Hi Pete, very informative video. My son recently purchased an EV as he lives on a small development with a wall charger. He discovered that the 7kw charger was only configured to 3.5kw. He challenged the developer who informed he that the Power supplier had requested this because if all the properties used an EV that the sub station would not be able to cope. We have a very long way to go before we are ready for EV’s.

At a dealership this summer in Canada, a Mach E in GT trim had a price tag of $CDN88k. The petrol version, 5.0l V8 in GT trim was $CDN52K. I can buy a lot of petrol for the difference!!

I had a coworker who bragged about his Tesla saying he is not worried about gas prices and feels sorry for the rest of us gas users. Hes also huge on solar. So i tell him, "Ok so you spent $23k on your solar panels to be installed on to your roof, spent about $50k on your tesla, and another $5k - $10k to install a certified electric outlet to charge your car. Sure youd spend about $17 - $30 on a fill charge but every time you do so, you go to a resturant to grab food to pass time as you wait till your car is charged. The food you spend in resturant as time passing is roughly $15 - $20. Combone that with the charge fees, yiu spend aboit the same if you were paying for fuel. And to avoid paying $4.49 a gallon of fuel, you spent roughly $80k to avoid paying $4.49." He just looked at me blank like i showed him a new dimension.

Imagine living in a block of apartments and having to wait in line to boil your kettle.

Had an online discussion with someone who must have been in NYC or LA while I'm from a large city in the center of the U.S. I have never even SEEN a charging station, this guy said they're everywhere. I'm in an apartment with unassigned outdoor parking, he said every apartment has its own charger. He's one of those people that think, "The whole world is exactly like what I experience." Different worlds dude, different worlds.

The funny/ ironic thing about subsidies (tariffs) for "early adopters" is that they're just discounts for the wealthy. As prices become affordable for the middle class, the subsidies evaporate--and yet again, we collectively subsidize the wealth gap.

Great video! This hits so many important issues on living with an EV. As Retiree in the US who enjoys exploring our vast country we opted for a hybrid SUV. We've taken several 1500 mile trips and it's practical and reasonably economical at 30-35 MPG.

Hi Pete. Thanks for the video. Regarding taxation, I live in the state of Virginia in the US. Here when we register our EV, and we have 2, we pay a tax to the DMV to replace the fuel tax we are not paying. Works ok except you pay either a flat fee or based on actual mileage, but we pay for the whole year at once archer in little bits at each fill up.

I can't charge at home and found your acknowledgement of the difficulties highly supportive. Thank you. If someone asked me to sum up my several years' EV driving experience in one word, I'd say 'unpredictable', and I'd also urge them *not* to become an EV driver unless they can charge at home. Thanks again.

A point to consider for those of us living in older streets of terraced housing is that, even if we could have a charge point of our own, we don't have any more right than anyone else to park outside our own home - unless it's a private road, or we have resident parking spaces (which are usually quite expensive). This country is still a long way off being prepared for "enforcement by stealth" EV ownership - unless that's part of the agenda whereby motoring will soon revert to being a privilege for the wealthy.

Great post. I could go on and on about all the significant challenges which make the highly accelerated timelines our countries have committed to for EV adoption all but impossible. FYI, I live in California, which is arguably one of the most developed states in the US as it pertains to EV infrastructure. At the end of 2022 it was the state with the largest number of registered EV vehicles (37% of total # of EV’s in US) and had > 88,000 chargers. Regardless, I invite you to watch one or more of the great YT videos posted by users like Shmee150 showing how flawed the existing EV charging network is in my state. Sure, having a level 2 charger at home is fantastic for commuting, short trips from home, etc. But, should you wish to venture out somewhere beyond the range of your EV and it is literally a crap shoot if you will be able to charge on the way and arrive at your destination according to your desired timeline. Please keep in mind, while England is ~400 miles long (north-south), California alone is nearly 900 miles long (north-south). While I still think the challenges we face are similar, the likelihood for Brits to regularly tap the max range of their EV’s is much lower than the average EV driver in the US. The fact that nearly 78% of US EV owners also own a gas powered vehicle speaks to the apprehension most folks have of going completely electric. (yes, I admit it’s not the only reason to have a second, gas powered car). As an electrical engineer, my biggest concern is the fact that our current power grid is completely incapable of supporting even minimal EV charging network expansion, let alone what it would take to support the complete transition to EV by 2035 as our government has mandated. The necessary overhaul of the grid (generation, transmission, low voltage distribution) would take decades and trillions of dollars. If the public would get over their fears and allow for more nuclear based power we would have at least a glimmer of hope with the generation issue. As I said, I could go on and on. Better stop here. 😏

Ty Pete for the vid. The petrol and other fuel consumption in the UK is about 20 Billion kg. 1 kg fuel is about 12 kWH chemically bound potential heat energy. The ratio beetween ICE and electric is about 2,5-3 more energy efficient. 2,5 is more for a Diesel car. 20 Billion kg x 12 kWh/3 = 80 Billion kWh Electricity consumption in UK is about 275 Billion kWh currently. So the power production capacity, likely coal power plants, will have to be raised by about a third. Pretty bad for enviroment I think. Thanks god this ElonMusk-pipe-nightmare wont last that long. We dont have the materials, especially copper, to build this crap. We dont have, not just in the UK, the spare electricity capacity. Rolling black-outs will occure on regular basis when every rich Joe and Jane needs to charge his or her EV. The government will have to limit access to the charging stations. When people realize how massive the value depriciation is on EV, which far offsets the potential savings if you have a personal wallbox and never drive more on one day than the range of the EV. EV's are at least double as bad for the enviroment. If you take into account, that nobody has any idea how to recycle these toxic batteries at scale (plus who's gonna pay for it? ~10.000 pounds per car, actually nobody knows exactly how much). The most likely result is, that this crap will end up in the ocean or in some Asian or African poor country in a toxic land fill. Then the bad enviromental impact of this pipe-nightmare will be off the scale.

