[badmanwimmaculatelips]

I've previously given a presentation/talk at my workplace about the positives and negatives of EV ownership; from my personal perspective noting that i'm a major proponent and entirely non-objective. Scarily, a few folk went out and bought EVs - alleging that it was as a result of my ramblings (!). It was quite popular, and the EV 'debutants' are enjoying their experiences (awww...). Alas, i've been asked to repeat the talk and have decided that i'd like to include a bit about the media and reporting bias associated with EV stories. Obvs my experience is not universal, so i'd like to get forum members recollections of particular bad news stories - and ideally PM me the links (i don't want to create public resource for the cherry-picking-lowlife-hacks looking for EV bad news). Of course i'll be covering the 'EVs go on fire a lot' and the debunking by the NTSB (take home - turns out it's hybrids not BEVs). Similarly, there's some recent b0ll0cks about 'oh look at the cost of 'leccy - EV charging is unaffordable' (are these journo's completely innumerate?). Additional stories and headlines would be much appreciated.

 

[Todor]

These are the recent stories I can think of:

• fires (both on land and sea)
• brake dust
• cable theft
• life-cycle emissions
• batteries EOL

Anyway, good luck with your talk. And don't go over time!

 

[andyswarbs]

Some comments or questions from new converts should be interesting.

 

[mrdr_ev]

King Canute had a similar experience, and Twitter too, in the face on Donald Trump's "truth stream".
Good luck with that ..

 

[A G C]

I've previously given a presentation/talk at my workplace about the positives and negatives of EV ownership; from my personal perspective noting that i'm a major proponent and entirely non-objective. Scarily, a few folk went out and bought EVs - alleging that it was as a result of my ramblings (!). It was quite popular, and the EV 'debutants' are enjoying their experiences (awww...). Alas, i've been asked to repeat the talk and have decided that i'd like to include a bit about the media and reporting bias associated with EV stories. Obvs my experience is not universal, so i'd like to get forum members recollections of particular bad news stories - and ideally PM me the links (i don't want to create public resource for the cherry-picking-lowlife-hacks looking for EV bad news). Of course i'll be covering the 'EVs go on fire a lot' and the debunking by the NTSB (take home - turns out it's hybrids not BEVs). Similarly, there's some recent b0ll0cks about 'oh look at the cost of 'leccy - EV charging is unaffordable' (are these journo's completely innumerate?). Additional stories and headlines would be much appreciated.

Well basically for clickbait stories about the terrors of ev ownership just pop on to the daily express website or from a more little Englander standpoint the telegraph

 

[badmanwimmaculatelips]

Well basically for clickbait stories about the terrors of ev ownership just pop on to the daily express website or from a more little Englander standpoint the telegraph

Good suggestion - though i'm not sure i want to stoop as low as visiting those sites myself It might upset my virtue-signalling echo-chamber yoghurt-and-hemp-based media diet.

 

[Orrery]

I'd add the problem of evaluating an EV against people's embedded ICE checklist.

• what, I can't drive into a petrol station and fill up in 5 minutes?
• what, I can't do 600 miles without stopping?

My checklist would be:

• can I turn the heater-a/c on from my phone?
• is it very quiet?
• does it cost diddly-squat to fill up?
• does it have no gearbox
• does it have lots of space

 

[Edd Beesley]

This is a good example of on-purpose "oh aren't they rubbish" journalism

Mini adventure: how far can an electric car go?

Brian Milligan attempts to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh.

www.bbc.co.uk

He decided to drive a prototype car from london to Edinburgh. Not an iMiev, which was more efficient, actually on sale, and had rapid charging, or a Tesla Roadster, which did the trip much much faster and had (I think) 80 amp chargers along the route, or waited ONE MONTH for the Leaf to arrive. No. It had to be NOW.

 

[Firefury]

IMHO very difficult for an ICE driver to properly evaluate the pros/cons of EVs simply because they haven't had any experience of them so don't really know how they will weigh up.

