I had an interesting conversation with a chap today. It was down at one of the local e-car charging point I passed by when out for a walk.
To cut a long story short he told me buying an electric car is the worst thing he has ever done. No only is the quoted range vastly overstated, finding a charging point that actually works reliably is a lottery. At least half of them don't work properly. His car, a Vauxhall Corsa will not do a round trip from Arbroath to Aberdeen on a single charge. It is a nightmare. He is not alone, others he knows with e-cars say much the same.
His solution? He is trading it in for a petrol car.
It was bound to happen. The infrastructure for the highlands isn't there and Australia is already using diesel generated charger points to compensate :)
This guy was certainly not impressed anyway Sandy. I don't even know him and could hardly get away. :D Stories of his wife being out and not being able to get the car charged, terrified she was going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Electric cars are kind of totem - the epitome of middle class wokery. Fine for the run around town, hopeless for anything else, in Scotland anyway.
A recent report from the independent car safety testing people NCAP (?? or similar) gave a zero safety rating to a Renault Ecar. This was only the third car model to have zero out of many thousands of models over 25 years.
In Stirling they have large covered charging areas with dozens of charge points but there is now only a poor park and ride service from this huge new facility and the toilets are now shut !
It's already becoming clear that the current level of tech makes e-cars useless in a country like Scotland. What I would expect though is no-go areas in towns for internal combustion engines and that will be enough of a disaster.
On the subject of combustion, I was reading that e cars have a habit of going on fire when charging.
Kind of reminds me of why airlines are untra cautious about goods with lithium batteries being in the cargo holds.
The charging points problem also links to payment systems as you not only have to locate a working charge point but you have also to have an account with that provider. So you need accounts on your mobile phone with four or more providers to make the charge point work. All a bit tricky for the frazzled driver.
With zero emissions vehicles it's all about investment in infrastructure. The vehicles/batteries have come a long way in the last few years but central and local authorities haven't caught up. A good contact in Dundee Council has got a really good story to tell about regional investment in ZEVs infrastructure (public as well as council fleet) but this needs to be incentivised by central government if the promises from COP26 are to be even nearly met.
There was an item on a daytime consumer program where the guy bought an electric jag. He went on holiday from somewhere i the Midlands to Cornwall. He found that he would need accounts with at least 3 charging point companies. Planned his route on the way back to find the charging point his route was not working. He then had to go back several miles to another charging point. That was the end of his electric car experience. Just imagine a snowy winters day on the A9 or M74 stuck in traffic due to the weather and wondering how long will the charge last and how long will I be warm!
It must add to more traffic chaos due to vehicles running out of charge. It would appear that recent new local electric buses a few of them have run out of charge.
Jim
Piece in The Sunday Times today regarding the huge costs gap in charging prices between home rates for those parking off road into their house supply and those who cannot. Home rates at maybe 6p per unit off peak during the night but up to 69p at chargers on London streets and about 35p at fast chargers on roads. People want fast chargers otherwise you could be parked up for 2 to 12 hours, but at 24p. All bringing about to electric tribes between home chargers and public chargers paying way more. About a third of car owners do not have their own driveway for charging so must keep using public charge points.
QuoteAbout a third of car owners do not have their own driveway for charging so must keep using public charge points.
I always thought that was a big issue regarding moving to electric cars. A lot of people have issues regarding parking locally never mind charging an electric car. I thought it would have been more than that could not charge a car in their driveway. What happens if you don't have your own charging point and the local selfish barstewards come home and stick their car on the local charging point and leave it there till the next day? There's going to a bit of conflict and plenty of work for the local car body shops!!
Jim
https://www.rt.com/news/543738-tesla-explosion-musk-finland/?fbclid=IwAR1wxYhj9kfOaG0bLCbsLQrV9Oj4JVIMgzlAfbai_6nmz68rphTHGFgvY2E
I read that many batterirs are very specific to a model and replacements need special oneoff remaking. Hence the wild prices. Shocking :shock: :shock:
To be fair, e-cars would be fine for 100% local use. The issues really only kick in when you want to go somewhere farther. They really would not be much good for travelling anglers, hillwalkers etc
That is where Ernie and his town milk float came in 50 plus years ago !!!