Hi Pete--a very important aspect of EVs politicians totally ignore is the natural resources needed for a battery. There are only about 6 countries that have enough deposits of Lithium (and other resources) to keep the batteries running….and the UK and the US are NOT two of them. At least with lead acid batteries the metals, sulfuric acid, and distilled water are readily available.

Thanks Pete, great content as always. A few points (from an ex Mach-e ‘owner’). Resetting the range clock does absolutely nothing to impact the range, it just resets it to the theoretical range until you e done a few trips and then normal ‘range calculation’ is resumed (240 on warm days, 200 on cold days). I didn’t have a home box, used the public network. It was a complete ball ache with charge points out of order or full on about 30% of journeys. Travelling to and from Cornwall on holiday with the family was god awful with all the waiting around to charge. And the public charge points say 50kwh…complete tosh! lucky to get 40kwh out of most. After 9 months I gave up. Back to dinosaur juice I’m afraid and life is so much easier. I’ll see what EVs look like in another 10 years - maybe. Keep the content coming, great work

I've had an EV for nearly 2 years and I'm leaving them behind and going back to hybrid. I don't have off street parking and can only use rapid chargers / supermarket trickle chargers. A year ago, the number of EVs on the road was so low that rapid chargers were very easy to access. Now, the balance has completely changed and it's impossible to get a charging slot without queuing behind several other cars at any time of day. In winter, charging is twice as bad because energy efficiency per mile nosedives. I have to charge my EV every 2 days. At this stage, I don't believe EVs will ever become ubiquitous because of the millions of people who don't have at-home charging. The number of rapid chargers we need would be astronomical.

Very good point about taxation and loss of revenues as we switch over to electric. In Colorado, USA our taxes per gallon is 22 cents. The Federal tax, as I understand it, is 18 cents. I should assume there is also a county and city tax. At minimum, 40 cents per gallon. Assuming 20 mpg, that’s 2 cents per mile. I currently pay about 11 cents per kW and figure conservatively 3 miles per kW. Just for easier math, let’s figure 4 cents per mile in my EV. That would have to go up at least 50% per mile to make up for that revenue. Currently in the US, there is NO tax on electricity for residential use.

You are absolutely freakin' RIGHT. It's absolutely amazing how greatly the motoring press have engaged EVs without scrutinizing the elephant in the room.

I used to work for a company of around 200 employees, they only had 10 EV chargers in the company parking lot. So the people with EV's had to draw up a charging roster for each day of the week for those who needed to charge at work and that became a mission to manage as you can imagine.

Another great video this is the second time I listen to your video and it was awesome. Thanks for making it and at some point it may wake up the politicians to maybe consider what to do but, I would not hold my breath!

As electricity prices soar and supply reliability diminishes, you also have the cost of charging at home which is not cheap and will only get worse, if you are luck enough to have a home charger and garage. Most people today cannot afford a home and garage.

Been driving EVs since 2014 (BMW i3, Renault Zoe, Tesla Model 3, Volvo C40). Like you we are lucky enough to have a 7kW wall box. I completely agree with everything you said and honestly, I’ve made the same points to friends and colleagues if they ask me about EVs. The government is not governing this situation properly (mind you they are not really governing anything properly so what did we expect?!).

You are so correct with respect to the cost of a new EV being out of reach for many of us. Also, the fact that the number one issue with used EV's is the battery, and the batteries cost a fortune to replace. I see the total cost of ownership of a new EV to be a bit too high for many people. I know plenty of people who find it a struggle to purchase some used car at $10,000 - $15,000. Good luck finding a good EV with a battery that isn't getting ready to die for that kind of cash. In fact, the price of all cars, both used and new, has gone up so much this year that most people I know are just refurbishing their present older cars. The price of a new transmission or a good deal of engine work is not much more then the sales tax on a new car these days. They can push EV's till icebergs float in Tampa Bay and if people just don't have the cash for one they are not going to give up their old gas powered clunkers until they will no longer move and parts are totally unavailable.

My fiancé is a Union Pipefitter and he has spent his career of nearly 30 years maintaining & upgrading power plants. Our government has spent billions to upgrade power plants to cleaner burning and than within 10-15 years their shutting them down to go green. Their shutting them down without having anything in place to power the country. IF they really wanted they could make coal powered plants even cleaner but somehow they’ve convinced people that mining/burning coal is bad but mining all the materials for EV’s is good. People are sheep and being led to their own doom.

I 100 % agree with everything you said !!! I live in the United States, and I have thought about all these issues also. I recently had to buy a new vehicle ( was in an accident and my truck was totalled ). I researched various models and decided that in my current driving universe, a good hybrid was the best choice. I purchased a 2023 Honda Accord Sport-L. 8 months into owning it and I loooooooove it !! Never needs charging. Has a 12 gallon gas tank that fuels the 4 cylinder engine that mainly charges the battery ( only when the regen braking is not enough ), which in turn powers the 2 electric motors. Everything works seamlessly. You don't do anything but just drive it. I'm getting 44-50 miles per gallon... 550 to 600 miles per tank. No power box or public charging to ever worry about. Now, I am not telling anyone to buy this car, but I am telling everyone that a 'Hybrid' vehicle is probably the best alternative at this time of our lives.... 👍

I live in Spain. Many people live in apartments (64+ in a block) with communal parking. I have a private parking space, but it is in a shared garage. A lot of Spanish also live in townhouses without garages. I am glad you did this video because I have been saying the same thing and a lot of people just ignore the problem.

dude, you are soooooo correct in your conclusions. I'm an engineer in the US and while the idea of an EV is fun (particularly the performance) the practicality is severely limited. Our US electric grid cannot sustain charging millions of cars. The idea that "I need to drive to a family emergency but have to wait 3 hrs to charge" is a complete deal breaker for me. Oh, and don't mention attempting to drive 800 miles across country for a family vacation... blah. then there's there's the cost of a rebuild. A piston engine rebuild after 200k miles is about 5 to 6K. To rebuild a battery system after (how long will they last?) is closer to $20-$30K I think? wow...

