Journalists selling their rags, after Jonathan’s post I dont feel I need to add anything.
Very true, but a petrol/diesel fire can be extinguished rapidly with foam to cut the oxygen supply to the fire.
With an electrical fire, you have to remove the supply of current to the short circuit/faulty module and that requires direct contact with the EV.
Agreed, but the likelihood of that problem is incredibly low compared to igniting the bomb that everyone carries with them in their ICE vehicles.
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I completely agree. It’s very unlikely for an ICE vehicle to catch fire after an accident (less that a tenth of one percent or so) and if they do, it’s down to an electrical short or another fluid in the engine bay igniting.
In the case of an electrical fire though, someone’s going to have to disconnect the battery or just let it burn.
This all comes under the heading of “life is not risk free”. We all choose to drive towards each other at legal approach speeds of 180km/h, & aim to miss. It’s extraordinary that there aren’t more head-on accidents, given the general lack of concentration of drivers, the poor/uncorrected vision of some, & other medical issues (& don’t start me on mobile 'phones!).
Sorry, I disgress.
Its only news when an EV catches fire.
For what it’s worth, we adore our EV. Economics described here:
I’d encourage skeptics to read it fully. The short version is our EV is certainly no more expensive than a new dinosaur juice powered car once you factor everything in. And now you can get a clean 22kWh Zoé for around €5k, that’s an absolute no brainer as a second car, ESPECIALLY if you have a 10+ year old thermal car to scrap. The French government will give you €2k for it until the end of June.
I also did a practical review of our Zoé once I’d had it 6 months:
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Interesting 2 articles.
I am considering changing cars during the next 6 months and considering all options.
Regarding the economics of effectively leasing, at the end of the 24 or 36 months what will you do seeing as you old car was used to pay the deposit for this one, but you can’t do that again.
Thanks.
That’s fair, if you’re in a cycle of using your old car as a “deposit”, as it were. I’ve never been in that cycle, my cars have never been worth much anyway. Hence the point that right now, if you’re sitting on a worthless banger it’s actually worth something for once! Thanks to the prime à la conversion.
Thinking on, if your current car is worth €10k and you sell it for an EV lease where the government basically pays the deposit (we pay a bit more a month, but the deposit was “only” €6,400 and the government paid €6,000 of that directly) and bank the difference for later. 
Time will tell if the government will continue to be as generous.
If we were changing our small car I would be tempted with electric - I would be concerned with our bigger car long trips to UK with current charging times & infrastructure - perhaps in 5 years even the bigger car could be switched.
My car is also leased - we didn’t pay anything as a deposit so will just hand it back at the end of the contract and get another one. We calculated that it was more cost effective than the depreciation we had encountered on the last two (nearly new and fairly new) vehicles. And given that technology is evolving on an almost daily basis I imagine that future depreciation is going to be an increasingly important factor in people’s decision making. Which will push more people into leasing, which will reduce costs even further…
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Surely not. But the principle is of course as the technology takes off the cost comes down so the state won’t need to help any more. That’s already happening, to be fair - I mean, I know then Model 3 is still very expensive (more than I’d pay for a car of its size) but it’s pretty aggressively priced against a BMW 3-series, for example. I’d definitely get a Model 3 instead of that - by the time you’ve matched the spec and performance you’ll be paying about the same.
Our “big car” is 23 years old and only does about 3,000 kms a year. I’m tempted by the scrappage scheme to trade it against a second-hand hybrid as a stop-gap, but as @cat pointed out, the €2k I’d get for it I’d just lose in depreciation over the next couple of years anyway, so unless it fails its CT my current plan is to run it for another 2 years and then see what there is out there. The VW ID.4 is already very interesting, I can drive it to Milan without stopping to charge which is pretty much my measure, it’s not too expensive for what it is. And there’ll be more choice in a couple of years’ time as well.
For the same reasons as @cat I’m totally buying in to the Car as a Service mindset. (AKA the lease.)
Yes but you still pay for the depreciation and any interest so it’s unusual to really come out on top
Whilst there is a higher up front cost for EV’s the far lower cost of home charging takes quite a chunk out of the equation compared to buying fuel.
Not only will depreciation values be considerably lower for most EV’s as there are far less moving parts to go wrong. This should also mean less buying of new cars every few years as EV’s last longer. That will reduce the ecological impact massively. It will be interesting to see how the contract hire co’s address this.
The manufacturers will just bring out "must have " new models every 6 months, bit like fruity phones. Just call me cynical…
In your dreams! As mark says, manufacturers will continue to launch must have new models. Current fossil fuel cars last much longer than they did but it hasn’t stopped some people’s desire to have a brand new motor on the driveway every 2 years to impress the neighbours.
Eg, just looking at a worked example courtesy of BMW
Price of car = £28,775
Deposit £4319
PCP - Monthly payments £299 plus 11,582.85 to buy at the end, total = £30,780.58
HP - Monthly payments £521.16, total = £30,160.41
Interest in both cases is 2.9%pa
So, you do get a lower monthly payment, quite considerably so in fact but overall you would pay more if you wanted to own the vehicle at the end of the agreement. Of course many people do like a new car every 4 years so PCP might well be attractive but, as Robert Heinlein said, TANSTAAFL.
True but that’s only because it’s a small enough number at present that a) domestic power distribution hasn’t needed “beefing up” and b) the government hasn’t cottoned onto it as something to tax.
Admittedly EV cost maybe 1/3 as much as ICE engines (12,000 miles at .3kWh/mile is about £550-600 worth of electricity compared with 3x that for an ICE engine (say £1.20/l and 35mpg = 1.24.546(12000/35) = 1900 or thereabouts), but 50% of the pump price is duty.
Depreciation isn’t just about wear and tear, it’s about perceived value as well.
As I’ve said before EVs are here to stay - if for the only reason that we will, at some point, run out of oil. However I still think the technology has some maturing to do and they aren’t “better i all respects” than ICE engines (including for the environment). I’ll probably be ready for an EV towards the end of this decade.
Paul I will try to find the independent Scandinavian report that looked into minutiae and concluded EV’ are hands down better for the environment.
I would happily buy a second hand EV but at least at the moment the perceived value is a bit above my budget. 10-12 year old Tesla at £28-30k
Quite possibly, but not being a fashion follower the main reason I get a newer vehicle is the 1000’ of moving parts are becoming un reliable or too expensive to fix or in the case of my old Renault the number of parts that needed replacement outstripped the residual value. As many of the French hold on to stuff until it falls apart I stand by my comment and lets see.