Do you need to drive over 100 miles in a single trip?

[E38Ross]

Over the mullings of a thread on EVs, i think they're more than up for the job of replacing ICE cars MOST of the time, however, i reckon most people in the UK have to do at least one trip each year which is beyond the range of an EV. this may be one of the reasons why people don't buy them (i.e. they have less flexibility than a petrol/diesel).

this is not about cost over the year (we've already seen that, if leasing the battery out, you'll break even with an EV if you do at least 10k miles per year).

thanks

[Nick3point2]

My in laws live over 100 miles away, so maybe it's a good idea....

My family are spread out across England so do several 200+ mile journeys a year. Then maybe drive to the continent once a year too.

My big concern would be when you have "one of those weekends" where you are all over the place and on Sunday evening the fuel light comes on and your trip counter is 300 miles higher than last time you looked. Slight exaduration but we've all been there!

[Mastodon2]

Might as well not be 100 miles in a single trip, this really applies to anyone who needs to drive 100 or more miles across any number of journies, as long as they are happening in the space of a few hours. Imagine a local courier doing an 8 hour shift at work, lots of medium length journies (sub 20 miles) with breaks of about 10-20 minutes per destination - in no way is an electric vehicle going to suffice a need like that on the current technology.

[kambites]

It's convenient to be able to do it in one of the cars, but we certainly don't need to be able to in both.

I'd happily replace my car with an electric one if a decent electric alternative was available. It isn't, though. Both our cars being electric would mean we had to hire something petrol once or twice a year, but no more than that.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Two things about EV,

1. One car in a two car household, or

2. Only car in an inner city household where the owner recognises they will just hire a car or use public transport for the occasional long journey.

[E38Ross]

kambites said:

It's convenient to be able to do it in one of the cars, but we certainly don't need to be able to in both.

that's the main point raised by those more in favour of EVs and is a very vaild one. i suppose this thread would be better if only those with 1 cars answered.

my question really is, could the EV vehicle replace most (i.e. more than 50%) of non-commercial ICE cars?

[Heartworm]

my daily commute is 15 miles, would love to be able to get an electric car, but at least twice a month I do 350 miles in a day, sometimes more. For this reason an electric car won't work for me at the moment, one day hopefully!

[E38Ross]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Two things about EV,

1. One car in a two car household, or

2. Only car in an inner city household where the owner recognises they will just hire a car or use public transport for the occasional long journey.

1 - yeah, works absolutely fine for those households with 2 cars

2 - thus negating any potential money savings from the EV vehicle.

[kambites]

E38Ross said:

my question really is, could the EV vehicle replace most (i.e. more than 50%) of non-commercial ICE cars?

At the moment, I suspect the answer is "about 50%" without significant impact to the convenience of the owners; more if people were willing to hire a car for occasional trips.

[Ozzie Osmond]

E38Ross said:

1 - yeah, works absolutely fine for those households with 2 cars.

Yes, that's what I said.

E38Ross said:

2 - thus negating any potential money savings from the EV vehicle.

Rubbish. I believe the expression is, "Do the math".

[kambites]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Rubbish. I believe the expression is, "Do the math".

Well at the moment there aren't really any potential savings, except those introduced by intentionally skewed taxation. Prices need to come down a fair way to make them commercially viable in their own right.

[twazzock]

Yes, vast majority of my mileage is over 100 miles at a time. I don't even do a great number of miles pa but I'd still need a second car to back up an electric one.

[E38Ross]

Ozzie Osmond said:

E38Ross said:

1 - yeah, works absolutely fine for those households with 2 cars.

Yes, that's what I said.

E38Ross said:

2 - thus negating any potential money savings from the EV vehicle.

Rubbish. I believe the expression is, "Do the math".

we did the math. it worked out you'd have to do about 10k per year before you'd really break even as you have the £900 per annum battery lease deal, which buys quite a bit of petrol or diesel in a small engined car (something like 45mpg for a petrol, 52mpg for diesel were figures used...which most small engined cars can easily manage).

and i wasn't arguing with you, i was agreeing with you

[sjg]

Yes, but mainly due to work.

The question is not so much whether you *ever* need to do 100+ mile trips in one sitting, it's whether your regular everyday commuting/shopping car needs to. On the same idea, it would be useful occasionally to be able to carry 8+ people, or have over 3000 litres of load space, but we don't drive minibuses or vans as daily transport for the odd time they might be handy, we just go down to the local hire place and get one when we need one.

Average mileage in the UK is 12k pa (and there are plenty of reps and similar doing 30k+ business miles to bring that up). Even if we say that "Mr Average" is only commuting for his 12k miles, the 100 mile range would cover two full days commute. If you can do that 100 miles for £2 of electricity rather than the £15 or so a petrol car costs, you could rent something big and comfy a few times a year on the times you need them and still save a fortune.

[Ozzie Osmond]

kambites said:

Ozzie Osmond said:

Rubbish. I believe the expression is, "Do the math".

Well at the moment there aren't really any potential savings, except those introduced by intentionally skewed taxation. Prices need to come down a fair way to make them commercially viable in their own right.

Where do you live? And if you ignore taxation you can make a case for just about anything. In the real world where most of us live taxes are a fact of life.

If you run an EV which escapes the Congestion Charge you can easily hire a car for weekend trips and save money. This still applies even outside congestion charging areas.

There's no point rubbishing something simply because you don't understand it.

[DanielC4GP]

An EV for my trips to work through the week would be perfect for me. Then I'd just keep the petrol car for whenever I need to do a long trip.

Unfortunatly with the leaf being over £30,000 it's a bit pointless buying one just to go to work and back.

Not when I could get a brand new 125cc bike (like the one I used to have) for less than £2,000 which only costs a tenner to fill up and would last weeks.

[Fartgalen]

Yes, regularly.
60 miles to my nearest town. So that's 120 return. (around once per week).
200 miles to the office. So that's 400 return. (usually once or every other week).

[kambites]

The vast majority of UK residents don't live in a congestion charge area, or regularly drive into one. I wasn't rubbishing it, I'd love to run an EV. It's just a VERY long way from being commercially viable outside London at the moment.

[v8will]

I do pretty much 100 miles plus everyday although today i've only driven about 40 in the car, electric isn't an option for me.

A few years back I travelled 60 miles a day on a 125cc bike. Very cheap travel and actually very pleasant in the summertime. Not so nice riding home from work in the rain with only 12 or 13bhp. It worked well as I could use mostly B roads on the commute which meant a comfortable 50mph cruise rather than having the throttle pinned for 60+

Not an option now as work is a 2am blast down the motorway and I have too much work related gear to carry.

[sjg]

kambites said:

Well at the moment there aren't really any potential savings, except those introduced by intentionally skewed taxation. Prices need to come down a fair way to make them commercially viable in their own right.

...or the cost of fuel to keep on going up and up. Spending £30k on an EV that will do your average 12k miles on £240 of electricity may become more attractive when petrol/diesel are over £5 a litre. I don't think it will be a case of the cost of EVs dropping massively but the cost of conventional internal combustion motoring going through the roof that will drive sales.