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?

Ok how do they actually save the planet? please explain in detail the parts, batteries, how they are charged every aspect of them and how together it actually makes a difference to the planet?

https://www.cornishsecrets.co.uk/guide/where-to-charge-electric-car-cornwall/

I would be concerned my insurance will go up a lot, have people noticed this, I pay about £200 a year at the moment and wouldn't want to be paying about £500 or something like that as my mileage is so low, well under 2k a year, also tax going up as well would wipe out any savings, my car is £20. I do have a drive to charge on. They seem to be more for people that do a higher mileage to make the savings. I have thought of buying one, only a small one like a Fiat not a Tesla or anything like that.

Ours is brilliant and we’d really struggle to go back.

Charging is a breeze
Dramatically reduced costs
Serviced Infrequently
No faults in over 2 years
Better acceleration

They produce zero emissions. Even including their entire lifestyle, from manufacturing to disposal, they have less environmental impact than a petrol powered vehicle.

What car is he driving that only does 100 miles on a full charge?!

Also, the battery hardly runs down at all when you’re stuck in traffic because, aside from air conditioning/heating/listening to the radio, you’re not using any energy while you’re stationary.

You’re not burning fossil fuels in a combustion engine. Petrol/diesel doesn’t need to be produced and shipped around the world. In the past 12 months 42.3% of the electricity in the UK has come from renewables, and this figure is predicted to keep going up, so you’re car is partially running on wind/solar energy which is emission free.

The initial carbon footprint of an EV is higher than that for an old fashioned ICE vehicle, but the break-even point, depending on vehicle, is between 30k and 40k miles. After that, the EV has a lower carbon footprint, and over the typical lifespan of a car emits 20% to 30% less CO2. Furthermore, the emissions generated from power generation are not in populated areas, whereas the emissions from burning petrol and diesel tend to be emitted in populated areas. And that’s before we come on to the problematic particulate emissions from diesel.

@CrownCoats Some have very low distance in winter.

I think your range information might be out of date? We can get to our son at Uni in Lancaster 220 miles away (usually 5 hours drive given traffic) without charging. We then charge fairly cheaply on campus or in the council car park over night. We don't normally drive any further than that, though we are planning on driving to France this summer which may be interesting! We bought our car about a year ago.

Charging in France is super easy - don’t worry about that! We’ve been 3 times in our Enyaq, never had to worry. We used a combination of the chargemap app and google maps but generally it was v easy. Motorway signs will also tell you if there are chargers at the service station.

@irregularegular How old a EV is really matters. Some older models definitely won’t do 220 miles. Especially in winter. I’m not sure I’d trust my year old BMW to do that. It’s surprisingly “thirsty” on motorways. It’s ok if you know you can charge cheaply and easily. If you cannot, and chargers are in use or out of order, it’s quite stressful. Then there’s the cost. These days, charging rates can be so high, they are no better than petrol. The cost of a EV car is often higher too. Therefore it is not a straightforward decision on cost if you do not have your own charger. We have solar panels and batteries and air source heat pumps. Ev is good for us but I’m still not taking it to Cornwall.

If you must use commercial chargers and pay the new tax, it’s not very attractive. In London you probably won’t be charging anywhere near your flat. Congestion charge coming in on 25 December too. It’s not a saving over petrol for everyone.

I'm not at all.concerned about Cornwall - both ZapMap and my car app show heaps of chargers (but thanks for the article, @mafsfan - useful to have a written list as well). And plenty of hotels and B&Bs have their own chargers these days, as well as the public ones.

@NoBinturongsHereMate Deprnds if you are staying at the hotel or bnb. Public chargers are sporadic.

It is research proven that they are not cost effective for everyone, because you have to take into account the cost of the car versus the number of miles over the course of the years you own it. If you do t do plenty of long runs they cost more. Although from a green perspective they are unarguably better.

Some cars you can. Some you cant

It's not that bloody long ago that the government were encouraging people to use diesels rated than petrol as apparently less emissions. Then flip flopped. So how can we trust them to not change their minds on what is the " right " car to drive. I had a diesel that was £20 a year tax based on emissions. So hardly that polluting. I now have a 1 litre petrol for working. I'm a food delivery driver and some of the few insurance companies that cover it won't insure electric cars.

