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[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

There are not many public chargers in Barnsley, unsurprisingly. The ones I come across are in three groups of two chargers. One group in a public car park and two in supermarkets (Asda and Lidl). I've seen a taxi charging at Lidl once, the other two locations, presuming they are working ok, have never had a car parked in them. Draw your own conclusions.

Could the reason for not being many cars at supermarket chargers, it's the same here at the Sainsbury near me where the chargers rarely have any takers. due to the fact that owners charge at home due to the high cost of using these public ones. 

I thought supermarket chargers were free.

Also, in addition to the prohibitive cost of most chargers you need to add the cost of coffee and a sticky bun while waiting for the PP9 to charge.

Also, you may need to queue up only to find the charger is f*ucked, or the app won't work.

[ronnyd]

There are not many public chargers in Barnsley, unsurprisingly. The ones I come across are in three groups of two chargers. One group in a public car park and two in supermarkets (Asda and Lidl). I've seen a taxi charging at Lidl once, the other two locations, presuming they are working ok, have never had a car parked in them. Draw your own conclusions.

Could the reason for not being many cars at supermarket chargers, it's the same here at the Sainsbury near me where the chargers rarely have any takers. due to the fact that owners charge at home due to the high cost of using these public ones. 

I thought supermarket chargers were free.

Also, in addition to the prohibitive cost of most chargers you need to add the cost of coffee and a sticky bun while waiting for the PP9 to charge.

Also, you may need to queue up only to find the charger is f*ucked, or the app won't work.

Seems they charge (no pun meant) between 25p and 75p per kWh. A few are free though.

[Varche]

Germany and Italy are rebelling against the ridiculous ev quotas so maybe traditional fuels will get a reprieve.

New car sales are down and redundancies are around in the car makers.

Now will Britain follow suit or stick with the pain?

[Sir Tigger KC]

Germany and Italy are rebelling against the ridiculous ev quotas so maybe traditional fuels will get a reprieve.

New car sales are down and redundancies are around in the car makers.

Now will Britain follow suit or stick with the pain?

Given we now have Mad Red Ed Millipede in charge, I expect he will stick with it come hell or high water! 

Apparently he's bringing back the Boiler Tax which are the same kind of fines levied against the boiler manufacturers for not selling enough heat pumps. Tosser! 

[Lizzie Zoom]

I don t think anyone has mentioned it yet, but one reason for the lack of interest in electric cars by private buyers is the great concern over the cost of a replacement battery system after about 10 years.  The shortage of those battery units is also an issue.

But with a cost of around £10,000 (so I have heard) for a new unit, who is going to be mad enough to buy a car with that possible cost hanging over your head?  Second hand petrol cars have their expensive "issues" that you encounter after purchase, but the threat of a huge cost with a used electric car is beyond any level of common sense.  In addition, as the majority of ev's are being bought for company use, their potential high mileage will mean that the battery will become life extinct at an early age.  So the potential huge cost of a new battery will come sooner than anyone would want! 

Thank goodness my Omega can last another good few years, God willing, and I will not want one of these millstones on wheels!

[TheBoy]

One of our storage engineers had a hybrid Golf that developed a battery issue that caused problems driving even in non hybrid modes.

So at 5 years old, he was presented with a £17k bill to supply and fit a new battery pack and controller.

[Doctor Gollum]

The depreciation alone would pay for an actual car.

[STEMO]

There's a lot more to worry about than depreciation, depending on which EV you buy:

The HUGE differences in electric car efficiency revealed https://mol.im/a/13882577
That's a bit of a long read, but when you get down to the bit about cost per mile, home charging just about beats diesel, public charging is much more expensive than diesel or petrol.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I could charge one for free at work, but still dont fancy having one.

[Doctor Gollum]

There's a lot more to worry about than depreciation, depending on which EV you buy:

The HUGE differences in electric car efficiency revealed https://mol.im/a/13882577
That's a bit of a long read, but when you get down to the bit about cost per mile, home charging just about beats diesel, public charging is much more expensive than diesel or petrol.

Interesting that they chose not to show any data from the 'affordable' Chinesey EVs

[Viral_Jim]

That's a bit of a long read, but when you get down to the bit about cost per mile, home charging just about beats diesel, public charging is much more expensive than diesel or petrol.

Due to various circumstances, we have now taken the iX Fugly wagon to just over 6,000 miles since late June. In that time we have mostly charged at home with a smattering of free charging at my work (competition for the small number of spaces means I often CBA to get there early enough to guarantee a space).

Excluding freebies, the car costs 7p/kwh to charge at home and is doing an average of 2.8 miles /kwh. Which is not amazing but means it costs me  2.5p/mile worst case. A diesel equivalent car (assuming diesel is £1.39/l) would have to do around 253mpg to deliver the equivalent fuel cost.

In terms of overall cost, the car is £560pcm for a fully maintained lease for 20,000 miles per year. Add in the electrons to do those miles (assuming no freebies) and you get a total cost of £602pcm. Compared to my chrysler, doing the same at 35mpg

Fuel £301pcm
Insurance (£560pa) £47pcm
Tax (£415pa) £36pcm
DIY servicing & MOT (£150 pa)  £13pcm
Depreciation (£1000 pa assuming £4k car goes to £1k over 80,000 miles & 4yrs) £83pcm
Total: £480pcm
This also doesn't include any repairs, tyres, wiper blades etc etc.

So I am paying at most £122 per month (likely much less in reality) to ride around in something that's quicker, quieter, more comfortable, brand new and never needs me to lie underneath it on a wet afternoon because something has stopped working. In my book that's pretty good value, and if I went for something less upmarket like a tesla, that £600pcm would be more like £400. For me, the BMW actually worked out cheaper as it meant I could persuade SWMBO out of her Evoque so we went from three cars to two  (Or we will do as soon as I can get shut of the enormous american lawn ornament I currently have the misfortune of owning!).

So I would say they do work financially, but only really as a lease proposition. I would never buy a new one with my own money; but then again I wouldn't buy a new petrol/diesel car either. I would 100% buy something like a 3yr old ev that has been hammered by depreciation as I think they would be very cost effective to run and actually, as a commuter car, are much nicer than a diesel.

Clearly there are horror stories going around with battery packs, many of which I am sure are accurate. But I also think a lot of that is to do with a lack of independents specialising in EVs. So owners' only recourse is main dealers, who don't have mechanics any more, only children with laptops and component changers, and the only component they can change is the entire battery pack. So that's what you get, a new pack.   

[Lizzie Zoom]

One of our storage engineers had a hybrid Golf that developed a battery issue that caused problems driving even in non hybrid modes.

So at 5 years old, he was presented with a £17k bill to supply and fit a new battery pack and controller.

Yep.  That confirms my fear.  Who privately, apart from the likes of Elon Musk, can afford that?!

[Viral_Jim]

Saw this pop up in a Twitter/X thread. Someone has definitely saved their money in petrol/diesel. Be interested to know if the car made it that far on its original internals. 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406120677042

[Lizzie Zoom]

Saw this pop up in a Twitter/X thread. Someone has definitely saved their money in petrol/diesel. Be interested to know if the car made it that far on its original internals. 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406120677042

At that mileage I would not touch it.  As I have said, the battery pack will always be a worry, and this is especially true of this one.  I note that in the description it is stated there is a “BATTERY FAULT” right at the start, so a real concern about this vehicle.

[johnnydog]

Probably one reason why it was disposed of through BCA where the CarShop 365 bought it from...... be interesting to know if the battery fault was actually declared by the seller or whether it was sold with no appraisal report and therefore no redress....