Getting out of electric

Buddy of mine couldn't believe I drove over 3 and half hours on the motorway with a bit of a slow down near my destination in a M3 RWD, he's not anti-electric per se but just repeats th usual FUD you hear on Newstalk or the pub..

So many of these charging stories makes no sense.

I think the problem is with all the FUD its still a problem for depreciation…and people just get tired of hearing it over and over.

I’d wager that many here would not have entertained changing to EV if they were paying less than 70c per ltr of petrol.

The US is a very different kettle of fish though. EV sales over there are on an upward trajectory with June breaking the record for most EV's sold in a month. So while the momentum has slowed a wee bit sales are still increasing unlike here.

Can't say I've many 300k trips on the spur of the moment with a car full off kids who were happy to do that non stop. Not sure my ICE petrol would do that on half a tank either.

A recent poll I saw showed that 98% of people will stick to EVs, so yeah they are in the 2% who will make the headlines

Considering almost every town and village in the country now have much better charging infrastructure than even one year ago it is interesting that they recently changed back to ICE cars. Sounds like they'll be back in a few years time when all the petrol/diesel stations close because of the 2035 ICE ban.

But on a more positive note, the recent carbon reduction report is great news. And EV has played it's part.

And here I was thinking the government actively made us buy diesels not so long ago. But I must remember that wrong, surely we are all just idiots.

Electric cars are bland and boring pcp muck.

One car I have is a straight 6 and we did a lot of work on it lately including treating her to a new exhaust and camshaft kit and the sound even when idle is just beautiful. Get her up to 6 /7,000 and she's screaming lovely.

You're not wrong. But changing the road tax on existing vehicles would require re-testing emissions on every diesel car in the country resulting in a myriad of changes with even the same cars having different road tax rates. Never mind the uproar it would cause. And new cars having properly tested emissions are still benefitting from the emissions based road tax regime.

So it's been left sit for the upcoming ban will deal with it. Less and less diesel models hitting the showrooms even now. Somebody asked on the motors thread about the new BMW 5 series touring model being launched here in diesel and it was confirmed that it wouldn't come here or the UK.

Yes even with EV sales down 25% there's still another 10,000 added in the first half of the year (14% of 75,719) displacing what would have been ICE cars, which will all help with the carbon reductions in transport.

As long as the overall trend doesn't eventually reduce the countries physical numbers in the EV fleet we are doing well. Hopefully the policy of the next government is more EV friendly which will help things along as well

I know my older ICE (petrol) won't. It doesn't get close to the official figures.

Not entirely sure why you're limiting yourself to 50kw charger. I assume you have to pass faster chargers on a 270km journey. Or why use a granny charger or charging when cold. Because your stopping at the start, why not stop later.

I think you're creating challenges that are easily avoided.

Granted not an EV, my neighbour traded in his 12 month old plug-in hybrid Skoda for a diesel Skoda. He does a lot of mileage and claimed the hybrid was costing him a fortune in fuel. Most of his driving would be on 100kph national roads when the electric motor would not be used. I can only imagine the petrol engine in the hybrid was guzzling juice.

If I hadn't one already I'd be tempted to make him an offer for his unused zappi 😁

I should have said it wasn't a new diesel, possibly 6 months old at the time iirc so the hit I'd imagine wouldn't have been as bad.

Either way I personally think a 77kWh EV would have done the job just as well as the diesel. While he does high mileage, all his charging could have been done at home saving him even more than he is supposedly saving now.

The ironic thing is the diesel went back in for work to be done and he was in turn given a Fabia for the month the Octavia was away.

I have an ESB fast charger 5 minutes from my house. If I am to go on a 270km Journey with 60% battery, I wouldn't even consider stopping at the local fast charger even though I pass right by it on any long journey. That would be crazy. I don't know what car you have, but you mention 50kWh battery, so I will assume around 400km range. This would be similar to me. So with 60% charge, I would want to be comfortable and leave a good 10% buffer, leaving me 200km of travel distance. I would only charge in the last 50km unless there was good reason to charge within the last 100km. Surely it makes to travel at least 100km, to 150km before stopping for a charge, which will be faster because the battery is warm and closer to empty. I would only use the near charger if I was in a 24kWh Leaf and even then it would depend on the journey.

Likewise, I wouldn't stop at the same nearby fuel station in a petrol car. One of my recent petrol cars was a Mitsubishi FTO. Funnily enough, it used to get about 400km to a full tank, so similar to my EV. That's around 40km per 10%, so 10km shy of 270km with 60% tank.

Granny charger gives the car at least 2kW/h. With a 50kWh battery, 2kWh is 4% minimum. I agree though it's not exactly a viable way to charge if you need a fast top-up.

I disagree with your last statement of the required number of DC fast chargers simply because the vast, vast amount of EV owners will almost never need to use a DC fast charger. Even if we had as many EVs as ICE cars on the road, the demand for DC chargers would be a mere fraction of the ICE demand due to the fact that the charging will be done at home in nearly all cases. We do need to see greater access to home charging for those without a driveway though.

While I loved my FTO Mivec the most of all my ICE cars, including the sound of the custom quad exhaust both idling and at 6700rpm when the Mivec was belting out wondrous notes that made me smile from ear to ear…I enjoyed equally, though differently the drive in my first 24kWh Leaf. It was like driving a bumper car and I loved it. Fast forward to the torque of my Model 3 and I can't agree with your statement at all, as much as I understand the point you're trying to make. Plenty of boring ICE cars out there too. Apples and Oranges.

Nobody really believed Diesel was clean. But hey, the chape tax turned many eyes. A complete joke then and still is now.