Thinking Of An Electric Car?

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Right. On the one hand they are a practical form of transportation for many who use them for shorter to medium distances. One can also use them for longer distances but then charging time comes in which can be frustrating for some. Ok if one has patience and time. The other downside is one has to pay by an app or similat method so one really has to be up to date with modern technology and know the ins and outs in how to protect oneself from online fraud. For older folk and for some middle aged folk this feels like opening a can of worms full of complications one can't understand. Why can't one just put coins in and keep it simple for users who actuallynwant to go electric but don't want to own a modern style mobile phone?

Ok... But supposing one knows what one is doing and is happy with how apps work and things like that. Then ideally, if one is going electric, one preferably wants to get a car or vehicle with a decent range so one wants a car or vehicles with the newest battery... And also one wants one with a good range to begin with.
Now to get both of these, one really needs a new vehicle. BUT new prices are high... But as soon as they become secondhand, these vehicle prices drop so dramatically that one has to question what one is doing! Petrol or diesel vehicles take a sudden drop, but one can more than double that drop for even the best electric vehicle as the secondhand market for them is almost non-existant!

This leaves me to say, if you want one, then please use your brains and buy secondhand, as this is where the real bargains will be found!

So many people have been caught out as they have decided to change their electric vehicle for one reason or another and found they owe way more on their vehicle than the value of the vehicle is worth on the secondhand market, and I really feel for these people as it really should not be like this!

Take a look at this owner and his lovely electric Porsche. He decided that due to the practicalities for him personally, to go for a nice piston engined Porsche instead. (Watch it to the end because he will explain it in more detail in why so many are being caught out, and apart from his heater had just packed in (Common fault that he said will be returned under warranty to have it fixed), his electric Porsche is a lovely vehicle).

https://youtu.be/77Yo4LpksWM?si=JeXVnYjoHMZRyzAH



Now if one buys secondhand one can see one can get something good. BUT don't buy new.
For a three year old car to drop £4000 every month in value! I really feel sorry for the owners...

(Those who have an electric vehicle, keep it and use it until its batteries fail. Get every last bit of use).

Add to this the other issues some drivers have had with some makes and models. Please, please, please do some research before you buy.

A lady I know bought a brand new Citroen electric car about a year ago. She did not ask the vital questions such as how far it goes on a charge. She bought it to travel to family who live in London in the clean air zones as she lives in Wales and assumed she could drive down in a day and charge while in London, stay the night or two and drive back. No chance! The thing only has an 118mile range new from the dealer. She would have to recharge it three times to get to London and that is "If" it does anywhere near its 118 mile range. She was about to sell her piston engined car privately but found out in time, and has kept it as a second car to drive to London and back... Even if she has to pay the clean air zone charges it is better than trying to do it on her electric car!

So please do research before you buy.

Electric cars do have a place as they do work, but do not feel pressurized into buying them if they are not practical for your personal needs. for commuting the 30 or so miles into work and back as an example, nothing can be better if one ignores depreciation value and the higher cost of insurance. (Insurance costs are higher due to the potential for fires and the extra weight and damage the weight can potentially do, and the risk of a battery short causing an out of control fire due to the crash, and insurance companies are starting to see these differing trends and adjusting their insurance accordingly).

There is one definate simple upgrade I would fit to all electric vehicles for safety and that is an electrical kill switch to isolate the battery totally if the car develops a fault. I think this should be standard on every motorized vehicle. We have them on older piston engined vehicles. Is the ignition key switch. Modern cars seem to be bypassing this feature, and this feature for emergency use (Better to have a separate switch on piston engines as the key switch also locks the steering! But is rare to have issues on those). Why a kill switch on electric cars? Because a few have developed faults where the car starts to accelerate to top speed and the brakes either do not work (As in the recent case in the UK) or can't hold the car due to high torque of the motor(s), and the drivers have not been able to switch their cars off or get them into neutral to slow them down. A simple emergency electrical kill switch which does not cost a lot will solve this issue... Even if ones brakes dont work it is better than no brakes and the car accelerating! I think an emergency kill switch is essential just incase the rare fault should occur, and also an easy to reach emergency button to open all doors as the owner of the recent vehicle to act up, was soo frightened when the police were eventually able to stop his car (Seven police cars co-operating together to box his car in to get it to stop), that the driver could not let go of his steering wheel as he was shaking and the police could not get the doors open from the outside as the door handles receed into the car.

Thought is needed to prevent situations like this and it is easy. A kill switch and also the doors should never be electrically locked. Always manually locked.

The trouble with using it until the batteries fail, is that the batteries can fail in a matter of hours during a cold winter, or a really hot summer. and they are between 5-20 thousand USD to replace. Better keep an emergency battery replacement fund handy...its not covered by insurance in most cases.

The guy said for his three year old car, the new batteries cost £45,000 just for the batteries. (Without fitting). His car secondhand value had dropped to £40,000. It was £120,000 when he had it new and due to hire purchase agreement he owed around £64,000 on it which was more than the cars resale value as it had dropped so much in value so quickly. What is happening is when the first few electric cars were sold around 10 years ago, there were only a few sold so retained good value even though they may only hold 50% charge six or seven years later, but now people are waking up to the battery percentage dropping with age or cold weather or poor charging proceedures etc, people are wanting new electric cars and the ones who would buy secondhand, are buying piston engined cars instead, so the used electric car market drops in value so fast that it is almost not worth even considering an electric vehicle if one thinks of them in financial terms of owning them.

There is no real solution to this, but on the plus side, if one did want an electric car and one knew a bit about them so one knew which to avoid and which were the good ones, one can potentially pick up an unbelievable bargain! This is what I really reccomend people to do!

David Letterman was talking about an experience with his Tesla; there was a short and his batteries went dead. Since the car was electric nothing worked. He couldn't roll down his windows nor open his door; he was trapped inside his own car and it was summer.

Yes. Is a problem on many modern cars and not just electric.

One could always do this when the batteries eventually die...

https://youtu.be/IrjbjSS1MHk?si=gIU_e-_wKxhs24CB

Electric cars are very popular here.
In the past three months, auto companies have been engaged in a price war.The lowest price has reached eleven thousand dollars.You can get a nice car in every way for only twenty thousand dollars.

As for the car key or battery problem mentioned by op, I don't know much about it.

Electric cars are great, i know quite a few people who have them and use them without any trouble. You wouldn't know this if you read right-wing papers which in the UK at least like to print two or three stories a week about people having trouble with them. It's sadly become a culture war issue for them.

I would have one in a heartbeat if i could afford it but i can't and I won't buy secondhand because of the replacement battery issue which is a real and actual problem - if I could afford to replace them I might as well buy a newer electric car which didn't need it's batteries replacing!

^Much of what people think are 'problems' with electric vehicles can be effectively mitigated against. Same as we mitigate problems with all vehicles, it's just about changing what you think about before you set out.

I make no claims for the eco friendliness of them, although if your electricity is renewable I fail to see how that can't be preferable to burning fossil fuel. And it's very easy to switch to a renewable tariff in the UK. Don't know about elsewhere.