I love driving my EV, it’s the smoothest drive ever and the instant torque is so addictive.

 

I have access to free public rapid charger, takes about 35/45 mins to get back to around 130 electric miles. My first 1000 miles have been free, whereas that mileage in my Golf R would have cost me around £200!

Personally I don't find it a pain to refuel my current diesel car.  There's a station right on my route to work from my work, it takes me a couple of mins refuelling to get 600 miles range.  I can also hop in my car and just go, without planning a long journey like a military operation.  And that convenience, to me, is the sort of things EV's need to overcome for greater take up.  Researching where there are charging points available before I run out of range, checking online to see if they are in use or broken, and can fast charge with the right coupling for my EV, planning alternate charge points in case the first is unavailable/broken when I get there, etc. might be an entertaining hobby to some, but not me.   I went to Stafford not so long ago 3 1/2 hrs down 3 1/2 hrs back, no thinking required, one tank of fuel and no time wasted refuelling.

 

A number of times each year I do round trips in a day to Englandshire of 4-600 miles.  I don't take rest breaks of an hour or two after every hour of driving, I go straight through with perhaps one pit stop comfort break of 5-10 mins.  Typically there aren't (at present) any quick chargers at my destinations.  I have no intention of putting myself out specially hiring a vehicle for these journeys when I have one I have paid good money for sitting there, or specially taking long breaks in an already long day just so my EV can get enough charge to go for the next 100 miles, or hypermileing along at 54 mph on the motorway, tailgating lorries to cut drag and eke the last bit of energy out.

 

I don't have a garage to keep an EV nice and warm in in winter and let it recharge, so I'd find refuelling an EV more of a faff than my dirty old diesel.  Better motors that can improve range by using less power, and weighing less meaning more battery weight can be added, bigger and better batteries, and more (and better) charging stations will see more people shift to EV's.  And that's whats hopefully arriving in the next few years, when those sort of things make it into production cars, and fillings stations can charge at far faster rates, EV's sales will really take off.

I wonder when free* electricity will end?  *subsidised

 

When the electricity supply network becomes incapable of supplying demand from however many fast chargers in use at once?

 

When will the tax system be changed to recover lost income?

 

Depends on adoption rate of pure EV but we might see something on the 1st 2 points next winter.

 

According to What car some public charging points now charge up to 30p per kWhr.

10 minutes ago, xman said:

I wonder when free* electricity will end?  *subsidised

Diesel was a lot cheaper than unleaded until diesel cars become more popular and the same will happen to the cost of charging EV's

 

When will the tax system be changed to recover lost income?

I guess the government will set up GPS tracking where you will be taxed by mileage / what time of day you drive/ how busy the road is + higher road tax.

 

 

1 hour ago, Defenderben said:

Watch and see.....dry cell battery technology combined with super capacitors is the next big thing.

I'm sure the technology will move forward at a fast rate, but it's not what you can currently buy and that leads onto what will resale prices be like when the next model has twice the range and can be charged in half the time?

2 minutes ago, moley said:

I guess the government will set up GPS tracking where you will be taxed by mileage / what time of day you drive/ how busy the road is + higher road tax.

 

As I was travelling across the M62 last week, passing under those vastly over engineered gantries at what seemed every couple of miles, and noting how many cameras were mounted at the sides of the road, some sections literally every 100m, the thought occurred to me that this is infrastructure designed to support road use taxation and/or citizen tracking plus bonus automatic penalty revenue generation.

 

Or am I being neurotic?

Depreciation on EVs may be high at the start due to changing technology but eventually that will level out and it will be the same as it is for ICE vehicles. Put a timescale on that is difficult because of the slow rate of battery/super capacitor innovation making its way into vehicles.  It was ever thus.

8 minutes ago, Odin1123 said:

Depreciation on EVs may be high at the start due to changing technology but eventually that will level out and it will be the same as it is for ICE vehicles. Put a timescale on that is difficult because of the slow rate of battery/super capacitor innovation making its way into vehicles.  It was ever thus.

