Electric Vehicles EVs

But that fast charge is apparently ~8 times the price so people will still want to charge at home

That seems wildly optimistic and a real legal minefield.

Plus, it's just going to empower bell ends who think they have a right to park outside their house.

Yeah, I assume the price will inevitably fall as more and more people switch.

Fast chargers still work out about the same cost per mile as petrol. The advantage of charging at home is it makes motoring substantially cheaper per mile than it previously has been. I don't know how that's meant to be a good thing.

(we're not far away from the day when EVs are cheaper to build than ICE, so no one needs incentivising)

Fast chargers still work out about the same cost per mile as petrol

Only until there are enough EVs on the road that the fuel tax is missed and some sort of scheme comes in to replace that.

So your motivation in commandeering public space is avoiding an imaginary future tax?

Are any car companies developing swappable battery cars? Would obviously need massive infrastructure development but just daydreaming here: you could have cars where the whole battery pack could drop out of the bottom of the car. You pull up to a petrol station or services and like an auto car wash, the wheels are lined up in a track and an automated machine lifts out your battery and replaces with a fully charged one. You can go from empty to 400 miles range in 30 seconds. Nobody ever has to recharge at home. You pay a small monthly battery rental fee.
Would really open up the possibilities for long range HGVs too.
And you get rid of the problem of 10 year old cars having shit batteries and becoming worthless. As the battery isn't a part of the car. EVs could run indefinitely on the maintained network of batteries

I think you have me confused. I don't think people should be running cables through channels on the pavement.

Are any car companies developing swappable battery cars?

Yes, for example Nio. Apparently launching in the UK later this year. Or at least that was the plan last year.

This is good, but won't work until batteries have got to a fully mature level. For now they are increasing range, then when that gets to a certain level, will get smaller/lighter. So your 10yr old car will have dodgy weight distribution (if it can even fit the new batteries).
And then there's getting manufacturers to agree a standard.

Yes battery swap is a thing, https://youtu.be/hNZy603as5w?si=aUEqoZg-9jAwd-Gr

Sweet, that's literally exactly how I imagined it would work.

They can't agree on a universal phone charging port, we really going to get car manufacturers to agree on a universal battery standard?

They've standardised the EV charging port.

Neo Chinese electric car company

Usb is literally the standard charging port in the EU for phones.

We're considering getting a second hand PHEV, I'd love to get an EV but we're in a terrace house and considering their higher price I don't think we'd get value for money as the car would be for occasional long trips to see family and a few short London journeys per month. So I'm thinking of a compromise and have been looking at Plug in Hybrids. They seem to have a small electric range (c.30 miles) and a small petrol motor for long journeys which sounds good for our use case.

We'd want something fairly tidy and spacious enough for a new family, so had been looking at 2nd hand Kia Xceed, or A Class which seem to have the best EV range in class of 45 miles. Any other thoughts? Are there any pitfalls with PHEVs?

Maybe major value decrease in two years time where everybody wants EV, perhaps.

How are you going to charge it?

I know there's a recent trend of knocking PHEV because they are often small engines moving a heavy car and creating more pollution, but if you have a drive and do short journeys it's a no brainier Imo, as 99% of your journeys become electric.

However, without an easy ability to charge then I'm not sure it's worth it, and keeping your existing car prob makes more sense.

Yeah, friends with a PHEV and no home charger never ever plug it in.

If you are gonna use a street charger anyway, why not a pure EV?

I fail to understand PHEVs except as a range anxiety sticking plaster.

Solution looking for problem IMO

Surprised you can't buy them at Lakeland.. .

Because you do a mix of short journeys and occasional long journeys?

Classic case in point BiL: in Holland has a Zoe. Perfect for their use case. There was a family event in Norfolk, they effectively couldn't drive because of the charging restrictions for that journey.

Conversely in our ICE we did almost* the mirror of that journey including a stop off in Ghent without any considerations

*obvs not Norfolk but still.

I do except that range anxiety is often misplaced.

If you wanted to go to Manchester for the weekend, it's around 200miles each way. So realistically you should be able to drive up there, sit in a couple of traffic jams, run an errand and then top up over night. The same on the way back.

I fail to understand PHEVs except as a range anxiety sticking plaster.

Non plug-in PHEVs (HEVs?) do my head in a bit, but even those are more efficient than the ICE only, despite the extra complexity of carrying a battery and electric motor in the place of the gearbox.

Whether that complexity is worth it compared to the additional MPG is up to the consumer. For me, it looks marginal (we get 55mpg on our ICE, mum gets 70 on her non plug in HEV).

But used 'correctly' some of the emissions that would happen 'around town' get emitted 'elsewhere' where, perhaps in theory, they could be less harmful.