Electric car sales slump

[Ford Jellymoulds]

DAILY MAIL...

 

Sales of electric cars have slumped so badly that there are now more charging points than vehicles on the road.

 

Just 2,149 electric cars have been sold since 2006, despite a government scheme last year offering customers up to £5,000 towards the cost of a vehicle.

 

The Department for Transport says that around 2,500 charging points have been installed, although their precise location is not known

 

 

 

The government grant has boosted sales - from 138 in 2010 to 182 last year - but only £3.9million of the £300million set aside has been paid out.

 

A spokesman for the DFT told The Sunday Times: 'It's fair to say that there hasn't been a huge take-up over the past year.'

 

The high cost of electric cars has put many off. The Nissan Leaf still costs £25,990 even after the £5,000 grant has been deducted.

 

Electric cars are also only suitable for short journeys, with a maximum range of around 100 miles on a full charge.

 

 

 

The government is spending £30million on publicly-funded charging points and those in private companies.

 

These range from points which take between six and eight hours, to those which provide an 80 per cent charge in half an hour.

 

Drivers can pay an annual fee to use the majority of the points, with authorities charging a membership fee for the year but no extra charge for electricity.

 

It's a similar story in the U.S., with Nissan selling 10,000 Leaf cars last year - compared to almost 13million new vehicles every year, The Sunday Times reported.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1jkMKMdEt

Edited January 17, 2012 by Ford Jellymoulds

[GTwannabe]

Not surprising. "Refueling" an electric car means at least 45 minutes of downtime and only lets you drive another 90 miles or so. Won't be practical without swappable battery packs or inductive charging embedded in the interstates.

[lfeg]

It is the old value proposition at work.

 

Is the inherent value of the car in its intended use worth the price to the buyer/user?

 

For most consumers it is no right now. The only thing that can help the value proposition at this time is government incentives or mandates. Technical improvements will help over the long term, and things such as dump charging and fast charging might help in the near term (but require 3 phase 460V 100 amp service, not common where many charging stations are). Pure EVs are a niche vehicle, and will remain so for a long time.

[Ford Jellymoulds]

We will have liquid hydrogen bead cells costing $1.50 a gallon arriving within the next five years, that will mean you will be able to fill your old e-type Jag up without any modifications other than a fuel heater, and all it will blow out the exhaust pipe will be water.

 

Electric car is a very expensive deadman walking. Pig ugly dirty filthy Prius with a massive carbon footprint parts shipped in from around the globe to make it v Super boring dull shaped Nissan Leaf with no range will leave you stuck for half a day to top up the snail tank fill up of electric v Classic drop dead gorgeous awesome classic E-type running on hydrogen microbeads. Game, set and match to clean environmentally friendly e-type l would say.

LINK

 

Edited January 20, 2012 by Ford Jellymoulds

[lfeg]

But who is going to pay for the infrastructure for this new fuel, and for the transport system to get it to the fueling points?

[Ford Jellymoulds]

But who is going to pay for the infrastructure for this new fuel, and for the transport system to get it to the fueling points?

 

I don't think there will be any transportation or infrastructure problems as the liquid microbeads will be safer to handle than gasoline at the pump - so they say, that was its unique major design break through. even though you can use it without modifying your car you will need more trips to the garage to fill up or a need a bigger tank. Something was said about recycling the micro bead capsules when they have been used, during refuelling , l can't remember what though. A lot of folk doubt the cost of producing/recycling polymer microbeads that is quoted as very accurately priced.

 

Still it would be great fun to just drive into the local garage fill up my 40 year old Mk1 Escort, and give a dirty polluting Prius driver a dirty look at the crap coming coming out of his tailpipe, whilst nothing at all but water zero emission vapour droplets are coming out of my exhaust pipe. Then ask him how much he had just paid for that new totally boring bland dull dirty filthy polluting Prius, what is the carbon footprint of all those parts that have been shipped in from every part of the universe, how much highly poisonous toxic carbon monoxide is coming out you exhaust at the moment because these pricks know that shit, nothing coming out my Mk1 Escort at the moment ole chap, My Mk1 Escort is 40 years old, have owned it since 1981, in 40 years time you would have owned got through 3 throwaway Toyota Prius's, how much pollution is involved in building 3 cars assembled from parts shipped in from every corner of the globe, much do all those batteries cost after 7 years, it cost me nothing to convert to micro beads. How do you Prius Owners sleep at night, live with yourself - think of all those poor ole polar bears floating down the River Thames in London on icebergs with Al Gore just jetted in on his private jet (Prius owners fake God idol) and the 100 film crew with 1000W lights to help melt the ice on Al's iceberg (lot of bull) ?