Which is why I wouldn't buy an EV at present. We considered an EV two years ago when changing the wife's car, but the costs made no sense at all compared to a petrol model. The Nissan Leaf with the 62Kwh unit is nearly £36k. 

28 minutes ago, Odin1123 said:

Depreciation on EVs may be high at the start due to changing technology but eventually that will level out and it will be the same as it is for ICE vehicles. Put a timescale on that is difficult because of the slow rate of battery/super capacitor innovation making its way into vehicles.  It was ever thus.

 

Innovation is progressing the drop in price as much if not more than charge density.  Add that to the fact that the price of electricity, particularly when generated from solar and wind are dropping significantly year on year where as oil prices seem to be edging up quite quickly and clean diesel cars ie with Ad Blue etc and even more expensive.

 

Looking forward to the 50-60 kWh battery Peugeot 208 and Zoe with 200 mile range, both to be an affordable prices it is anticipated, which should change the UK market, as long as UK can do a trade deal with the EU not to have import duties on EVs where as they might have the 10% duty on ICE cars.    

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/10/cost-reductions-for-offshore-wind-signs-of-progress-expectations-for-more.html 

Edited 14 April, 20197 yr by lol-lol

9 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Add that to the fact that the price of electricity, particularly when generated from solar and wind are dropping significantly year on year

So why does the electricity unit cost charged by most (all?) utility providers go up all the time?

 

If the cost of generation is going down, then either there's something else pushing the price up or the utility companies are ripping off consumers.

20 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

So why does the electricity unit cost charged by most (all?) utility providers go up all the time?

 

If the cost of generation is going down, then either there's something else pushing the price up or the utility companies are ripping off consumers.

Well when the boss of Centrica (British Gas) recently got a 44% pay increase to £2.5 million per annum and warned that he may have to lay off 4,000 workers the answer seems to be as usual with energy companies PURE GREED.

9 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

So why does the electricity unit cost charged by most (all?) utility providers go up all the time?

 

If the cost of generation is going down, then either there's something else pushing the price up or the utility companies are ripping off consumers.

 

Because we have to have reliable (expensive) power which is going to be coming from Nuclear.  Hinkley Point C is going to cost around £20B and each MWh going to cost £100 but it is, or should be ultra reliable. 

 

We need the combination of reliable nuclear and cheap renewable so we get electrical power available at all times and the price averages out between nuclear and renewable.  There is a place even for large gas engines (not just turbines) as well as the brilliant combined gas turbine/steam combo engines which even France uses whilst supplying itself and some of Western Europe with electricity via the Interconnector network.  Using landfill gases also becoming useful in the mix.     

1 hour of driving in Scotland, and even crossing the Border and heading south is maybe going 55 miles, 60 miles if lucky,

and 3 hours driving can have you maybe 160 plus miles on.

Over 4 hours of driving range so over 220 miles is going to be pretty good for many before taking a bit of a brake with the car plugged in. 

Don't fret, Nuclear Fusion  is just round the corner, if we invest just a few more hundred billion , its going to be good to go within the next 20 or 30 years or so I'm told. 

5 minutes ago, Skoffski said:

before taking a bit of a brake with the car plugged in. 

 

I recommend you unplug the car if you are doing anything with the brakes! 

3 minutes ago, Skoffski said:

1 hour of driving in Scotland, and even crossing the Border and heading south is maybe going 55 miles, 60 miles if lucky,

and 3 hours driving can have you maybe 160 plus miles on.

Over 4 hours of driving range so over 220 miles is going to be pretty good for many before taking a bit of a brake with the car plugged in. 

 

As I get older my range anxiety of my bladder is getting close to the reasonably price and ranged  EVs  (I worry about the disappointing LEAF 2 with its press tested only 110 mile or so range in cool conditions).

 

I am starting to no longer do those 3 hour plus drives without stopping, not good for health I think, just need an arrangement where I get 10, 15, 20 minutes of "Free" (nothing is free) charge when I buy my Costa, or McD coffee and lardie hash brown and Muck Muffin.  Just parking in the "Grill" bay and getting loop charge without attaching cables would be nice. As long as it does not attempt to suck all the surgical steel out of my body off course.       

