Kot wrote:

IanMetro wrote:

Perhaps there should be a national scheme that loaned an EV vehicle to all car owners for a week.

Will they install and loan an ev charger as well

Lucky you…..what do you do if you live in a terraced house where you’re lucky if you can find a parking place, never mind a charger?

Use a public charger? Not as cost effective, the price will lower and more chargers will be installed as demand goes up. Fossil fuel isn’t going to get cheaper and synthetic fuel will not become viable until the oil companies profits start to drop.

EV’s are not the answer and may not work for everyone right now.

Having an EV works for us and running costs are lower than any car we have owned for the past 20 years. Having previously owned an Outlander PHEV with high mileage my fears of battery degradation were put to bed.
Only downside we have encountered is that when something electric related needs attention qualified mechanics are in short supply and high demand.

Still can’t beat the Freely though as a do it all vehicle. Unfortunately It costs us too much to run nowadays and I might be taking a work van to replace it as the BIK is cheaper than running the old girl.

Use a public charger?
Get home from work, have your tea then go out to some public charger and sit in the car doing crossword puzzle until bedtime, go home, find parking place.


Well after 2 days of an electric Mini Cooper s (73 reg)
With its outstanding (NOT) range of 105 miles
Which rapidly drops with aircon used .
I am so glad to see the back of it….with45 mls left on it

An expensive toy for only using to pop into town and back.
Would be ideal if you wanted to charge it up every night at home
But not for serious use .

It’s like having a 2 gallon petrol tank

I note that I change my FL2 display from 'Average MPG' to 'Miles to Empty' at about 100 miles when my Range Anxiety kicks in.
This has nothing to do with EV experience, but has somehow become part of my driving worries.

So I hate to think of the psychological re-training that I would need with an EV with just over 100 miles range. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Yes, it brings back memories of when I was 17 and ran my Austin A35 pickup ( the one with the external mounted spare wheel) on the regulation half gallon in the tank .

I don’t understand having an ev with a hundred miles (ish) range.
An expensive shopping car that needs constantly topping up.

I didn’t think the driving experience was any better in a mini ev so I am b d if I will change
from what I like just because it’s the latest fad.

Its an ever changing market

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68935522

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9rznkq3vqro

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72pvz18x4lo

The future of UK motoring seems quite uncertain to me Jules

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cld0l7r6y72o

Electric Tesla vehicles trialled by police force

I wonder if this is partly in response to the awful death of a police officer when his BMW engine exploded at high speed engulfing the car in burning fuel. Jules

IanMetro wrote:

I note that I change my FL2 display from 'Average MPG' to 'Miles to Empty' at about 100 miles when my Range Anxiety kicks in.
This has nothing to do with EV experience, but has somehow become part of my driving worries.

So I hate to think of the psychological re-training that I would need with an EV with just over 100 miles range.

Or space out the parking lots

This would solve the problem at the stroke of a paint brush.

No extra reinforcing costs to mitigate the lower revenue from parking

Mowog wrote:

Use a public charger?
Get home from work, have your tea then go out to some public charger and sit in the car doing crossword puzzle until bedtime, go home, find parking place.


Well after 2 days of an electric Mini Cooper s (73 reg)
With its outstanding (NOT) range of 105 miles
Which rapidly drops with aircon used .
I am so glad to see the back of it….with45 mls left on it

An expensive toy for only using to pop into town and back.
Would be ideal if you wanted to charge it up every night at home
But not for serious use .

It’s like having a 2 gallon petrol tank

Not been converted then

100 miles is about how far Mrs travels all week with school runs and working part time and car needs charging once a week which costs £1.80 at home or £6.00 on a public charger. You wouldn’t need to be in the car just charge when you are doing other things if you don’t have a home charger. 30 mins would get about 80 miles on a public charger. I’m sure nearly all off us park our car somewhere for 30 mins each week. If you do more than 100 miles and don’t have access to a charger at home or work then an EV isn’t for you.

It isn’t keeping up with the Jones’s it’s purely a cost decision for us as it is the cheapest way of running a car right now. I do prefer EV to fossil fuel for a run around car, however I still have a petrol powered motorbike for smiles a diesel freely for utility and a diesel transit van for work.

Yes that scenario sounds perfect.
I was shocked to find the electric mini courtesy car only had a 100 ml range though.
I am realising now it’s all about the battery size that will fit in a small car.
It reminds me of the first mobile phones.

jules wrote:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cld0l7r6y72o

Electric Tesla vehicles trialled by police force

I wonder if this is partly in response to the awful death of a police officer when his BMW engine exploded at high speed engulfing the car in burning fuel.

Kot wrote:

IanMetro wrote:

I note that I change my FL2 display from 'Average MPG' to 'Miles to Empty' at about 100 miles when my Range Anxiety kicks in.
This has nothing to do with EV experience, but has somehow become part of my driving worries.

So I hate to think of the psychological re-training that I would need with an EV with just over 100 miles range.

Even more anxiety when you know 100 mile range in an ice is what it says on the tin and as fuel is used the weight of the car reduces lol but is 100 mile range in an ev so black and white?

Also there is concern that older multi storey car parks could be over loaded. Some quotes below.

The average weight of an electric vehicle is 2,276kg, compared to 1,914kg for a comparable ICE vehicle. That’s a difference of 362kg across the board. While this won’t make too much difference with just a few EVs on the road, the more people switch, the heavier our daily traffic will become.

Are car parks really at risk of collapse?

At the moment, the risk of collapse isn’t a pressing concern, and is instead something that experts and engineers are looking to mitigate well before it becomes an issue. Structural engineer and car park consultant Chris Whapples, who is working with the government to write new guidance for multi-storeys said that “there definitely is the potential for some of the early car parks in poor condition to collapse.” However, he also emphasised that there’s no immediate cause for alarm.

As well as advising on load bearing requirements, the guidance also stipulates that maintenance of these buildings should be improved to better monitor their condition and avoid structural problems in the future. It’s estimated that there are 6,000 multi-storey car parks in the UK, many of which were built in the 1960s and 1970s when car usage was much less prevalent.

The sale of electric cars has increased steadily over recent years. In 2018, only 15,510 new electric cars were sold in the UK, but this number has shot up to 267,203 in 2022. With the publishing of the government’s Zero Emissions vehicle mandate, which restricts the sale of ICE vehicles, we’ll continue to see more EVs on British roads, and in our ageing car parks. Unless we take action, there’s a real possibility that some of these structures could collapse in the future.

What needs to be done to accommodate more EVs in multi-storey car parks?

Along with Russell Simmons, the chair of the British Parking Association’s structures group, Chris Whapples has drawn up new guidance to increase the amount of weight the concrete floors in car parks are able to hold. While the loading limit is currently 2.5 kilonewtons per square metre, the recommendation is to increase this to 3 kilonewtons per square metre.

For some car parks, this can be achieved by renovating the existing structure, or knocking it down to build new premises that have been designed to withstand the new weight requirements. However, budget restraints or environmental circumstances may mean that these improvements can’t be achieved. These car parks will instead have to reduce the weight limit of vehicles allowed on site, or restrict EVs to parking on the ground floor only.

At present, these are guidelines only, and there’s no immediate cause for concern. But with thousands of car parks to get up to code, it’s important to consider the need for improvements and clear legislation sooner rather than later.

Mowog wrote:

Yes that scenario sounds perfect.
I was shocked to find the electric mini courtesy car only had a 100 ml range though.
I am realising now it’s all about the battery size that will fit in a small car.
It reminds me of the first mobile phones.