A timely update Ron, as it was announced yesterday that the UK say that by 2035 fossil fuel cars will be banned in the UK. One of the Scandinavian countries is apparently doing this in the next 5 years! Maybe it's my lack of imagination or something but I just can't visualise electric articulated lorries and shipping. And aviation doesn't bear thinking about - imagine hearing this on the intercom "please fasten your seat belts, we have blown a fuse!"
I don't think they've really run the numbers Nass - you would need a phenomenal amount of electricity if everyone switched to electrical cars.
It’s not that big a number actually, and the ability to store electricity in cars is actually a potential advantage for the National Grid. There was a story about it being a potential solution to Porto Santo energy needs, and you could see similar functionality of electric storage in the UK.
We could all be "gorn" in 30 years. We could all be wiped out by those giant hemorrhoid bombardments from far flung, outer space by then.
If Boris has his way we will not have anything but electric in fifteen years. I am sure that Saint Greta would rather we went all electric this year. The tree huggers want everyone out of diesel/petrol and into electric because they are as ignorant as most of the great unwashed. If the electricity in the country where the electric car is being driven comes from coal-fired power stations (e.g. China) then recharging them is hardly carbon neutral. The biggest cost issue with electric cars is the batteries. Whilst Lith-ion technology is always improving, mining lithium is hardly environmentally friendly and the batteries also use other not so environmentally friendly resources such as cobalt. As lithium becomes harder and harder to mine, costs will rise; therefore, car batteries will become more expensive. Most of the known large reserves of lithium are in South America and Western Australia. At the moment, I believe that replacing the battery in one of the existing range of electric cars costs about £6,000. Not sure how many times you can recharge a battery before it has to be replaced but if you are a heavy car user you are going to get to that point much quicker. Tesla warrant their batteries for 8 years but that will be for defects not wear-and-tear. If you were looking to sell a second-hand electric car, buyers might be more interested in your mileage than your service history. No-one wants to buy a car and find the battery needs replacing a week later – I had that with my first petrol car!
Agree QM. Technology still in its infancy and who knows where it will go from here and in what timeframe. The main reason we leased a hybrid. If I were to buy, I think it would be a 2 year old low mileage petrol car (ie with the guarantee still intact and the tax element already discounted)
https://www.whatcar.com/advice/buying/tell-me-more-about-electric-car-batteries/n19062 Interesting article about batteries and their costs. I’ve driven a couple of electric cars at work and for me they are impressive but I don’t think they are the full solution. As stated the creation of batteries come at a cost to the earth and whilst we in the UK can rely on wind power others are still going to use coal.
I normally drive an Audi and the cost of a hybrid was nearly double the price of the model I normally buy. In the end I ditched the Audi and went for a Skoda, same car half the price.
Seriously it’s got so much tech I can’t believe it. I’m gonna crash soon I’m getting so lazy front and rear cameras blind spot alerts WiFi 10k hard drive all hands free.
Update Well our contract was for 45,000 km over 3 years but we were at 60,000 after 30 months. Not that it seemed to matter, nor the fact that one of the puppies had chawed the handbrake. Amanda got us a deal on a bigger new model which is very nice and has everything we need, albeit more expensive. We still have no control over when it switches to electric mode but it is a new design which is more cost effective on fuel But the purpose of the update is to confirm our view that we would never buy another car. The technology is moving so fast that it does not seem to be a good idea to be stuck owning a car that nobody would want to buy in 3 years' time. So it's leasing from now on End of experiment
There does seem to be a continuing trend towards leasing cars rather than buying them. The auto industry love it because it gives them a continuous revenue stream rather than having to hope that people will trade in the car they bought new after three years to avoid having to MOT it every year. Car dealers hate people like me that keep the car for a decade because it has been reliable (only in the garage for servicing and MOTs), cannot depreciate much more every year because it is hardly worth anything; and hardly does any mileage anyway. I know a few people who lease petrol cars and get a new one every couple of years but I am not sure that they are on such a good deal because they are not factoring in that always having a virtually new car is keeping their insurance premiums higher and they are tied to the dealership for servicing etc. rather than being able to take it to the local garage that will save money by not using the official brand spark plugs or oil. Plus they get penalised for exceeding the mileage in their rental agreements as it reduces the second-hand value when they exchange it. As you say, with electric/hybrid cars the technology is advancing all the time so it is quite conceivable that the resell value of a car could deteriorate much more rapidly if nobody wants the ‘old’ ones. We know that a petrol car loses virtually half its value as soon as you drive it off the dealership forecourt but depreciation after that is more based on factors such as mileage and mechanical state rather than obsolescence. I think the biggest factor with electric/hybrid cars will quickly become the batteries as they are the most expensive single part of the vehicle and the area that is seeing the most advancement (quite a bit of research being done in this country).
Yes, that is why we lease QM. We don't have to worry about batteries, nor servicing costs and breakdowns (auto car replacement for breakdowns). No worries about selling and a new car every 2 years. The better a car holds it's value, the lower the leasing cost. Generally, the newer hybrid cars have newer technology and are more economical, so there are savings there to offset against any additional costs of trading up; They tend to overlook the excess mileage charge when trading up
Hi Ron. Reading your original Post , I smiled to see you thought 420 Euros/250 Euros Excess was a good insurance deal. Three years ago, I was paying £250 per year with £50 compulsory excess for my Audi A4 - the most I’d ever paid. Then it suddenly jumped to £370 (same excess) and is now £420. I consider I’ve been ripped off and , despite the government saying they would investigate the large rise in insurance premiums - insurance companies unethically top-loading repair costs to one another- nothing has been done. Sadly, despite its demand, the motor car is the worst investment a person can make, and we’ve all been taken to the cleaners for years- in every aspect of that chunk of tin. Also, the electric car will be the ‘piece de resistance’ of con tricks. Capital cost..ridiculous. Battery replacement cost ..insulting. Recharge stations...laughable. Distinct advantage of maintenance now immaterial, given modern IC engine reliability. When the future brouhaha has subsided and men get livid about paying 40-50 grand for his wife to run about town, then perhaps they’ll see sense and buy her a decent , second hand golf buggy with all-weather canopy, road lighting and plates- for about 2 grand. That should certainly get her to Asda- and offset the divorce costs!
The excess only applies if it's our fault and it is any driver. I'm with Aviva and get the maximum reduction due to history, multi car plus health insurance top up. Do you think I'm being ripped off Tam? It will be interesting how much they sting me for with the new car then
