Vehicle emissions.

True, this is why some companies are in trouble for greenwashing.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...face-steep-new-uk-fines-for-misleading-claims

However, electric cars (in use) massively reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Not so from vehicle production point of view, they have similar carbon footprint for their production processes to conventional vehicles.
On balance they are better for the environment on most measures but the same for some (brake dust, rubber from tyres etc).

CO2 emissions are the most serious threat to the environment so EVs should replace ICVs.

 

But that's life. Most people don't think about stuff. If they did, they wouldn't buy half the crap that's advertised to them. If they thought about stuff they wouldn't be protesting outside immigration centres. If they thought about stuff the Conservatives wouldn't be in power.

 

EV is no different to petrol. My Tesla claims 300mile range, real life it’s more like 200/220.

My petrol car claims 18 miles to the gallon, currently more like 8.

I think the bigger fuss over electric is the lack of charging when compared with petrol-station availability.

On the point of emissions there are lower brake emissions from electric vehicles due to the use of regenerative braking and not relying on traditional brake pads as the main source of retardation.

 

The EV helps the conscience. Hopefully get it out for a trip down to Oakwell when the weather is better and get it up to 20mpg on a long drive.

 

8mpg? What make is it, Boeing?

 

Do all EV's have regenerative braking or just the high end ones with motors in the wheels?

 

All of them. How they apply it is different in different cars but they all have it.

In some, its just a switch, on or off (eg. 'B' mode in the VW ID. series cars). In others, there are flappy paddles on the steering wheel so you can turn the level of braking up or down.

In my Kia Niro, its pretty sophisticated. It has flappy paddles that I can use to switch it through 4 levels from 'off', where it coasts for ages (there is no engine braking so the only slow down effect is the friction of the tyres on the road), through to level 3 which is pretty strong regen when you lift off the accelerator. You can also turn on a fourth level called 'i-pedal' where it is proper one pedal driving as the regen will bring you a complete stop. And you can switch on 'auto' mode where the car assists with braking by turning the regen up or down dynamically according to what it can see in front. So if the car in front slows, it will turn up the regen and slow you to match. It's really easy to live with.

 

Have they?

Not according to these figures

https://heycar.co.uk/blog/electric-cars-statistics-and-projections

 

That’s new sales and will be a lag in results due to delivery times.
My info comes from actual people who sell them for a living and they are all saying the same thing that EV enquiries have plummeted since the last Budget.
They also are reporting upto a third being taken off the price off second hand ones in the last 2 months with.

 

The mistake people make, in terms of buying an EV, through total lack of research, is to assume that the experience will be exactly the same as buying and owning an ICE car. People's refuelling mentality with an ICE is to let it get to the red line or below, and when they are running on the fumes they then look around for the nearest garage. This works for them because there are lots of garages and they all work, an infrastructure that's 120 years in the making. I suppose it wasn't like that in the early days. In fact, petrol cars had been around for around 20 years before the first garage was built in the early 1920s. Before that, you had to buy it in Jerry cans from a chemist.

So they assume it will be the same in an EV. They get far too low on a long trip, search locally for a rapid charging station, by which time they have left themselves with no wiggle room if it goes wrong, and then find that their only option is a crap old unit in a decrepit car park and it doesn't work. And then they bemoan the charging infrastructure.

Yes, it needs to continue to grow in line with sales. And it is very true that there are very good and reliable charger point operators (Instavolt, Osprey, Gridserve) and there are some truly bloody shocking ones (Geniepoint for example). So it means doing a bit of research about where you are going to pit stop, and choosing the better operators. Also, stopping with plenty of wiggle room so you have options if plan A doesn't work. It hopefully won't always be like that, but for now, it undeniably is. But if you do the research, plan a bit, it works just fine. I have done 1000 miles in the last week, 2 trips to Dorset and back for work. No problems at all.

 

To a large extent, that has been highly influenced by the price reduction that Tesla made in January. They knocked several thousand pounds off the Model 3 and Model Y and the value of other cars have therefore all then taken a tumble as their value compared to a Tesla has changed. It's a short term realignment of the market and will work through quite quickly.

Not great news for those garages that had a forecourt full of used EVs though. Some have refused to restock EVs for a few weeks until the market settles back down. Not surprising really.

 

Out of interest, what is the charging time on an EV? Since Covid, I've been driving a lot less but generally do 2 types of journeys - short ones to the shops/local towns and longer trips to visit Jr or the coast on a weekend. Often these longer trips are 200+ miles so I'd need to recharge at least a little and we often use car parks that don't have charging points so would need to stop at a supermarket/services at some point on the journey. Just wondering if I would get enough charge in a 15 minute toilet break to not have to make a dedicated charging stop or whether we would be better combining it with a food break and factoring in an hour+ stop somewhere...

(Saying that I'm probably going hybrid when the car is up for renewal later this year)

 

30p per mile?

Instavolt are the most expensive at the moment at 75p per Kwh. I know it depends on the efficiency of the car but mine is averaging 4 miles per kwh so that works out at around 19p per mile. The car would have to have the efficiency of a tanker to see it work out at 30p a mile.

Yes, it's more expensive than petrol at the moment but I expect those costs to come down when the price of electricity returns to sane levels generally. But it definitely is a factor is you can't charge at home and rely on the public network because when you can, you are only paying those prices when you travel out of the range of the range of the car in one day. At home I am paying 7.5p per kwh overnight so that's only 2p per mile.

There are cheaper options. I think Podpoint at Tesco are still only about 30p per kwh. And generally, AC charging is cheaper than rapids. But yes, it gets more expensive if you can't charge at home.

The trick when using rapids is to (a) avoid the **** ones. I would have to be desperate to try a Geniepoint and only slight less desperate to try a BP Pulse. And (b) seek out the sites with multiple units. 4+ units should ensure you aren't waiting long and that they won't all be knackered.

 

You don't even need a home charger.

You just need an outside 240v plug and the ability to run a cable from that plug to your car.

We have a home turbo charger but we've only used it twice. 99% of the time a top up at the end of every other day is all that's required. The car charges at about 10 miles per hour, ten hours and 100 miles range is added, more than enough for 99% of everyone's usage.

 

If you can charge at home then your use of rapids is only to ensure you have enough in the battery to get you home plus a bit spare to be comfortable. I generally aim to make sure I will have 30 miles spare by the time I get home. If your car has a published range of say 270 miles (Niro) then in summer you could easily do 200+ miles return and not stop. In winter you might want to put 20-30 miles in at some point to be sure. On a rapid, even if it was only a 50kw one, you'd put 30 miles in in the time it takes to have a pee and buy a coffee.

 

The odd use of the granny charger is OK but I am not sure I would recommend their use on a routine basis. You would want to make sure that the plug socket you are using is a new and good quality one. Domestic plug sockets are not designed to take a large power draw for a long time. At the very least, you need to check the socket regularly to make sure it is not getting hot. These things are OK, until they are not. If it overloads the socket over time, it will blow your fuse if you are lucky, or spark a fire if you are not.