Electric cars - to buy or not to buy?

granfromafar We don't know. We suspect we may have used the car seat heaters too much, although we don't know for sure. Talking to the garage tomorrow so hopefully they can tell us.

The recovery vehicle picked up at about 11 pm, five hours later, but we got a taxi home at about 9pm as by that time we'd been standing in the freezing cold for over 3 hours and I was beginning to feel ill. But it didn't delivery back to us till nearly 1 am, i think we woke up the entire street 😬 There was nowhere nearby to go other than a late night Sainsbury, so we spent half an hour in there getting warm and something to drink. We really didn't want to leave the car as we couldn't lock it and worried about it getting stripped.

My friend’s son works in haulage and has told her, (she’s 70), never to go down the electric route.
For me - I look at Tesla which are from £40K to £130K. The battery life is 10-20 years and as the batteries are built into the chassis, (as told by my mechanic) replacement is £12K but once failed, the car is useless. I stand to be corrected on that.
However, if that is the average battery life, then who is going to consider buying a used EV at 7 or 8 years old, knowing what might lie around the corner? I somehow can’t see garages replacing the batteries in trade-ins and suspect any warranty given won’t cover them.
Personally, I consider my carbon footprint has been fairly small in comparison to many others, so I’ll stick with my petrol car now.

I might change mine in the future but not now. My car is 11 years old, in really goid condition and low mileage. If I traded it in fir an electric one, mine eould be sold on to someone eho ptobably woukd do more miles than I do so its overall better for the environment if I keep it. When/if I replace it, I will see what is around

A very great deal. Unless you really MUST change your car NOW. Put it off - keep yours in decent repair and use it sparingly. Changing vehicles means the embodied carbon (and all the other materials/skills/labour) will likely go to waste. - Quite apart from the issues of new cars you mention. The greenest thing - reduce your use, reuse (can you get your old one in use by relative/friend who needs a vehicle), recycle - don't know how much of that really happens.

Georgesgran
For me - I look at Tesla which are from £40K to £130K. The battery life is 10-20 years and as the batteries are built into the chassis, (as told by my mechanic) replacement is £12K but once failed, the car is useless.
I didn’t know that about the batteries being built into the chassis of a Tesla car. Is that the same for all?
My US friends sing the praises of their EV, but they use a FF car in winter as their very cold weather affects the distance range and charging time of their EV, which they find inconvenient.

I won’t be getting one for a long time (my civic is 3 years old and bought and paid for), I intend to keep it until it becomes uneconomical. The concern about insurance is the one that concerns me, as batteries are an inside insurance premiums have climbed high and some cannot even get insurance (I hear, though maybe this has been sorted out). Unless all our electricity is from sustainable as I don’t truly understand all the issues, but I don’t think we are there yet in the technology.

Sorry, rushing a bit so haven't read everything, apologies if I am repeating what others have said.
I think that what people forget about is that the electricity that fuels EVs has to be generated, creating a carbon footprint of its own in addition to the huge one due to the manufacturing process of car and battery. There simply isn't enough electricity for us all to use EVs.
My son has an EV and finds charging difficult due to scarcity of chargers in some places, chargers out of use due to breakdown or already being used and so on. My DIL was two hours late the other day because she had to take a huge diversion as the charger she intended to use was broken.
We looked into them a couple of years ago but ended up buying petrol cars simply because we regularly travel 150 miles to an area with very few chargers. There is no possibility of installing a charger where we visit as the parking is on private land, too far from a house to install an electric line economically.
I personally think that EVs will not prove to be part of the solution to global warming unless people are prepared to accept paying much more for cleaner electricity. Windfarms and solar are not the solution for the large demand that would be created if we all drove them. Wave power would help here, but for some reason it is being ignored, though there has been a very efficient wave powered generator in France since 1966. And nobody wants a nuclear power station in their backyard.

kittylester

And electric cars are often heavier than 'ordinary' cars so cause more damage to the roads.

Interestingly the it is the tyres on EVs that cause more pollution than those on ordinary cars, as they are heavier the tyres break down.

While studying chemistry in school, the test for hydrogen was a lighted splint held at the top of a test tube. It went with an audible 'pop' as the hydrogen exploded. The early blimps were filled with hydrogen and exploded spectacularly. That's why they changed to helium, which is inert. I hope the technology associated with hydrogen as a domestic and motor fuel is very advanced.

cc

kittylester

And electric cars are often heavier than 'ordinary' cars so cause more damage to the roads.

Interestingly the it is the tyres on EVs that cause more pollution than those on ordinary cars, as they are heavier the tyres break down.

Even more interestingly, if you actually read the thread, you will see that the RAC and Kwikfit disagree with you. 😂😂😂

We have a ten year old diesel car which we bought new At the time we bought it diesel cars were considered better for the environment than petrol hence our purchase.
I have read that the best way to reduce impact on the environment is to continue to use a diesel car until it’s no longer repairable and then replace it with a second hand petrol car. So that is what we’re doing

DH’s 16yr old diesel 4 X 4 was on its last legs a couple of weeks ago, unfortunately it has had a remarkable recovery due to the removal of a minuscule fuse so our planned purchase of a hybrid is delayed.

