Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

[Taipan]

Loving the free solar charge! How long does that take for a full charge? Only fly in that ointment is your parents are relieved at being able to achieve a 120 mile journey! But I guess for most people its rare you have to such journeys, but it isa notable limitation in a c£30k car.

[wheelnut]

My mum was fretting they'd get stuck in traffic and run out of charge, I had to tell her the range goes UP when you're crawling at 15mph.

Excellent - I’ll just drive indefinitely at 15mph.

[Mr. Dazzle]

My mum was fretting they'd get stuck in traffic and run out of charge, I had to tell her the range goes UP when you're crawling at 15mph.

Excellent - I’ll just drive indefinitely at 15mph.

You often don't have a choice on the M25

[Mr. Dazzle]

Loving the free solar charge! How long does that take for a full charge? Only fly in that ointment is your parents are relieved at being able to achieve a 120 mile journey! But I guess for most people its rare you have to such journeys, but it isa notable limitation in a c£30k car.

It's hard to say how long it takes, 'cause they don't go 0-100%.....ever. Until this weekend . They plug it in and leave it plugged in when they're not using it around town, then the smart system on their house charges both their car and their house batteries depending on a number of priorities (which they've set in an app).

Either way, they've not bought electricity in a long time. They have gas heating and hot water though TBF, although they also have partial air source heating (only some rooms).

I wouldn''t say they were relieve really, surprised maybe. They bought the mini for everything-not-long-distance™, they never intended to drive here in it. They did, and it cost them half of what the Jag would have cost, so they'll do it every time in future. It'll cost even less if they bring an extension lead next time.

They'er talking about going to one car in future, they're musing on going EV only now which they wren't before

[Horse]

https://autos.yahoo.com/california-cops ... 00844.html

Another concern Crook has about Teslas, and EVs broadly, comes from an essential lesson he was taught in the police academy: “In a firefight, hide behind the engine block.” In a Tesla, there is no engine block, leaving officers without their preferred cover, he said.

[Cousin Jack]

https://autos.yahoo.com/california-cops ... 00844.html

Another concern Crook has about Teslas, and EVs broadly, comes from an essential lesson he was taught in the police academy: “In a firefight, hide behind the engine block.” In a Tesla, there is no engine block, leaving officers without their preferred cover, he said.

I am not sure that is a major concern in most* of the UK.

* Some inner city areas excepted.

[Mr. Dazzle]

They also don't have an exhaust pipe you can shove a potato up to make the engine explode

P.S. The police chief is called Cedric Crook

But there is an obvious option here: Don’t use a Tesla. The Fort Bragg Police Department told SFGate using a F-150 Lightning as a patrol vehicle makes a lot more sense.

In other news, water is wet.

[KungFooBob]

If you want an electric bike, your choice has been reduced... Energica have called in the administrators.

[Pirahna]

Tesla has reached peak Cybertruck

https://www.torquenews.com/11826/tesla- ... ist-9-days

[demographic]

Tesla has reached peak Cybertruck

https://www.torquenews.com/11826/tesla- ... ist-9-days

So it looks like loads of people who reserved one have declined when it came down to actually getting one.
Must be cos they've seen about all the quality issues.

[mangocrazy]

Tesla has reached peak Cybertruck

https://www.torquenews.com/11826/tesla- ... ist-9-days

So it looks like loads of people who reserved one have declined when it came down to actually vetting one.
Must be cos they've seen about all the quality issues.

Maybe they've had a moment of collective clarity and realised that it's an overpriced piece of shit.

[demographic]

Tesla has reached peak Cybertruck

https://www.torquenews.com/11826/tesla- ... ist-9-days

So it looks like loads of people who reserved one have declined when it came down to actually vetting one.
Must be cos they've seen about all the quality issues.

Maybe they've had a moment of collective clarity and realised that it's an overpriced piece of shit.

Aye, that as well.

[ZRX61]

Maybe they've had a moment of collective clarity and realised that it's an overpriced piece of shit.

Fridge-grade Stainless...

[Rockburner]

If you want an electric bike, your choice has been reduced... Energica have called in the administrators.

That's not good. Iirc they were one of the leading brands?

[Mr. Dazzle]

If you want an electric bike, your choice has been reduced... Energica have called in the administrators.

That's not good. Iirc they were one of the leading brands?

Also not a surprise.

