Actually there are companies who will come out and charge you up from the roadside if you have run out of juice. Doubt it's cheap though. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322)

Definitely, a sign of the times until EV points become as common as petrol stations!

With the government changing the road tax for EV's so virtually all will pay £165 if registered after 2017 (the bulk of tesla's) together with the Expensive Car Supplement exemption for EVs which is due to end in 2025. New zero-emission cars registered on or after 1 April 2025 will be liable to pay the expensive car supplement where eligible (currently those with a list price of or exceeding £40,000 are liable)

This announcement was generally not picked up by the media in the 'larger' mess of the last two budgets, change of chancellors etc.

This was always going to happen as the Government saw dropping road tax revenue but I was surprised how quickly it happened - most likely due to the government ' looking down the back of the sofa' for revenue at the moment

I was seriously considering making the change next time around, but this has made me think a little, although an EV would be a lot cheaper to tax than my current car, though if you can afford a reasonable spec tesla or similar I guess that the road tax will be the last thing that is on anyone's mind. Might affect business use though as the tax breaks have also gone I believe on personal car tax !

I hope they all got a charge and got to their families in time for Christmas ! L405 4.4 V8 Vogue SE Santorini Black
RRS L390 4.2 S/C Stornoway Grey
Classic Range Rover Overfinch 5.7 - their first prototype - under restoration
Late Range Rover P38
Range Rover 3.9 Classic Softdash
Range Rover Classic Overfinch 5.7 - Sadly gone
Disco 3 - Gone
Disco 2 - Gone
TD5 - Gone

Its just human nature to pick up on such stories. There are countless examples of society taking an interest in other peoples misfortune - none of us can say we have never done it. Bet most of them went home to their gas fired centrally heated houses!. Just like the vegetarian wearing leather shoes.

Personally this story just tells me these folks cant organise themselves very well.

Fair play to the early EV adopters but those that change to EV now do so in the full knowledge the infrastructure beyond their own homes is woefully inadequate. 405 AB exec seats Baltic and Cirrus
93 RR Classic efi

Remember it's easier to get forgiveness than permission!

Gone in order:
4.4 TDV8 SE - gone to a good home
93 Classic hard dash Plymouth Blue
03 L322 Oslo Blue
2000 Disco TD5 ES Epsom Green
98 P38 Rioja Red
89 Classic Cairngorm Brown

If only there were more chargers …

RutlandBoy wrote:

Definitely, a sign of the times until EV points become as common as petrol stations!

Things have moved on a little since the often quoted 40 minutes, some EV's can now do 18 minutes (800v), still a decent amount of time but it will improve I'm sure. BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

SWMBO starts panicking if we travel in remote areas in a Petrol or diesel car, god knows what she’d be like with an electric

I’ve moved to a battery powered hoover, strimmer, and hedge trimmer. The Henry hoover is the oldest at 6 years and the original batteries have gone from 30 minutes running time when new to 10 minutes running time now. My 5 year old mobile phone needs charging 2 or 3 times a day depending on usage.

What’s different that will stop these electric cars becoming £50k paper weights in 7 or 8 years?

Replacing batteries on hoovers and phones is relatively cheap, I would imagine replacing one in an electric car is not!!

Simple answer - active battery management. Heating or cooling as required and compared to power tools and phones a much slower charge rate. BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

"compared to power tools and phones a much slower charge rate." - surely this is a contradiction when all of the focus is on making charging faster?
My understanding is that the faster you charge the more heat you create which then causes more damage to the battery?

Putting aside queuing & paying for factors.

Once I pull up at the diesel pump with an almost empty fuel tank & in something like two minutes have enough fuel to last me 600 miles.

Just imagine the size of the cable & socket required to do the same with an EV.

AJG can bang on as much as he likes but I just don't see that happening.

We may see some form of induction charging but I would not want to go anywhere near that personally.

Charging for a big trip is likley to be done slowly and at home. Charging away from home will be just to top up or give you enough to get you home or to an overnight charging area. The main issue now is not charging rates but overall battery capacity which will inevitably improve. There would be no ques at service stations with >500mile ranges. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322)

I can't see why a system of swapping batteries couldn't be adopted, it can't be impossible to standardise a battery that you swap for a charged one when required.
It works with FLTs and other industrial machines, I've seen batteries changed in under 3 min which is a lot quicker that I can fill mine up from empty.

That would be an option even if it was just a smaller battery to get you say 50miles like topping up with a 5L can of fuel. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322)

cass wrote:

"compared to power tools and phones a much slower charge rate." - surely this is a contradiction when all of the focus is on making charging faster?
My understanding is that the faster you charge the more heat you create which then causes more damage to the battery?

JayGee wrote:

Charging for a big trip is likley to be done slowly and at home. Charging away from home will be just to top up or give you enough to get you home or to an overnight charging area. The main issue now is not charging rates but overall battery capacity which will inevitably improve. There would be no ques at service stations with >500mile ranges.