The real cost of EVs

[Tony Press]

Read the reply by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard- but he is a journalist and not sure about his claims. 

The regular stories about 'a new battery' regularly come to nothing.

[Bob Olive]

I think electric cars are dangerous.  They are so quiet you can't hear them coming.  They just seem to appear out of no where.  I know you should always look before crossing the road but we live in a narrow country lane and have no pavement. We have to walk in the road and can always hear a normal car approaching from behind ... but these electric things are totally silent.  Someone will get run down before long.

You are right Ray. What do we teach our children and grandchildren ‘Stop, look and LISTEN’.
I have a relative - of a certain age - who is profoundly deaf who is also clearly at risk as well as the youngsters…

[Hugh Barnes]

I think there are several studies in flight at the moment that deals with exactly this issue - what sound should an electric vehicle make so pedestrians can be aware of them. That is particularly the case for blind people..

But as far as electric vehicles go, I do think that as other have alluded to, hydrogen is the way forward. Sure, there are technical issues to overcome with storage and replenishment of the gas in the vehicle, but I have no doubt they will be solved. Hydrogen will be a far 'cleaner' solution, even accepting that large amounts of electricity is required to generate the gas, though that can be generated by wind power.

[Steve kay]

Blimey, that Rowan puts himself about! The Daily Mail and the Grauniad.

And let’s not worry about noise. I can find no reports of pedestrian injuries let alone fatalities caused by Doble or Stanley steam cars in the last ten years.

[Barry Townsend]

There seems to be a misconception about the 'silence' of EV's

Both of mine emit a engine type sound up to about 15/20 mph, anything above that speed is of no use.
If your relative is profoundly deaf then a vulcan bomber would not be heard!

Every so called bad point about EV's has been blown out of all proportion and like it or not they are the future. Last night i watched an old film about the early history of the motor car, focusing on early Austins, and the comments of the public then were akin to those of today regarding the noisy, smelly and expensive motor car.

If anyone is interested check out youtube and you'll find EV's with 200,000 miles + on the original battery and still going strong. Probably because the owners have done the same as their ICE counterparts and looked after their cars.  Some manufacturers are guaranteeing their batteries for 10 years so it's a fairly safe assumption that they will last far longer.

I'm an old git of 75 years and I've learnt, over the years, to make my own mind up and not be over influenced by the media.

I think I need a lie down!

[Austin in the Shed]

How about a Porsche mission X,only £2m and can accelerate 0-60 in 2 secs !
Or more sensibly an EV GO from £10,900 here but at least it’s usable over here.
One of our neighbours in the lane has a Renault Zoe ? That makes a sort of squealing sound in the lane,she had a Nissan leaf prior to this but didn’t keep it that long.

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We were influenced by politicians 15-20 years ago to go diesel but now look where we’re going.

[andrew34ruby]

There seems to be a misconception about the 'silence' of EV's

Both of mine emit a engine type sound up to about 15/20 mph

Barry, are all EV's the same in this respect?  I've experienced some that emit a noise, but also come across some that are moving very slowly with no apparent noise. Or can the driver switch the noise on and off?

[Dave Mann]

With their phenomenal acceleration they trap the unwary and I've seen one zoom out of a parking slot then whiz across the road and into a shop front.

[Hugh Barnes]

I drove a pal's Toyota RAV4 hybrid a while back. The acceleration is indeed, stunning. The trouble I had was, with no audible 'feedback' on how the car was performing, i had no iea how fast we were going and my pal had to lean over and quietly ask me to slow down...

[David.H]

An "Auntie" Rover 105 drove into the NEC at the recent Restoration Show and at trickle/walking speed it was ABSOLUTELY silent!
I believe Rover used Overhead Inlet/Side Exhaust valves for silence....like Rolls Royce!