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

Travel has always been possible for the wealthy, my concern in all of this is, will it be accessible and affordable for the poorest in our society. The impact of eg changing heating from quite inexpensive to run gas boiler/fires to electrically power heat exchangers or electric fires etc may lead to much more energy poverty. I'm not so sure that affordability seems to be a key watch word in the race to become green.

This sentiment is expressed in the Telegraph today. A basic ICE Corsa is £16,500, a Corsa E is £25,000. To put this in perspective a basic Austin 7 was, when launched £12,500 in today's terms.

Toyota has revised the hydrogen fuel cell Miria and re-launched at £50k, way below what the early models cost (and it was rumoured they lost £100k on each)

At that price a credible alternative to Tesla's EV offers

Except there are only 11 hydrogen filling stations in the whole of the UK - and only 6 outside of the M25. Not exactly a viable alternative to the 9,300 EV filling stations.

Yep, true, but I bet you won't find an ICE blocking it, they can be a pain on EV points

I did like the "Hydrogen Paste" idea for H storage - see https://www.businessinsider.com/car...hange-fuel-drone-2021-2?r=US&IR=T...

I have yet to see ICE blocking - I suspect because Tesla Superchargers are not in petrol stations.

+1 British car Auctions own them.

I was intrigued by the graph for the Polestar that came up in a previous post ....I thought I'd add a couple of lines (apologies in advance for the phone pic of a printout but hopefully it will pass)

Polestar compared the CO2 of their EV running on a number of supply mixes with an ICE Volvo XC40 .... I've added a line for the Ford Fiesta 1.5 TDCI which has pretty much half the CO2 emissions of the XC40 (black line marked 'x') .... I've also put in the vertical dotted line at 170,000 kms ... which is the mileage at which the average car in the UK gets scrapped (I know we've all had cars that have gone way beyond that, but it's the Motor Industry official figure)





A few thoughts:

Even on the European mix of electricity sources the EV would still be in serious deficit at scrapping time (much worse Globally)

The Fiesta weighs in at 2/3 the weight of the XC40 ... no doubt there are different issues here, but 2/3 the raw materials means the black 'x' line for the Fiesta would leave the Y-axis somewhat lower than the XC40 (I erred on the side of the EV and made it the same for clarity) .... meaning the 'x' line would sit lower on the graph altogether, making the case for the EV more problematic still.

If you factor in that switching to EVs is meaning the creation from scratch of a massive infrastructure network with all its associated environmental (and CO2) costs .... and the loss of liquid fuels will inevitably mean the dismantling and removal of the current ICE infrastructure .... again with serious environmental and CO2 costs.

If you want to run a very large high performance luxury barge, then EV, with it's current subsidies and low running costs is the way to go.

If you want to save the planet then a small economical ICE car and leaving the infrastructure well alone may well be the best choice.

K

I agree with "Image".

I purchased a high performance EV with a reasonable range to replace a noisy, not very refined high performance ICE car, not to save the planet.
I purchased the PV panels in 2011 to get the FIT payment and cheaper electricity, not to save the planet.
Both are economic decisions, made by the head, not the heart...

The Tesla M3 ER AWD is about 150kg heavier than the C63, has about 450bhp (published figures differ) and a better 0 to 60 time, probably it can get the power down in a way the C63 cannot.
The range is about the same, 300miles in the real world.

Filling up the Tesla at a Supercharger costs about £24.00, less if charging at home from PV free power, filling up the C63 costs about £85.00.
The Tesla Service costs are, as far as I can work out, about £250 a year, the C63 is twice that.
Road tax is lower, insurance is lower...

I rest my case

For a local runabout I'd get a Mazda 2, because it is cute, drives well and uses little fuel.