Spot on !!!!! Where is the revenue from petrol & Diesel going to come from , we have been there already remember when diesel was less than petrol , fast forward we all bought diesel, now it is more expensive than petrol . Another thing that needs mentioning, most retail car parks have cameras and you can only use the car park when the shops are open BUT they have charging points.People have had £100 PCNS come through their letterbox. The sweetness you have mentioned are disappearing as we speak.Insurance for EVs is double.Positive side, some have depreciated by 70% after 3 years so they are at a bargain price.

This is a fantastic video. The same issues you describe are the reasons I bought a Hybrid instead of an EV. In Ontario Canada where I live we have a government which cancelled all incentives for EV purchases. They are only available at the federal level. There is little to no infrastructure publically. People are going back to gas powered vehicles in the larger city centers as a result. Range insecurity is a huge issue in Canada and of course our winter lowers your range. It is a mess which no one talks about. So much more to discuss but will leave it at that. Terrific, straight forward and honest discussion.

One thing that still bothers me about EV's is the assumption that life is predictable. I drive it, I take it home and charge it and as you said the next morning I'm ready to go. Life isn't always that predictable. You get back home, you've used most of your range and a family emergency etc. happens and suddenly you have no vehicle you can use immediately. The time to charge is still a huge drawback. They definitely have a place in the future but they can't be the total solution. Where I live in Canada we can get feet of snow in a short time and the winter temperatures could kill you if you had no power in the car and became stranded. I guess my point is don't treat them as a complete solution. They simply aren't.

Thank you for posting this video. It is incredibly well balanced and should be mandatory viewing for any politicians who think that EVs are some sort of panacea.

Thank you for a very informative video, you raised a lot of points I have just been asking. I am lucky enough to have off street parking and a wall charger, however when we go away to the caravan will have to rely on public system for more so I did lots of sums comparing various charging companies and it is worth doing a as there can be quite a variation between them.

All excellent points. The only certainty is that we will be paying more in the future, no matter what.

I think of not being able to charge at home as similar to not having a laundry washing machine at home. I remember back in the days when I lived in apartments, I would just wait until I had absolutely no clean clothes left, then either use the communal washing machines (if my apartment had one) or making a journey to a laundromat and just burning up a whole afternoon of my time. It's certainly doable, but you're definitely sacrificing time and convenience.

Here in US we have lots of full-sized pickup trucks. I use and actually need mine on almost a daily basis even though I'm retired and don't use it for work. A hobby I have requires that I pull a 16ft enclosed trailer and we all know about the recent test someone did where the pickup with a trailer only got about 85 mile range. I can only imagine what it would be like if you were driving in a state with mountains like Colorado. Occasionally, I take my trailer on longer trips which would reall suck if I had to stop every 85 miles. So, for the range problem alone, I don't see this as a practical solution even for 2030.

Great video. My concern is that, as you said, taxes will be coming on the electricity. The government can't survive with them if they lose the revenue from oil. So okay, the government will tax electricity. But wait, electricity can be used for many things, not just your car, and there's no way to distinguish that. So they extra taxes will be also paid when you make some toast, boil a kettle or watch a KZfaq video. The EVs will massively raise the cost of general living. You already commented on the purchase cost of new EVs which will put them out of reach of a lot of poorer people. Those people will eventually be forced into second hand EVs, which will have old batteries, that give less range, are more prone to total failure (effectively writing off the car) and even dangerous fires. So poorer people will get the short end of the stick with extra home costs due to higher electricity costs, and older, less range and less reliable EVs. No one is considering this I think, and the push to EVs is happening from people who are wealthy enough to afford new vehicles.

Really informative, I think I'll stick with my old Honda Civic for the foreseeable future.👍

Hey Pete, I live in Australia. and installed Solar panels on roof several years ago and was getting good rate for surplus electricity I was selling to the grid, now I get next to nothing plus hidden solar meter charges. I saw this happening a long time ago, as you rightly say, the same will happen with EV's when Governments lose out on excise etc. Very well put together arguments on living with an EV.

One point that I did not hear: if you are at a two port charging station "alone" and say it will take an hour to charge your vehicle, should a second person pull up and use the second port, your time to charge has now doubled. The charging stations can only put out a certain amperage (wattage) and if you are the only one there you get it all, if not you only get half. Same at home should you have two EV's and lucky enough to have two ports. I loved the video! Cheers from North Carolina USA!

Took a while to get to the points but when you got there they're all spot on and something I have been saying too for a while. For me the ev is still pointless. I have off street parking and could charge at home but I only do 3000 miles a year at most. My old V6 Merc is doing no harm to anyone, even my bank account.

Don’t forget the 50%+ depreciation after around 2 years and risk of thermal runaway. Also the worry of a requiring a replacement battery costing around £20k+. Insurance premiums for EV’s are almost double that of ICE vehicles. Cheap home charging is good at the moment but charging stations are getting expensive.

Bottom line is, if you don't have an exclusive charging source, think twice about getting a EV. Even if there are public charging points near where you live/work, you may need to line up to get your EV charged up (regardless what the cost is).

