Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Are EV`s THE future...?

This post does not relate to any one manufacturer or vehicle, however perhaps provides an insight to EV perhaps playing a more important part of the future than concentrating on current market trends re EV Vs ICE..?

The vid is circa 52 mins long and seems to present an in depth (no pun intended) look at just how much time energy (pun?) and money some Europeans are putting into working towards a better future for the common good of the populace....Or have I got that wrong..?

Electric propulsion is fine but there has to be an alternate to the tarmac ripping batteries in terms of their present weight. Not to mention tyre dust pollution. Car VED according to vehicle weight with proceeds focussed towards road repairs and improvements would seem a fair temporary solution.

Well I think the new government have already made it clear they are in favour of a mileage based format (no doubt on top of all the others as opposed to replacing) so we will see what they get up to.

Given my chosen forum I.D, and that I retired circa a decade ago, as might be expected that I spent rather a lot of time resisting aspects of technology that were ever bound to either force me to adapt to their requirements of me in order to carry out so many day to day processes, and in the workplace the pressure of the frustration of trying to keep up with ever advancing technology, the outcomes of which seemed bound to totally negate decades of hard won experience I had acquired, and cut the numbers employed in the operation of not only the facility where I earned a living for almost 40 years, but in the country as a whole.... Yeah I can easily justify my Luddite tendencies. However while seeking preservation of the past has proven to be worthwhile up to a point, I suspect history dictates that trying to hold back the future seems to be a somewhat futile pastime...?

Richard, I see no fault in your thinking, and as an EV owner I suspect I could add a few more negatives if I put my mind to it, much as I could have when thinking a Morgan might just be the car for me circa 30 years ago, and in time learning of their possible ..err..foibles, via the interweb. Ever grateful to the many kind folk who took time to educate me in depth as to that which it can be like to live with a Morgan prior to making the plunge back then... (-:

I am now at a stage in life where if left to decide on only keeping one car of those available to me, the EV would be the logical choice to keep ownership of. and to provide for basic transportation requirements, call it acceptance of evolutionary forces if you will...?

Nice day here today, so I expect to fire the old Mog up and head out for another little run, while they still allow me to do so... (-:

Alistair, my guess is someone has to pay for the expectations we once had and those which some still have in varying degrees..and EV insurance seems far from cheap, insuring a C4S being about 1/3 less than a Tesla..? I think it is a safe bet that all types of motoring will increase in cost along with much else...

IF EV work out to be as reliable and robust as they should be, then maintenance costs should reduce considerably, though just had a pal with a Volvo Hybrid telling me an update to the entertainment system caused the car to fail to stay in drive once selected.... So far so good in terms of my confidence in pure EV and Tesla software etc... Time will tell.

Are EVs THE future? Why should we restrict ourselves to only seeking one particular approach?

The current crop of BEVs are clearly not a perfect solution, although they fit some use cases extremely well indeed - urban dwellers in countries with large amounts of energy generation from low-carbon sources who are able to charge at home and do not need frequent high mileages for example. Their main focus at the moment seems to be to help persuade people to move away from traditional ICE vehicles by giving them stuff which is as much like them as possible. There's enormous amounts of scope for developing personal electric vehicles that do not require them to be 4000kg SUVs.

But that's the excellent thing about the future - we don't have to confine ourselves to one single approach, we can develop a range of different technologies each of which will fit different use cases - Bamford's hydrogen fuelled engine for site equipment for example.

Our Mini SE is absolutely perfect for our needs, it's nice to drive, fast enough, charged from either our solar panels or cheap rate electricity, it needs practically no servicing and costs less than 2p a mile to run, but it's still a bit 'boring traditional 20th century' in its conception. I'd really like to see some more imaginative transport solutions - things like Aptera for example.

No

Given a Tesla weighs about the same as a BMW 3 Series, I am not sure they're 'ripping' the tarmac up any more than other vehicles or much heavier SUV's and large saloons. With complex torque vectoring they're probably doing less damage as it happens.... which is why tyres last longer than equivalent petrol vehicles. Most EV owners rarely need to use the brakes either.

I was interested to note recently that Autocar's long-term Tesla has now done 450,000 hard miles without any service.. still going strong. Another myth busted.

Neil, that is a very impressive mileage and service free.
Are you still happy with your Tesla, I recall you were an early adopter.

The only servicing mine has apart from software updates is a visual inspection and a brake fluid change every 2 years. Do Teslas not even need that?