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

[Mr. Dazzle]

Hold my hand up I’ve always thought that electric was far more expensive so either prices new weren’t as high as I thought or second hand values crash.

Bit of both. Second hand values did used to fall a lot more quickly but the depreciation is significantly less than is understood/reported by most outlets. Things like the Taycan are still comedy, but have you looked at how much a £100k V8 Porsche saloon depreciates by?

I've just looked, a BMW i4 is 51-75k RRP whereas an ICE 4 series is 45-61k, so the EV is still a bit more.

On the cheaper end, the aforementioned Renault 5 starts at 22k. A petrol Mini starts at 25k.

[Taipan]

I’m sort of looking for a second hand car, maybe a year or 2 old and I’m really surprised that the price difference between electric and petrol is practically negligible. I could get a decent electric for the same price as petrol.

Hold my hand up I’ve always thought that electric was far more expensive so either prices new weren’t as high as I thought or second hand values crash.

I think what happened was EVs were sort of pushed on people when the infrastructure wasnt there. We all saw the queues for chargers at Xmas etc, and it made EVs a bit of a joke! Then the finance/pcp agreements ended and EVs hit the s/hand market but buyers had been put off. Now the infrastructure is much better I think things have levelled out quite a bit. Range anxiety isnt the issue it once was now. If I use the sat nav in my car it will factor in charge points if the journey is longer than the current battery range. It'll also give you alternative charger locations should the intended ones be full.

Depreciation is crazy on some of them, notably the Taycan. You could get £70k off the new price tag at one point! But again I think thats slowing now?

They take some getting used to for sure, but mine has won me over now. Using Intelligent Octopus Go is amazing. I just plug mine in and forget about it. Octopus take over the car and charge it in packets at 7p per Kwh and that can be at anytime of the day despite saying its only between 23:30 - 05:30. Servicing costs are almost non existent compared to ICE vehicles. My car is a toy really as i commute by bike and the wifes car is the daily driver, but since getting the EV i've found we're using it a lot more than we did compared to my previous car?

[MrLongbeard]

I think what happened was.....

In addition the second hand car market has gone nuts, since around covid times, and hasn't come back down to previous price points

[Taipan]

[Count Steer]

One of the funniest things about it all is that us boomers have lived through, enjoyed and, possibly,made £careers from loads of changes/advancements.

Yet, suddenly, (is there a specific age?) some of us become hydrocarbon evangelists. 'Changes? Affecting me? We'll be having none of that stuff here thank you very much'.

(Then they go off to search the internets, using their iPads and iPhones, for 2p off Complan and 4p a year off their energy bill ).

[Mr. Dazzle]

They're just salty over all the bank tellers, shop clerks and elevator operators who are no longer employed.

[Saga Lout]

One of the funniest things about it all is that us boomers have lived through, enjoyed and, possibly,made £careers from loads of changes/advancements.

Yet, suddenly, (is there a specific age?) some of us become hydrocarbon evangelists. 'Changes? Affecting me? We'll be having none of that stuff here thank you very much'.

(Then they go off to search the internets, using their iPads and iPhones, for 2p off Complan and 4p a year off their energy bill ).

Most of us, OK, some of us*, aren't against change. What we're against is change that's forced on us. People looked at iPhones or iPads and decided they were better than what came before and flocked to buy them. But some of us thought the old flip phones or Nokias were better and we stuck with them until something better (Android ) came along. I don't think anybody would seriously suggest that governments should have mandated iPhones because they were so much better than Nokias.

When I could see an advantage in having a smart phone, I bought one. When I can see an advantage in having an EV (or its successor) I'll buy one. Until then, my petrol sipping ICE car suits me just fine.


* Or maybe it's just me.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Funny thing is, noone is forcing anyone to buy an EV. They're banning the sale of vehicles which emit CO2 at the tailpipe. Totally free to buy a hydrogen powered car, or steam powered which runs on ammonia fuel (might have to check that one ) or flintstones pedal powered.

