- This topic has 48 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Topic
I would love to go electric with our next motability car but as things stand with range etc I can’t see it happening for some time. Great for short journeys where charging points are plentiful but next to useless otherwise. Come on technology, catch up before people lose interest.
- Replies
Near me in nottighamshire farmers are now installing solar farms and is that good for the enviroment, soon enough more and more will pop up as demand for elec increases.
Actually, they are not that good for the environment.
A lot of prime arable land is getting swallowed up by these ‘panel farms’. The loss of crop acreage and thus yield means more reliance on imported crops such as wheat, barley, rape, potatoes, beans etc etc, which have to be imported on ships burning low grade oil and creating more pollution.
Also, it is not just trees that absorb atmospheric CO2, crops do as well, in fact more so because of the acreage involved. With panels replacing crops there is a huge net loss of natural CO2 receptors.
Then there are the questions of both bio security of the imported crops and also guarantee of supply.
So overall, where farmers are taking the ‘panel shilling (and we were offered it but declined), they are rather doing a dis-service to the environment.
As most generated electricity is getting ‘greener’ by using biomass, wind, nuclear etc instead of coal, there really does need to be a debate on whether it is good use of fine arable land to cover it with panel arrays.
I would love to see a photo of a bungalow with a car on the drive being charged from a home charger ? I’m moving to a retirement bungalow around Christmas and just want to see where it could be fitted and looks like ? It’s a semi so could go on side or front
Blue Leaf has charger under the window. Just type electric car charger and bungalow into google. When results load, select images only…xThat’s fantastic many thanks indeed
Well, I thought this would be a popular thread , ev’s are certainly a popular talking point at the moment. I have read all the replies and many valid points have been made. For some they work, certainly for those in more built up areas whilst for some the reality of ev’s is still a long way off. Another point which doesn’t get mentioned much is the price. Still very expensive for what they are and the much hyped tesla announcement on increased range isn’t going to come cheap. I certainly wouldn’t dream of paying nearly 30k for a Corsa e!
At present there is a disparity between the cost of Electric and ice cars in purchase price, but that is more than offset by the savings on running and servicing costs. Factor in the cost of polution, the detrimental health effects as well as climate degradation and I believe the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. No doubt the charging infrastructure badly needs addressing even with the option of home charging, but that is improving.
We none of us like change. It takes us out of our comfort zone but we owe it to future generations to make the change from ice to ev. We can all do our bit by putting pressure on Motability to give us a adequate choice of ev’s.
I am in the process of getting an electric vehicle. The car is actually waiting for me at the dealers, just need to get the charge point installed before i can have it. The vehicle was already in the country, so not the usual factory order / 3 month wait.
Before lockdown when I was driving in to work 5 days a week, 40 miles per day, I was spending around £120 per month on petrol to do 800 miles a month.
Based on the same mileage, my new EV will cost me an extra £23 per month in electricity at my current electric unit rate. That is around £300 per year instead of £1500 and £900 over the 3 year lease compared to £4500 in my current petrol car.
The charger installation is being a bit of a nightmare, but will hopefully be all sorted in a couple of weeks, and then I will be all set for my new car and future Electric Vehicles to come when this one is handed back.
I don’t anticipate needing to use public chargers very often, but when I do, I will just have to plan it out in advance. Maybe not as easy as petrol, but for one or two trips a year, the savings will outweigh the longer stays at services etc. At least to me anyway, but I appreciate everyone has differing circumstances.
At present there is a disparity between the cost of Electric and ice cars in purchase price, but that is more than offset by the savings on running and servicing costs. Factor in the cost of polution, the detrimental health effects as well as climate degradation and I believe the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. No doubt the charging infrastructure badly needs addressing even with the option of home charging, but that is improving. We none of us like change. It takes us out of our comfort zone but we owe it to future generations to make the change from ice to ev. We can all do our bit by putting pressure on Motability to give us a adequate choice of ev’s.
Also at present there is no road duty or taxes applied to electric travel.
The government lost 2.5 Billion Pound a month in March and April, so 5 Billion all told, this year due to no one using their cars. This has been a wake up call for the government in how much they lose when everyone gone electric so make the most of those savings as they won’t be around for long as all electric cars will have some sort of GPS road prices by the mile added to running cost over the next decade for sure. ?
If it works for you go for it but the gravy train won’t last forver and chrisk your spot on that’s why i believe soon they will be charging us per mile etc and raise taxes by having congestion charges in every city no matter the fuel you use.
So much tax comes from cars it’s a real cash cow and the UN want the demise of the car.
I do see larger areas where no cars will be allowed, like is already happening in cities all over and other measures in the name of covid saftey.
Birminghams traffic plans have been crazy indeed even before covid. All adding to the misery of car owners and users. To force them off them of the roads. In london the C- CHARGE was raised and the exemption for residents within the zone is being removed to discourage car ownership.. Soon it’s being extended to the north and south circular roads. Having a blue badge makes you exempt, but still for how long till that runs out as well..Or certain area’s are not accessable to us with mobility isssues.
