15 years ago the only affordable option for the mainstream consumer who wanted an electric car was the G-Wiz.
It was an 8ft 6in by 4ft 3in vehicle that could hide behind a Smart car. It was classed as a “heavy quadricycle” and was exported to America under the condition of a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour.
Nowadays, things have changed. There are plenty of options available on the market. The United Kingdom has 150,000 ultra-low-emission cars that are registered.
Additionally, UK plans to become the best place in the world for building and owning an electric vehicle. Vehicles with combustion engines are planned to be banned by 2040. The government knows that it is impossible to achieve this without creating a comfortable environment for driving them. It plans to expand the network of charging points and to provide more incentives for buying new electric vehicles.
At the moment only 0.4 percent of the registered cars on the British roads are electric. So, what are the reasons why the majority does not buy EVs? According to the findings of a poll of more than 10,000 respondents, drivers think that there are not enough charging points, that electric cars take too long to charge, that they cannot go too far on a single charge, a small number of options and, most significant of all, that they are too expensive.
In reality, people care about their wallets much more than about ecology. Therefore, until it is true for them, they won’t buy an electric car.
However, they are already much cheaper to run than combustion ones. The typical commute would cost £5 a week in an electric car, £10.70 in a diesel one and £12.50 in a petrol. These are the prices for the newest cars only. For older petrol and diesel vehicles, the cost will drastically increase. Additionally, conventional cars require more frequent maintenance.
The only factor that has to be changed is the price of EVs since they are more expensive than the petrol options. It is expected to be changed by 2025. For now, the financial incentives may be used. They will be available only until electric cars do not become mainstream.
The true cost of having an EV is smaller compared to having a conventional car if you take the running cost and incentives into account. Therefore, the government should dispel the myth about the expensiveness in order to increase their popularity among people.
[Via The Telegraph]
A BMW i3 !!!
Of all the EVs you could have pictured to underline the argument that EVs “finally” make financial sense you choose the short-range(114 miles EPA) BMW i3 ! LOL.
GM Bolt – 238 miles EPA.
But the fact is that even the original (1997-2003) Toyota RAV4 EV already made perfect financial and – far more importantly – environmental sense for intelligent, earth-responsible humans. With its realworld 100 mile range it was the ideal first car or primary-use (ergo not “second”) car for the two car family or household. Circa 85% of drivers drive less than 50 miles for 300+ days of the year. A secondary-use gasoline car would rarely be used in a two car household and could last twice as long (20 years+) with annual petrol costs and repair bills drastically cut because the (RAV4) EV is / was doing most of the daily start-stop wear’n’tear journeys.
Sorry guys – but the original RAV4 EV would have made perfect sense for 10’s of millions of consumers 15-20 years ago – that’s why it was barely publicized by the media and thus barely known to the public before it was quietly killed off (but not crushed cf. GM EV1) by the “usual suspects” at the end of 2003.
Were you guys wide awake and fully informed then – are you now ?
Paul G(EVUK)