ICE powering wheels is great as is the ease of filling, the infrastructure has been nailed for it of course after decades of investment, I tow a fair bit so the range bit is important as whether I'm pulling the race car or mobile house you'll loose 50% on on EV, so they need far greater efficiency or even bigger batteries, hence the PHEV, gives EV for the small local stuff and a proper engine for the other stuff as I'm not waiting over a hour for a 100% top up after driving 80-90miles. An EV with about 400 miles range would work nice I reckon and I do have an order in for a Fisker but the paltry 1800kg tow rate limits our options and who knows when the big battery version of that will hit the UK. At the moment though we are seriously considering a far cheaper EV and a motorhome that tows as the alternative as when I do races, I sleep in a tent as I can't tow two things, though I haven't tried, I'm sure there are train laws , much rather have some motorhome comfort like the big boys do. Anyway, good luck with your sale, I'd be hitting up family and friends if its a good motor, people are always struggling to find a good car and I'm sure they'd rather buy a known car.
I've always considered this but the fossil fuel funded newspapers have shoved "range anxiety" down everyone's throats to the point that manufacturers can't sell a car unless it can touch Luxembourg without stopping. I expect this will change once EVs mature more and people start to see sense, that or the 800v charging will knock that thought from their heads.
/me points at the Mercedes EQXX, an electric concept car that drove from Stuttgart to Silverstone on a single charge. And has since gone on to do 1200km in one go!
I'm not sure that's the only reason - looked at a Mini E for Mrs - small battery, light weight, ~100 mile real world range. Perfect for 99% of her journeys. That pesky additional 1% is what causes the issue. And I don't think anyone really wants a car where there are caveats meaning they can always just hop in the car and go. As you say, really needs the charging infrastructure... I don't have range anxiety not because I can drive 500 miles on a tank, but because I know I'm never more than a few miles away from a 5-min "full charge", regardless of where I am in the country and whether I know the area or not.
Yes I understand, and it's the rapidly evolving charging infrastructure that's the sticking point. On the other hand, you need to fill up at a petrol station for the other 99% of your journeys so you can weigh off all that time against the 1% of them when you need to wait 30 minutes for a rapid charge at the services?
No, I don't need to fill anything on the overwhelming majority of my journeys, as a tank gives me dozens of short journeys. So I get to a 1/4 and then bear in mind that I'll fill up in the near future, whenever it's most convenient and I'm passing somewhere. I get what you're saying, but to me any 30 minute wait on what's already a longish journey is never convenient. It's not like I can just bank the time saved from the occasional fill-up and pull it out when I need it.
I'm inclined to agree - knowing an un-caveated rapid-charge point is there when and where I need it would be the thing that would alleviate range anxiety for me, and not the range itself. And we're still a long way from that, in my neck of the woods anyway :/
Like all the comments My experience with 60 miles range Nissan Leaf is that range anxiety is not a thing once I gotten used to the capability of the car. But charger anxiety is really a thing. Is it working? Is it occupied? where to find it? don't have range to go to plan D.... etc. That's why I had spend slightly more for a Tesla to replace our long range car. They always build chargers in groups, smallest group I've ever seen these days is 6 stalls. Combine with vertical integration into their sat-nav means it is a true jump-in-and-go-anywhere type experience. Until infrastructure improves by magnitudes, my previous 5 years driving Nissan Leaf on long trips taught me Tesla is the only EV that have a chance of hassle free charging experience. (of course, longer range EV may be different because charger search area could be bigger? Someone please chip in ) The Nissan Leaf is in my wife's name and everything, she drives it locally, she doesn't do roads she doesn't know, so range will never be an issue. By going fully electric on my car, we will never have to discuss whether I can use her car to save on commuting cost. It costs me ~£9 at today's £1.85 diesel prices for commute, whereas it only costs ~£1.50 with EV tariff (58 miles commute). Picking up the car on 3rd September, perfect for us when little one goes to school reception and wife needs a car everyday for school run. It marks the first time I no longer have option of driving EV to work. Before, I can "schedule" my EV uses with wife by try to move my office-time to be no-nursery days or when raining so they won't need car to go to outdoor activities.
Tesla's Supercharger network is the best in the business, as long as they are where you need them to be...