Visited preston the other day and the major road in and out of preston that has two lanes is now one for cars and one for cycles, yet no cycles really use it to justify, it was raining and what about wintertime. what about the morning commute is gonna be twice as bad. arh there no need as everyone is working from home forever.
Solar farms are popping up everywhere as well and that has a cost to the enviroment as well.. The hidden ones we never see or told about… Plus who owns the oil is the big problem for the west so also it is a security of supply issue so electric is better. As the wars didn’t work. an agenda a politcal one against the east and russia etc the brick nations. Thats another story but it all part of the changes we seeing. We the people are the cash cows. the eu/un also said the people must pay for the demise of the car. In un agenda 21. we are almost at 2021. It explains alot thats going on.
If it works for you GizmoMac i got no issues at all.. go for it.. it’s just the whole game that’s playing out and i believe even covid is being used as a springboard for global warming oh no now it’s called climate change. Some things I know are bigger than man can comprehend as the planet has been here longer than us alot longer and been alot warmer than since record began.
Alot will disagree with alot i say.. but if i’d said a few years ago we’d all be on lockdown for months and wearing masks to go to buy food would you all believe me.. not a chance. so thats my main point be very careful what direction they taking us into. like towards a cashless society. Only today i was reading about elton musk and his Neuralink’s brain implant. Musk said the system could help people store and replay their memories, upload their minds and download them back into robotic bodies, or merge their consciousness with AI agents. The future is going to be weird, his words not mein.. but yep it sure is gonna be.
I have no doubt as we speak the Treasury whizzkids are hatching all sorts of new taxes to replace those lost. I would be an advocate for ev’s even if they were more expensive to run . The reason that ev’s must replace ice cars is because of their much more benign impact on the environment. Just as steam gave way to ice so too ice will give way to ev.
We had a glimpse during the lockdown of how polluting our reliance on fossil fuel is. I fully respect the views expressed but we really need to adopt this climate friendly technology before it’s too late.
Time folks, is not on our side.
That is very true Daf living in London as I do it was really noticeable how much cleaner the air was without the morning and evening grid lock.
The thing history has taught us is things don’t really start to change until there is no other choice and at the moment it’s still too easy to continue using fossil fuel in our cars.
I’d like to think ev’s were better for the environment but after you factor in resources of making the battery and then the disposable of it, if it can even be disposed of, it’s hardly environmentally friendly.
I do like the idea of electric but I don’t like stopping on long journeys, I just like to get from A to B, I have no interest in stopping for 45mins just so a car can charge. I do a lot of spontaneous Long journeys so for me it isn’t ideal
Example, In the last few days I’ve had to travel from my home in London to Brighton, then back to London then on to Luton, I’ve had to do this 3times this week alone, if I had to stop for electric it would be a nightmare as I’m not in these places long enough to get decent charge.i think more emphasis should be put in plug ins, best of both worlds.
Id love electric and have thought about it but living in a flat where they won’t install points just won’t work
I was looking online for short breaks and the place I was looking at was a farmhouse B&B, I noticed in the blurb it had a Tesla lightning charge point.
I guess the owner must have one and it’s a home charger.
Hybrids are surely the worst of both worlds still a petrol engine and a very small battery. Two lots of technology to manage with associated costs.
Think it was mentioned earlier about total cost of ownership being a thing with cars and when you find the fuel costs more (relatively) than the vehicle itself then thats when Evs may work for you.
An interesting fact is in takes 6kws of electricity to make 1 gallon of petrol. Why don’t we put that electricity straight into cars and save the world?
Azzy there is no doubt that ev technology is much more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel. Most of the components and elements that make up the batteries are re-cyclable. We do have to change our mindset driving ev’s, which might make us safer drivers. Dont forget the recommendation is that you should take a break after every 2 hours of driving on the basis of safety. So by getting into that mindset stopping to recharge will become second nature.
Having said that even at 70mph the likes of the e-Niro and Kona will give you 4 hours of driving.
The rumour is that Tesla have developed a battery that will be good for 1million miles plus and there should be an announcement about this on 22nd September.
We need to embrace change not just for ourselves but for future generations.
I’d like to think ev’s were better for the environment but after you factor in resources of making the battery and then the disposable of it, if it can even be disposed of, it’s hardly environmentally friendly.
On the contrary, the lithium battery packs from a car can be used in power walls etc., for a fair few years, & eventually the lithium can be recovered by mining the battery packs (the plastic membranes are a problem). The cobalt argument has very young Congolese children driven to work in terrible conditions in mines, but this misses the point that their parents want to profit from this work rather than it being an industry standard across the World, let’s not blacklist a product because of the way other peoples choose to live.
Lithium itself is an abundant metal, present in many of the rocks under our feet, it’s just a highly reactive metal that has to be extracted & handled correctly.
