When are you going fully electric?

Yep the Teslas are quick...in a straight line. But they don't corner all that well, they are too heavy to chuck around like a sports car and have some real fun.
 
Decades away imo still, they don't charge quick enough, not enough charge points at petrol stations.

I learned in a hybrid and whilst obviously not full electric it was dull to drive and no soul, I want a car to be fun aswell as get me a to b
 
Going fully EV for the majority is going to be some time off I feel.
Whilst there is loads of pressure we do not have the generating capacity to pull it off

What we should be doing is getting more people to buy plug ins. They have a lot of the advantages, with limited disadvantages.

Realistically the car industry will decide, based on their expectations of demand. I see it as critical mass, once they can see themselves selling more EV than ICE then ICE is doomed other than maybe some specialist manufacturers.
Until then a lot of the design restrictions needing to mainly build ICE will hold EV back, once they got to the point EV makes top spot they will quickly kill ICE. Just as now tying to squeeze EV into vehicles/platforms mainly designed for ICE means EV is compromised (look at BMW 330E Merc 350E etc) then eventually ICE will be a real problem to put into a chassis designed for EV

The industry needs to mature as well, will we see replaceable batteries, maybe options to have a small petrol generator (like i3) on all. Maybe extended range batteries you could fit if say the car is mainly used by sales reps.
In road charging, roadside charging etc. Some things need to really get resoolved once and for all before the masses can adopt, imho
 
ttaskmaster said:
Give it a few years and £1500 will be what it costs to charge up a 400-mile range EV...!!
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i see what you did there :P

even as a joke it still has a point, where's all the cheap environmentally freindly energy to power all these ev's coming from? because i don't see any nuclear, solar, wind, wave, tidal, hydro or geothermal power plants being built to the scale required to meet the jump in demand.

Nasher said:
Assuming the batteries are still good after 15 years, I suspect most will be scrapped before that as it will be to expensive to replace them.
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this is my worry, the ev supporters claim that because ev's aren't mobile phones the batteries will last longer, although i disagree as we all know that the demand for convenience (ie long range and fast charging) are directly at odds with what's required to keep batteries healthy and manufacturers don't give a damn about their vehicles once the warranty period has expired so it's not like they care if stuff is getting scrapped after that.

electric cars have theoretically existed as long as ic cars have- look at the 1900's and the battles back then between steam petrol and battery, and nearly 120 years later it still hasn't caught up.
 
adolf hamster said:
i see what you did there :p

even as a joke it still has a point, where's all the cheap environmentally freindly energy to power all these ev's coming from? because i don't see any nuclear, solar, wind, wave, tidal, hydro or geothermal power plants being built to the scale required to meet the jump in demand.



this is my worry, the ev supporters claim that because ev's aren't mobile phones the batteries will last longer, although i disagree as we all know that the demand for convenience (ie long range and fast charging) are directly at odds with what's required to keep batteries healthy and manufacturers don't give a damn about their vehicles once the warranty period has expired so it's not like they care if stuff is getting scrapped after that.

electric cars have theoretically existed as long as ic cars have- look at the 1900's and the battles back then between steam petrol and battery, and nearly 120 years later it still hasn't caught up.
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The problems are the same as they always were. Batteries just aren't nearly as good at storing energy as liquid fuels. Another problem will be the massively increased need for rare Earth metals.
 
adolf hamster said:
i see what you did there :p

even as a joke it still has a point, where's all the cheap environmentally freindly energy to power all these ev's coming from? because i don't see any nuclear, solar, wind, wave, tidal, hydro or geothermal power plants being built to the scale required to meet the jump in demand.
.
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And this is a big part of the problem. Why are new build houses allowed to be built without solar panels? If solar panels were put on at the time of construction huge amounts of households would be ready to switch to EV/hybrid cars.

