electric car

izools

I would steadfastly advise against buying an electric car. Points to consider:

1. Small city diesels can be had for a significantly lower outlay
2. The cost of taxing a small city diesel is normally £0-£35 PA
3. Cost of running said diesel would be in the realm of 12p / Mile - which is similar to the cost alone of replacing a electric car's battery let alone the cost of recharging the thing (yes, it still costs if you have solar panels, as that's money you wouldn't be getting back from the electricity supplier)
4. Refilling takes five minutes, not eight hours
5. Cost to the environment is normally less - as the manufacturing processes involved in creating a something thousand cell li-ion battery is VERY VERY DAMAGING to the environment
6. Residual value would be MUCH better
7. Servicing cost much reduced - you don't need to spend £7,500 on a new battery every 12,000 miles
8. If you want to travel more than 100 miles, you don't need to book into a Travel Lodge half way to your destination

The BIGGEST reason however to avoid current electric cars is this is NOT where car manufacturers should be putting their R&D money. I am a big supporter of the hydrogen car and the hydrogen fuel cell - Honda in the state of California proved the concept works - but these manufacturers are pouring their R&D cashflow into pitiful battery powered cars that are not a suitable replacement for the internal combustion engine.

We need to, for want of a better word, boycott the car industry into realizing batteries aren't the way forward, hydrogen is. Never put money towards this non-solution.

If I had £20,000 spare I'd sooner donate it to a leading car manufacturer on condition they used it on R&D into hydrogen, than buy any kind of battery powered car.

james_joyce

Absolutely right - I'm amazed hydrogen is not being given a lot more prominence.

Cornucopia

This is very much the diesel-petrol argument in slightly greener clothes.

At the moment, the financial argument for electric vehicles simply isn't there. There are now zero-RFL vehicles of all shapes and sizes (though almost exclusively diesel or hybrid) - no excuse for not driving one, really.

I'm not sure I understand the arguments for Hydrogen, either. It is difficult and energy-intensive to extract, and there is no distribution infrastructure.

forgotmyname

As bigger cars are getting free tax, The limit will start to drop.

Wont be long before only genuine zero emission vehicles get free tax.

james_joyce

Cornucopia wrote: »

I'm not sure I understand the arguments for Hydrogen, either. It is difficult and energy-intensive to extract, and there is no distribution infrastructure.

I think the point is, hydrogen has a lot more potential to be developed into an (almost) self-sustaining technology - there's quite a lot of hydrogen available in the oceans! (Obviously we are a long way from that kind of extraction at the moment.) Distribution is a more straightforward issue - it could be sorted out easily if the will was there.

Imp

What a bunch of naysayers everyone is. Electric cars are the future, have been around for over a hundred years and suit most people's normal driving patterns. Five years ago, when I bought my current car, I said my next car will be electric. Every year that goes by I become more and more convinced that this will be the case.

And hydrogen is far more problematic as an energy store than batteries. It's very small and tends to leak.

izools

Imp wrote: »

What a bunch of naysayers everyone is. Electric cars are the future, have been around for over a hundred years and suit most people's normal driving patterns. Five years ago, when I bought my current car, I said my next car will be electric. Every year that goes by I become more and more convinced that this will be the case.

And hydrogen is far more problematic as an energy store than batteries. It's very small and tends to leak.

So how do I visit my relatives who span the length and breadth of the country then? Make it a three day journey with two stops each way at travel lodges while I wait to get another 200 miles range? Yeah. That's the future...

Imp

izools wrote: »

So how do I visit my relatives who span the length and breadth of the country then? Make it a three day journey with two stops each way at travel lodges while I wait to get another 200 miles range? Yeah. That's the future...

Just looking at some of the journeys which I do - London to Swansea, London to Chester, London to Newcastle, London to Anglesea. All these are under 300 miles, and I expect the range of the next generation electric cars will cover them. And with these journeys taking over four hours, I am unlikely to want to do the return journey the same day.

Bristol Cars look to be developing an interesting concept - an electric car with range extender and individual electric motor on each wheel. It looks like they are staking the future of their company on its success, and I think it will be fantastic - silent and powerful.

Ultrasonic

Imp wrote: »

What a bunch of naysayers everyone is. Electric cars are the future, have been around for over a hundred years and suit most people's normal driving patterns. Five years ago, when I bought my current car, I said my next car will be electric. Every year that goes by I become more and more convinced that this will be the case.

Go on then, make the case for why your next car will be electric?

Right now I see three major problems:

1) They're not clearly better for the environment than petrol or diesel cars, and may actually be worse (see e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22001356).
2) They're more expensive than petrol or diesel cars.
3) The limited range will be a problem for virtually every driver who buys one on some occasions. Even for those with a daily commute within range, very few people take no longer trips over the course of a year. People have been working on electric cars for a while now, so suddenly expecting 300 mile + range is optimistic (for sensible money) I'd have thought. Not that I've researched this so I'm quite prepared to be proved wrong!

TradePro

funkycoldribena wrote: »

Buy an Up!/citygo/Mii instead.

Variety is the spice of life