My thoughts though... Cons:

• The cost of electricity does now have the potential to be a problem. If the majority of your charging is on energy-cap prices, that's not great. If the majority of your charging is on rapid chargers then the "fuel" savings are looking pretty minimal these days.
• EVs are more expensive to buy. Some maintenance costs (brakes, etc) are lower, but how expensive it will be to keep an old EV on the road in the future is an unknown (i.e. if ECUs need to be replaced, or work is needed on the high voltage side, etc.) If you can't make significant savings on fuel costs in your use-case then the total cost of ownership may be higher.
• Building in time for charging stops on very long trips does make them significantly longer, especially if you're unexpectedly having to queue for an hour at each stop before you even start charging. This should get better as more chargers are installed, but I have once been caught out on a journey that involved 4 charge stops where I unexpectedly had to queue for over an hour at each stop before I could plug in - 4 unexpected extra hours on an already long journey is not to be sniffed at!
• Some parts of the country are still charging desserts with few / unreliable chargers.
• You still need lots of stupid apps on your phone to access public chargers and/or register with multiple operators (although this is getting better).
• The waiting lists for buying an EV are often long (although I'm not sure how affected ICE cars are by the supply chain problems).
• Rapid chargers often don't go as fast as expected and it is rarely clear why (i.e. is it because your battery is cold, or because the charger can only deliver the advertised power at 800v and your car is 400v, or because the grid connection is rubbish, or because you're sharing power with another car).

Pros:

• If the majority of your journeys are < 200 mile round trips and you can charge at home, its quite nice to wake up every day knowing you will always have a charged battery instead of jumping in your car to discover that you need to go and find a petrol station.
• Cleaning the car is easier because the wheels aren't caked in brake dust.
• Being able to preheat the car is occasionally useful in the winter.
• Smug feeling that comes from knowing you're being a bit greener.
• Smug feeling that comes from seeing ICE drivers paying £2/litre.
• EVs might hold their value better than ICE.
• EVs are a bit more future-proof as more low emission zones pop up.
• Less moving parts, so maintenance should be less. But there are a lot of unknowns, especially if you want to keep the car for years.
• In some locations there is free charging, which is especially welcome when you're on holiday and entirely reliant on public chargers. I really loved arriving at the Eden Project with 9% battery and leaving at the end of the day with 100%, saving me £20 - £30 and an hour's wait at a rapid charger.

There is a definite mindset change needed when you drive an EV, which ICE drivers don't get. The "it won't go 600 miles on a tank" and "it takes too long to charge" arguments mostly come down to the fact that refueling an ICE tends to be done when you are low on fuel. People don't go to the petrol station with a half full tank. So there are a couple of things that ICE drivers aren't used to:

• If you do 100 miles a day, having a 600 mile tank means you only need to visit the petrol station once a week, so is important. But in an EV you would just charge at home (assuming you can) every night, so the range is less important.
• When you stop at the motorway services to use the loo and you half a half full tank of petrol, you won't stop for fuel. But in an EV you would plug in, even if only for 10 minutes, because that will knock 10 minutes off the next dedicated charging stop.

Most of our travel is local, but visiting family usually involves a single dedicated rapid charge which can usually be conveniently built into a lunch/dinner break, and may be shortened by having charged a bit on loo breaks. We very occasionally do very long journeys where in an ICE we would swap drivers rather than taking long breaks, which obviously doesn't work in an EV. For me, the very long journeys are rare enough that the pros outweigh the cons. But if we were regularly doing long journeys, we might consider a longer range EV rather than an ICE.

 

[artyman]

The longest journey I have ever done in a day is 650 miles, Assuming I started with a full charge I would need a couple of stops. to charge, now that journey in an ICE entailed three stops from a comfort and cuppa point of view, and a longer one to eat. I could quite easily charge in that scenario. The rest of my travels involves 20 seconds to plug in and unplug from time to time. Why do I need a battery the size of the O2 just so I can drive continuously (not that my bladder would permit it). EV's are quite capable of long journeys and it's about time this myth was squashed.

 

[foureyes]

They're trying to kill us apparently.

 

[BornAgainEcoWarrior]

Some comments or questions from new converts should be interesting.

Yes @badmanwimmaculatelips ...surely would be good to add some voices from others who've made the switch and have them share how it's gone.
Should reassure you are not overselling, and that's it's not just for "virtue-signalling echo-chamber yoghurt-and-hemp-based diet" types. Will also creating more of a feeling of group consensus and agreement thus strengthening the message. Most humans do like to feel part of the group.