EV are they worth it?

[Avocet]

Journey would only taken half a day in an ICE.

My journey times haven't really changed much, to be honest. I like to stretch my legs periodically even when in an ICE.

 

[Avocet]

Problem is people and dealers have no way of assessing health of the battery. With an ICE you can see from mileage and service history how a car has been used. But all used EVs are not equal. If one has lived in warm climes and been fast charged a lot, the battery will have degraded a lot compared to one used in Northern Europe and slow charged at home. The used values just reflect people's lack of confidence in the vehicles out there. Unless manus put a battery condition meter, etc on the dash next to odometer, uncertainty will reign

Sometimes, the car itself can tell you. However, there are plenty of dongles you can plug into the diagnostic socket and get a battery health check with. If anything it's easier with an EV because you never know what has (or hasn't) been done to an ICE over its life. There's a lot more servicing on an ICE. Nobody ever asks if a 2nd hand EV has had its timing belt done!

 

[Avocet]

There are also a lot of people whose daily drive is not much. I have an idea most drivers do less than 100 miles a day, and many less than 50. I think my daily commute has never been more than 120 miles a day ( though weekly commutes have been far more) so the only thing putting me off an EV or PIH was the much higher purchase price. I calculated that even if I kept the vehicle for ten years, and used solar panels on sunny days, I would never save enough on fuel to cover the difference.

They'e coming down all the time.

Right now, there are some absolute bargains to be had, a year or so old.

 

[robinbanks]

So, EVs not suitable/economic for maybe 50% of car drivers who don't have a driveway

I do wish this particular ounce of tripe would go away; it's trivial to resolve given that the thing that refuels the car highly likely passes right under its parking spot

 

[ReganAndCarter]

I do wish this particular ounce of tripe would go away; it's trivial to resolve given that the thing that refuels the car highly likely passes right under its parking spot

And how much will it cost to provide access to these magic cables, oh spouter of far fetched aspirations? Must be millions of miles of cables buried in Bristol, but never noticed any that have made it above ground for charging cars. Or have I not been down that particular alley?

 

[robinbanks]

You tell me; how much should it cost in labour to dig a small hole 750mm deep, tap into the cable there, fill it in, and attach a charger to it? Day's work? 200 quid?

Less faffing around than digging a trench across the pavement, front garden, through the house wall and running 10 metres of SWA from where it emerges, back out to that point just above where the input cable runs ..

Makes even more sense for wireless chargers

Just need to get the red tape out the way and instruct the DNOs to get on with it; it's no different to the splicing they do day in day out extending the network anyway

Must be millions of miles of cables in Bristol, but never noticed any that have made it above ground for charging cars

Maybe there is a really good reason it's impossible; I work in the industry and I ask anyone I come across who might have an answer. No one ever has one

 

[securespark]

WaT?
What?

Wear and Tear

 

[Brigadier]

I do wish this particular ounce of tripe would go away; it's trivial to resolve given that the thing that refuels the car highly likely passes right under its parking spot

It's trivial to maintain our roads so that you can go more than 100 yds without having to drive around a wheel-breaking chasm as well.......

 

[JohnD]

You tell me; how much should it cost in labour to dig a small hole 750mm deep, tap into the cable there, fill it in, and attach a charger to it? Day's work? 200 quid?

The workload might be similar to the effort of installing lamp-posts all along a road. You'd want to do the whole road in one run.

A one-off would be a lot less economical.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Wear and Tear

Thanks. Sometimes using non standard acronyms in posts can be quite hard to work out what's being said.

 

[Diver Fred]

You tell me; how much should it cost in labour to dig a small hole 750mm deep, tap into the cable there, fill it in, and attach a charger to it? Day's work? 200 quid?

Haven't you missed a zero off that figure (and wouldn't that be per man?)!

 

[Odds]

Europe’s largest electrical vehicle battery factory will be built in Bridgewater, Somerset, its Indian owner Tata Group has confirmed.

Construction is to begin immediately, and the factory is expected to start producing batteries in 2026. Tata decided to locate the 4bn facility, which is backed by £500m of government funding, at the 620-acre Gravity Smart Campus. It is the site of a former Royal Ordnance factory that made bombs during World War Two. The factory will make batteries for Tata Motors and JLR, formerly Jaguar Land Rover, before later expanding to produce cells for commercial vehicles, two-wheelers and energy storage solutions.

 

[Avocet]

Europe’s largest electrical vehicle battery factory will be built in Bridgewater, Somerset, its Indian owner Tata Group has confirmed.

Construction is to begin immediately, and the factory is expected to start producing batteries in 2026. Tata decided to locate the 4bn facility, which is backed by £500m of government funding, at the 620-acre Gravity Smart Campus. It is the site of a former Royal Ordnance factory that made bombs during World War Two. The factory will make batteries for Tata Motors and JLR, formerly Jaguar Land Rover, before later expanding to produce cells for commercial vehicles, two-wheelers and energy storage solutions.

I think that's a GOOD thing. As a result of Brexit, we lost out to Germany when Tesla were looking for a battery factory site, and now Tata is offering us a second bite at that cherry. In an ideal world, we'd have some significant lithium reserves too, but fate doesn't seem to have been that kind to us on this occasion. I see no reason whatsoever, why British workers couldn't make batteries that are every bit as good as German, French or Chinese workers.

For too long, we have watched European industries steal a march on us. I think it's pretty obvious that we're (the West in general, not just GB), headed for a trade war with China on EVs. Right now, the trade agreement with the EU requires a minimum percentage of UK-sourced content in a car. As the battery is such a big proportion of the total value of an EV, that's a hard target to achieve when the battery comes from China. The only ways round that, would be to either import a battery from the EU and fit it to the car (in which case, they're so expensive to ship, that the car manufacturers will probably just decide to build the whole car in the EU), or build the batteries here.

 

[JohnD]

Hence the taxpayer hand-out.

 

[IT Minion]

40GWh of cells a year is a full sized factory, great news.

But it isn't the largest planned. Tesla Giga factory Berlin is designed to produce 50GWh and should be starting to produce them this year. Northvolt is already in full flow and is going up to 60GWh. I think they've got another three of the same size planned or in progress.