I nearly bought a gas powered vehicle a few years back until I found out they wouldnt allow it on the eurotunnel.
I was told that because gas burns so cleanly compaired to petrol/diesel the top of the engine wears a bit quicker due to a lack of lubrication.
How many autogas stations there are nowadays I couldnt say, there is certainly one not far from me but maybe via michelin has information on locations?
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Love it. I had a Bi-fuel Volvo some years ago and the mileage was superb on gas and the cost was next to nothing. The problems were - no parking in underground carparks, knowing where the LPG fuel stations were situated and the tank taking up space, although a factory version would have the space for the spare wheel used as a gas tank. If there is a good supply of LPG station around where you live then a petrol version with a gas conversion would be a good investment and considerably lower than a leccy gokart.
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Absolutely. The exhaust is so clean. I never had the problem with the valves/seats like some of the cowboy installations but i had a Volvo from the factory. As far as I know it is still going strong. Well it was 2 years ago. I used to go on the Eurotunnel with it, never had a problem but then i never told them.
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My conversation went something like, would you allow 65litres of petrol in a plastic tank? Of course not they said, well thats just about most of the modern cars you have on board! Meanwhile a high pressure safely mounted away from crash zones tank is a no no. But caravans can??? Policy written by an insurance feckwit!
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EV’s still very overpriced, which is why, unfortunately, it’s going to take an awfully long time to convert the general populus. And with world economies taking a dip, coupled with uncertainty, I can see the transition taking many many years to come. On a personal note, if I could find something medium sized to use as a daily driver that had towing capacity, at a reasonable cost, then I’d be interested. But I still wouldn’t think of parting with my weekend ‘petrol’ car which I absolutely love to drive, listening to the whir of the engine 
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Most of the arguments against EVs here are simply about people’s difficulty making the kind of lifestyle changes we all need to make - and will ultimately have to. It’s absolutely true, for example, that one implication of running on electric is that you have to plan long journeys a bit more, and maybe take a bit more time. Is this a bad thing?
But this I really don’t get:
I absolutely love the electric driving experience - I never liked traffic noise and fumes, and have now come to really hate that engine whir. I value the quietness and smoothness of electric - sometimes I feel I’m hardly touching the ground - and I love that feeling of power when you start (which you can only get a sort of soft version of by playing with the clutch in a fossil fuel car). Reminds me of my motorcycling days, when I used to stop at the next set of traffic lights and look in my mirrors at the cars just moving off at the previous set…
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And I guess that’s what makes us all different - you hate the whir of the engine, whereas I and many many others love it. The difference for me, and I think again, for many others, is that I see the EV as sterile functional driving, compared to the roaring passion of a petrol engine. I guess you also somehow felt that in your ‘motorcycling days’
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I loved motorcycling but actually never got that ‘throaty roar’ thing even as a young man - I was delighted when I graduated to bigger but quieter touring machines. What I did like were the sensations of acceleration, speed, leaning into bends - and, frankly, danger - and being radically exposed to the environment you’re passing through - feeling the air, sounds, smells, etc - sensations you never really get inside the box of car-driving.
‘sensations you never really get inside the box of car-driving.’
Unless it’s a convertible when you get to hear the engine roar and enjoy all that the outside has to offer
They are expensive but overpriced? There is never a huge profit margin on setting up a new tech and early adopters pay the premium but VW etc spending 100 million re-tooling and they only share in the battery R&D. Looking at ICE vehicles I might want they too are expensive otherwise car companies wouldnt be the huge companies they are. VW and their dieselgate fines would have bankrupt a lot of companies but they have been making sufficient margins on the ICE vehicles. The market will mature and cost will fall,
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I think the vast majority of folks believe EV’s to be the ultimate way to go, so let’s hope that the powers that be somehow improve availability to the masses in a ‘reasonable’ timescale! Very difficult to see any benefit from the very tragic situation in Ukraine, but I think it’s clearly had an impact on focussing minds as far as fossil fuel reliance is concerned. Climate impact and soaring fuel costs surely has to be the perfect storm as far as EV promotion is concerned - if EV sales don’t accelerate now then when would they is my view 
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True, but the recent increases in fossil fuel prices are just one more nail in the coffin - EV sales were already exploding. In the UK, for example, in 2021 more electric vehicles were sold than over the previous 5 years combined, hitting nearly 12% of all new car sales, and another 7% were plug-in hybrids, making nearly a fifth overall. 2022 has again seen record EV sales growth - now up to 28% of all new car registrations. At these growth rates. almost all new cars will be electric in a couple of years - and this will soon obviously feed through into the used car market - so again you need to watch out for second-hand fossil fuel car prices crashing.
Actually the EV syndrome can be compared to recent spate of demo’s for the migrants. At a recent demo a number of those were asked as they are welcoming migrants et al if they would take in some of the migrants - guess what the answers were, yup right on NO the same could be said for the EV mob, if they are all for EV’s tell them “right were taking your ICE car off you and you can buy an EV” and then watch the colour drain. Forcing a population to change at a vast cost to them is not the way to go. I am fully in favour of choice. Those that want one then go right ahead and those that dont, then go right ahead.
In light of the current cost of living increases and other nuances, I would think that 90 percent of the working class cant afford them whether they want them or not.
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Rightly or wrongly, you can’t plot a linear extrapolation for the EV take up like that, as the early adopters skew the front end. There will be a form of ‘saturation’ or ‘partial saturation’ after those that can afford the technology, or don’t need certain functionality, peaks. The take up will then slow imo, like any other ‘new technology’ that is initially priced beyond the man/woman in the street.
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Has there been a linear take up of anything? Just like any car manufacturer there are logistical nightmares at the moment. We watch, we wait.
I actually would offer space if we lived in France on a permanent basis, but I couldn’t take on a family in the UK - we simply don’t have the room.
As to EVs - I think the price is off-putting for many - the current crop of high range vehicles are all based on relatively up-market platforms and the EV version is at a premium on top of an already expensive vehicle.
I’d have the BMW I4 in a heartbeat but configured as I’d like to buy it the price is £70k. Admittedly that’s not much of a mark-up on a similarly configured M440i (about £66k) but it is, nonetheless, a mark-up.
£70k is more than most would want to spend on a car, even with finance (which makes it more expensive anyway) and it’s not even the most expensive EV around.
Other factors are the low amount of electricity generation from renewables in the UK (compared with France at least) and the fact that outside of Tesla the UK fast charging network is crap, and by all accounts you are lucky to find one working. Yes, 60% of my mileage would be commuting and easily serviced by home charging but the other 40% is the long trips to France which ideally would still be achieved on one charge (I half take @Corona’s point about breaks but for a 2½ hour and a 3¼ hour stretch we don’t need a break) - unfortunately Brittany Ferries is not yet offering on board EV charging.
So, I’m almost at the point of ordering an S3 Vorsprung - still a bit expensive but offering everything I want at a price I can stretch to.
66k vs 70k and no buying fuel would soon be recouped from home charging.
Things are improving charging wise but not fast enough to keep up imo now.
I will have a look at charging points now either side of the chanel but that will be higher speed not the puny 3-7-22 kw which are little use on your route.
True - indeed would be recouped just with the difference in VED over the first few years.
But there is no practical difference between “£16k more than I can possibly justify on a new car” and “£20k more than I can possibly justify on a new car”.
I might have a look at the salary sacrifice thing again but that eats into my pension which, apropos other discussions, I’m not sure that I want.
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Me too on that one.
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The future. Hopefully, the near future.
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