Why are people buying electric cars?

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ecoleman said:
Maybe one day they they'll bring out an electric aeroplane. Lets see how eager you are to get on one of those.
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Wouldnt bother me in the slightest. As someone who flies (as a pilot as well as a passenger) I do like the sound of an engine (dont think a Spitfire would be half as impressive with an electric motor) but in terms of aviation, less moving parts, less things to go wrong, less servicing costs. The range is the range - if an electric plane has 300 miles and avgas plane has 300 miles, they will both need to glide when they get to said 300 miles
 
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ecoleman said:
Okay I'll rephrase.

Maybe one day they they'll bring out an electric commercial Aeroplane capable of carrying 200-300 passengers and all of their luggage.
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Do you think people were as sceptical when they did away with the propeller and go for those new fangled jet things?

Why would you be so scared to go on an electric aeroplane?
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
There is an introduction here...

en.wikipedia.org

Synthetic fuel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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OK, I had a look at that.

Currently 0.24% of crude oil capacity. So a fair bit of scaling up to be done.

That page didn't say how much food stuff, for example, would be needed to replace fossil fuel. The very end of the article refers to e-fuels, which could be an answer, if it is scalable.
 
Pound Coin said:
OK, I had a look at that.

Currently 0.24% of crude oil capacity. So a fair bit of scaling up to be done.

That page didn't say how much food stuff, for example, would be needed to replace fossil fuel. The very end of the article refers to e-fuels, which could be an answer, if it is scalable.
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And people complain about the 'lack' of chargers, yet this is barely out of the labs!
 
ecoleman said:
Okay I'll rephrase.

Maybe one day they they'll bring out an electric commercial Aeroplane capable of carrying 200-300 passengers and all of their luggage.
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It's not much more than 100 years since the Wright brothers first took powered flight so I wouldn't be surprised to see commercial electric airplanes in my lifetime.
 
Pound Coin said:
Well, even if that was the case, the "present level of infrastructure and technology" is not frozen in time. So it is a false argument you make.

How many chargers were there 20 years ago, compared with now,?
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The company I work for is 15 years old, we now have over 13,000 public chargers in the UK, that's just us you understand, there are many other companies.
We started out with 3kw and 22 kw chargers, then 7kw-22kw +50kw rapid, stayed that way for quite some time.
Then EV sales began to 'boom' and rapid chargers have evolved so much that 100kw-600kw are becoming common.
Still though, charging at home is by far the most common way EV owners go.
 
There do seem to be plenty of chargers around now - at least that's been fixed for the present level of usage.
 
ancient_mariner said:
There do seem to be plenty of chargers around now - at least that's been fixed for the present level of usage.
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Agreed to be fair most folk have no issues with access but the cost is still quite high and that is a bit rude.
 
Cost of electricity is something that affects everyone, not just us EV drivers. We are being ripped off massively, every time the government raises the price cap we get a letter from the supplier saying "we have to raise your prices because they raised the price cap"

Raising the maximum price they are allowed to charge does not mean they have to imediately charge the maximum they can.
 
I cannot understand the (high) price of electricity in the UK especially as we now have a Labour government - electricity is as Basic as food and water ......

just compare the cost of UK electricity, charged to both consumer and industrial users against say, France

At my old age, coming up for 80 and have lived and worked in several European countries, IMHO, I just feel that the UK is falling behind in the "basics" - the cost of living for normal families, versus, their income, working conditions for all levels of workers and especially infra-structure .......development............. incentive to progress is really suffering......... so many are demoralised for many different reasons

It's sad
 
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BillN_33 said:
I cannot understand the (high) price of electricity in the UK especially as we now have a Labour government - electricity is as Basic as food and water ......
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put quite simply we refused to move forward with nuclear back in the 80s/90s/00s when Europe did and hence they are not reliant on gas
they have also been able to slide gently into renewables when we have had to invest much more heavily, to move away from gas.

in a nutshell..... GAS
 
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BillN_33 said:
I cannot understand the (high) price of electricity in the UK especially as we now have a Labour government - electricity is as Basic as food and water ......

just compare the cost of UK electricity, charged to both consumer and industrial users against say, France

At my old age, coming up for 80 and have lived and worked in several European countries, I just feel that the UK is falling behind in the "basics" - the cost of living for normal families, versus, their income, working conditions for all levels of workers and especially infra-structure .......development.

