Electric cars.

Nothing new...
Bus Depot fires are almost always critical. Doesn't matter if they are powered by electricity, diesel or LNG.
A packed parking lot with lots of burnable stuff, be it busses, cars or trailers, is always a recipe for desaster.

 

That will depend on your personal requirements.

I think battery leasing was first introduced by Renault on their "Zoe" range. Like leasing a car, the more mileage you do, the more the monthly costs are. I think the Zoe starts at about £49 per month but I think that is based on 4 to 5000 miles annually, the more mileage you do, the more you will pay.The initial cost of the car is reduced, but you are then signed up to an agreement of leasing the battery. Even though there has been a big uptake in people buying the Zoe with this method, the depreciation on the car is huge, you will also have to find a buyer or dealer who is willing to keep paying the lease for the battery.

The Nio range is supposed to start at roughly £100 per month, the Nio is targeting the premium range, with their cars starting at 50k, so £100 a month is probably affordable for some.

 

What happened to those carefree days when you just bought a car and drove it away.
Every thing is just getting so complicated now.
I'm wondering if they are complicating it all so as to make more money, all this having to set up accounts with companies so you can use their chargers ,now leasing the battery but buying the car.

Make them cheaper and make it easy and people will buy them.
Tie everyone up in knots and lots of people are going to be wary.

 

That probably will not happen anytime soon. Try getting anytime type of new car now and your looking at 5 months plus lead time. The automakers will be looking to cash in as much as they can by focusing on the top range of cars. If you were looking to buy a new Tesla model S or X your looking at late 2023 for delivery.

Waiting times for electric cars 2022 | Electrifying

We have been looking at changing our car and went to a couple of dealers looking for a new small petrol hatchback, nothing, we are looking at November / December delivery for factory ordered. The second hand market is stupid because of the long lead time, I can actually lease a brand new 1.2L corsa per month cheaper than a 20 plate on a PCP.

All the dealers I went to said cars will be going up in price, so I am probably going to bite the bullet an order a Corsa on a 48 month lease. I will have to wait as there is currently none in the UK.

 

Hi,

Just noticed this. Fully electric or hybrid cars; no thanks my wife Bron and I dislike anything with a battery. Buy an electric car now and in ten years the car limps around with only about 20 mile range as we watched on YouTube of a Nissan; it doesn't make sense; ever seen an old Express Dairy milkfloat crawling back to depot after it's round; we used to see these daily as kids.

expresso dairy milk float at DuckDuckGo

At work we had both diesel and electric fork lifts; the diesel took five minutes to fuel up the electric needed two batteries and a big charger; one for morning and then use a jib crane to change the battery these batteries were very heavy indeed; I detested the electric fork truck.

Bron and I bought our current car in 2016 it's a Skoda Yeti 2.0L diesel with now 29,000 miles on it; we love this Yeti but Skoda made a huge mistake in discontinuing manufacture of them the year after we bought ours; normally we trade in at 2 or 3 years old for new but our Yeti is a keeper; for us there's nothing we fancy to replace it and we can easily afford to buy new. Most modern cars are just clones of each other and when I do browse the web looking at new cars my eyes quickly glaze over through boredom.

My first car cost £5 it was a convertable Hillman Minx; now our Yeti battery costs £286 because the Yeti has the stop/start function and I couldn't even replace the battery at home it needed coding in. Last year the Yeti cost over £800 for its service inculding cam belt; water pump and MOT but now apart from servicing it's very cheap indeed to run with only £30 per year road tax.

The way things are going with cars getting ever more complex I'm sure lots of cars will end up being scrapped due to electronics failures; many decent cars are already scrapped when the air bags deploy; what saving is made regarding climate change with electric cars; the electric cars have to be made but also the electricty has to be supplied and then the batteries will need expensive recycling also will suitable batteries still be available in ten years time so the scrap yards will do well.

I admit I'm totally biased; the Yeti brings smiles to our faces every journey; it's a beauty.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

What Nio is saying is that the batteries they supply will always have the latest battery technology and they will always supply fresh batteries. It is like back in the days of TV rental. Radio Rentals had the most reliable televisions because it did not pay them to have to be regularly repairing them. Battery leasing is a similar marketing model.

 

Yeah but I dont think radio rentals is around now.
Its a bit old fashioned.
It might sound half decent at the moment when charging is cheap, but once the government have to start clawing back road tax losses and fuel tax/VAT, its not going to look so inviting.

 

I learned to drive on a very old DAF Optare.

 

Hi,

I bet the Daf will still be around when battery powered cars have died. I well remember the government getting motorists into diesel cars diesel then cheap so now diesel is taboo; I wonder if electric cars will lose favour in a few years.

We'll stick with our lovely Yeti unless it starts to cost a lot in repairs but the way costs go up it will most like cost £15,000 plus the Yeti to trade in for new; we can buy lots of spares for £15,000 and save the planet by not buying another new car.

I've done a few miles on a bus; before marrying 45 years ago I used to be a bus conductor; ding; ding hold tight please.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

I learnt to drive a Bus on a crash-box Guy Arab.