My bike is cheaper than a single monthly car payment and it’s powered by cheesecake.
And there are so many people “triggered” by it
I had a coworker go on an insane rant about his hatred of EVs after somebody mentioned Teslas. I wound him up even more by saying I’m fine with EVs just not ones built by Nazis.
Well done.
Poor people who cannot afford EVs or have no mean to charge one are triggered, but fuck them I guess.
Poor people can’t afford cars in the first place and yet suffer most from all the negative side effects of cars. I see it where I live, the more deprived areas of town have less than 40% of households owning any cars. The rich side of town mostly have multiple and will be driving through the poor areas. Idling in their SUVs in traffic for ages generally. Ruining air quality for the people who live there.
It’s ironic that Trump’s oil war is driving decarbonisation by pushing up oil prices. But I guess him and his friends are making lots of money on US oil.
Trump’s stock trades included a LOT of oil company stock the past few months. He’s been raking in billions from this.
Jokes on you, i charge myne primarily with home solar, so its free.
I often get paid for charging mine. They paid me 30p on Sunday.
How?
(No need to go into too much detail as I’m not in the UK; I’m just curious)
I assume that electricity price sometimes goes negative when excess is produced, resulting in some providers paying you for using electricity at that time.
🤔 Interesting. I never even considered what happens if excess energy is produced
It’s precisely that. The winds blows and the sun shines, then suddenly the power company would rather pay their customers to use more power than pay the generators penalty fees to turn off.
Progress of EV’s will be complete eventually but those oil company barons and tycoons sure made it stretch out and cost a lot more.
I expect they will keep trying to hold back EVs and compete forever, so never let your guard down. There will always be someone, somewhere, wanting to pump oil and feed it to a combustion engine for money. They’ll say it’s their culture, for Jesus, for their family, to feed baby koalas, to revive a poor dead rat, or whatever it takes to burn some form of petroleum, change climate, and try to buy a yacht or an island.
I own an EV (in Ireland). I would not say by any stretch I save that much as running a petrol car. It’s probably in the order of a third perhaps and that’s with a nighttime electricity plan where a kWh might cost 20c which works out about €4 at 15kWh/100km. A petrol car doing 6L/100km would cost about €12 at the moment. If somebody was using public fast chargers they would see very little savings.
There are other expenses like motor taxes, wear & tear (tyres, brakes), servicing, oil changes etc. which might affect the cost. The UK also has a really dumb excise on EVs where they get whalloped with 3p per mile of extra tax. So 100km (62.5miles) is £1.87 of tax to add onto the charge bill. Luckily Ireland doesn’t get it but most other expenses are comparable.
why is it dumb to tax EVs for mileage? aren’t ICs taxed similarly through fuel tax?
roads gotta be paid for somehow, and it’s fair to tax actual usage
It wouldn’t be dumb if ICE vehicles were also taxed the same way but they’re not. There would be nothing to stop the UK government abolishing fuel tax and slapping 6p a mile or whatever on ICE vehicles
It wouldn’t be dumb if ICE vehicles were also taxed the same way but they’re not.
Petroleum is taxed per liter. A car goes X km per liter. So the current petroleum tax is effectively per km, or close enough.
Meanwhile here in California we have inflated electricity prices so much that fueling costs are almost equal. EVs edge out gas cars a little, but not by that much.
Source? Almost equal? With fuel consumption on american cars that would have to he like 10usd kilowat.
Edit: seems like 2-3x cheaper still
That’s all fine, but I’m still not gonna drive one. Nothing connected to the internet will make it to my driveway.
Aren’t those two separate issues?
Sadly, they’re not. Every single EV is a privacy nightmare.
I’d love a dumb EV, but there is none.
Retrofitting classic cars is a thing. Have you looked into that? I agree it seems you are letting a different problem lock you into inaction.
What dumb ICE cars are there?
Every single car in the last five years is a privacy nightmare, not just EVs. My next car will likely be an economical ICE not because it’s ICE, but because it’ll be old enough to not be a privacy nightmare.
Looks like you aren’t driving any car made after 2018, so why say you aren’t driving an EV?
