Actually,

mine's a Micra. And I recently vacuumed it. Do you want to buy it? It's for sale.

Morgan? Bristol?

And a huge range of other specialist and kit cars. We just don't do that mass-market, common-as-muck stuff. Far classier than that.

Dont forget Noble.

See title

A lovely pair

There were two Bristols parked outside the garage where I take my Citroën DS to get serviced when I last popped in.

A lovely pair, they were...

I think you're being a bit demanding there

Batteries will always suck for cars anyway, hydrogen fuel cells are the way forward with wind/wave/solar providing the leccy for the hydrogren to be produced.

BUT for a daily drive such as to work and back 100 miles would be more than enough for most people.

2 Uses?

I think you will find that most people do far less than 100 miles a day, and rarely go beyond that kind of range. So most people can benefit from these types of cars, particularly 2 car families where their other one is a normal oil fuelled model for the occasional long drive.

Personally I drive a 10 mile each way trip to and from work and would happily drive something like this (although not necessarily this particular car) if it could make my daily drive cheaper, as well as more fun. Unfortunately the cost of the cars at this time are likely to make it more expensive, but I don't think we're too far off from getting decent priced electric cars.

Admittedly a 100 mile range is a little on the low side, but the Tesla already demonstrates much longer ranges which are likely to get much better over the next few years. No oil fuelled cars I know of can do 1000 miles on one tank of fuel, so why would you expect it from an electric car?

I won't move to electric ...

... until it is as convenient as petrol/diesel. I want a range of at least 450 miles (equivalent to my current Subaru's range) at motorway speeds, refuelling from empty to full in 5 minutes maximum, and the ability to carry a cheap, lightweight backup just in case I run out of fuel, which can be applied quickly at the side of the road (or up a Derbyshire white in the middle of the night). Electric does not seem to meet any, let alone all, of these criteria, nor do they look likely to be met in the near future. And, to be honest, nothing else is close, either.

zero emissions

Really, you ruined your argument right there.

What makes your electricity? The free energy monster? We still are not a a stage where renewable or clean power generation are effective. Therefore you are still causing emissions. Just because they are not right under your nose does not mean they are not there.

Though an argument of less localised pollution would have been better.

Oh dear...

hoist by your own petard there I'm afraid......where do you think that wonderful electricity comes from?

A better option still at the moment is an LPG conversion for a standard petrol engined car. Half the price for the fuel, >80% of the range/performance and the only thing coming out of the exhaust is water vapour.

Until you can provide VERY large scale solar/wind/geo-thermal electricity generators or accept that nuclear power is an option then you are stuck with fossil-fuelled power stations making electric cars a poor option taking into account transmission losses etc.

Sort of right...

..but it really isn't just water that comes out of the exhaust. It does actually make CO2 when it burns, just like any other hydrocarbon.

Still, the part about needing cheap, pollution-free electricity generation before being able to claim that electric cars are environmentally friendly is true enough.

There is one other point though. I get the impression that the manufacturers and dealers are much less happy about the reliability of electric vehicles in general -

... electric motors have fewer parts to wear out than an oil burner

... the need for an expensive and complex transmission is more or less eliminated due to the different torque characteristics

... there is no problem with lubricants being burned while the engine is operating, hence regular oil changes are not necessary

... reduced wear and tear on brakes since dynamic braking & KERS are such a natural fit

So it may be much harder for dealers & garages to justify so much servicing. Of course, it may just happen that charges per hour go up substantially to compensate for the reduced number of hours of work required, like they did with the improvements in reliability of cars between the '80s and now.....

Fading batteries

Interesting comment, that.

I've wondered how Toyota's Prius batteries are doing, now that they have a good few years on them. Also, as an electric car needs no fiddling with engine timing or regular motor lubricant replacement, do battery replacements every 5th year (or so) total the same as 5 years of engine tuning and oil changes? Surely the savings in petrol count for something too.

Carbon neutrality is all well and good, but what of the economics of the thing?

We should be told...