Quote from: Bobfly on December 21, 2021, 06:34:51 PM
That is where Ernie and his town milk float came in 50 plus years ago !!!
:lol: Don't forget Two Ton Ted From Teddington who drove the baker's van
We have two, of many, multistory flats here, 14 floors, a total of 168 households plus the three concierge. There are no charging points and the car park is already too small for all the cars :) There are also scemes with three, four and six story flats with little to no parking, where do they charge their cars?
These copper charging cables will be a good source of Buckie money for the local neds. :lol:
its going to be a complete disaster :x :x
Came across this video today. This is worth watching and the UK figures alone blow the electric car fantasy apart.
The environmental issues with batteries alone are devastating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dnN82DsQ2k
The focus has been on lithium but vast quantities of cadmium and copper will also be required. All very well having save the world targets but we will cause a few problems getting there!
Already some serous and questionable practices, native peoples being displaced, land trashed and polluted, child labour etc. It never fails to amaze me how the woke can just block these uncomfortable truths out in their pursuit of self congratulation and feeling good about themselves.
On the radio this morning - some UK councils are charging electric car owners £240 to fully charge their vehicles. Is this the shape of things to come?
It costs me about £50 to fill my car, takes under 5 minutes and I can drive 450 miles on that.
How are governments going to offset the loss of fuel duty if electric car ownership becomes widespread?
Quote from: admin on January 27, 2022, 11:11:24 AM
How are governments going to offset the loss of fuel duty if electric car ownership becomes widespread?
There has been a lot of talk about a "pay per mile" levy on car use informed by a gps tracker in each vehicle. Perhaps with a free allowance that varies depending on where you live, and then a mileage charge above this. The mileage charge would/could vary depending on the type of road used and the time of day.
Big Brother will certainly be watching!
To be honest I'm kinda glad that by the time all this garbage is in place I'll be way beyond driving. Unless our politicians get off this insane woke waggon the future does not look good for ordinary people. Perhaps Vladimir The Impaler is about to do us a huge favour and shake the west out of this PC coma.
Quote from a letter I kept, from The Times of 13 Feb 2020.
"If all the cars on British roads at present were to have electric batteries we would need two year's worth of the world's total cobalt supply, plus all of the annual supply of neodymium, three quarters of the world's annual lithium production plus half of the world's annual production of copper."
Puts things in perspective !! The world will be clamouring for this stuff.
Yes Vaughan the electric car thing is a complete fantasy. Not only does the world not have the raw materials we also don't have the electricity generation and distribution capacity. The scrapping of this and other fanciful "green" nonsense is a matter of when, not if. The sooner this is done the better the chance of preventing civil unrest on a massive scale. I heard a revised estimate for the UK's shale gas today - between 50 and 100 years of self sufficiency in known reserves. It is inevitable this will be exploited, again when not if. Let's get on with it! Heating gas in the US is 10% the cost it is in Europe. Why? Because President Bush started fracking. Perhaps he was not really that thick after all. Meanwhile 150,000 Russians are poised to invade and push the price up even further.
UK sourced shale gas? AFAIK there is no shale gas production and the drilling programme suffered horribly from public interference and poor results. I am probably out of date of course but shale drilling is something i have done a bit of in the USA.
Quote from: zeolite on February 04, 2022, 03:26:58 PM
I am probably out of date of course but shale drilling is something i have done a bit of in the USA.
You are not out of date and your input and experience is valuable.
The Scottish Government "banned" it in Scotland although it's not clear if that is within their competence to do so and gutless Westminster buckled to the loud "green" lobby and imposed a moratorium. Now Russia has Europe by the balls. This is woke insanity on a galactic scale and it will be interesting to see how many of the PC eco warriors change their minds as they freeze in their homes after their gas is cut off because they can't afford to pay their bills.