"Green" policies are destroying this country

No. I mean overall. The full lifecycle from manufacture to destruction. EVs produce less emissions on the whole chain when compared to ICE. They are more expensive and it's a money grabbing exercise in a lot of cases to a) feed off the government grant tit and b) knowing those that will change to EV have a good financial backing to support it. The convenience bit I'm not sure where your coming from. Charging? If so, you are right. In every other metric though they are on par with ICE (driveability, cargo, comfort, size, etc). What are the other disadvantages though? Charging and price are the 2 main ones. What else?

Range is a big one.

It's kinda like saying "They're as good an option as ICEs, except they're significantly more expensive, their range is much smaller, and when the do reach range limitations there's nowhere to charge them and it would take an hour or more anyway. Other than that they're grand."

Nope. Are you ever not feed up being wrong?

Flexible supply means the end user is given non firm supply. That is, they are not guaranteed the full capacity they need 100% of the time.

They already get large energy users to shut off during low wind days to help the grid during the day. They just want to bake this into the regulations by offering non-firm power agreements.

The reason we have low night demand is because we have a small manufacturing base that can run 24/7. Other than that penalizing residential users for using during the day is a terrible idea. Most of us sleep at night so of course our usage is lower.

Honestly, it's crazy that we need to change our energy usage patterns so much because those running the show won't put the correct technological solutions in place. And all this because wind and solar is a **** power source with low capacity factors and reliability.

OK, range. In many cases, that's nothing to worry about. For the odd trip that would exceed range, you have to plan better. In reality, EVs are suitable for the vast majority of users. And even smaller, cheaper EVs with smaller ranges and batteries would do a huge amount of people too. Unless people are actually tracking their journeys over a period, they don't really know if range would be an issue or not. I do over 20k km a year, and the number of 100km+ journeys in that is miniscule. Any EV would do my daily trips. I know this cos I track the journeys with an app on the phone that starts recording and stops when in the car and connected to bluetooth. Until that point I'd have said no to an EV (I still say no to an EV for reasons other than range!) but once you see journeys in front of you, you can make more informed decisions. The key to EVs is charging at home. If you don't have that, then I'd say yer better off with ICE

The charging is a concern, in particular public charging. **** it, it's not a concern, it's a shambles! There is no public charging worth talking about. I wanted to put in some public charging in a place and the cost was well into 5 figures before even looking to get a charger. Anyway, unless you are home charging, you are at nothing with an EV as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't delay waiting for battery tech. They improve all the time. Your PC example is good but it doesn't stop people buying them knowing newer, better, faster tech is only a few months away. Live in the now :-) Not much can be done about electricity prices.

I mentioned it yesterday I think that there is a huge burden being placed on the grid with EVs, heat pumps, etc. And not near enough investment into the grid, plus Eirgrid have shown they don't deliver on previous promises. Plus more connections mean more power required without investing in the reliable power generators that are 100% needed.

The best solution for EVs is home charging, with solar/wind micro generation used to charge it. But that is big €€€€s then

Counter arguments, or contrarian arguments...

The scientific literature is full of counter arguments, where scientists exchange ideas based on research and proper scientific methodology

WUWT is a contrarian website run by so called 'sceptics' about the overwhelming consensus that is dominating climate science for the last half century.

Not scientific sceptics, as all scientists are supposed to be, but cynics. People who have decided that they don't believe that the planet is warming, and are looking for anything to justify that pre-existing belief.

None of WUWT's many predictions throughout the years have proven to be accurate. All they do is promote conspiracy and spread disinformation doubt and mistrust of science as a discipline, They are not a source of counter arguments. They are a source of 'talking points' that can be used in online debates to shut down meaningful discussion on what we should be doing to combat climate change.

Charging is not ideal right now, it is getting better.

When Petrol cars first arrived, there were very few petrol stations. With BEVs, most people would charge at home, so most people don't really need a good charging network most of the time. But the government, and the EU, are bringing in the infrastructure to support charging along the primary transport hubs. Rural charging networks will eventually catch up. It's just a matter of the market adapting. As petrol and diesel begin to age out of the national fleet, we'll begin see a shortage off petrol stations in these lower populated areas (and it coild happen sooner than people think)

Dumb question, but have they factored in that it's likely one ICE can outlast two EVs? (except on this dumb island where there's a race for newer models every year or 3)

Doubt it. I'd say it's on a per vehicle basis but I don't know

I have a 15 year old Fiesta going strong and my previous lasted 18 years, it probably would have gone longer if I wasn't offered 5k against a new one for a car that was probably worth €100 at most by then. There's no shortage of components for old school ICE vehicles. I don't know why you think it's not viable to repair them?

Go to any country outside of the EU or the USA and there's plenty of vehicles with 10+ years on the road. Heck, even eastern Europe and around the less affluent parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy etc are riddled with aging relics still functioning, but there's not many EVs about.

There seems to be a notion from their advocates, that ev's and electric components never fail.

In my experience, it is the suspension, drive train or sensors that need to be replaced or repaired, the engine itself is very rarely the actual problem.

That's a big change of tune

I'd disagree. I'd say most cars are traded in so people can have a newer fancier one on the driveway. The PCP model often times results in a car being traded for little or no outlay bar the monthly repayments carry on. Very few cars are scrapped and lets be honest, if they are they've served their purpose for many years. Many cars are <10 due to marketing, trade in values decreasing and the aforementioned pride of having a newer car in the drive. Plus you had the change in tax rates in 2007 which meant people (incorrectly I'll add) changed cars to avail of lower tax rates. Same happening now with grants and lower tax on EVs. You're car is 7 years old and a 3k fix seems excessive but then I don't know the mileage or the type of driving your car has had. My car is 11 years old and apart from brakes and discs, the only repair needed was for the steering pump. That could go on an EV too.

OK. You're right. I must have misunderstood the original post. I thought you meant people were scrapping cars to buy new. It's the dealers that are scrapping. Though a lot of cars not sold here are exported away out of the country to new lives elsewhere. Often eastern Europe and Africa. I never understood the reasoning of upgrading a car due to repair costs alone. It's nearly always cheaper to repair than trade. The longer you can get out of a car the better for your pocket, and dare I say the environment.

Tax used to be a reason to swap a car. Loads done it at the change to CO2 based. Point of order, the car tax has no bearing on the sale price. VAT and VRT are the hoors there.

Out my window here now I can see 8 cars. Only 3 are newer than 2015. Oldest is a 02 corolla. I thought the ratio would be more in favour of newer myself but the sample is small.