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Electric Cars.


Cuban8
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2 hours ago, IDD15 said:
  • Sales of Battery Electric Vehicles were up 40% compared to April 2021 at 12889 vehicles
  • Surprisingly sales of Plug in Hybrids were down 33% on the same period to 6449 vehicles
  • Sales of all types of cars were down 15.8% to just short of 120,000 vehicles.

 

idd

 

Zap Map April Sales Figures

 

That's not too surprising, BMW found with the I3 that owners who bought them with the range extender engine often swapped them for the pure electric version, once they had got used to the idea that you didn't need to carry round an engine and fuel tank for when you did a longer journey. To my mind a PHEV sounds good on paper, but you get all the maintenance of a petrol/diesel car plus reduced electrical range, for the odd occasion who want to do a non-stop long distance drive. A lot of the PHEV vehicles were probably company cars bought because they qualified for very low benefit in kind tax rates.

 

The Mini article is quite interesting, we had a Mini Clubman estate many years ago and a MG Metro, but performance/economy wise our 2004 Mitsubishi Colt is more economical (typically around 54 mpg) and my sons Toyota Aygo even better (60+ mpg). 

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Electric charging plugs in houses over here has been mandatory for 2 years, as for the numbers ie , + 35% or whatever they are meaningless, lets have month by month numbers for a few years, as for 'hybrids' it's a gimmick, 35 miles on a charge and then 400 miles dragging an electric motor electronics and a 300 kilo battery around,,,

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2 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

Electric charging plugs in houses over here has been mandatory for 2 years, as for the numbers ie , + 35% or whatever they are meaningless, lets have month by month numbers for a few years, as for 'hybrids' it's a gimmick, 35 miles on a charge and then 400 miles dragging an electric motor electronics and a 300 kilo battery around,,,

 

I don't disagree on the gimmick point, but you are not dragging it around, the battery and motor are still working to support the IC engine and recover energy when you slow down.

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I saw a couple of trials on French TV, anything from 7.5 to 8.5 litres of petrol to take your flat batters for a real ride, Ie; not  30 miles in town at 20mph but 400, at 70 mph out of town

 

 

 Finishing touch,,,

 

 Ok so 'If' you have 40.000€ a house with a garage and only do local runs Electric is the way to go, but for a lot of people who don't have a private car park  (70% of people ) at their house it just isn't a real proposition, I do have that but with the runs that i do it just isn't practical, so get on your boxes at Hyde park and get on with your preaching,,,?

 

I hope I haven't upset too many people,,,?

Edited by Paul De Tourtoulon
Finishing touch
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On 04/05/2022 at 16:36, Trevor Crook said:

Whilst out shopping today, I was reminded of the e-bike posts a couple of days ago. A chap emerged from a side turning on what looked like a standard push-bike, but with an I.c. engine in the middle of the frame. I couldn't see how it was connected to the wheels. As he got onto the main road, he pedalled like the clappers, the engine fired up very noisily, and he took off up the hill at an impressive rate of knots without pedalling. No number plates or helmet, and I suspect far from legal!

Yes, we certainly need a chargeable registration scheme so that numbers can be issued to trace transgressors and with on-line competency tests as well - that'll sort them out! ?

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12 hours ago, John Lee said:

It may seem a gimmick but used properly it works. This was the average MPG on my Prius plug-in over the total mileage shown. 

409994C0-051B-467F-A925-DEB44C3CC6C1_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.37293b22f5487107969462a7e6bdcef0.jpeg

Impressive MPG figures there John. Does the car (or meter) keep track of how many KWh of electrical energy has been added? I guess that "EV mode" as displayed on the screen means that the IC engine only kicks in when you run out of electrons?

Edited by Gary Manuel
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2 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

I do have that but with the runs that i do it just isn't practical, so get on your boxes at Hyde park and get on with your preaching,,,?

I had not noticed anyone preaching but there are the odd very negative posts which I don't understand. Could be English humour.

 

7 minutes ago, Tim Kearsley said:

I'm certainly not "preaching".  I couldn't care less what anyone else does.  You carry on filling up with diesel for 70, 80 or whatever Euros a tank and I'll carry on filling up my car for about £4! 

 That's impressive, my car is now over £100 to fill up I only do local runs and have a drive and garage so for me EV will be ideal. It's the £73,000 purchase price that is making me reluctant to make the change now. On the other hand I do want to help save the planet, so still thinking.

 

Steve

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6 minutes ago, EarlyBird said:

 

 That's impressive, my car is now over £100 to fill up I only do local runs and have a drive and garage so for me EV will be ideal. It's the £73,000 purchase price that is making me reluctant to make the change now. On the other hand I do want to help save the planet, so still thinking.

 

Steve

That's it for me as well. Only ever do local runs with the occasional holiday which can be planned for in advance with the super chargers etc but there's no way I'm binning off my old diesel and spending £40000 on something new and shiny when monetarily it doesn't make sense at this time with a payback so far off I will never break even. I only do less than 5000 miles a year

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1 hour ago, Gary Manuel said:

Impressive MPG figures there John. Does the car (or meter) keep track of how many KWh of electrical energy has been added? I guess that "EV mode" as displayed on the screen means that the IC engine only kicks in when you run out of electrons?

I don't think the KWh added were shown Gary. There was lots of in depth information available if you dig into the menus but after an initial curiosity I seldom interrogated them. 

