Is the Country Truly Geared up for Electric Cars?
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Following the announcement that New petrol and diesel cars will stop manufacturing from 2030. What’s your thoughts on this, my thoughts are that the United Kingdom is a very long way off being ready fo the inevitable switch to electric cars, mainly the charging points. For instance how would you charge cars belonging to all the residents in bocks of flats, residents where their cars cannot be parked near to their houses?
Whats your thoughts?
Hubby and I were just talking about this the other day. I like the idea of cheaper fuel but am a bit concerned about the range as we like to travel a bit. I'd give it go if they were more accessible.
The uni opposite has several charge points in parking spaces for their cars so I'd guess that may be the same set up for flats
I think a LOT more work needs to happen on the supporting infrastructure first. Currently, it is difficult (and stressful) trying to locate charging points. I also think the technology needs to be improved so that cars can travel further between charges.
I cant see it actually being done for 2030. Where I live me must have about 10/15 charging points for about 30k people.
We are a long long long way off and unless massive change and investment then we wont hit the 2030 target. The amount of charging points needs a huge increase or mega fast charging points. They also need to make sure that electric cars are affordable which currently out prices a lot of people.
Yes that was my thinking, I’d love my next car to be electric but the prices are far far too expensive for me and can’t see that changing. There’s also the issue of how we supply the extra needed electricity. Even at present times we are almost at capacity on the supply.
Uniqueone I would love to have an electric car but the charging points in non existent near me. I would also love to able to use the sun to charge a car but i cant see that happening for a long time as you cant make profit from that lol.
Electric vehicle's are just a stop gap to keep the car industry and economy ticking over. In the long run they are no cleaner that petrol. Hydrogen vehicle's will take over from electric we will be told to ditch electric
I’m a firm believer in that, the technology is there but these i believe are being suppressed by the oil companies until oil is depleted then these companies will have a monopoly on future technologies.
Where I live local Asda has 2 electric charging points , but the spaces are always take-up by people without electric cars, so you wouldn't be able to use them even if you had an electric car. If I had an electric car I could see me forgetting to charge it every night anyway, Can't even remember to charge my phone each day .
Once commercial transport (trucks , busses and vans ) becomes mainly electric it may be a sign that the infrastructure is adequate .
Was very surprised to learn that most of the large fleet operators (Tesco , Morrisons , Knights , Stubart etc) replace their lorries every 2-3 years (the old ones go to Africa or Eastern Europe) .
When they start buying electric lorries it will be a sign that there are enough charging points . Although I doubt there is the huge profit margin on lorries as there is on cars ?
There are 2 charging places where I live so definitely not a good option yet. 2 questions will country have enough money after all the extra pandemic money for all the extra charging stations necessary and while electricity is still largely made from fossil fuels do we not need greener options
I suspect people are going to end up keeping their petrol and diesel cars beyond that time period and many vehicles that would have been scrapped earlier will be kept on the road for longer.
For short trips people really need to be using e-bikes rather than moving 2 tonnes of metal everywhere they go.
Maybe future families will typically have an older car for longer family journeys and ebikes for general commuting.
Buying new electric vehicles is not good for the environment, all the resources in manufacturing them and currently much of the power used to run them is generated by fossil fuels.
Pushing more people onto ebikes will also help the obesity situation of this country.
BonzoBanana I'm curious
I'm not too up on ebikes, but how would that help obesity? Do you still have to pedal them? Excuse my ignorance.
As for electric cars, the nearest charging point for us is 10 miles away, so not really good for us and we wouldn't be able to install a point at our place.
I think that 2030 is a pipe dream.
TheChimp There were ebikes previously that you could control them purely by a throttle control but those are illegal to sell now, you can still use them if you have one bought before the cut off date but generally all ebikes you have to pedal for the motor to operate so in theory you always get some exercise. Many just mainly use the motor for the hills. The motor cuts off at 15.5mph anyway so if you want to go faster than that you have to pedal. Of course many operate ebikes outside the law, they have de-restricted them or made them operate without pedalling.
It will be interesting to see if we actually
Are. There are more electric cars on the rod so who knows
They can put as many on the road as they want, but the infrastructure won’t be there, as well as the enormous amount of electricity we need to charge them.
They'll probably make it hard or near impossible for people to keep driving their own cars, but they'll be around. For people who only use public transport they likely don't mind it and agree regardless.
"It's just cars."
"It's for the environment."
"It's no big deal."
"We can use public transport and taxis."
"It's just our freedom."
"It's just being restricted a little."
"It's just not being able to do what we used to. The new normal. Time to get used to."
TRUTH ?Not in the slightest .For a brilliant and viable answer you look at how do u achieve this dream and if you dont have enough charging points then how are the vehicles gonna keep moving when you cannot get to the chargers. This just is 1 suggestion . I think everyone agrees that the tax charged on fuels is to high . Rather than the rate of tax being cut and hoping the fuel companies pass on the savings as they use every excuse under the sun to not lower the price but push it up when oil prices rise they go up that instant . What they should do is every vehicle registered with the dvla with the tax money raised is install home charging points to any car registered .
I wish they'd swap from driving on the left side to the right side, but that's not going to happen.
While the UK is in the minority of the world driving on the left side, about 30% of the world drive on the left compared to 70% on the right it has been shown that driving on the left is safer with less road casualties and deaths typically. The human body prioritises its right side, we have better control on the right side typically, we use our right hand to write and we see more movement with our right eye which is why its safer and better to drive on the left side with our right eye towards the middle of the road.
Bicycles always have their gearing on the right side which is how we designed it so that it is the opposite side to the pavement etc which could damage the derailleur etc if it hits it. It's still on the right side even in countries that drive on the right side so 70% of the world uses the wrong design of bikes on their roads.
I think it could end in disaster. If you were to go on the motorway and something went wrong there could be a serious accident
Most of the city centres seem fine, as they’ve spent a lot of money to get the infrastructure ready, but obviously anywhere outside is questionable
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