20 Nuclear powered submarines sitting about mothballed, can they not get towed to some ports around the coast of England and generate some electricity for charging stations?

 

The South Coast of Englands seems an ideal place for them, save those in North Devon moaning about the lack of chargers.

It will brighten the place up considerably.   Maybe provide some economic developments...

Edited 14 April, 20197 yr by Skoffski

Rumour has that Rolls Royce are hoping to use the new British designed, engineered and built rocket engine that was used on the failed $70 million Moon Landing Project. Mossad have stopped this however pointing out there is a problem when slowing down the vehicle it is powering.

5 minutes ago, xman said:

Don't fret, Nuclear Fusion  is just round the corner, if we invest just a few more hundred billion , its going to be good to go within the next 20 or 30 years or so I'm told. 

 

Or build a Dyson sphere around the sun.

 

 

4 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

As I get older my range anxiety of my bladder is getting close to the reasonably price and ranged  EVs  (I worry about the disappointing LEAF 2 with its press tested only 110 mile or so range in cool conditions).

 

I am starting to no longer do those 3 hour plus drives without stopping, not good for health I think, just need an arrangement where I get 10, 15, 20 minutes of "Free" (nothing is free) charge when I buy my Costa, or McD coffee and lardie hash brown and Muck Muffin.  Just parking in the "Grill" bay and getting loop charge without attaching cables would be nice. As long as it does not attempt to suck all the surgical steel out of my body off course.       

Our local drive thru McDonalds is so slow customers EV's could be charged whilst they are in the long queue while waiting for their order.

7 minutes ago, Skoffski said:

28 Nuclear powered submarines sitting about mothballed, can they not get towed to some ports around the coast of England and generate some electricity for charging stations?

Why not take out tourists (including KGB agents) for a short 1 hour cruise like the one I went on the Canary Islands. At least they would be generating income from generating electricity.

£33,000 but the range is fine,  but not a Towing Pack available yet, so even Bike Rack fitting & Light Board an issue, 

& no Estate Cars yet, or good capacity vehicles with seats folded and 2 people in cars.

 

I think a big mover for EV's will be when there is more choice of body styles.

 

Then lack of availability for many EV's.   Elephant in the room is Battery & Motor shortages globally.

 

 

 

Edited 14 April, 20197 yr by Skoffski

10 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

I am starting to no longer do those 3 hour plus drives without stopping, not good for health I think, just need an arrangement where I get 10, 15, 20 minutes of "Free" (nothing is free) charge when I buy my Costa, or McD coffee and lardie hash brown and Muck Muffin.  Just parking in the "Grill" bay and getting loop charge without attaching cables would be nice. As long as it does not attempt to suck all the surgical steel out of my body off course.       

If you're worried about your health avoid McD's at all costs. 

15 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Our local drive thru McDonalds is so slow customers EV's could be charged whilst they are in the long queue while waiting for their order.

 

Apologies for re-linking this as I have a couple of times before but think it is so cool (recharge prod emerges from the top of the bus-stand 23 seconds in).  We make these buses for France, Singapore and other places.  We make LMP batteries and our own Super-capacitors which is where the charge goes to ie mainly to the Super-conductors rather than the LMP batteries.  Charging could take place at traffic lights, McD queues etc whilst battery is mainly charged at cheap home charger.   

 

 

Edited 14 April, 20197 yr by lol-lol

4 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Or build a Dyson sphere around the sun.

That idea sucks....

 

2 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Our local drive thru McDonalds is so slow customers EV's could be charged whilst they are in the long queue while waiting for their order.

 

@shyVRS245 Hey, I remember you lecturing me about your healthy life style. Looks like you're just like all the other chav's queuing in their modded souped up motors waiting for your 200g cholesterol fix.

 

Not even parking up and walking in?

 

Or just too busy watching Golf on your mobile?