It seemed apt that the week that the Government formally confirmed its 2030 ban on the sale of all new petrol and diesel-powered cars coincided with me having an MG ZS EV on test for my day job on Parkers. My own feelings on the ban are pretty well recorded in that opinion piece, but for those who choose to buy (and more probably finance) a new car, going electric shouldn’t seem to spark the same fears as it once did. If you don’t, you’ll still be able to run your internal combustion-engined car for the foreseeable, even if running and taxing it might become increasingly expensive.
However, EVs are evolving fast, and once again it’s worth dusting off the AROnline time machine. Rewinding to nine years ago once again is definitely a good way of showing you how close this 2030 deadline really is – and also how far away it could be. In June 2011, I spent some time in a Nissan Leaf and found the experience enlightening, seeing the potential benefits of turning your weekly commute into a plug-in one, and saving the weekend for having fun in something petrol-powered.
I vividly remember going to the 2011 BMC/BL Rally at Peterborough in the Leaf. The round trip isn’t a particularly challenging one and comes in at 50.6 miles. From where I lived in darkest Northamptonshire and on a full battery, by the time I’d made it to Ferry Meadows, the battery level meter was showing just a little over half way. And on the journey home I was genuinely experiencing range anxiety, getting back to my garage with one bar left on the gauge and ten miles showing on the range – then it would need to be plugged in to a three-pin socket for about ten hours to be topped up.
Back then, this was a cutting-edge EV, with its 24kWh battery and 107hp maximum power, and for anyone looking for a short-range commuter vehicle, the Leaf looked quite convincing. At the time, I concluded: ‘does your work life and home circumstance fit in with a Leaf? Is your commute less than, say, 80 miles per day, and you’re able to charge it overnight? If so, going electric seems like a viable alternative. And no more miserable fill-ups for your commuter car…’
Compare that with our humble MG ZS EV and the pace of progress during the subsequent nine years is brought sharply into view. Its battery is rated with a capacity of 44.5kWh and it has a maximum power output of 140bhp – so, in layman’s terms, it has not far off double the capacity and more than 33% extra power.
Now before you choke on your coffee, and say that this isn’t a massive leap forward, it’s worth bearing in mind that the ZS EV is one of the cheapest electric cars you can buy at the moment, coming in at £28,495 (that drops to £25,495 after the Government’s Plug-in Car Grant), and is easily the most family-friendly at that price point. You can get a decent lease or PCP deal on one these days, as resale values of electric cars in general start to firm up.
As a usable family car, the ZS EV is bordering on affordable, and its range of a real world 130 miles will make it viable for many – especially considering how cheap it is to fuel up compared with a typical petrol or diesel car. But it’s still £10k more expensive than the ICE-engined MG ZS, so on a cost-based comparison, there are still many holes in the argument. The ZS EV’s far from front running in terms of range, also, where 200-plus miles is rapidly becoming more commonplace, and we’re looking at 300-plus for the real front-runners. That said, at this price point, it’s up against superminis or city cars that are much, much smaller.
And just to add even more fuel to the fire, the ZS EV feels pretty well screwed together, drives as well as it needs to, has all the equipment you’d expect and, for most average family car buyers, will do everything that’s asked for it. If you clicked on the link to my review, you’ll already know that I quite rate it.
Remember that the Nissan Leaf in 2011 was priced around where the entry-level Tesla Model 3 (with 254-mile range) is now and you can see why I think that EVs will become increasingly more popular than the naysayers are currently predicting. The pace of change will continue as it is now, if not more quickly and, that being the case, we should expect 250-plus miles and 200bhp from the ZS EV’s entry-level equivalent in 2030. Given that a Hyundai Kona or Kia e-Niro will already do 280-plus miles for considerably less than £40,000 and you can see the direction of travel.
Where we need the big change to happen is in the cash prices of EVs. I probably need a motor industry executive to tell me why an EV costs around £10,000 more than its petrol or diesel equivalent, and to confirm that as volumes increase, prices will correspondingly fall. At the moment, they are expensive (sorry, but they are) and, although finance and offset fuel costs can go a long way to alleviating this, they can’t go all the way. Get the pricing right, make home charging more universal, and hopefully all those 2030-onwards new car buyers will ease into the transition to battery power nice and smoothly.