@wyx087 That is a nice Octavia, and I'd be interested if I had any money... My sister is similarly close to the new expanded London ULEZ, so went through this last summer. The Tiguan 2.0 TDi had to go as it wasn't compliant and they swapped it in for a T Roc 1.0L, which has worked really well for them on both local and long distance runs. It seems fine on the motorway apparently and they are pleased with it. The only EV I have been in was an i3 REx, and I thought it was incredibly spacious inside for its size and the acceleration was shocking, in a good way! We could do with a short range EV and long range car, but still have 2 sizes ICE vehicles at the moment. My car is bigger as I carry bulky stuff around for work and do the longer out of town journeys in it, so my wife's Mini could be an EV for most of what she does. I do agree that lengthening a long journey with an enforced stop could be frustrating when you just want to get there, but would probably stop for a break after 3 hours in all honesty. It's an interesting balance between a long range EV carting round an 'over specced battery' that is used for short runs and some long versus the more efficient small battery for short runs in a hybrid that then has ICE generation for longer runs. I know fossil fuels are polluting and bad, but lithium battery manufacture and its 'food miles' in the process aren't commendably green either. It' snot that clear cut as I see it. Hydrogen could be good in direct burn or fuel cell modes, but we need yet another infrastructure set to achieve this, never mind the difficulties of hydrogen extraction from water I saw a hybrid Passat a couple of years ago and that would have worked well for me as an estate car fan. This guy worked with boats, so needed to tow boats at work and also a caravan at the weekends. He said that he could get to work and back plus some urban pottering most days on battery only and was ready to tow or go further afield without any worry. I know that Fully Charged are dismissive of hybrids and say that we should be past them an onto battery only EV now, but that's a rather idealistic view IMHO. Tad's point about a definitely available and working decent charge point at a given place is central to the whole thing and would reduce range anxiety for many, we're not there yet as far as I can see.
15 of Tesla's 158 UK sites have been opened to all EVs, as part of an ongoing trial. In The Netherlands, they opened their entire network to any EV after a similar trial. EDIT - Meanwhile, MG just announced pricing for it's new MG4, starting at £25995 for a 51kWh battery car that has a WLTP range of 218 miles (270 if you go for a 64kWh battery instead).
I've got a plug-in hybrid, it's a company car so the reduced tax makes sense, it predates the ability to have a full EV on our scheme. I drive it the way it's meant to be driven, with lots of short journeys on electric plus occasional long journeys on petrol, and it works really well for me: If it was my own money, no way would I have anything other than a petrol engined car, it's still more than I would ever care to spend on a vehicle, and as you can see I don't do enough miles for the "fuel" saving to cover the shortfall. Saying that, it's a lovely thing to drive and if you care about performance that really helps close the gap, there's not much will do 0-60 in 5.5 and still return 85mpg.
No, I will never make up the delta between an EV/PHEV and an equivalent petrol, just doing it for wishy washy green reasons, local air quality etc. would take a decade for me on my mileage. Though with the days the car is sat on the drive it could be solar charging for a lot of the year. I do keep cars that long though so I might break even
I'm not sure many can make the outright TCO maths work, I certainly couldn't. Aside from "doing the right thing" though, I just can't be doing with cars breaking, and something about hearing an unusual squeak, grind or knock in a car stirs a combination of rage and anxiety deep within my soul, so a full EV is a big appeal there in there just being so much less to go wrong. A PHEV on the other hand is the opposite.
These engineering test beds have been around for along time on ICE, blimey the opel speedster managed 98mpg @ 140mph over 24 hours, 20 yrs ago, where's the production equivalent car today?
While we are sharing videos, here's a John O’Groats to Lands End 850 miles run in 15.5 hours, just 1.5 hours of charging. I think it's going to be about the same in ICE car taking slightly rush comfort stops into account. That averages to 12 min comfort stop every 2 hours. I can always do a deal for a Bit-techer if you really want it? Be warned, it's brown I didn't know they've opened entire network in Norway. That's excellent news for EV adoption. EDIT: not all chargers, looks like 2/3 in Norway on Tesla official website. But then, the other EV's have HUGE lead times. I also test drove Skoda Enyaq and Kia EV6, both have 10+ months lead time. And their top spec versions are similar price to Model Y (I placed order when it arrived in UK a few months ago, before the price increase). I could have saved a few grand for mid-level EV6. Ah well, I always wanted a Tesla. As long as I don't suffer the famous Tesla build quality issues, it should be a more pleasant car ownership experience. I hate car dealerships with a passion. Recent test drives have enforced that somewhat. On Total cost of ownership. I think it will work out looking at Model 3 prices. My original plan was to wait for second hand Model 3 to come below £20k. Well, cheapest is still over £30k right now, when brand new one is just over £40k. With public perception shifting towards EV's in next few years, prop up the demand, I think residual value for EV's will be better than ICE. Most other costs will be much cheaper. Except for insurance..............
That's going to sell well, I'm mean the 'cheap' Kia Niro I also have on order is £43k and can't see that if offers a great deal more, though it was hard enough getting the missus to consider a Kia, the MG..... well.....suit my tight arse pocket though so perhaps I won't give her the choice
