EV Discussion thread

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82012814#Comment_82012814

I am stuck on SoLR price cap and the continued devious tricks that prevent any migration.

I do manage a lot of the car charging on Sunday Saver so that mitigates a lot of the pain.

One very odd thing is we used an average of 10 kWh / day and now we have the car as well and still use an average of 10 kWh / day.

michaels

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82013145#Comment_82013145

DS is 17 and wants to pass on a manual so despite having 4 EVs we have had to buy a small ICE for him to learn on. The pain of visiting a petrol station is physical, not only standing out in the pollution to pump the stuff in but then the wallet shock at the till…..

JKenH

I just thought I would have a look at some figures for the overall UK car fleet to see what progress we are making towards replacing ICE cars. While the proportion of Zero Emission Vehicles is increasing year by year, the number of ICE cars (I have classed ICE as any car with some form of petrol or diesel propulsion) is still increasing. Old ICE cars just aren’t being retired fast enough. Looking at the figures below (source SMMT) it seems the rate of growth in the ICE powered fleet was slowing from around 240k in 2023 to 100k in 2024, 47k in 2025 and 2026 should have been the first year the ICE fleet fell but instead (YTD) it has shot back up by 240k. Maybe with the rise in petrol and diesel prices and the much reported increase in drivers searching for EVs the 2026 YTD rise might yet be reversed.

JKenH

Meanwhile, according to government figures, it seems we haven’t made much progress with reducing CO2 emissions from transport in the last five years.

2025 UK greenhouse gas emissions: provisional figures - statistical release - GOV.UK

michaels

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017469#Comment_82017469

I wonder if we are seeing the SUV effect in those figures, just one example the retirement of the ford fiesta and it's replacement with the Puma.

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017487#Comment_82017487

Probably, and cars like the Kia EV9 aren’t going to help much in getting emissions down in the real world. I do find it hard to believe that a car that has the frontal area and weighs as much as a brick outbuilding is positively encouraged while government policies demonise cars like our Kia Picanto. (I don’t remember the exact mileage but our last Picanto travelled around 45k miles in 11 years of ownership. Our 4 year old current Picanto has just done 13k miles.) CO2 payback time is a consideration as well as total emissions.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82011784#Comment_82011784

Bjorn Nyland has tested quite a few cars to see how far they can go after zero.

1961Nick

It would be interesting to know the proportion of total miles the average plug-in-hybrid travelled on electricity? If the figure was around 50% it would be fair to count half the plug-in-hybrid vehicles in with the number of pure EVs.

My own experience with a plug-in-hybrid (with a real world range of 60 miles) is currently 91.3% running on electricity.

Exiled_Tyke

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018584#Comment_82018584

I had one for a year and guess my numbers were similar to yours. The only data I have is that after a year of ownership the car reported an average mpg of somewhere over 80. (I think it was about 84 from memory).

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017469#Comment_82017469

Is it possible that flat line over the past five years masks a more positive story?

I don't have any data but, since the increase following the COVID dip, my feeling is that the amount of mileage people on average travel has slowly increased. If that feeling is correct, a flat line for total emissions indicates a reduction in emissions per mile.