Electric Vehicles (or EV's) - We'd love to know what you think!

Since Nissan introduced their 30kw Tekna, a couple of years ago, I became very confident in taking longer journeys, even to Cornwall and back. There was always a charger available at the service stations. I must point out that I was not so comfortable with my first 24kw. Recently I ordered a 40kw Nissan. To prepare myself for European driving I ordered a dongle for Europe last year, because of the availability of charging points, over there.
Arthur, a committed EV driver.

I have had a Leaf for 15 months. Charging at home at 15p per unit works out at 4.5p per mile. Charging at Genie points ( and others) costs double. Genie is 30p per unit and £1 connection charge. it works out at 10.5p per mile. A 50mpg petrol car is about the same. Charging points need to be more reliable. I did a 175 mile journey recently which should be comfortable with one stop. When I got to Dorchester the 50kw charger was not working and I didn't have enough to get me to the next one. I had to go to the local Nissan dealer and use their 7kW unit. It took me almost 5 hours to sort it out. Portsmouth has no Rapid chargers. All but one of their chargers are in fee paying car parks. They even have 3kW chargers in paying car parks. It gets very expensive

Sadly, all EVs and Hybrids to my mind are all about unusefulness ( a new word it seems as there are good points and no benefit whatsoever! I'll explain a little, in the main they are not green, the pollution is merely moved to the power station. Ev's have very limited range and are not instantly refuelled. The last time I heard from someone with a Nissan Leaf told me the battery was only rented, at £70 per month!!!!!!!!!!! Then of course because of all the space constraints , you need to buy two EV's to transport, the kids, your wife , the dog(s) and all the paraphernalia to the supermarket and still have space to take the shopping home. All done a bit tongue I know, but is it so untrue I ask?

A bit gloomy. Pollution from a power station is more manageable and would keep the streets cleaner. Nuclear power of course is the best option, no pollution just a little sludge to bury now and again. Renting batteries was an option at the beginning when everyone was nervous about them but they have proved reliable and no one rents them. They have a long term warranty.
And would you need 2 Astras?

Sadly, all EVs and Hybrids to my mind are all about unusefulness ( a new word it seems as there are good points and no benefit whatsoever! I'll explain a little, in the main they are not green, the pollution is merely moved to the power station. Ev's have very limited range and are not instantly refuelled. The last time I heard from someone with a Nissan Leaf told me the battery was only rented, at £70 per month!!!!!!!!!!! Then of course because of all the space constraints , you need to buy two EV's to transport, the kids, your wife , the dog(s) and all the paraphernalia to the supermarket and still have space to take the shopping home. All done a bit tongue I know, but is it so untrue I ask?

Pollution moved to the power station. Yes that is true but that does not make EVs not green. The only case where an EV is perhaps worse than an ICE vehicle is if *all* the electricity is being generated from coal fired stations. This is not the case for the UK.

Moving pollution to the power station is good for the environment where people actually live. It is easier to capture soot and other unwanted pollutants at the power station chimney than from the exhaust of vehicles. I'm sure everyone has seen examples of diesel spewing black soot when accelerating. Do you want to breath that?

re-fuelling time. This one is tricky, does it take hours to refuel overnight while I'm asleep or no time at all because I'm asleep? I don't miss petrol stations with their queues, smell, cost, and diesel on the pump handles.

As the engine in an EV is a lot smaller that an ICE even after the batteries are included there is often more space in an EV than ICE.

I could add some other "negatives" to your list, such as journey times being longer but even then if you plan your toilet and food breaks you can overlap these with charging. The enforced breaks may add to journey time, but you do arrive feeling much more refreshed.

What a great thread I've owned my Audi A3 e-tron for just 2 wks so very new to me. As a slightly mature driver ( passed my test in 1966) I'm one of those lucky females that adores driving ! I can honestly say that after owning an A5 A4 A TT A3 A2 this Audi e-tron puts them all in the shade plus at my age I'm so consumed by energy saving and all environment issues .
What a great forum for all of that thank you all for consuming my time with so much passion. I'm smitten !

