I occasionally have to drive a 1000 Kms or more, electric does not cut the mustard......It was a good idea for companies with short distance needs like milkman's trucks, the postman etc.. And for some people who hardly ever go anywhere far!!
E-cars are certainly not a con Andy, I think you have things the wrong way round. Only a minority drive long distances like 1000 km as you do. The great majority of owners do far lower mileages and rarely or never drive long distances. For example:
Insurance stats show females who are around half of all car drivers average not much over 5000 miles year, so that 100 miles a week equates to less than a charge a week on today's e-cars. Obviously they aren't driving very long distances.
The same stats show male drivers average 9000 miles per annum, so once the high mileage drivers like you are deducted, the rest are doing very much less.
The very high proportion of retired in our population are also mainly low mileage drivers.
There are very many two or more car families and quite a few have found an e-car is an ideal one to include, it often becoming the popular pool car that they all use locally. If you've ever driven a modern e-car you'd know how much nicer they are to drive in urban traffic conditions.
Four years ago I'd have readily agreed with you on electric cars, but things change rapidly in developing technologies. Today's e-cars with 160 to 230 mile ranges cover the needs of the great majority of drivers.
And I have to disagree on hybrid car costs. They cost more than equivalent e-cars to start with, their costs per mile on fuel are far greater and their service costs over time are much higher, e-car services being particularly very low cost. And e-cars don't pay VED (road tax), have a far larger purchase subsidy, sometimes have free car parking and charging and are exempt any congestion/pollution charges and the like.
So that's large savings on all of those with e-cars.
Only the replacement battery cost is much higher, but with today's warranties that's amortised over 8 years and IS COVERED by all the savings above.
An example is aNissan Leaf like mine. Today after government subsidy it costs £28,000 before any discounts. The nearest equivalent hybrid I had on offer, the Mitsubishi, today costs just under £36,000 after smaller subsidy. That £8000 difference is the price of a new battery for mine, even without all the other savings on an e-car.
That's the hybrid's achilles heel, you have to pay for petrol car propulsion and most of an electric car's as well. For the majority who don't drive very long distances, that makes no sense
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