'Why can't you just cut Standing Charges?' – Martin Lewis puts your questions to regulator boss

WiserMiser

matt_drummer said:

WiserMiser said:

matt_drummer said:

WiserMiser said:

But either way, anyone who thinks that the running costs of their expensive EV will always be cheaper than an ICE vehicle will soon have a rude awakening.  Cardiff is already planning to charge EVs more for parking, the excuse being that they're heavier, and many others will doubtless follow their lead so it'll be a double whammy.

However. I think it is you who will have the rude awakening when you realise that your smelly, dirty and polluting ice vehicle will cost more too, a lot more!

Wrong assumption: I have a self-charging EV.

Yes, it will cost more.  I'll have to pay VED for the first time next April - a massive £20 ! 😈

It's not an ev then!
How does it self charge?
How is your VED only £20?
Presumably you have an engine?
I think the VED's on our ev's are £195 each.
Mine would have been £600+ a year but I made sure I got it before 01 April this year.
It doesn't seem quite equitable, some diesel cars still have a VED of £0 yet most ev's are £195 or more.
I don't think my assumption is wrong though.
Your `ev' needs petrol to `self charge'. correct?
That is not self charging, that is burning fossil fuel, it will get expensive!

Learn more:-

• https://octopusev.com/ev-hub/what-is-self-charging-electric-car

• It's very low emission, so it's in VED Band A.

matt_drummer

WiserMiser said:

matt_drummer said:

WiserMiser said:

matt_drummer said:

WiserMiser said:

But either way, anyone who thinks that the running costs of their expensive EV will always be cheaper than an ICE vehicle will soon have a rude awakening.  Cardiff is already planning to charge EVs more for parking, the excuse being that they're heavier, and many others will doubtless follow their lead so it'll be a double whammy.

However. I think it is you who will have the rude awakening when you realise that your smelly, dirty and polluting ice vehicle will cost more too, a lot more!

Wrong assumption: I have a self-charging EV.

Yes, it will cost more.  I'll have to pay VED for the first time next April - a massive £20 ! 😈

It's not an ev then!
How does it self charge?
How is your VED only £20?
Presumably you have an engine?
I think the VED's on our ev's are £195 each.
Mine would have been £600+ a year but I made sure I got it before 01 April this year.
It doesn't seem quite equitable, some diesel cars still have a VED of £0 yet most ev's are £195 or more.
I don't think my assumption is wrong though.
Your `ev' needs petrol to `self charge'. correct?
That is not self charging, that is burning fossil fuel, it will get expensive!

Learn more:-

• https://octopusev.com/ev-hub/what-is-self-charging-electric-car

• It's very low emission, so it's in VED Band A.

I know what they are.

They are ice cars. You put petrol in it and then burn it, don't you?

Without the ice you go nowhere very far for very long, you have to burn something to go anywhere!

A tiny battery charged from the energy created by the ice.

Very low emission so only £20 a year in VED but a full EV with even lower emissions (zero!) is £195 a year.

So for some reason, even though it has higher emissions than my car, it only costs 10% of mine in VED.

It doesn't make sense does it?!

matt_drummer

I think more people would be happier with the level of standing charges if they saw a way forward, improvements that would eventually lead to a better service and lower costs.

I don't think many people believe it.

It is not what we get in this country.

We are just paying for the failures of successive governments, politicians that mess it up time and time again.

More and more taxes but very little gets better, we are just paying more and more to slow down the rate of decline.

I will pay more soon, and I am happy to, but I just wish they would do something useful with the money and be more careful with it!

WiserMiser

Makes a lot of sense for me ! 🤓

Smooth automatic motoring, great MPG, no range anxiety, never find a petrol station with all pumps broken or occupied for hours, five minutes to fill up, no apps or subscriptions necessary,  no gearbox or starter motor to go wrong, no expensive home charger.  Best of both worlds.

matt_drummer

WiserMiser said:

Makes a lot of sense for me ! 🤓

Smooth automatic motoring, great MPG, no range anxiety, never find a petrol station with all pumps broken or occupied for hours, five minutes to fill up, no apps or subscriptions necessary,  no gearbox or starter motor to go wrong, no expensive home charger.  Best of both worlds.

I have not been to a petrol station for five years!

Think of all those five minutes added up! Those five minutes where I didn't need to drive anywhere for!

How does your engine start without a starter motor?

I think you may have gearbox! It's called a cvt if I am guessing the type of car correctly. How else does the power get from the petrol engine to the wheels? Unless it's a Nissan that works like a diesel train?

What do you mean by `smooth automatic motoring'? As in an automatic transmission, a gearbox of some sort?

No apps or subscriptions for me either, they just plug in either at home or at work.

The Tesla charger knows the car if I ever needed to use it.