 

That would be totally priceless just to wipe the smug cheesy sickly grin off a shitty Prius owners face, whilst giving him a blast of H20 fumes, as l blast off in the distance with tyres smoking in my kool old skool Mk1 Escort.

Edited January 24, 2012 by Ford Jellymoulds

[FordBuyer]

Wait until this summer as Iran embargo heats up. Then you will see hybrid, plug-in hybrid sales really pick up. EV sales are more niche oriented as range is still not that good and has been stated takes a long time to charge up. Plug-in hyrids however will do well IMO since they are not range limited. Volt sales will pick up as year progresses and fuel prices go up. I know that plug-ins and EV's have become political footballs, but they are not going away. There is a market for them, especially as fuel prices spike further as time goes by.

[retro-man]

There are a hundred different ways to make electricity. Many of those ways are decentralized - in the control of individual homeowners or communities, and out of the monopoly control of energy corporations (which is why alternative energy development is not supported at best, and suppressed at worst) and out of the crosshairs of terrorists as attractive infrastructure targets. Hopefully there will be more and better ways to store electricity in the future as well. There are zero energy buildings being built at present - few and far between - but it will come. I wish we were ahead of the curve instead of behind the eight ball on energy. But, as long as there are quick profits to be made in fossil fuels, under the protection of Uncle Sam (us) at the end of a gun, and subsidized by US taxpayers, electric will have a slow takeoff. Cheaper to dominate the Middle East than to do a moon program for alternative energy. The day when we no longer have the means to do either is fast approaching thanks to our shortsightedness.

[lfeg]

Decentralized energy production is coming. Near where I live a natural gas fueled fuel cell module is being tested. Been in place over a year. It works, and is pretty reliable for a prototype. I have also been in a fabrication facility for the cells of a competing design of stand alone natural gas fueled fuel cell module that is nearly ready for real world use. Thing of something the size of a semi trailer or 3 car garage that can produce 0.5 to 1 megawatt of electricity very efficiently with noise levels nearly the same as the outside unit of a whole house air conditioner. With a little bit of landscaping it could pass for the maintenence equipment building at a local park.

 

So it is coming to the areas that have ample supplies of natural gas. That, along with photovoltaics and wind will provide for distributed generation of electricity in the not too distant future.

[lfeg]

I don't think there will be any transportation or infrastructure problems as the liquid microbeads will be safer to handle than gasoline at the pump - so they say, that was its unique major design break through. even though you can use it without modifying your car you will need more trips to the garage to fill up or a need a bigger tank. Something was said about recycling the micro bead capsules when they have been used, during refuelling , l can't remember what though. A lot of folk doubt the cost of producing/recycling polymer microbeads that is quoted as very accurately priced.

 

Still it would be great fun to just drive into the local garage fill up my 40 year old Mk1 Escort, and give a dirty polluting Prius driver a dirty look at the crap coming coming out of his tailpipe, whilst nothing at all but water zero emission vapour droplets are coming out of my exhaust pipe. Then ask him how much he had just paid for that new totally boring bland dull filthy polluting Prius, what is the carbon footprint of all those parts that have been shipped in from every part of the universe, how much highly poisonous toxic carbon monoxide is coming out you exhaust at the moment because these pricks know that that shit, nothing coming out my Mk1 Escort at the moment, My Mk1 Escort is 40 years old have owned it since 1981, in 40 years time you would have owned 3 throwaway Toyota Prius's, how much pollution is involved in building 3 cars assembled from parts shipped in from every corner of the globe. How do you Prius Owners sleep at night?

 

 

I take it you do not have the NIMBY problem in the UK. Getting the fuel into the car is the simple part, we already have the hardware. The issue is the fueling stations. Is the H2 to be kept in above or below ground tanks? What permitting process will be used? Do existing petroleum fueling stations have the space or siting conditions required to add H2 storage and fueling facilities? Who pays for all of this? How do we get the H2 to the fueling stations? It would be a nightmare to have to run pipelines to thte stations, so that requires tankers, and how is it stored in the tankers - high pressure, cryogenically, or some other mass storage method. And then you have the NIMBY issue - You mean they want to put a hydrogen fueling station in my neighborhood! Not In My Back Yard!

Edited January 24, 2012 by lfeg

[Ford Jellymoulds]

I take it you do not have the NIMBY problem in the UK. Getting the fuel into the car is the simple part, we already have the hardware. The issue is the fueling stations. Is the H2 to be kept in above or below ground tanks? What permitting process will be used? Do existing petroleum fueling stations have the space or siting conditions required to add H2 storage and fueling facilities? Who pays for all of this? How do we get the H2 to the fueling stations? It would be a nightmare to have to run pipelines to thte stations, so that requires tankers, and how is it stored in the tankers - high pressure, cryogenically, or some other mass storage method. And then you have the NIMBY issue - You mean they want to put a hydrogen fueling station in my neighborhood! Not In My Back Yard!

