[luckyjimmy]

Auto Express say that the electric VW Up will be out next year and yes, they say it will be called the E-Up!. The thing is they think it will be priced at around the £20k mark - earlier in the year they said it would be about £14k. Would you buy and electric Up for £20k?


http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/up/20270/electric-vw-2013

 

[SiJ2000]

Er... No! Too expensive for an UP!

I am sure it will be very nice, but just too expensive...

Sorry for the pun, but they are 'charging' too much for it!

 

[Privatedoc]

E-Up lad said wallace to gromit! bad name for UP! north

 

[911sse]

Is that including the £5k government grant? Is it applicable and still available?

 

[bazves]

Nope. Electric cars are just far too expensive. Battery technology needs to advance considerable if they are ever to become a viable alternative. For now you're much better off with an eco petrol engine (like we already have!), since the electricity you're using to charge the car doesn't come out of thin air!

 

[Leif]

It'll cost you more than that. The batteries only last so many years before their capacity drops too much, and you need to replace them. And where does the electricity come from? Power stations fueled by coal and gas?

 

[tom]

hahaha £20k!

The future is hydrogen, or electric cars with fixed speed diesel/corn oil/ethanol generators.

 

[luckyjimmy]

I seem to remember a car manufacturer (Renault?) saying that typically electric car batteries could last six or seven years. Note the word 'could' - presumably, apart from the chemical composition of the battery, there are a lot of factors that infuence how longit will last.


Anyway, if the batteries are being leased, this should not be much of a problem. However, knowing your local dealer, he will want you to buy another £20k car rather than fit new batteries to your existing vehicle.

 

[tom]

They allways say "up to 10 years" for the battery. This really means 10 years of ideal conditions like constant room temperature, never charging from empty, allways charging to near full, not used all the time - conditions that the battery will never see in its lifetime

 

[clowesa]

Simple answer........Nope

 

[ZumbaQueen]

Nooooo!!

 

[Privatedoc]

Simple fact is currently manufacturers are building and putting on sale these cars for one reason, to get their total co2 load down....this takes no account of the real co2 cost of manufacture so it's all smoke and mirrors for corporate reasons.

Give it another 10 years and the tech may have evolved enough to make this sort of thing viable for the consumer .

Much more relevant will be the natural gas up! In my opinion.

 

[Optimus Frag]

I have a very good friend that works for Centrica (British Gas) and one of the projects he's working on is electric cars and they're charging costs. The electric companies are looking at specific tariffs for customers that have electric cars that would save a lot of money on your normal electric costs in order to encourage greater take up of these vehicles. Combined with zero petrol expense, no road tax, cheaper insurance and lower household electricity costs, they're hoping to make it so that the initial extra cost of the car would be paid for in savings within 3 to 5 years of getting it. Well within the average timeframe that most own a car for. And certainly before the 7 to 8 years that battery pack would be considered for replacement.

Servicing costs for electric vehicles are usually lower and less frequently required due to the lower amount of moving parts in these cars. They're is going to be a lot of factors to consider with electric vehicles before you dismiss them out of hand.

A fully speced out Up cost roughly 12.5k. If its 20k with electric then the total savings you might make with one these tariffs and the other factors I mentioned would be greater than the 7.5k extra you paid within 5 years.

If your driving needs worked within the limits of what the car could do, short frequent trips, then electric could save a lot of money within the lifetime of the car. Edited by: Optimus Frag

 

[spud]

I like the idea of it, but it would be worthless in 10 years whenbatteries need replacing.

on my calculations I use £50 petrol p/m so £600 p/a
up! £10,000 works out £1000 p/a (based on life expectancy of 10 years)

so I would use £1600 p/a

e-up! £20,000 = £2000 p/a + whatever electric is used

That's how I see it any way - £400 cheaper to use petrol

 

[luckyjimmy]

spud: I really like the idea of an electric car too but the limited range (at the moment) and questions over the battery lifetime make me think that the consumer e-vehicle is not here yet.


Remember though that the price of oil based fuels, or should I say the taxes on these fuels in the UK, are only going to increase over the next ten years. This will make the e-car a more attractive proposition as time goes on.








Edited by: luckyjimmy

 

[move up!]

Agree with all above.

I would only consider one if it had a small onboard range-extending generator.

 

[Leif]

spud: I really like the idea of an electric car too but the limited range (at the moment) and questions over the battery lifetime make me think that the consumer e-vehicle is not here yet.


Remember though that oil based fuels, or should I say the taxes on these fuels in the UK, are only going to increase over the next ten years. This will make the e-car a more attractive proposition as time goes on.

And what do you think will happen if people start driving electric cars
and government fuel tax takings plummet? As it is electric cars are not
competitive with petrol, and that is WITH petrol tax and NO electric
tax.

 

[luckyjimmy]

Leif: Ah, the shifting sands of taxation - it would be naive of me if I thought we would all be driving around 'tax free' in a few years in our electric cars. The Government will of course find some other means to claw back what is 'rightfully theirs' when/if electric vehicles become a more mainstream mode of transportation.






There's no reason to doubt that e-cars will come down in price eventually, as the underlying technologies mature. Perhaps fuel cell based vehicles, with an associated hydrogen tax,willsupersede the pure electric car. Who knows?

 

[Leif]

Who knows?

Exactly. Who would have foreseen a 60mpg family car 20 years ago? Perhaps technology will give 150mpg in 20 years time, and using plant generated biofuels?

 

[luckyjimmy]

The trouble with plant generated fuels is that they require large areas of land to be set aside forbiofuel crop production. As living standards and populations rise, 100% adoption of biofuels may not be possible due to need to devote more land to food production.


Of course, any future fuel/energy scheme will probably need some sort of combined strategy and, in my opinion, fuel cell technology looks very promising, if the technical/economic challenges can be overcome or mitigated.



In 2030, after a hard day at work, youmay arrive home and power up your house from the fuel cell in your car and sell the excess electricity to the local grid! Distributed micro power generation or something...