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.
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