Cars are going to be the next bubble

[cyril evans awaydays]

When I read the title I thought for future purchases instead of a test drive you would get a voucher and then be escorted to pick the car up in a service station north of Swansea.

[Mad as a fish]

I was reading an article in a car magazine on a plane a few months ago , they suggested that electric cars wont ever saturate the market simply because of the charging limitations, the way they explained it was imagine a street lined both sides with parked cars or a Tower block where most of the inhabitants are car owners. Another point they made was this, imagine an overnight power cut and people woke up in the morning to an uncharged car then to make it worse there would be hundreds of cars all needing to be charged at once. Just a thought!

[chris lee]

I was reading an article in a car magazine on a plane a few months ago , they suggested that electric cars wont ever saturate the market simply because of the charging limitations, the way they explained it was imagine a street lined both sides with parked cars or a Tower block where most of the inhabitants are car owners. Another point they made was this, imagine an overnight power cut and people woke up in the morning to an uncharged car then to make it worse there would be hundreds of cars all needing to be charged at once. Just a thought!

Those arguments fall flat when you realistically look at driving habits, My neighbor has the Tesla model 3 (the cheaper one) It says it has 250 mile range, but he says he gets 200 with realistic driving.

He commutes from Bridgend to Cardiff and back every day for work (40 miles a day) so He can drive all week mon-fri on one single charge

The same drive in my 1.8 petrol costs me about £160 a month in petrol

also he charges the car full in 40 minutes for FREE at the Tesla super charger by us.

or can just drip charge it at night from the house.

[Mad as a fish]

Those arguments fall flat when you realistically look at driving habits, My neighbor has the Tesla model 3 (the cheaper one) It says it has 250 mile range, but he says he gets 200 with realistic driving.

He commutes from Bridgend to Cardiff and back every day for work (40 miles a day) so He can drive all week mon-fri on one single charge

The same drive in my 1.8 petrol costs me about £160 a month in petrol

also he charges the car full in 40 minutes for FREE at the Tesla super charger by us.

or can just drip charge it at night from the house.

Still doesnt help if there is a 4 hr wait to get charged Chris. As there was a few weeks ago during bank holiday

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Those arguments fall flat when you realistically look at driving habits, My neighbor has the Tesla model 3 (the cheaper one) It says it has 250 mile range, but he says he gets 200 with realistic driving.

He commutes from Bridgend to Cardiff and back every day for work (40 miles a day) so He can drive all week mon-fri on one single charge

The same drive in my 1.8 petrol costs me about £160 a month in petrol

also he charges the car full in 40 minutes for FREE at the Tesla super charger by us.

or can just drip charge it at night from the house.

Lots of challenges to overcome before then. A lot of people will drive more than 200 miles often. I had to drive to Birmingham for a meeting recently, that's a 250 mile round trip.

[chris lee]

I agree there is a long way to go and improvements have to be made constantly, but I wouldn't write electric off, nor should we throw the baby out with the bath water.

I would love to be able to afford electric soon and would happily be inconvenienced a little bit more than I am currently - for the greater good.

I have seen people suffer with air pollution when living in London, and although not perfect electric is still 100x times better than pumpin stinking diesel around everywhere.

[Allez Allez Allez]

I was reading an article in a car magazine on a plane a few months ago , they suggested that electric cars wont ever saturate the market simply because of the charging limitations, the way they explained it was imagine a street lined both sides with parked cars or a Tower block where most of the inhabitants are car owners. Another point they made was this, imagine an overnight power cut and people woke up in the morning to an uncharged car then to make it worse there would be hundreds of cars all needing to be charged at once. Just a thought!

Did you bother reading other articles about electric cars, or did this one, single article make you form your opinion?

Have you heard of smart charging? That will address a lot of the issues.

Also, in the event of a power cut, are you assuming that every single car is at 0% charge?

Also, most people will be charging their cars at work as well as at home as the infrastructure improves.

[Allez Allez Allez]

Lots of challenges to overcome before then. A lot of people will drive more than 200 miles often. I had to drive to Birmingham for a meeting recently, that's a 250 mile round trip.

Batteries will improve. That is a given.

[Allez Allez Allez]

[delmbox]

That principle works as long as you maintain the car well and it doesn't have any major mechanical issues .
I rent cars on a long term basis to ordinary people , who like you ,have kept their cars longer than they should have .
The cars have had major mechanical issues , which they have repaired and decided to keep the cars a little longer " to get their money back " this has led to further major issues and they will never get their money back .
Modern cars are so complex electrical issues can run into thousands ( I also run a repair workshops) Believe me you can soon be in the position where the repair bill way exceeds the value of the car .
A nice shiny new car for £2-300 a month with no worries as Nick stated seems like a dream after the pain of massive repair bills for a car that is worthless .

Don't get me wrong it's horses for courses .

Sounds like you have been fairly lucky , you don't do many miles despite your trip round Europe.

