Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Time for Electric Power?

Would those be public charge points - on the side of the road? If so, I doubt that's the case.

EV's are like mobile phones, you charge them overnight and have a 200-300 mile range the next day (depending on model). Most people rarely travel over 200 miles in a day.

The hurdle is going to be what people do when they live in a block of flats or have no driveway. Converting those owners will be more difficult.

Probably true. I rarely travel more than 200 miles in a day ... but on those rare occasions an EV is no use to me. An EV could therefore never be my only car.

Commuting will reduce post covid, but EV's are an escape from using public transport, which runs regardless of numbers of travellers and should be the default position if we really wish to create a greener world.

Furthermore, EV's and some hybrids are unaffordable to the majority, so the debate as to which is best is only relevant to a small demographic.

I saw a Toyota Corolla hatchback hybrid yesterday. It was top end, and had good road presence. Nicely styled, which can't be said for many Toyota models. Looking it up, that sporty version (Two Litre Petrol) kicks in (with some tick boxes) at £32k. There are a few used in the £26+k bracket, but that's a lot of money. The poverty spec version looks just like a poverty spec version.

Oh and they are auto, which I really don't want either.

So given that I do short journeys on public transport and longer journeys by diesel, and that most of my journeys are long, for me there's no incentive to go either EV or hybrid.

I understand manual transmission is only available on a few mild hybrids where the motive force is from an ICE with electric motors just to boost fuel economy. Makes sense given electric motor torque characteristics on pure EV's.

About 6 or 7 years ago I had some Peugeot number ?? whatever, EV hybrid thingy on test over a weekend the driveline shunt between modes was absolutely dire

Lexus & BMW is very seamless and almost indistinguishable by comparison

It was public charge points - iirc it came up in an interview on Monday's Today programme. I can't recall who, but if they're only half right and the need to match demand is 500 per day, then it feels like we're still way short.

Most people *do* live in blocks of flats! Even fancy regency ones like the one I'm in - we have some 650 flats in a square & crescent, and a couple of hundred spaces in the relevant parking zone. And 7 chargepoints in the parking zone, of which 3 are slow lampost chargers. So 1% of households needing an EV charge fills the spaces, assuming they're not ICEd.

And the underlying power infrastructure is a potential problem. A hop & skip away where I park securely underground, in a '70s block of flats, the cabling coming into the building doesn't have sufficient capacity available for car charging to be installed.

Even when people around here would like to buy an EV, they'd be reasonable to conclude that it's not a practical proposition, yet.

Will

Will,

if you buy a car with a real range of mid 200 miles most people will be able to charge from home for their commute.
For business travellers not returning home the charging network needs to get better, but an extra 1000 per day?
The nearest Supercharger is in Amesbury, just 12 miles away.
have come to the conclusion that until there are equivalent charging stations from other providers the EV revolution is for the brave, wealthy or foolhardy.

Will,

I'm with you on the practical implications for home recharging for properties especially flats that may not have the physical infrastructure to create safe recharging facilities. Safe not only in the sense of access and use but also away from potential vandalism. not only of the equipment but also vandals unplugging the chargers from the vehicles etc ........'leaving vehicles uncharged overnight etc.

Call me fool hardy, we barely go anywhere more than local, I only do 40 miles a day commute and my titchy e covers me, I have only tried one semi rapid DC charge once, that was just to see how un/complicated it was, I just top up each day at home, I topped up with sunshine today as on nightshift, there definitely is an element of taking a risk at the moment, the diesel XC60 has gone I wasn't using it and it would have depreciated to nothing just sitting there, the smart hasn't been driven since it's MOT last September the wide still uses here MX 5 but that has only just past 17k after 5 years, in theory given no glitches in numbers we are off to the IOW in September with the dogs, well just hire a car for the week. I no longer have any loans or PCP etc we thought why pay(lose money) to keep a car on the drive?
Next time we eventually fly anywhere we'll get the train to the airport and back, it's so much more pleasant than sitting in traffic both ways..

Maybe you do need to alter your lifestyle, but for us the change wasn't that radical, if I was commuting greater distances then I would have got an EV with a greater range but why spend the money on that range when I don't need it? Later this year the ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6 coming out would have been in contention as a possible future purchase but my wife has her eye on an ID.Buzz a few years down the road (shed always wanted a splitty, but we managed to avoid that money pit) as time goes on things will be much less difficult, apart from pricing that is, and manufacturers are all provisioning for that change whether you like it or not.

At the end of the day no one is saying you can't drive a petrol or diesel car you just won't be able to buy new in ten years or so.

As for the public transport option hmm great if you live in a city maybe, who'd want to live in a city though?

Just a few thoughts on this discussion:
- if you live in high density housing without car park charging facilities, you are presumably also more likely to have good public transport
- if you can't charge at home, but still want to / need to commute by private vehicle, there are good odds that your employer car park will have EV charge points...

I would not write of Hydrogen yet, although the political will to ensure supplies is lacking... https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-revie...yota-mirai-design-premium-2021-uk-review