Electric cars: have you got one?

Then you’ll like my post here, assuming you’ve not already read it. As you can see, my brother still owns a pretty immaculate 105E. My Dad’s 100E, funnily enough, is three posts further down #128 :

Your favourite car or bike that you owned.

 

Funny you should post that, it reminded me of the wonderful Jack Benny at the gas station and his cheap battery from his TV series in 1956 - he was famously tight with his money in the show.

I love this scene (battery about 1:54, but whole thing is a joy and a testament to his frugality):

 

EV 3p and Hybrid 1.5p pay per mile from 28/29. Like to see how this will work.
Ho hum

 

This had to come eventually. How else will you fix all those pot-holes!!

 

Well there you go. You know a product is mature & successful when the Gov keep finding new ways to tax it!

[RANT]
And I'm amused that they are happy to [re]make the link between any kind of car related tax & repairing the roads. In the past they wanted us regular folk to stop calling it "road tax" because its a tax on car ownership and it all goes into a huge piggy-bank for general expenditure.
[/RANT]

I'll whisper this so that they don't hear me, but I'm surprised that they don't [openly] tax the Internet.
It would be so easy to have an 'internet ownership' tax (a few pennies on your broadband connection), a 'luxury surfing' tax (you pay more for faster connections above, say, 128Mb/sec), an 'Internet highway' tax (a few pence for every GB that you 'drive')...

I'm moving in to Number 11 in 2 weeks!

 

Steve
Remember the diesel car fiasco.
Buy diesel the greatest thing since sliced bread then they became the devil. Costing firms and individuals millions in another dead end.
EVs are the same the rabid push on them has now spawned into a cash grab. At least the diesel vehicles could be refueled on nearly every street corner.

 

I certainly do remember Gordon Brown telling me (over a pint of heavy) to buy diesel.
The gov have at least honoured their commitment on emissions/tax such that our diesel Yeti still only costs £35/year to tax. But our EV cost £197

Not anymore. Our nearest diesel pump is no closer than our nearest public charger. And of course our nearest personal charger is within 7.5m of our car.

I've started investing in a venture to produce a DIY diesel kit. It will come with a flatpack nodding donkey, a chemistry kit and a spade.
In 2035 I expect to see orders flooding in from you guys, trying to keep you old cars running!

 

Ah ha

you have 2 cars
Diesel and EV
Hedging your bets I like it.

 

Ah ha ha ha!

I would have been happy to keep the Yeti in addition to the ev.
But a couple of days ago, #3 son drove it away!

I won't miss topping it up with Adblue every couple of months, or putting on a diesel glove to pump it full of sticky, smelly, expensive stuff, or wiping the dip-stick, or paying the routine service bills...

 

Seems I was wrong - they’re not waiting that long after all.

 

As you can imagine, I've been soaking up as much MG ev info as I can find, and making a nuisance of myself, over on the MG ev forum: MG MGS5 EV Forum

From there, I've discovered the ev database: EV Database
...and thought I'd share this range graphic with you;

It illustrates a test they perform on all the listed ev cars...



...and It gives my MG a pretty low range star rating, as you can see.

Looking at the Tesla 3 Long Range, I see it has a 4.5* rating, but way, way out of my price range.

These charts are reassessed (annually I think) due to new, better range models taking the 5* slot, and pushing the rest down.


BTW: for the 1-stop test, the Tesla 3 managed 498miles (mild weather), 428miles (average conditions) & 374miles (cold weather)

 

Did he?

All the best

Andreas

 

The drum brakes are standard on the ID series, mine has it as well. They are sealed for life and expected to last beyond the life of the vehicle. Reason is that you have regenerative braking, so the initial braking load is on the electrics, before you get to the actual brakes. It's essentially as if you have a built-in, must-use engine brake in the ICEV.

All the best

Andreas

 

While I don't object to an additional tax on EV (in addition to purchase tax (20%), vehicle (ownership) tax, & vat on electricity). I do object to an estimated mileage tax; I.e. the BBC suggested that you'd estimate your mileage for the coming year, pay tax during the year, then argue about over/under payment at the end of the year!
You don't pay-per-mile with an old school ICE. You pay via fuel useage.
This is how it must be implemented on an EV.
Just make it a legal requirement that all EV must keep a long term record of energy use (kW/hr) in that same way that all vehicles must with mileage.
Those EV that do not already have this feature can easily be upgraded. Its only software, & can often be done OTA, while you sleep!

 

You would need to be able to discern between types of charges. The idea that you whack a surcharge on e.g. Gridserve's already eye-watering prices is not workable.

Like every tax idea this government has come up with, this one is stupid, contrary to its own objectives, open to abuse and unworkable. It's clear that whatever brains HMT once had have long since left the building.

All the best

Andreas

 

No, don't tax the charger networks.

They would have to pass on the tax, their tax collection costs, all multiplied by their profit margin.
They probably already pay 5% vat.

No, the data has to come from the car.

I'm a strong believer that people have a right to grumble & complain about paying tax, but have a duty to pay it. (Otherwise Thatcher was right, there is no such thing as Society).

 

Re the tax Steve. Most of us have paid the right tax through their lives because thats life.
Many business people purchased EV vans for the cities to comply with emissions only to be clobbered a few years down the line with charges. Now a tax on mileage for EVs clobbers people who thought they would be cheapish to run and good for the environment ( although tell that to the poor souls who glow after a day down the rare earth mineral mines). I would like to see how the bunch of clowns will tax it.

To assist all you EV drivers we need to fire up the coal burning power stations. Drill the North sea oil/gas and place mini nuclear power stations around the country. Hopefully you will get cheaper power and more chargers.

But wait we have wind farms and solar panel fields so all will be (oil) well.

 

A wind turbine needs over 500 tons of concrete per megawatt of capacity. Try hauling that to the site with electric vehicles.