Is the Editor of the Parkers website and price guide, formerly editor of Classic Car Weekly, and launch editor/creator of Modern Classics magazine. Has contributed to various motoring titles including Octane, Practical Classics, Evo, Honest John, CAR magazine, Autocar, Pistonheads, Diesel Car, Practical Performance Car, Performance French Car, Car Mechanics, Jaguar World Monthly, MG Enthusiast, Modern MINI, Practical Classics, Fifth Gear Website, Radio 4, and the the Motoring Independent...
Likes 'conditionally challenged' motors and taking them on unfeasible adventures all across Europe.
- News : MG Rover prototypes saved! - 10 December 2023
- Concepts and prototypes : MG Rover RDX60 (2000-2005) - 10 December 2023
- Concepts and prototypes : Rover TCV (2002) - 10 December 2023
Sorry but one small country banning ICE cars and Vans is not going to save the planet.
Is China ging to do so? Is India going to do so? The USA has a new President who is Corvette owning and Speed loving according to Youtube and Jay Leno.
Our atr quality has greatly improved during the months of Pandemic where pointless air travel has become quite reatricred.
Cruise Liners burn countless tons of dirty crude oil so that industry being locked down has also improved things.
I am reliably informed that JLR continue to develop Petrol and diesel engines.
Presumably we will end up witnessing truck loads of Diesel Range Rovers on transporters being taken under guard to the docks!
I will continue to drive only cars with 8 cylinder petrol engines for as long as I possibly can!
Born in Lode Lane!
“Is China ging to do so? Is India going to do so? The USA has a new President who is Corvette owning and Speed loving according to Youtube and Jay Leno.”
Yes they are
India has committed to ban sales of non electric cars by 2030, China has announced an intention with an expectation that they will announce the date at next years CCP assembly and 12 US States have adopted California’s date of 2035 and quite likely other states will follow in the coming year.
In total 21 nations are currently committed to the ban on sales of petrol and diesel cars between 2025 and 2040.
The ICE is going to continue to be enjoyed by enthusiasts like you, me and Biden in just the same way people enjoy Horses today. Just as Horses today are better fed that ever they were when they were used for transport, our ICE vehicles will lavished with synthetic carbon neutral fuel.
All the countries you mention as well as all EU countries are heading toward banning ICE. We have just announced speeding things up. As for JLR continuing to develop ICE -of course they are, they’ll still be selling the damn things for the next 10 years! – (Jeez)
Plus the upcoming MG5 is even cheaper than the ZS to buy and if the model range is expanded beyond just being available as an estate the potential for MG looks pretty good to me.
Anyone remember what the 400 tourer used to cost new? Be interesting to compare it to the price, and spec, of a 5 EV after allowing for inflation.
FWIW there are various statistics about sales of electric cars in China, eg predicted 50% share by 2025, more EV’s already sold in China than the whole of the rest of the World, but suffice to say they appear to be well ahead of the West and are more environmentally conscious than may be normally considered – it’s their rate of change which is difficult to appreciate.
Let’s step back for a moment from concepts such as the range of electric cars is getting better, along with improved power outputs…and that prices will slowly be coming down. Whilst this has truth in it, it ignores the reality of the big picture, which is that ELECTRIC CARS ARE NOT GOING TO SAVE THE PLANET! I remember pointing out in a previous article about electric vehicles, that THE ELECTRICITY THAT POWERS THEM HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE. Currently in most of the western world, including Great Britain, the charging stations GET THEIR ELECTRICITY FROM COAL, YES, COAL-BURNING PLANTS. Environmentalists have no tolerance for more dams, as they interfere with animal migration and fish runs, and the mention of building new nuclear power stations sends them into orbit!! Windmills are inefficient, costly to run, and each one of them slices up thousands of birds regularly. For a family vehicle to run on solar panels would require as many panels the size of a Napoleonic-era galleon’s sails!
