EV? No way!

My car is having its MOT and annual service today.

The nearest dealership/service centre is ten miles away so I am working on site while the work is carried out.

There are desks with power and USB sockets, plus a coffee machine that provides complementary drinks (espresso, latte, cappuccino, Americano), so it’s all very civilised.

My current car, a diesel SUV, is four years old. I bought it in March 2021 after my previous vehicle (the same model) was written off when I parked it next to the brook that runs through our village hours before the area was flooded.

That was two days before Christmas 2020 but the insurance company paid up very promptly, as did the GAP insurance company which meant that I was able to replace it with a car that was newer than the one I lost.

As I explained here, I’ve owned a number of diesels. Before that, and even though I was driving 25-30,000 miles a year (at which point a diesel made more sense economically than a petrol vehicle), I was put off by the unsophisticated noise and vibration of a diesel engine.

Nevertheless, encouraged by Gordon Brown, I decided in 2005 to take the plunge and bought my first diesel, an Audi A4. I got used to it, eventually, but for the first month I hated it and even considered handing it back.

Thankfully diesel engines are much quieter and far more refined today, and although I don’t do the same kind of annual mileage I used to, I still enjoy filling the tank and getting 600-700 miles out of it, enough to get to me to and from Glasgow or Edinburgh, for example.

Compare that with an electric vehicle whose advertised mileage on a full charge might be 250-300 miles (at best) but in real world conditions would be significantly less.

In fact, from the horror stories I’ve read, I can’t imagine even attempting to drive to Scotland in an electric car. Range anxiety and worries about finding a fast charger that was (a) available, and (b) working would be off the scale, so count me out.

I mention this because, sitting here in BMW’s plush showroom outside Cambridge, many of the vehicles on display, including SUVs, are electric so the direction we are being encouraged to go is pretty clear.

Hybrids, though, are surely more practical, in the short or medium term, and yet the manufacture of hybrids, like petrol and diesel vehicles, is supposed to end by 2035.

I’m sure that technological improvements and a far greater number of charging points will eventually overcome current difficulties, but how long that might take is anyone’s guess.

For the moment, and despite a recent (and unaccountable) 50 per cent hike in my car insurance, I shall stick with my SUV.

If smokers can reach for their fags in defiance, I can stick with my diesel.

PS. While I am waiting, BMW has kindly sent me a video of my car, including the underside (below). Now that’s what I call service!

Comments

[Stephen Helfer]

As a lifelong smoker, who has been stigmatized, taxed, and forced out at night into the rain & snow, I daily experience the coercion of the regulatory state. I believe many of their regulations are based on their love of control, not social benefit.