My Rant About Electric Cars

@bobbyllew please don’t hate me

Before I start today’s rant, I know I’m probably going to upset a few people with just the title of this post and they won’t bother to carry on reading. I can’t say I’m prepared for any backlash if there is any, but suffice to say I’ll be ignoring those who have obviously not read this post before replying either here or on social media.

I’m going to start by telling those of you that have got this far without writing how I’m a waste of oxygen in the comments before reading the whole post that I completely agree with the idea of going green. I one day would like to have my own eco home built from straw and lime render that run on solar power and a watermill, as my dream home would also be next to a river or stream (even though I’m terrified of deep water). I see the need for the whole world to change the way we generate power and transport ourselves around to be more eco friendly.

@elonmusk is right when he says that the only thing we can’t power with batteries is rockets (and I know I’m paraphrasing). Scientists are already working on a way to move aeroplanes over to electric engines in a variety of forms, Train companies are trying to find ways to power the diesel fleets using batteries or hydrogen and manufactures of Internal combustion engine vehicles are starting to see the light and move to greener forms of transportation.

The problem I have, as a self proclaimed hippy born in the wrong decade, is not the technology or the fact that I would have to travel to hull to quickly charge my vehicle as Bridlington has a total of 4 7KW chargers that would take hours to fully charge even a small electric car. It’s the price.

Now for many people, this isn’t an issue. They earn enough money to be able to buy or rent an electric car no problem. But for me and my partner, It’s impossible for us to even consider it. As I’ve mentioned in a few of my previous posts, I’m waiting for my new job to start and my wife has been looking for work since she left college. Even when I start work finances will be so tight I will struggle to be able to afford driving lessons, and the maths says then even when I’ve done them the cost of owning a car is still out of our reach.

I even looked into renting a small electric car like the Renault Zoe or the MG ZE EV but I came across four problems. Firstly I don’t drive, Secondly, The cost is still too high, thirdly finally, due to me being an idiot as a teenager I basically have no credit rating and finally, we live in a first floor flat and would not be able to charge at home, especially as we already struggle to find somewhere to park when we have guests come round.

I did a small experiment a few months back, that you may have seen if you follow me on twitter (@jimdhope), where I compared the insurance on a 2008 Peugeot 307 and a 2019 Standard Range Tesla Model 3 and to my shock the Tesla was £7 cheaper than the Peugeot so insurance whilst still not really affordable for us would not be that much of a consideration being practically the same.

But back to my point about price, even when I tried to look for something we could afford on eBay second-hand nothing came up for less than £1,000. I’m not overly shocked, to be honest, electric cars are still relatively new on the market so one there won’t be all that many second-hand and they certainly won’t be cheap. The cheapest I could find was a Nissan Leaf for £5,00 that you still had to pay a monthly charge for the batteries.

We just can’t afford that and the extra monthly charge for batteries has always pissed me off something rotten. Fair enough when the cars we new and battery tech was basically crap fine, but now Nissan, Renault or whoever else still charges these rituals motherly fees for their batteries should just swap the old ones out for new ones and stop the charge. The custom might even get a small performance post from that too which would also encourage the customer to buy their next car from the same manufacturer.

I would love it someone turnaround to me and said, Here are the “keys” to a Tesla Model 3 (or even better a Model Y) it’s all yours you just need to charge it and insure it. I would quite happily drive through to hull to charge at a supercharger once a week to charge it up. I’ve entered enough Yeo Valley competitions to know that it’s never going to happen though (but don’t let that stop you from trying their vanilla yoghurt, it is to die for)

I get that Tesla is considered a luxury brand but it would be great if they could come out with a small compact car that costs less than £20,000 that I could hope to buy one-day third hand for around a grand. I say Tesla because at the moment they really re the kings of Electric Cars, Battery Tech & Self Driving. No one else is close and as they release more and more vehicles (Please bring out a van for my Broadcast truck ideas) they are only going to pull further ahead.

The other thing that boils my blood about making transport more eco friendly is that bus companies, around Hull & East Yorkshire, just don’t seem to give a rest arse about it at all. None of the busses I have seen or been on are hybrids let alone electric. At times like these when they only allow 8 people on the bus having electric busses running routes rather than ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) would save them a fortune and then when the restrictions are lifted they would be in profit rather quickly. Think of all the maintenance they wouldn’t have to do due to the lack of moving parts, the need for oil and the reduced use of brake pads.

Well, I think I have gone on long enough and I’m pretty sure that most of social media hate me (having still not read the post) so I’m going to end it here. What are you thoughts about green transportation? Do you think their prices are too high or is it a problem with cars in general? How would you convince manufactures to lower their prices? Let me know in the comments below.