It is said that Nikolai Tesla, the genius who died in 1943, found a way to harness free electricity out of thin air…but until someone were to re-discover such a concept, electricity supply will prove to be a gargantuan…to use an American expression…”elephant in the room”.
You prove my theory that shouty opinionated people usually don’t have the faintest clue about whatever subject they chose to rant over. UK energy mix is moving rapidly toward Net Zero, coal generation is virtually nil. Natural gas is the predominant fossil fuel used and this is shrinking year on year.
The fact still remains that the bulk of electricity generation still relies on polluting sources of production – as a I write this at 6pm on 03/12/2020, combined cycle gas turbines are generating nearly 50% of total current demand, and nuclear about 14% – neither can really be considered in any way environmentally benign. We currently have a fairly stiff wind, and yet wind power is only about the same level as nuclear, and we are at this precise moment importing over 4% of current demand from France (which will be nuclear), and 2.5% from the Netherlands (which is likely to be spare wind generated power). (source: http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/)
There is a very very long way to go before electrical power can be considered as anything other than marginally less harmful than the internal combustion engine, and by the time electrical powered vehicles achieve that goal, I fully expect it to be obsolete technology!!
In the western country I live in, over 62% of the electricity is generated through renewable sources. In the province where I live, that number is over 92%.
Over 80% in France
Over 46% in Germany, which is still more than coal
and in 2019 globally low carbon generation exceeded that of coal for the first time, providing 37% of global electricity supply in 2019, with the strong growth of renewables
Most of the French generation capacity is from Nuclear.. That isn’t a renewable. Your figures are at best disingenuous.
You seem completely misinformed
“Currently in most of the western world, including Great Britain, the charging stations GET THEIR ELECTRICITY FROM COAL, YES, COAL-BURNING PLANTS.”
In 2018 only 5.4% of UK electricity came from coal, by 2025 it will be 0%.
“Windmills are inefficient, costly to run, and each one of them slices up thousands of birds regularly.”
Latest generation of Offshore Wind has an installed capacity reliability of 64%, (the % they generate of their rated capacity), this compares favourably with 68% for Britain’s Nuclear capacity and 74%for Gas. Current strike price for Off shore projects due to start operating in 2023/24 coming in at £39.65/MWh and those for 2024/25 at £41.61/MWh. These are some £8-9/MWh below the price for Gas fired plants due to enter service in the same time period.
As for bird deaths, this was the identified killers of birds in the US in 2017:
Feral and domestic cats Hundreds of millions [source: AWEA]
Power lines 130 million — 174 million [source: AWEA]
Windows (residential and commercial) 100 million — 1 billion [source: TreeHugger]
Pesticides 70 million [source: AWEA]
Automobiles 60 million — 80 million [source: AWEA]
Lighted communication towers 40 million — 50 million [source: AWEA]
Wind turbines 10,000 — 40,000 [source: ABC]
Reply for GRAHAM and Paul: The U.S.A. has nowhere near the number of windmills found in Europe…almost none, so GRAHAM, your American bird statistics are not very relevant. As for the charging stations getting most of their electricity from coal, that is correct, even in Great Britain. I never said that most of Britain’s electricity came from coal, I said that THE CHARGING STATIONS get most of their power from coal. In both Canada and the United States, according to the CBC and the Vancouver Sun, the charging stations get 94% of their power from coal.
I also find it interesting that you and Paul, while wanting to go on the attack against me, didn’t take any shots at my MAIN CONTENTION that electric cars aren’t going to save the world, because any attempt at trying to eventually make all vehicles on the road EVs is doomed to failure. Unless you and Paul can find a magic wand, where is a 400-500% increase in world electricity (just to power the current number of vehicles) going to come from? I also find it interesting that Paul seems glad that the use of natural gas is shrinking year by year… This reveals typical left-wing irrational non-thinking, because natural gas is a 100% clean-burning fuel, whose only residue is a bit of harmless water vapour. However, despite such axiomatic logic, to leftists the words “fossil fuel” are what a red cape is to a bull.
