This surely is wrong on both counts. Drive through any town or housing estate anywhere in the country and see all the houses/flats with no offstreet parking and with the roads utterly full of parked cars.
I’d love to see any evidence that the majority of houses in the UK have a suitable place to charge a car.
Well all I can say is that driving down a few streets is nothing more than anecdotal and isn't something you can rely on to form a relevant opinion. A few moments on google will bring up some reports by people who have actually looked into this in detail.
Here is the research commissioned by the government. They suggest 1/3 of drivers rely on street parking.
https://assets.publishing.service.g...uploads/attachment_data/file/6748/2173483.pdf
The RAC suggest seem to agree
https://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/cars-parked-23-hours-a-day
Here is another research piece that suggests 25% of households don't have a place to charge at home.
https://www.field-dynamics.co.uk/25-drivers-no-off-street-parking/
As you say, I'd love to see your evidence to the contrary
Even if I could reasonably run a cable all the way through my front garden, over the pavement and over the 4m deep grass verge, there’s no guarantee I could park my car there.
It’s all very well suggesting the council cut grooves in the footpath, but what’s the reality of that? They don’t have the resources to fix potholes or broken streetlights. Cutting a groove in the pavement is hardly a priority.
Then there’s the verge to get over.
I never said the grove was the solution for you, I just said some councils were installing them. On the basis that some councils are actually installing them, I'd suggest its very much in the realms of reality. Given councils have clean air targets and the quickest/easiest way to achieve it is to push as many ICE vehicles out of town as possible, it's fair to say it might even be a priority, not that its going to be free, the homeowner will be paying.
And the cost. Most households have more than one car, we’ve got three here and that’s the same for every house along my road. How much would it cost us all to replace our cars?
Who said anything about replacing your cars? There is no outright ICE ban, only a ban on new ICE vehicles. For a new car the price differential is around £5000 over an equivalent new ICE model, you'd make that difference up in fuel over the first few years of ownership, before accounting for really low depreciation currently.
Prior to 2021, prices were actually dropping for BEV's despite demand outstepping supply. But since COVID demand is out stripping supply by such a margin that the prices are going up very quickly, alongside huge production cost increases for all vehicles. The used market is even worse than the new market IMO, BEV's command a huge premium because people actually want them and there are so few available.
That said in the long term when the vast majority of cars coming to market are BEV, the insane price premium will no longer be a thing because there will more than a few hundred thousand BEV's on the roads to choose from and the market would have matured significantly.
The whole EV thing is a joke. Yes, I’m sure they’re very good but for the majority of people, they’re still nothing more than a pipe dream.
At the end of the day, prices are £LOL because there are so few of them on the roads and demand for them is insane but that doesn't mean that will not change in time. It was only a couple of years ago that BEV's made up 3% of car sales rather than the 15% they are now. Far more than 3% of used car buyers are after a BEV, that is why prices are what they are. Once 70%-80% of new cars hitting the roads are BEV (as they are in Norway) and used ICE cars filter out of the market, the prices will be more sensible.
I was going to mention this. I posted earlier, as logically there is going to be more of the cheap house that don't have/or have inadequate off road parking. I know what the figures say, but I don't think they're right
. I think the home charging thing will be the biggest hurdle to cross.
It becomes a lot easier if you consider that people who don't own cars are less likely to prioritise somewhere to park a car and those that do own a car are more likely to prioritise having somewhere off the road to park it. Likewise, those that live in inner cities in higher density housing are less likely to drive because they just don't need to. There is a 10+% price premium on a like for like property with a drive at the end of the day, why pay it if you don't need it.
