Adventures in an all electric vehicle.

[premmington]

Big downside to public transport is that they don't pick up or deliver to my door .

What is the new bus thing my wife is talking about £2 anywhere?

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I generally do PCP on new cars...works for me as I buy them at the end of 3 years. The deals worked well when interest rates were low...in my opinion the end of contract option has value.

If I hate the car...if it's value falls too quick then just hand back and walk away. In financial speak I have a put option.

My Hyundai Tucson...all in cost was around £28k...current value after 4 years is around £21k ....these are exceptional times though!

At the moment rates and prices are too high for me so I'll wait a while.

 

[Agrismith]

It's true that a lot of the enjoyment & feeling of freedom has been sucked out of driving (which along with riding motorcycles I used to love).
However, the public transport (esp. the railways which got shredded by Beeching & spent decades being a poor cousin to the cars & trucks) isn't my idea of a pleasant or easy alternative.
Public transport in rural areas has ever been woeful - & it shows no signs of getting better or being a cheap way to get about.

A guy I used to work with lived in Pembroke, & worked with us 10-miles or so outside Carmarthen. Despite having a station near his home & the office, he looked into it.... and found the reality was something stupid - something like that he'd have to leave his house 45-min before he could get home by train - to start his train journey to get to work in time for the day's work.

In the sticks we are dependent on the car, so every time they screw the motorist, the rural communities feel the pinch hardest (except perhaps for the poor sods living just inside a ULEZ zone who can't afford to drop a Mortgage type sum on an EV).

This is all fine and dandy if you have a public transport within SENSIBLE walking distance. We don't. And again if there is one at your destination. Most times there isn't.
Then, what if the weather is bad and you end up soaked ?
What if you have items to carry, whatever they may be ? Shopping, Sports gear, a canoe, work items, tools, a chest of drawers even ?
What if there are four of you ? And you want to go 250 miles ? Certainly will NEVER be cheaper by public transport, and the speed saving by the train will be lost in time taken getting to stations and train changes etc. It also cannot be relied on.
Public transport in this country will NEVER be run like other countries, as the Unions will not allow it, as they hold the country to ransom to keep non jobs like paraffin lamp wick trimmers at 40k a year, and suchlike. This is one of the reasons why it will NEVER be cheap. I hope you are proud brothers !

While I agree that driving is not pleasurable a lot of the time, public transport is, and always will be inconvenient at best, or a complete non starter financially for most. Even taking into account the standing costs of having a vehicle, or two, or three. Only practical and possibly affordable if you live and work in the same city or town.

I think both of you have missed my point when I said public transport has the potential to be the best answer. I know it's not now and there will always be times when a personal vehicle will be needed especially with tradesmen and the like. But if the government invested in public transport instead of frittering money away then a lot of the problems could solve themselves without government legislation.
This is the problem, the government are choosing the stick not the carrot. If they made public transport more appealing then there would be no need to heavily legislate private vehicles as people would naturally take the better option. If we heavily reduced the use of private cars it means people could have what ever ice car they like at home for times that public transport won't do.
But rather than give people a sensible economical alternative we are being forced into buying expensive cars to complete every journey.

 

[reb78]

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What scares me with the whole PHP deal thing is - on day 1095 of your rental deal - when you take it back. To swap it for a new rental car - some sales reptile would hit me with a £200 a week deal or I am walking home (carless on shanks's pony). You in a vulnerable place/position - unless you been shopping about and done your homework. Of late there been a shortage of new cars/vans and you been vulnerable for PHP deals even if you care not to admit it...

What I am about to say - I never thought I would ever say ever. Straight HP has never looked so good. I personaly have never borrowed for a car/motorbike in my life - I just buy them - if I got plenty of money I have a good one - when I was poor - I had poor vehicles. But on straight HP - at the end of the term - if your circumstances change and you can't afford to uptrade - at least if you have looked after the car - it is yours and you not walking.

But the downsides of ownership (not renting a car on PHP) is: You are open to market fluctuations of the value at time of the change of the vehicle. Or you might have chosen a car - nobody wants to buy/trade at good/fair money.

There are good points for PHP deals (renting a car) there is! You do know what the cost will be - it is a fixed cost.

