Audi E Tron Business Lease - time to go electric!

[SimonMac]

1% for electric cars at the moment (why do you think people are doing it).

At the moment, you always need to think of the worst case scenario, what happens when it's no longer 1% and you're tied into a 4 year agreement

[eek]

At the moment, you always need to think of the worst case scenario, what happens when it's no longer 1% and you're tied into a 4 year agreement

THey've already been set at 2% until April 2025.. see Benefit-in-kind (BIK) company car tax bands 2020/2025 (fleetnews.co.uk)

[TestMangler]

The 20% isn't to be sniffed at to be fair and if the mainstay of the emissions are in production we can expect that that will reduce as new materials/methods evolve.

My fear is the environmental impact. There are current 31.5 million cars on the road in the UK alone. Putting some very rough milestones in there.. If the gov says no petrol cars from 2030 and another 10 for all the existing petrol ones to die off. That means in 2040 we have 31.5 million cars (disregarding growth!) in the UK alone with shiny new batteries. 10 years later we will have 31.5 million scrapped batteries. That's 19 million tons of battery to safely dispose of. That to me is a very frightening prospect. With the best will and legislation possible that can't be anything but a disaster looming surely?

Or do what we do now and pay huge sums of money to countries in the east to 'recycle them' by throwing them in rivers/seas.

[Paddy]

There's no doubt you save emissions with an electric car, but not by a huge amount.

https://www.zemo.org.uk/assets/worki...s%20report.pdf

Life cycle emissions from an electric car 19 tonnes of CO2
Life cycle emissions from a petrol car is 24 tonnes of CO2

The manufacture of a car emits huge amounts of CO2. Anything made of metal requires blast furnaces and once it's on the road a signifcant proportion of the electricity is from fossil fueled power stations.

At best you can delay global warming by a few days with electric cars. The main thing about electric cars is therapeutic, that you think you're doing something for the environment.

The least amount of Co2 is to spend money on properly servicing your old car and running it for a further ten years. You don't need all the latest gadgets and you don't need a top speed of 180mph when you are in the same traffic queue crawling along at 5mph.

[northernladuk]

Or do what we do now and pay huge sums of money to countries in the east to 'recycle them' by throwing them in rivers/seas.

Correct

[vetran]

The least amount of Co2 is to spend money on properly servicing your old car and running it for a further ten years. You don't need all the latest gadgets and you don't need a top speed of 180mph when you are in the same traffic queue crawling along at 5mph.

Indeed as the majority of emissions are in production we really should make less.

Capturing exhaust gases in a vehicle must be possible ad blue does seem to work quite well maybe an equivalent for petrol?

Hydrogen & LPG conversions are a thing. They result in fewer emissions while driving yet allow us to keep cars going longer.

[d000hg]

That's 19 million tons of battery to safely dispose of. That to me is a very frightening prospect. With the best will and legislation possible that can't be anything but a disaster looming surely?

I agree with you but isn't that still better than all the air pollution from petrol/diesel engines even ignoring climate change?

As my eco-nut friend puts it, it's not perfect but it's better than what we have now. And it gives us decades to figure out better ways to deal with all those batteries.

[mattster]

I agree with you but isn't that still better than all the air pollution from petrol/diesel engines even ignoring climate change?

As my eco-nut friend puts it, it's not perfect but it's better than what we have now. And it gives us decades to figure out better ways to deal with all those batteries.

There's already talk of repurposing old car batteries for domestic energy storage - they're typically still 75% + capacity, which might not be great in a car but is still fine where size/weight is less important - lithium batteries can last for thousands of cycles. Recycling tech will also improve.

Don't forget that although some headline numbers for EV build/run CO2 don't look great, these are usually predicated on fossil fuel providing the energy - there is scope for much of this to be reduced as more renewables come online, not so for ICE cars where the bulk of CO2 is through day to day use. Also definitely a win to remove local pollution, add possibility of carbon capture retrofit at fossil fuel power stations etc., and the fact is that even without all of this EVs already have a lower environmental impact than ICE.

[_V_]

The most environmentally car is no car, same as no gas boiler, no flights for holidays, and no eating meat.

2nd best choice is a 2nd hand electric car, as all the energy and materials are already accounted for.

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/12016946

[ladymuck]

The most environmentally car is no car, same as no gas boiler, no flights for holidays, and no eating meat.

2nd best choice is a 2nd hand electric car, as all the energy and materials are already accounted for.

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/12016946

I'd say possibly 2nd (maybe 3rd) best is to keep the car you've got until its functional life comes to an end. Why people feel the need to change cars every few years is beyond me.

Also, don't have kids.