But instead there is massive shortsightedness and the fact that the feed in tariff is getting scrapped next year is another example of this
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Nissan leaf and BMW i3 are pretty cheap. Especially second hand. It's only Tesla and the likes which are dear but Tesla model 3 will only be $35K and they promise to have a $25K car within 3-5 years.
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Wouldn’t be seen dead in either of those two tbh which is part of the problem, the “cheaper” options don’t float my boat and the more expensive are simply out of my price range at the moment.

Not convinced Tesla will ultimately survive, I’m of the view they’ll do a lot of the R&D, eventually go under and one of the established big manufacturers will pick through the carcass for the bits they want....
 
Probably a long time, the infrastructure just doesn’t exist yet and won’t for decades yet.

I do agree though that Tesla ultimately will probably fail, not helped by their seemingly unbalanced CEO.... the big car makes like VW, Ford and Mercedes will likely win out in the end.
 
Yea I think the problem with Tesla is it's probably eventually going to get ditched in favor of Musk's space ambitions. Once the testing/research is done it will get sold off.
 
When the costs rival that of a ICE for a car with suitable performance. Might pay a small premium to not hear a diesel clatter, but would ultimately prefer a plug in hybrid with 50 mile range.
 
I would love an all electric car but have no way to charge one...
I hate paying out £35 to £50 for fuel every week (Guess that teaches me for buying a car that only does 17 to 20mpg)

But then that about the only reason why I would like one
 
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Range is always going to be the huge sticking point. As it stands, my daily driver Kia can do about 550 miles on a tank. Then approximately five minutes later it can do another 550 miles after filling it up with diesel and paying. Going to require a massive change in the way that either batteries or cars are constructed in order to get close to that with an all-electric vehicle. And yeah - I don't often need that kind of range, but when I need it I do need it.

My parents took my Kia to France at the start of the month¹. Burton-on-Trent to Villelongue de la Salanque is 950 miles or thereabouts. Divide that in two, because it's a hell of a slog if you try it in one go (I like driving, but unless the roads are practically empty it's just not worth it). So for the first leg you've got Burton to...let's say Chartres, that's about 475 miles. Do-able on one tank of fuel. Say an average of 55-60mph (just about achievable if you get a decent run in the UK and do a bit of péage-ing in France) that's going to be a little over 8 hours travel time. How long is that going to take you in an electric car that's all out of power at 150 miles like the current model of the Leaf? Even a Tesla Model S won't get you near 400 miles. And once you've depleted that battery, well you sure aren't topping it back up in the time it takes to pump a tank of fuel.

Electric cars for pootling around town? Great, work a treat. Electric cars for actually going anywhere? Sodding useless ;)


¹ - I tell ya, you really notice the difference in fuel bill going from a Kia Soul CRDi - over 50mpg even if you beat on it a bit - to a 1968 Land Rover IIa - 13mpg around town, and with no overdrive until pa and I rebuild and fit the unit we've bought about the same on the A38! :eek: Good thing I get my car back in a couple of weeks...
 
There is a guy quite local to me who still drives an old Tesla Roadster around. Which is a novelty car at best. Not practical at all, rubbish range, if you use the performance it will go flat about as quickly as an RC car. What is it good for except short trips around town with no luggage? :p
 
JRS said:
My parents took my Kia to France at the start of the month¹. Burton-on-Trent to Villelongue de la Salanque is 950 miles or thereabouts. Divide that in two, because it's a hell of a slog if you try it in one go (I like driving, but unless the roads are practically empty it's just not worth it). So for the first leg you've got Burton to...let's say Chartres, that's about 475 miles. Do-able on one tank of fuel. Say an average of 55-60mph (just about achievable if you get a decent run in the UK and do a bit of péage-ing in France) that's going to be a little over 8 hours travel time. How long is that going to take you in an electric car that's all out of power at 150 miles like the current model of the Leaf? Even a Tesla Model S won't get you near 400 miles. And once you've depleted that battery, well you sure aren't topping it back up in the time it takes to pump a tank of fuel.
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My mate had some ‘fun’ when he took an IPACE to Le Mans classic

It’s a shame the eurotunnel doesn’t have EV carriages yet for a charge whilst travelling Service aswell.
 
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