I really like the idea of electric cars...
Honestly, it makes me feel sick at times sitting in traffic these days each morning, and seeing the amount of fumes coming out of my 'small 1.2' Fiat Panda. For the sake of getting me to uni and back, to the supermarket and work (all within 10 miles from home) it's a lot of crap going into the air.. I saw a VERY nice Mercedes with twin-double exhausts - real ones! - with fumes coming out all of them. It really looks cool, but that thing was pumping out what looked to be a LOT more than the Panda - unsurprisingly needing more fuel.. And it's bad enough what I said about me, for my stupid journeys, but this guy was also sitting in a 5 seat car - albeit a nice, fast and sexy one - also pumping out tonnes of these fumes into the air too.
If there was a way I could enjoy the mobility, comfort and running costs of my current car without that problem I'd be all for it. The sad thing is, most of the commercially successful electric cars like Tesla, the BMW I models etc are very expensive. Though I'm seeing more this year than before. I see quite a few Renault Zoe cars too. Not too many e-UP!s , but that sort of demonstrates the problems today with them.. A £10,000 goes up to about £25,000 just to make it electric. It's one of the few cars available in the same form with an electric option here. For those with £25,000 to spend, I'd say something like 9 out of 10 will go for a nicer, more premium fossil fuel car. And nobody would blame them.
Though electric cars aren't that much better for the environment (still depends on oil based lubricants, oils and fluids elsewhere) as well as the steel, rubber, plastics etc they require I think the filling up with petrol problem is a big one, and nice one to eliminate.
Do any of you guys feel like we really will get there by 2040?
I'd like the day to come where there's decent electric versions of cars like the current Fiat Panda and even ultra-budget Dacia's - maybe for around £10,000 given the newer technology? Today it's a big step up in price and a lot of running commitment in terms of money and things like 'range anxiety'.
The way I see it is, by the time the government takes away our Petrol/Diesel cars the market will be ready to take buyers from all price points into the next generation of electric replacement.