New cars are ludicrously expensive, especially EVs.
The most I can afford to spend on a car is maybe £14K, and that's under the proviso that about £4K of that is my own money and the rest is a loan to be paid off over about 6 or 7 years.
So yeah, I'm going secondhand ICE with about 50K miles on the clock and praying it doesn't die before the loan is paid off (and preferably longer still so I can save a bit more towards the next one).
I'm all for EVs, but they've got to bring the price down, and they've got to get the batteries to last long enough for the secondhand market to be viable.
And even if there are chargers installed around the building, not everyone can park directly next to their home anyway. Our building has several hundred flats yet only a couple dozen parking spots around it. Sure, far from everyone there has cars at all, and some can afford a place in the underground parking, but that still leaves a lot of people to park on the streets around.
Certainly something that needs to be addressed by them, or manufacturers will not be able to sell them. They will be punished unless they help with solutions.
I’ve seen several possibilities floated around here, so we have 12 years to build out one or more of them
landlords with off street parking can be incented or required to provide chargers, by zoning changes. Also at some point they won’t be able to find tenants unless they do
faster batteries will help reduce the wait time if you visit a supercharger once a week. It seems like we’re already down to half an hour to charge 5%—>80%
slow chargers at every destination (work, shops, restaurants) can keep you always topped off cheaply and without waiting
some street parking is conducive to charging, such as with pre-existing streetlight wiring
I bought my 2yo BMW i3 EV in 2019 for £18k. Granted, they weren't as popular back then, but cheaper second hand EVs do exist. You just can't go for the big SUV types.
Just hit 60k miles with my only issue being a broken suspension mount. Damn potholes.
Battery prices per kWh dropped 87% from 2010 to 2020. It's likely to be around the same over the next decade--there's tons of money pouring into research, and we're far from theoretical limits. This is not going to be a problem by 2030.
This is one of the things a deadline like this should help with. Manufacturers know they need to sell a certain percentage of EVs, going to 100% on a specific date. They can’t just build them, they have to sell them. If EVs are still too expensive, they won’t be able to sell them, and the manufacturer is out of luck
Not great news there yet: "There was also a provision for manufacturers of fewer than 2,500 cars a year that exempts them from the rules until 2030. The British sports car makers Aston Martin Lagonda and McLaren both argued that they would be unable to meet the targets"
Here is a good electric sports car from a small high-quality manufacturer like the ones you mention, but it is from the Netherlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aTzuUrdyIc
All new cars and vans bought in the UK must be zero emission by 2035, according to the latest legal mandate updated this week.
The government says this is giving consumers more time to make the switch and deal with the UK's charging infrastructure.
While the government points to statistics indicating a 41 percent increase in zero-emission vehicles registered for the first time – note, the vast majority of newly registered vehicles still remain conventionally powered – charging infrastructure is an altogether different story.
According to research from RAC, a local roadside assistance business, the government has failed to meet its target of having six or more rapid or ultra-rapid electric vehicle chargers at every motorway service area in England.
EV owners are faced with a bewildering array of charging options, from using a UK three-pin plug through various types and speeds up to the latest and greatest from Tesla.
Finally, the government's plans also fail to tackle that other challenge faced by EV drivers: finding a public charge point that actually works.
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