Are EVs really the answer in the future? I do not think so.

[Avulon]

Originally Posted by guru

Using a super cheap overnight tarif and taking advantage of the free charging points provided by Norfolk county council we should see that drop to around £5 a week in electricity, possibly saving £70 a week in fuel alone.

We'll be using one of our other cars for long distances although we'll probably take the ZS EV on the Norwich to Bath run to see that family as there's plenty of 50kw fast chargers en-route and having 2 children we tend to make a couple of half hour stops anyway so it won't really be much of an inconvenience.

I'll echo Johns sceptism on the 'free' charging points - I don't think they'll last long, and it's already clear that charging at points without having a subscription is going to start to cost upwards of 3 times what household power does: a quick calculation using 'Paid' ionity chargers without subscription revealed a 160mile range on £60 ish worth of charging.



Interesting that you don't seem to mind adding over 20% journey time to your long journeys (at the cost of shortening the battery life to your EV as well). Although you say that you'll prefer the ICE cars over EV for long distance.


Unimaginable I know to some proponents of the EV strategy - some people do actually travel lengthy distances in short periods of time quite regularly using personal transport. Currently it's not difficult for me to drive/ride to the NEC for an expo arriving at 8:30am and leaving at 5:00pm - and make it home with no need for refueling (recharging). Under EV plans almost every parking space in the country, including every street parking space is going to need a Charger device stood there: because everytime you stop you are going to have to plug it in. Has anyone asked what the pollution and carbon footprint of one of those is?



Don't get me wrong - EV cars are going to be really useful tools for commuting (for those in easy range of work) if pricing/charging etc can be worked out to be reasonable. However as distance transport they are a non-starter, and public transport is even worse especially for middle distances and less popular or remote locations.


Where EV vehicles will really let everyone down is in emergency situations.