[Technology] If you could afford it would your next car be an EV?

Flounce said:

Yep, having owned a couple of Porsche, lovely cars, but the Porsche tax on parts is a piss take. A drivers rubber door seal on a Porsche 993 Targa is £600 and that does not include fitting. Avoid unless you are very rich or want to be seen in a Porsche!

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Triggaaar said:

If I hear a nice engine note from a nice car owned by someone considerably richer than me, my time is usually enhanced rather than ruined.

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Triggaaar said:

Sorry, what does that say exactly?

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junior said:

We love very near Manchester and recently got the BMW iX 40 M Sport. If we set off for Brighton on 100% we can get all the way to Pease Pottage services where there are super fast chargers. We hook up for 10 mins, which gives us plenty to get to Brighton and do a few trips out with parents.

The return journey we set off on 100% and can get usually stop at Hilton Park or Norton Canes services, and plug in for 30mins whilst we grab a coffee and empty bladders.

I find these journeys no different to when we did them in the ICE car.

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nicko31 said:

Every ICE vehicle requires water cooling and a radiator. They are only about 30 percent efficient and powered by fossil fuels that need to extracted and refined .

In contrast an electric motor is 90 percent efficient. About half of the electricity to power them is made from renewable sources and its rising every year .

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chickens said:

Trying to make a benefit out of a drawback is an odd reaction, but I guess it’s part of romanticising something that we know is part of a wider environmental issue

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Triggaaar said:

But the lithium for EV batteries requires extracting and eventually disposal, which is not green. They're not a perfect solution.

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Triggaaar said:

No, you're talking nonsense. Car enthusiasts have enjoyed the sound of some cars for many decades, long before there was any environmental concern or any electric alternative. My dad took the stereo out of one of his cars because he thought it would be stupid to not be able to hear the car. He was right. It's nothing to do with trying to make a benefit, it's an honest opinion.

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Guinness Boy said:

Charging points? A lot more. We have one on our road and the bloke who has a Tesla and lives opposite it constantly hogs it.

Range? There’s a new one pedal Polestar that can get 400 miles which seems about right. But it’s not in our budget.

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chickens said:

We’ll just have to agree to differ on this one.

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nicko31 said:

Manufacturing anything requires the planets resources, battery technology is improving all the time.

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nicko31 said:

Every ICE vehicle requires water cooling and a radiator. They are only about 30 percent efficient and powered by fossil fuels that need to extracted and refined .

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Triggaaar said:

But the lithium for EV batteries requires extracting and eventually disposal, which is not green. They're not a perfect solution.

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nicko31 said:

Manufacturing anything requires the planets resources, battery technology is improving all the time.

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Greg Bobkin said:

Fair enough. I'm genuinely fascinated with people's responses here, especially given their experience (or lack of) of actually living with an EV.

It can take a bit of planning, but if people follow the 'charge when you need to stop' approach, instead of 'stop when you need to charge' talk of 400 mile ranges go out of the window. If you're doing more than, say, 300 miles, it's probably a good idea to take a break anyway, so plan somewhere with a charger.

As for the number of chargers, clearly it's an issue for people with no off-street parking. But there are loads of options in the pipeline, including battery swapping (in not convinced on that one, personally), people who will come along and charge your car with a mobile unit, or just charging smarter (charge it to 100%at the weekend and it could last you all week, for example).

There's a long way to go - and a lot of cars to be electrified - so clearly people are going to be concerned. What makes me laugh is how people swallow or parrot the misinformation they hear.

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Triggaaar said:

You disagree that some people like the sound of cars? I didn't say we should all like it. I'm not disagreeing with the fact that you don't. But it is a fact that some people do.

I don't know how you can disagree with that.

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Greg Bobkin said:

Fair enough. I'm genuinely fascinated with people's responses here, especially given their experience (or lack of) of actually living with an EV.

It can take a bit of planning, but if people follow the 'charge when you need to stop' approach, instead of 'stop when you need to charge' talk of 400 mile ranges go out of the window. If you're doing more than, say, 300 miles, it's probably a good idea to take a break anyway, so plan somewhere with a charger.

As for the number of chargers, clearly it's an issue for people with no off-street parking. But there are loads of options in the pipeline, including battery swapping (in not convinced on that one, personally), people who will come along and charge your car with a mobile unit, or just charging smarter (charge it to 100%at the weekend and it could last you all week, for example).

There's a long way to go - and a lot of cars to be electrified - so clearly people are going to be concerned. What makes me laugh is how people swallow or parrot the misinformation they hear.

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nicko31 said:

Every ICE vehicle requires water cooling and a radiator. They are only about 30 percent efficient and powered by fossil fuels that need to extracted and refined .

In contrast an electric motor is 90 percent efficient. About half of the electricity to power them is made from renewable sources and its rising every year .

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Bozza said:

I'm surprised that people who don't have an EV are aware how many charge points there are and that it's insufficient, certainly when talking about undertaking a long journeys.

From travelling with @Papa Lazarou to and from Stoke away last year, on and around the motorway network, they seemed to be everywhere.

And if you don't make many long journeys, it's neither here nor there anyway.

Number of chargers in residential streets could be an issue if you are unable to charge at home, and I can see that being a legitimate concern for some.

But even those seem to becoming more prevalent. In my mum's small residential road in Goring, eight have been installed recently. The problem there is on-street parking is very much in demand, so the charger spaces seem to be often filled with ICE vehicles as, presumably, the owners have nowhere else to park. I guess that will become less of an issue as EV ownership gradually expands.

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chickens said:

What we’re agreeing to disagree on is that when you hear a Ferrari, you touch where you think your forelock is and murmur “I’m not worthy to look at the fine gentleman, but my what a beautiful noise”, whereas I tend to think “you’re at a traffic light, you’re revving your engine, your need for attention and validation is truly that of a small child.”

I fully accept that there are people who will make a virtue out of a combustion engine’s faults (they’re noisy) but as I feel we’ve established I’m not one of them, while you are.

Now you leave me to my listening, there’s an AEG with a double-compressor up next, when it comes back from defrost mode it’s like Sterns in its heyday.

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chickens said:

What we’re agreeing to disagree on is that when you hear a Ferrari, you touch where you think your forelock is and murmur “I’m not worthy to look at the fine gentleman, but my what a beautiful noise”, whereas I tend to think “you’re at a traffic light, you’re revving your engine, your need for attention and validation is truly that of a small child.”

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