On 06/10/2021 at 08:08, roottoot said:

Electric cars will be recycled in exactly the way ICE vehicles are and the batteries will be recycled and the materials recycled.

 

The UK Government know that Plug in Hybrids are a con if they have near no range on electric and many that got and get the Grants and the Tax breaks as Business Users were not charging cars and were still using liquid fuel, and had a higher fuel consumption driving a heavier cars.

 

@ERIK99Did you not realise you were joining in the kidology when getting a plug in hybrid which required rare materials for the battery it has?

Are you a business user getting a tax break to drive this low emission car which really is not low emissions on longer journeys?

The current  electric cars are  a waste of money, none do the mileage  promised, and the cost of battery replacement is horrendous, approaching £10,000 in some cases, so I read.  Plus few would   have at home charging facility.  And supposedly, when a battery catches fire, it is impossible to put it out ?.  BUT I read today lithium batteries will be replaced by graphene ones,  much cheaper and rechargeable  in a very short time?

I’m one of the people who has bought an iV due to the 18% capital allowance, otherwise I would have gone for the 2.0 4x4.

 

We’ve got an iPace on order, it’s purely for commuting - charge a bit at home, fully charge it at work.

@Tony R. You read lots and use supposedly.  Best maybe read the Electric car section of Briskoda and stuff from people that have EV,s  What rubbish about battery cost replacement.  Looks like you get your info from the Daily Mail.    I have no home charger, the car will be handed back in under 18,000 months and had done 25,000 miles in 18 months.  Cost me under £100 in electric but that is luckily because I am in Scotland.    Plenty cars over 10 years old do not need new batteries.  One next to me has just finished charging for free. 

 

Graphene.

 

 

 

Graphite.

 

 

Edited 13 April, 20224 yr by roottoot

As root says, the stories of new batteries are similar to the requirement for a new engine. As they get older the capacity reduces. As an engine gets older the power reduces. You can fix both by replacing or rebuilding. The current (no pun intended) high cost of batteries is merely due to the young technology.

 

Charging at home is definitely the most used and convenient route to fuel an ev. Imagine never having to go to a fuel station again. Once they sort wireless charging (induction?) you will simply get in the car and go. No thinking about how much fuel you have like I did today as driving to family at the weekend.

Not so sure that home charging is the most common thing with EV's in the UK.  Maybe that is the case with Private Users but never trust statistics.

Maybe the RAC / SMMT / Government say that, but many many EV's in the UK stay at peoples workplace, councils, NHS / Social Work / Utility Companies etc.

Now Police Forces and others have carparks and multiple chargers. 

 

Plenty that now pay the Energy Cap price per unit of electric at home of 28 pence or more will charge cheaper elsewhere or even free elsewhere. 

Plenty Plug In Hybrid drivers do not charge at home. 

 

.......................

This sort of thing is happening many places around the UK.

Thousands of leased EV's doing nothing and that is not just because of Covid 19.  Too much public money wasted.

Edited 13 April, 20224 yr by roottoot

I'm late on to this but just for my input, I've had an SE Technology iV for about 16 months and my viewpoint on it

• It's a company car, so the amount of money I am saving on company car tax made it a no-brainer for me.
• I charge it overnight on mains (we'll get a charger when we move house) so the length of time to charge it at home is not an issue.
• When travelling on business, I can't charge it at service stations as it takes too long.
• When I stop overnight, very few hotels have on-site charging and I can do an 800+ mile round trip without ever being able to charge my car.
• When travelling on hybrid mode, I get mid 50's mpg, so no better than the 2.0 turbo diesel Superb I had previously.
• I have been able to tow a caravan with it, with no issues whatsoever. 
• The boot is smaller but, thankfully it is reduced from a big size so still a decent capacity.
• I like the car, it runs fine but in all honesty, apart from the tax break, and the fact it comes with an auto, it does not give me personally any benefit over the old 2.0 turbo diesel.

9 minutes ago, Robster59 said:

I'm late on to this but just for my input, I've had an SE Technology iV for about 16 months and my viewpoint on it

• It's a company car, so the amount of money I am saving on company car tax made it a no-brainer for me.
• I charge it overnight on mains (we'll get a charger when we move house) so the length of time to charge it at home is not an issue.
• When travelling on business, I can't charge it at service stations as it takes too long.
• When I stop overnight, very few hotels have on-site charging and I can do an 800+ mile round trip without ever being able to charge my car.
• When travelling on hybrid mode, I get mid 50's mpg, so no better than the 2.0 turbo diesel Superb I had previously.
• I have been able to tow a caravan with it, with no issues whatsoever. 
• The boot is smaller but, thankfully it is reduced from a big size so still a decent capacity.
• I like the car, it runs fine but in all honesty, apart from the tax break, and the fact it comes with an auto, it does not give me personally any benefit over the old 2.0 turbo diesel.

