Electric cars - Driveway essential?

Glover1862

pinkteapot wrote: »

Sales might be banned in 15 years, but buy a brand new petrol/diesel car in 14 years and you won't have to worry about it for around 30 years...

You might do if you can't buy fuel easily

AnotherJoe

Comms69 wrote: »

Electric cars make up approx. 2% of market share.
Yes they are increasingly popular, but still a fraction of the market.

You underestimate exponential growth. It will likely be 4-5% (new sales) end of this year. 10% next. 20% end of the next.
Its gone to 50%+ in Norway from 1% in just six years.

France went to 10% last month. And so on. Its happening.

Glover1862

AnotherJoe wrote: »

• As an EV driver for more than 2 years, I'd say you cant overestimate the ease-of-use and cheapness of having your own drive or garage with power.
• As someone who owned a home which had a separate garage as part of a block, within a small car park (also about 30metres away you dont live near Reading do you? ) , Id say dont underestimate the sheer hassle and aggravation of inconsiderate parking and needing to get agreement from all owners of the block before you could get repairs done.
• And yep, in a few years time houses with drives/garages that are adjacent are very likely to go up in value more than ones without. And an EV will be more inconvenient than it could be. This is an issue the government needs to tackle and hasn't even started yet but i would let that be someone else's problem.

I wouldnt buy this house though just on account of my second paragraph. Shared parking seems to bring out inconsiderate neighbours like flies to honey. Add in a shared garage block, just a nightmare.

No, don't live in Reading.

I wouldn't consider it normally but everything else about the house is perfect, it's also £25k cheaper than one with an adjacent drive, I agree that longer term might not be the best option. I can only hope that they allow some form of mole to be used to get power from the house to the parking space, or a new idea that gets around it.

Comms69

AnotherJoe wrote: »

You underestimate exponential growth. It will likely be 4-5% (new sales) end of this year. 10% next. 20% end of the next.
Its gone to 50%+ in Norway from 1% in just six years. - Norway which has a 25% import tax on cars, which EV are exempt from?

France went to 10% last month. And so on. Its happening.

I believe France has a bonus policy for EV also, and a scrappage policy also.


I'm sure there will be growth, but it will cap out. I'd be surprised if it reached 10% by 2030


(although obviously, this is new car sales and totally ignores the second hand market)

FreeBear

Now that I have a power monitor hooked up to the electricity supply, I'm quite shocked at just how much of a voltage drop there is when stuff like a shower is in use. A fast charging point for an electric car is just not going to happen here. I suspect there will be swathes of other properties across the country that also have similar supply issues.


As for kerb side charging points - Has anyone considered the trip hazard that that poses ?

scottiescott

My local garage owner tells me that electric will die a death (for a number of reasons) and hydrogen will be the way to go.

eddddy

I suspect that electric vehicles and their charging requirements will be totally different within the next 10 to 15 years.

Firstly, I would think that all charging would be wireless by then - with charging transmitters under roads and motorway lanes, that charge your car whilst you're driving.


(And people with 15 year old electric cars which need 'old fashioned' wired charging points will need to drive miles to find one. A bit like people with LPG powered cars today.)

epinjy

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Its gone to 50%+ in Norway from 1% in just six years.

That's because their taxes on buying cars are astronomical, making it cheaper to buy an electric car which does not have the same tax rates. So, do you see the UK government doing such a thing any time soon? I don't.

Comms69

eddddy wrote: »

I suspect that electric vehicles and their charging requirements will be totally different within the next 10 to 15 years.

Firstly, I would think that all charging would be wireless by then - with charging transmitters under roads and motorway lanes, that charge your car whilst you're driving.


(And people with 15 year old electric cars which need 'old fashioned' wired charging points will need to drive miles to find one. A bit like people with LPG powered cars today.)

You're actually very close to the truth.


For EV to be effective and reliable we do need wireless charging fields on the roads.


However... the infrastructure cannot be upgraded easily. A 10 mile bypass took 12 months to build (and tens of millions), imagine thousands of miles of motorways?

lees80

Remember LPG? Not many others do, either.

Worrying about nothing. The current electric cars will be old hat by 2030, with a newer technology superseding it. That means charging points will likely be upgraded, or replaced. And that's before we get on to Joe Public being able to afford a decent electric vehicle. The current technology doesn't lend itself to the transport infrastructure we have at the moment - and it won't for a long, long time.