The Uncomfortable TRUTH About EVs: The Version NEITHER SIDE Wants You To Hear

Scrapage is not the answer. Scrapage was a disaster as many classic cars were lost, but also scrapping perfectly useable old cars and building new ones makes no environmental sense whatsoever. Once again it also favour Ed the rich who could afford a new car. It offers no help to those for whom this is not a financial reality. Indeed it reduces the pool of available vehicles they could buy.

The main problem with EVs is that the tech will date so quickly. A current EV will be about as wanted an iPhone 4 in short time.

It is almost like different things work for different people. Who would have thought?

Funny how EVs don't even touch the absurdity of carrying one's relatively small body weight along with 2 tons of metal and plastic, keeping the existing car culture predominantly intact, yet so many car people still passionate hate them. For smaller distances inside cities, things like simple e-scooters would actually make a lot more sense as a personal transportation device - although weather protection is an issue that needs better solutions. Moving almost 2 tons of material for a mile, for the price of 0.13 GBP, is incredibly cheap if you think about it like that. Even 0.3 GBP is arguably very cheap for that huge amount of work. People are just used to not having to think at all about how excessive it is to move such a massive piece of material, because all associated cost was dumped into the environment. This attitude is becoming more and more untenable, until we don't find a new, virtually unlimited source of clean energy.

A lot of manufactures are using the EV boom to take away reparability and further integrate planned obsolescence to their cars. Louis Rossmann talks about this a lot on his YT channel.

As a senior with disabled license plates issued by the government, I truly appreciate you bringing up this topic for discussion.

Sandero diesel owner here. I get over 70mpg on a local dual carriageway run, costing around 10p/mile. My current price for electricity is about 33p/unit, around 10p/mile for an EV. At 99g/km my Sandero is £0 tax and in a lower insurance group than most EVs. I could drive the 320 miles from Birmingham to Stirling and back without having to refuel, which no EV can do and I'd have to pay a higher unit price to recharge. My Sandero cost under £3,000 (used) to buy outright; any similar EV with a useful range is at least thrice that. Although cheap, I didn't buy the car to show off; it does everything I need from a car. If all my journeys were local I'd consider an EV but at this point it makes absolutely no economical sense.

The biggest problem is the price of electricity. Somehow, the government has allowed it to spiral over the last two years despite the input costs of generating electricity being about the same. If electricity was cheap (and by cheap I mean less than 10p/kWh for domestic supply and less than 20-25p/kWh for a fast charger), consumers would be all over them as they're so much cheaper to run despite the higher purchase cost. At current prices, it just doesn't make sense if you don't have a company car scheme. The same is true for heat pumps - despite spending ages researching heat pumps, we're going to replace our old boiler with a new efficient gas boiler. Gas is so much cheaper than electricity that even the most efficient heat pump with a CoP of 4 would cost more to run, making the higher initial investment a complete non-starter.

About a year ago we stopped in Carlisle on our way down to Cumbria, to do some last minute shopping. We pulled into a space in a carpark and went to the pay machine. There we joined a small, trans generational crowd - no one could figure out how to buy a parking ticket. Whether you were 90 or 20, smart phone user or cavewoman…

I lived in an apartment in Bham City centre last year. I inquired about fitting a charging point for an electric car. The building management company told me in 3-4 years we may be able to get charging points... 2 charging points for 100 parking spaces. Unfortunately the fire brigade had ruled out any more in the future as any potential battery fire could spread uncontrollably and emergency vehicles would be too big to access the basement carpark. The fire could create enough fire to destroy the building. Shouldn't this issue have been highlighted before the government committed to banning new ICE vehicles? Especially as cities are supposed to be a priority for the reduction of tailpipe emissions.

We bought into cable TV because we didn't want to see commercials but now we see more, we brought into DVDs , DVRs and digital streaming and now we're not allowed to fast forward through commercials while we get gouged for subscription services because now we can't go back. When electric cars are the norm electric prices will go through the freaking roof !!! , new batteries will cost way more than a house, and it doesn't matter because you can't afford rent anyway.