Also drive a hybrid. Yeah it's nicer to drive but the low mileage range (31 max) negates the point of the electric really and on longer journeys have to use the 2 litre petrol engine

I’ve just bought a Fiat 500e and I moved from the petrol version and my insurance has gone up by £60 for the whole year

This conversation is very interesting! I am thinking of getting a hybrid, but concerned about a lot of what has been said already.

Also, I am very aware of the green washing of EVs, that electricity (mostly) comes from power stations which operate on fosil fuels, plus these lithium batteries are not very eco friendly.

But, I agree with some one up thread who mentioned that the infrastructure is improving.

Most electricty in the UK is not from on fossil fuel sources. For 2024 26.3% was generated from gas and 0.6% from coal. 14% was nuclear, and 14.1% imported, mainly from France but also Norway and the Netherlands. Most of that will be nuclear (France), hydroelectric (Norway) and a bit of gas (Netherlands). So the majority of electricity used in the UK is actually from renwable sources, with nuclear and fossil fuel making up the rest, in roughly equal proportions

www.neso.energy/news/britains-electricity-explained-2024-review#:~:text=How%20was%20electricity%20generated%20in,%2C%20averaging%2051%25%20during%202024.

Yes, they were. But there's more than one type of emission. Have you never had a car MOT'd and read the emissions report? Diesels are better than petrol regarding CO2 production - that is a global, climate change issue and the government of the time was tasked with decreasing national CO2 production. But diesels are poorer on particulate emissions and oxides of nitrogen - a more local, air quality issue. Both important but separate issues. NOx is important in both respects actually. The primary concerns are around air quality and respiratory illnesses but they're also significant greenhouse gases, and over half of NOx production is estimated to be from transport.
And EVs are better in both respects.
Of course they have their own environmental issues and it's perfectly possible, indeed desirable, that something different will be recommended in the future. It's called progress.

They really, really aren't. There were over 750 publicly available chargers at the end of last year in Cornwall. And more are being installed all the time.

I used to think the same way, completely believed the industry propaganda about chargers being infrequent. Husband decided to get an EV and we have never had a problem charging away from home. I am completely converted. It is a far more enjoyable driving experience.

electricity (mostly) comes from power stations which operate on fosil fuels,
Except it (mostly) doesn't. Not in the UK anyway.
Obviously it varies from day to day depending on weather conditions, but as I type only 8.7% of the electricity going into the National Grid is being produced from fossil fuels. 67.5% is from renewables and the rest is coming from nuclear, biomass and we're importing a bit from Denmark and Norway this morning. I confess I don’t know how Scandinavian electricity is produced but I'd be prepared to take a guess that it's not coal fired power stations.
There's been a steep downward trajectory with something approaching a 70% decrease in emissions produced by electricity generation in this country since 2012. If you live in a country that does still produce most of its electricity from coal powered power stations (I think Poland does) then obviously the arguments are different, but in this country, in terms of emissions, EVs get greener the longer you have one - they'll have paid off their manufacturing debt and, assuming the trend continues, be using greener electricity to run. I doubt there's an internal combustion engine in history that can claim it gets cleaner as it ages!
You can tailor when you charge to tie in with renewable energy production too. I don't know about other companies but we use Octopus and the app tells us when it's a "green day" - usually when it's windy and there's a surplus of electricity nationally - and we get a cheaper rate if we charge then.
Of course there is an environmental cost to all forms of transport and all forms of power generation, but in terms of emissions in general, and air quality in particular I think it's very hard to argue in favour of ICE vehicles. Hopefully the environmental credentials of transport will continue to improve with time and some of the other issues with EVs will be overcome but right now I think they're the best we have. The "you're just shifting the emissions to filthy power stations" argument certainly doesn't hold water.

I think gas is a fossil fuel though?

But, not to derail - I am happy to know that UK is moving towards green energy more and more. I'm leaning towards buying a hybrid and it does make me feel a bit better about it.

Yes it is. That's where virtually all our fossil fuel generated electricity comes from and it is still significant - unless we become more reliant on nuclear I can't see us ever using no gas. But it's nowhere near "most" electricity. There will be some days when we use quite a lot of gas - when it's neither sunny nor windy- but other days when it's barely any. At 15.00 today just 7.5% of electricity going into the National Grid was coming from gas and a little over 48% from wind. Over the last 12 months less than a third of UK electricity came from fossil fuels (mainly gas, tiny bit of coal).