QOTW: Will your next car be electric?

[1stRaven]

Ha, when the National Grid says you can't boil a kettle while charging your car at home then no. What am I supposed to drink while waiting for the thing to charge?

Hybrid - yeah. Electric - only when they have the infrastructure sorted and a better battery system with better storage/efficiency and recharge times.

That's the fun part with Electric cars, going through all the incorrect or misinterpreted data. The kettle thing is only if you install an 11kw charger in a single phase fed site, then use it with a car then has an 11kw charger, which very very few do. So you will be fine.

[1stRaven]

Is the grid ready? Is the environment ready (they currently pollute as much, if not more than a petrol and on top of that with compression ignition petrol engines coming soon (2019) they'll be far outmatched in the environmental stakes - all they do is move the emissions to the nearest power station) and is your wallet ready? Make sure you do the maths and ensure that this is going to be cheaper for you as, a lot of the time, it just isn't. For some people it is, and that's fine but you need to ensure you know what your charging times are going to be like (night rates, etc) and that 10 minutes with a calculator could save you a lot of money.

EDIT: I'm talking about a total cost of ownership calculation - there's an initial cost, possibly battery replacements within ownership period and so on and that may or may not be balanced out by your fuel savings.

or look at the lease option. My leaf is due to cost me around than £5000 over two years, including fuel etc. Depends on the options out there.

[Percy1983]

I few used leaf's are tempting (not the early models) if you don't mind a degraded battery as the rate of degrading slows with age so not as bad later on than the initial loss.

[Iota]

No.

Cost of buying the car new, I wouldn't opt for a second hand in this instance due to battery considerations. Cost of having to install charging point at home, there is literally no infrastructure in place down where I live.

Also I have to really question if the country as a whole has the infrastructure in terms of power stations and production of electricity if we all move over to electric vehicles? As a country we are not even financing and building our own power stations.

I also have to question what replaces diesel vans, considering weight limitations and the restrictions on people requiring a driver CPC to drive anything larger than a 3.5 tonne vehicle? The batteries required for that alone will shave off most of the allowable weight a van can carry. Like everything any government does, they don't seem to have thought all of the implications through fully.

Now if the car manufacturers start producing hydrogen fuel cell cars? That's something I'll consider seriously.

[Phrontis]

No way at all.

I'm looking for an Audi S8 V10 at the moment, if I can get one at a reasonable price. Then I will convert it to run on LPG just like my old V8 S8. Running costs are quite reasonable when your running on LPG and with a full 90 litre tank of LPG and a full petrol tank, its a 500 mile range.

[adidan]

That's the fun part with Electric cars, going through all the incorrect or misinterpreted data. The kettle thing is only if you install an 11kw charger in a single phase fed site, then use it with a car then has an 11kw charger, which very very few do. So you will be fine.

Well there's a problem then with it becoming an easy choice of the masses if you can read what the National Grid says (or at least is reported as saying) and then have to work out what sort of supply you're on.

[Andi-C]

God knows ! It wont be cheap as I'm on minimum wages & my hand feels forced at a considerable cost to my family.

[FromUSA]

Tesla looks cool...but the charging stations near me are far and few in between.

[EndlessWaves]

ooooh let me think about it....nope.

2 problems and they're pretty big problems to me.... I live in the countryside, petrol stations can be 20-30 miles apart and we can't even get a decent mobile signal over my entire county so the odds of getting a decent network of electric refilling stations is well pretty much non existent lol

Normal charging is done at home, off a cheap dedicated charging point that typically costs less than half the things on the options list (or that the dealer tries to sell you). Charging points at work and anywhere else your car might be parked for a few hours are nice but not a big deal with battery capacities creeping up to 40kWh and more.

In many ways, rural settings work better for electric cars.

[adidan]

Ideally, i would have one that would get charged at home from solar powered battery storage that could stores masses of power and the car could run all day.

When that happens then yes.

[Friesiansam]

Still running on steam...

[outwar6010]

Charging times aren't that long now and you can get from one end of the country to the other end with the current charging infrastructure and range of the cars.

[Rubarb]

next transport wont even be a car never mind something like that

[3dcandy]

Much as I'd like it it's not practical with my 160 mile a day commute

[eviling]

Sadly not.

In Denmark we have a tax called "registreringsafgift" which is a 150% tax on cars.

So if the car costs 100k, you have to pay 250K for it.

And electric cars arnt among the cheapest cars to begin with.

[Jowsey]

It already is. Picked up a 30Kwh in April this year, trading in my Jag XJL. It is costing me around £2 to charge it up and a charge is lasting around a week at the moment.

Cant understand why more people dont have them. The cost savings cover the cost of the car, to a point where I have a car with no mot, covered under warranty for around £100 per month.

Granted, longer journeys can take some planning but I have ended up borrowing a free car from Nissan for one holiday and renting another car for £100 for a week's holiday. Good chance to test drive other vehicles.

I would love it to be and since I travel 11 miles to work and 11 back I would really benefit from one!

I occasionally do long journeys though and when i do I'm able to breeze through them and the limited options of electric vehicles deters me. I drive a big, comfy, 5 person Volvo and that is why I bought it. It's calm,settled on the road, safe and comfy. It has the premium feel and touch that, at the same price ,a Leaf would NOT give me. If I could get the same car, same range within the magic 1 hour of charging and same price, I would.

However I currently live in a midcity 1st story flat! Maybe when I get my own place with a drive or garage!