Will you make the switch to Electric Motoring?

[CheesyRobMan]

I was reading about the Nissan Leaf the other day, and it looks like a good car for the huge majority of what I do with a car (eg driving round town/to work), but even with a £5k discount, it still costs twice what a new petrol hatchback does. I can't see myself buying one until the prices come down - which they will, and probably quite soon, but not right now.

[DavidY]

The Nissan Leaf only has a range of 100 miles (73 according to the US Environmental Protection Agency if this wikipedia article is correct) and then you have to wait at least 30 minutes to get 80% charge back - a process which will shorten the life of the (very expensive) battery if you do it too often - or several hours to charge it properly.

Of course you need to have your own driveway to charge it as on-street parking makes charging impossible without putting hazardous wires across the pavement (unless your street has a set of charging points).

So I don't think purely battery-driven cars are anywhere near usable yet as your only car.

[David Bailey]

The Nissan Leaf only has a range of 100 miles (73 according to the US Environmental Protection Agency if this wikipedia article is correct) and then you have to wait at least 30 minutes to get 80% charge back - a process which will shorten the life of the (very expensive) battery if you do it too often - or several hours to charge it properly.

To be fair, that's still an improvement on previous recharge times.

But realistically, an electric car will only be attractive once it's competitive. Ideally, you should be able to pull into a garage and recharge in a couple of minutes as most. And it should be able to take you a couple of hundred miles at least.

We're a long way from that point, but we're closer than we were a few years ago. The Tesla roadster, for example, has a range of a couple of hundred miles and a full recharge time of 3.5 hours. And it does an equivalent of 99 MPG in running costs. If that were offered in an affordable car, it'd start to look quite attractive.

The other good news is that electricity is available everywhere - you don't need infrastructure to supply it.

So I think they will happen, but it's going to take a while.

[whitetiger1518]

My answer to the above poll.. Other - only when the bus does

WT

[Barry Shnikov]

It seems that many of these quoted recharge times are misleading; they are based on the assumption that there will be a 30 amp (or higher) charge point available. Most cars will need charging overnight, at a minimum, on a standard domestic circuit.

So another reason for not buying electric cars is that the recharging infrastructure is not in place.

[philsmove]

One of the things that really do work are electric bicycles
mine has a range of 60 miles between charges and gets me into town faster than driving, walking or taking the bus
Admittedly I am lucky, having a car free, dedicated cycle path, direct from home to town and have mains power in my shed