Electric car

[saptastic]

have said it many times on here
get an electric car for short journeys
If you want to do long journeys forget it
the charging infrastructure is terrible
I always need to spend 2 hours at a service station
Even the ultra rapid 350KW chargers that have appeared only work at about 50KW on most cars due to the connection
Its painful and if everyone had electric cars we would be screwed in many ways

[d000hg]

have said it many times on here
get an electric car for short journeys
If you want to do long journeys forget it
the charging infrastructure is terrible
I always need to spend 2 hours at a service station
Even the ultra rapid 350KW chargers that have appeared only work at about 50KW on most cars due to the connection
Its painful and if everyone had electric cars we would be screwed in many ways

I suppose most of us mostly do short journeys. And when we do longer journeys, few of us do a single journey long enough to require a mid-journey charge, and typically stay overnight or all day before returning.

It's fairly practicable to own an EV and just rent a regular car for such journeys.
In future it might well be you just rent an EV for a long journey and rent another one for the return. Quite a lot of discussion on how EVs and self-driving will affect car ownership.

Of course before someone says "I drive Edinburgh to London 3 times a week" yes of course there are exceptions but they aren't the main use case. But there are even now workarounds for that and we're only right at the start of this journey.

[vetran]

Most journeys I do even seeing clients are <100 miles each way. a 300 mile range would probably do if I had a home charger.

Couple collecting the kids from UNI are >200 miles each way but I will stay at a hotel so can recharge.

[richy_rich]

Has anyone bought a brand new electric car through their Ltd Co.? 100% capital allowance apparently which makes it tempting? Kia will give you 7 yr warranty on batteries.

[darmstadt]

Or... How about developing a charging method that doesn't require you to stop for an hour? A bit like aire-to-air refuelling? Could have trucks roaming the highways, ready to come to the aid of drivers low on battery power and connecting via some kind of umbilical cord to deliver a quick power boost.

Like what we have on the motorway here:

[darmstadt]

Currently looking at buying one too as there are government and dealer grants here but only until the end of the year and it depends upon certain criteria such as base price of the car. Noticed that I'm doing less and less mileage each year but still want one that does 400-500km on a charge. Most of the decent ones that do this are the same price as the new BMW I was going to buy so no problems there, will not buy a hybrid as can't really see the point. Don't have a charging point but the landlord puts one in for free for people who have EVs in the underground carpark in your space (they also do this for e-bikes). There are also plenty of them around now and they're growing...

[ladymuck]

We have a thing called "The Internet", they've even got it on computers these days. You'll find most answers on there.

That's a bit unnecessary. Lots of people don't rely totally on the internet for things and often talking to a person (except if they're in India and the location of interest is in Wales, of course) gets you more information than the banal standardised descriptions you might get on a website.

As an example, 'wheelchair accessible' is a phrase that is well open to interpretation. There is a huge variety in size and shape and functionality and what's accessible to the small, nimble style of chair used by people with good upper body strength can be completely inaccessible to someone with little or no movement who uses a large electric wheelchair. Being able to have a chat with someone at the station you're planning on passing through will tell you a heck of a lot more than the National Rail website about the true accessibility of that location.

[hobnob]

I am considering the possibility of buying electric 2 wheeler as my business is sometimes taking me to Birmingham and the railway station is located 3 miles from my house.

Are you in the mountains or something?

To be fair, it's not just about hills.

E.g. Gary Brennan ("the 39 stone cyclist") dropped from 39 stone to 13 stone. Here's a description of his first journey:
About Gaz | Cycle Of Life - Fix You (wordpress.com)

I cycled the half-mile to my local train station. I was wheezing, my arms hurt holding up my weight, my legs hurt pushing my weight along. I was soaking in sweat, like someone who had just run over 30 miles – but I had done it! I had made it to the half-way point. I took in an energy gel, about 500ml of water and had a ten-minute sit-down. I was then ready to set off again and get home. Boy was it hard. By the time I was home I thought to myself “I can’t do this” – I couldn’t breath, I was coughing and wheezing, tired and sore but I had cycled one mile.

That's an extreme example, but I know other people who've started/resumed cycling as an adult: they struggled with short distances initially, until they built up some strength. Also, even if someone could handle the journey, they might not want the hassle of getting changed and having a shower, vs hopping off the bike in their business suit.

That said, it might be worth considering whether you'd need the e-bike long term, or whether you'd want to swap to a "normal" bike after a few months. However, if you can comfortably afford to buy one now then go for it; you could always sell it off second-hand later.

There's a bit of gatekeeping that goes on, where some people look down on e-bikes as "cheating". However, I don't want to discourage anyone from cycling, and an e-bike is going to give you more exercise than a car.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Just got delivery of a brand new Audi Q4 etron. What a car. I have a BMW 3 series estate as a backup diesel but that will barely get used now. It's like the diesel/petrol price crisis just went away over night. I calculated it and even with a very efficient BMW 320d, electric car costs 1/3 of the cost in terms of fuel/energy. It's a no brainer and I don't even care what the price of diesel and petrol is anymore. I also have 2 new wood burners in my house which means I'll be burning wood all winter and don't care about the price of gas either.

For the Q4, when you calculate the tax savings (road, corp, personal, vat minus the 1/2% BIK), fuel saving and running costs I was incurring for keeping my old car, i'm making a net saving by getting it brand new leased through business.

[d000hg]

Just got delivery of a brand new Audi Q4 etron... I also have 2 new wood burners in my house which means I'll be burning wood all winter and don't care about the price of gas either.

So you thought you wanted to get an EV but offset the emission reductions?