Apart from the tax break you enjoy, in every other respect the car is totally unsuitable for your needs, as you said yourself the diesel is the car for you. 

5 hours ago, j caff said:

Apart from the tax break you enjoy, in every other respect the car is totally unsuitable for your needs, as you said yourself the diesel is the car for you. 

It performs to meet my needs, and, if there was a better charging network and/or the car charged faster, then it would be better suited. 

It's not a bad car, and I'm very happy with it for doing long distances.  But the infrastructure is just not in place to make the most of what it offers.

However, the £3000 p.a. saving on Company Car Tax is a big bonus.

Edited 13 April, 20224 yr by Robster59

@Robster59  Were do you go where there is a shortage of Type 2 chargers?

 

The car can only charge as they do and more likely they will be discontinued before there is any more development of them. 

21 minutes ago, roottoot said:

@Robster59  Were do you go where there is a shortage of Type 2 chargers?

 

The car can only charge as they do and more likely they will be discontinued before there is any more development of them. 

My job takes me over the UK.  I live in Glasgow and drive all over.  I tend to stop overnight in IHG Hotels and very few of them have chargers.  Charging en-route at the services is not worth it as the car takes to long to charge.  Likewise if I stop anywhere for an hour.

So it is the hotels that lack destination chargers.

That is as it is for BEV drivers as well sadly.

 

 

Edited 13 April, 20224 yr by roottoot

12 hours ago, roottoot said:

So it is the hotels that lack destination chargers.

That is as it is for BEV drivers as well sadly.

 

 

Interesting to see.  When travelling on business, I stop at IHG which includes Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, etc., and so far I've only come across two that had them.  One in Abingdon and one in Crewe which is so small, and located so badly, you could only get a Smart Car in the space.

I think it's a worthwhile investment for hotels, as more people will be looking for this facility at their hotels as time moves on.  And it may be the clincher for some when they choose their hotel. 

We went to see my children who live in Surrey between Christmas and New Year.  We stayed for three nights.  The hotel we stopped at didn't have chargers and because of its location, there was nowhere nearby I could leave the car to charge.  So from leaving on the 26th, to returning home on the 30th, I didn't have the opportunity to charge my car once. 

Edited 14 April, 20224 yr by Robster59

14 minutes ago, Robster59 said:

Interesting to see.  When travelling on business, I stop at IHG which includes Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, etc., and so far I've only come across two that had them.  One in Abingdon and one in Crewe which is so small, and located so badly, you could only get a Smart Car in the space.

I think it's a worthwhile investment for hotels, as more people will be looking for this facility at their hotels as time moves on.  And it may be the clincher for some when they choose their hotel. 

We went to see my children who live in Surrey between Christmas and New Year.  We stayed for three nights.  The hotel we stopped at didn't have chargers and because of its location, there was nowhere nearby I could leave the car to charge.  So from leaving on the 26th, to returning home on the 30th, I didn't have the opportunity to charge my car once. 

Waiting for the charging network to improve is not going to happen. Hotels aren't going to install chargers especially with the price of electricity going through the roof.  As I said earlier the car is totally unsuited to your type of long haul driving as you seem to spend most of your time dragging around a flat battery. 

One thing that is very clear is that the hotel staff, in general, are not interested in either promoting the charge points in their adverts, or do not protect them from mis-use, or cannot be bothered to effectively manage them, by which I mean organising sort sort of queue system to stop one user hogging the site longer than needed.

Another issue is that on cost - apart from the chargers that have contactless payment you have no idea how much it is going to cost, and ZAP map is not good enough to keep this info up to date.

40 minutes ago, j caff said:

Waiting for the charging network to improve is not going to happen. Hotels aren't going to install chargers especially with the price of electricity going through the roof.  As I said earlier the car is totally unsuited to your type of long haul driving as you seem to spend most of your time dragging around a flat battery. 

I wouldn't say totally unsuited.  I get similar MPG to my old 2.0 turbo diesel, it produces about the same bhp and when at home I can potter around purely on my battery.  It may not be optimal at the moment, but certainly not totally unsuitable. 

On 13/04/2022 at 14:33, roottoot said:

Not so sure that home charging is the most common thing with EV's in the UK.  Maybe that is the case with Private Users but never trust statistics.

Maybe the RAC / SMMT / Government say that, but many many EV's in the UK stay at peoples workplace, councils, NHS / Social Work / Utility Companies etc.

.

 

 

Oh yeah I was definitely talking about private owners. 

I was assuming the demographic on here are private owners or at least willing and able to charge at home. Could be wrong.