Furthermore, GRAHAM and Paul, you leftist types always claim to be champions of human rights. Well how about the cobalt and other raw materials needed to make automotive batteries? They come mainly from Africa, where Chinese companies have a near-monopoly on the production of car batteries, which use child, virtual-slave labour, to extract the cobalt from the mines. Those children are essentially “sold” to the communist Chinese companies by their desperately poor families. The more EVs that are made, the more EV batteries that are needed… Have a nice day.
@ Laurence
I have no intention of getting too involved, but you have made some statements that confuse me or appear to be incorrect and I wonder if you meant to say what you did.
You have said: “As for the charging stations getting most of their electricity from coal, that is correct, even in Great Britain.” I don’t understand how this could be so in GB, so could you explain how EV charging stations get most of their electricity from coal when we have a national grid and GB production of electricity by coal-fired power stations is declining. In fact, as I write the National Grid app shows that current electricity generation by coal is only 4% and earlier this year GB had no coal generation at all for nearly 68 continuous days.
I would be grateful if you could provide any links.
You have also stated: “This reveals typical left-wing irrational non-thinking, because natural gas is a 100% clean-burning fuel, whose only residue is a bit of harmless water vapour.” That is not correct. Whilst I am not a chemist and will gladly take a lesson from anyone who is, I understand that natural gas is mostly methane, CH4, which when it is burnt with sufficient oxygen produces water and CO2 (and perhaps some other pollutants) at about 570gm of CO2 per KWH, so it makes sense to reduce the use of natural gas where a more sustainable option is available.
https://www.wingas.com/fileadmin/Wingas/WINGAS-Studien/Energieversorgung_und_Energiewende_en.pdf#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20study%2C%20natural%20gas%20emits%20around,as%20much%20as%200.149%20kg%20for%20hard%20coal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas#Carbon_dioxide_emissions
Do you agree that natural gas is a polluting fossil fuel?
Lets fact check your claims!
“The U.S.A. has nowhere near the number of windmills found in Europe”
Wrong the USA has more than 57000 wind turbines, that is 50,000 more than the UK.
“charging stations getting most of their electricity from coal, that is correct, even in Great Britain.”
Wrong, they source their power from the National Grid and given that the most of EV charging is done at night, that is when the grid most likely to be sourcing power from Nuclear and Wind and least likely to be sourcing power from Coal.
” while wanting to go on the attack against me, didn’t take any shots at my MAIN CONTENTION that electric cars aren’t going to save the world, ”
This is just a straw man you are offering up, no credible advocate for EV is saying that EV will save the world.
“natural gas is a 100% clean-burning fuel, whose only residue is a bit of harmless water vapour. ”
Wrong, The main “products” of combustion are going to be water (vapor, H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrogen N2. That would be for complete combustion. Excess air is typically present in the combustion of natural gas, so that is additional N2 and O2 plus a very small amount of Ar. If the combustion is incomplete, you would also have CO present.
“Africa, where Chinese companies have a near-monopoly on the production of car batteries, which use child, virtual-slave labour, to extract the cobalt from the mines.”
Cobalt plays a vital role in catalysing the removal of sulphur in the refining of oil, the manufacture of glass and high temperature alloys, all long before EV arrived in the market, but this continued use has never concerned you. Nor has it appears the human rights abuses in many of the principal oil producing nations and the wars in the middle east.
Also all the principal EV battery producers are working on a new generation of batteries that are Cobalt free. Also they are investing in alternate sources for Cobalt including the two mines planned in Cornwall.
So in conclusion all your “facts” turn out to be the product of the your amusing state of willful ignorance.
I don’t think Lawrence has any knowledge of understanding of the world today, so has no chance of seeing anything of the future.
People like this seem to think if the answer isn’t easy then there is no answer. Bizarre
Thank you Graham
I think one of the problems is going to be at home charging. In the town where I live there are Victorian, and older, terrace houses that open straight on to the street or with very small front gardens. While some have disused rear access too narrow for many modern cars others don’t.
I see the charging facilities for such dwellings as being a big problem. This may have an impact on the relative values of different types of housing.
