Boris Johnson is considering a trade in price of £6K for an EV

Soldato
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Why does every public parking space need to be electrified? A fraction in reality is actually needed.

Also stop building the charge points in the most popular spaces (close to the exit/entrance or other access points), charge a reasonable fee to charge and fine those who park and don’t charge. Suddenly people will stop people blocking the spaces.

As already stated above 2/3 people can charge at home. Not everyone needs to charge every day. People who live in flats or city centre locations are less likely to own a car. Those commuting in and parking are more likely to be able to charge at home.
 
Soldato
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I'd be pretty tempted by this. My wife has a 4 year old Polo that we got from her parents as the deal was too good to pass up (free to us for all intents and purposes) but we were seriously considering getting an electric for her beforehand as 100% of her journeys are no more than 35 mile round trips. At the same time I've got both a Leon company car and an MX5 that simply doesn't get used anymore.

If I could get £6k for the MX5 (about double its value) and we were to sell the Polo privately we are well on our way towards the cost of an EV with ample range for her which would only ever be charged at home. For everything else we could use my company car. I doubt we will but its worth us at least considering it.
 
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Man of Honour
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A lot of people have a driveway but most people don't. Electric is the way forward, eventually we will all be electric. But it's a very long way off being good enough for the masses.

A lot of new build estates don't have driveways but instead have allocated parking spaces and garage complexes etc. We have a driveway in front of Garage but the garage isn't directly attached to our house; there is another property inbetween so we can't run power to the driveway without going via someone elses land. Wasn't really something I thought about when we bought the house.

There will be some that buy new and keep for that long, but that is rare. Most new car buyers are habitual new car buyers and will only keep for a relativly short time. Very few people who are running around in 10-15 year old cars will be in a position to borrow the sums required to buy a new EV. (Or any new car really)
I agree it is rare but it does happen, my dad for example has only ever owned brand new cars in my lifetime (purchased in 1977, 1992, 2000 and 2010, so he keeps them over 10 years on average). Basically he'll buy a new car with cash and then run it until he feels he needs a new one, money isn't an issue really he could afford to replace it every couple of years if he needed to.
A scheme like this should in theory be perfect for him, because he has a 10 year old Astra that can't be worth all that much, has a driveway, does a lot of short journeys etc. But he's also a bit of a luddite and I know he would be distrustful of electric cars, "What happens if XYZ?" etc.
 
Soldato
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A car is sat around doing nothing 90% of the time. For me there are two options:

a) Wherever the car is parked it needs to be charged

That's simply not true though.

As b0rn2sk8 has already mentioned, most people don't need to charge their car every day (or even every week).
Some people will charge at work. Some people will charge at the supermarket/out of town shopping centre.

Charging speeds are also improving all the time meaning soon instead of having to leave the car plugged in for 4 hours to get a decent level of charge, you nip to the local charge station and charge for 15 minutes while you pop into the shop to grab dinner.

You have to be look at the cost of fuel though. An average car doing average mileage will cost around £120 a month in fuel. In electric it will be £30 so theres another saving for people.

Depending on your electricity tariff it can be significantly lower. I charge almost exclusively on Octopus Go at home. 4.5p/kw, ~3.8 miles/kw, works out at ~1.2p/mile, or ~£10/month for an annual mileage of 12k
 
Soldato
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Tempted to look into this too if it does go ahead.

Although whislt EV running costs are cheap at the moment surely the govt will look at means and ways of recuperating the lost tax revenue from ice vehicles/fuel?
 
Soldato
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A
A scheme like this should in theory be perfect for him, because he has a 10 year old Astra that can't be worth all that much, has a driveway, does a lot of short journeys etc. But he's also a bit of a luddite and I know he would be distrustful of electric cars, "What happens if XYZ?" etc.

Again, the thing that bugs me is the "One size fits all" approach that is being pushed here.

This should not be being presented as some sort of "Automobile Farm" with EV's being good and ICE being Bad!

Somebody who routinely does 30-40 miles a day, every day (You know, exactly what milk floats and city delivery vans were designed for back in the 1950's really, nothing new about EV's. Back in the day the UK had more, much more, EV's than the rest of the world put together!) and never more than say, 80 in any one day, would find an EV, even one of the less exotic ones, pretty much perfect for the job.

(Everybody laughed at them but I always thought that the G-Wiz was actually the EV concept to go for. Something with limited range/performance. But cheap enough to be had as a second, third, or even fourth car in the household)

Somebody who does 30-40 miles a week with an occasional requirement to travel 300 is going to find an ICE vehicle far less expensive to buy and operate.

A friend of mine who falls into the latter category looked into an EV, (on my suggestion actually. I am not hostile to EV's at all, I have always wanted to build one ever since the 1970's/80's) but she concluded that not only was the EV a lot more expensive to buy than the Ka+ that she eventually bought. The battery lease alone cost more than her monthly fuel spend.

So it was going to be a lot more expensive to buy and a lot more expensive to run, even if she didnt use it! :p

And there are quite a lot of people who fall into this catagory too.

EV's can meet a lot of peoples needs, but ICE has its place too, and a sensible policy will recognise this and accept that ICE will still have an important part to play for the foreseeable future.
 
Soldato
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Most reports seem to suggest this won’t actually be happening? This has me stuck in a bit of a dilemma now. I decided last week I was going to trade my current car (08 petrol Civic) for something more suited to my 20k annual commute on the motorway, specifically a Mk4.5 Mondeo. I was planning on financing an electric car next year after we re-mortgage but I’d be gutted if I missed this opportunity. If I trade my car now I wouldn’t be eligible for this style scrappage scheme. What do I do? :(
 
Soldato
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(Everybody laughed at them but I always thought that the G-Wiz was actually the EV concept to go for. Something with limited range/performance. But cheap enough to be had as a second, third, or even fourth car in the household)

Somebody who does 30-40 miles a week with an occasional requirement to travel 300 is going to find an ICE vehicle far less expensive to buy and operate.

