Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

[G-CPTN]

I find it interesting and informative to read about the foibles of EVs, having acknowledged that EVs are the future - perhaps not for me within my lifetime.

Just as I enjoy reading about operating aircraft while knowing that I will never need the information.

[Undried Plum]

As so often, Veep says it well.

Leccie cars are not at all a rich man's car, though they may appear to be so.

Once you get over the capex, they are very cheapcheap to run, even if you haven't got a wonky wind turbine and/or an old solar panel array in an inappropriately excessive Latitude .

Tyres and insurance are pretty much the only expence. Both are understandably non-cheap.

[VP959]

As another data point on costs, my wife bought an EV last year. Cost her just over £25k, new. She added up the running costs (excluding insurance, as that's much the same as any other car of the same size) over the first year a couple of months ago, came to the princely sum of £83. She's has driven about 6,500 miles in that time, so the cost per mile was around 1.3p. Her previous car was a Toyota Yaris, that cost around 17p/mile to run. EVs are so cheap to run that I find that I just get in the car to do short trips where, TBH, I'd be better off walking. That's probably the only downside, I don't tend to walk the half mile or so to the village as I know it costs next to bugger all to just take the car . . .

If someone wants to dip their toe into the way of the future, but is worried about not being able to do long journeys safely, then do as I did and try a plug-in hybrid. I learned from five years of driving one that I really didn't need to use petrol much at all. The great thing was the psychological buffer of having a spare engine and tank of fuel that could bail me out if the battery ran down. The reality was that this rarely happened, and almost all my driving was electric, even though the thing only had an electric range of about 14 miles. It was a bit of an eye opener, TBH, as until buying that car in 2013 I really had no idea that around 90% of my trips were so short that even an extremely low range EV could handle them with ease. The whole shift to electric power really does need a change of mindset, as mentioned before. I had to throw out all the preconceptions I had and bin long-standing habits, like the need to always stop to refuel when actually going somewhere. This is probably the biggest single change, getting used to always having a fully charged car sat waiting to go wherever you wish every morning.

Takes some getting used to, took my wife months to get into the habit of just charging her car whenever the sun was out, rather than when the battery charge level had dropped to maybe 25%. She was just fixated on not re-fuelling cars until they needed it, rather than the EV way of grabbing free charge whenever it's available. Energy is always better being stuffed into the car battery than being sent to the grid.

[G-CPTN]

I have always owned an estate car (except when my employer provided my transport).

Are there EV estates?

[Undried Plum]

Hybrids are shyte.

They are neither man nor horse.

[Undried Plum]

Are there EV estates?

They call them SUVs nowadays. Else: crossovers. Same thing, actually.

Yes, there are plenty of such vehicles around.

[VP959]

I have always owned an estate car (except when my employer provided my transport).

Are there EV estates?

Yes. Cheapest is probably the MG5: https://www.mg.co.uk/new-cars/mg5-ev

[VP959]

Hybrids are shyte.

They are neither man nor horse.

I agree, but back in 2013 there were very, very few pure EVs to choose from, and a plug-in hybrid (not one of the supremely crap "self-charging" bits of cack) was the best option that was within my budget at that time (I'd not long retired and was still getting used to living on a pension). That car was a very useful stepping stone, as it showed me that almost all my driving could be in electric mode, something I simply wouldn't have believed had I not experienced it. That gave me the confidence to go pure EV, so I ordered a Tesla Model 3 in 2018. Had to wait the best part of a year for it, mind.

[Undried Plum]

Energy is always better being stuffed into the car battery than being sent to the grid.

Tell me about it!

[admin2]

Plum - you have persisted in stupid, extremely childish games to circumvent the word censorship we have in place, despite INNUNMERABLE attempts by PM to get you to recognise this (or even understand it?) which you have steadfastly refused to recognise, resulting now after quite a good period of reasonable, interesting posts in 3 deletions of your posts in this thread today. I can see why the RAF thankfully chucked you out.

You have 2 months off duty. Enjoy. I've had enough. Find somewhere else to play - TOP didn't seem to like you either, so good luck. In 2 months, see if you can cope with it - if not, you will leave for good.

[Smeagol]

Never bought a new car in my life, so far, and have no intention of changing this habit in the near future, so will stick with my two diesel E-class Mercedes for the forseeable future. If and when used EVs become available in numbers, and if they prove to be economic when getting older (no new batteries required!) I would consider replacing one IC engined car. Until, however, range becomes very significantly improved I will still rely on my diesel as I make regular trips to both Cornwall and Scotland from Norfolk as well as more frequent 'local' journeys of up to 100 miles. The trips to Cornwall, which are a month at a time, would present some problems for an EV as there are not many public charging points and they are some distance from our house, home charging is impossible as I am lucky to park in the same street.

[CharlieOneSix]

We appear to have 3 members who are rich enough to afford a EV.Could they not set up a new section whereby they pat each other on a daily basis and save boring the tits off the rest of us.

