According to Castrol's survey of 1000 consumers and fleet managers, the tipping point for the average U.S. buyer to jump into the EV pool is a vehicle that costs $36,000, has a range of 319 miles, and can charge in 30 minutes. All of these specs seem reasonable, although it'll probably be a few years before we see vehicles on the road that match these numbers—especially the price.
So about £27,000 in the UK, but to my mind there are still too many uncertainties with range and battery life and 30 minutes to recharge is still too slow. I like the idea of an electric car, but not the propaganda surrounding them.
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The first time we rented a hybrid was a bit embarrassing as we couldn’t get it to start. (It was on, and just waiting for the driver to press the accelerator.) This seems to me to be a very interesting concept as the internal combustion engine charges the battery thus delivering good mpg.
A motor car nutter around here bought a Nissan Leaf, which he always parked outside the church on a Sunday.
It didn't look so good after he mis-timed the corner and ran into a bollard...
I read somewhere that, always on the lookout for a new way to shift their product, the manufacturers noted that people had got wise to the fact that after so many miles, their shiny new shopping cart would need £7000 worth of new batteries. No problem, they said, we'll lease you the batteries so you aren't looking at a big bill, just lots and lots of small ones . . . .
Some manufacturers had a plan ten or so years ago, of easy-to-swap batteries.
The car would be driven to a special robotic station, probably on a normal garage forecourt, and have its battery pack replaced in just a few moments with a fully-charged one. So a bit like the lease plan mentioned above, you'd rent a battery pack, but in this case, just pay for the recharge.
Obviously this was too good an idea to make it into production, with different manufacturers squabbling about standardized pack sizes, etc., etc. It's a pity it didn't happen - I'd buy an electric car if it had effectively unlimited mileage with pack swaps taking no longer than a usual fill.
Timbotoo - yet we see many hybrids belting down the motorway at 80mph as if good mpg is the last thing they want.
Scrobs - not a car I'd buy, especially if they are attracted to bollards.
Jannie - battery life would bother me until these things become well known and the disasters are out of the way.
Ed - I was reading about that recently. A Chinese outfit may still be pushing the idea - I'm not sure.
Late to this, the EV will come of age, but that presumes certain problems are overcome, at the moment the battery takes up far to large a proportion of the total purchase costs considering the engineering has been established for a very long time.
The rare earths etc are only available from a couple of places on the planet, one is the Congo hardly a stable country and there is not enough to fulfill the eventual demand, unless another form of battery is developed there will be big problems down the line.
Apart from the other day to day shortcomings highlighted above, does anyone seriously believe that the current savings on fuel and the starving of the exchequer of fuel duty will remain as is, almost certainly everyone will pay by the mile, which will negate any savings the EV will give and make apart from pleasing the eco loons the whole switch over pointless, and yes in principal I would go electric but not now, despite now being the time when you can take advantage of the savings but gain little else.
Wiggia - yes the EV will come of age, but as you say the problems do seem to be formidable and sooner or later tax will have to be levied. I hope they will be more durable with fewer maintenance issues - we'll see.
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