 

They are not those dangerous type micro beads that have to be pressure filled requiring massive modification, these are a new type that are much safer than gasoline to pump through a nozzle into your car with no modifications required.

 

 

What came first the chicken or the egg diesel or gas one? Gotta say l don't think it will be any problem what so ever the fuel in these new microbeads are said to be a lot more safer than gasoline. Can't say l have seen Al-qaeda blow up any highly volatile gasoline filling stations and nobody protests in the UK if a new petrol station is opened on a "brown field" sites here, in fact they quite like it as its somewhere nearer to fill-up your car. Gotta say l can't see to many motorists launching protest at £1.50 a GALLON microbeeds that are designed safer to handle than gasoline that will £1.50 a LITRE.

 

Won't need to coat my Mk1 Escort in awesome tripleO anymore to save money, with massive saving on fuel costs like that.

 

What would you prefer paying Ifeg if you lived in the UK £1.50 a GALLON for these new microbeads that are not only more safer to fill up than gasoline through the nozzle, they also pump out ZERO EMISSIONs or pay £1.50 a LITRE for gasoline that will be more unsafe to fill-up, costs nearly 4.5 times as much will pump nothing but highly toxic poisonous carcinogenic carbon monoxide that will kill you in a confide space gasoline fumes. Mmm tough choice Ifeg, l think l know which fuel most Brits will want in austere UK a expensive Prius or cheaper fuel, FREE no modifications required to you car ZERO EMISSION micro-beads.

 

Biggest problem in the UK is we are decommissioning a lot our Nuclear Power stations that are coming to the end of their life, ONE THIRD will be decommissioned by 2016 the UK is expecting massive blackouts by as early as 2013. Useless governments being typical self centred selfish twats have done absolutely nothing at all to address this massive known problem drop off in electrical power supply, because it is a massive VOTE LOSER in elections and all they are interested in is hanging on to power. We have had no new vote losing new power stations built here it will take 10 years from conception planning to the like you say Ifeg we don't want Japanese type NIMBY Nuclear Power disasters syndrome to the first watt is produced at the power station. Now the chicken are coming home to roost and folk will be wanting to know why they are sitting in the dark from 2013 onward, why every my electric car has got no juice, why my electric guzzling car is getting stoned by the locals as they freeze to death.

in a blackout.

 

Add to that EU borders have come in Europe you can live where ever you want, words out in the EU that UK's benefit big money free handout culture for doing nothing on the dole created by Tony bLair has swollen out of all proportions, the population from 52 million up 60 million almost overnight predicted to hit 70 million soon so we have a massive demand for new housing, huge growth in electricity water consumption is now required with next to no Nuclear power stations to cope with out of control demand, Greenpeace are having a field day here with tens of millions of new immigrants tapping to UK limited water tables, Greenpeace blame water shortages on global warming and you gas guzzling Yanks with massive CO2 producing SUV's etc, you can't expect to invite 10 million new EU immigrants to tap into a watering holes thats already struggling to cope with demands of bathing water, drink water, clean rinse shit out the bowl water.

 

Lots of other countries in Europe are going down the road as the UK, Germany being another example, they want to ban Nuclear Power stations all together after what happened in Japan so they have even greater problems as us.

 

The Guardian Newspaper...

Germany could face widespread winter blackouts following Angela Merkel's "knee-jerk" decision to decommission the country's nuclear power stations, according to German power grid operators.

 

The warning from four energy providers came after the German chancellor suggested she agreed with a proposal to shut down all of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants by 2022.

 

Seven nuclear power stations have been off-grid ever since Merkel announced in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima disaster a "three-month moratorium" on her controversial decision last year to extend the lives of the plants.

 

Merkel ordered safety checks on all reactors and set up two commissions – one on safety and another on ethics – to look at whether Germany had a nuclear future.

 

The resultant safety report will be evaluated by the German government, along with a separate report by an ethics commission due on May 28, before it makes a final decision on nuclear power.

 

But over the weekend, Merkel said the year 2022 was "the right space of time" to set as a goal for Germany's total withdrawal from nuclear power.

 

LINK

 

 

As Kermit the frog once said, "its not easy being green", come 2013 the Electric "electron" guzzler car will be about popular as the bubonic plague as we start to black-out sitting in the dark, whilst freezing our nuts off with no x-factor or l'm a celebrity, get me out of this dark cold hole to watch on the box (that might be a bonus, no crap tv show).

 

Edited January 24, 2012 by Ford Jellymoulds