A couple of months ago my daughter was looking to buy a small property. She looked at me as daft when I asked where she would plug in an electric car. When Boris then shortened the time table to 2030 she realised her old dad is not so daft after all.
I suppose people without parking will have to drop their shopping off at home and park at a local multistorey with charging stations. Perhaps they can build lots of these where empty offices and shops now lie. Would keep the streets nice and empty and plenty of room for emergency vehicles if the cars go away.
Quote: “Our atr quality has greatly improved during the months of Pandemic where pointless air travel has become quite reatricred.”
You make a valid argument here about society’s irresponsible attitude towards travel. I drive a Euro 3 diesel made in the Midlands (ouch! which environmentalist threw that rotten apple at me?) and have no intention of giving it up. However, rather than use it constantly for short stop-start journeys into the local town where I live – just over a mile away – I walk as I can’t see the point of driving a vehicle on such a tiny journey where the engine is unlikely to reach optimum running temperature or deliver optimum fuel economy. The daily trip into the westcountry city where I work (23 miles away) has become a nightmare in relation to congestion. If I want to be in my place of work by 8.30am I would have to leave home before 7am in order to beat the congestion forming on the outskirts of the city. Aside from it being stressful having to be constantly caught up in slow-moving traffic, there is of course the added cost in relation to increased fuel consumption because I am travelling at a snail’s pace.
Instead I use public transport and not only does it take a similar amount of time as driving by car, I am saving a couple of quid each week and allowing someone else to have the stress of negotiating through the traffic.
All of this not only reduces the size of my own personal carbon footprint, but at the same time it also offsets the impact of using my older diesel engined car when I do occasionally need to get behind the wheel of it. Using my car less also makes me enjoy those fewer occasions when I do drive it rather than just take it for granted.
Which does make me think there are many motorists who should be taking a more proactive approach in evaluating how they use a motor vehicle. Why are so many motorists in London prepared to be sat in a traffic jam for up to two hours while commuting for just a few miles when there are other means? Why aren’t people capable of combining journeys rather than simply running backwards and forwards on endless short stop-start journeys every day? Think of the issues of congestion and pollution outside school gates when parents choose to drive their child on a half a mile journey to school each day rather than walk.
I’ll admit, the first Lockdown saw me having less incentive or reason to drive and health wise, I felt a lot better from walking. Which does make me think it is motorists’ attitudes towards vehicle use that is the real problem here, not simply the emissions from the exhaust.
I think the issue with Electric cars is that they are a short term fix to reduce CO2 – as previously pointed out how much pollution is caused by planes and shipping? Electric cars limitations are batteries – we don’t have endless resources to make the batteries, which In turn cause pollution to make! Also Britain is heading towards a carbon neutral power supply, but that is without the system having to power electric vehicles. In addition how do people without a driveway or garage charge their cars? If I had to run a cable to my parking space I would get sued for causing a trip hazard and someone would probably nick the supply!
this is the typical government way – make a big statement and then figure out how to deliver afterwards instead of actually doing any planning beforehand. The COVID pandemic has shown how inept we are, by making grand statements and then not delivering.
I am not against Electric cars, but until I see a comprehensive plan how it will work, I fear that only the rich will be able to drive and us poor mugs will be stuck on shanksy’s pony
To echo David3500, one fundamental social change resulting from the pandemic may be the realisation that long term commuting is fundamentally nuts – why waste hours of your life every day stressing yourself commuting in/out of city centres when in many cases you can work from home? Many companies may have another look at their rent bills and move to smaller towns where their staff can live locally and cheaper.
As an aside, it’s interesting to see positive comments on SAIC MG product. I have recently started looking at the Australian website Car Advice and SAIC are coming on leaps and bounds with LDV (rebranded Maxus) vans and pickups – coming to the UK soon?
I believe that mass use of electric cars is a pipe-dream which is incapable of practical realisation . There are 2 constraints
1. the raw materials to make batteries
2.the supply of electrical power for recharging
Not the least of the concerns, never to my knowledge addressed by proponents such as GRAHAM ( I love the capitals ) is that if we rely on wind turbines, which are not the most reliable source, what is the effect on climate in the long term of taking a significant amount of energy out of the atmosphere on a permanent basis . Will there be less uptake of water into the atmosphere ? And if so, what will the effect be on rainfall ?