Regarding rates at the charger you did not even touch a serious problem. In many countries and I believe in the UK as well a sizeable part of the fuel cost are taxes meant to fincance the road contruction and such. It is often 30-50% of the fuel cost. It adds up to billions needed for maintenantce and such. If they really want 100% EVs they would need to find that money somewhere else. I calculated roughly for Germany where I come from an EV would need to get chared and additional 15-30c / kWh or alternatively 500+€ / 10.000km per year to get te same financing. Else the government would need to cross-finance roads from other budgets meaning everybody (car or not) would pay for highway maintenance and also meaning private non-public driving would no longer be discouraged/punished.

Fountains of Wayne reliably informed me that Stacy’s Mom not only still has it going on, but that she is still driving a non-ULEZ compliant diesel hatchback 😂

Regarding EV fires, it's worth pointing out that while LiNMC cells are prone to thermal runaway when damaged, the mainstream car industry is quickly transitioning to LiFePo chemistry (largely because it's cheaper) which is far more chemically stable, to the point of it being almost impossible for LiFePo battery packs to catch fire even when damaged or exposed to extreme heat.

It doesn't matter how a fire starts. Even if the Luton fire didn't start at an EV, is DEFINITELY spread to one. Fires happen. They happen on ships, on ferries, in tunnels, in parking garages.

The biggest problem with 10 year old worthless EVs, is not the resale value. The problem is when in the 11th year the battery bogs down and replacement costs 3 times the value of the vehicle, then yeah, it becomes a paperweight.

As a daily driver/town car I don't care what type of engine my car has. What I care about is cost & reliability. You can buy a really good small ICE car for under 3k and if it's maintained properly get another 5+ years out of it. EVs just don't compare price wise. It's that simple. Plus now all the financial subsidies for EVs are being removed the cost of ownership is starting to increase rapidly.

I run 80-odd trucks and am based just outside London. We're already being taxed, levied, surcharged, fined and tolled out of existence, and now they're pushing electric on us too. It's easy for DHL, Amazon, DPD and the like to tell everyone how amazing the electric future will be because they're the only ones who can afford it. When companies like mine have gone and there is only the likes of Amazon and DHL left, everyone will wonder why it is that delivery costs to their homes and business are now extortionate. And the planet will still be in crisis because the Chinese, Indians, Africans, Russians and South Americans are not holding themselves to the same values. Do you know what happens to old trucks? They take all of the complicated and unreliable emissions equipment off of them and sell them to Africa......

I would like to congratulate you on a balanced and well thought out presentation. I have an iPace that will be 5 years old in 2 months time. Cost 65k now worth just over £20k. On reflection 30% retention after 5 years on a big luxury car is not bad. Running costs are a fraction of a likewise ICE that will cost 25p v my 3p mile. Service costs have been £500 v probably £2,500. You are quite right that you have to take into account what sort of distances you travel in a day and it has always been the case that 200 plus, you should buy a Tesla. The most I normally drive in a day is 100 max. I have a drive with a charger so I do not have range anxiety. When I bought the car it was a special treat after I sold my business and I always planned to keep it 10 years, subject to it not being a problem car, which it has not. In fact it has only spent time in a garage for an update apart from the 2 services Now to talk about possibly the most important part, if one is interested in driving. It is without doubt the best car I have ever driven and I have driven Mercedes, BMW, Volvo and a host of other cars. I am not saying it is a better EV than those other EV makes, but I have found it much more fun than my former ICE cars.Every time I drive the Cat it brings a smile to my face😀😃😁

I love good debates and as an EV owner, am the first to raise the issues that need to be resolved. But as a scientist, I see a problem as something to solve, not to be defeated by. If we left it to the defeatists and those that don’t like change, we wouldn’t have much of the stuff we take for granted these days.