Charge your EV from home

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81876971#Comment_81876971

ICE cars weren't banned.

shinytop

I wonder what the market share of EVs would be in the UK if left to market forces, without subsidies (or bans). Given that current EV market share is struggling to reach 25% (mostly heavily subsidised) I would guess somewhere between 10 and 20 percent would be the natural level. That's hard to explain if EVs are better at what they do than ICE cars.

Resistance to change may explain some of it but ICE cars, digital cameras and smartphones didn't need bans and subsidies. They were just better than horses, film and Blackberries and so people wanted them.

Cornucopia

You'd need to ask each individual car buyer why they chose an ICE car over an EV. They will have their own reasons, their own figures, possibly their own preconceptions, and maybe some elements that are more about feelings than information.

I'm not convinced about subsidies swaying the market that much (any more than road tax manipulation in previous eras). At least now, it's easier to work out whether your EV will be cheap(er) to run, which in many/most cases it will be.

Buying a car is a complex decision and the amount of unfamiliar concepts in EVs may be off-putting enough in itself.

ididgetwhereiamtoday

Driving even an average EV is like driving a Rolls Royce compared to a Ford Fiesta

The infrastructure now is such that long distances are not an issue anymore

But I would not have one if I couldn’t charge from home

Herzlos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81877721#Comment_81877721

You'd be better looking into how many EV drivers to back to ICE afterwards, to get an indication of how they are in reality.

There are all sorts of reasons that a better product doesn't sell well (like 8-track, betamax, HD-DVD). In the case of EV's it's because there's a huge chunk of the potential buying pool contort themselves to find a reason to hate them based on out of date and shoddy journalism.

I find it hard to grasp why someone buying new and getting an EV for around the same price as the petrol equivalent would even consider petrol unless they really need the higher-range-short-recharge-time.

There's always this argument that they are no good for 600 mile journeys, but how often do you do them? I haven't done more than 200 miles in a day in years, and no-one I can think of offhand has a commute of more than 50 miles round trip except for one guy who uses an EV.

WellKnownSid

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81877721#Comment_81877721

Resistance to change may explain some of it but ICE cars, digital cameras and smartphones didn't need bans and subsidies. They were just better than horses, film and Blackberries and so people wanted them.

Resistance to change? The car market is driven largely by insanity fuelled by social media.

Just look at the number of people protesting about the ULEZ in London, despite the fact that there is medical evidence to show that pollution kills around 4,000 vulnerable Londoners a year. Many come on here looking for a way to "get out" the ULEZ payments, several "law abiding brethren" have even taken to criminal damage. This guy started building bombs in his own home in order to blow up cameras (and nearby cars), spurned on by a Facebook group:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jan/31/ulez-bomber-the-retired-electrician-who-turned-bomb-making-extremist

Yet all a London driver had to do is switch to a 20 year old petrol car, but I suppose it's easier to hold a grievance. Won't somebody think of the children? Apparently not, they should just jog on and die of respiratory complications due to excessive NOx emissions.

I wouldn't expect anything short of a shotgun or an outright ban to sway the opinion of a very large proportion of the motoring public I'm afraid.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81876770#Comment_81876770

Can you give a list of ICE that cost 2p a mile or less to run?

I have done 15,777 at a cost of £281,50 since Sept 2023. Again give me a example of a ICE that can beat that.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878067#Comment_81878067

No.

It had to be a 40 yo ICE, not 20 yo:

https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-does/questions-mayor/find-an-answer/classic-vehicles-and-ulez