To those problems have to be added the real defect in EVs, which is that the required energy has to be pre-loaded , and this takes considerable time, with any attempt to accelerate the process carrying a significant elevation of fire risk , and shortening battery life to an unacceptable degree . It is this which is making life a misery for those who try to use EVs for anything other than short journeys, and so far there seems to be little hope of curing the problems
Note also that in the synopsis on this site , not a single word is written on the effect of lights, heating, wipers etc on range. This has its own safety implications with there being many existing reports of these services having to be turned off to provide sufficient range to get home or even to a charging point
@ GRAHAM above. Well said Sir. There are still too many people relying on outdated arguments about electric power generation which simply don’t hold true anymore.
Elsewhere we need to remember that the 2030 ‘ban’ is only on sales of ‘pure’ new internal combustion engined cars. The ICE itself will live on in new hybrids and in the tens of millions of existing conventional cars for some while after that (UK numbers only of course).
Also there was some ‘controversy’ reported in the press in last year or two about people taking big plug-in hybrid SUVs as company cars so as to benefit from the reduced BIK and then driving them purely on petrol. So there are always going to be clever-Dicks out there who will bend the rules anyway.
But the move away from fossil and ICE to renewables and electric is a big deal. In UK terms its probably as big and emotive as when the railways scrapped steam in favour of diesel and electric – and that was a revolution which had to happen and didn’t please everyone either!
Very good point re. steam!
” 2030 ‘ban’ is only on sales of ‘pure’ new internal combustion engined cars. The ICE itself will live on in new hybrids”
For new cars only another 5 years beyond 2030, 2035 is the planned year for the end of sales of new IC engine hybrids
@ Cyclist. You’re not wrong! https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-takes-historic-step-towards-net-zero-with-end-of-sale-of-new-petrol-and-diesel-cars-by-2030
says this:-
‘Following consultation with stakeholders, industry and the wider public, a 2-phased approach to the process was announced today (Wednesday 18 November 2020).
Step 1 will see the phase-out date for the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans brought forward to 2030.
Step 2 will see all new cars and vans be fully zero emission at the tailpipe from 2035.
Between 2030 and 2035, new cars and vans can be sold if they have the capability to drive a significant distance with zero emissions (for example, plug-in hybrids or full hybrids), and this will be defined through consultation.’
Regarding EV pricing, Tesla recently held a “Battery Day”, where they told people how they would reduce the cost of their batteries by 56% within three years. A few years ago, Tesla announce that anyone could use their patents; so as to encourage the uptake of EVs.
We had a documentary on French television this week showing how the production of electric vehicules is the cause of ecological and human disasters in Africa, China and all around the world to extract the rare minerals needed for engines and batteries… Not talking about the recycling of batteries which has no solution yet and the production of electricity. So-called developped country buy themselves a virginity by delocalizing pollution… How can one imagine that the whole world will drive electric without other ecological disasters…
The one and only solution is changing our way of living (this is valid for all aspects of life, not only travel).
Raw material prices of around $10,000 per tonne are encouraging battery makers and others to investigate recycling ASAP.
Having been in the Automotive Repair Industry, all my working life and are currently studying my Level 3 in EV. I can see we do need to move forward, the path is going to be far from easy though. As a Independent Marque Specialist Repair Centre, we do see one or two cars in for service and repair. Recently had a EV with a Range Extender. It switched the main cooling fan to max as the car was charged. This was due to the A/C Condenser leaking so the system could not cool batteries. To change the A/C system after replacing the Condenser. The car had to be connected to the Makers diagnostic equipment and connected to the main factory via OBD to enable charging/ recharging of the system. After finishing the repair the car was recharged to full battery from 13 amp socket about 10 hours, with range showing full at 62 miles. Next morning turning heater on dropped range to 57 miles without moving. (not practical) this car was six years old. Better standardised charging infrastructure will need to be developed and a grid installed. How realistic this is going to be in nine years remains to be seen. On the plus side, a very nippy car very quiet inside. The brakes will last for ever as overrun braking was immense. Couple of years ago i was taken out in a Tesla by a works test driver in Insane Mode that was just something else. The challenges as i see them are Improving Range Standardised, Charging Infrastructure. With enough capacity supplied with clean power. Training enough Technicians to carry out Repair Service and Maintenance safely. In effect trying to Retrain a industry that most employed in are Petrol Heads
Recycling EV batteries is already a reality, albeit looks somewhat small-scale in this video.