Hello sir, I am not from the UK. But I live here in Canada. There is a huge push here in Canada for Electric Vehicles. You were talking about those living in flats (or apartments). I live in an apartment (apartment complex) myself, and just back in September of this year, my landlord installed 2 charging stations for each building. Now these charging stations, you have to pay by credit card or using the app just like you would at a public charging station. We have about 24 units or more per building. Some units may have 1 or 2 vehicles for each unit. We have 3 buildings in our complex. Now, at this time no one in our complex has an EV. There might be maybe a hybrid vehicle or 2 in our complex, and none of them are the plug in hybrid. Anyways, my point is this no one in my complex seem to care about getting an EV. We already have problems in our complex with our power going out from time to time. A few weeks ago, we had the inspector putting stickers on the charging stations, and he told me he would never buy an EV because the infrastructure is not there yet. He said he has been on the industry for 20 years, and he still wouldn't even purchase an EV. He said he would encourage people to get a plug hybrid or just even a regular hybrid, but never a EV when the infrastructure is not even there. I am the same way, I would never purchase an EV. Maybe a plug in hybrid, but definitely not a EV when the infrastructure is lacking. Those are my 2 cents.

Great points, add the fact that these cars are fragile, the slightest bit of damage to the battery pack can result in a write off so insurance rates are high and going higher.

Great video. In the U.S., depending on the car and the charger, you can recharge from 0% to 80% state of charge in less than 1/2 hour, so it isn't that big a deal. (your charge rate may vary).

As someone who drove 2,500 miles each month with a EV without level 2 charging at home my experience was as follows. Everyday while I'm at lunch I would go to the local EVGO station which luckily was near three places to eat at. I learn pretty quickly I had to go for lunch super early around 10am otherwise I'll be screwed due to only two charge points and too much activity between 11am-2pm. The average cost of getting my car battery charge about 55-60% was 10 dollars per charge and would take 30-45 minutes I have a Mach-E so I knew fast charging past 80% was pointless. Generally most days was having my lunch and then helping people work the charge station as the card reader never worked and the station only work properly by EVGO app. Which setting up a new user is time consuming and made the lines even worse at this charge station. In my case everything work out which I could do it during lunch but I'm sure for many they won't have that convince and will be burden with commute, hours at works, and then wasting 30-2 hours depending in the car charging which will really cut into people personal life which might be mentally unhealthy for the population long term.

Thank you Peter for raising the issues of disabled people having difficulty with charging electric vehicles. I’m posting the hyperlink to your excellent video on a couple of disability Facebook groups. Keep up the excellent work. Andrew

Great video sir. You made some great points and you are 100 percent correct on the home charging. We recently had a Mach E as a loaner car from the dealer and obviously I don’t have the means to charge at home. It was a total disaster. The charging stations near my home were very very slow or non functioning. My second thought was also something you mentioned on price per kilowatt. My belief, here in the U.S. anyway, is that when the majority of people are forced to swap and become dependent on the EV cars, are they going to jack the prices way up making ownership just as expensive as owning a gasoline or diesel fuel automobile? I think if you currently own an EV, enjoy it while you can.

Very interesting video. Thank you. All of the situations you mentioned, in my opinion, are very real and very important to consider; particularly for those considering purchasing an EV. There is an interesting alternative. The Plug in Hybrid. We own one. It charges overnight at a 110 volt outlet. We can drive 50 miles on an overnight charge. The overnight charge does not draw enough current to make a problem, even with lots of people charging. The car automatically switches to hybrid mode when the "ev" battery runs down. The Rav4 Toyota is the model we have. Two hours to charge fully on the type 2 charge (a max of 11kw). There are 3 levels available at public charging stations here in the states. The level 3 is for EV's and not plug-in hybrids. Here in Washington state, we pay .038 dollars per kilowatt hour. About 4 cents. It costs us about $1.85 to charge the vehicle over night (12 hours). The average mile-per-gallon in this vehicle is 85 miles per "gallon" when used as an ev and a hybrid. 99 miles per gallon when run as an EV. Might be worth looking at in the UK ? Oh, and yes, our plug-in-hybrid will accelerate very quickly when running on battery power!!

The reason your mileage per charge changes: When you reset the mileage management, it reverts to factory defaults. These defaults are typically based upon optimum parameters such as operating temperature, road surface, head winds, etc. More, significantly, environmental controls being off. Both heat and AC require significant amounts of battery power. If you frequently drive with either on, the mileage computer will began to factor that and all other impacts into an average. Thus, while the range decreases. Also, each time you charge discharge the battery, you take a slice of it's life/capacity away.

Excellent video as always! I’ve had my Tesla for 6 months and I fall into the category that you rightly raise. Cheapest public charger near me will cost £46 for a full charge (100kW battery) but now using the Tesla network for a long journey is now £69 for a charge…range 250 miles. For me the big issue is the sporadic pricing whereas fuel is fairly consistent. One last point that no one is talking about is learning to drive. As all electric cars are automatic, what licence will be available to use once fuel cars can’t be used as learner cars. Let’s face it, driving schools aren’t going to teach people in 10plus year old cars…..would love you view on that too! Keep up the awesome work.

You are spot on with the charging issue, if you consider the current housing stock of which around 25% are detached and more likely to have a drive (not guaranteed ), lets be positive and suggest that 45% of homes have the facility to take their car of the road and into their own driveway, that is still 55% of the country cannot charge the car at home. The problem is these supposed gurus who must pay lobbyists to get party members to jump on the save the planet wagon, which is driving us back to the stone age. Who is going to suffer the most? The working class and middle class, penalised while trying to keep the countries going. These so called intellectuals can work out the IQ of a pickled onion but cannot get the jar open!! Let’s consider the greenhouse gasses and carbon footprint etc, if we take all types of transport, cars, bikes, lorries, trains, planes, ships etc etc and put them all together it is still only a fraction of the pollution created to rear animals for meat consumption. I think I would rather eat plant based products, buy myself a nice 5L mustang and still save the planet!! Just a thought 🤣

