Investing in the Electric Car

Loughton_Monkey

Idiophreak wrote: »

There are several suppliers you can switch to which will give you green energy...it just comes through the same socket..?

Best laugh I've had all day!!!!

Do you really believe you are getting different electricity from your neighbour?

Lokolo

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Best laugh I've had all day!!!!

Do you really believe you are getting different electricity from your neighbour?

I don't think you personally get green electricity, but instead the extra money you go pays for the green input that they buy off other people.

A lot of companies now pay you extra for providing green energy (wind, solar etc.), and I suspect as they buy this, they sell it at the extra premium to the green customers (although it may not directly go to them). But it reduces the amount coming from gas, coal etc.

Idiophreak

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Best laugh I've had all day!!!!

Do you really believe you are getting different electricity from your neighbour?

No. I'm with eon. As is our neighbour.

Lokolo wrote: »

I don't think you personally get green electricity, but instead the extra money you go pays for the green input that they buy off other people.

A lot of companies now pay you extra for providing green energy (wind, solar etc.), and I suspect as they buy this, they sell it at the extra premium to the green customers (although it may not directly go to them). But it reduces the amount coming from gas, coal etc.

They also invest themselves in wind farms, solar farms etc - but it ultimately ends up in the same grid...the good energy site has a nice way of explaining it.

"Our customers are supplied through the national grid, which is like a big dirty pond. Choosing Good Energy to be your electricity supplier is like pouring fresh water into that pond. Slowly but surely we’ll clean it up."

gadgetmind

kriss_boy wrote: »

My first question is whether or not its feasible to invest as little as £200/300. Or are there fees that make a larger investment of, say, £1000 more viable.

As trading fees will be at least a tenner, anything less than £1000 makes little sense, and TBH £2000+ per trade is far more like it.

Of course, investing in just one company, or several in the same sector, is very high risk and you shouldn't do this with more than a few percent of your portfolio.

A years ago, I took a punt on an EV company called Tanfield, which is unlike me as I don't do many punts, and even more rarely on something outside of my own area of technological knowledge. As of right now, I'm up 75%, but the price has been all over the place, and they are increasingly not even an EV company!

If it sounds like I'm trying to scare you off, then it's because I am! There is a big difference between investing and gambling.

wastedtalent

Personally I choose to invest more in the companies providing the electric themselves, as if cars go electric, demand for electricity will grow.

IronWolf

Renault have something in the pipeline. Obviously the biggest flaw with electric cars is having to charge them for 20 hours, but Renaults cars actually have easily removed batteries, and the idea is that you just switch the battery with one at a petrol station. not sure what the costs are actually gonna be, sounds pricey

gadgetmind

IronWolf wrote: »

Obviously the biggest flaw with electric cars is having to charge them for 20 hours

The Nissan Leaf can get to 80% charge in 30 minutes. OK, not as fast as pumping the dino-fuel, but easily managed in the time taken for a pee and a cup of coffee on a long trip.

It's also a question of usage. Our "second" car has exactly once done more than 30 miles in a day, and that was when I had to take it to Wakefield for a service. Our "first" car has been used exactly once during July and that was for a 400 mile round trip. Electric would be fine for the former but a big issue for the latter.

Porcupine

I agree with what others have said: the innovation in electric cars isn't that they're cars (people have been building electric trains for a century, and electric cars mechanically aren't much different) but it's the battery technology. So if you want to invest directly, look at battery manufacturers. It's a lot easier for a battery manufacturer to enter the car market than a car manufacturer to enter the battery market. The big car companies bring manufacturing plant and sales channels, but not the new technology.

One example is BYD (Chinese, listed in Hong Kong, symbol 1211.HK). But your guess is as good as mine as to whether they're worth investing in.

gadgetmind

Porcupine wrote: »

So if you want to invest directly, look at battery manufacturers.

Yes, I also did that, and fell victim to a nasty pre-pack administration, so a 100% loss. Fortunately, the vast majority of the investments I made in early 2009 have paid off *very* well, and I can laugh about the bad ones.

Other than in the case of that pre-pack: the rules and regulations needs serious attention in this area.

atush

Given many of our electric companies rely on dirty coal for their fuel, I don't see electric cars as being all that Green as of yet.

Like engery saving light bulbs which are expensive and v ery dirty to produce, and very dirty to get rid of, they aren't every green either. They also don't last anything like the 10 years we are promissed- some of mine have only lasted a year just like incandescent. And there are practiaclly noe candle shape forsted 60W equivs on the general mrkt which most of my lights take. So I have to special order them- they don't even have them in B&Q where I bought some of the lights.