Electric cars are NOT the future, are they?

[Isometimeswonder]

I am genuinely torn. I need want a new car but really don't want electric.
But so few smaller petrol cars are made now.
I haven't got a place to charge a car at home.
AIBU I should accept electric is the future.
AINBU I should get petrol. (Please recommend a small city car)

the only good about ecarsare you cant koll youself with carbon
monoxide
when i live no way to plug them in, too much water hurricaines will destroy aftert he last one aminor one my friend/tow rig/had to pickup 2dozen dead carsz

To be fair there's not that many petrol motorcycles that can do 250+ miles before refuelling and even fewer that you'd want to be sat on for that long without a break. That's, what, four or five hours? When I used to do motorcycle touring I'd normally be looking for fuel at 130-150 miles.

But I agree there aren't any electric motorcycles that can match that kind of range yet. They're getting closer but the weight/range trade-off is the main limiting factor.

You may be right. I'm only going on what I've heard mooted as a potential for the future.

None of us know how technology will develop in the future - nowadays, huge steps forward sometimes begin out of the blue and become accepted as commonplace within 10-15 years, if not more quickly.

For what it's worth, I'm not personally sold on EVs at all - just thinking about the potential pros and cons weighed against a lot of common reasons for hesitancy.

I think people just need to accept that EV's don't work for everyone, but are briliant for others. There's no need to bash them just because they don't suit you.
I'm an EV convert. I like to take my time on a long journey, and need to let the dogs out for a wee break etc. I've never not been able to find a convenient charger - even in the Outer Hebrides!

On a daily basis, My spend has gone from £300pcm on diesel to £30pcm on home charging.

I'm really curious. How do you charge an electric car, if you live in a terraced house? Do you drape your cable across the path and hope no one falls over? What if you have one of those pedestrianised terraces? I used to live in an end terrace like this where cars could not park outside their house which is why I'm thinking about it!

You don’t. We briefly lived in a terrace like the one you describe and we didn’t charge at home - we charged at work, where the car park had charging spaces, or stopped at the local fast charger, of which there are loads in our area. It worked because in a normal week, a single charge would see us through. It is much more convenient now we have a driveway.

Some places have installed channels across the pavement to allow for charging cables. Others require you to have cable bridges like this https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-ultra-cable-cover-2m-black/995RA. Some streets have charging points in the lamp-posts.

I really love ours. We have an EV and a bigger petrol car (Kodiaq 7-seater) that we mainly use for holidays.

The EV so nice to drive and saves us so much money, especially as DH’s work currently still pay him 45p or whatever it is a mile for business use. He’s always volunteering for road trips. One business trip pays all our leisure use for like two months as it only costs us about £3 for a full charge. It’s great not having to ever think about filling up with petrol too, we live rurally so a trip the petrol station is something we had to go out of our way for as nearest one is like 45-min round trip. Now it just charges overnight and is always ready in morning.

I never understand the complaints about range. Every EV we’ve had has had a range longer than would be sensible to drive in one go

But is there a charger where you want to take a break? We drove from the Isle of Skye home last year which is just under 10 hours. We stopped at a forestry commission site to walk the dogs - no chargers, then at a campsite overnight - no chargers, then a country park again the next day - no chargers. So we stopped at least every 2.5 hours but we didn't have to think about stopping somewhere with a charger.

Now I'm not saying it's impossible in an EV, but there's an extra level of planning that's needed. My car will do about 580 miles on a tank so after filling up on Skye I didn't need to consider fuelling in our plans at all

My first venture in to electric. Got told couldn't install charging point due to meter location and surface hot water pipes. I charge via a 3 pin plug, is VERY slow but it works. Driving range is nowhere near advertised so takes careful planning for a mid journey charge....but also, places I need to regularly visit do not have a decent charging infrastructure (one being west london - the few very close by points are always busy demonstrating there is a clear need for better infrastructure if we want to push the ev agenda). Frankly it's a no for me, when this lease car goes back it's a little petrol I'll be after.

I think, for most people, the range probably isn't a big problem the vast majority of the time - especially if they have a drive and a home charger. The problem is maybe 5-10% of the time when they go on holiday or need to travel an unusually long distance.

The problem is that people don't want a car that they conceive will be perfect for their needs but only for 95% of the time. There seem to be quite a lot of people who sing the praises of their EV, but will also mention that they use their other ICE car for when they go on holiday.

