If it's possible to buy an electric vehicle for sensible money, it can have equivalent performance to petrol, it has a 300 mile minimum range at 100+ mph and the lifespan is sensible (eg 10 years before some outrageous cost to replace batteries) then I will consider it.

You can stick your Grandad Nissan Leaf or Toyota Prius up your ****. That isn't my driving existence and never will be.

 

Reality....politicians ultimately force everyone to do what they want by taxing the hell out of the other option whilst telling you they are looking after your best interests and you should trust them. *******.

 

lol. Tesla Roadster looked good Where did that disappear to ?!

 

Where on earth do you drive that that's even vaguely possible? Thinking about it, I'm not even sure there are many cars (other than large capacity diesels) that'll even do that range/speed in the first place.

As for the 10 year lifespan, EVs tend to have lower servicing costs. So taken over that 10 years, total running cost probably isn't much different.

 

Bottom line, EV's have fallen out the ugly tree and currently appeal or are available to very few people financially.

It will all change, but currently they are awful ( 'currently' not a pun.lol)

 

You can do it anywhere if you choose to ignore speed limits.
My crappy diesel work van will do over 300 miles on a 50 litre tank at 120mph just.
My disregard of the limits aside, electric vehicles need to be one hell of a lot better than they are now to get anywhere near being viable for someone looking at a 400 mile drive to Glasgow with no wish to **** about getting there.

 

Range is a big issue, especially if like me you want to pop over to France or where I am in Croatia 1250 miles in 24hrs... not going to happen... with the current state of electric cars I'd need 6 days to get here... might not even make it to the ferry in Dover in one hit... it's not really viable for people that actually travel a lot... even my yearly camping trip to Wales turns into 2 possibly 3 days to get there and the same coming back.

I used to do around 200 miles a day as an average... sometimes more sometimes a little less... but what would I have done on one of the 'more' days... spend the night in Birmingham because I don't have enough juice to make it the extra 50 miles back to Nottingham.

I'm not alone in this scenario either, millions of people a day all around the world have similar issues.

These cars need to have some sort of removable battery pack so you can pull in exchange and be on your way again in 5/10 mins just like filling up at the pump.

 

I drive to and from Spain four times a year; 1300 miles each way with one overnight stop (although have done it none stop a few times), so I'd need a car that either has a 650+ mile range, or can recharge in the same time it takes to fill a tank with fuel.

Interesting that EVs have no wear and tear parts (considering I've just spent £700 suspension and brake repairs (not including labour) on my petrol engined car. The engine has only ever had to have oil, filters and fuel.

 

Who said EVs have no wear and tear parts?

 

Have been reading up possibilities electric engine for my small yacht , since the beds and shaft are there - apparently there was a ford poplar engine there before ..eek

seems nice idea ,all individual parts much lighter than ic diesel install , and less /similar cost

problem is youd need fill the bottom the boat,complete,with batteries . Id worry about fire , loose current and getting seawater/any water on the motor

if you used it solely for the hour and half either end of an outing it might just work , but for passage work no.

Charging could be solar but would take a week to charge , and if you were on long passage prop turning would do something . But for everyday use ,you need jenny so back square one

Ultimately ,presently , from stored energy perspective you need a ridiculous quantity batteries to come anywhere near 1l diesel

Might be slightly differnet with cars and regen from braking . Clearly pushing through air is a lot easer than water

 

You implied it (servicing costs): Servicing/Running costs include wear and tear items other than just the battery and charging/fuel costs.

 

That's quite a mental leap, getting from "tend to have lower servicing costs" to "have no wear and tear parts".

Granted a lot of the chassis components (i.e. shocks/springs/bushes/bearings) are all much of a muchness in terms of lifespan/cost but that's not really where the bulk of the servicing cost comes from. The bulk of the servicing cost is in maintaining the operation of the engine/drive train and on an EV there's considerably less in the drive train that requires servicing.

