Electric

[Ham_N_Eggs]

5 minutes ago, finlo said:

You think air con units suck ciggie smoke back into the buildings?

No.

[the stinking enigma]

7 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

Bit of a thread bump here - The Good Doctor Allinson, wearing his MUA hat, now advises (iomtoday) that those owners of electric vehicles will start being charged (no pun intended) for the use of public charging points, "by the end of the year".

Can't help but feel they've sprung the trap too early on this one. 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Ham_N_Eggs said:

Actually charging for electric charging makes sense. Part of the problem at the moment with charging points is people, for want of a better word, hogging them all day. 

I'm far from an expert on this, but surely any charges made will be based on amount of electricity consumed rather than time spent at the charging point?  So leaving a car there for a long time will be anti-social but it won't be much more expensive.

1 hour ago, Ham_N_Eggs said:

In fairness to the Govt even the protesters don't seem to actually have a plan other than something-needs-to-change. 

I'm sure than many of them do, but the trouble is that the media only likes simple messages, so that's all that they will report. Of course the whole point about tackling climate change is that it requires carefully researched and constantly reviewed action while our ruling classes are only happy with simplistic gestures and playing blame games.  But in the end the protesters aren't the ones who are paid or who have the power to change things.  They should be the ones who produce the plans - and something more convincing than "Err, we'll plant some trees".

Edited to add: I meant to say that I agree with most of your other points in those two comments, but I wanted to pick up on those two things.

[Non-Believer]

2 minutes ago, the stinking enigma said:

Can't help but feel they've sprung the trap too early on this one. 

Indeed. Bet they'll review payable excise duty on them before too long too.

All less about the environment and more about revenue.

[Max Power]

1 hour ago, Ham_N_Eggs said:

Actually charging for electric charging makes sense. Part of the problem at the moment with charging points is people, for want of a better word, hogging them all day. In the UK a lot of charge points are run by private companies. If you want garages to provide quick charge facilities then you have to get people used to paying for it. 

There are two big problem with electric cars on the island: Firstly, the unsuitably of home charging for most people. Given the majority of people use on street parking it is simply not safe to run a power lead across the pavement from your charging point. Retrofitting charging points into narrow pavements is also not an option. The second major problem is that is the power station simply couldn't cope if everyone needed to charge at once overnight. It certainly couldn't if too many fast charge stations were used at once. I'm not even sure the power cable from the UK would be able to make up the shortfall. Most electric cars only need to charge once a week so it probably wouldn't happen but this the Isle of Man and odd things happen here regularly.

If people weren't so obsessed with car ownership an electric self drive taxi service would be perfect for the island. 

 

My limited experience of trying to drive an electric car back to the island and trying to get it charged at a service station wasn't at all good. Even worse was trying to change it at my house in order to get it to its owner ten miles away! The technology just isn't complete and is being forced upon us by people who have no idea what they are doing! Hybrid is the only acceptable answer, then hydrogen, once the infrastructure is there!

[hissingsid]

So buy electric cars to save the planet they are cheaper to run....as soon as they get popular the boot goes in ....they are more expensive to buy if they prove just as expensive to run as petrol and the vehicle tax goes up to same level it takes the incentive away surely.   Having said that I know a couple of people who have them and they really love them, so smooth apparently.

[mad_manx]

2 hours ago, Max Power said:

My limited experience of trying to drive an electric car back to the island and trying to get it charged at a service station wasn't at all good. Even worse was trying to change it at my house in order to get it to its owner ten miles away! The technology just isn't complete and is being forced upon us by people who have no idea what they are doing! Hybrid is the only acceptable answer, then hydrogen, once the infrastructure is there!

I think a 300+ real mile range would solve that issue.

Not really an issue for on island travel though. 

I doubt whether many here do more than a  30-40 miles daily.

Many do far less than that. 

Agree that taking a car across can be a pain though. The Tesla Model 3 might change all this with a >300 mile range at around BMW 3 series prices.

Does anyone know if Electric cars bought on island qualify for the £3500  plug in grant ?

Or do the dealers here refuse it as we are not in the UK ?

 

[Non-Believer]

If electric really is the way forward, battery technology needs to improve massively (and I appreciate that it is improving all the time).

Not only in performance but in sustainability for the planet; The West digging holes in South America for rape of elements such as lithium for batteries for throwaway products such as phones (and cars) does not serve the cause. Nor does the cost of building electric cars or their future disposal.

There is a long way to go.

[finlo]

9 hours ago, mad_manx said:

 

Does anyone know if Electric cars bought on island qualify for the £3500  plug in grant ?

 

 

Not on your Nellie.

[Max Power]

11 hours ago, mad_manx said:

I think a 300+ real mile range would solve that issue.

Not really an issue for on island travel though. 

I doubt whether many here do more than a  30-40 miles daily.

Many do far less than that. 

Agree that taking a car across can be a pain though. The Tesla Model 3 might change all this with a >300 mile range at around BMW 3 series prices.

Does anyone know if Electric cars bought on island qualify for the £3500  plug in grant ?

Or do the dealers here refuse it as we are not in the UK ?

 

This was a Tesla Model 3 which is supposed to have a 300m range, I can assure you that it does not, at least under night time driving conditions. The highest mileage genuinely achieved in a recent Autocar test was the Hyundai Kona at 275m everything else was way off their claimed mileage.