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)

You know, I would love all the people who say "nah, that won't work" to tell me what they think will work long term.

ICE? nope, can't afford to kill the planet. If you think you pay a lot for petrol and tax now just wait to see what it costs in twenty years!

Public transport? Well I'm all for it but I can't imagine the sort of princess who won't consider spending twenty minutes charging a car is going to schlep to the bus stop every day.

So come on, those who are so sure EVs aren't the future, put your money where your whinge is and tell me what is the future!

Electric cars are fantastic and I hope are most definitely the future.

We'll have had ours for 5 years in September and we've never kept a car that long.

We absolutely love it and would never buy anything other than electric now.

You've no idea what you're missing but it's your loss. They're the best things going.

I wouldn't rely on that free charging at work perk forever. I really hope you don't use it to power your house too, that's really poor behaviour (unless your employer agreed to it, but I doubt anyone would dare ask).

My workplace centralised the EV charging points and removed the EV chargers from our building's car park making them impractical to access for charging personal vehicles. The chargers were intended for work vehicle use, but were available for personal vehicles if the work vehicles weren't plugged in.
It's probably for the best. People took it for granted and hugely took advantage, unplugging the work vehicles to charge their own, or unplugging other employees cars, causing arguments. There would be squabbles over who needed the chargers the most, and regular break time car shuffles. Breaks were even arranged to accommodate this. It got a bit ridiculous.
When they were removed there was uproar from the EV drivers, who were firmly reminded that free charging had been an unofficial bonus, not a right, and that if you drive a £60k EV you can probably afford to pay for your own electricity to charge it.

From this snapshot I concluded that EV popularity is about money saving and convenience for the vast majority of end users.

I live in a road with 8 terraced houses. There isn't enough space for all the cars and vans to park let alone charge from the one street light in the street. If my local council would just allow me to park on my front garden I could have a charger installed but they won't because I'm not far enough away from the corner.

I only drive about 2000 miles a year in my small petrol car, £20 tax and £200 insurance, I'm sure the outlay, higher tax and insurance on an EV would cost me a lot more, the EV would be worn out before I came near to recouping the cost.

I am on my second electric car. They are great for the environment, they are cheap to run if you ignore the higher cost (though costs are falling all the time), and fun to drive. They perform well and have lower maintenance costs. That being said I get mine through a company scheme which means I do not so much feel the higher new car price and I have a drive which means I have a charging point. No shame in getting a petrol car if this suits you for the moment. In four/five years prices will be lower, ranges even higher and there will be more options for people without a drive. If I were buying a small petrol car I notice Kia still have some good petrol models, minis I always think are cool alongside maybe a Fiat.

I did see on another thread they can cause travel sickness, obviously that is the passengers not the drivers but I think that would put me off if I was likely to be a passenger in one.

Fossil fuels are no longer the main source of energy in the UK.

https://grid.iamkate.com/

As of posting this the UK is currently using about 7-8% fossil fuels.

THIS!!!!! This is the main issue. The charging takes ages and is not standardised across Europe. I drive long distances and can't risk getting stuck somewhere and having to spend ages charging.

I have a plug in hybrid, most of the miles I do are local so the small range works for me, but I can still drive long distances when necessary. I fill up with petrol about 3 times a year, it costs me 80p to charge overnight. The drive is much better in electric mode.

Honestly in your situation no. Go for something like the self charging hybrid Yaris mentioned above

This is a problem to be solved. There are kerbside chargers. Perhaps community charger hubs are needed, that several people pay a membership to use, then charging is at the same rate as someone with their own charger. But it can, and will, be solved.

Depends on how you need your car. Mine charges at home while I sleep. On a long journey, I wouldn't drive 300 miles without a break. A 20 minute break, with a fast charger will give you enough charge till you next need a break. You don't have to stand next to the car, just plug it in and go for a drink and pee. By the time you have finished, car us charged. A Nissan Leaf wouldn't suit you, but a large BMW would

Do you not sleep? Or drink? Or go to the loo? You can't do any if these while filling up your car. Oh, what do you do when your car is in for a service? Or spending £1,000 having a new cam belt fitted? My first service is due in 2 years. And that us just a check. No oil change, brakes hardly used.

Bloody love ours. And we can’t charge at home. We make it work. We are not princesses though.

Like not having to sit in a traffic jam in the city feeling bad that I’m pumping out noxious fumes which trashed the air quality. This is a real issue where we are.

Agree also interested to hear the nay sayers proposals for the future. Putting your head in the sand and crashing on with ICE not an option. It’s already £12 a day to drive those polluting cars in Birmingham London and Bristol.

We have a terrace house and can’t charge at home. Battery 220 miles. I charge when I do the supermarket shop or if we go to cinema. Or while I’m at gym. One session does us for week. You work round it. We are committed to it though

People need to stop buying new cars all the time. That us by far the most harmful element. The industry needs to be vastly reduced and people should expect to keep cars for at least 10 years.

So many people with monthly car payments reducing their household income for totally unnecessary cars.

Only long journey we do regularly is Dd at uni. There’s a fast charge at a macdonalds near her halls so we get a coffee or breakfast muffin and top up there.

We do that. Got our last car in 2011 got this EV last year hope to have it for next 10 years.

I would imagine this is why many are put off. Charging just takes too long. They need to work on this!

We had to make the choice recently as my car was dying. We went with an EV, but I can charge at home and at work. Mine has a 185 mile range and my commute is 25 miles round trip a day. I usually only need to charge it once a week and maybe a small top up but it depends what we use it for at the weekend. In December/January I used a bit more battery each day as it was colder but generally one charge a week is fine. There are some with a 300 mile ranges available. Charging is usually easy as it’s being charged when I’m not using it (say in the car park at work/sat on the drive at home).

Like many people I can only afford to buy second hand cars and am currently driving a 10 year old Ford Fiesta which is cheap to run and pretty energy efficient. When it becomes too unreliable or expensive to repair I will look at a second-hand EV, so I'm keeping an eye on the price of these. They're definitely getting cheaper although still more expensive than their petrol comparators. I could have a charging point where I live but installation wouldn't be cheap - we all have parking spaces which aren't quite next to our houses, so any installation would involve digging a trench across our private lane. However, several neighbours have done it, so it's obviously possible. Like many people most of my travel is relatively local, with a few long trips a year, so it would be very possible for me.

Only older ones are subject to the charge, not all ICE

EVs are really only practical for people who have off street parking. For anyone living in flats or terraced housing, the infrastructure isn't there. So they're really only for the better off.

Also EVs are mainly manufactured in China. So we're handing a massive economic advantage to a hostile state.