What excites you about electric cars?

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Beinng a born petrol head and being fascinated by cars before I could speak, I always found that tingle of excitement when I saw the latest car magazines! I didn’t even glance at the top shelf as the passion for cars was all consuming for me!

Fast forward a few decades and I’m finding myself a little numb / ambivalent when it comes to electric cars.

I AM excited by the technological advances and breathing fresher air in busy areas but somehow, except for the cool shapes and lights, I don’t get excited by them in the same way!!

Sure 0-60 and 1/4 miles figures are impressive but extra 50 miles range or popping the bonnet to look at a motor and some wiring + the milk float quiet acceleration is just so .... to put it in modern vocabulary - “meh”!!

So, help me out! What is it you find exciting about them that makes you want to rush out and buy the next car magazine detailing electric cars? Does Formula E excite you?
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
I can't see the 2030 date being a realistic date to stop selling new petrol and diesel cars. However what that date will do is accelerate the development of electric cars and batteries - 'necessity is the mother of invention'.

Electric and Hybrid cars are too expensive and second-hand ones will be financially risky too. So will good petrol and diesel cars become more valuable?

I have 'Car' magazine (free with my Lloyds bank account) and the electric/hybrid cars feature a lot. However they're not economical cars that will save the planet but ridiculously powerful hybrids where the selling point is their performance. Surely that's not the 'idea'?

Everything around electric cars is just a big con at the moment, they are sold as being 'green' and the next big thing but very often the power consumption to recharge them is not taken into consideration. I'd like to see 'real world' energy consumption comparisons (per mile) between electric/hybrid and diesel cars.

They don't excite me apart from the acceleration.

Cities will be cleaner but Covid has probably done more to help that than the electric revolution.
 

IbanezDan51

Well-Known Forum User
I am excited about living in a world full of electric cars too :D

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None of that actually makes sense. You use very little power in an electric car when stationary. Sure keeping you warm uses some electric...but last time I checked if you're on the motorway and turn off your ICE you get cold too...

Anyway, like it or not, there is only so much fossil fuels to continue to burn. There needs to be an alternative to that regardless if its electric or not..

I'd suggest joining them - and keeping your fun petrol cars locked away for those enjoyable weekends.

For your every day car commuter car what better to drive to work too than in something comfortable, quiet, cheap to use, extremely safe (with lots of autonomy built in to help keep you and other road users safe). What are most of you using for a daily? Some clapped out four banger that sounds like a sack of spanners anyway. Rather be in something peaceful and quiet.

Just my point of view anyway - which would be different if I was extremely rich as I'd be driving to work every day in an 812 Ferrari.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
None of that actually makes sense. You use very little power in an electric car when stationary. Sure keeping you warm uses some electric...but last time I checked if you're on the motorway and turn off your ICE you get cold too...

Anyway, like it or not, there is only so much fossil fuels to continue to burn. There needs to be an alternative to that regardless if its electric or not..

I'd suggest joining them - and keeping your fun petrol cars locked away for those enjoyable weekends.

For your every day car commuter car what better to drive to work too than in something comfortable, quiet, cheap to use, extremely safe (with lots of autonomy built in to help keep you and other road users safe). What are most of you using for a daily? Some clapped out four banger that sounds like a sack of spanners anyway. Rather be in something peaceful and quiet.

Just my point of view anyway - which would be different if I was extremely rich as I'd be driving to work every day in an 812 Ferrari.

Dan, do you know the energy consumption per mile and can that be compared to petrol consumption as a impact on the enviroment/planet?
 

Bazzateer

Club Member
Years before Greta T was even a twinkle in her Dad's eye and before electric became the next best thing, Friends of the Earth made it clear that the most environmental damage caused by any car is during the manufacturing process. They said that the best thing for the environment was to stop making new cars and keep the existing ones going for as long as possible.

This was before the current (pun intended) craze for raping the Earth for the minerals needed to make the batteries required. Ship them across the world in 'dirty' cargo ships to battery factories where more resources are usedup to build batteries. Then ship them around the world to be fitted in new EVs which are then shipped around the world to your local dealer.

The 400Z excepted, there is very little necessity to build new cars, whether fossil or electric.

The Bamford Hydrogen ICE is a much more interesting prospect.
 

SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
What's exciting about them ?

They're rare and should remain so.

They're reassuringly expensive to avoid becomming 'the norm' on the roads.


The past 18 months of confinement where we all stayed at home, working or not has proved that private motor cars do NOT significantly contribute to the greenhouse effect so leave us alone !
 

MCBladeRun

Club Member
I wrote a huge reply and realised I went on a huge rant, so deleted it. How dare you get me riled up AliK!

Technology isn't there yet. When a battery can hold a charge big enough and is light weight enough to be economical enough and without being too vulnerable to damage then yes.

I'm a huge skeptic. Everyone here has made valid points against the move as well. But we're all petrol heads - I would say the only quality thing they do have is that the individual who buys an electric car is making a conscious decision to do so. For either beneficial motives (such as incentives from their employer) or their own satisfaction from the (so say) environmental benefits.

How the hell did I end up ranting again..
 

toopy

Club Member
A 100% electric car interests me about as much as a porridge enema!

Hybrid.... possibly if its comparable in price to ICE, but I'm anticipating Hydrogen being the winner on the overall cost and eco front.

The above for the daily of course, the Z is going no where, nor is it having a battery engine fitted, I'd rather not drive it at that point should legally a conversion become a necessity!
 

IbanezDan51

Well-Known Forum User
Dan, do you know the energy consumption per mile and can that be compared to petrol consumption as a impact on the enviroment/planet?

Its much less (generates next to no heat loss, so an electric motor is far more efficient than any combustion engine ever will be) BUT, and it’s a big but.. the cost and energy consumption of mining the raw materials required for the battery is probably less green in terms of the overall environmental impact for a car if someone were to keep an ICE car for more than 10 years… Unfortunately we don’t, we upgrade every 3/4 years and pollute even more by recycling and building new cars.

It would be much more green to ban people having a new car every 2-4 years or at least Tax them heavily on them if they want a new one to help make them keep them 7/10years - manufactures should be forced to offer 10 year warranties so people keep the cars longer too. It’ll probably go back to people keeping cars for longer anyway when interest rates rise and people can’t afford the finance repayments.
 

TimFZ

Club Member
One point of issue is rarely used electric cars tend to discharge themselves. Residual losses don't happen in Ice cars unless you have a tank leak.

Most places in big cities don't have their own charge units so will have to pay to use on street chargers when they are installed. Then there will be cables everywhere, trip hazard!

People will steal the cables leaving many people stranded the next morning.

The whole life cost to the planet for a low milage car like a classic (say 1200 miles per year) is twice that of running an older car.

Formula E is crap. Only 300 bhp and no excitement.... Certainly won't replace formula 1, nascar, drag racing.
 
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