes on people will be able to book charging stations more easily so it will be less a case of queuing and more a case of just taking your spot when booked.

There are no barriers to the vast majority of people owning an electric car. For some people there is increased costs and for others less convenience. As I posted before if you suddenly turned everyone electric I doubt whether people in terraced housing would be giving up their cars. Yes they might be more inconvenienced in having to wait around charging it for a couple of hours or so a week, but it certainly won't be impossible for them to run an electric car.

If it was then I'm sure the government would not have opted for the mandatory replacement.

It will get even easier when solid state batteries with their increased range/faster charging times start coming in.