Don't buy a car.

[jayn200]

These are fair points you make. It relies on industry making the changes; in the meanwhile lower end family sized EVs with 150 miles range hover around 30k, which is way out of the price range/usability of most. Without consumer adoption it will not make a difference.

There is one VERY important point: People are scared of buying used EVs. Used cars are 8 out of 9 of the UK market. Used cars are only really seen in the wild on PCP packages to mitigate risk in the eyes of the owner.

It is a hard sell to convince a young family to not pick up a cracking used Peugeot diesel SUV for 5K which will do just shy of 800 miles a tank as opposed to 300 GBP monthly payments in addition to the deposit & balloon payment for a Leaf + the fast charge install.

I would love for it to be different, but battery prices have to come down. The need for rare earth metals adds a dose of geopolitical instability - look at the German's being bent over by Putin over gas.

Yeah I agree with all of that. It will take time, the value proposition to a lower middle class family living in the suburbs isn't there on an EV yet...

The amount of R&D in batteries is staggering though. Almost every single university in the world that has a decent engineering school/applied sciences is working on some kind of battery tech.

[wattaj]

I wouldn't be placing bets on batteries for the long-term. They are a stop-gap solution IMHO. Hydrogen fuel cells is where the technology gets really interesting.

[Mordac]

You must spread it around before ruining Mordac's reputation

I'm touched. Although I'm not sure you can ruin it any more than I have...

[_V_]

I wouldn't be placing bets on batteries for the long-term. They are a stop-gap solution IMHO. Hydrogen fuel cells is where the technology gets really interesting.

Disagree. Battery technology is improving rapidly, it will be become much cheaper over the coming years. Range of ordinary electric cars will break the 500 mile range soon and be no more expensive to buy than a current dinosaur fuel car.

Hydrogen technology will go nowhere.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

A huge portion of car pollution is caused by the brakes/tyres, which unfortunately applies to both ICE and electric, although regen braking in electric might help a little.

I'm hoping to lease an elec car soon, whatever is cheap, don't drive enough to justify a tesla

[wattaj]

Disagree. Battery technology is improving rapidly, it will be become much cheaper over the coming years. Range of ordinary electric cars will break the 500 mile range soon and be no more expensive to buy than a current dinosaur fuel car.

Hydrogen technology will go nowhere.

Charging will still be an issue. And not everyone can run a power cable from their home to their car. Convenience will win in the end.

[rogerfederer]

Disagree. Battery technology is improving rapidly, it will be become much cheaper over the coming years. Range of ordinary electric cars will break the 500 mile range soon and be no more expensive to buy than a current dinosaur fuel car.

Hydrogen technology will go nowhere.

Hydrogen is a PR exercise by oil and gas companies to try find a future existence. Most of them have funded anti climate change misinformation bodies and so can go die off, as far as I'm concerned. This will happen in time. Hydrogen requires a complex process and offloading byproducts. That in itself uses a lot of energy. It's not the future, unless some unique unimaginably efficient process can be created. Perhaps in 50 years, but it's not on the horizon.

If anybody needs an example of a company in denial of their inevitable diminishing then look no further than ExxonMobil. Their year end results blurb actively rallies against climate change and the company PR has repeatedly stated that they don't plan to change. It's likely Shell will replace them in the future, as Shell are trying to investigate alternatives, including batteries. BP are all public relations too and are only making token efforts to show change rather than actually change.

[rogerfederer]

Charging will still be an issue. And not everyone can run a power cable from their home to their car. Convenience will win in the end.

A project I have seen proposes to use street lights as a source of charging. This would make sense, especially given that LED street lights draw far less power and trickle charging vehicles wouldn't overwhelm the local supplies.

A pipe dream would be wireless charging, albeit the technology being a decade or more away.

Really we need ubiquitous car charging everywhere, even if that's an adapter on street lights, so that those in flats and houses without driveways or garages can charge. The cars probably need at least 200+ mile range and ideally, for me, 350 to 400 miles. At present I would only a Tesla model S but that's too expensive for someone who doesn't drive much and doesn't plan to. The market in 5 years will look very different. In the mean time an ICE car may still be viable on the cheap, although the fuel costs, extra tax and other measures to dissuade people will pile up.

[wattaj]

A project I have seen proposes to use street lights as a source of charging. This would make sense, especially given that LED street lights draw far less power and trickle charging vehicles wouldn't overwhelm the local supplies.

A pipe dream would be wireless charging, albeit the technology being a decade or more away.

Really we need ubiquitous car charging everywhere, even if that's an adapter on street lights, so that those in flats and houses without driveways or garages can charge. The cars probably need at least 200+ mile range and ideally, for me, 350 to 400 miles. At present I would only a Tesla model S but that's too expensive for someone who doesn't drive much and doesn't plan to. The market in 5 years will look very different. In the mean time an ICE car may still be viable on the cheap, although the fuel costs, extra tax and other measures to dissuade people will pile up.

If only there were a national network of convenient locations where one could refuel in under 5 minutes and be on one's way.

[HoofHearted]

Really we need ubiquitous car charging everywhere, even if that's an adapter on street lights, so that those in flats and houses without driveways or garages can charge.

What about those who live in the countryside (no street lights) in houses without driveways or garages?