It's sad
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Think of me, I live in the Scottish Highlands, we generate a huge amount of mostly renewable electricity here and yet pay the highest prices, we're told it's because we use it too much and that we live in a wild and wooly place which is difficult to transfer power over.
 
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without being political - IMHO the performance of ALL our leaders, MP's and government employees is and has been very poor ...... no idea why but just judge them all by their performance
 
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BillN_33 said:
I cannot understand the (high) price of electricity in the UK especially as we now have a Labour government - electricity is as Basic as food and water ......

just compare the cost of UK electricity, charged to both consumer and industrial users against say, France

At my old age, coming up for 80 and have lived and worked in several European countries, IMHO, I just feel that the UK is falling behind in the "basics" - the cost of living for normal families, versus, their income, working conditions for all levels of workers and especially infra-structure .......development............. incentive to progress is really suffering......... so many are demoralised for many different reasons

It's sad
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But, the cost of food is so much cheaper here than other countries. I saw it in America last year and in other Eu countries - my sister was over from Cyprus for first time in 8 years and she was amazed how cheap food was.
 
cambsno said:
But, the cost of food is so much cheaper here than other countries. I saw it in America last year and in other Eu countries - my sister was over from Cyprus for first time in 8 years and she was amazed how cheap food was.
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Is it food, though?
 
Maison secondaire owner here - food in British supermarkets is cheap and higher quality than in France, with the exception of alcohol and bread.
 
It seems that food prices are increasing everywhere in Europe and budget food prices are lower in the UK than in say, France - but I think I read somewhere that (generalising) the UK consumes the highest percentage of "ultra" processed food, (over 50% of that consumed), when compared with Europe and Scandinavia
- we have just spent a week with some of our French friends in Bordeaux and they certainly spend a lot more time "searching" for the best food available - in fact it got quite amusing driving 15 mins each morning to their preferred bread shop when there was one just around the corner. We also spent 4 mornings out of the 6 we were there at different local markets to buy the food for dinner that evening.

As far as wine is concerned I noticed this year more wine in boxes on the supermarket shelves.

It got to the stage were we are looking forward to get back to the UK for a "food detox"
 
Hell will freeze over before I would even consider an electric vehicle........they are just a 'con' to make us buy the latest 'thing'!

I currently run 4 vehicles:

Land Rover Discovery 4
Dacia Sandero
Mercedes SL320
Triumph TR3a

I can still 'save the planet', by using synthetic fuels, which are eco-friendly and allow everyone to utilise the millions of existing vehicles already on the road, whilst being carbon neutral.

Maybe we should treat cars like clothing and go from disposable to recycling perfectly good items..........Oh, wait a minute, the car manufacturers and governments would'nt like that!
 
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BillN_33 said:
As far as wine is concerned I noticed this year more wine in boxes on the supermarket shelves.
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This was the first year I've really seen wine boxes in France. Brought back 3l Corbieres for 10 euros and it's drinkable.

Food is a hobby for many in France, and as such people are often willing to spend time looking for better things.
 
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Vintage Racer said:
Hell will freeze over before I would even consider an electric vehicle........they are just a 'con' to make us buy the latest 'thing'!

I currently run 4 vehicles:

Land Rover Discovery 4
Dacia Sandero
Mercedes SL320
Triumph TR3a

I can still 'save the planet', by using synthetic fuels, which are eco-friendly and allow everyone to utilise the millions of existing vehicles already on the road, whilst being carbon neutral.

Maybe we should treat cars like clothing and go from disposable to recycling perfectly good items..........Oh, wait a minute, the car manufacturers and governments would'nt like that!
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Happy for you, the I love my ice cars thread is thataway >>
 
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ecoleman said:
Okay I'll rephrase.

Maybe one day they they'll bring out an electric commercial Aeroplane capable of carrying 200-300 passengers and all of their luggage.
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Still waiting to understand why you are so against electric aircraft?
 
