Welcome to Green Britain: Affordable electric cars ‘not viable’, car maker warns

A mass market in affordable electric cars will not happen soon because of the difficulty of producing them on a commercially viable basis, one of the largest makers of zero-emission vehicles for British drivers has warned.

Paul Philpott, UK chief executive of Kia, the fast-growing South Korean car company, said it had no immediate plans for a mass-market electric product.

Some fear there is a prospect of a society of haves and have-nots in the electric car revolution because of the sheer cost of buying or financing a zero-emission vehicle.

Philpott’s prediction also threatens to undermine the government’s ban on selling petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

With price inflation roaring ahead in the past couple of years, there are only a handful of electric cars available below £30,000, compared with the less than £20,000 that motorists would expect to pay for mass market or entry-level petrol cars. Even the smallest electric car, the zero-emission version of the Fiat 500, starts at about £30,000.

This month the Advanced Propulsion Centre, the government’s automotive electrification agency, significantly cut electric car forecasts for 2025 because “buyers are expected to stick with cheaper options for longer”.

While European and Asian manufacturers have been stepping up production of electric vehicles, they have been concentrating on more expensive models to make healthy profit margins on the cost of installing electrified systems. The battery pack is the costliest component of an electric car. The smaller the car, the larger the proportion the battery in its production cost.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/affordable-electric-cars-not-viable-shp5q3p2q

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UK: New peak rates mean charging electric cars more expensive than petrol

New peak pricing at electric car chargepoints can leave consumers worse off than if they stuck to traditional petrol-engined vehicles, according to new analysis from the AA.

Previous analysis by motoring organisations has showed the cost of charging electric vehicles has soared in recent months, driven by rising energy prices partly triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.

Rapid charge points used by motorists topping up on long drives are now nearly £10 more expensive than filling up a car with petrol, the RAC revealed last week.

But research from the AA published on Monday finds that recharging an electric car even using a slow public charger at peak times can be more expensive, per mile driven afterwards, than for refuelling a comparable petrol car.

Peak and off-peak rates have been introduced by major networks including Ubitricity, the UK’s largest public charge-point operator.

Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy and recharging, said: “While pump prices are falling, electricity prices are going in the other direction, but we are hopeful prices could tail off later this year.”

News that electric cars could be more expensive to run than petrol or diesel alternatives will strike a blow at the Government’s target of reaching net zero CO2 emissions by the year 2050.

AA analysts compared a 1.2L petrol Vauxhall Corsa with the e-Corsa, the manufacturer’s electrically-powered alternative.

Topping up the e-Corsa’s charge by 80pc on a slow charger at peak times results in a cost of 16.18p per mile.

The AA said: “A continued fall in the pump price of petrol now places the running costs [of a petrol Corsa] at around 14.45 pence per mile, meaning that a petrol combustion engine vehicle is cheaper to run per mile than an EV.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/new-peak-rates-mean-charging-electric-cars-expensive-petrol

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Green, cold & poor: Relying on wind power means Britons must get used to cutting energy use, says National Grid

Households will be paid to cut their electricity use at certain times more often in future as Britain relies on wind power as part of the push to net zero, National Grid has signalled.

Craig Dyke, head of national control at the electricity system operator, said it “strongly believes” in consumers becoming more flexible about when they use electricity as the energy system is overhauled.

It comes as households are paid to reduce electricity usage between 5pm and 6pm tonight as National Grid deploys its new scheme to help avert blackouts for the first time outside of testing.

Asked if similar schemes could become a “feature of British life” and be used regularly, Mr Dyke told the BBC: “It’s something we strongly believe in.

“As we take that step whereby people are far more engaged in the energy they use, and as we drive towards that net zero position with people moving to electric vehicles and taking up heat pumps, for example, consumer engagement around this is key.

“It provides that additional flexibility as well - not just for the system, but for all consumers themselves.

“So we see this as a growing market, we see this as a world-leading step into this space.”

The push to net zero means that electricity demand will rise as households switch to electric cars and heat pumps.

Meanwhile, more electricity is coming from wind turbines and solar plants, which are intermittent.

This makes power supplies more complicated to manage compared to the historic system dominated by large coal-fired and gas-fired power plants which can easily adapt to demand.

With less control over electricity supplies, National Grid hopes therefore to have more control over electricity demand.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/23/national-grid-wind-power-cut-electricity-use-discount/

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Norwegian shipping company bans electric vehicles over fire fears

The company says that its ships are not equipped to fight a lithium-ion battery fire at sea

Norway’s Havila Krystruten is one of two shipping companies that sails between the coastal cities of Bergen and Kierkenes and says that it will no longer carry electric or electrified vehicles on its ships following the results of an external investigation.

The company mostly carries passengers and goods on the route, but now says that it will only carry private vehicles with internal combustion engines. Havila Krystruten cited fire safety as the main reason for its decision.

While it is not clear what led the company to run the external investigation, fears of fires on ships were stoked by a recent incident in the Atlantic.

The Felicity Ace caught fire at sea last year and, although the cause of the fire has not been determined, there were vehicles with batteries aboard the ship, leading to speculation that they may have been responsible for the blaze.

https://www.carscoops.com/2023/01/norwegian-shipping-company-bans-electrified-vehicles-over-fire-fears/

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http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

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http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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