This sums up PHP for me completely. Whether it be on an EV or an ICE vehicle. No way is it for me. Hence an EV is years away even if I wanted one. My Land Rover 110 and TD5 D2 cost me very little. The 110 is appreciating. The D2 got written off and somehow the insurance offered us more than it was worth *IMO* as a buy back and I put it back on the road for £400 so it owes us nothing! I cant afford to splash £60k plus on a new car or the monthly PHP. I really dont know how people manage it.

 

[premmington]

I generally do PCP on new cars...works for me as I buy them at the end of 3 years. The deals worked well when interest rates were low...in my opinion the end of contract option has value.

If I hate the car...if it's value falls too quick then just hand back and walk away. In financial speak I have a put option.

My Hyundai Tucson...all in cost was around £28k...current value after 4 years is around £21k ....these are exceptional times though!

At the moment rates and prices are too high for me so I'll wait a while.

Wait till market settles is the right thing to do! Markets do change - they do...

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It sounds like I am anti PHP/PCP/EVS/PHEVS - I am not!

"you spends your money and takes your choice"

I just am not a new car buyer - I got plenty of money - I just don't buy new cars

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I got three cars taxed and on the road at the moment - I lend them to customers at my garage - I load dogs into my estate car. I am soon to tax another one - I just put a clutch into - as I am busy and short of loan cars for customers.

But for the daily 1.3mile trip to work in the summer I use this - a modern C90.... 150mpg £22 a year tax - speed limits which ever way I go to work is either 20/30/40mph and the traffic is vile in the small market town I live in.

 

[Agrismith]

Wait till market settles is the right thing to do! Markets do change - they do...

-------

It sounds like I am anti PHP/PCP/EVS/PHEVS - I am not!

"you spends your money and takes your choice"

I just am not a new car buyer - I got plenty of money - I just don't buy new cars

-------

I got three cars taxed and on the road at the moment - I lend them to customers at my garage - I load dogs into my estate car. I am soon to tax another one - I just put a clutch into - as I am busy and short of loan cars for customers.

But for the daily 1.3mile trip to work in the summer I use this - a modern C90.... 150mpg £22 a year tax - speed limits which ever way I go to work is either 20/30/40mph and the traffic is vile in the small market town I live in.

View attachment 403308

Some of the electric motorbikes do look really appealing. I'm not a motorbike person, I've never learnt to ride one but an electric bike to me seems far more appealing than an electric car.

 

[premmington]

Some of the electric motorbikes do look really appealing. I'm not a motorbike person, I've never learnt to ride one but an electric bike to me seems far more appealing than an electric car.

I owned this Honda AFS110 for six years now - at the time of purchase - bearing in mind - I driving it from a domestic garage with 240v power in it - to my workshop with 240v power in it. I priced up the cost of a EV scooter and the numbers did not work for me.

But six years later - it might?

Next one I have - maybe full EV?

But I yet to kill the little Honda...

Just about to go out on it now - 1 mile trip to supermaket to fetch my aging parents a few things.

This will make you laugh my 90 Mum fancies a bottle of sparkling something? - prosecco? It is a hot day - she not having cooked Sunday dinner - they are having ham salad on a table in the garden and Mother wants something suitable for her little garden party! Who am I to refuse her wishes...

 

[DanZac]

Some of the electric motorbikes do look really appealing. I'm not a motorbike person, I've never learnt to ride one but an electric bike to me seems far more appealing than an electric car.

Until its raining / snowing / freezing cold / you need to move that canoe, etc.

No that's unkind, because I fully agree with you and I think we'll see personal transport for local use move more towards electric bikes, scooters etc in the coming years, especially in the towns and cities where they are ideal for avoiding congestion and don't have the disadvantage of having to actually work for your journey that a pedal cycle has.

 

[premmington]

Until its raining / snowing / freezing cold / you need to move that canoe, etc.

No that's unkind, because I fully agree with you and I think we'll see personal transport for local use move more towards electric bikes, scooters etc in the coming years, especially in the towns and cities where they are ideal for avoiding congestion and don't have the disadvantage of having to actually work for your journey that a pedal cycle has.