'Big Bike' buyers are extremely conservative, they have been for decades. Even with ICE bikes you can see that. EV bikes of that nature are always going to be a stuggle.

Scooters and commuters are where the OEMs are focusing on electric bikes, as indeed they do with ICE! Our British market of 1000cc weekend bikes is a side show.

[mangocrazy]

To be fair, the only place where an EV would make good sense for our lifestyle would be in the south of France as a shopping trolley. We have solar panels on the roof and a garage, so installation of a charging point would be a doddle. But as we're only here 3-4 months of the year tops, and use a vehicle to drive down and back in, there's no compelling reason to get one.

And a very compelling reason not to - the price of the damn things...

[Taipan]

To be fair, the only place where an EV would make good sense for our lifestyle would be in the south of France as a shopping trolley. We have solar panels on the roof and a garage, so installation of a charging point would be a doddle. But as we're only here 3-4 months of the year tops, and use a vehicle to drive down and back in, there's no compelling reason to get one.

And a very compelling reason not to - the price of the damn things...

Same with the bikes. Look at the price of a Zero with anything near a usable range. VMotos Stash is looking like a better buy range wise? Crazy to think we cant get ebikes with a 100 mile motorway range. I thought this would have lept along by now?

[Rockburner]

To be fair, the only place where an EV would make good sense for our lifestyle would be in the south of France as a shopping trolley. We have solar panels on the roof and a garage, so installation of a charging point would be a doddle. But as we're only here 3-4 months of the year tops, and use a vehicle to drive down and back in, there's no compelling reason to get one.

And a very compelling reason not to - the price of the damn things...

Same with the bikes. Look at the price of a Zero with anything near a usable range. VMotos Stash is looking like a better buy range wise? Crazy to think we cant get ebikes with a 100 mile motorway range. I thought this would have lept along by now?

It's mostly an issue with balancing energy density and vehicle weight.

With current battery tech (albeit improving all the time), a bike that can do (say) 230 miles at 70-80mph (ie, in comparison with a modern litre IL4) would need to be physically larger than a Goldwing, and would weigh about 2-3 times as much as a Goldwing (and all that weight would lift the centre of mass to make it rather unwieldy).

(those are guesswork figures, but they should be ballpark accurate)

So - until the energy density of batteries increases four-fold (it may well happen), Electric bikes are only ever going to be small, low-range things.

[Mr. Dazzle]

S'also the fact bike manufacturers (or at least, the ones selling 20k superbikes) are sucking on the hind tit regarding battery tech.

Range is the big topic in EVs of course, regardless of any reality it's what people have in their mind front and centre as the biggest issue. Therefore every OEM is fighting to have the best battery tech and keep it away from the competition. Bike OEMs just don't have the financial clout or the market size for battery manufacturers to entertain them, whereas people like Porsche or Mercedes upgrade their batteries nearly every year.

[Whysub]

I keep hearing that nobody is buying EVs but theyre all over the bloody place round here, it's not an especially rich area but they're everywhere. Must be a lot of people getting em for free then.

I'm working all over the (large) county and a bit of southwest Scotland and it's the same all over the area I cover.
Didn't Couch reckon he didn't see them about a while ago? I might be wrong on this but despite his company fitting the chargers IIRC?

I see very few EV's here in sunny Spain, and when I see one (most often Tesla's) they are on foreign plates.

The large DIY store near me has 16 EV charging points, and I have only ever seen one car charging there. It is always empty.

I do see a lot of hybrids though, and not the ones that need charging.

Not sure how much a solar install for charging would cost, but I have seen the electric charging points offered by a big DIY store cost around €4,000 fitted. Add that to the price of an EV, such as the MG, and its prohibitive for those, like me, who do only a couple of thousand miles per year.

As for bikes, I had a Zero DSR on test, and it barely made the 60 mile run into work (A120, M11, A406, a13) on a full charge. I have just ridden back from Portugal. 780kms (485 miles), 94kph (58 mph) average speed and at 74mpg. Took 8¼ hours. How long would it take on a Zero, even if there was a charging point everywhere I needed to charge?

And I have owned an electric Lifan scooter.

Screenshot_20241016_140923_Photos.jpg (148.16 KiB) Viewed 653 times

It was fine for local journies on the flat, but not so good on hills where it struggled a bit. Charging it was cheap on the overnight rate, but I did suffer from range anxiety every ride though.