Electric cars.

Some nice "toy" cars there John.
Sorry, I'm just stuck in the past.

 

"Bubble cars" died out because there was no market for them. Smart Fours and Twingo's uptake shows there is still a minimal market for them.

 

According to Auto car, the three best small electric cars are, The Peugeot 208, Fiat 500 and the Vauxhall Corsa. Shame you can't say the same about the price tag.

If I was to take out a 4 year lease of the petrol versions, 6k miles per year, I would be better off.
The cheapest electric Fiat 500 non maintenance would set you back £20,600 total lease cost, compared to £9,428. Of the three cars mentioned in Auto car, I could lease, fuel and service them cheaper than the lease cost of an EV. Yet we keep on hearing how electric vehicles are cheaper to run. I understand the climate issue but pushing they are financially cheaper is just the same as the PPI scandal.

 

Is there no market for them? Or is it more than nobody is marketing them?

I didn't even know either of these cars existed. I like that little Renault quadricycle thing. That would be ideal for maybe an older couple who live in a rural area who just need a shopping mobile.

 

You wouldn't find me in one of those, it's a death trap!

 

Is that true, or is that just a perception created by decades of marketing of conventional cars ? (Genuine question)

In safety terms, I wonder how it compares to getting on a bus with no seat belts.

 

I'm thinking there is nothing to crush either end of the vehicle Clueless, so no chance of surviving in a crash.

 

I know you were responding to a point about getting stuck in the bad weather, but something to consider;

My brother has a tesla model s that he's just done 80k miles in. He charges it at night, so compared to my car which I fill up every 350 miles or so, he has saved about 230 trips to the petrol pump. At a very conservative 5 mins a trip, thats at least 19 hours. Makes me realise the amount of time we spend on mundane things

When he got it there was more government subsidy, so he worked out it would cost about the same as a top spec mondeo over 5 years. He's pretty pleased with the choice he made I think

 

I think it's one of those scenarios where we need to keep things in perspective. I wouldn't be happy taking one out on any of the more crazy roads. I certainly wouldn't want one for my daily commute on dual carriageway, at rush hour, in the dark, cold filthy conditions of mid winter. But that's not what it's for. I'd be quite happy driving to Tesco in it from my house, where the fastest road has a 30 mph speed limit and there are no nasty junctions or anything.

I also wonder if such vehicles would over all make the roads safer for everyone. The way I see some people driving, and the way I hear some people talking, I genuinely believe that too many people put far too much faith in their vehicle, and as a result drive quite dangerously for the conditions. As an example, one time when a work colleague drove me to work because my car was in the garage, he stupidly accelerated to well over 100mph on a winding country road to overtake someone. I went mad. His response was that the car's computer would do everything it could to not lose control. I'm sure he was correct, but the computer can't do anything about the laws of physics, and that in a car, at any given instant in time, there is only the friction of about 16 square inches of rubber holding over a tonne of fast moving metal on course. Perhaps if there were more vulnerable vehicles on the roads, and a greater awareness of risks, then perhaps people would drive a bit more safely, making the roads safer, and cleaner, for everyone.

 

The Twizy gets two stars in the Euro Ncap rating. Mind you, the Zoe got none.

 

I always reckoned that a long spike in the centre of the steering wheel would improve everyone's driving.

 

But you can't guarantee other drivers sticking to the limit.

A genuine story for you. My son's father-in-law was involved in an accident that wrote off the back end of his car. The driver who hit him said "but my car didn't tell me to brake". So who's at fault, the onboard computer or the driver? Many people have stopped thinking for themselves and it's making life dangerous for the rest of us.

 

Another story from a while back. A woman hired a Winnebago and subsequently crashed it. Seemingly she had put the cruise control on and went into the back to make herself a cup of coffee!