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Doubt it. Smart people wanting to make the shift to EV now will do the same as I did 3 years ago: go for the leasing route. I leased my Zoe on a 4 year term, it's due to go back to the finance company Sept next year. From there it'll go into the second hand market and be bought by someone who...

There's a few inaccuracies in that article (although no where near as bad as the Mr Bean one). For one, there's a lot of assumptions being presented as fact (including in the headline) without any supporting evidence beyond the "demand is weaker than expected". But keep in mind, VW will be...

Time to bring this thread back to the surface, as Toyota have claimed to have made a major breakthrough in solid state batteries: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/04/toyota-claims-battery-breakthrough-electric-cars The claim is that we may be seeing these in cars as early as...

No, it's phased. From 2030 ICE-only are banned, but hybrid / PHEV still allowed (under a criteria yet to be set). Then 2035 it will be zero-emissions at the tail pipe only...

I think that's a perfectly sensible approach. It really needs to be a phased transition. Getting EVs to where they need to be needs enthusiasts / early adopters (like myself) who help to move the R&D and infrastructure development etc in the right direction. Over time, folks like yourself - who...

So ... by the time we get to 2030 any brand new EV will be able to manage over 300 miles - even the smaller runabouts. The drop in range over winter should become smaller as well, as new battery tech makes its way into the cars.

You might be surprised. Went on holiday to the Gower Peninsula in Wales last year. Went to a beach well outside any built up areas and found x3 Tesla charging spots in the car park (note: Tesla chargers are now open to anyone, not just Tesla). Yup, exactly. When I took delivery of my Zoe a few...

Not particularly. I achieve the 240-ish ranges with A/C on. The day I was getting 5.5m/kWh was pretty much perfect though: temp was right in the sweet spot that even though I had A/C on it wasn't doing much more than stirring the air; and the traffic on the M25 was flowing well but speeds were...

Not sure I'd pay for a 2016 Leaf. That's old enough that the battery probably isn't delivering anywhere near the range it claims, especially in winter. But your point is still good - the second hand market for EVs is starting to get a lot more supply now. With that increase in supply comes...

Of course, the elephant in the room with EVs remains the degradation in battery range in cold weather. My Zoe goes from 240-250 miles range in summer (I've even seen a 65 mile mostly motorway trip last year where the extrapolated range would be more like 275 miles) to 180 miles in winter (for...

Pre-Covid, I was doing 25k miles per year by road - the company I work for the office is 65 miles away. Today, I'm doing only a few thousand per year and it's almost all local (school run, grocery run, weekend trips out with the family) and the work commute is 2-3 days a month vs the 4 days a...

I also think the paradigm of "pass your test once in your 20's and you've got a licence for life" needs to change. I would be 100% in favour of "check you've not picked up so many bad habits you're dangerous" re-tests being triggered at certain milestones (either X years since last test or X...

Cobalt is the one we need to be getting out of the batteries if we can.

Or use the lithium more efficiently. There's an interesting round up of new battery tech at various stages of development here: https://www.greencars.com/greencars-101/the-future-of-ev-batteries

Actually, the National Grid would *love* it if we charge over night. Although they'll love it less as the grid gets greener. Did you know that in the UK we have some two-way hydro-electric schemes where overnight they use excess electricity - not being used because everyone is asleep - to pump...

Yeah, not saying it will be easy. Especially given the current state of privatised rail (now there's an effing mess that needs to be sorted). IMO privatisation only works if there's a genuine prospect of creating market competition. Two big privatised sectors in the UK where that has never...

Indeed. There's a lot of very self-centered thinking (or non-thinking) going on with those drivers. As I mentioned a few posts back, there needs to be a big societal and governmental shift in attitudes towards cars. Few thoughts: 1. Enforcement. Those thoughtless drivers wouldn't be so...

A lot of those are illegally parked. If they've blocked the footpath enough that a person who needs mobility aids can't get through, they can be reported and face action.

Indeed. And the vast majority of those cars spend the majority of their time parked on a drive (at home) or the side of the road (as close to home as possible) or at work (either an office carpark, or nearest other parking) not being driven. IMO - in cities at the very least - we should be...

Second hand market is starting to show signs it should take off in the next couple of years. When I did my first school run in the Zoe 2.5 years ago, there was 1 other EV being used. It's a small school. There's now multiple EVs across multiple brands and multiple styles. I see a lot more EVs on...