A bit gloomy. Pollution from a power station is more manageable and would keep the streets cleaner. Nuclear power of course is the best option, no pollution just a little sludge to bury now and again. Renting batteries was an option at the beginning when everyone was nervous about them but they have proved reliable and no one rents them. They have a long term warranty.
And would you need 2 Astras?
Gosh really amazed that you say this re nuclear.... Hinkley Point to name but one of the most costly white elephants on the planet.
For me I just want to see wind farms everywhere even though the retired army officers in leafy Surrey villages object !

I leased a 30kWh Nissan Leaf Tekna last year. Drove from South Lincolnshire to Keswick and tootled around the area, no problem. Drove to Devon, 270 miles, no problem. I was with Ecotricity from April as they gave me 52 free rapid charges in a year. Cost me £2.40 to get to Devon and back.

Both my daughters live within a mile of a Polar rapid charger. Not owning the car gave me the creeps so younger daughter and husband now use it and I bought a 40kWh Leak 2.ZERO. I can now get to both daughters without stopping. 110 & 135 miles. I therefore ditched Ecotricity and came over to Ovo for the two years subscription to Polar. I've got a 4kW (soon to be 4.6kW) solar system so charging my car is included in the cost of the system.

An academic in the USA, Tony Seba wrote a book called Clean Disruption showing how autonomous battery electric vehicles (AEVs) will be the only ones made by 2030 if governments authorise AEVs by 2021. He has a graph showing the cost of batteries coming down. The tipping point will be US$100 per kWh and once that is reached, battery EVs will be cheaper to buy than fossil burners as well as being cheaper to run and service. His latest videos show the cost of batteries coming down faster than his graphs. He now estimates that EVs will be cheaper than ICE vehicles within five years.

As to electricity generation, new nuclear and fossil burning generation is already more expensive than onshore wind and solar & offshore wind will soon be cheaper too. Perhaps HPC should be binned and turned into a wind farm. The £22 billion in exit costs would be more than worth it in the long run. Solar and batteries in every new build, wind generation plus batteries & V2G EVs to stabilise the grid will make for a far more resilient and cheaper electricity future than dirty fossil burning and potet=ntially lethal nuclear generation.

I leased a 30kWh Nissan Leaf Tekna last year. Drove from South Lincolnshire to Keswick and tootled around the area, no problem. Drove to Devon, 270 miles, no problem. I was with Ecotricity from April as they gave me 52 free rapid charges in a year. Cost me £2.40 to get to Devon and back.

Both my daughters live within a mile of a Polar rapid charger. Not owning the car gave me the creeps so younger daughter and husband now use it and I bought a 40kWh Leak 2.ZERO. I can now get to both daughters without stopping. 110 & 135 miles. I therefore ditched Ecotricity and came over to Ovo for the two years subscription to Polar. I've got a 4kW (soon to be 4.6kW) solar system so charging my car is included in the cost of the system.

An academic in the USA, Tony Seba wrote a book called Clean Disruption showing how autonomous battery electric vehicles (AEVs) will be the only ones made by 2030 if governments authorise AEVs by 2021. He has a graph showing the cost of batteries coming down. The tipping point will be US$100 per kWh and once that is reached, battery EVs will be cheaper to buy than fossil burners as well as being cheaper to run and service. His latest videos show the cost of batteries coming down faster than his graphs. He now estimates that EVs will be cheaper than ICE vehicles within five years.

As to electricity generation, new nuclear and fossil burning generation is already more expensive than onshore wind and solar & offshore wind will soon be cheaper too. Perhaps HPC should be binned and turned into a wind farm. The £22 billion in exit costs would be more than worth it in the long run. Solar and batteries in every new build, wind generation plus batteries & V2G EVs to stabilise the grid will make for a far more resilient and cheaper electricity future than dirty fossil burning and potet=ntially lethal nuclear generation.

IT lifts my heart to read a post like this particularly binning HPC now that would be a great petition ! Yes 22bill the cost of damage limitation but at least we'd have to think about real green power all be it far to late ..