Electric Cars-are they really viable
Discussion
I was contemplating the viability of electric cars as a genuine solution to the petrol/fossil fuel situation when suddenly it hit me...
The government want everyone to switch to an electric car, a car currently devoid of a road tax charge, congestion charge, fuel tax etc etc.
Now if everyone switches to electric cars, are the government genuinely going to keep it that way, losing out on a total of between £35 billion and £45 billion in income, at a time where we are already borrowing 170bn a year.
this is where it becomes obvious, they will use the 'cheapness' to drag us all (kicking and screaming in my opinion) into an electric car, then max out the tax on battery charging, bring out a new road tax based on range or something ridiculous and we will all be back to where we started!
your opinions please
The government want everyone to switch to an electric car, a car currently devoid of a road tax charge, congestion charge, fuel tax etc etc.
Now if everyone switches to electric cars, are the government genuinely going to keep it that way, losing out on a total of between £35 billion and £45 billion in income, at a time where we are already borrowing 170bn a year.
this is where it becomes obvious, they will use the 'cheapness' to drag us all (kicking and screaming in my opinion) into an electric car, then max out the tax on battery charging, bring out a new road tax based on range or something ridiculous and we will all be back to where we started!
your opinions please
eybic said:
They are heralded as "the future" personally i do not believe this to be the case as there are still fossil fuels used in powering them (power stations to charge them) I think the way forward is alternative fuels such as hydrogen cells etc.
I don't know where you get your hydrogen from, but I'm pretty sure the quantity needed for the U.K would require extensive use of electricity.Then you have to transport, store and distribute it.
How do you charge an electric car up? Plug it into the mains. Power stations wont cope with the additional load. More fuels will need to burn to produce more power so pollution will go up.
Add to that the fact that you can only just about get to the end of the road in one after charging it up for 24 hours.
Never going to take off. Give me my gas guzzler any day!!
Add to that the fact that you can only just about get to the end of the road in one after charging it up for 24 hours.
Never going to take off. Give me my gas guzzler any day!!
The number of cars on the road is going to have to decline, through pricing and localisation.
The U.K government is going to build Nuclear power stations. Overnight charging of electric cars will have to be encouraged.
Life isn't going to get easier as far as personal transport is concerned. We will have to adapt our plans and lifestyles, but we've only gotten to this point in the last 50 years anyway.
The U.K government is going to build Nuclear power stations. Overnight charging of electric cars will have to be encouraged.
Life isn't going to get easier as far as personal transport is concerned. We will have to adapt our plans and lifestyles, but we've only gotten to this point in the last 50 years anyway.
eybic said:
They are heralded as "the future" personally i do not believe this to be the case as there are still fossil fuels used in powering them (power stations to charge them) I think the way forward is alternative fuels such as hydrogen cells etc.
All your doing with a fuel cell is storing the electricity in another way. Where do you think hydrogen comes from? It might prove to be a better storage medium but it doesn't remove the need for a load more power stations.We already know the performance on electric cars 'can' be superb but unless they have some way of making the batteries last longer to extend the range and charge quicker (because waiting hours to use your car while it charges is just b
ks) they are never going to compete with fossil fuel, which is worrying seeing as that wont last forever.
However, I would have almost every ounce of enthusiasm stripped from me if the world was without internal combustion V8's. Nothing sounds or feels better imo than driving something with a V8. Those electric motors sounds no better than my Zanussi washing machine on a spin cycle.. and about as manly.
ks) they are never going to compete with fossil fuel, which is worrying seeing as that wont last forever.However, I would have almost every ounce of enthusiasm stripped from me if the world was without internal combustion V8's. Nothing sounds or feels better imo than driving something with a V8. Those electric motors sounds no better than my Zanussi washing machine on a spin cycle.. and about as manly.
Local news made a song & dance about the first batch of Nissan Leafs to arrive in the UK last night.
The usual (environ)mental guff was spouted before they got down to some real facts, the most interesting being that it does just over 100 miles on a charge, then needs 5-7 hours to recharge completely.
They have a lot of work to do to make these things a realistic alternative to petrol/diesel.
The usual (environ)mental guff was spouted before they got down to some real facts, the most interesting being that it does just over 100 miles on a charge, then needs 5-7 hours to recharge completely.
They have a lot of work to do to make these things a realistic alternative to petrol/diesel.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff