EV general discussion

There is a reason that the average annual mileage driven in the UK per car is ~8,000 miles, that is because the majority of cars are not doing regular long distance trips, they might do one or two per year.
You cater to the masses, not the few, hence the lack of interest in setting up car charging on forecourts or anywhere else for that matter until very recently.

People generally dislike change, especially if they even have to think about that change being even remotely less convenient, as people as a whole are utterly selfish and think about what is best for them not for the many or for the planet etc.
 
[TW]Fox said:
The Tesla is a unique case because I accept that the charging infrastructure seems excellent. For everyone else though - especially from the experiences I see on EV youtube channels etc - it is far from certain that you can spot a Motorway services, pull off and know that within 20 minutes of arriving you'll have been able to sufficiently charge your car and leave. I have never in all my years of driving wondered if I'll be able to get fuel, whereas I've watched with interest one high profile Youtubers experiences with a Porsche EV...

I accept that this is in some cases a chicken and egg situation but it needs solving. There simply isn't the charging infrastructure reliably available to facilitate regular long journeys. Many people won't use the car for things like this, which is fine - for these people an EV is ideal (ie, for us for half our usage, and we have two cars - so one EV will work really well). But many people - myself included - use a car for long journeys and nothing can compare to the flexibility offered by a 600 mile tank range which takes 2-3 minutes to replenish from empty. No, I do not drive 250 miles non stop. I always take a break. But it's far from certain that you can replenish range in that 10-15 minute stop and thats enough to ensure that EV is a significant compromise for people who do long distance driving. I live in the South West, anywhere I want to go is a long way.

I must stress again I am not anti EV. As soon as our Mini requires replacement, it will be with a full EV Mini. There is no question I'd buy the ICE MINI now the MINI Electric exists. I loved how it drove, I loved how quiet it was around town, it was great fun and would really fit as a town car.

There is, however, no EV that can do what my 530d does for me*. This might not be true for everyone - it might not even be true for the majority - but I'd bet there are many others who have the same view.

*This isn't quite true. The 530e/545e are interesting cars that might work. But they are not pure EV. Which goes back to my original point about how I think for environmental reasons we may be better off making more of a thing of Plugin Hybrid. There are loads of people who you'll never convince to buy an EV but whom you could quite feasibly get into a plug in hybrid. Then when you've done it with enough people you can take radical steps like banning any car that emits anything from the tailpipe from entering cities.



Many people are not a company car driver - and this is of course only true because the market has been distorted by different tax treatment. I am not sure how sustainable giving EV drivers massive tax breaks is in the long term.
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I live in the South-West too, and sometimes have to drive to places like Hull. I had a Merc E300 and Audi A6 amongst other cars in the last few years. My Tesla is faster, more fun, better equipped and cheaper than either of those two (albeit I miss the HUD from the A6). You're sort of right about the charging infrastructure, the Zoe trips are a little less predictable than the Tesla, but it's not as bad as the videos will show you. Remember - YT'ers need drama to sell eyeballs. They aren't going to necessarily show the hundreds of trouble-free miles. I have friends that have eNiros and iPaces for company cars. They manage just fine too, why could you not? I hope my tone isn't perceived as arsey, it's not meant to be. We're on the cusp of a tidal wave of change in motoring. As a poster said above, fear of change and the unknown is a huge deal in people's decision-making.

I contend that people like you are perfect for BEVs - you have the money to buy a quality one that meets your needs best. You also seem to be a poor use case for a PHEV as you will not use that battery for all teh time you drive, instead dragging around extra batteries and motors you won't use, making the car less fuel efficient.
 
Oh, June figures are out for new car registrations. No.1 car Tesla Model 3 - 5,468.

Total BEV's registered for June is 19,842 up 122% YoY for a total of 73,893 this year up 138.7% YoY, with an 8.1% total market share.
 
Lots of Teslas built a while back and been on a ship, just landed at the docks for sale and registration whilst most manufacturers are massively slowed or even stopped production due to global chip shortage.

Nothing to take from that really for me.
 
I think the main take away is that BEVs have been doubling year on year for awhile now and not the Tesla thing.

I hope everyone understands what impact exponential growth will have on the market in the near term after the last year. In reality it will turn into an S curve over the longer term but, we are still right at the bottom of it.
 
Currently on day 3 of our Bristol / Somerset trip and no issues with finding an empty charger so far.