All points raised are very valid. In my home community there have been two apartments built and one under construction and charging for an electric vehicle have not been considered in any of them. There is also the problem that none of the charging stations are pull through so for larger vehicles or any pulling a trailer a real hassle. And why after all these years do the regulating societies not force the manufactures to produce standardised plugs? To me that just shows that regulating authorities are a few million bricks short of a load. Insane. When the internal combustion engine first hit the road the manufactures did not put in their own fuel stations. Then there is the price gouging for electricity. Sometime needs to be done here. Now if I could afford to buy one I would have one this afternoon. As a retired person close to 90% of my driving I could charge at home. Trips to the two largest towns in my area for summer and with a long range version I may make it. So even if I topped off on a high speed charger would be fine in the time of a coffee. In the winter I would have a meal and take the time to make sure fully charged for the trip home. When propane was first used as a fuel I switched. Got several years with my personal and company vehicles of cheap fuel. I look at electric as the same. Once everyone is hooked on electric they will be no cheaper than what we are driving now. Here in B.C. Canada our insurance provider is being underhanded on having us report the mileage on our vehicles when we get insurance. Today they say if you are a low kilometre driver we can get cheaper insurance. What it really is when enough are switched to electric we will be hit with a km charge at the end of the year to replace the road tax electrics are avoiding. Lets face it in the history of mankind there has never been a honest government. A point of interest for me I hear stories that they can not sell electric vehicles. There is thousands sitting on lots. So can someone explain how the few people I know that are waiting for a electric vehicle cannot get them? You hear there is thousands around unsold, yet you cannot purchase one?

"Stopped at a friends house and was able to plug into their charge point" So your friend was happy to pay for your car fuel? That's like me driving to see friends and then asking them to pay for my fuel at the petrol pump

I like the way you’re thinking and the fact that you’re putting these thoughts out there to start a public conversation on the topic. Here in the states, Washington State and Utah specifically, the taxation on miles you put on your EV has already begun.

Still there are some topic that are overlooked: - range drop in a cold or hot conditions (use of A/C) - effective use of 60% of battery if battery life has to be preserved - nobody do a "fully loaded" range test - extra cost of changing tyres due to the heavy nature of battery powered cars

Great video. Thanks for this. I definetely won't be getting one for a while. And the issue with the grid and what you said about wall boxes is not been discussed in mainstream reviews and the fact that most people may need to upgrade their electrical wiring in their house to get one of those wall chargers in. I live in a terrace house and it's not feasible currently to have an electric car. I think some of the electric cars are great but the ownership experience if you don't have a wall charger and a driveway is a nightmare from what I have seen friends who own them currently.

You bring up an excellent point. If you buy an EV when you can charge it at home, you're limited when you move as to where you can get a flat since you now own a car that can't be charged if you don't have off-street parking included.

Here in the Midwest U.S. a local Ford Dealer wanted to add several charging stations to align with Fords mandates and was told by the local power company that was not enough power in the area to do it. In the adjoining neighborhood with one wall unit it browns out the street when used at full power.

I rent. I work from home fulltime. I barely drive anywhere. In fact, its only like 1000 steps for me round trip to walk to the store (thats my climate contribution). I have a disability. I require more power draw for medical equipment than my apartment can already handle. My electric company tells me to turn my air conditioner off during heatwaves and I absolutely can not! So how the hell are all the rest of us going to draw on this over taxed grid when our grid cannot handle it now?! Plus if a house fire happens due to a battery blowing up or an electric panel being pushed to the max, do you really think us little renters are going to be covered on any level even though we pay our required renters insurance. 🤦🏻‍♀️ its the working poor who just make it who would get screwed. This whole agenda is a huge huge lie. We can’t even keep our public charging stations running bc they get vandalized every week. Also, I’m not going to go sit alone at some charging stations with the volume of crime, gangs, drug activity in my area. I own my ICE vehicles outright and planned for that in my financial planning! I mean, this whole thing is ridiculous.

Regarding the guessometer in the car, its estimate will vary a lot, depending on current and past consumption, not to mention outdoor temperature. My ID.4 is parked in a heated parking cellar. The difference in range estimate between having been parked indoors in 10 degrees C and outdoors in minus 15 degrees C is quite enormous. I live in an apartment complex here in Norway. Every single parking lot down in the parking cellar has been readied for EV charging, at no cost to us who live here. The charging infrastructure here is run, operated and maintained by a third party. It's also mandated by law that if you live in an apartment complex like ours, that provisions be made so that you can home charge your EV. Not being able to home charge where I live, would be a bit inconvenient, but 800 metres down the road is a big shopping centre with plenty of chargers outside, so it wouldn't be too horrible. My sister lives on our family farm in a very rural area. She also drives an EV, and has a home charger set up in her garage. It's only set to deliver 4 Kw per hour, but that's still more than enough for her daily commute. My parents live on the same farm, drive a hybrid and have charging for that set up in their garage. As for the charging infrastructure outside of home, I'd say that the UK is 10-15 years behind us. Infrastructure really is alfa and omega.

I think that your average mileage issue is that when you reset this puts it back the factory setting which is based on ideal driving and conditions to maximise the range. However as soon as you start driving in the real world the actual range will come down showing what range you are really getting and will keep falling until you get to a true average range. So if I was you don't reset and you will end up with a more accurate range based on real world driving

You're so right - the politicians and eco activists don't want to talk about the negative aspects of changing over to EVs. So many aspects simply don't make sense and, if they don't make sense, you have to conclude that the whole ridiculous idea is a con. When is someone in authority going to call this BS out?

