Some of us found it useful, obviously not me I was completely traumatised!Massively regretting posting a "Harrys Garage" video link, thinking it was a very balanced view.
The whole thread was almost asleep.
My apologies to those who were triggered.
Are EVs the way forward?
- Thread starter The Flying Scotsman
- Start date
- Status
It's just one person's opinion, obviously, but anybody who has watched all of his videos would know he is broadly speaking , pro EV.
Let's be honest, nobody really knows what will turn up in legislation or science over the next ten years, or five, we're just the little people who have to do what's best for themselves and their loved ones.
When I take relatives to hospital and see a nurse get out of a £1,000 car and walk into work, her financial future isn't as safe as mine, or any of the many others on here who don't care if she can afford to go to work in the future, but I suspect we all want her to continue going to work.
I've got a mate who is very pro EV and I debate things with him endlessly, but he puts his money where his mouth is and doesn't own an ICE vehicle. We remain friends!
If you want to explore more about people's attitude to emissions check out the NC 500 thread and all of the "touring Europe in my diesel T6" and "Run the Ring" threads along with the other threads where people drive diesel vehicles purely for pleasure.
Just recording this in case you decide to delete it, like you did on the camshafts thread.
....ain't that the truth !! Seems like Ed Millibund is intent on making my Shepherds Hut have an EPC rating of C or above !! Looks like my chocolate box Sandstone holiday cottage will need cladding in exterior insulation too.
That's my retirement fooked !
No, seriously, we don't!
Things change in politics and science.
(Although I suspect that the effort required to get your shepherd's hut up to the required standard might make it look more like an enormous igloo!)
I’ve been lurking on this thread. So thought I’d throw in my twopence worth.
I’ve been driving an EV since 2016. Tesla s, Kia eNiro and back to a Model 3. I would never go back to an ICE car now. I also get my kicks from my VW
I charge cheaply from home because I can, I wake to a full ‘tank’ every morning but 30% of homes do not have a driveway. However the latest technologies are putting charge points in lampposts, pavements and street furniture.
I see a lot of range anxiety posts in this thread. I’ve driven to Austria twice in my current and all over Europe in all of them. . After 3 hours I need pee & a coffee. So I stop and charge have a brew: 40 minutes and I’m off again. I’ve never had to queue to do it except for the one time in Washington (up Norf not DC).
When I go skiing in my van I still have to stop and have pee & coffee every 3 hours or so.
Upside leaving most cars standing at the lights.
Downside is the cost and the depreciation we are facing at the mo.
As for ‘we do not have enough leccy’ most cars now can also feed the house or even export to the grid. My wife’s Mazda has a 3.5kW output via a 13a socket. Older Nissan leafs or Renault Zoe are being bought as MOT failures and being used as domestic batteries. Good mate of mine up in Scotland does exactly this. Fill it up during cheap periods send it back during high demand and gets paid for the export.
I await the abuse a scepticscm
And for the record Milliband is an idiot.
I’ve been driving an EV since 2016. Tesla s, Kia eNiro and back to a Model 3. I would never go back to an ICE car now. I also get my kicks from my VW
I charge cheaply from home because I can, I wake to a full ‘tank’ every morning but 30% of homes do not have a driveway. However the latest technologies are putting charge points in lampposts, pavements and street furniture.
I see a lot of range anxiety posts in this thread. I’ve driven to Austria twice in my current and all over Europe in all of them. . After 3 hours I need pee & a coffee. So I stop and charge have a brew: 40 minutes and I’m off again. I’ve never had to queue to do it except for the one time in Washington (up Norf not DC).
When I go skiing in my van I still have to stop and have pee & coffee every 3 hours or so.
Upside leaving most cars standing at the lights.
Downside is the cost and the depreciation we are facing at the mo.
As for ‘we do not have enough leccy’ most cars now can also feed the house or even export to the grid. My wife’s Mazda has a 3.5kW output via a 13a socket. Older Nissan leafs or Renault Zoe are being bought as MOT failures and being used as domestic batteries. Good mate of mine up in Scotland does exactly this. Fill it up during cheap periods send it back during high demand and gets paid for the export.
I await the abuse a scepticscm
And for the record Milliband is an idiot.
I’ve been lurking on this thread. So thought I’d throw in my twopence worth.
I’ve been driving an EV since 2016. Tesla s, Kia eNiro and back to a Model 3. I would never go back to an ICE car now. I also get my kicks from my VW
I charge cheaply from home because I can, I wake to a full ‘tank’ every morning but 30% of homes do not have a driveway. However the latest technologies are putting charge points in lampposts, pavements and street furniture.
I see a lot of range anxiety posts in this thread. I’ve driven to Austria twice in my current and all over Europe in all of them. . After 3 hours I need pee & a coffee. So I stop and charge have a brew: 40 minutes and I’m off again. I’ve never had to queue to do it except for the one time in Washington (up Norf not DC).
When I go skiing in my van I still have to stop and have pee & coffee every 3 hours or so.
Upside leaving most cars standing at the lights.
Downside is the cost and the depreciation we are facing at the mo.
As for ‘we do not have enough leccy’ most cars now can also feed the house or even export to the grid. My wife’s Mazda has a 3.5kW output via a 13a socket. Older Nissan leafs or Renault Zoe are being bought as MOT failures and being used as domestic batteries. Good mate of mine up in Scotland does exactly this. Fill it up during cheap periods send it back during high demand and gets paid for the export.
