In the past few weeks, I've seen 4 or 5 Polestars, 2 Mustang Mach-E GTs, a Rivian R1T, and a Tesla Semi, all being driven (or test-driven?) on public roads. I cannot recall any other time in my life when I've encountered anywhere near this number of new and rare vehicles outside of a major international car show. The electric revolution seems to be rapidly charging forward!
edit -- Oh yes, and a Cake Kalk "motorcycle" as well!
Well my old mate Sean. ,,,if you live in the middle of bloody nowhere what do you expect
Derek
In June every other vehicle sold in Sweden was a plug-in electric vehicle, either a PHEV or full electric. The top seller was an MG.
Who would have thought that would happen back when we were running around in Midgets and MGBs. Times are changing
A couple of years ago we did a Hurtigruten cruise right up to the North Cape in Norway . Even above the Arctic Circle , it seemed that just about everybody drove a Tesla , even in the middle of nowhere .
Stephen
Democratic dissent is not disloyalty, it is a positive civic duty
I read an interesting article by a good friend several years ago about this. There is a tipping point at which it becomes uneconomical for petrol stations to exist because there are not enough petrol/diesel vehicles wanting fuel. It's a lot sooner than you might think as even a small drop in demand will impact their viability. This can be balanced somewhat by increasing prices and by fuel stations closing so that there are fewer in each location but that in turn will drive more people to electric vehicles, hastening things further.
A friend has a Porsche Taycan and I saw it up close for the first time this weekend, the brake disks look to be bigger than the wheels on my Caterham. It weighs 2.4 tonnes and I am afraid I cannot see electric ever being a sensible solution for track cars unless they can get the weight down.
1.6K Roadsport SV
This might be true in remote areas like Scotland (although I see EVs as a poorer fit up there anyway), but round here, my local town has at least 3 petrol stations (2 supermarkets + a BP), and I pass another one on the way there (<10 miles away). Just having a quick look on google maps there are probably >20 within a 10 mile radius.
So even if those dropped to a single station, it's not really a big deal. Prices might go up due to lack of competition - but the government needs to work out how to tax EVs anyway. So far the main attraction is the tax fiddle. Lets see what happens when EV owners have to pay for all the infrastructure they want to use for free.
Is it me, or do other folk look at EVs and think "yep, very nice, but can't afford it".
To replace our existing tin-top (58 plate Freelander 2 - we need the load capacity and ground clearance.), I could probably rustle up a maximum of £8k-£10k, but that would be a stretch. As far as I can see, a) there isn't a suitable EV as a replacement, and b) even if there were something, it would probably be north of £40k-£50k to acquire it.
With my budget, I doubt I could even get some run-about EV shed for that money.
Is it me? And if, it's not, how is this EV revolution ever going to recruit the likes of me.
Its not just you. Our fleet is a 64 plate Golf, 20 year old Mini Cooper shed for station run and the 7. I looked into an ID3 as a Golf replacement and even with a trade in and putting some cash in, I couldn't get the monthly payments to less than £400 on a PCP, with a more conventional loan it was closer to £500. Then there is the Mini to think about. I think we need to go through at least a couple of company car / fleet EV cycles before a significant number appear on the 'used approved' inventory of the main dealers, which would probably ~6 years.
We seems to buy a 'approved used' car from the main dealers that ~2 years old, then keep for ~5 years as neither my wife or I are company car drivers. On this basis, our next car is on the road somewhere today brand new, and the odds of it being EV or even hybrid are low. Based on this, I can't see us going going EV for at least 5 years, until there are a significant number in this group of cars, or we make a positive move to go this direction, i.e. we really want one and are willing to either have a older, cheaper EV or push the boat out for an ID3 or similar.
I quite fancy a 3 Series touring as our next car, to future proof us for our growing son, more junk and bigger bikes which would likely keep for a while - and wont be EV, might even be a stinky diesel!