I always gone to work on a little Honda 4strokes. Aged 16 on an SS50 moped - fleets of CG215's - one C90 - one XL185 - one Benly 200 - one RSA250 - one CB superwetdream plus other little bikes over the 40yrs I done it. And now the AFS110.

But sometimes I take a car - snow - rain - got appointments - need to move stuff about.

Scooter is not a one stop solution for transport. ~Winter is not that bad - I dressed up to stand about in a cold workshop - cold short ride to work - is just another part of my long cold days.

I got a push bike - but too lazy to use it - walking the jouney would only take 30mins ish - I enjoy walking but not got an hour plus out of my day to loose.

 

[Agrismith]

Until its raining / snowing / freezing cold / you need to move that canoe, etc.

No that's unkind, because I fully agree with you and I think we'll see personal transport for local use move more towards electric bikes, scooters etc in the coming years, especially in the towns and cities where they are ideal for avoiding congestion and don't have the disadvantage of having to actually work for your journey that a pedal cycle has.

I think when it's raining snowing freezing people need a serious head wobble as to how essential there journey is versus their driving ability in poor weather conditions.

Also I'm not suggesting this as an only vehicle in a household.

People are very attached to their cars and it's pretty plain to see that we can't keep on like this. The roads are falling apart, constant traffic everywhere and currently our answer is to put more bigger and heavier cars on the road. This will continue until people stop seeing them as a status symbol and a representation of themselves.

Vehicle choice is now rarely practical. Partly driven by the manufactures and there marketing teams

 

[indy4x]

My Sd1 saved me at 75mph off the M4. 30 foot embankment. No crash barrier. Worse thing was the nosedive into a concrete drainage ditch. Then flipped upside down. Car crumpled perfectly. Roof held. Central door locking released. Fuel pump shut off. Worse than Princess Diana's crash as I stopped from 75 to 0 in a fraction of a second.
Very very lucky. Straight 6 engine and a big gearbox connected to the back axle stopped the engine ending up in our laps.
Don't think many modern cars would survive so well except perhaps a Range Rover.

Did you want Crash Detectives? They had a RR that had hit some trees at just over 100mph, didn't look much like a RR but then trees are pretty immovable and there would have been quite a bit of momentum given its weight and the speed it was travelling

 

[GRW]

The E-bike is looking like it might well be an excellent commuter vehicle.
No tax/insurance, assistance limited to15.5mph (fast enough) & takes the sting out of pedalling steep hills, and far cheaper than any car, & economical to charge.

Even a 10-mile not too hilly commute is perfectly realistic, & won't actually take much longer than the car journey (less if its a congested area). Thr biggest issue (apart from getting drenched on the wet days) is your workplace would need properly secure parking (& charging, though a 20-mile+ range for an e-bike isn't unusual) for one, or the scumbags will have it away pronto.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

and far cheaper than any car,

Mhhh, my local bike shop [which is also our Post Office] has e-bikes on display ranging in price from £5k > £8K [and possibly beyond] - you could run a car for a year or two before they broke even. Just saying...

 

[premmington]

The E-bike is looking like it might well be an excellent commuter vehicle.
No tax/insurance, assistance limited to15.5mph (fast enough) & takes the sting out of pedalling steep hills, and far cheaper than any car, & economical to charge.

Even a 10-mile not too hilly commute is perfectly realistic, & won't actually take much longer than the car journey (less if its a congested area). Thr biggest issue (apart from getting drenched on the wet days) is your workplace would need properly secure parking (& charging, though a 20-mile+ range for an e-bike isn't unusual) for one, or the scumbags will have it away pronto.

You my "dear friend" - looked at the numbers (thought out of the box).

Concidered an EV as an option.....

I applaud you - for your "open mind" and forethought....

You did not dismiss an EV motorcycle - you decided an EV assisted "push bike" was a viable option. It is....


@GRW you looking at the numbers - the money - as a "purchaser"

@GRW I declare you a "thinker" a "man of worth"

@GRW your thoughts carry weight - you are a "thinking man"


I value your opinion....

 

[My Old Landy]

Mhhh, my local bike shop [which is also our Post Office] has e-bikes on display ranging in price from £5k > £8K [and possibly beyond] - you could run a car for a year or two before they broke even. Just saying...