I await the abuse a scepticscm
And for the record Milliband is an idiot.
No abuse or scepticism from me, you present a balanced point of view and don't denigrate others. I don't want to leave most cars standing at the lights though!
If its a t5/5.1/6 no one sells them cheap even with buggered engines, every Spring there is a new bunch of 180 CFCA's on the forums asking about high oil use on a new van they just bought for top dollar
@Mick I reckon you're walking the walk there chap.
In my case I'm a wanna be in as much as I watch the pro EV videos on YouTube including the people recycling battery packs from written off EVs but still a virgin.
I feel sorry for anyone who has taken a hammering in depreciation on a bought EV but equally looking at a 24 plate Megane eTech Iconic at £23k compared to a new one (pre reg 74) at £33k upwards and £37k list, I'll take that dealer demonstrator or ex Motability car.
OT but odd that you had to queue in Washington for a pee?
In my case I'm a wanna be in as much as I watch the pro EV videos on YouTube including the people recycling battery packs from written off EVs but still a virgin.
I feel sorry for anyone who has taken a hammering in depreciation on a bought EV but equally looking at a 24 plate Megane eTech Iconic at £23k compared to a new one (pre reg 74) at £33k upwards and £37k list, I'll take that dealer demonstrator or ex Motability car.
OT but odd that you had to queue in Washington for a pee?
I've charged my EV at Washington too and its always been dead.....
I have a Mini EV (British, i3-related F56, not Chinese one). Great little drivers car, light, sufficient range for its use etc. However, the tech isn’t there yet for what is needed for smaller fully versatile EVs. What’s needed needed is to keep weight low and charge speed very high (for those times you need it). Most talk of range is less relevant….if you can charge at home. I’m lucky I can, many aren’t.
As mentioned already you need a break after 2 hours or so of driving anyway so charging fast if more important than range - lunking huge batteries on shorter journeys reduce efficiency and increase particulate emissions from brakes and tyres (research points to these damaging young brains and reducing cognitive abilities in adults). I’d estimate we’re 5-10 years away from the ideal yet.
Anyway, I’d love to replace my T6 Cali with an EV but the same limitations that need to be overcome for the smaller EVs above also need to be overcome for these vehicles to keep them under 3.2 tonnes laden. The new Transporter and the Buzz don’t cut it.
All this and we haven’t even addressed the costs.
As mentioned already you need a break after 2 hours or so of driving anyway so charging fast if more important than range - lunking huge batteries on shorter journeys reduce efficiency and increase particulate emissions from brakes and tyres (research points to these damaging young brains and reducing cognitive abilities in adults). I’d estimate we’re 5-10 years away from the ideal yet.
Anyway, I’d love to replace my T6 Cali with an EV but the same limitations that need to be overcome for the smaller EVs above also need to be overcome for these vehicles to keep them under 3.2 tonnes laden. The new Transporter and the Buzz don’t cut it.
All this and we haven’t even addressed the costs.
We have a 58 kWh iD3 with the normal cabin heater. At this time of year (using the AC, heated seats, lights etc) we would get around 200 miles on a charge. FYI ours is a 70 plate with 26k which we have owned for 3 years. I think you would struggle to do 300 miles on a 77 kWh model even with the heat pump.@Frigo110 how many miles per full charge would you reckon for the 58 kWh id3 you have at this time of the year and how much difference for the 77 kWh battery plus heat pump rather than resistive cabin heating?
Just thinking out loud as I'm guessing a 300 mile round trip might be a bit of an ask as would recharging at the in-laws when we visit them... to be honest he's a climate sceptic and I would hate to be beholding to him or worse pay 70 pence per kWh.
Cheers for the info @NicolasH: I reckon the 58 kWh would probably be adequate but with no experience of owning an EV I'm stuck in the mindset of thinking I need a 1,000 mile range, you know, just in case, even though I wouldn't dream of permanently driving around with 70 plus kgs of fuel onboard.
A 58 kWh EV opens up a much wider choice of my favoured cars and certainly some much better value for money options although some retailers still seem unsure as to what they're selling with the larger battery models at the same price as the smaller and rarely pushing the heat pump if it has one.
Not wanting to be pedantic but from a UK Driving Licence perspective the gross weight limit that is relevant, particularly for those who passed their driving test on or after 01/01/1997, is 3.5 tonnes.
Exactly this.
DaveD’s point about the nurse is very true.
There will be a large section of society just completely priced out of being able to drive.
A lot of these people are barely surviving financially as it is.
It won’t be long before these working class people say enough is enough and stop turning up to work.
Older (or even not so old!) petrol or diesel cars aren't going anywhere any time soon though, in 20 years time people will still be driving around in a 10 or 15 year old petrol car like they are now.
The time of 90% or more of cars on the road being some form of EV or hybrid is realistically, probably a good 30 years away, at a rough guess? Maybe a bit less if the government decide to tax older cars into oblivion.
Maybe by that time public charging will be 1) reliable and easy to access, 2) cheaper and 3) available for all people regardless if they have a driveway. Probably not, though...
Last edited:
Folks who can afford to buy, run and maintain a Transporter probably aren't best placed to determine national transport policy for all - even less so, those who can afford to simultaneously buy, run and maintain additional vehicles. As a group, we are, predominantly, financially atypical of the general population and we should be mindful of that when advocating what others can/should/might do and can/should/might be able to afford.
- Status
Similar threads
- Sticky