 

In common with most PHEVs the Prius has several selectable driving modes including pure EV, hybrid & charge the battery. So whilst the IC will always kick in if/when you deplete the battery you can also select it to operate if you want to retain the charge for use later in the journey. 

 

I no longer have the car as I swapped it at the end of the PCP for a Kia Soul EV. The 3 years I had it & the minimal amount of times I added petrol persuaded me that a pure EV fitted my lifestyle in retirement. Over 10 years I went from a V8>standard hybrid>plug-in hybrid>EV and for everyday transport I can't see me going back to IC. That said I also have a totally impracticable MX-5 for sunny days!

 

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1 hour ago, EarlyBird said:

I had not noticed anyone preaching but there are the odd very negative posts which I don't understand. Could be English humour.

 

 That's impressive, my car is now over £100 to fill up I only do local runs and have a drive and garage so for me EV will be ideal. It's the £73,000 purchase price that is making me reluctant to make the change now. On the other hand I do want to help save the planet, so still thinking.

 

Steve

Why pay a ‘£73,000 purchase price’ Steve? A Leaf will set you back £28,000 at todays prices, or £1000 down and £270 month for 4 years (then give it back on a PCP deal). You can then go back to an ICE car if you want but I am confident you won’t, if your motoring requirements are anything like mine.

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1 hour ago, Piers Bowlan said:

Why pay a ‘£73,000 purchase price’ Steve? A Leaf will set you back £28,000 at todays prices, or £1000 down and £270 month for 4 years (then give it back on a PCP deal). You can then go back to an ICE car if you want but I am confident you won’t, if your motoring requirements are anything like mine.

Brand loyalty stops me looking at anything else.

 

Steve

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7 minutes ago, EarlyBird said:

Nope. Here is a clue from earlier in this topic.

?

 

Really the decision just comes down to how much I want to save the planet.

 

Steve

‘Saving the planet’ wasn’t the criteria for me choosing to go electric. I don’t have brand loyalty, I chose the Leaf on its merits. When it’s PCP agreement ends in another three years time I may chose another brand, it depends on what is available compared to what I have now. I am pretty certain it will be electric though.

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4 hours ago, Tim Kearsley said:

I'm certainly not "preaching".  I couldn't care less what anyone else does.  You carry on filling up with diesel for 70, 80 or whatever Euros a tank and I'll carry on filling up my car for about £4! 

Just don’t forget that those of us doing so are helping subsidise your use of the roads.  As I said in an earlier post, taxation will inevitably catch up with electric vehicle use but for many of us doing lower mileages or those without easy access to charging facilities, the economic and environmental arguments don’t add up yet. 
 

The tone of some comments in favour of switching does come over as a measure of preaching to those of us sitting on the fence but equally, many points made in the discussion are unarguably valid. 

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It will be interesting to see how the taxation works.  You can't really tax the "fuel" we put in electric cars because there are plenty of EV users who charge their car via a 13A socket,  so how would you know it was a car being charged rather than, say, an electric heater?  You can of course increase the cost of public chargers, but, again, many EV users rarely charge other than at home. 

One suggestion is that there will be a tax imposed per mile, levied on the basis of vehicle weight (heavier causes more road damage) and tail-pipe emissions.  On that basis EVs would gain as they're zero emission but lose as they are generally fairly heavy I presume, due to battery.

 

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2 hours ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

Just don’t forget that those of us doing so are helping subsidise your use of the roads.  As I said in an earlier post, taxation will inevitably catch up with electric vehicle use but for many of us doing lower mileages or those without easy access to charging facilities, the economic and environmental arguments don’t add up yet. 
 

The tone of some comments in favour of switching does come over as a measure of preaching to those of us sitting on the fence but equally, many points made in the discussion are unarguably valid. 

Thank you for subsidising my use of the road Martin! Actually you are only subsidising about a third, as two thirds of the revenue raised goes into general taxation (£35B revenues vs £11B spent on the roads). 

 

Clearly the exchequer will have to make up the shortfall in revenue as more and more people go over to the ‘dark side’ (EVs) and there is certainly a lot of talk about it. However at the moment it is just talk and speculation - nothing is decided. A road pricing strategy using GPS and taking into account not only vehicle weight but also geographical area (rural/urban/inner city) will eventually evolve. However the technology/infrastructure/software will have to be developed and installed in all vehicles. More significantly, acre’s of legislation will be required concerning confidentiality and data protection. How long will all this take, considering the consultation documents, inquiries and parliamentary debate involved?

Meanwhile, I am saving £2000+ pa in fuel and road tax ?

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Domestic smart meters...

 

Probably modern cars will "talk" to government or the electricity supplier...

 

I will probably never have any money to buy an electric car.

 

If I did win on the lottery I would never spend mega bucks on a car, or anything else for that matter, apart from a multi purpose van perhaps.

 

I will keep the pug ( 2001 year hdi estate 126k miles 60mpg ) going for as long as possible.

 

The fiesta, 1.1 petrol tax and mot exempt will do about 50mpg but needs some cash injection to make it mot able.

 

Retirement project when the pension comes thru. Sadly only 11 large banana boxes will fit in it !

 

I do agree that an ev would suit the lads needs well.

 

Is it true that, a private solar panel roof "must" sell the electricity produced to the "grid" these days ?

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