I can see there being a lot of 2-car households which would very happily replace one of them with an EV, and do just fine, but not both of them.

Absolutely everything in your post was laughably wrong. Everything.

If you can't charge at home then I wouldn't bother for a bit. You have nine years of petrol car buying time left before you have to seriously worry and even you will probably still be allowed to buy a self charging Hybrid like the Honda Civic. I suspect eventually flat owners will get grants to have chargers installed in their designated parking spaces but that's probably 10 years away from now.

The real end game is autonomous self driving cars. Why worry about whether to buy car A that's cheap to run but short range or car B that's long range and loads of luggage space but 3 times the price? Just order the car you need when you need it and it comes to pick you up.

I dont get the hatred for electric cars. Of course they dont suit everyone at the moment. Plenty of people can't effectively charge at home as dont have drives. Others feel the range anxiety doesn't suit their lives
But ranges are getting longer volumes of charging points are increasing and they are putting millions into provision for those without drives..
Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) capability: funding amounts - GOV.UK https://share.google/PXp7aZlGYNpK0jfu0

Its quicker than that for me, just plug in at home...

The stories that the traction battery die out are largely fear mongering. They do deteriorate but at a far lesser rate than predicted. The cars look after their charging rates better than many phones, laptops and power tools, helping to preserve their useful life.

Once unsuitable for use in a car they can be recycled or used as a storage battery for domestic use combined with solar panels.

True lithium mining is a problem - but so is oil extraction.

Our electric car is coming upto 10 years old - no noticeable deterioration in range although it is less on a cold day.

Newer ones have 2x the range of our somewhat old school one. I’ve spent next to nothing on it maintenance/repair wise. A few tyres, wipers and a set of brake pads in 100+K miles.

We are lucky and have a drive but there are other home charging solutions are in the pipeline for those without drives.

We have an electric car and are just upgrading from a Zoe (small) to a Mégane.
Electric cars have massively dropped in value recently so you can get some excellent deals especially when you consider the savings on fuel - it cost us £200 total last year to charge the Zoe and we did 8000 miles in it.

However... We have a charge point at home so can charge overnight on a lower tariff. Charging in public is much much more expensive. Speaking to the dealer today they do think that the market will continue to drop before picking back up so anything you bought would continue to drop in value. That being said, an equivalent petrol/diesel car would cost another £10k upfront right now. Electric cars are also more reliable in that they don't go wrong as often and therefore cost less in replacement parts. If they do go wrong though...pricey.

There are pros and cons to both. You need to read up on both options, maybe narrow down your options to specific cars you are interested in and then make a choice.

Ultimately we went with another electric because my partner works in the car industry - he is a lead engineer for a leading car manufacturer, and I trust his judgement. We both also believe that overall (as a scientist I am well aware of the negatives to do with electric cars) they are better for the environment, and that is important to us.

They aren’t charging for the same thing though

The end result is the same but by different means
Like flying to Paris or taking the boat and train. The end result is the same but by different means

Lots of things people may not want but it’s the future

For info, 95% of electric car batteries can now be recycled. I agree with your other points though.

We have one electric and one petrol hybrid that we bought three years ago. We love them. We may go for two fully electric next time but the hybrid is good for long journeys to remote places which I do with my job fairly regularly.

In ten years I expect my suburb to be so much quieter because electric cars make less noise. I don't think we appreciate how much this impacts us all and we'll wonder why we put up with it for so long.

NZ is bringing in road user charges because they are making less money from petrol taxes so our costs will go up a bit in future. I don't do many kms though so will probably still save money.

I think the consultation on that ends Mid March This year

Charging infrastructure is a huge problem - as I travel the country the old urban areas have by far the fewest EVs. And I think that’s because the rows of old houses don’t have parking. Rural areas have more EVs because range isn’t really the issue

Home charging is a tenth of the cost of commercial charging. And it happens when you are parked up overnight - keep it topped up is easy - it’s less hassle than going to a petrol station . It’s ready when you are, you don’t need to fill up

but if you need to rely on commercial chargers - waiting half an hour and paying a fortune …

Please do tell, where the heck are people going to find the extortionate amount if money that these cars cost ? EVs are the Betamax of cars.