Is this really the future?

[Jim]

But countries like the UK, that have adopted EV cars, are seeing massive drops in new EV sales and registrations.

All I can go by, Adam, is what I read. I pay no attention to a Blog by EV Lovers-R-Us, or RV Haters-R-US or any other such silliness. I try to read reputable news sites and base my opinions and knowledge on that. What I'm reading is that EV sales are still gaining market share in the UK.

I'm neither for or against EV's, never owned one... hell, never even driven one. So all I can go by is reputable news report.

Cheers mate.

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-first-half-of-2025-preliminary-data-suggests

 

[Adamc]

I also hear about difficulties sell .But I admit not done the read up.
I Believe the market can be saturated .. As I hear it is expensive the Porsche is not for anyone except affluent
people.
A new product coming out it is not rare sales are up .. the " Rich People " are buying ..and there will be some of those
and sales are up .
But what about the not so affluent .. They are never gonna buy a new car petrol or electric.
Maybe the crashed used prices as Adam speaks about can make the poorer ones buying.
But the " poor " drivers have cars running .. I have not heard the solution on that.
Running cars with lives left in them. Usable Payed for ..

Good points Jan.
As I said most new EV car sales, rich or middle management, are bought by companies with huge budgets, with desirable government incentives. Normal humans (like me) cannot afford the ‘buy in’ price of a runabout Nissan Arirya (or similar).

Nissan Ariya 63KWh base price £38795 Nissan deposit contribution £1,500 customer deposit £5,000.
49 months @ £427. Optional final payment £14,641. Max 6000 miles per year. Fixed interest rate 2.99% per year.
Total paid to own the car £50k! This is all covered by Nissan finance, not normal trade companies.

Most normal people do 10,000 miles per year not 6,000. So penalties apply on over milage.
Batteries often drop cells within 3 years (or catch fire) meaning expensive replacement of around £10k
At 3 years the car may be worth £25k used, minus £10k for battery replacement = £15k trade in Nissan value.
At this point the owner still has a year on PCP contract, and is over milage WTF!

Just to make things clear, sadly today EV is not for the common man.

 

[festerandolini]

I recently stopped into a Yamaha/Honda dealership not close to where i live, and there was a lineup of entry tier E-bikes. Present on the floor where not insignificant amount of CFmoto "pitbikes" or something resembling a PW50/ttr50 but electric. The price was fair for those, but wait for clincher...

Here in Australia we have the ADR, it is an engineering process that destroys at least 1 or 2 units for "testing" the prove that given unit and it's designs are all meeting or exceeding current safety, consistency and regulatory requirements (always esoteric or at least endemic) for Australia. To see an ADR approved (oh yeah, its like DOT i suppose?) electric dirtbike/motard was actually not offensive to me, i also (and this is from a 59 club rocker) do not hate scooters as a transport concept.

At length i spoke with the salesman (a bloke in his 50's at a guess) about battery technology, regenerative braking, and the local deviants, delinquent teens, and ne'er do well riders of the surons, stark vargs and bafang hacked MTB's. It's definitely a thing, and the bigger changes towards safer battery tech (LiFePo v LiPo) and better ReGen use make the E-bikes way more appealing, yet something about having to wheel the beast back to a charger everytime it needed topping up seemed a negative.

Both the Salesman and I agreed independently that Hybrid Bike technology has taken too long to implement, and how wonderful the concept of a hybrid "road dog" or "ultra-classic-extra-glide-terraplane" is possibly. Realistic expectations of the vision of a two wheeled dreadnought could easily be substituted for a version of a large displacement Japanese or American super tourer (like the Goldwing, Cheifetan, Ultra-glide) with aforementioned Hybrid system.

Edison Hybrid trucks from Canada, build (or are developing) retrofit systems for existing truck chassis using big high output generator plants, with batteries and electric drive motors, capable of good kinetic energy re-generation. The fuel saving completely depends on the type of driving/riding you do, so each use case has it's merits. I think for heavy hauling highway use, its as good as 5 to 10 percent, inner city, or stop start work, they quotes 70 to %... Still, thats better than the figures, stats and results of current billionaire run E-cars and E-trucks.

After that part of the conversation we drifted into turbine powered things as it seemed we spent too long talking about green .

Things are changing in this space, and until we get to a better battery technology, more skill at ReGen brake use, and better charge technology it can only get better.

But having a fuel cell at home that uses excess renewables generated power to make Syngas, and lubricants is more what i am saving my money for, because nothing saves more carbon from spewing into the atmosphere, than recycling and old beater with some class and patina. Building a new thing that is not recycled easily and replaced every EOL isn't the solution for waste, emissions or resource scarcity, why people get sucked in, is the same reason billionaire class rules the world now.

Welcome to the Kleptocracy.
I lost the plot here, but thought this was the best place for this rant.

 

[Jan_P]

The Electric motorcycle is a non Starter in my book.
It used to be a vehicle for commuting to work But that ended in ca 1960
After that it has been a lifestyle ..pastime message accessory Leather jackets .Machismo tough guy attitude
Cool people.or being fast. Motor interest .. Rallies beer and Rock and Roll Club House parties
It is not the same these days.
Never was the Stockbrokers .. or Nerds doing it Some Brands motorcycles has not even been appropriate to buy
Very few care that much about the environment that richer fueling noise and a little Oil spill prevent them from jetting more
Factory spec bikes new lean to make the emission demands are not off the sales floor before adjusted richer running better.
I Doubt a single HD owner in Sweden having Stock Exhaust pipes.

As with the Porsche 911 ,they tried to terminate discontinue .Unsuccessfully ,Its more to it than meets the eye
I don't se the enthusiasts today on bikes to any greater extent buy electric. I just don't do it

Perhaps there are other customers Ladies but they dont like the wind.

The car has a fighting chance because it has advantages in cities and so pollution and noise
But motorcycles .Dont se it happen .But I have been wrong before the world can have changed more than myself

 

[madmax-im]

None of this is concerning to me...I won't be buying any Jaguars or anything else that is new..I am very happy with my 21 yr old Buick...

 

[Raymond]

Good old Britain leads the World in the race to zero CO2, passed the first Climate Change Act in 2008 and in 2019 decided to move to net zero by 2050. Sales of new ICB powered vehicles will be banned from 2030. No new licences will be issued for oil exploration.

Apparently - on Govt figures - Britain really has reduced CO2 by a bigger percentage than anywhere else.

But soft! What do I hear - Labour politicians tying themselves in knots trying to explain what 'no new licences will be issued for oil exploration' means and how they can in fact allow new drilling if it's not exploration but an oilfield they already knew about. Because net zero is the target but 'oil and gas will still be part of the energy mix for some time yet'.

And on the Conservative side Kemi Badenoch points out the economic harm the Climate Change Act is doing and says if elected they will repeal it.

Seems as 2030 and 2050 approach, politicians are shuffling. Partly it's the Farage effect and partly it's the realisation that the target is going to be missed anyway.