My wife’s 2019 Acura isn’t internet ready…
I drive a 2014 and probably will until the end. This need to buy a new car every few years baffles me.
I love my V8, manual transmission mustang and will drive it until the end.
My wife’s 2019 Acura isn’t internet ready…
Acura has been putting mobile data connection and collection devices in their cars since 2014. They call it their subscription service AcuraLink.
It was even installed on their lowest end car in 2014, the ILX:
We thought about it…my wife has a short in-town commute and we considered it…but two things nixed it for us. The Internet-connected car, and the lack of physical door releases. There is no good reason the regular door-handles have to be electric, and it’s inherently unsafe.
Add that to the fact that the Condo association at our house doesn’t allow external chargers to be installed, makes it a non-starter.
I 100% agree about the door handles, but not all EVs have non-physical door releases. There are at least 6 from various manufacturers that are fully physical.
The internet connected car is every single car made today, unless you pull out a fuse, regardless of EV or ICE.
We tried that in my sons Toyota… The fucking ignition key stopped working. Manufacturers work really hard to make sure you don’t…
As for door handles, physical handles backing electronic locks doesn’t count.
I also read some people putting some kind of blocking device on the cell antenna or something instead of pulling a fuse.
it can work, until you’re in a particularly strong cell network, then the traces on the board can pick up the signal, and everything gets uploaded in a burst.
it’s either remove the unit, or don’t bother.
By “nine times cheaper,” they mean the fuel for the EV can cost as little as 1/9th as much as the fuel for a gasoline / petrol car.
That’s great, as far as it goes, but depreciation per mile is usually a bigger cost than fuel. Other costs like registration taxes, insurance, and maintenance shouldn’t be expected to follow this 1/9th pattern either, of course. You’re not going to switch to an EV and find your total expense drops to 1/9th.
It feels to me like they’re telling an incomplete story on purpose.
depreciation per mile is usually a bigger cost than fuel.
OK, this might be something that a fleet manager would care about, but the average driver wouldn’t consider in a hundred years. You don’t have to swipe your card and pay for depreciation every four days. Not to mention that depreciation has no bearing on vehicle type and little connection to physical reality at all.
And if anything, EVs maintenance is lower than expectations. There is no robust recycling of EV batteries for instance because it turns out that the batteries last reliably for 30 years and most of the ones produced are still in service. Also EVs are by nature simpler, with many components being solid state. ICE are rube goldberg masterpieces, the result of decades of continuous development.
Depreciation is irrelevant and only brought up by combustion promoters. A car is a tool, not an investment in itself. The only relevant metric is overall yearly cost until the car dies.
Changing cars every few years, which is where depreciation matters, is an expensive luxury no one actually has to play.
No it’s valid argument as 2nd hand ev market still basically non existent in majority of the world. Solid state batteries are set to ship next year which will further depreciate all EVs while ICE vehicles have been solved 20 years ago.
EV brands tend to be less trust worthy too. For example here in Thailand 2nd biggest chinese brand (Neta) just went bankrupt tanking resale value.
The depreciation of a car is less than the fuel costs. If a car depreciates by $20,000 over 10 years, that is less than $38/week in fuel. If it depreciates by $30,000, that is still only $58/week.
Sounds like big oil propaganda you’re spouting. These are the kinds of talking points I hear from right-wing media.
The truth is EV technology has advanced quite a bit in recent years, and the batteries don’t deprecate as quickly as the anti-solar crowd still claims.
And as someone else already pointed out, EV maintenance is cheaper because there are less parts.
And road tax for EVs is bullshit, but the reason for it is that combustion vehicles already pay it because it’s factored into the price of gas. Or maybe that’s not the same in the UK?
Also, the headline doesn’t claim that the total expense drops to ⅑th, it says the cost to drive it does. That’s a very different claim from the one you’re pretending they tried to make.
What’s there to maintain? Even the brakes barely get used.
Where did you get this idea? EV’s go through brakes and tires faster than their ICE equivalents because of the extra vehicle weight.
They use regen braking for everything but very hard braking. The tyres are also generally very hard compounds to deal with the torque.