I have 2 Audi estates we use for courtesy cars , both drive well and customers often comment on how well they drive with their 285,000 and 330,000 miles respectively . Thing is , if they do go wrong ... I own a garage to fix them ...

I have driven both these Audi's if anybody gives a shit

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Batteries will improve. That is a given.

We've been saying this for decades.

[chris lee]

We've been saying this for decades.

Car giants have only started to give a shit about batteries within the last 5 years or so, and to be fair, the cost of battery production has fallen 50% in the last three years

Probably not a coincidence

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Batteries will improve. That is a given.

If not, just invest in a 20 mile long extension lead

[Croesy Blue]

We've been saying this for decades.

Batteries are already improving though, and now there is such a high demand for electric car they'll improve even quicker.

I was reading last week that we aren't far off being able to fully charge a car in under an hour and it'll be able to do 300 - 400 miles.

[Fine Lines]

Why is there a need charge a battery by us the consumer ? Couldn’t petrol station’s offer a quick service where a battery could be swapped out for a fully charged one ? Would involve standardising all batteries I guess but not an insurmountable problem.

[Fine Lines]

Or in the near future , with self driving cars being the norm. Why would we own a car ? You could book a car for your daily commute (or any other journey for that matter) wait for it to turn up at your house and off you go to work. The car then being freed up for e next user.

[Croesy Blue]

Or in the near future , with self driving cars being the norm. Why would we own a car ? You could book a car for your daily commute (or any other journey for that matter) wait for it to turn up at your house and off you go to work. The car then being freed up for e next user.

I think if self driving cars became available this would be the way forward, but there doesn't seem to be the same buzz around self driving cars as there was a few years ago.

[Optimistic Nick]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45786690

[MOZZER2]

Was announced a few years ago but now operational in Coventry

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-ne...d-for-coventry

so called giga factorys are earmarked for the UK in the coming years

[headlight]

There is a shortage of Cadmium, needed to make the batteries for the electric cars.
They have found that there are vast deposits of Cadmium on the ocean floor so to supply the Cadmium needed for the batteries they are going to plough up thousands of square miles of the seabed.
Companies are applying for licenses to do this now.
So to provide "clean eco friendly" cars they will destroy our oceans even more.
Hardly makes electric cars eco friendly it just moves the problem from being air pollution to the destruction of our marine environment.
Also unless we build more power stations we do not have the capacity in the national grid to charge all these expected cars as the grid is at 98% of capacity already.
There is no joined up thinking by the government as usual.

[Croesy Blue]

They are currently building quite a few large capacity nuclear power stations in fairness. Plus there’s been an announcement of a few SMR reactors to be built up north.

I didn’t know that about the batteries though. How much damage does the sea bed do mining for that? Is it worse than drilling for oil and refining it?

[headlight]

Yes far worse as the seabed is destroyed over vast areas, as opposed to the small footprint of an oil rig, as the extraction method is to scrape off the surface of the seabed, as that is where the cadmium is.
Unfortunately that is where the life is, in the top 1 metre.
It is being trialled as we speak.
It is just moving the problem elsewhere & is already being said that it will be the next global ecological disaster.
New power stations outputs will be greatly offset by existing stations being shut down.
I am no eco warrior by any stretch of the imagination but there is a massive lack of forward planning going on, as usual.

[Bobby Dandruff]

If it increases in value buy it. If it decreases lease it.

If you went to buy a house and was told it would be worth 40% less then u paid for it in 5 years you wouldn’t go near it.

Do ANY cars increase in value though, bar very high end classics like the Porsche Carrera GT, McClaren F1, Miura etc ? 🤷*♂️

[Croesy Blue]

Yes far worse as the seabed is destroyed over vast areas, as opposed to the small footprint of an oil rig, as the extraction method is to scrape off the surface of the seabed, as that is where the cadmium is.
Unfortunately that is where the life is, in the top 1 metre.
It is being trialled as we speak.
It is just moving the problem elsewhere & is already being said that it will be the next global ecological disaster.
New power stations outputs will be greatly offset by existing stations being shut down.
I am no eco warrior by any stretch of the imagination but there is a massive lack of forward planning going on, as usual.

That's interesting I had no idea of the sea bed thing.

Forward planning is never something I'd acuse a british government of either

[Bluebina]

I’ve been forced by my firm to sell my car and buy a newer one.

I have been looking at relatively new second hand cars but the depreciation on them is often the same if not more than I can get a brand new lease for.

For example I looked at a 1-2 year old golf that I anticipate the depreciation to be circa £130 a month if bought from a dealer. For the similar price I can lease a brand new good specced Kia for 2 years, wear and tear costs and very minimal service costs.

Cars have never in my opinion been cheaper and when you can buy preregistered cars for circa 40% of the RRP, surely this is undermining the used car market.

I don’t know what the outcome will be, but something surely will give?

I think that may be down to the Golf being a more saught after car, and that Kia are undercutting the big German car prices?

Some people would prefer a two year old BMW to a new Kia for the same costs?