Electric cars.

In 2000 there were 27.2 million cars on the road. In 2020 it was 32.7 million. A 20% increase. I bet white vans have increased by more than 20%. Online shopping has led to a huge increase in parcel vans. Also, there are a huge number of delivery drivers in cars, especially in the fast food industry.

 

The number of LGV's has increased by 90% over the last 25 years, going by percentage, new LGV's is the fastest growing category.

As of Sept 2022 there was 40.8 million licensed vehicles on UK roads, 33.2m cars, 4.63 LGV's, 0.54 HGV's, 1.46m motor bikes, the rest was made up of buses, coaches and other vehicles.

 

Hi,

We used to have lots of social housing (council houses) Nigel but the government decided to cash in and let tenants buy them at massive discounts and I believe £50 legal fees; it was easy to see which of these houses were bought by the change of front door; now the ones unbought are for those living on benefits or to house druggies and alcoholics etc. Hardly helpful to bring life back into towns where car drivers are being driven out?

Why build more social housing just for the government to flog off again; not wanting to go political but it's a fact.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

As most of you probably know I have an ex council house.
A few in the street are still run by the housing association and apart from one house the occupants of the houses are respectable people.
Not drugies or alcoholics in general, but the magority do get tarred with the same brush.

Not so much myself, but most have changed hands many times so the people in most of them now bought them at market prices and some have spent thousands getting them up to modern standards.

The housing association people are always moaning that they can't get any repairs done.

 

If EVs don't get any cheaper then the motor industry will shrink badly in the future.

I also see the days of the old banger back on the road like we did in the 70s.

 

On the news today that new car sales have hit a 30-year low but sales of electric cars soar and now account for almost a fifth of new car sales.

UK new car sales hit 30-year low but electric vehicle demand soars

And as for old bangers. I have been driving them since the '70s (and before), and continue to do so.

 

Hi,

Locally we're aware of how social housing is being allocated; years ago we had a friend who';s alcoholic son was given a council one bed roomed bungalow when such bungalows were intended for old or disabled people. We know of others too but it's going to get worse than better with the way things are heading.

Now aged 75 I've seen lots of changes from neighbours not affording a single landline let alone the luxury of owning a car; I was five years old before electricity was invented in our cottage and boy we knew what proper poverty was.

Most people behave like sheep and must have the latest craze; remember endowment mortgages; we knew a couple who had an interest only mortgage on their council house having signed the agreement; this couple now approaching retirement age decided to sell and move to the East coast; it came as a huge shock to them to find they still owned the full house price; so many were opting at the time for such mortgages; my wife and I remained with a standard mortgage. Fast forward to last year; I received lots of emails regarding get rich quick Bitcoin and I'd be a fool to miss out well I did miss out suspecting lots of problems ahead; around the same time a close friend tipped me off about Crypto Currency showing me on his mobile phone how well he was doing; he's now lost £1,800 but a friend of his with an investment of £10,000 has now lost £9,000 these are genuine figures; my wife and I have lost nothing because we are highly suspicious of such get rich schemes.

Years ago our government outlawed petrol vehicles stating diesel was the best option even lowering the price of diesel but what happened; now so many were in "Approved" diesel cars diesel was now the enemy; only in 2016 did we buy our first diesel it being our current lovely Yeti and would you believe this is a pretty clean car because it's the Adblue model with only £30 per year road tax; I wonder long term how our Yeti will stand up against an EV for longevity of useful ownership; we avoid most "must have" things using our head as to the best for us. We don't keep up with the Jones's because we're often better off in real terms than the Jones's we don't need the expensive show off cars or foreign holidays etc our neighbours have we sleep at night; not showing off meant I could fully retire in 2000 at the age of 53 just because I have a wonderful wife and we live well within our means.

Now we're into the latest trend of heat pumps; wind turbines; solar panels & EV's how many in hugely expensive EV's who travel long distances regret not having a petrol or diesel car again?

Just a few thoughts.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

I remember as a child the landlord put electric lighting into the stairway of the tenement block we lived in (all the houses were gas lit and the close had no lighting). At 8 pm on that first evening, everyone who lived in the block was out to welcome the new era!

 

Considering we have been in a pandemic, I am not at all surprised there has been an increase in EV sales in 2022 as lead times shorten. The used car market has been very strong, I should know by selling our VW UP this year for more than what I paid in 2020. Used cars sales have only just started to drop in price, lack of new cars over the last few years seen used car prices soar. According to numerous sources the used EV market is seeing the biggest drop in prices.

What is interesting, Tesla introduced discount's in a bid to hit year end sales targets, depending on model and country the discounts varied. In the states they were offering between $3500-7500 off models delivered in December 2022. The same was happening in the UK with discounts but also offering 6000 miles free charging.

 

When you think about it in the past if you bought a new car you only really worried about its depreciation as a known fact.
But if you buy an EV do you have any idea what the depreciation might look like.
If its anything like how most hi tech stuff moves on these days in 5 yrs it will be obsolete.

 

I read a while ago that in some cases when you buy an EV, you are actually buying two things. You buy the car, and then own it. But you also buy a lease on the battery, so in effect after a number of years, I guess you no longer own the battery? I'm not sure if that was/is widespread practice or just certain scenarios.

I think this is worth clarifying when considering an EV. They won't be showing much depreciation now because of demand, but I wonder if that's still the case once people realise that lithium batteries degrade over time, and might be insanely expensive to replace. That's not me being against them, I just think with any expensive decision, it's important to research the facts to inform that decision.

One thing that springs to mind is that technology usually gets cheaper over time, and people might instinctively let this trend influence their decision. But in the case of lithium batteries, that is unlikely to remain true, as demand increases so will price, and as China produces a lot of lithium and it seems the world has fallen out with China, there may be a supply and demand issue in the coming years.

Of course the plus side is that as far as technology is concerned, demand typically drives innovation. There is already a great deal of ongoing research and development into more sustainable, lower cost battery technologies. None of them are ready for EV use yet, and few of them are ready for any mainstream use at all, but where there's potential for profit, there's plenty of effort. I expect that EVs will be a great success in years to come, and real world knowledge gained from people buying and using the early prototypes we're seeing now will prove invaluable in fine tuning the tech and ironing out the issues EVs present today.

 

A few manufacturers tried that in the early days, notably Renault, but it was such a disaster they no longer follow that marketing ploy.