Are we being forced to go electric?

[CXRAndy]

There was a time, when I was working as a freelance, when I was doing 40K miles a year.

I did a driving job when I was 18/19 years old. We got a brand new company car. It was well worn out on the mechanicals after 18 months. We would regularly do 80k miles per year. The blooming car was being serviced like every two months.

 

[CXRAndy]

Lazy body should be thankful for people like me, providing used vehicles. EVs are a new mode of transport, only really taken off in numbers in the last 2 years. Even I have seen a huge upswing in sightings of EVs compared to when we first got our Tesla. They are everywhere now. I was in a convoy of three model 3s this morning on the A1. I would be lucky to see one on my journey a little while ago, now I see 30 or 40 each trip. Also I see Audi, VW, Skoda, Hyundai, Kia EVs too.

They will become available soon to the used market in large numbers

 

[fossyant]

Well it's EV test drive day tomorow at work. Two MG's a big Kia, a Model 3 and the SUV Tesla (not the huge one). The Kia looks massive compared to all the others. I shan't be partaking as the salary sacrifice is more than I'd like, and at my age it can go into my pension, and when I'm only doing 3,000 miles a year. MrsF isn't much more at about 6,000 and her car is only 10.

The general opinion in my office is that they are too expensive. Our line manager (Senior Professor) said he's got the base model 3 in white (apparently that's why you see so many white ones). He loves it but that's on personal PCP and he's also someone who has said he'll never 'own' his house as it's interest only mortgage.

 

[classic33]

Lazy body should be thankful for people like me, providing used vehicles. EVs are a new mode of transport, only really taken off in numbers in the last 2 years. Even I have seen a huge upswing in sightings of EVs compared to when we first got our Tesla. They are everywhere now. I was in a convoy of three model 3s this morning on the A1. I would be lucky to see one on my journey a little while ago, now I see 30 or 40 each trip. Also I see Audi, VW, Skoda, Hyundai, Kia EVs too.

They will become available soon to the used market in large numbers

There's nowt "new" about them, the person responsible for the electrification of the London Underground started building them in 1884.

 

[Alex321]

I did a driving job when I was 18/19 years old. We got a brand new company car. It was well worn out on the mechanicals after 18 months. We would regularly do 80k miles per year. The blooming car was being serviced like every two months.

I thought mine was bad with three "annual" services per year.

 

[MrGrumpy]

How many miles to the kW are we talking about , quick google and it’s approx 63p cost per kW for the fast chargers? Home charging is a lot less I’m aware !

 

[Buck]

Article in the Times


Ministers are set to miss their target of installing 300,000 new electric car chargers by 2030 by 20 years, opposition leaders have claimed.


Labour accused the government of being “asleep at the wheel” after it was revealed that fewer than 9,000 public electric vehicle charging devices were installed in the UK last year.

There is now one charge point for every 30 electric vehicles, compared with 16 at the start of 2020, according to Times analysis, fuelling fears that infrastructure is failing to keep up with demand.

 

[Mike_P]

Fear of vandalism sees planned EV charging points dropped https://thestrayferret.co.uk/bilton...ts-halted-due-to-cost-and-vandalism-concerns/

 

[Alex321]

EVs are definitely the answer. I'm spending 1/8 the cost of what I was on petrol.

Which is currently offset by the extra cost of buying one.

They are NOT (yet) the answer for people who can only afford £2K for a car (often less). They would be borderline at best for somebody like me, who has never spent more than £10K on a car.

Give it 4-5 years, they will definitely be the answer for people like me. But it will be 10-15 years at least before they are the answer for somebody who can only afford a couple of thousand.

It doesn't matter how much cheaper to run they are, if you can't afford to buy one in the first place. As I said earlier in the thread, this is one of those examples where you can save money if you are well off, but not (yet) if you aren't.

 

[cougie uk]

That’s fine if you do lots of miles but I’d struggle break even in many years if I spent £20k (or more likely £30k) on an EV (I spend under £50 a month on petrol)

Well exactly. Choose your car to suit the mileage you do.
My EV was less than 20k.

 

[cougie uk]

There's nowt "new" about them, the person responsible for the electrification of the London Underground started building them in 1884.

The first Porsche was electric.

 

[Alex321]

I beg to differ, as a family we have notched up well over 100,000 miles in EVs in the last 4 years or so. They have been extremely reliable, vastly cheaper to run given the miles we do.

Ok 100,000 miles at 50 mpg would be 2,000 gallons. Which is 9,000 litres.

At £1.50/l, that is £13,500.

If you are spending 1/8 of that on "fuel" for your EVs, that is a bit more than £1600. So a saving of £11,900.

How much more did those EVs cost to buy than the equivalent petrol/diesel cars would have done?

 

[CXRAndy]

We used to run high end motors. So not much difference in costs. The switch was more about emissions for us. Costs savings are great but not the first

I never saw more than 32mpg from previous vehicles. Also apart from one car, the rest were regular updates to our cars.

 

[lazybloke]

The obvious answer is cheap used electric cars at a price that the market can sustain, just like every other second hand object ever.
The mileage left will dictate the value and market that buys them , in the same way condition and miles done make up the price of ICE cars.

I'll give you D- .

"The mileage left" is the unknown.
For some, the only affordable EV might be the one that needs a new battery. Perhaps you can organise a quick whip-round?

 

[geocycle]

There Is a second hand EV market but it is small and still expensive as the early adopters trade up. There are not many third or fourth hand vehicles . What we will see as we approach the ICE deadline is a very large and cheap pool of ICE vehicles.