We have one car between us, I WFH so I don’t use it very much, but my partner uses it to commute to work every day (75+ miles round trip). If I need the car then I have to wait until she’s home and normally I take it straight off her and head out. We can probably do 200 miles without having the opportunity to charge it.
We also have family spread all around the country, so would need a range of 500 miles plus and that just isn’t feasible at the price range we can currently afford.
Add into that the terraced house, the inability to charge it at home when it’s parked up and impracticalities of turning up somewhere and having to find somewhere to plug in just isn’t viable.
I think we’d have to make some substantial lifestyle changes to make an electric car work, and we aren’t in the position to do that at the moment.
I’d get one already, but my fiancée and I live in a rented flat with no nearby flats. If we buy a house after a few years (wishful thinking), then the charging point is the first thing that gets installed in the driveway.
I think that the government are mandating house builders to make provision for electric charge points in new housing.
Also it is the case that the end of fossil fuel vehicles is in sight as far as the government is concerned and some manufacturers like Volvo.
If you look at the Tesla model it could make quite an impact in the right locations;
Roof made of solar cell tiles transforms sunlight into electricity which is stored in a…
Powerwall - a large rechargeable battery which stores electricity and connects into your home electricity system to contribute electricity on demand, especially when charging your…
EV for transport
The 2 big downsides are Cost (new roof/solar panels, powerwall, car) and Location - I’ll bet my house in NW England won’t be as good at generating electricity compared to a pad in California.
But over time, as production costs for solar cells and batteries decrease, the need for fossil fuel sources will also decrease.
Ever seen the Sono Sion? That looked like an interesting proposal, PV panels all over the body feeding the battery in summer added 35 miles (iirc) to the range. Seems really cool, until you realise it looks like this:
Yeah that is not the best silhouette for a modern EV.
I had a chat with a research professor about the development of Graphene a few years ago. They had managed a proof-of-concept (I saw it) for a certain specification of Graphene ‘layering’ which generated electrical charge when air was moved over it. Sounds a bit WT_ at this stage, until you realise that if the exterior shell of a car had this on it, you had a a self-powering car. Then the goal was to make an aircraft which ran on batteries and they were working out the surface area needed to keep a medium, fully-loaded commercial airliner in the air!
If electric cars didn’t look so ugly I’d consider getting one. It’s only when they get to silly money that you get some style thrown in.
I know that’s not the point but if you want people to switch they’ve got to improve on what we have currently. They also look really poor quality, seem to lack features and have a small second hand
and repair market.
Hopefully as technology improves so does the range, amount of charge points, affordability and everything else. This is just my view and hopefully I now don’t get mobbed by environmentalists
Sure ‘style’ is subjective but as I’ve said, the tipping point is the number of charge points and how these can be accomodated in an existing, ageing, road and home infrastructure.
"They also look really poor quality, seem to lack features and have a small second hand
and repair market.”
It seems to me that you haven’t seriously investigated the electric cars available today.
Quality is on a par with non electric models. Why would they be anything other ?
Oh I have don’t worry Just look at the car posted by @anon99402360 earlier in the topic. It just looks really cheap flimsy plastic. Don’t even get me started on that shiny slippery looking steering wheel either It just looks cold, uncomfortable and I bet it will be super noisy on the motorway for your commute.
Tesla I’m all for though. Don’t think you could fit anymore features in there
To answer the original question - yes I’m ready and have been driving a Tesla Model S for last 3 years doing approx 20k miles per year. Charge at work and at Tesla superchargers for free so have saved over 6k in fuel costs without any ‘range anxiety’. Helps to have a car with over 200 miles of real world range.
Just look at the car posted by 
It just looks cold, uncomfortable and I bet it will be super noisy on the motorway for your commute.
