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

[ZRX61]

uh oh...

https://climatechangedispatch.com/soari ... -vw-warns/

[Taipan]

It's no secret that Brits love a good queue, but even by these standards no one wants to be stuck waiting in line on Christmas Day.

Unfortunately, this was the situation facing many Tesla owners across the UK, who were left queueing for hours when they should've been at home eating mince pies and watching trashy TV.


Although you can get some serious mileage out of a single charge, the electric vehicles have proven to be a bit of a pain over the festive season this year as so many people flocked to the charging stations before making their trips to family and friends.

According to Metro, some were queueing for up to six hours at a time, which makes sense when you factor in the charging time - experts state that it can take anywhere between 15 minutes and 12 hours depending on the model.

A number of social media users shared that they had been waiting for at least one or two hours before they'd even hooked their vehicle up.

Nearly 24 Teslas were seen besides a charging station in a Waitrose car park in South Mims, Hertfordshire, on Christmas Day.

One Twitter user described the situation as 'bedlam'. Credit: Twitter/@thejamiewaters
A similar story unfolded over in Tebay, Cumbria, where one person wrote on Twitter: "Bedlam @WestmorlandServ Tebay today. 2hr 30m wait for a charge.

"Worst journey as @Tesla driver. Q now 40 deep!"

Another in Penrith added: "Really upsetting to have to have whole family wait for 2 hours to charge car @Tesla #penrith #tebay."

A third shared a photo of a jam-packed queue, writing: "UK services this week have been insanely busy for Tesla charging, currently car 15 in a queue of over 20...

"But you can always rely on the British public to make an orderly queue."

Videos also surfaced on TikTok, with one shared by YouTuber and car buyer Geoff Buys Cars, who wrote: "Tesla owners queue for power at Penrith."

Over the footage of log jammed EVs, he quipped: "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way... Oh what fun it is to own a Tesla for the Holiday."

The clip has received hundreds of comments from people who aren't all that sympathetic towards the Tesla owners.

Some were stuck in a queue for hours. Credit: Twitter/@cleggypdc
"Not patting themselves on the back now are they," quipped one, while another said: "That's the future right there," alongside a laughing emoji.

A third chimed in: "EVs are a con. Until the infrastructure catches up don’t waist your money."

And one former owner even commented to suggest that the queueing was too much to hack, writing: "Which is why I sold mine."

https://www.ladbible.com/news/tesla-own ... OmaMUMvNbI

[MyLittleStudPony]

Probably less of an issue the the recent fuel panic buying and shortages.

[Mussels]

Probably less of an issue the the recent fuel panic buying and shortages.

Not really, the petrol/diesel shortage was a short term problem while lack of charging stations has always been a problem that EV evangelists try to gloss over.

[Taipan]

I saw it on the A75 in France this year. Big queues for charging points, coinciding with the French going on their holidays. Peak demands are going to highlight the lack of infrastructure I suppose...

[MyLittleStudPony]

If I had one I'd just panic buy loads of electricity in advance, then store it under my bed in a load of lunch boxes with sliced up fishing weights in them.

[MyLittleStudPony]

Probably less of an issue the the recent fuel panic buying and shortages.

Not really, the petrol/diesel shortage was a short term problem while lack of charging stations has always been a problem that EV evangelists try to gloss over.

My g/f has an electric car, she charges it up at home. There's never a queue there.

I have a friend who's (still!) on the car mags. He says there's apps now where people with a charging point can let others use it for a displayed rate.

[Yorick]

I bet where there were queues at supermarkets that everyone was getting a full charge whether they needed it or not. No being kind to others in the queue.

[Potter]

If I had one...

Why don't you have one?
You've just bought a new car, why not an EV?

[Taipan]

More of the same! V12 for the win!

[Kneerly Down]

Apparently it's been 2-4 hours wait at quite a few Tesla motorway service station chargers.
South Mimms, Tebay, Gretna among them.

[Potter]

Follow the money.