I’m not sure why you as an ICE driver are wasting your time reading how we 3 electric car drivers are expressing ourselves on an electric car thread. Rather than us setting up a new electric car section, since we already have it here, it will make more sense if ICE drivers such as you start an exclusive ICE drivers thread and leave us here to pat each other on the back and that will save you from getting bored. I for one promise not to post electric car intrusions on your thread.

[VP959]

We appear to have 3 members who are rich enough to afford a EV.Could they not set up a new section whereby they pat each other on a daily basis and save boring the tits off the rest of us.

I’m not sure why you as an ICE driver are wasting your time reading how we 3 electric car drivers are expressing ourselves on an electric car thread. Rather than us setting up a new electric car section, since we already have it here, it will make more sense if ICE drivers such as you start an exclusive ICE drivers thread and leave us here to pat each other on the back and that will save you from getting bored. I for one promise not to post electric car intrusions on your thread.

Well said!

I'm not at all sure why people that have no interest in EVs and have no intention of ever buying one are so vehemently hostile to those of us that have taken the plunge and are more enthusiastic about a different source of stored energy to power our cars. It's not as if those of us with EVs are causing harm to anyone, if anything we are making life slightly easier for those with petrol or diesel cars as we won't ever be queuing up at pumps, so delaying them.

The interjection of some diehard petrol/diesel heads in this thread reminds me of the futile attempts by the supporters of Ned Ludd to try to prevent technology from developing. For a forum populated by aviators, where technology development has underpinned every aspect of our lives ever since that windy day at Kitty Hawk, it seems odd that there is such resistance to technological change. I wonder if the same thing happened in aviation at the start of the jet age? Did hordes of pilots go around trashing new fangled jets because they didn't use well-proven and reliable piston engines?

[CharlieOneSix]

In June this year there were 22,737 new all-electric cars registered in the UK. That will free up quite a few diesel and petrol pumps for our ICE friends.

It didn’t come into my thinking or decision making but I’ve just found out that if I had replaced my diesel Audi A6 Allroad - 6 years old and bought new - with the cheapest new model of that car instead of buying an AWD EV6, then I would have spent £2,600 more than I did!

[Karearea]

The cost point is a good one. I charged my car entirely from self-generated solar power from the end of March until one night last week, when the cloudy weather meant I needed to spend about £5.50 charging the car overnight at the cheap rate. Since the end of March I've driven around 2,800 miles at a cost for "fuel" of less than 0.2p/mile. I fully expect the running cost to be much the same until around the end of September, when the solar generation tends to drop and I'll have to revert to overnight charging again. Even so, if my "fuel" cost for a whole year exceeds about 2.5p/mile I shall be surprised. My last petrol car would cost around 15p/mile to run at today's fuel prices, so I'm making a very significant saving in running cost (helps to offset the higher cost of the EV).

Very interesting to learn about the use of solar energy.
My area receives about 2,000 hours of sunshine annually.
I have a good north-facing aspect to my garage roof.

However, the low number of kms I seem to travel these days mean a new vehicle and ancillary installations probably wouldn't be cost-effective for me.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Each to his own. Enjoy.

[PHXPhlyer]

I wonder if the same thing happened in aviation at the start of the jet age? Did hordes of pilots go around trashing new fangled jets because they didn't use well-proven and reliable piston engines?

My late father-law was a captain for United flying DC-6s and maybe DC-7s in the early 60's.
Between an ugly divorce and his fear that his company had made a huge mistake going all in on the newfangled aircraft (707s), possibly forcing them into bankruptcy, he went into deep depression, lost his medical, and was forced to retire.
Not exactly a horde, but one solid example.

PP

[CharlieOneSix]

Just watched an Australian Youtube video of a knobs and switches 'walkround' of the EV6 'cockpit'. Both UK and Australian cars are right hand drive of course but why are the wiper and lights stalks reversed? UK - lights on left stalk, wipers on the right. Australian - lights on the right, wipers on the left. Is that the same on all cars? My UK Audi A6 was the same as as the EV6.

Am gaining confidence learning and driving the EV6 and am now experimenting - the Lane Keeping Assist is excellent. I deliberately veered onto both nearside and offside white lines at 70mph and the car steered me back with a positive movement and an audible warning. On an empty road I put the car into sport mode and from 20mph floored it. JC on a bike - 321bhp through four wheels and no gear changes of course - it was like a fairground ride! It literally slammed my head back into the headrest!

[Boac]

At your age!!

[CharlieOneSix]

Gridserve opened a high power hub at the Services at MOTO Wetherby on 20 July - 12 x High Power 350kW Chargers - great for A1 route drivers.

Gridserve News
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GRIDSERVE ACCELERATES WITH £200M BOOST FROM INFRACAPITAL and remains on track to deliver at least 5,000 High Power Chargers across Electric Super Hubs and Electric Forecourts® by 2025.