A friend of mine who falls into the latter category looked into an EV, (on my suggestion actually. I am not hostile to EV's at all, I have always wanted to build one ever since the 1970's/80's) but she concluded that not only was the EV a lot more expensive to buy than the Ka+ that she eventually bought. The battery lease alone cost more than her monthly fuel spend.

So it was going to be a lot more expensive to buy and a lot more expensive to run, even if she didnt use it! :p

I agree TBH. A cheap city car with a realistic 50 mile max range which isn't lethal if you do take it on a motorway (ie. can do 70 and doesn't drop to a crawl going up a hill!) would tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people but the industry is chasing range, 0-60 times and charging speeds which is keeping price high. The G-Wiz was a step too far but if you could package it to a similar standard as, say a Citroen C1 then I think you'd have a lot of interest.

We considered a used Zoe but the battery lease was way more than we were spending on fuel in that car and the purchase price was similar to ICE alternatives.
 
Associate
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Was this just a rumour then? I already have a long range EV but if this is true, then we'll replace our spare banger with a city ev and get the set.
 
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Soldato
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maybe scrappage would not, necessarily, be a bad deal for 2nd hand market http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05177/SN05177.pdf

The price of second-hand cars has risen during 2009, with figures from British Car Auctions (BCA) showing that used car values increased for 10 consecutive months to August 2009. During this time the average value of a used car had gone up from £4,743 in October 2008 to £6,223 in August 2009. The BCA attributed the rise to strong demand and relatively low

stock levels.24 Some have suggested that this increase can at least in part be attributed to the scrappage scheme as it reduced the supply of second-hand cars put up for sale. 25

5 Arguments against scrappage schemes There are a number of arguments against car scrappage schemes. Some of these are listed below: • It may only boost car sales temporarily by bringing forward future demand. When the scheme is wound up new car sales could fall, even if the economy is recovering. The Economist noted that: “In France, which offered a scrapping bonus in the mid-1990s, sales fell by 20% in the year after it expired.”26 Oxford Economics, prior to the announcement of the UK scheme’s extension, stated that although the scrappage initiative had boosted new car sales it still forecast new car registrations to be down 13% on average in 2009, with a further fall of 8.75% expected in 2010.27 • It may divert consumer spending from other sectors of the economy to new cars, as the subsidy will only cover a portion of the cost of a new car.28 • The motor industry should not be singled out for specific support. Many believe the global car industry needs to reduce capacity and scrappage schemes merely delay consolidation in the industry.29 • Most new cars that are bought in the UK are made abroad. Thus, a large portion of the money spent on the scheme may support carmakers based outside the UK.30

(yes ... initial conditions are different now)
 
Associate
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The average price for a car in the UK via whatever method in 2018 was nearly £34k. So people saying they are too expensive are clearly in the minority, either that or there are a ton of people buying lots of cars at £100k+ to offset the Dacia Sandero buyers. :p

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I think the average price of cars purchased by the UK is high because we have shifted to a US model of leasing/PCP. It makes these higher priced cars affordable by many more people hen compared to the old days when you either bought a cash or took a large repayment loan.
 
Soldato
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I think the average price of cars purchased by the UK is high because we have shifted to a US model of leasing/PCP. It makes these higher priced cars affordable by many more people hen compared to the old days when you either bought a cash or took a large repayment loan.

Ding, ding, ding we have a winner. This is exactly why, along with the increase in safety features and technology now in the vehicles. I've already said this as well.

People are happy to pay £199 per month for 36 months, with a £5k deposit, and a 'dealer contribution' on brand new Audi, with a balloon payment at the end of just hand it back and it goes to auction. Audi get £12k+ out of the car and it will sell for the market value at auction, and the APR chunk goes to the lender. Not hard to see why the RRPs are so high alongside the depreciation.
 
Soldato
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Again, the thing that bugs me is the "One size fits all" approach that is being pushed here.
This should not be being presented as some sort of "Automobile Farm" with EV's being good and ICE being Bad!
That's exactly what puts me off EVs so much. I find that approch very typical of the EV ownership, along with the insistence that we should all change our entire lifestyle and society to accommodate what suits them but not necessarily us. It's almost like a religion.

People are happy to pay £199 per month for 36 months, with a £5k deposit
Are they actually happy with it, though, or do many just see it as their only option, and how much of that is down to the market forcing it on them?
Also, how often are their cars getting repossessed, compared to pre-PCP days? I know in America it's enough of a lucrative trade that they have a whole separate industry repossessing nothing but cars, whereas here it's mostly a small part of the general debt collection role.
 
Soldato
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That's exactly what puts me off EVs so much. I find that approch very typical of the EV ownership, along with the insistence that we should all change our entire lifestyle and society to accommodate what suits them but not necessarily us. It's almost like a religion.

Except no one on here is saying everyone needs to change their lifestyle?

The reality is that the majority cars on the road could be replaced with a decent EV with zero changes to someone’s lifestyle. Were not talking 24kw Leafs here, the cars hitting the market now are very capable and suit the majority.

No one is saying that an EV works in every single case. Cost is clearly a barrier at the lower end of the market but the gap is closing and will continue to do so for some time. Off street parking will clearly remain a huge hurdle for some but again as this thread has already established those people are in the minority. The other major factor is the lack of availability of vehicles which will ultimately limit sales for the next decade.
 
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Despite new sales ticking up, it's going to be many years before EVs are even 5% of the total fleet.

Is encouraging EV adopion going to force change on anyone's lifestyle? Would have thought new rules on driving noxy diesals in cities etc would have a bigger impact.
 
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