People are investing in commodity ETFs in anticipation of rising prices, I've just thrown a decent chunk into a base metals one and another into a transition components one, these funds are created on the basis that the underlying assets (like copper, lithium, switching raw materials, etc) are going to rise in value.

EV motoring is cheaper now than it ever will be, and it doesn't make much financial sense now unless you have space to charge overnight and do short journeys, and even then a cheap petrol car is probably cheaper.
It's only going to get more expensive and more inconvenient until the infrastructure is built and emerging technology makes it more efficient - I could be wrong but I reckon the city folk have done their due diligence and this won't happen any time soon, so they've sunk their billions into it and will enjoy the profits as the prices rise.

[Kneerly Down]

I do wonder, with my 10 year old Ampera, how much the battery technology has increased over that time.
If it could get to the point where I could swap out the existing modules for ones with twice the energy density and have say 70-80 mile range on electric only that'd mean only my trips down to Perth/Edinburgh/Glasgow and beyond would be done using anything other than electric, but with the petrol 'generator' still there to take me past the queues of Teslas at Gretna and the like!

[Couchy]

Follow the money.

People are investing in commodity ETFs in anticipation of rising prices, I've just thrown a decent chunk into a base metals one and another into a transition components one, these funds are created on the basis that the underlying assets (like copper, lithium, switching raw materials, etc) are going to rise in value.

EV motoring is cheaper now than it ever will be, and it doesn't make much financial sense now unless you have space to charge overnight and do short journeys, and even then a cheap petrol car is probably cheaper.
It's only going to get more expensive and more inconvenient until the infrastructure is built and emerging technology makes it more efficient - I could be wrong but I reckon the city folk have done their due diligence and this won't happen any time soon, so they've sunk their billions into it and will enjoy the profits as the prices rise.

Motoring is only going to get more expensive, we’ve had the years of cheap transport and fuel. Another 50-100 years and owning your own personal transport you drive yourself will be consigned to history. People that can’t afford the new autonomous transport will move back to big cities in droves. There will become an even bigger gap between haves and have nots. Demolition man will look more like a documentary than a rubbish film

[Count Steer]

Follow the money.

People are investing in commodity ETFs in anticipation of rising prices, I've just thrown a decent chunk into a base metals one and another into a transition components one, these funds are created on the basis that the underlying assets (like copper, lithium, switching raw materials, etc) are going to rise in value.

I've been looking at companies doing material recovery/recycling. There's quite a lot going on in the area around efficient recycling of EVs. If you can get the 100gm of dysprosium back out, you're on a winner. (99% of global annual production comes from China so it's not just a cost of recovery issue).

[asmethurst99]

Two of the four charging posts at work have been out of action for 4 weeks now - no news on when they will be fixed.

[Couchy]

Two of the four charging posts at work have been out of action for 4 weeks now - no news on when they will be fixed.

Are they works own charge points or someone else’s ? Do they charge you for the electric ? Who maintains them ? What size are they ?

[Kneerly Down]

People that can’t afford the new autonomous transport will move back to big cities in droves.

And then die of whatever happens to be the next pandemic.

[asmethurst99]

Two of the four charging posts at work have been out of action for 4 weeks now - no news on when they will be fixed.

Are they works own charge points or someone else’s ? Do they charge you for the electric ? Who maintains them ? What size are they ?

They are in our staff car park - we got electric cars for some teams 2 years ago (physio/resp nurse outreach and our specialist resp team) Quite a few staff have electric hybrid vehicles as well so they are for everyone with an electric car not just the hospital vehicles
Normal slow charge.
They are/were branded BP but I think a different company looks after them.
One of the problems is they sometimes can’t connect as they are 2G and there’s a blind spot.
The problem according to the estates manager is getting someone to own the problem - hardware maintenance is sub contracted out and no matter what we say it takes ages for anything to be fixed.The telephone helpline is useless.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Sounds more like a rant against the generic ineptitude of public/private partnerships than anything against EVs in particular