For people with no off street parking the cost are so much higher at 450% to 690% higher than charging over night at home. If the Government are serious about getting people with no off street parking to go electric this needs to be looked at. I understand it will always cost more but it needs to be far more realistic .
 
bovey9 said:
For people with no off street parking the cost are so much higher at 450% to 690% higher than charging over night at home.
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I've been pointing this out for a long time.

The simplest solution is that the Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax) on electric cars could start from around £1,000 per year, to replace the loss of Fuel Duty.
 
BillN_33 said:
I cannot understand the (high) price of electricity in the UK especially as we now have a Labour government - electricity is as Basic as food and water ......

just compare the cost of UK electricity, charged to both consumer and industrial users against say, France

At my old age, coming up for 80 and have lived and worked in several European countries, IMHO, I just feel that the UK is falling behind in the "basics" - the cost of living for normal families, versus, their income, working conditions for all levels of workers and especially infra-structure .......development............. incentive to progress is really suffering......... so many are demoralised for many different reasons

It's sad
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The "dash for gas" in the 1990s meant lots of relatively cheap, quick to build gas fired power stations were built and nuclear stations weren't. This meant that, given the way the wholesale market works, the price of electricity is directly tied to the price of gas for most of the year.

Reform of the wholesale market would help a bit, but not as much as some people claim. The contracts for difference that some renewable generators sell their electricity under outside the wholesale market give non-volatile pricing not tied to the wholesale market price, but I don't know enough about those to say how the price paid by the grid for electricity generated under CfD compares with the wholesale price. The Farage party want to do away with them (see the letter by Tice to various electricity companies in the last week) and therefore move the wholesale price for renewable electric back to the necessary link with gas and increase volatility, with the potential for what happened as the world opened up again post-lockdown to repeat in the event of a dramatic increase in the gas price.

Ultimately the government can't set the price of gas because it is a global market, so they can't directly set the price of electric either. They could subisidise it by taking the money from somewhere else, but that is unlikely to be very popular with the people that are affected by the place the money is taken from (probably pensioners, given they are the biggest consumers of by far the two biggest government spends - the state pension and the NHS).
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I've been pointing this out for a long time.

The simplest solution is that the Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax) on electric cars could start from around £1,000 per year, to replace the loss of Fuel Duty.
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How would that solution solve the issue on expensive charging which was the original question?
 
ecoleman said:
Oh, I don't know. Weight? Don't you think that may be an issue? Probably not, you're too blinkered but I have a go after you.
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You are the one thats blinkered!

Today, no, you cant have a 737 running off batteries but give it 5 or 10 years and advances in tech... if a 737 was signed off as safe it wouldnt bother me. Remember that tech evolves. first EVs didnt have this range. Go back to the start of digital cameras.... 1mp was big, then came 2mp, D40 in 2007 was 6mp, now phones have 50mp.

Electric (small planes) are around now - lots of development aaround commercial planes going on.
 
cambsno said:
How would that solution solve the issue on expensive charging which was the original question?
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It wouldn't but that's a problem for the privileged few with their subsidised cars.

Remember that old saying: what goes around, has a nasty habit of coming around,
 
A graph showing carbon dioxide levels are higher now than at any point in the last 800,000 years. The X axis shows 800,000 to today going left to right. The Y axis shows 150 atmospheric CO2 concentration parts per million up to 450. A blue line shows levels going up and down until around 1950 when it shoots up to the highest level in 2024.


Here's a graph for Andrew. A clear indication of why (if we continue with private transport) we have to go electric. Somehow occupiers of the planet have to reduce their CO2 output considerably.
 
I do wonder now many 25 years ago said hell will freeze over before I use a digital camera, film is the only thing for me, you just can't trust a battery, a mechanical film winder is the only way to guarantee you can shoot all day.
 
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AndrewFlannigan said:
It wouldn't but that's a problem for the privileged few with their subsidised cars.

Remember that old saying: what goes around, has a nasty habit of coming around,
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With EV starting at £15K brand new, matching the price of new ICE cars, I don't think it is correct to say EVs are for the privileged few anymore.
 
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