I’ve been without a car for the last two years or so – I don’t count the Nemesis since I rarely seem to drive it lately, it’s always out at a show or away being tweaked – my daily transport has been my Motorbike. Until about three weeks ago, when I got myself a Nissan Leaf.
Nissan had lent me one for a while and I was impressed, so impressed I wanted to get one. Partly to use myself, for trips my motorbike isn’t so suited to, partly also to get a better idea of how life with a mainstream all-electric car can be, and I wanted to see how realistic it might be to replace ecotricity pool cars with electric cars, anytime soon.
Several weeks later and I have to say I love it. It’s a really cool car to drive, and I simply love driving without burning anything.
My son Rui (4 now) loves it too. He plugs it in for me, works the Sat Nav and all that stuff – you know like four year olds do these days… 🙂
In stark contrast, Kate, my other half – hates it (or she did). I was just saying one day what a great car it was and she just went all Clarkson on me – “as long as you don’t want to go anywhere” she said in a rather strident and mocking tone, strikingly reminiscent of the old fossil himself. Ouch.
Then along comes the ‘Fuel Crisis’…. and next thing I know, Kate is boasting on Facebook, about not needing to get in garage queues, oh yes – she went from Clarkson to Swampy in a heartbeat. That made me smile… 😀
There’s a serious point here though. Things like this ‘Fuel Crisis’ make the case for electric vehicles, even to the ‘Clarksons’ of this world.
It was a revelation to us – having an electric car made the ‘Fuel Crisis’ rather irrelevant; it was a bit of a sideshow to be honest, light entertainment. To be so insulated from this fairly major national trauma, was an eye opener.
I dusted off my motorbike after about two weeks using the Leaf everyday (because Kate needed the Leaf.. :)) – and as I rode out the gate I looked down for the fuel light (habit) and it crossed my mind that I might have to go to a garage, to fill up. And it was such an alien concept. It tickled me that after just two weeks of full on EV driving – the thought of going to a garage had become so odd. I’d forgotten all about garages…
The ‘Fuel Crisis’ was of course entirely down to the government; it never needed to happen. But events like this are a taste of the future, for anyone dependent on fossil fuels to get around – that and spiralling costs.
The alternative is with us now.
OK – the technology is relatively expensive, but that’s changing fast, as it does with new technology (think laptops and mobile phones when they first appeared).
But performance and range wise, electric cars are already practical for most of us – after all in Britain, 99.3% of all car journeys are less than 100 miles (the typical range of today’s EVs) and the typical daily distance driven in a car is about 20 miles.
For sure, we need charging infrastructure for the longer journeys, to help overcome range anxiety and lower the barriers to take up. That’s underway; our Electric Highway is a good example of it. Actually we have super fast chargers coming soon – empty to full in just 20 minutes, more on that later.
And we need cheaper cars – that will come with volume and volume will come in the main due to two kinds of factors, the negative kind (like we saw last week and rising fuel costs) and the positive kind (the easing of range anxiety through more widely available charging and good car range).
It’s all a bit iterative of course.
But the electric car revolution is underway.
Aided, last week, by the Fossil Fools. In Whitehall… 🙂
Cheers.
Welecome to the Leaf owners club. After 12 months of ownership I wouldn’t go back to steam age internal combustion engine powered cars unless I was forced to. My annual service only cost £98!
Good to hear that quick CHAdeMo DC chargers are being rolled out to 24hr accessible Welcome break service stations.. That will be a game changer for long distance driving Leaf owners.
Thanks Mark….. 🙂
That annual service cost is v interesting – it’s a factor not taken into account in most deliberations on the cost of EVs versus the cost of conventional cars – very low running costs.
Cheers.
Shell in the future !!
Never say never…. 🙂
wow someone proud of the nissan leaf??? must admit i had you for a tesla owner. Did you see the video for the new air powered car? its got a range of upto 180 miles and no batteries required, fully charged in 20mins and costs far less than the electric car. Should be available for people to buy this year. if i was to change my car its a strong possability.
Fair guess, but the Tesla never really did it for me.
Was offered the last (new) right hand drive roadster in the world last week (by Tesla), tempted for a split second, but it’s no Nemesis… 🙂
Air car sounds interesting. I’ll keep an eye out.
Cheers.
So pleased to read this from Dale. When I bought my first EV, a very basic G-Wiz, most people thought I was bonkers. But now, when they ride in my Nissan Leaf, they start to see the point! My Leaf is charged from my Solar PV in the summertime and my green electricity comes from Ecotricity the rest of the time. I have yet to try an Ecotricity public charging point and look forward to them installing rapid chargers soon.
Love it. People being able to make their own ‘fuel’ for their cars is one of the great changes the EV revolution will bring – bit of a headache for the government perhaps – how to tax it…?