No range anxiety here either.

No great mpg though, I don't have gallons of anything to buy!

No servicing for me, nothing to do ever.

You have some of the worst of both worlds, a PHEV is truly the worst of both worlds, you just have a petrol car with extra stuff to go wrong!

I think you need to do some research about how your car works if you think it doesn't have a gearbox or starter motor or anything else to go wrong, such as the petrol engine!

WiserMiser

I know how my car works.

It's a CVT, so no gearbox. As I said, it's self charging (but not a PHEV).  The electric drive motor is used to start the petrol engine.

Unless you never venture far from home you'll need to use a public charger, and even with a Tesla I doubt that you'll get a full charge in only five minutes.

matt_drummer

WiserMiser said:

I know how my car works.

It's a CVT, so no gearbox. As I said, it's self charging (but not a PHEV).  The electric drive motor is used to start the petrol engine.

Unless you never venture far from home you'll need to use a public charger, and even with a Tesla I doubt that you'll get a full charge in only five minutes.

What do you think the cvt is?

Constantly variable transmission, a gearbox, two cones with belts that move to constantly vary the `gear' ratio, a gearbox!

You mean the starter motor is used to drive the car, you have it the wrong way around!

It's not self charging, it's a battery assisted drive system that is energised from the potential energy created from a petrol engine moving a lump of metal and plastic. Self charging makes it sound like it defies the laws of physics!

My Tesla self charges and I bet it does it more efficiently than your car.

I have been driving Teslas for five years and I have yet to use the brakes, I have never used them, the regenerative braking is enough. I don't drive slowly but I am quite good at looking ahead.

All the times I never go to a petrol station make up for the odd times I may need to charge for more than five minutes at a Tesla super charger.

They add 200 miles in 20 minutes, usually where you would need to stop in any case for a comfort break, either for me or a passenger.

It is so fast it is barely time to do what you wanted to stop for.

WiserMiser

matt_drummer said:

WiserMiser said:

Makes a lot of sense for me ! 🤓

Smooth automatic motoring, great MPG, no range anxiety, never find a petrol station with all pumps broken or occupied for hours, five minutes to fill up, no apps or subscriptions necessary,  no gearbox or starter motor to go wrong, no expensive home charger.  Best of both worlds.

What do you mean by `smooth automatic motoring'? As in an automatic transmission, a gearbox of some sort?

The benefits of automatic transmission are well known.  No messing around with the clutch pedal in stop-start traffic, no interruptions in acceleration.

matt_drummer said:

WiserMiser said:

Makes a lot of sense for me ! 🤓

Smooth automatic motoring, great MPG, no range anxiety, never find a petrol station with all pumps broken or occupied for hours, five minutes to fill up, no apps or subscriptions necessary,  no gearbox or starter motor to go wrong, no expensive home charger.  Best of both worlds.

No servicing for me, nothing to do ever.

'Sorry m'lud about all the people in the bus queue that I hit, I couldn't stop because I've never serviced my heavy Tesla and all my brake pads were worn out.'

matt_drummer

WiserMiser said:

The benefits of automatic transmission are well known.  No messing around with the clutch pedal in stop-start traffic, no interruptions in acceleration.

'Sorry m'lud about all the people in the bus queue that I hit, I couldn't stop because I've never serviced my heavy Tesla and all my brake pads were worn out.'

Automatic transmission is still a gear box! It can go wrong, you think you don't have one, you do!

I don't have a clutch pedal either, but my acceleration usually has to be interrupted by me as it's too much most of the time!

My Tesla is not heavy, it weighs 1,800kg, the same as any other modern five seater saloon car.

On the subject of weight, my car has very wide tyres, I dare say it puts less pressure on the road surface than many other smaller and lighter cars. I could do the calculations if I could be bothered. They are not particularly heavy compared to many other modern cars.

My brake pads are not worn out, or the discs, they are as new.

The Tesla `wipes' the brakes from time to time to make sure they are ready for use. Mine look the same as the day I bought it, the same as the last one I had for four years

The brake discs are probably about the same size as the wheels on your car and it has single piece machined calipers, I think they will work fine if I needed them in anger!

There are Tesla Model 3's with over 250,000 miles still on the original brake pads and discs, they don't wear out.

There's nothing to do, no oil changes as there's no engine. It still has to be MOT'd at three years old and the brakes are checked. I do, of course, keep an eye on them.

QrizB

Gents I've got a lot of respect for both of you and your contributions to the forum but perhaps you could stop arguing about cars on a "standing charges" thread on the Energy forum?

If you want to discuss the merits of motorised vehicles, the Motoring forum - or one of the two rival EV threads on G&E - might be a better place to do it?

(This would have been a DM but the forum software doesn't allow a three-way chat.)