 

Yeah ok it's a big leap I'd say it's just the fuel and taxes that is the major running cost: Oil and filters which is all a good engine needs is not really that much of a cost over a 10yr period especially on a vehicle with 2yr/20k intervals where all other stuff is lifetime (coolant, gear oil etc).. The other stuff should be the same regardless of it being a ICE or EV, bar brake pads as the regenerative braking does massively increase pad life although I have found calipers and pads on Auris hybrids tend to stick from lack of hard use.

Unless it's a uk 2.5 STi, in which case it'll need at the very least a set of gaskets and forged Pistons before its 10 years old LOL Cost wise I'd guess that's on par with a set of batteries for a small EV.

Early US spec Leaf owners were facing bills for around $5000 after the batteries suffered capacity loss just outside of the 5yr warranty. The big question is the running cost in terms of fuel and tax saving enough to cover that cost. It's on par with a engine replacement. You don't expect it, but it does happen.

I guess it's all down to warranty: Like I always advise never to own a Land Rover without a manufacturer warranty unless you don't care about the costs of consequential failures. Owning an older EV could result in a similar situation.

Time will tell.

 

I think Nissan now offer lifetime warranty as long as you own the vehicle on battery life. I need to read small print for get out clauses

 

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/...t-to-cost-4920

Granted that article is 3 years old but it'll do for the sake of conversation. So the battery comes in at £4920 (with a 5 year 60k mile warranty), that works out at £82 a month. So just less than the average person spent on petrol per month at the same point.

 

Imagine that,a lifetime forced To drive a milk float

Course the reality is they'll be mainly second cars to the environmentally "conscious" whose other cars include a V8

 

So add in the higher rated leccy ( how else would you pay for roads and infrastructure implementing plus ten new power stations) and there's no way anyone is saving money.

 

And subtract the car tax that you don't have to pay see it all balances out in the end.

 

i reckon they'll start taxing the luxury end the milk float market

 

The new Merc Double A looks promising

 

Double A class brill

 

The power of media influence; Car sales dropping continually. Diesel even more so. Mostly by private buyers (business sales remain fairly stable). 'Leccy and HEV booming.

Pundits blame Brexit.

Obviously nothing to do with the serious negative press diesels have got, the threat of massive taxes, bans in inner cities, and eventual phasing out of traditional fuel combustion engines.

With the way the media are behaving and politician's blinkered diatribe, who in their right mind would personally buy a new car unless they really needed one?

Although in reality nothing has changed for the past year and not likely for at least another few years.

Well done Murdoch et al and the lobbyists. We don't know who the latter are, but follow the money trail and we'd find out....so long as it's not lost in a bank in the Cayman Islands . On the bright side it clear they aren't related to the oil companies, which makes a change.

 

Collect Leaf tomorrow for test drive

 

Collected Leaf this PM, drove it some 30 miles from dealer to home. It had a range indicated at 103 miles when I set off, when I arrived home it had a range of 97 miles. I had set the car to regenerative braking(charges soon as I lift throttle), it also acts like braking, decelerating quickly. I drove at the speed limit, followed the flow of traffic, with aircon on. The guy at dealership said his own leaf uses an extra 1 mile less with aircon on.

Drives like a normal town car, polo, fiesta etc. Ive set timer for charging in off peak hours so will cost £1.26 to charge up to full from half way.

updates later

 

A thought struck me about EVs the other night. Most people probably save 30-40 minutes a month through not having to get fuel (assuming charging over night) which balances out quite nicely with the sort of fast charging times you'd see at a service station.

 

That's got to be some serious gas guzzler, I fill up twice a month ish 5 mins a pop... with your timings I'd be filling up 6/8 times and be doing between 5400km and 7200km a month.

 

Not at all, that's doing around 1000 miles a month at 33ish mpg. I normally get fuel 3-4 times a month at 5-10 minutes a time.

 

You got a tank the size of a thimble and that's some busy petrol station if it takes 10 mins to fill up... I can have a **** shower and a shave in 10mins.

 

Sounds like someone's gotten to used to driving boring cars

 

Golf MK1's are far from boring.