Hi Pete. Great video. Lots to think about. I do believe when the government realizes they have to get the gasoline tax from the electricity we will be paying far more for our power. I doubt they will be able to differentiate between what you use to power your car and what you use to live at home. This means the power charge will increase overall. Even if you don’t use a vehicle and use public transit you will have to pay more for your power. I think we have a long way to go before we are ready to do a complete switch. The government can’t pass a law for most things without debate for a couple of years, how will they pass these laws in time to cover the cost of roads and infrastructure. Also we live on a gravel road and I worry what the gravel will do to the undercarriage of the vehicle. Lastly here in Alberta Canada we get temperatures as low as minus 40. Not good for a battery. Will my boss understand when I can’t make it to work because of the temperature? Definitely lots to think about. Keep up the great work with these videos.

What scares me is, what if the average range calculation is becoming more accurate as the car is going through more cycles? When you reset it is using a preloaded range number.

In USA people who park on the street have been issued tickets for running extension cords across the sidewalk (footpath) to charge their cars. The dilemma as I see it is "Where is all this power to charge all these EVs going to come from ?"

Our electricity rates have gone through the roof over the past few years. I have a Mazda6 2.2L diesel and plan to keep it a long time. I'm aretired electrician and still don't want an electric car. Great points you raise!👍🍻🤔

I have had an EV for 4 years and charging at home is very economical and convenient. But there are practical alternatives that can be used. A portable charger with a standard extension cord will give you 1.5 kw - adding 100 km of range overnight. That same cord at 240 volts (separate circuit required) will double charge rate and overnight range. An RV type extension cord will provide higher capacity again. By charging overnight, upgrades to the power system are not needed. I drive 2,000 km per month and save $300 Cdn per month compared to gasoline. it adds $40 to my electricity bill, about as much as it costs for Air Conditioning. For longer trips, the Tesla Superchargers will provide 80% charge in 20 minutes, less time that it takes for a pee and coffee. The Superchargers are far more expensive, but still about half the cost of gasoline. In Canada and US the Tesla Superchargers will be opened up to Ford and many of the other makes, so ‘range anxiety’ should no longer be an issue. I don’t miss paying $100 or more for a tank fill, breathing gasoline fumes, scouring gas station prices to find the lowest price, or having to take the car in for regular oil changes, or brake work. While the initial cost of an EV seems high, the savings in fuel and maintenance make it more economical in the long term. Right now, the person behind is breathing your exhaust fumes- wouldn’t we all be healthier with zero emission vehicles? EV’s are the future of auto transportation. My advice: Buy an EV that has a proven track record in EV technology, and select the largest battery pack you can afford. It will give you the longest range and reliability over the long term.

I cannot thank you enough for this honest feedback. Thank you! I appreciate you!

So glad your raising this issue Pete, I actually tried an electric car for around 6 months. However I’m in the camp where I don’t have access to a home wall charger. Our street is completely off street parking so my only option was a granny cable out the window and hoped no one tripped over it and wait a day for it to charge or use public infrastructure. The likes of InstaVolt are now charging 0.66p per KWH, with a usable battery of 72 KWH, if I was filling up from almost empty (with a little in reserve for emergencies) it was costing me approximately £45 and with the car only getting around 250 miles per charge as a lot of my journeys are motorways or A roads at 60 mph (I live in the Cotswolds and as you will know everything is spaced out) it just wasn’t cost or time efficient. I spent some nights at 10pm waiting for over an hour for the car to charge to make sure I had enough charge in it for whatever journey I had to do the following day or two. I had also looked in to the possibility of getting a driveway installed and asked permission to get a dropped curb from council but was rejected due to our road having something called covenant which basically forbids anyone in our road from having driveways… So the electric car had to go, back in to a brand new F40 135i and I don’t regret it. I’m getting 40mpg on my commute to work so it works out the same kind of cost without the hassle of charging. This is a topic that need a LOT more debate as the Government have not taken this in to account 1 bit. If and when I can have a wall charger I wouldn’t hesitate to swap back to an electric car, but without its hassle and as or more expensive then fuel.

I live in Iowa, USA. We have the third largest wind generating capacity per capita in the USA, some into thirty years of use. Listening to some of the environmental concerns you are having in this conversation, it might be interesting to relay an observation I see going on in my location with other green projects. With aged windmills here in my state, and around the USA, we have blade replacement going on in many of the fields. The blades are fiberglass and no one has a recycling plan/program for outdated blades. So far, the solution has been and continues to be to load the old blades on trucks and drive them to any place that has been found that will receive them to be buried. These old blades take up quite a bit of space. We have hundreds of thousands of these blades in the USA and this is the singular end to their use. It does not seem to me to be an efficient end-of-life for any part of a renewable energy policy. Think of all the energy used to dispose of and then the land use issues in this disposal process.

Thanks for pointing all of this out. I live in a densely populated area with tall buildings. Most parking places are underground and shared with your neighbors, with very few outlets since the electricity in those spaces is comunal. Installing a charger in there is practically impossible, since you have to request permission from the condominium and there’s no easy way to separate your charging costs from the communal costs of the building, so they mostly reject any request. I love EVs but they’re very unpractical in their current versions for highly populated areas. Ironically enough, most of them are meant to be driven in cities, where there’s a lower chance people have a private garage.

Excellent video.i enjoyed your honesty.i am not against EVS,but the government has not thought this through thoroughly.The cost is astronomical. Wendy.

Hi sir as a retired electrical contractor I think we need to be aware that the average domestic dwelling is supplied with a 100 amp supply , which can indeed be less than say 80 amps depending on the installation . If you factor in the possibility of numerous vehicles being changed on one incoming supply , you will appreciate a problem is is going to manifest itself . Give the existing demand of the household supply already copping with the demands of. ie cookers, showers , washing machines etc . We can begin to question are we in a position to actually be able to accommodate such a situation . I fully appreciate that most people assume you can just plug something in and everything will be ok , but in reality this is seldom the case . Excess demand can = heat which can = thermal runaway which can = combustion ie = fire 🔥 .