Where did you get this idea? EV’s go through brakes and tires faster than their ICE equivalents because of the extra vehicle weight.
Oh my, I think you just showed your hand about lack your of experience on the topic.
EVs (and many hybrids for that matter) use the brake pads significantly less than ICE vehicles because most of the braking energy is recovered from regen. I had a Prius for 9 years and sold it with the original factory brake pads still on it, with likely another 4-5 years of life on them.
My EV’s brake pads are still at 95% life even with the car being 4 years old.
I think its fair many don’t know about that. Its basically like engine breaking on ICE cars, but better as you get to recapture the energy. I have a motorcycle and often engine break.
It says “cheaper to drive” not “cheaper to own.”
Regardless, taxes and insurance are roughly the same. Maintenance on an EV is FAR less than an ICE car (no oil changes, fewer brake changes, fewer moving parts to replace over time). So if “fuel” is 1/9, and maintenance is just replacing the tires and putting in new wiper fluid, then driving is going to be much cheaper.
Tire changes would be more expensive and more frequent since EV heavier
At the same time, EVs tend to use harder tires (for better efficiency) that don’t wear out as often as softer tires that ICE cars use.
A large portion of depreciation and insurance is fixed, not based on actually driving. And maintenance is lower with EVs as well.
Still though, you are right, 1/9 is specific to fuel, and it’s deceiving. If it.were truly 1/9 we wouldn’t be having this conversation because all vehicles would be EVs.
If it.were truly 1/9 we wouldn’t be having this conversation because all vehicles would be EVs.
“Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 97.8% of all new passenger car registrations in Norway through the first eight months of 2026, according to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV).” source
“New energy vehicles (NEVs)—including pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars—accounted for a record 65.2% of new car sales in mainland China” source
Oh and don’t worry, if ICE vehicles go away, the politicians will find some way to levy an 8/9ths tax on something else to make up for not having those fuel sales.
Toll roads for everyone?
We need to figure out how to pay for road upkeep somehow.
That’s not to say the way gas taxes are allocated to road maintenance now is perfect. Far from it. But on paper (at least where I’m from) that’s how roads are maintained.
Where im at registration is a factor of 2/4x to make up for the fuel tax. Fun times.
yeah…and the electric vechicle cost 3x as more. takes ages to equal those out IF you can afford one.
EVs cost about the same as petrol cars these days. The two cheapest cars on sale in the UK are actually EVs. Not good EVs, but still capable of being city runabouts.
EV’s are crazy affordable, get one of the cheap Chinese imports that are a few years old. you dont live in a country that artificially restricts competition do you?
Doesn’t even have to be Chinese tbh. If you are getting a car, going for ICE is a skill issue and you deserve it.
Not any more. Just bought an EV new for about the same price as I bought for an ICE in 2019 before adjusting for inflation.
They are getting cheaper as they get more ubiquitous. If you have an ICE that runs fine, don’t rush out to replace it, but if you’re in the market for a new car you should seriously consider EV.
Fill in the blank:
ICEs are available new.
ICEs are available second hand.
EVs are available new.
EVs are available _____________.
Dacia spring is like £12k new isn’t it? Where are these ICE cars for £4k.
That’s my main gripe with EV advocates. I can buy a 30k euros EV, or a 10k euros ICE car AND 20k euros of gas “for free” over the next 10 years (20k is 200 euros per month which is what I can afford for gas and repair).
A lot of people are poor around me, and they can only get the 10k euros car. EVs are a great idea, but it’s not for everyone right now.
Yeah, luxury cars cost more. Don’t get a luxury EV if cost is a concern.
People on a budget do not buy new cars. Yet EV critics sure are careful not to ever mention second hand EVs. Is that ignorance or strategic ICE promotion?
LOL! I got a downvote for such an obvious comment! I wonder who it’s from! 🤣
i would have already switched to ev in finland, but looking around for charging station and generally not being able to afford one holds me back. getting one used might be even more expensive if i have to replace the batterys.
If you’re depending 100% on public fast chargers, I agree it’s likely not a good fit economically.
Do you have the space to charge where you live? That’s usually the game changer to make EVs slow inexpensive to drive.
