Electric cars are not the future.
The future is electric for the cars on our roads, but is the UK ready for such a major change?
At the risk of infuriating all you petrolheads out there, let’s just get it out there – electric cars are the future.
No, they are not. They are heavy, polluting and the technology and infrastructure cannot cope. Willing something to be so won’t make it happen.
They are clean, quiet, fun to drive and help us tackle the biggest challenge of our era, climate change.
Bullshit. They are not clean. They are the opposite of clean. They are, cradle to grave, at least as – if not more – polluting than an ICE vehicle. The claim that they are clean is a big fat hairy lie. As for fun to drive, I’ve ridden (albeit small) electric bikes. Nope. I prefer the feel of an internal combustion engine that has a soul to these clinical pieces of junk.
And as for climate change – go change the record. We don’t have a crisis. Only deluded fools and the charlatans who fool them are claiming that we do.
I will never buy a milk float. Never.
“They are clean, quiet, ”
Walking to get the paper Sunday morning, I was passed by the occasional car. ICE vehicles made a swish from the air and tyre noise, no perceptible engine noise at all. Then came the turbine shriek of an EV. Same air and tyre noise, but over it all was the whine of a high-speed gearbox and turbine fan cooler. Much like the old HS125’s mated with an angle-grinder.
The EV was the noisiest vehicle I met that day.
At least the just stop oil protesters let you through if you’re driving one.
I’ve considered buying an electric vehicle – but the environmental cost of producing is never going to be recovered during the low mileage I habitually achieve. So, for me, at my age, an EV car is an unclean option.
Electric cars turn vehicles from an exciting, involving experience into an appliance.
One pedal driving if you use regen braking. Driving will go from something I enjoy to a chore.
They are boring. In the event I ever have to buy one because there are no other options, I’ll treat it in the same way as I do phones. Cheapest one that fulfils my requirements. No blingy iPhone model or Samsung Galaxy whatever for £1500 with features I don’t use. I use a Motorola Defy. Robust, reliable, cheap.
Looks like I’ll be getting a Dacia.
I’m getting rid of my car next year and replacing it with a Moto Guzzi V7 Classic and Watsonian GP sidecar. Fuck electric vehicles.
You need one of these:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/789966645968803/?s=single_unit&__cft__%5B0%5D=AZX-fHjfKVvdZlmwL4vCBBW3GZu1Sezdy0aLEDEts6gHk9QwRQGyFkxVOXV9ng5ux3ok1oylLSdPBy06_B-rlu1MUuiMFJfLEQsTrERzuEomA-it6SP2wZf8zj1NrGmXjkCX324m9vXbBmH32FsWYugvxZBTM_WVifrt2fcO_kTPb7-vXdGL5cX0RTxOe-hiK26D8fiuODg_A5qNafLbxONZ&__tn__=H-R
“…but is the UK ready for such a major change?”
It’s not just that the vast majority of drivers don’t want one, the electrical grid would need massive upgrades to cope with the demand. The government have done nothing about this and are instead closing down reliable power sources and replacing them with unreliable wind and solar. Vast swathes of housing have no off street parking and so no way of charging one. Our local filling station is always busy as it has the cheapest fuel in the area, often you have to queue to fill up. There are eight pumps and, even after queueing, you are still in and out in ten minutes. If everyone went electric, EV charging stations would need hundreds of outlets in order to cope with demand. What about buses and trucks? Vehicles that will need batteries bigger than their payloads, they drive all day so the limited range of even the best electric cars wouldn’t be adequate. The same applies to farm machinery too.
So, to answer that particular question that would be a no then.
No surprise that that BBC piece is by the Beeb’s climate alarmist Justin Rowlatt.
Am I right in thinking that when the battery finally dies in an electric car and it can no longer be recharged that the entire car has to be scrapped? If so, then I can’t see the electric car second-hand market ever being as large as that for petrol cars. There will simply be far fewer second-hand electric cars around.
If next year’s incoming Labour government stick to the idiotic plan to ban all petrol vehicles in 2030 then I predict a massive surge in sales of petrol cars about five years from now, as many people will be buying a new petrol car just before the ban comes into force.
@ Simon Maxwell – I don’t think there is any technical reason that one has to be scrapped, it’s simply that the cost of a new battery pack will far exceed the value of an 8-10 year old EV. And that’s even if the manufacturer will still supply one. Have a look for “Geoff Buys Cars” on YouTube, and watch some of his recent videos about the residual values of EV’s.
Most current EV’s have the battery shell built into the vehicle chassis, so once the batteries dead, so is the car. It also means that a minor fender-bender will write of the car as the battery shell will be damaged.
“They are clean, quiet, fun to drive and…”
Highly inflammable.
In the review of this programme in today’s Mail it says that Rowlatt is a “Classic Car Enthusiast”, which seems extraordinary in view of his constant scaremongering about Climate Change…
@stonyground. I’ve seen posters telling me that there are now more charging points than petrol stations. In 24 hours a petrol station may be able to refuel hundreds of cars whereas 1 charging station may charge anything from 1 car (doesn’t specify whether public charging points or home installed) to less than 10.