If the migration to EV in the UK looks challenging, imagine it here in Eastern Europe. In the cities most people live in apartment buildings with shared open air parking areas. Charging an EV in such environment is almost impossible. And if they want to make EVs accessible, it will be a HUGE undertaking - the city power infrastructure will have to be completely rebuilt. And if they want to install EV chargers in the parking areas, that also means they'll have to dig the roads a lot. It's crazy to even imagine it.

Great video Pete, well balanced and informative, I totally agree with everything you mentioned and if you don’t have home charging then I can totally understand the challenges. But my issue is that the whole point of an electric car is the zero emissions but the fact remains that EV’s are absolutely not zero emissions. The terrible damage done to the environment to mine the essential materials which make up the battery pack , not to mention the human cost of mining in horrific conditions, and the 1000’s of litres of fuel it takes to move the ore in such vast amounts to produce just 1 battery pack. I don’t think it can be said that these minerals are ethically sourced. Not to mention the electricity put into an EV mainly comes from fossil fuels. I just don’t see EV’s as the way forward in their current form.

Great point about not having a charger at home and yes I agreed once the majority of vehicles become EV costs WILL go up and monitoring your whereabout will be controllable - The other point I read somewhere is if you have an accident and your battery are is damaged Insurance companies would more than likely Write your car off leaving you well out of pocket - To me we are sleep walking into a nightmare

Completely agree. We bought a env200 van 18 months or 15000 miles ago. It's been an absolute joy to drive and does the local deliveries no problem. HOWEVER for longer trips that need a public charge, it's a nightmare. We had to cancel a delivery to Scotland as not a single fast charger in the area was working according to Zapmap. If we hadn't checked we would have been stuck up there for 6 hours on a slow one!!!. To cope with a swap to EVs and Heat pumps we would have had to start building a third more power stations and upgrading the supply network about 10 years ago. As there is still no sign of political leadership or practical answers to these massive issues I think the whole idea is doomed.

GREAT POINTS MADE!! Never thought about the transfer of taxes from petrol ⛽️ to electricity. They wont let that go away.😂

Hi Pete, I’m lucky I have an Ioniq 6, off street parking with Solar panels on my roof and an EV charger that uses solar as well as grid power. I have had the car since the first of July 23 and it hadn’t cost me anything to keep it charged until 26th Nov when I needed to make a long journey. I gave the car a full charge before leaving, cost £21.80, thought I’d top up at the services about 100 miles into the journey, charger occupied with cars waiting. Eventually plugged in at the hotel I staying at, but that only gave me 80% and as I noticed that my predicted range was overstated to the actual, this I thought was not enough, and I was a little nervous about the return trip. I did eventually top up at the services on the way back but this was costly. Thankfully I don’t normally do long journeys.

Great informative video fella 👍. Regarding the non residential charger ownership. It’s just like everything else. Just an adjustment. I wouldn’t say it’s as severe as you make it out to be. A lot of EV’s can now do in excess of 200 miles per full charge. It’s just about planning every now and again and keeping above 50% charge to make sure you are never short of a decent journey.

I've been considering those aspects for better than thirty years. I worked in high end electronics for forty years and I've been an automotive mechanic all my life since about age ten. So much of the reality of electric vehicles have simply been ignored, tamped down, hidden from the general public. I've got less problems than most, I am retired, live alone, and leave my home only once or twice a week, but regardless of those facts, when we have a challenging issue, we have no recourse if we are forced into these things. Thanks for laying things out so clear and forthright. I have no desire to leave my forty year old diesel car. So far, almost no consideration of the cost to make batteries, the destruction mining their materials imposes and the fact they have a set specific number of charging cycles directly related to depth of discharge and speed of recharging. At the current time, China is the source of most of the raw materials for producing the cars and the batteries, and appears to be a fact into the foreseeable future. "Rare earth minerals" have been sourced my whole life as they currently are. I was reading about "electric vehicles" since the mid sixties, knowing they were present at the beginning of "automobiles" and quite competitive with hydro-carbon fuel vehicles" at that time. When our governments assume authority to tell us what we can have, what we must do, it's called Tyrrany.

I've given this a great deal of thought, and I have done some trips in my Bolt EV a couple of times. But 9 times out of 10 - if you plan the charging around your activities, it's almost as if it is out of mind. Luckily my EV is a leisure car - but if I needed to charge it publicly, I'd imagine it would give me some leisure time to myself. I plug in, read some of a book, or surf YT - it's just something I would insert into my daily life. If I'm going to take time watching YT videos, or reading a book. Why not do it while charging. And I think that is the disconnect that most people have. They are USED to going to the station, filling up, and going. But if you could integrate it into your normal daily life, I reckon you could do it. Much like with any change in life, it requires adjustment. I don't think we can ever relate living with an EV with living with a gas car comparatively. It's a new type of journey for people, and the more the public infrastructure improves, the better it'll get. One thing is for sure...I don't miss filling up the tank, changing oil/transmission fluid every 3 months, and everything that comes with maintaining an ICE car.

What I've read on ev cars is the longevity of the batteries and the cost of replacement. That's what worries me. Love your video on this subject. Thanks 😊

You are so right. Already in California, Edison charges upwards of $0.70 kWh if you don't want to suffer without AC between 4pm and 9pm. At $0.70 kWh, this makes most EVs really get around 20mpg. And more likely that electricity prices will continue to rise much faster than gas. It already has over the last decade.

Hi Pete, I’ve scanned through the posts to see if anyone else has mentioned this, but I haven’t seen it yet. I have met many people from the UK, and one of the first things they remark on about the US (aside from our weight problem) is the sheer size of the country. I’m sure a 300 mile range sounds like a lot to the Brits, but if you live anywhere between the two coasts here, that can be a problem. You won’t necessarily find charge points as easy as you’ll find gas stations.