So, let’s look at these components from the perspective of us being able to extract them in our own country, is it even possible? Lithium, yes, Cornwall, the old china clay pits, a good source of lithium. Cobalt, yes, Aberdeenshire & other places have substantial reserves even if we can’t employ Congolese children to work at the pit face & have to rely on Scotsmen to frighten the cobalt from the rock at great expense. Copper for the motors, yes, we have plenty of mineable copper (Cornwall, Devon, Wales, Cumbria, Scotland). Rare earth elements for the magnets, difficult, China is a cheaper source at the moment, but they have always been extracted from the production of other metals if economic to do so as it is now.
So, the pollution event is the initial production of the electric car, it’s the same for all cars though, so it’s best to run a car to its life end rather than throw away a fairly new car & replace it with electric. We have the secondhand car market for just that. The difference in pollution between fossil & electric cars is in the running of them, if you can fill the batteries overnight on cheap wind derived electricity it has an insignificant pollution footprint for the running life of the car, if you burn diesel or petrol you are the pollution problem and you’re the fossil that became extinct.
The main benefit apart from trying to reduce green house gasses, is to reduced particulates in town centres and near schools.
The down side is polluting poorer countries in the mining process of the raw materials, in those countries children and adults health will suffer massively and they are also very unlikely to see a finished ev let alone own one.I’m not sure that I agree that Hybrids are the ‘worst’ of both worlds. If the hybrid is able to re-charge the battery by ‘harvesting’ energy from daily driving and can then use that stored energy to substitute for the least efficient parts of petrol driving (starting/idling) then there should be a definite saving of petrol. I’m aware that this will be dependent on the software which manages the energy collection and that the lifetime energy consumed may be more on a hybrid than a standard petrol car. Interestingly, Which has found that Hybrids are the most reliable ‘type’ of vehicle and one part of that explanation is that they are ‘simpler’ in their mechanical workings. The home charging issue is the main problem for many people who would otherwise move down the PHEV or full EV routes.
I grew up in London but now currently in the midlands.
Glass has not been recycled by the local council for almost 10 years that i know of, and it has to be put in the green land fill bin..
So many plastics and other stuff also cannot be put in either, so i beg to differ sometimes about recycling. It’s not always easy or cost effective. Like all this ppe waste being created now.
I rememeber going to school and waiting for the bus on marlebone road, when cars pumped out leaded fuels. Even petrol cars are now getting DPF and Things are alot better polution wise imo, than they was back then. How are we all here still? by all as accounts we should be all dead, yet people are living longer than ever.
There is many pro’s and con’s to everything and sometimes man polutes the planet just being here. To keep warm to heat our food. We need energy of some sort. seem though the energy they push is the ones they can monetise and profit from and we the people suffer and pickup the tab, over and over.. we are conned into believing the baised on sided science. Without real evidence. Like how diesels was better than petrol. |Companies lobby and those that lobby the most £££ get what they want implemented.
I do know though that when they reduced speed limits on the roads into london to 50 mph from 70 mph.
I could not get to all the garages that i could do before. Say i worked a 12hr shift and 8 hrs of that was driving.
8hrs x 20 mph = I cannot get to a day anymore and that comes at a huge cost to the ecomomy.
That was almost 20 years ago they started Rolling out the agenda. Now all of centreal london is 20 mph
160 miles thats further than i have to drive to visit my mum and brother in london.
Over a 5 day week we talking 800 miles. Thats just from speed reduction and they doing it now as well all over, to reduce emmissions.
I get it, if i was delivering around central london then an ev would work. but what if you not? this is another issue, as well.
More concerning is the uptake of ai in everything and i am sure alot of people are going to lose there jobs to the technological revolution as they did in the industrial one.. It’s called social engineering and histroy can tell us alot. going off topic, but imo it’s all part of the same net to keep us enslaved and less productive and more and more reliant the state for everything. I do not like where i see the future going and i hope i am wrong.
Hybrids = transporting both a combustion engine and a battery about and having all the necessary bits and pieces to support.
Its a complicated route to an extra 5 miles per gallon?
Don’t get me wrong I’m all for ev’s but I think they need to be honest with us about the impact it can have in the world.
we don’t want another diesel fiasco
It just puts off the emmisions fines for now and we get charged for 2 engines how stupid is that. I was gonna get a corrolla hybrid but then i thought what is the point apart from you can tick some boxes and say i’m a bit greener sometimes. So i went ice again. For me and my life right now it’s just not practical to get an bev or a phev, as no driveway and I do alot of motorway driving.
If i still lived in london maybe i would get an ev, but i don’t i often drive 280 miles or so and live close to the motorway for that reason. I do the school run as well but that hardly gets the car warm and then the hybrid of won’t work till the engines warmed up. i heard if so thats real stupid imo. it’s like the emmisions cheat devices. a con imo..
reduced speed limits on the roads into london to 50 mph from 70 mph. I could not get to all the garages that i could do before. Say i worked a 12hr shift and 8 hrs of that was driving. 8hrs x 20 mph = I cannot get to a day anymore and that comes at a huge cost to the ecomomy.
That’s assuming you can drive at 70mph all the time – which often you can’t.
Blue Leaf has charger under the window. Just type electric car charger and bungalow into google. When results load, select images only…x
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.