Used EV Car sales 'rocketing' - but is this now the end of the electric dream and a race to get out of them before they become worthless?

 

Electric Dream or Electric Nightmare -

Is this the start of the end of the road for Electric Vehicles?

The sales of second hand electric vehicles is now reported to be rocketing, but what does this actually translate into at street level? The end of the electric dream?....

At Christmas, many EV owners decided to travel to long distances in their electric vehicles, however the reality of their oeuvre being the answer to future transport came crashing down around them for a number of reasons. 

Why?

With 1 charger for every 39 electric vehicle, this was hurdle no.1. Second was the availability of a charger to fit their plug-in socket, as very stupidly, no one thought at the outset of the EV project to unify the size and layout of the plug to a one size fits all unit. Third was the Charger being actually working, Four was the cost of the frequent charges and Five the having to leave a 50 mile range reserve to find the next charger available.

Not exactly a cocktail for the most pleasant journey experience?

As expected at this time, the public charging points were oversubscribed with demand and queues for the next available charger formed. (And the charge supplier can set whatever price they like & you have little option but to charge up, you can't bring the 'fuel' to the car in a container like you can with a Petrol or Diesel one.)

Fast forward two months to February and a friend recently stopping at a motorway service station noted that there were NO electric vehicles resident at any of the charging points.

Now, you would expect that some commercial travellers and ordinary motorists might be actively using the road network with their EV's, yet it was strange that the chargers seemed to be so empty. The reality of long distance EV use seems to be now realised - it isn't viable or worth it.

A report of 'record second hand electric vehicle sales' tells its own story - after the EV hype a few years ago, a lot of these vehicles are now approaching the 'sell or bust' scenario. 

Reports that the used EV sales are 'booming' is explainable, people now seeing the charging cost, the battery life issues, difficulty with charging and that they are not getting Dealers wanting to buy their used EV's is causing panic amongst EV owners and they now want out. 

A garage owner said recently he had a customer full of how good her new EV was, a few months later she had ditched it for a Diesel due to the running costs.

Battery life and the cost of charging are the key operating factors I see as driving this used EV  'sales boom', or quiet and rapid exodus, which I see as the true reality.

Get out whilst you can is the thought. 

With an EV's average 7 years of battery life and the fact that many EV's are built around the battery, once the battery fails, they are effectively scrap.

Expensive scrap, that costed the owner half as much again as a Petrol or Diesel car and with a third of the lifespan of those types. And the EV's really do cost the Earth both to produce and use and that's without factoring in the costs to human health and the modern slavery implications of the materials for the battery. 

My analysis is that the factors against the EV have now become blindingly apparent, Mazda has now brought out a NEW Diesel car - manufacturers have been hedging for some years as to go fully electric or wait and see how this EV fad pans out before truly abandoning Petrol and Diesel vehicle manufacturing. 

Mazda's move seems to show that the long watch is over and the manufacturers are seeing that they have to keep an internal combustion vehicle engine option available. 

EV battery ingredients are finite and controlled mainly by China, internal combustion vehicle ingredients are not - and with Net Zero synthetic Petrol and Diesel fuels available fairly cheaply that is likely to be the final nail in the EV coffin.

UPDATE March 2024

The used car industry is now struggling offload used EV's and to sell new EV's. Consumers have woken up to the fact that the EV is the wrong solution, at the wrong price and without the infrastructure to support operation.

The future is not electric now.

 

The Black Economy - the Dickensian nightmare I predicted 10 plus years ago

Immigrants ultimately seeking a life in the UK

The reality is not what they think it is

Now Hear This. The unvarnished truth about something I predicted 10 years ago.

We were 'sold' a story by Government of the day

that we would need migrants to fill jobs

Back in the day, when Eastern European countries gained free movement, a swathe of people came to the UK to work. A few thousand was the estimate of the people that would actually come said the Blair government, it turned into more like 3 million.

As in the late 1950's, when the then government encouraged West Indians to migrate to Britain to fill a perceived shortage of workers, the 'need' was actually not likely there.

In the 1990's, the Army came up with an acronym MARILYN, which stood for manning and recruitment in the lean years of the 90's. Back then, the Army perceived that a falling birthrate would lead to a recruitment crisis.

The start of a new life or modern slavery?

When the Eastern Europeans came, many were from Poland and filled job gaps in the construction market.

Whilst many remembered the Polish contribution in 1940 to our war effort, the mood changed and ghettoes of migrants started to spring up, some companies reportedly became largely migrant employees only or were reportedly seen as taking all the jobs from British people.

The UKIP political party highlighted the situation that mass unchecked immigration would result in and this played a major factor in the Brexit vote going to the 'Out' supporters.

Within the recent Eastern European influx, other migrants from outside of the EU countries managed to get in and ended up in a more sinister scenario, prostitution and forced labour, essentially modern day slavery.

Often these people were students who outstayed their VISAs or came on visitor VISA's and just vanished into the Black Economy. 'Working on the black,' off the radar of tax, benefits, healthcare, basically existing and working illegally in Britain.

They are disenfranchised people and victims of an underclass that is trapped, cannot speak out and cannot escape.

Essentially this has created a situation of modern day slavery and in many cases, the victims of slavery are created so from people from their own countries who live in the UK legally. But white British people might be accused of racism for saying so. Even though that is the truth.

House overcrowding, up to 28 people in a suburban house

The reason why the illegals become trapped is that they often don't want to leave and want to stay in Britain, they get sucked into an underground population that is 'off the radar'.

Many businesses in the South East of England can only operate because they employ people on the fringes of society, likely unknowingly that the agencies supplying them are supplying illegal workers.

They likely rely on the agencies being apparently 'legit' in supplying 'legit' workers legally entitled to work in the UK. They may feel that as long as they satisfy the 'legal' requirements and only employ from agencies that 'guarantee' to supply 'legal' workers, that is all their oversight complete. They monitor and put in safeguards but people work the system.

Businesses need workers in order to operate. Every now and then some company or other is busted by the Immigration Service and a load of people deported.

The 'compliance' culture and industry is an over bureaucratic job creation scheme and does not address the plight of enslaved workers in the UK. What it was partly supposed to prevent! 

Migrant Workers without rights to be in the UK have little alternative than to go to bent employment agencies to survive.

Bent agencies will essentially supply migrant workers 'on the side', without any accreditation. The workers get paid less than legitimate workers, but they can't say anything or they might get beaten up or bubbled up to the immigration service and deported.

Because they have no right to remain, they just have to stay, keep quiet and keep out of trouble. Often in squalid and Dickensian conditions.

Many 'black economy' migrants have to live in garden sheds

House prices are so high in the South East of England that many indigenous people can't afford to take low paid jobs in the South East and live there too. Migrants in limbo, are often put into houses in these areas with up to 30 other workers and can fill the jobs that others just cannot afford to take. The Landlords having high occupancy can afford to own the houses.

These properties were not designed for this level of multiple occupancy.

When I saw the Eastern European influx 10 plus years ago, I said that there would be a Dickensian era type underclass situation to come and it has sadly been proven right.

One benefit of Brexit is that EU citizens can no longer just come to the UK. For those in the Calais camps waiting to come, the door has been shut, but they still want to get to the UK, even though they will never get legal citizenship.

I do feel sorry for these illegals here but they are after all, illegally here.