Pedro Loved the video , it really explored the problems facing full EV ownership going forward. I have owned a BMW I3 for 5 years ( 68 plate) and have just gone back to a petrol mild hybrid ( would have had a diesel like my previous mini d but could not get one).. I do have off street parking. I do have a 7kw charger. I do have solar panels, I can afford a new car over £30,000 . BUT I only received £9k part ex change for my I3 from a main dealer against a new £34000 car. because It only has under 3yrs battery warranty left !!!. this is the most catastrophic depreciation I have ever suffered, especially as I am retired and my total mileage was less than 23,000 miles in 5 years.. NEW EVs are to expensive for nearly all of my friends who tend to buy cars at 3yrs old for less than £25k, and they would not touch an EV with less than 5 years warranty!! so dealers offer super low part exchange as 2nd hand EVs are only going to become less desirable and worthless.. MY freind bought my 3 year old MINI d with 18,ooo miles on the clock. she fully expects it to last at least 10 years,, She would not even contemplate my I3 at £9k for a 5 year old BMW that cost £34,000 new

I remember that in the seventies the government gave big incentives to switch to diesel cars, at least in continental Europe. Diesel used to be 50% cheaper than petrol and the tax on a diesel car was very low. You see today, the government discourages owning diesel cars, diesel costs more than petrol so I wonder if the same process will happen with electric cars in 20-30 years.

You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned forgetting to charge and then having to make to an unexpected journey. My sister in law drives the Mach e EV and had the situation where she forgot to charge and had a call from the school advising her Son had a serious accident and had gone to hospital. Half way through her journey she ran out of charge and had to get family to pick her up. She has no faith in the car now and is switching back to Diesel.

My sister in the US bought a new EV Ford several years ago. She was told her batteries would last 9 years. At three years, she was told they were worn out and that the cost would be $7K. She traded it immediately.

Here in the US I believe the road tax will come from the registration and the miles when we get our vehicles inspected (MOT) once a year.

I have an EV with off-street parking, a wall charger and do little long distance driving, so the combination works well for me. However, I think your points are valid, but I hope (and expect) that over time solutions will be found.

Everything you're said is true. When the ID(3) was first featured on fully charged 4 or 5 years ago, I was super excited. I've had a Audi Q4 on order for nearly 12 months now. Since I've ordered it, the EV landscape has changed so much that I'm actually quite nervous about buying it. The cost to buy one is crazy. The current price of electricity has completely trashed all of the benefits of forking out for one and we haven't even got to the future tax implications. Overall the cost of ownership of an EV for your average driver probably doesn't make it worth it. In fact, in the current climate, I can quite easily knock up another spreadsheet that tells me to forget EV's and buy a petrol car instead. The price of sustainable electricity needs to come down urgently to make any of this work.

Great video👍1/ If EVs were such a great idea, there would be no need for a cut-off point for ICE cars, people would be falling over one another to get one. 2/ You're spot on regarding the loss of taxes to the government & I think this will be overcome by road pricing (pay by the mile) in the future. 3/ Be very, very wary about anything that the government is pushing, it usually turns out to be a bad deal! i.e. Being told (by the then Labour government) that the way to go was diesel, it being better for the environment🙄

An excellent video, and you make a lot of very good points. The sad thing is that all the points were completely foreseeable and yet government and the authorities don’t seem to have thought about them….or more likely “buried their heads in the sand” in order to tick the Net Zero box. I guess it’s only a matter of time before people in residential areas reach the point where the saturation of EV Home charges is affecting the power supply for “normal users“ and potentially life saving elements - medical equipment etc. maybe at that point, we’ll all “come to our senses “and realise how crazy the plan is to stop producing ICE vehicles, let alone the decimation of the UK vehicle manufacturing sector. I’m also not convinced that the push for electric cars is going to achieve anything noticeable on net zero, because of all the other effects, e.g. electricity generation, mining of rare minerals, etc etc. Regarding charging on the public infrastructure, imagine a single female having to wait around at night for two or three hours while her car charges! I certainly wouldn’t want my partner or daughter doing that. Keep up the good work, you’ve won a new subscriber :- )

I recently joined the EV community almost a year ago. I do have a home charger and it has been wonderful. I often have discussions with people about my EV and it always starts with the topic of charging. My advice to those is if you won't have the ability to charge at home, I caution against and EV if it is your primary mode of transportation. Just the few times I have used the charging network I am not a fan. Although it is only a 15 minute stop for me it is a hassle due to the fact that near me there isn't much of an option without driving several miles. Luckily the option I do have is with the company that I have free charging with for a while from when I bought my car. The EV experience has been amazing for me. I don't think I would say the same if I had to rely on public charging.

One other thing to consider is the impact on industry that uses cheaper 'off-peak' energy. If we are all charging vehicles overnight then the concept of 'off-peak' disappears, along with the cheaper rates. This could significantly raise prices to businesses whose cost model is based on the consumption of cheaper energy. The additional costs will have to be recovered, and who usually has to pay it? The consumer.

The best and most comprehensive & honest review of an EV that has ever been placed on KZfaq so far mate 🙏🙏

Thank you for posting this. A lot of important information.

After seeing the water spot on the windshield for so long, it dawned on me that one might be concerned about the affect it would have on your range......recently many EV drivers on the east coast in the US experienced cold winter days and shortened battery life. So much that they had to drive without the heater running just to make it to the next charging station. Batteries will always be the Achilles heel of this movement. Always.

One of the best videos I’ve seen discussing this topic. I have an EV and home charging, and it’s very cheap to run and own. It’s a company car and quiet, quick and cheap. I’m not really sure why hydrogen didn’t get adopted, as that could have been a like for like swap, in terms of infrastructure, how we use our cars, and how we tax motorists.