The compromise of longer recharge times compared to an ICE vehicle doesn't feel like an issue on a trip that is purely for leisure. There's always been a place to charge whilst we get out to explore. In fact, I'm currently in Street, with the car plugged in on a 7kw charger for free, whilst we do some shopping and have lunch.

We don't tend to plan our driving trips down to a specific itinerary so it may be that the time spent charging hasn't felt particularly bothersome as we've never really had to get to a specific place at a specific time. If that was the case, then maybe I'd change my mind.

In fact, after doing 500 miles around a relatively rural part of the UK, I'd have no qualms about taking an EV on a tour around Western Europe. Even with an EV that only does 180 real world miles on a full charge.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
I think the main take away is that BEVs have been doubling year on year for awhile now and not the Tesla thing.

I hope everyone understands what impact exponential growth will have on the market in the near term after the last year. In reality it will turn into an S curve over the longer term but, we are still right at the bottom of it.
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I also think the Tesla thing would have surprised a good number of people if you go back to the start of this thread, how many of them would have laughed in your face if you said that an American built car (well some Chinese now) that is a fully electric, and costs on average over £40k would regularly be in the top 3 newly registered cars for a good number of months out of the year. The fact that they have sold more of one model of car in the UK vs someone like Jaguar's entire range, it speaks volumes for how far off some folk were with how well BEV's would sell, let alone a 'crappy' brand like Tesla.

This time next year total monthly registrations of BEV's will make up 16% or more of the monthly registrations, then in 2023 30%+, a lot of people can't seem to see it, or accept that it is possible.
 
Indeed and because of the direction of travel that some manufacturers are going (like VW) in a few short years we will see a complete halt of the sale of some iconic cars (like the Golf). It will very much be the end of an era on that front.
 
tesla-model-s-plaid-combusted-briefly-trapping-driver-resize-md.jpg


Plaid mode on..

Might be a slight cooling issue.
 
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Journey said:
I also think the Tesla thing would have surprised a good number of people if you go back to the start of this thread, how many of them would have laughed in your face if you said that an American built car (well some Chinese now) that is a fully electric, and costs on average over £40k would regularly be in the top 3 newly registered cars for a good number of months out of the year. The fact that they have sold more of one model of car in the UK vs someone like Jaguar's entire range, it speaks volumes for how far off some folk were with how well BEV's would sell, let alone a 'crappy' brand like Tesla.

This time next year total monthly registrations of BEV's will make up 16% or more of the monthly registrations, then in 2023 30%+, a lot of people can't seem to see it, or accept that it is possible.
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Your numbers are much stronger than our forecasts (and those of Schmidt Automotive Research too). The problem is that they are still primarily a CO2 compliance tool for most manufacturers - the volumes you see have a great degree of 'push' in them - the lack of profitability vs ICE will take more years to align. In fact it will likely take Euro 7, which if comes through as proposed, will push the transaction price of a BEV below that of an ICE. That could well be the tipping point, but there will still be sectors of the market (e.g. daily rental) that will a still have a strong mix of ICE (and PHEV).
 
More variety and cheaper electric cars cant come soon enough for me. Already missed the boat this year as nothing has appeared, within a reasonable price range, that we want, so have ordered ICE again.
 
Nasher said:
A bit scary the doors wouldnt open. Obviously if the wiring melts it wont work. Yay for over-engineered electrical stuff.
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Well the Model 3/Y has a pull cable as a back up. You have to sometimes tell passengers not to use it as it wears the door seal (window doesn't drop first).
Old Model S/X also have a combined electronic and manual pull handle so I would have assumed it would be present on the new Model S/X but may have to look it up now. Wouldn't pass safety tests without surely?
 
I took the plunge and got a Mokka E Launch Edition, unfortunately it's being returned as it was built wrong from factory, Looking to replace it with an VW ID3 tour 77kw :)

Even only having the Mokka for 6 weeks, I'm enjoying electric life !!!
 
!GasAxe! said:
I took the plunge and got a Mokka E Launch Edition, unfortunately it's being returned as it was built wrong from factory, Looking to replace it with an VW ID3 tour 77kw :)

Even only having the Mokka for 6 weeks, I'm enjoying electric life !!!
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Wow, what was wrong with it for it needing to go back? or was it just the spec being wrong?
 
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