Cheers.
If the only thing that is keeping you from buying into electric cars is the initial outlay. There are options to consider. The Renault Twizy retails from £6,690.
There are also some electric scooters out there. Although why there aren’t more of these beats me. If renault can make an electric car for that price, surely an electric motorbike/moped at a realistic price with a range suitable for city commuters must be realistic? ?
I think the electric highway is a great initiative. Good work guys.
Thanks Chris.
Renault have another car (name escapes me) out now for about 16k and you rent the batteries for about 1k a year.
Interesting idea, and interesting price. Hoping to try one.
Cheers.
It could be the Renault Zoe you’re thinking of? Just looked it up – £13,650 after govt. grant.
It has an impressive range of 130 miles too. They’re really not far off mainstream prices now.
I don’t drive so you’d think the “fuel crisis” wouldn’t worry me either. However whilst the petrol heads were queuing at the pumps for fossil fuels, I was getting a good stock of tinned food in. Why? Because if there is a fuel shortage, it will affect logistics operations as well as individuals, so I wanted to ensure that I had something to eat. The herd hadn’t considered this, so I didn’t spot anyone else doing obvious “panic buying” in Sainsburys.
Having an EV may let you off the hook for queuing for petrol or diesel, but until we have a far more decentralised food production and distribution system, fuel shortages and Peak Oil issues should still concern you.
Speaking as one of the herd, Jon, I had already stocked up at the start of the cold snap and so only need to top up on a daily basis. 😉
Fair point Jon. Electric HGV’s are on the way too, which will aid the food logistic issue.
Cheers.
Hi,
yeah electric cars are great, dying to own one.
(I’m a bit disappointed that Dale Vince, whom I admire a lot, refers to his wife as his other half. I hate that expression, it kind of implies he’s only half a person, and investing money in a company that’s run by half a person just doesn’t inspire confidence!)
Hmmm. Interesting. Words and meanings, in the eye of the beholder to some degree.
My Other Half prefers the term Wife.
I’m no fan of that, it feels a bit dismissive to me,, almost like a possession being described.
I prefer Partner myself. Denotes equality.
I am of course a whole person, as is Kate.
Two whole persons in a team – each of us is half….. 🙂
Your investment is unaffected by these musings… 🙂
Cheers.
Welcome to the ‘hell station of the future! Love it 🙂
My partner and I have been looking at EVs – we would like a ‘normal’ looking car with a good range, that seats 5. In short, a normal hatchback. Some EVs look a bit daft.
The Zoe does look good, and it seems they might have lowered the price again: http://www.renault.co.uk/cars/range/electric.aspx (sorry if links are not allowed).
£13,650, plus the battery at £70 per month. Though I beleive this might go up if you do more than x miles per year. I haven’t found out the MOT cost yet (needed after 3 years I think?)
While we are not knocking the incentives – 5000 government incentive, no road tax – it’s just too high a price at the moment with the battery lease.
Another upfront cost is the charging station needed at home – a cable isn’t an option if you have residential parking and the property is a distance away from the parking space.
Roll on battery developments – if better (cheaper) storage methods were found, EVs would take off far quicker.
EV s are MOT exempt….
How long for? Until VOSA realise they’re missing out or until there’s an accident?
It’s something that is never mentioned about EV s, being hushed up?
Interesting question… However… how many EVs over 3 years old (and therefore would need an MOT if they were a conventional car) are on the road at the moment? Not enough for VOSA to worry about I imagine.
Also, what’s in an MOT test again? Obviously the emissions test wouldn’t apply. That leaves the seatbelt check, the lights (headlights, indicators etc.), bodywork (rust etc.), anything else I’ve missed? Anyone not wearing a seatbelt or having lights not working stand a chance of being pulled over by the police anyway. I can’t imagine there being many rusting EVs on the road yet.
I suppose there should be an MOT at some point in the future, but the number of exempt EVs on the road that would have needed an MOT if they were an ICE car are pretty small at the moment.
How about steering, tyres, suspension, BRAKES….
I came across this on Facebook. I checked the date and it wasn’t published on April fools day.
http://cars.uk.msn.com/news/90mph-wind-powered-car-built-in-china?ocid=LastSlide&tcid=LastSlide#image=4
It’s got to be a joke, … right?
Indeed a great post, Apart from this I would like to share about Jason Halek. I really got inspired by him when I read about him in business magazine. Jason Halek was only 10 years old when he started his career now he is successful entrepreneur & owns several oil and gas production companies. Even he is a great personality as he understands his responsibility towards the society particularly about children that’s why he established Halek Charities & nonprofit organization dedicated to providing assistance to various humanitarian causes. I really got inspired by him.
It sort of depends on how CO2 heavy the production process of the car is as to whether it’s really your best option though…