Goodbye to private motoring...from just 9 years?

John_

EdGasketTheSecond said:

What the governments and Greta's of this world don't get is that the enjoyment of a car is not to get from A to B but about the throb of the engine, the smell of the exhaust, the vrrooom as you rev up in the driveway or at the traffic lights; the oil and grease on your hands when you service the car. Where's the fun in driving a souped up milk float?

I really do like my cars, as have a few that most enthusiasts would appreciate. I never got on with my Tesla, but will definitely consider a Taycan next year, and think that small electric cars are brilliant for in town.

born_again

fallen121 said:

I assume yourself and those 300 people running cars manage to get petrol and diesel with no major issues? The fuel station will become home to rapid charging points.

Yes, I work in Edinburgh, so I can grab fuel once a week on my way home from work. A couple of minutes tops. But I don't really have time to wait around for ages in rush hour. It's a 90 minute commute home. I don't have much of an evening as it is. And what am I going to do at a filling station whilst waiting on an electric car charging? Can't use a mobile phone at a filling station as assume it will still be dispensing petrol diesel to those still running those type of vehicles. What if it is really cold, hang about in the shop looking at the sandwiches? Is it really realistic to think that quick 15 minute charge will get me the 54 miles home? Because I think that's possibly the maximum amount of time I want to be waiting around doing nothing.

The thing is, I don't MIND the fact that there are no filling stations for 15 miles in each direction because I don't need to fill up that much. Maybe once a week. It takes a few minutes. But doing a 104 mile commute I'll probably need to charge every day. Let's assume I can charge the car in an hour. That's another hour you've added onto the 3 hours I spend getting to the office every day as it is. Why on earth would you think that I would possibly find this an attractive option? I only live where I do because I can't afford to live in Edinburgh on my salary.

So while you are working the car is charging up.
Plenty where I work do just that. We have more than enough charging points to cover the need and scope to increase when needed.
The "Time take to charge" for anyone that works is a non starter.

IN YOUR CASE IT'S TIME SAVED AS YOU DO NOT NEED TO STOP TO FILL UP..

born_again

ToxicWomble said:

What about all those “white” vans and HGVs
What are the stats for pollution caused proportionaly by these ?
Think I will just go buy a van

Sorry to spoil your day but EV "White Vans" & HGV's are already here.
Failing that HGV's can run on hydrogen.

Herzlos

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

Herzlos said:

However, cars are responsible for most of the local pollution so moving from combustion to batter makes cities and the road side nicer so is well worth doing.

Sounds great, except for the destruction and child labour used to extract the rare earth minerals etc that are required in the production of these cars.

Battery powered cars are the Betamax of the industry, a technological dead end.

Definitely a problem and hopefully something we can address in time. We've done it with most other trades.

ToxicWomble

Will be interesting to see how motor sport reacts/adapts
Many of the classes depend on using road going models as their base package 
Cant see BTCC or GT being the same to name but 2 ☹️

And yes, I know Formula E exists - but frankly - it sucks 

A._Badger

born_again said:

ToxicWomble said:

What about all those “white” vans and HGVs
What are the stats for pollution caused proportionaly by these ?
Think I will just go buy a van

Sorry to spoil your day but EV "White Vans" & HGV's are already here.
Failing that HGV's can run on hydrogen.

You do know it takes a lot of energy to produce hydrogen, I suppose?

NottinghamKnight

A._Badger said:

born_again said:

ToxicWomble said:

What about all those “white” vans and HGVs
What are the stats for pollution caused proportionaly by these ?
Think I will just go buy a van

Sorry to spoil your day but EV "White Vans" & HGV's are already here.
Failing that HGV's can run on hydrogen.

You do know it takes a lot of energy to produce hydrogen, I suppose?

No, that's a lot of hot air.........

headpin

The UK cars produce approx. 0.16% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. And, bearing in mind the Chinese and Indian emissions are increasing year on year, then our percentage will become even smaller. So, once again the UK population pick up the tab for what is in effect a pointless exercise that will have little effect on the global total. 

Looks good politically, but will be like !!!!!! in the Ocean, nobody will be able to see any difference.

A._Badger

It's worth reading the views of the economist/environmentalist (and an anthropogenic global warming true believer, incidentally) Bjorn Lomborg on this. I imagine his original article in the Telegraph will be behind a paywall but there is excellent coverage of his comments here: 
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/11/18/electric-cars-are-good-fun-for-wealthy-virtue-signallers-but-a-dreadful-way-to-save-the-planet/
His title 'Electric cars e good fun for wealthy virtue signallers, but a dreadful way to save the planet' is a neat encapsulation of what is really going on here.

Bigphil1474

Personally, I agree that plug in electric cars are the Betamax version. Use of liquid hydrogen for power instead of petrol (takes energy to produce it, but can be offset with increased renewable electricity production), or even hydrogen converters in cars - fill it up with water, and let chemistry do the rest. Nuclear powered cars aren't an impossibility. I suspect that most of us will switch to hybrids if we don't live somewhere that can have a charging point, or full electric where we can. Nevertheless, I don't see electric cars with batteries as a long term solution mainly due to the limited resources on our planet to produce the batteries. Won't be long before they are 'running out' like oil was supposed to be. Just need someone to come up with a power source that doesn't involve the use of limited rare resources, hence why Hydrogen is a good bet given we've quite a lot of it to play with.