Electric cars.

Hi,

Where's the fun in owning and driving an electric car; many EV owners are swapping back to ICE cars and fully EV car sales are dropping. You can't hide the fact EV cars once they self combust aren't extremely dangerous as of course are ICE cars but when an ICE car catches fire it's quickly put out and a great deal less dramatic.

I've no problem whatsoever with EV's because I won't own one and don't want to be a passenger in one so range anxiety; limited battery life; eye watering replacement battery cost; expensive insurance; car scrapped due to a light collision etc the list goes on and this thread is about ELECTRIC CARS but in a broader sense all electric vehicles have similar problems.

Most of what I see or hear about EV's isn't fun in fact just the opposite. Pay your money and take your choice. A bit of fun at last; thanks John.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Not having driven an EV, you have no idea how fun they are to drive ...

Most of what you hear about EV's is, from an EV driver's experience, sensational nonsense with little relationship with real world experience.

As you say, you pays your money and makes your choice - I just wouldn't recommend making that choice on the basis of the kind of media garbage that suggests that EV fires are a realistic problem, that range anxiety is a common problem these days, that batteries need replacing at vast expense etc nonsense etcetera.

If you really want to know how it is to drive an EV, have a chat with a few people who actually drive a BEV.

 

Hi,

Many thanks Stephen; of course you're right in that I've no personal experience of owning or driving an EV; I'm very aware though that YouTube videos tend to follow each other with multiple videos showing the same subject.

Can you please quote an example from your own EV if you own one of actual battery replacement cost. About three years ago I bought a replacement 12V battery for our Skoda Yeti and was amazed it cost over £280 fitted by the main dealer; it needed coding to the car?

The UK government pushed diesel cars onto motorists about ten years ago and now diesel car owners are punished by the same government; already the free road tax enticing car owners into EV's is being discontinued from next April; and public charging can cost more than fueling an ICE; if I'm wrong please correct me.

There are lots of things which are popular that I don't adopt; drugs; alcohol; smoking; tattoos and body piercing etc. I can't stand sport but we're all different and make our own choices. I've been told I should be 6' under because I don't like football; the person saying this is entitled to his opinion; I didn't have to agree with him though.

As they say there's no smoke without fire.

Kind regards, Col.

 

EV traction battery replacement cost is expensive, and very rarely undertaken.
Currently it would probably cost more to replace the traction battery than it would cost to replace the car.
It will get cheaper over time as batteries continue to get cheaper/kWh, and more mechanics train up to work on EV traction batteries.

The reason it's not an issue is that traction battery longevity is pretty good, and the technology is improving all the time. I don't expect the traction battery degradation to be a practical issue in the car for decades.

The 12v battery would be the same replacement cost as an ICE car.

If you try really hard, it is theoretically possible to pay more for public charging than for ICE fuelling - find a large inefficient EV, the most expensive network, pay for it in the most expensive way, and then compare it to a small efficient ICE vehicle.

For most drivers most of the time it is very much cheaper.

I'm in a bit of an outlier position in the opposite direction - I think I pay less for energy (including driving) than I would if I didn't have a car, because we use the car as a house battery - covering usage, charging the car at cheap times, and exporting from it at peak times - currently unusual but hopefully soon will become more common (and less profitable)

 

Yes indeed, and I guess I think - fair enough!
I believe the reduction in my bills from my Ripple investment in a wind turbine is taxible.

In practice it's all such small amounts that it comes in below thresholds.
I imagine it'd be a nightmare to set up a system to tax everyone's export from house batteries, EV's and solar!

 

Consumer selling of electricity is at an interesting point - very varied prices paid by different companies, or even the same companies, experiments in paying us huge amounts when the grid is struggling - it'll be interesting to see how it all develops.

Thankfully I can't see any governments stopping energy suppliers from offering to buy electricity from us, though the prices, I think, will fall, as more renewables, storage and interconnectors come on line...

 

Hi,

If it can be taxed it will be. I retired almost 24 years ago at the age of 53 on my works pension. I was glad to be away from the daily hostilities. Now I'm a burden upon society I'm taxed on my works pension. I've lost my heating allowance and I'll be insulted if I receive the £10 Christmas bonus from the government.

I've not done a day's paid work since retiring; I can't afford to given I'd have to account to the inland revenue; there's no incentive to work in the UK.

One lithium ion battery I really do like is the one which powers my drill; hedge trimmer and leaf blower; get EV batteries to work as good as this then problems solved?

Do classic car owners have to pay road tax; I believe they are MOT exempt; I wouldn't mind having an old car which isn't full of electronics to play around with and can be taken apart with a handful of spanners and a 2lb hammer in my workshop.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Regarding EVs, the one 'fact' that doesn't seem to be refuted is that batteries are far less efficient in very cold weather. We certainly don't get the worst of it where I live, but I'd be interested to know how much range is affected by sub-zero temperatures. Temperature has very little effect on the mpg of ICE.

 

Regarding EV's, there are, of course, many 'facts' that don't seem to be refuted...

 

...here are some 'opinions'
Winter Range: ICE vs EV - Utilimarc
Why do EV's lose so much range in the cold?