I have driven the future – and its electric….
Discussion
Just started doing some business with an electric car business. Over the weekend I met a dozen or so owners and had a drive of a couple of the cars.
Quite simply – they are the future.
OK – they are not going to be the petrolhead driving choice and will never be the car you would buy just to drive for the hell of it…..but as vehicular transportation, they are the future. Mark my words...and in as little as 5 years time.
Rapid charge in 20 mins, normal charge in 2-3 hours (and a cost of 80p). Charge gives 90-100 miles, but cars launched before Xmas will increase that to 150. What’s more, you can use a smart charger at home which once it has fully charged your car for 80p, can then be reversed and can run your house with the cheap charge if you are not using the car (fully charged car will run the average house for 3 days….for 80p)
Logistics? In Manchester, there will be 500 charging posts/pods within 18 months. Other cities following soon.
Add in zero Road Fund Licence, Zero rated Benefit-in-Kind for company cars. Free City Centre parking and the ability to use bus lanes/multi-occupancy lanes etc.
The cars? Again, they’re not going to appeal to the person wanting a caterham, but well spec’d, nippy (far nippier than they should be) and offering urban acceleration that would keep any Diesel owner happy for an every day hack, they rival any other small everyday hatchback.
Cost? By Xmas, cars will start as £7k, rising to £30-40k. Commercial vehicles start at £12k. Zero servicing costs and no real moving parts to cause reliability issues….and nothing to run out. New tyres and new brakes every 3-4 years will be about it.
The Owners? Having ranted about Prius drivers – these guys are different. Everyone that I met also had a petrol head car (many in some cases). All bar two of them had speeding points earned in their electric cars – these guys weren’t max-mpg types, all bar one had never owned a fuel efficient dominant car before, but used these as everyday run-arounds saving the V8 for the weekends/fun-tips.
To say I was blown away is an understatement – and whilst I can’t replace the GT with one – Mrs Ramses car will be replaced with one within the year……meaning we can offset our carbon footprint saving with something else….
Quite simply – they are the future.
OK – they are not going to be the petrolhead driving choice and will never be the car you would buy just to drive for the hell of it…..but as vehicular transportation, they are the future. Mark my words...and in as little as 5 years time.
Rapid charge in 20 mins, normal charge in 2-3 hours (and a cost of 80p). Charge gives 90-100 miles, but cars launched before Xmas will increase that to 150. What’s more, you can use a smart charger at home which once it has fully charged your car for 80p, can then be reversed and can run your house with the cheap charge if you are not using the car (fully charged car will run the average house for 3 days….for 80p)
Logistics? In Manchester, there will be 500 charging posts/pods within 18 months. Other cities following soon.
Add in zero Road Fund Licence, Zero rated Benefit-in-Kind for company cars. Free City Centre parking and the ability to use bus lanes/multi-occupancy lanes etc.
The cars? Again, they’re not going to appeal to the person wanting a caterham, but well spec’d, nippy (far nippier than they should be) and offering urban acceleration that would keep any Diesel owner happy for an every day hack, they rival any other small everyday hatchback.
Cost? By Xmas, cars will start as £7k, rising to £30-40k. Commercial vehicles start at £12k. Zero servicing costs and no real moving parts to cause reliability issues….and nothing to run out. New tyres and new brakes every 3-4 years will be about it.
The Owners? Having ranted about Prius drivers – these guys are different. Everyone that I met also had a petrol head car (many in some cases). All bar two of them had speeding points earned in their electric cars – these guys weren’t max-mpg types, all bar one had never owned a fuel efficient dominant car before, but used these as everyday run-arounds saving the V8 for the weekends/fun-tips.
To say I was blown away is an understatement – and whilst I can’t replace the GT with one – Mrs Ramses car will be replaced with one within the year……meaning we can offset our carbon footprint saving with something else….
doogz said:
Do you really think that when people stop buying petrol, and we all drive electric cars, that it'll still cost 80p to charge the things?
They'll have to recoup all that lost income from fuel tax somehow.
1 No one will buy an electric car as everyone has a 400 mile commute so lose of revenue from falling fuel sales won't be an issueThey'll have to recoup all that lost income from fuel tax somehow.
2 GPS based road charging works no matter what you car is powered by
Ramses said:
Add in zero Road Fund Licence, Zero rated Benefit-in-Kind for company cars. Free City Centre parking and the ability to use bus lanes/multi-occupancy lanes etc.
But how long before it stay's that way? Once the majority of people are using electric vehicles the income from road tax and fuel tax will leave a massive hole in the economy. So where will they fill this hole? Hmm lets see, let's start charging tax on electricity...Let's face it, if there's an opportunity to tax something, then the government will.
