Electric cars.

When I had my ev the only public charging point within walking distance of home was constantly occupied by the same ev, it wasn't plugged in someone just claimed it as their own parking space. It was near my allotment so would have been handy. Since then quite a few more have appeared and seem available each time I pass. So the infrastructure is gradually expanding.

As for petrol stations I feel the oil companies must be on their way out. Must ev owners will get home charging points. There is a new housing estate going up nearby and all have charging points and solar panels. Very few people will neef to use filling stations for charging, the oil companies will probably buy out wind farms etc. At the moment oil companies have us over a barrel (pun intended) and are going to milk us for as long as possible till they fade away. Good riddance to them.

 

I am just about to head off to do something, but I will try and come back to this thread now that my friend has had his EV a few weeks... to say he is unhappy is an understatement.

 

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to come back on this. I have a friend who has recently been forced into an EV by Motability. His wife is disabled, as are a few of their children (and they have a lot of kids!) - he works full time as well as being a carer to his wife and their children.

They needed a 9 seater and because Motability wouldn't (at the time) supply anything other than EV, they had a choice of two that was essentially the same vehicle with a different badge and neither could they see 'in the metal' before choosing. They had to pay a cash deposit of £7500 and after a while, took delivery of their Citroen. To say it has been somewhat disastrous is an understatement...

Firstly, it has air-conditioning (and therefore heating, in the winter) for the front seats only. It has no opening windows either, so in the recent heat it was essentially a greenhouse, roasting anyone who was unfortunate enough to be anywhere from the second row back. The range is pretty awful on a good day - maybe around 120 miles; use the air-conditioning and that drops like a stone to the point that he wouldn't have sufficient charge to get from his house to his sister in law's house and back without charging.

He reckons it is a bit cheaper in terms of cost of electric versus petrol or diesel, but he is never done looking for somewhere to charge. He is currently locked in battle with the local council to have a driveway installed at his home - he is willing to contribute to the cost, but cannot afford to pay for the whole thing; council state it is up to an occupational therapist to determine if his wife qualifies for a driveway and they say she doesn't (yet... she qualifies for a vehicle, go figure...); many days he has to drop everyone off at home and then head back out to go and charge the car ready for the following day, taking a good couple of hours out of his day on most days. If/when a driveway is installed, there is the further cost of installing a home charger unit (7kW) to factor in also.

A couple of weeks ago, he went to charge and plugged in... charger could see the car, payment was authorised on the app, then "Ooops, something went wrong... charger out of service" this happened on three chargers before the fourth one actually charged the car. The real problem was that each time he connects the car to a charger a minimum £30 charge is held on his debit card; once the 'actual' charge cost goes through, this £30 is refunded back to the card and the charge itself is often only a few quid - but, it can take DAYS for this refund to occur. On this occasion, £120 was 'reserved' on his card for an eventual charge cost of under £4; whilst he got by, it left him really tight for cash for a few days until the funds were re-released, not least as it was a couple of days before payday.

So bad is the experience of this EV, he has been back onto Motability and they in turn have agreed that they will allow him to change it, albeit with some hoops to jump through; apparently there has been quite a lot of similar backlash with folks being saddled with EV's and having problems and now they are supplying diesels and petrols again.

 

Indeed, it feels as though he and his family have been used as part of some sort of social experiment. He has even taken to sitting in the car, working on a laptop, using his mobile phone for an internet connection, to try and charge it during the day in between school runs... while his disabled wife is left home with the youngest child. It is insane.