Electric car sales down

Electric car sales down

When electric cars start featuring a >400 km range and can recharge for

By Stivans on 21 October, 2011, 7:00pm

It's still too early to support EVs

Lets face it,when the entire country is struggling with recession. Who is going to put the risk of them getting to work behind an emergent technology that still doesn't have a very good support infrastructure. Each brand of EV has a different support requirement and technique, so until all EVs jump behind one brand/standard of support and charging people will be uncertain. It's like the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD battle all over again and the VHS Betamax before that. Then couple this with the problem that most EVs will need their batteries replacing in 5-10 years not a lot of people like being forced down that route especially when my m8s Prius just had to have it's batteries replaced and it cost him £5k to do so. How many mineral guzzlers do you know have to have nearly the cost of another car spent on them 5 years after purchasing them brand new?

By MadMacs2010 on 21 October, 2011, 9:04pm

Let the government use them

If the government thinks electric cars are so wonderful why don't they mandate that all cars purchase for use by themselves and civil servants are electric. That way they could solve the problem they have of ensuring a significant proportion of new cars sold are electric, and they would also quickly realise how impractical and senseless they are too.

By SLKManiac on 22 October, 2011, 4:40pm

Question of technology

The technology is not there, as simple as that. Rechargable batteries don't realy work, fuel cells are still expensive and unreliable. Again, if electric cars can provide 400km range, recharge in 5 minutes and give a performance of at least 100-150bhp standard vehicle I may be converted. For now advancement in ICE technology is the more competitive option.

By Stivans on 23 October, 2011, 9:09am

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the only way to go. End of argument.

By THREEPOINTEDSTAR on 23 October, 2011, 7:36pm

Worried faces in Nissan/Renault boardrooms?

They must be concerned about backing the wrong technology, compared to those who've gone the hybrid or range-extender route.

Also some red faces amongst the motoring journalists on the COTY panel!

By cfhughes on 24 October, 2011, 9:29am

No one buys EVs because they are sh..rubbish.

Why would anyone buy one, really? Until you can recharge them in less than a second, NO ONE will buy these crates of crap, they all look ridiculous, which isnt great, and they can go the length of a street before they need charging for 8 hours.

No thanks.

By liveforever on 24 October, 2011, 11:32am

lmao, good. Shows that not everyone is tree hugging morons. Electric cars are hypocritical as they only move the pollution to the power station, They take forever to charge, they are crap, most look like sh#t or shout out Im a greeny or nerd.

By hotredman on 24 October, 2011, 8:26pm

I think for now they are too expensive, people should also be more informed about how cheap they are to drive 100 miles compared to petrol or diesel.

Once recharge times are improved that's the key.

Masan already have already got recharge times down to 10 mins, more than enough!

If that technology is in Leaf II and it costs 5-10K cheaper I think they will sell much better!

By Mad_Lad on 25 October, 2011, 8:11am

Do the maths...

With 308 EV's sold at a cost of £5,000 of tax payers money. the government has shelled out over £1.5million! This makes little sense when EV's are overpriced and too new to buy into and when other areas of government policy are going down the drain. It'd have made much more sense to put this towards something useful rather than EV's!

By chaardy on 25 October, 2011, 12:44pm

Having re-read the article, replace my maths with the figures quoted in the article. £43million available for EV purchases just proves how nonsensical and idiotic this scheme is. Put the money towards something useful!

By chaardy on 25 October, 2011, 12:46pm