Anti EV Nonsense

IMHO, I'd be inclined to steer well clear of the entire lot of these e-vehicles.

However, I can obviously see that huge numbers of people are piling into the e-vehicle market.

Is it just me or does anybody else find that there isn't any real gain in buying these electric-only vehicles, PHEVs or non-pluggable hybrid vehicles?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the realities of electric vehicles, please.

Regarding a PHEV exclusively, I ain't sure if the amount of energy the liquid-fuelled engine expends in haulin' around a rock-heavy battery when in "fossil fuel only" mode is actually offset by the amount of energy outputted by the battery when subsequently changing over to "electric only" mode. Furthermore, the battery has to lug the weight of the engine when in "electric only" mode. So, unlike a fossil-only vehicle or an electric-only vehicle, which has to lug around people, pets, luggage, the interior, the chassis, the bodywork and not much else, not only do BOTH types of hybrid vehicles (plug or no plug) have to transport all of the aforementioned, these vehicles additionally have to haul the either battery when in hydrocarbon mode or the engine when in electric mode. How pointless is that?

This is not to mention that it takes quite a serious amount o' grid electricity to recharge the batt. in a hybrid vehicle in the first place. On top of this, electricity ain't free-of-charge (excuse the pun). You've gotta pay financially for both the liquid hydrocarbon fuel AND ALSO the electricity to power a PHEV. That said, non-pluggable hybrid vehicles obviously don't require that on-the-double financial outlay. So draining neither grid power nor the utility bill ain't a problem for non-pluggable vehicles. Of course, this is not to mention that both the PHEVs and the non-pluggable hybrids are far costlier to buy than a fossil-frugal car such as the Kia Picanto, the Toyota Aygo, the Dacia Sandero or the Suzuki Ignis.

If anythin' at all goes funny with the electric power system on the vehicle, only the dealership can rectify the issue with specialist high-tech stuff and a home mechanic or your local garage mechanic simply won't be able to help ya. On the other hand, these vehicles don't need any regular mechanical maintenance or replacement parts, such as anything from oil changes to blown-exhaust replacements. That said, I haven't seen much clarifying info on how many years do the batteries actually last in the vehicle before they need to be recycled. What's often not mentioned is how pricey it really is for a brand-new battery. I ain't certain myself, but it wouldn't be far off the cost of a full engine rebuild for a petrol/diesel car.

I dunno, but there seems to be loads o' confusing information on how far these vehicles can be driven on electric power alone. It looks like the mileage capacity in all reality ain't as good as true-blue internal-combustion engines, from what I've read and heard at least.

That is all besides the "ancillary support services" side of the energy equation. What I mean by that is the energy and financial resources used by the infrastructure that enables these vehicles to be viable in the first place. I literally dunno how much extra electric-grid power do the recycling firms use up in order for them to run the machine-operated processes needed to recycle/repurpose the batteries plus how much extra electricity are PHEVs and electric-only vehicles using off of the power grid. I have not seen any info on whether the owner of the e-vehicle has to financially pay for recycling/repurposing the worn-out battery.

Of course, there are various environmental-impact factors, such as how many years of lithium does this planet have left going in the face of the ever-increasing sales of these vehicles (lithium is like coal, oil and gas - once it is, it is gone forever), if the power plugs for these vehicles are getting their juice from fossil fuels or not, what chemical reactions happen deep inside the landfill when the batteries eventually have to be dumped, how much landfill space will it take up to send the batteries into oblivion and probably a whole ton of other things I can't have thought of. I dunno all that much about the environmental side of things, 'cos I've primarily been concentrating about the energy and financial sides to these vehicles.

All in all, these vehicles seem to use up more energy resources and financial capital than they appear to conserve.

One oft-overlooked aspect of the zero-fossil mentality, is that there are exactly zero prototypes of all-electric versions of heavy moving machines. I think that the prospect of running a JCB on a battery sounds utterly laughable.

I'd say that these e-vehicles will be viewed as red herrings in due course and be forgotten about, just like vehicles powered by LPG and hydrogen (remember them?). However, there will be a long way to go before the e-vehicle bubble bursts, because of the astronomical amount of media and manufacturer hype surrounding these fads.

So, what do you all think? I'm very eager to find out if there are any true benefits to electric vehicles.

This nation needs an expansive rail network (not just passenger, but commercial also) in order for us to be able to continue to get around very far into the future.

We ought to use only city cars and buses (electric-powered or diesel-powered), motorbikes, trikes and heavy-goods vehicles (electric-powered or diesel-powered) on the nation's roads that are dual-carriageways and motorways. In villages, towns and cities, we can use all of the aforementioned modes of transport, in addition to e-scooters, e-bicycles and good ol' pedal-power bicycles.

SUVs, PHEVs and other gas-guzzlers are unsustainable modes of transport. They were developed under the auspices of an affordable-oil and abundant-oil economy. They are transient technologies, unlike rail transport, which has been tried and tested for well over 150 years.

I am sorry; I should have entitled this message forum "e-vehicles are a farce, yet trains are fantastic". Thank you for your reply!

I, myself, don't like the idea of these computerised robots. They will banjax the World Wide Web unless whoever is in charge of them turns them off for good. That'd also save a fair bit o' the electric power consumption, when people are trying to stay warm and well, per the announcements on RTE Radio 1 which I've been hearin' all day during the breaks on Joe Duffy's Liveline.

No, I am not a young 'un. You've gotten that wrong, m'lad. I was taught growing up that things aren't always as they appear. I don't like those time-wasting and power-hungry electronic video games. 'Tis sad to see so many young poeople wasting their good lives upon a television screen. I don't watch TV anymore, since about the time Pat Kenny walked off of RTE 1 and right into Newstalk. The radio is way better than the TV (that always was true, indeed and it is even more true nowadays).