https://youtu.be/Bpe8HalVXFU
I’m not really interested in electric vehicles right now due to the costs involved but I do subscribe to the Fully Charged YouTube channel to keep informed about what’s happening.
The zero emissions industry is moving quickly in all sorts of transport scenarios. I’m hoping that a reasonably priced conversion kit (rip out your engine, retain gearbox, fit battery packs) will come soon. That’s a huge market waiting to happen…
@ Gareth, have a look at Vintage Voltage on Quest then. They’re converting ‘classics’ to electric already.
Yeah, I watched the entire season. My point is they’re still not exactly affordable. The DIY kit needs to be around £5-6k for “ordinary folk” to consider converting their favourite daily driver from ICE to Electric.
One development that hasn’t happened yet – (and to me it’s the obvious one) – is interchangeable standardised batteries.
So, you are driving along and your range is running down.
You pull into a service station, stop your car over the battery-change-over point, an extractor rises up from the floor, takes out your nearly-flat battery and pops in a freshly charged one. You pay using the app on your phone and carry on your merry way.
I wonder if any of the big Auto and/or Oil corporations are working on this – and if not, why not ?
@cliffr it’s coming…. already exists in China. Fully Charged YouTube channel to the rescue again…
https://youtu.be/hTsrDpsYHrw
All it needs is the major manufacturers to come together and agree a “standard”. But with fast charging getting faster, it may not even be necessary?
Thanks for the link Gareth, that’s exactly what I’d been thinking of. All it needs is a bit more slickness and scaling-up to a true drive-in-drive-out experience.
It appears the NIO network has been around for a while now so it begs the question why it’s not being promoted, adopted, nor even discussed, in the UK, EU, USA etc.
Is it because (whisper) it’s Chinese ?
Renault tried this with the Fluence, which we don’t get here.
Looks like more investment is need in charging infrastructure urgently.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/nov/28/electric-cars-porsche-charging-network
Meanwhile take a look at this
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/electric-cars-have-to-do-50-000-miles-before-they-are-greener-than-fossil-fuel-vehicles-8hb5m0dm7
Need to consider the whole carbon question including manufacture and not just the footprint when in use.
Electric cars are superior in pretty much every way, performance, refinement, reliability. The big stumbling block was always the battery and charging tech. It looks increasingly like we have cracked both.
However this is revolution that is likely to leave me and many other motorists behind. Why? I practice bangernomics, able to afford a car only because of the massive the depreciation of used vehicles. The most I ever spent an a car was £850 and I could pick up a whole car for less than most of my workmates pay for a set of tyres.
That no longer works with electric cars, there are no cheap electric cars and older electrics are technologically obsolete and not worth buying. That may change when the tech matures but the big remaining problem is the battery pack.
Unless a 10 year old electric banger has enough range left to make the car usable, cheap bangernomics is no longer viable. The situation gets even worse if the battery pack comes with an expensive lease and isn’t really sold with the vehicle.
The electric revolution is great but it will price many of us off the roads.
On the other hand, leaping forward to the 2040s, imagine all the 10 to 20 year old ICE engined cars that will be looking for homes. The big unknown of course is whether these will be taxed or otherwise legislated off the road.
No doubt electric cars are the future especially with the advances in battery technology but buying a car made in China using slave labour is just not acceptable. China is destroying our seas has killed thousands with it’s virus and is pumping out pollution and greenhouse gases. Most likely to start a war soon also in the south China seas. How on earth could anybody contemplate buying a Chinese car ? They are also rubbish.