Highland Council to increase cost of electric charging points

[Goodfellers]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-64424890

It seems a typical all electric car does about 3 miles per Kwh https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/hybrid-electric-cars/guides/miles-per-kwh

And a typical petrol car does 50mpg.

Petrol would need to be around £2.53 per litre to equal the cost of a fast charger in Inverness at 70p/kwh, that's if you can find a working one without a queue. Petrol in Inverness last week at Tesco was £1.38/litre

How is this encouraging us to make the swap?

I know it's cheaper to charge at home.

[Corky Smeek]

Hold on to your hat Goodfellers!

I agree with you. Yep, not a typo'; I agree with you.

[Goodfellers]

Hold on to your hat Goodfellers!

I agree with you. Yep, not a typo'; I agree with you.

It was bound to happen one day!

[The Horseman]

Standard charging at home takes approx 25 hours with standard 3 pin plug.
Dedicated home charger 8+ hours.
Rapid charger, if u can find one..5+ hours!

I was just reading that 25% of Chargers were not working, and many of the rest had intermittent faults.
Unbelievable!
What are the Most popular UK E-Vehicles?

And latest Headlines in Canada….Electric vehicles costs more to operative than those with Combustion engines!

[Fulmar]

They are way too expensive for many folk to afford to buy in the first place before you even consider the charging aspect.

[Goodfellers]

I drive across the causewaymire regularly, what I find astonishing is that often over half the huge wind turbines aren't running. I am told it's because there isn't the demand locally and at the moment there aren't big enough cables to transport the surplus electricity south. There should be some mechanisim whereby the Highland Council could approve windfarms (of which there are still many applications going through) IF they could offer the council 'cheap' electricity purely for fast charging points.

As for charging 20p for slower chargers and 70p for fast chargers, why? If Tesco offered a super fast fuel pump for petrol, I wouldn't expect to pay more for the petrol. No matter how fast it's delivered a kilowatt of electricity is exactly that and I bet the cost to the council is the same per unit.

We've been toying with the idea of an electric car for several years, but still aren't persuaded. Making the running costs more than an ICE just puts us off even more, and apparently the vehicle tax exemption is ending too. As Fulmar says, they are far more expensive to buy in the first place. I'm all for helping save the environment, but political leaders, locally and nationally need to understand that cost is a huge issue. I know of two families locally who have owned an electric vehicle, but have now gone back to petrol!

I've been told all the mobility vehicles supplied by the Scottish govt are going to become electric only in a few years. That's going to cause a lot of problems I'm sure. Not everyone can have a fast charger at home. It will also massivly increase the demand for charging points away from home. There needs to be massive investment in charging points before were all forced into electric cars. Let's hope it happens!

[Gronnuck]

IMHO the issue of EVs has never been thought through. From day one Batteries should have been designed in such a way that EV owners could drive into a 'filling' station and swap their depleted battery for a fully charged one. If EV designers had restricted the battery design to three or four models these batteries could be held at a charging depot where the depleted battery could be checked/tested and then swapped for a fully charged battery upon an appropriate payment.

[Geo]

That's how EV car maker Nio does it. You drive in, the battery is removed automatically and a fresh one installed. Seems to work very well where they have the infrastructure.

[Goodfellers]

It looks like hydrogen could be the fuel of the future. Looks like it's taken a big step forward with BMW. I knew pure electric cars were going to be the Betamax of future motoring technology. https://discover.bmw.co.uk/article/step-inside-the-new-bmw-ix5-hydrogen?hucid=56fb1ab83ee5ce50978680217d551975896 c20152f0becc10861a7b8419b024a&hemaid=6ae57105cdc71af38f4330bd5733dbd67af73d421cd 06b56f2953f58c14804bc&cid=bmwDM991990&bid=1209355829&tl=eml-nsp-BMW%20eNews%20March%202023/bmwOP16027-ecrm-mn-.-BMW%20eNews%20GEN%20Mar23/bmwDM991990-1-20230406-.-Engagement-.-.

With the local hydrogen production that's planned, I would certainly buy one over a plug in car.

[Better Out Than In]

The reality is electric cars are no better for the environment, as a whole, over their life cycle, than petrol, and diesel may be a whole lot better. Electric cars in cities have some advantages for the cities, but are in effect exporting their pollution elsewhere. There are political and social problems with how electric cars and their components are sourced - cutting down rain forests, open cast mining, use of forced labour, use of forced child labour, seabed mineral extraction etc. etc. Also, how on earth are we mean't to cable up the whole country (with all the cost and environmental impacts that has) to fast charge millions of electric cars? Not going to happen. I agree that, with development, Green hydrogen may be a better option. Best thing overall is to reduce the number of children being born and over time reduce the population. Would we have an environmental problem if the UK population was down to less than 20 million?

[Goodfellers]

It seems there is still reluctance on the public's part to buy into the electric dream. Had a phone call from a VW dealer offering me a pretty good deal on a new ID electric car, with almost immediate delivery, asked why there was suddenly stock available, this was the reason https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/electriccars/article-12250631/Volkswagen-cut-electric-car-production-Germany-demand-slumps.html

[The Horseman]

Of course.
I see another ‘funding’ is required for The Battery Plant!
And some weeks ago the Pentland ‘wave patrol’ was finished.
Over the years I have followed the ‘experimental’ and very costly ‘start ups’, and the amount of wasted Money.
For any business to start up and continue to obtain Gov’t Funds, a proper assessment of success should be made.
Scotland and especially The North should not be involved with these.
The Health Care system, the roads and other local items should be a priority.
Keep pumping money into Failed Enterprises should be abandoned.