My car is only 3 years old, it’s petrol with an eco engine, as I absolutely love it, it’s not going to be replaced anytime soon.

lizzypopbottle

While studying chemistry in school, the test for hydrogen was a lighted splint held at the top of a test tube. It went with an audible 'pop' as the hydrogen exploded. The early blimps were filled with hydrogen and exploded spectacularly. That's why they changed to helium, which is inert. I hope the technology associated with hydrogen as a domestic and motor fuel is very advanced.

Yes, the industry my Dh worked in used hydrogen as a test for leaks. It’s because the molecules are smaller and will leak out of the tiniest of holes. Hydrogen also has to be manufactured, which uses electrify in itself. It’s only green if the process uses energy from reusable sources, which isn’t always possible.

My own ICE car is less than three years old. It’s very fuel-efficient compared to cars I’ve had in the past and if I sold it to go electric, someone else would be driving round in it, so I don’t see the point in ditching it. We also travel long distances and until the charging network has improved electric won’t be an option for us.

We had a plug in hybrid for two years then three years ago went fully electric. Would never go back to petrol/diesel out of choice now and feel after five years we do know what we are talking about. We bought the cheapest electric car available at the time which did the range we needed and in the three years we have had one full tyre change at around 25,000 miles
We use off peak electricity to charge at home and have never had to charge away from home which on reflection is pretty much what most couples like us would find. The vast majority of our days journeys are well within the 200 mile per charge range. We have charged at holiday cottages on a couple of occasions and if we decided to go further afield probably would make a considered plan before setting off so yes this would be more of an inconvenience than just pulling into a petrol station but would be so very infrequent as not to be important at all.
Our electric charges and general running costs are very very low but we realise and appreciate this could change in the future when the government need to get more tax from electric car users but that’s one for the future and meanwhile it only costs us about £6 for 200+ miles

I had a new hybrid, never had so much trouble with a car. Was told that I didn't do enough mileage? Went back to petrol after 18 months. I also suspect that the overall carbon footprint of EVs will be high, especially with the relatively short battery life. This will probably be discussed once we have all been forced to ditch petrol.

My youngest has just bought a hybrid car and he loves it saves him money too very quiet and comfortable his is a new to market but he works for a company that makes them Rishi visited them recently lol

Also more expensive to insure and repair.

Electric cars may not be an option anyway for anyone who can't charge at home unless there is a bank of good chargers nearby. If we hadn't been able to install a charger at home I don't think we would have gone EV.

We've never had a problem charging, but it takes a change of mindset to work out when/where you need to charge before you travel instead of just jumping in the car and waiting till fuel is low then deciding where you want to fill up. You also have to be prepared to possibly detour off your usual route. We've been very surprised at just how many charging points there are now, including at places like Costa and MacDonalds.

AngieP

Also more expensive to insure and repair.

They are not more expensive to insure. Check out the UK EV forums. Here in France ours is cheaper to insure than ICE and will go down by 25% next year because they have data (with our agreement) which shows how efficiently and carefully we drive it.
They are certainly not more expensive to repair. They have a fraction of the number of parts in an ICE car. Servicing is incredibly quick and cheap.

I was in a taxi recently where the owner SO regrets his purchase of electric. Main complaint was the wear and tear on tyres because of the additional battery weight. Also in case of breakdown he has to be uplifted by a vehicle rather than towed. I understand none of this but simply accepted what he said. Certainly put me off the idea of ever buying one.

I think you also factor in the damage to the environment when mining lithium for the batteries. See here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpli_jMQ5lI&ab_channel=BBCNewsAfrica

and here:

www.euronews.com/green/2022/02/01/south-america-s-lithium-fields-reveal-the-dark-side-of-our-electric-future.

and here:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/08/cornish-lithium-secures-536m-to-open-first-mine-for-the-metal-in-britain#:~:text=Cornish%20Lithium%20is%20one%20of,the%20end%20of%20the%20decade.

Apologies for some reason I can't seem to hyperlink these.

stewaris

I think you also factor in the damage to the environment when mining lithium for the batteries. See here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpli_jMQ5lI&ab_channel=BBCNewsAfrica

and here:

www.euronews.com/green/2022/02/01/south-america-s-lithium-fields-reveal-the-dark-side-of-our-electric-future.

and here:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/08/cornish-lithium-secures-536m-to-open-first-mine-for-the-metal-in-britain#:~:text=Cornish%20Lithium%20is%20one%20of,the%20end%20of%20the%20decade.

Apologies for some reason I can't seem to hyperlink these.

As we now know (see page 1 of thread) there is far more damage from the mining of minerals once oil is brought into the equation. Batteries can be recycled and once on the road an electric car does not belch noxious fumes into the lungs of our children and grandchildren. I guess it depends on your priorities.

My daughter drove me to Devon for a wedding last year. We went in a totally electric car. A journey that should have taken just over 6 hours each way actually took 12+ hours each way. My daughter had steam coming out of her ears both ways.

The problem was mostly caused not being able to find charging machines that worked and didn't have a long queue. I think we do need to go electric but the facilities have to be there for long journeys like ours from Newcastle upon Tyne to South Devon.

Both my children and many of my friends/relatives are opting for an electric car once they need a replacement. We have a hybrid which is a delight to drive and so economical.

I have noticed that there are so many electric cars on the roads now, and Brighton is gradually supplying charging points to the entire city.

Roofs are sprouting solar panels like mad.

People - in particular the younger demographic as opposed to the older - more set in their ways- are embracing the future with enthusiasm.

We couldn’t afford one even if we wanted one. Still driving our petrol Peugeot 107 which is 18 years old.