[Saga Lout]

Funny thing is, noone is forcing anyone to buy an EV...

But they ARE stopping manufacturers making vehicles people want. They ARE forcing dealers to sell an increasing number of vehicles people don't want. The question remains: if EVs are so good, why can't they sell on their merits?

[Count Steer]

Funny thing is, noone is forcing anyone to buy an EV. They're banning the sale of vehicles which emit CO2 at the tailpipe. Totally free to buy a hydrogen powered car, or steam powered which runs on ammonia fuel (might have to check that one ) or flintstones pedal powered.

Or indeed a very luxe, low mileage s/h diesel/petrol car while petrol stations still supply the necessary liquids and mechanics can still service them at a reasonable cost. I reckon there's 15-20 years before any of that gets a bit tricky.

[mangocrazy]

Funny thing is, noone is forcing anyone to buy an EV. They're banning the sale of vehicles which emit CO2 at the tailpipe. Totally free to buy a hydrogen powered car, or steam powered which runs on ammonia fuel (might have to check that one ) or flintstones pedal powered.

Admin, please move this post to the 'Jokes' section...

Well, I thought it was meant to be humourus...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Funny thing is, noone is forcing anyone to buy an EV...

But they ARE stopping manufacturers making vehicles people want. They ARE forcing dealers to sell an increasing number of vehicles people don't want. The question remains: if EVs are so good, why can't they sell on their merits?

Because the overall goal is to reduce CO2 emissions. Whether or not you or any other car buyers agree with that goal is besides the point really, until someone who agrees with you hard enough comes to power.

There are all sorts of totally valid arguments about why banning the sale of new CO2 emitting cars may or may not achieve said goal, but that's why you're being banned from buying a fossil fuel powered car. You're not even being banned from buying an ICE car.

"They" could just ban CO2 emitting cars in 2030-whatever and give no incentives to EVs in the meantime, but that would result in even more upheaval.

You can't buy incandescent lightbulbs or really powerful vacuum cleaners, which some people want, for teh same reason.

People also want to buy very loud, very low, very dirty etc. etc. cars too but they're not allowed to sell you those either.

[MrLongbeard]

You can't buy incandescent lightbulbs

Yeah you can

[Mr. Dazzle]

You can still buy really powerful hoovers too.

[MrLongbeard]

You can still buy really powerful hoovers too.

Any other brands?

[Rockburner]

You can't buy incandescent lightbulbs

Yeah you can

Only while the current stocks last - pretty sure they're not being manufactured any more (except possibly some very very small-scale manufacturing for possible extremely rare special use cases..... although the only use-case I can think of at the moment is Mathmos lava lamps which use both the heat and the light).

[Mr. Dazzle]

I know a guy who went for an interview at Dyson, back when they had an EV programme (always a bit WTF), who kept using the word "hoover" when talking about the Dyson company.

[MrLongbeard]

Only while the current stocks last - pretty sure they're not being manufactured any more

That was the plan, but 9 years later I'm not entirely convinced, unless someone had some chuffing large warehouses sitting idle looking for something to fill them with, as they're still readily available at reasonable prices.

Also odd is that EU legislation often gives a cut off date to stop the sell through of old stock, I don't recall that being included for lamps

[Mr. Dazzle]

Even in 2025, not every bulb on my car is LED/similar...which makes me laugh a bit.

Headlights though, *chefs kiss*, practically bring down satellites with 'em.

[Count Steer]

You can't buy incandescent lightbulbs

Yeah you can

Only while the current stocks last - pretty sure they're not being manufactured any more (except possibly some very very small-scale manufacturing for possible extremely rare special use cases..... although the only use-case I can think of at the moment is Mathmos lava lamps which use both the heat and the light).

I think oven bulbs work and, as far as I know, they're still incandescent.

(Not sure LEDs like 240ºC ).