Increase in Anti-EV Media Articles

Meant to come back to this. I see both shops advertising their chargers. On reflection I think all my local ones have chargers. Though I've never used them. Easy go I think. While I never use a local one. I can see the value in knowing a chain of shops is likely to have a charger wherever you go. Obviously handy for people without home charger.

It's overreaching and embarrassing to think that's a useful comparison....

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/06/01/from-dublin-to-mayo-will-my-ev-get-me-to-the-church-on-time-for-a-family-wedding/

Not anti Ev but definitely an article that wouldnt even be news if there wasnt a concern that Evs are a pain in the hole to charge/ not news if the country had ample chargers in more remote locations - charging anxiety now replacing range anxiety.

Summary, Irish times correspondent owns an Ev, lives in a terrace house so "can only dream of the luxury of a dedicated parking space to charge my car at discounted night-time rates", and has a wedding in Mayo to go to. Charging the car to 100% before the journey is not simple but with effort and luck it is almost managed and they also get lucky with chargers on the way there and back so in the end all is good, albeit a lot of time and effort spent on the phone looking for chargers and alternatives. Ironically a green party Ev is blocking (perfectly legally of course) one of the potential charge points!

In the end, its a fuel cost of about €75 rather than €100 for an ICE so as a reader you are left wondering if its worth the hassle and anxiety, the correspondents view is improvements in charging infrastructure is the only way to meet the governments targets on Ev uptake

Tangent…. some Ev heads get insanely annoyed at anyone who says they are "privileged" to have a driveway, maybe "luxury" of a driveway as used in the above article would be ok phraseology

I can't read the article and I don't know what part of mayo he was going to or what part of Dublin he's starting in

I drove Dublin to knock airport last weekend, total charging time 20 mins in Charlestown so had enough to get back.

Last year I drove Dublin to Westport for a Tommy tiernan show and can't remember charging time, but it was minimal and we eat at same time as charging.

At no stage was I anxious, worried or anything like that.

I know it's a 60 to 70k car or whatever it costs, but the new BMW 3 series reaffirmed my belief that PHEVs are a big part of the future, it may require a policy shift but a 100km range from battery and ICE engine is not to be sniffed at.

I'm fully EV, 2 of them outside and not an engine in sight but I do think to win people over to driving on battery power, a 100km PHEV is a tempting proposition.

I also don't think it would be that expensive to put the 20kwh battery into cheaper, more mainstream cars.

Plenty of people with driveways refuse to entertain the idea of EV, it's not just those without.

What's the end objective of adding 20kwh to cars.

More journeys done on battery. Like it or not, a big majority don't have the same mindset as us, some people will never go full EV until there's 1000km range and fast charging as easy as filling with petrol. Which means massive batteries of newer technology, costs on buying cars and costs of providing infrastructure.

Doesn't solve for the drivewayless amongst us but would solve for anti EV

I had a shorter range phev before EV and with 100kms real world range, I'd do it again if I liked the car and price was right.

Yeah and I think the future will be a 'hybrid', pardon the pun of EVs and PHEVs.

Hard to foretell human behaviour but if electricity is substantially cheaper per km driven than petrol, you'd like to think people will go to the effort of plugging in. But then again, maybe not.

I had phev 530e but it was the original one from 2017/18 and the range just wasn't good enough, for me, on electric, and I like driving on electric but I was 50/50 electric/petrol and constantly trying to eek out range. I wouldn't be doing that with anything approaching 80kms real world most days. I couldn't ever see myself charging on long drives though which I suppose is a drawback.

Nothing perfect, eh!

But personally, I'm happy with ev. The biggest advantage for me is no engine or gearbox to worry about to be honest

most people do precisely that. Short journeys together with occasional long journeys, the exactly use case where PHEVs excel.

its far cheaper to plug in the PHEV than run it on petrol and if someone wants to run it on petrol all the time and pay for the privilege, so what.

Interesting and probably true; however not a good thing really if it is true.

Anyway - having observed the consistency of anti-cycling and in particular anti-cyclist articles over the past 10/15 years across all mediums of media, I can merely say 'Welcome to the Club'.

The most benign spin you can put on it is that its part of some culture war, what part I dont understand.

But the fact is that most print media and day time radio is consumed by an older, conservative demographic who like their old ways; and they sure dont like cyclists. Newspapers can be 'voice of record' in theory, but they aint gonna cross those punters.

Some owner reviews of the e-power really liked them. A large i3 Rex seating 5+ might tick a lot of boxes for people.

That you jump straight to "green lobby" speaks volumes.

Its pointless to carry the extra weight and complexity of hybrid drive train if people don't plug it in. They'd get better mpg (and all the other stuff) without it. Just buy a non hybrid ICE. It's just physics. They are generally paying more for a less economical vehicle, if they don't (or rarely) plug it in. They certainly aren't recovering the extra cost by cheap electricity if they don't plug it in.

Likewise I doubt the fuel saving on filling up in a garage on occasional long trips vs the cost of public charging really offsets the extra costs of the PHEV, unless you are doing a lot of long distance driving and public charging.

But then if you are doing a lot of long distance driving and public charging, a non hybrid diesel makes more sense. Whereas if the vast majority of your driving is home charged then a BEV makes more sense.

Likewise any fringe cases like towing or 4x4 use just get the ICE. If someone says they are happy to pay more to have the PHEV and no range anxiety, I get that. Or just like driving a hybrid.or actually plug it in a lot..

But the govt is not penalising anyone from having a diesel or petrol so theres no requirement to have a hybrid over a non hybrid. It's still 2008 in that regard.