Electric cars
- Thread starter ch750536
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Yeah, its a huge amount of money and I've nothing against Kias but that is prestige brand money. It was way in excess of my company car budget. I think its their flagship EV and the range will be added to with cheaper options over the next few years.
Its the Tesla model though really. Batteries are really expensive so you concentrate on the top price end of the market initially before introducing lower budget versions.
Interestingly my company has found it much much cheaper to lease EV's than buy the car which we would normally do. There isn't any deals of note out there at the moment but leasing it actually stacks up well because the lease company are building the lack of depreciation into the overall picture. Leasing is not for everyone but there should be a lot more second hand EV's available in 3 years or so.
I'm seeing more and more MG EV's out there. They are very good value for money, not my cup of tea (I'm not a fan of SUV's, crossovers estates etc) but at the price point they are its pretty impressive.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Company car leasing of EVs is currently very good value. In time the amount of personal tax added will go up, but right now it's a steal, to such an extent that if business keeps picking up as it has been the past few weeks that's the way I'm going.
Dovydaitis
Official fishco fish groupie
Mr dovy saves around £350 a month in tax switching from diesel to leccy
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
My brother got a nice PHEV Passat as a company car and as well as the tax bonus he got to charge it for free at work every day, and was able to do the nine mile commute entirely on electric. Don’t know if the tax system captured these free rides. Work also paid for the hook-up point at home.
(they’ve taken it off him now as he changed his role to one that didn’t involve spending half the week travelling away from home, back to an ICE car he had to pay for himself)
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Imagine TFL's disappointment as well a few years down the line when their pollution-based tax revenue eventually shrinks to a pittance. Ditto parking fees revenues collected by all the local authorities.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
It won't shrink for long. Older EVs will be taxed to death. Not newer ones. They'll be running on better electricity for rich people.
Well, the congestion charge is going to remain whether your car is powered by petrol, electric or fairy dust.
The ULEZ is apparently not designed to make money so if they are is a position where so many people have moved to clean cars that they are not making cash I guess they will consider the thing a big success. Or more likely they will just extend the congestion charge zone out to where the ULEZ is now because the infrastructure is in place.
Any discounts on parking will soon be got rid of once EV ownership reaches a critical mass. The real interesting one is the tax the government gets from petrol and diesel. But we've already discussed that.
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
Road pricing innit, which can be sorted out to be quite equitable (those with no alternative in rural areas paying a lower price per mile etc.). They can also get some money back through annual vehicle duty, think it’s long overdue that they should start getting a bit punitive about vehicle dimensions given how much massive vehicles contribute to congestion and parking issues.
I agree, I'm just not sure about the logistics of how road pricing will actually work. I'm sure there are people far brighter than me planning it right now but I'm concerned about pie in the sky "new technology" like what was being promised for Northern Ireland after Brexit.
Does anyone know how road pricing in the UK can / will work? I mean the nuts and bolts. Cameras? Satellite tracking? Chips in cars?
With regard to larger vehicles again I agree but I recently posted a video in the general motoring chat thread which points out that smaller cars are disappearing from our roads and its not just public preference for suv's etc. Dumb arse government policies around the world are pushing manufacturers to focus on bigger and more polluting vehicles. As ever its a mess.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Just legislate that the manufacturers have to hand over the movement data for every UK registered car. Every new car is going to be connected to the Internet and have GPS anyway.
That seems simple to do. It will no doubt kick off the usual loons who will object to being tracked and followed whilst quite happily carrying their smartphone with them everywhere and having Alexa listen in their most private and intimate conversations at home.
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
Shhh! Don’t tell them they can escape the panopticon by riding a bicycle. Secret knowledge.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
And whatever you do, don't tell them that someone will soon be along with a workaround.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Teslas are shit. They're the British Leyland of electric cars. No doubt they'll get better but if you take the hype out of them, they're nothing more than electric DeLoreans, and DeLoreans were dog shit.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Check out the long way up.
There are some excellent electric motorbikes.
They're shit!
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Not a lot of range I would think. I hope ICE bikes they will treated differently to cars or at least given a longer deadline than 2030 or 2035. At the end of the day they produce a lot less pollution on average, and zero congestion.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Furtunes were spent on setting up charging points on the whole route for the Harleys (with larger batteries than standard) for the long way up TV show. Despite that, and the fact they had generator trucks following them for the whole show, they still crapped out between charging points, and the whole show was a lesson in face-palming wtfuckery.
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
Brother in law had an opportunity to get one as a company car but turned it down because the internal trim looked so shittily put together, big gaps etc. He’s not a car person at all but was still able to pick up on the shoddiness. Got a massive Volvo phev 4x4 instead.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
The finish is shite on them. Literally as bad as you'd expect from a BL car.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
I also wonder what the maintenance & repair costs are going to be in comparison with legacy European brands. If you buy a Prius, Renault, Peugeot etc electric I suspect their pre-existing wide availability of both dealers and garages are going to make them far cheaper to repair or maintain than a new-ish American brand with very small presence and even smaller number of garages trained to service them.
Is there even such a thing in this country as an independent garage that can handle Teslas? I suspect they might become the Apple of cars when it comes to the cost of parts or compatibility with the rest of the market.
Is there even such a thing in this country as an independent garage that can handle Teslas? I suspect they might become the Apple of cars when it comes to the cost of parts or compatibility with the rest of the market.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Yeah, there's loads who deal with out of warranty Teslas. Why wouldn't there be? Teslas sell very well in the UK and in many ways they are simpler than ICE cars.
The only significant Tesla specific limitation with the older ones is that they won't (easily) connect to the Superchargers if the car "knows" that particular VIN has been written off in the past.
MrCurry
right after this urgent rest
Makes you wonder how they will fare once the first mover advantage declines and Tesla faces the full force of competition from companies who know the business of car making very well. Maybe the Tesla business model is to have such scale by then that they will be able to out compete them on price.
That will be ironic, when all those who paid thru the nose to buy eye wateringly expensive Tesla cars as early adopters find they‘ve bought into what becomes a budget brand. Mind you, they will no doubt have sold their Teslas and moved over to BMW or Merc by then.