I'm all for electric car development, but it's still a long way off being properly ready to take over the ICE.
i hear what you are saying, and there is common sense there, ignoring the eco-weenie side of things, for the daily 10 mile commute, they will be significantly cheaper to run.
i think that the wallet pain will need to ramp up a bit further yet though, tbh before i drive one. I have 'sensible' cars and 'fun' cars and i ALWAYS grab the fun keys, even for the daily commute, but for your average joe, or for a car for the missus to mooch about to the shops in or ferry the kids around in, i can see them working for a lot of people in the not too distant future.
it will be interesting to see how the gubbmint makes up the revenue shortfall if/when leccy cars become a lot more mainstream.
i think the GM volt is an interesting concept, because it has a range extender petrol, you get no range anxiety, but it will doubtless be more expensive to buy initially because you are buying 2 propulsion systems, swings and roundabouts really, also, as soon as people start 'switching on' to electric cars, you will start to see prices dropping quite quickly as platform/component/tech sharing becomes more widespread.
i think that the wallet pain will need to ramp up a bit further yet though, tbh before i drive one. I have 'sensible' cars and 'fun' cars and i ALWAYS grab the fun keys, even for the daily commute, but for your average joe, or for a car for the missus to mooch about to the shops in or ferry the kids around in, i can see them working for a lot of people in the not too distant future.
it will be interesting to see how the gubbmint makes up the revenue shortfall if/when leccy cars become a lot more mainstream.
i think the GM volt is an interesting concept, because it has a range extender petrol, you get no range anxiety, but it will doubtless be more expensive to buy initially because you are buying 2 propulsion systems, swings and roundabouts really, also, as soon as people start 'switching on' to electric cars, you will start to see prices dropping quite quickly as platform/component/tech sharing becomes more widespread.
Edited by Greg_D on Monday 11th July 12:31
As it is your '90 mile' range decreases to half that if you have the audacity to use motorways and switch on the aircon, heater or radio...
£7K? Bet that doesn't include the £10K battery pack (which will lose half its capacity in the next five years - contrarily the batteries in the Prii you love to hate last for ever and a day because they are kept within a tight state of charge bandwidth)...
£7K? Bet that doesn't include the £10K battery pack (which will lose half its capacity in the next five years - contrarily the batteries in the Prii you love to hate last for ever and a day because they are kept within a tight state of charge bandwidth)...
Heartworm said:
(fully charged car will run the average house for 3 days….for 80p) How? You're paying for the same electricity to charge the car surely, as you would to run your house?
Presumably you can charge it at off-peak rates, then feed it back into the house during peak hours.Wouldn't be very efficient, though.
As very short range town cars maybe. But get one of those on a motorway and try and cruise at motorway speeds - oh dear oh dear - your range vanishes. Electric cars are going to produce chaos on the roads with breakdowns (as in out of power). It should be mandatory for all electric cars to have a backup combustion engine. There is no battery technology that works well enough yet (whatever they say), and given the time and effort spent so far, it is obviously never going to happen. And where is all the electricity going to come from? And it won't be cheap. It isn’t the price of petrol that is the issue - it is the price of energy full stop. Electricity will double in price (at a minimum) over the next 5 years thanks to the green levy to support madcap unviable turbines and PV installations and the new backup gas power stations required for when they don't work. And if there is a mass switch to electric cars, the price (with demand) will go up even more, and the government will tax it heavily to make up the fuel duty/VAT loss.
Electric battery cars will prove to be a dead limb on the tree of automotive evolution.
Electric battery cars will prove to be a dead limb on the tree of automotive evolution.
Ramses said:
Zero servicing costs and no real moving parts to cause reliability issues….and nothing to run out. New tyres and new brakes every 3-4 years will be about it.
Wow, no suspension bushes to wear out, no wheel bearings, shock absorbers, no charging or battery issues, no kippered central locking and the alarm going off every night? That’s great.I’m glad the running costs have been brought up, the government will get their money as sure as night follows day.
I like the idea of electric cars, I think there’s a real opportunity to make something better. However trotting out the same rubbish does the manufacturers’ credibility no good at all. Let’s hear what they can really do.
K87 said:
Oh. Is the OP one of those incredibly amusing forum 'characters'?K87 said:
Ramses said:
Add in zero Road Fund Licence, Zero rated Benefit-in-Kind for company cars. Free City Centre parking and the ability to use bus lanes/multi-occupancy lanes etc.
But how long before it stay's that way? Once the majority of people are using electric vehicles the income from road tax and fuel tax will leave a massive hole in the economy. So where will they fill this hole? Hmm lets see, let's start charging tax on electricity...Let's face it, if there's an opportunity to tax something, then the government will.
Does anyone remember when diesel was first introduced as a fuel for cars? It was way cheaper than petrol which encouraged people to use it because the PENCE PER MILE to fuel them was significantly lower.
However, now the diesel cars are well established the tax has gone up and the PENCE PER MILE gap is far smaller.
Same with LPG, initially tax breaks so it looks like a great idea... but when it's popular it will get taxed, thereby negating the cost saving.
The same thing will happen with electric cars. Why? Because they can.
K87 said:
Ramses said:
Add in zero Road Fund Licence, Zero rated Benefit-in-Kind for company cars. Free City Centre parking and the ability to use bus lanes/multi-occupancy lanes etc.
But how long before it stay's that way? Once the majority of people are using electric vehicles the income from road tax and fuel tax will leave a massive hole in the economy. So where will they fill this hole? Hmm lets see, let's start charging tax on electricity...Electric cars are currently designed to charge from a 240v a/c power source which is the same as a washing machine. So unless we are going to rewire the entire country with a different electrical grid as well as redesigning electric cars to recharge from a different voltage and frequency which is still beatable with an inverter. Its going to be damn hard to tax electricity for cars only.
Raping everyone for all electricty costs is very belivable.
I think GPS road priing is more likely as that can be fitted to anyting with wheels
K87 said:
Let's face it, if there's an opportunity to tax something, then the government will.
death and taxesK87 said:
I'm all for electric car development, but it's still a long way off being properly ready to take over the ICE.
yes and noYes if you do huge mileages
No if you have a second car that is never more then 30 miles from your house which is alot of UK cars.
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