Electric cars

AdrianC

Surely the main question is the timescale of "the future"?

zeupater

AdrianC wrote: »

Surely the main question is the timescale of "the future"?

Hi

Odd to mention that .... about 30minutes ago I was sitting in a friend's lounge no more than 15feet from a Tesla-S, about 25feet from a Plug-in-Prius & around 60feet from a house with a pair of Leafs on the drive! ...

The answer to your question seems to be that right now was the future of the past & EVs are already here. Beyond that, there's plenty of information related to continued introduction & roll-out of the technology, from ensuring that all new European homes have EV charging facilities within the next few years (2020?), through to a considerable number of nations committing to move over to EVs within 2 decades, including ours! ...

... the future's started, it's just that some fail to realise it yet!

HTH
Z

NigeWick

AdrianC wrote: »

Surely the main question is the timescale of "the future"?

The timescale is infinite. That said, we've only got about four billion years until our sun becomes a red giant and this planet will be consumed. Of course, we hooman beans could have destroyed it well before that.

As we're talking about electric vehicles, I suspect dominance will be a lot sooner than many manufacturers' managers think at present.

Martyn1981

Ranjan wrote: »

Electric cars are the future. Its depends which country you from ? in some countries like china already the demand has exceeded supply. Its very easy to maintain and less pars comparing to the regular cars.

Hiya and welcome. Yes, I think you are absolutely correct. EV's are proving to be cheaper to run, already, than ICE cars, so as their price falls, the benefits will only grow.

So the two major 'problems' have already been solved - adequate range (around 200 miles) and cost of ownership.

China has clearly seen the light and are supporting EV's strongly.

They've just made a change to their subsidies and will give more subsidies to cars with greater range, so small range - small subsidy, large range - larger subsidy. I think this is designed to promote the development of longer range EV's, as many being sold now have relatively short range for city driving.

All great stuff.

Car_54

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Hiya and welcome. Yes, I think you are absolutely correct. EV's are proving to be cheaper to run, already, than ICE cars, so as their price falls, the benefits will only grow.

So the two major 'problems' have already been solved - adequate range (around 200 miles) and cost of ownership.

Surely the future cost of ownership remains unknown, until the government decides how to replace its lost VED (plus VAT) revenue?

AdrianC

Car_54 wrote: »

Surely the future cost of ownership remains unknown, until the government decides how to replace its lost VED (plus VAT) revenue?

VED's the easy bit - steps are already being taken towards that, since the average new car registered in 2016 was down to £30/yr, a figure last seen in 1974.

Fuel duty is going to be the massive budget hit - just shy of £30bn/year.

Road pricing is the most likely scheme, but that requires massive infrastructure implementation, and carries big privacy implications.

Martyn1981

Car_54 wrote: »

Surely the future cost of ownership remains unknown, until the government decides how to replace its lost VED (plus VAT) revenue?

Nope. If the cost of ownership is already cheaper today, then as the cost of batts, and the cost of the cars continues to fall, this will outweigh any such government moves.

Plus, of course, you have to consider the cost savings to the government of tackling AGW costs, and pollution/health costs, both of which have tax implications.

AnotherJoe

AdrianC wrote: »

VED's the easy bit - steps are already being taken towards that, since the average new car registered in 2016 was down to £30/yr, a figure last seen in 1974.

Fuel duty is going to be the massive budget hit - just shy of £30bn/year.

Road pricing is the most likely scheme, but that requires massive infrastructure implementation, and carries big privacy implications.

I think it could be done simpler than that. Each MOT, there's a tax to pay depending on your mileage. They already record mileage on MOTs.

If no MOT is needed you still go to an MOT station to have your mileage recorded, same way as you still have to go through the mechanism of paying VED even if its £0.

Of course, our government with its track record of massive complex IT failures, will no doubt go for a grandiose overplanned and overcomplex road pricing scheme which will fail.

AdrianC

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I think it could be done simpler than that. Each MOT, there's a tax to pay depending on your mileage. They already record mileage on MOTs.

If no MOT is needed you still go to an MOT station to have your mileage recorded, same way as you still have to go through the mechanism of paying VED even if its £0.

And you don't see any potential problem with that at all...?

Let's put it this way: I had a car which had the exact same mileage on at least three MOTs, then the mileage went down by 60k. All perfectly legal... I have two vehicles which don't have, and have never ever had from new, speedos fitted let alone odometers. Again, perfectly legal.

And that's before we go near changing tyre sizes and the effect that has on odometer calibration...

Car_54

AdrianC wrote: »

VED's the easy bit - steps are already being taken towards that, since the average new car registered in 2016 was down to £30/yr, a figure last seen in 1974.

Fuel duty is going to be the massive budget hit - just shy of £30bn/year.

Road pricing is the most likely scheme, but that requires massive infrastructure implementation, and carries big privacy implications.

I agree, road pricing is the most likely solution. There is however no real reason why the whole (or even part of) the shortfall in taxation needs to be made up by the motorist.

There are many other taxes which could be increased or introduced instead, but no governement will have the courage to do so.