You can get them cheaper.... https://www.cyrusher.co.uk/products/xf650-ebike

 

[slim_boy_fat]

You can get them cheaper.... https://www.cyrusher.co.uk/products/xf650-ebike

Oh aye, I know. I did say "Just saying... "

 

[GRW]

Mhhh, my local bike shop [which is also our Post Office] has e-bikes on display ranging in price from £5k > £8K [and possibly beyond] - you could run a car for a year or two before they broke even. Just saying...

The e-mountain bikes with exotic suspension, & of course some "boutique" e-bikes are expensive.
However commuter e-bikes can be had for a great deal less than that.

Even more, a mate has put a e-motor kit onto his existing mountain bike a couple ofvyears and over 7k miles ago, which cost him £1200 Inc a 40-mile range battery.
(He also put an e-bike motor onto another less exotic hardtail mtb - which is powered by a pair of 5ah Makita power tool batteries - and that gives surprisingly good performance and range).
He often rides from his home over 10-miles into town & back & gets his shopping on it.

I doubt it'd be possible to do a short commute in decent time - for less investment

 

[DanZac]

Thr biggest issue (apart from getting drenched on the wet days) is your workplace would need properly secure parking (& charging, though a 20-mile+ range for an e-bike isn't unusual) for one, or the scumbags will have it away pronto.

You'd be surprised at how often you don't get wet, especially if you can be a bit flexible with your timings (+/- half hour).

I cycle to work every day (old fashioned bike) and got wet less than 20 times last year (I could tell you exactly but my diaries at work).

It's pretty often blinking freezing mind you, and I'll admit that occasionally I do get a real soaking (April was pretty bad this year).

Even if you only rode on the dry days you'd still be quids in and probably feel better for it. (assuming you dont get killed by someone driving a car, whilst playing with their phone, drinking a coffee and phoning their Mrs)

Fully agree about the safe parking though. I'm lucky in that respect where I work. But I'd use my bike more for going to shops etc if there was anywhere safe to leave it and if every thieving toe rag didn't think that they should be trying to nick it.

 

[GRW]

You my "dear friend" - looked at the numbers (thought out of the box).

Concidered an EV as an option.....

I applaud you - for your "open mind" and forethought....

You did not dismiss an EV motorcycle - you decided an EV assisted "push bike" was a viable option. It is....


@GRW you looking at the numbers - the money - as a "purchaser"

@GRW I declare you a "thinker" a "man of worth"

@GRW your thoughts carry weight - you are a "thinking man"


I value your opinion....

An e-bike might weight 20-ish kilos (and relatively easily broken-down partly (e.g. remove a wheel) to get it off the street and securely stowed. Even up stairs or into a Lift if needs must.
No parking charges, no RFL, no insurance (no licence come to that), no mot etc etc.
No big investment, no Leasing, no special charging point.
A 250w motor (legal) which you add a bit more to with your own legs makes them pretty gentle on energy consumption (even if it went flat you can still pedal it on the flat, coast downhill on it or push it (even stick it on the train) so no Breakdown/Recovery concerns etc.

There's a reason so many Deliveroo/Courier types these days are bombing around on e-bikes instead of scooters for city work.

 

[redlig]

You'd be surprised at how often you don't get wet, especially if you can be a bit flexible with your timings (+/- half hour).

I cycle to work every day (old fashioned bike) and got wet less than 20 times last year (I could tell you exactly but my diaries at work).

It's pretty often blinking freezing mind you, and I'll admit that occasionally I do get a real soaking (April was pretty bad this year).

Even if you only rode on the dry days you'd still be quids in and probably feel better for it. (assuming you dont get killed by someone driving a car, whilst playing with their phone, drinking a coffee and phoning their Mrs)

Fully agree about the safe parking though. I'm lucky in that respect where I work. But I'd use my bike more for going to shops etc if there was anywhere safe to leave it and if every thieving toe rag didn't think that they should be trying to nick it.

I assume you use a cycle cape with a sou'wester hat and your bike has proper mudguards . The capes we used were bright yellow and made us feel as if we had been washed up just off Cape Horn.