How many were aware of the likely costs compared to fuel powered vehicles, before answering the questions? Improving urban air quality is no doubt a sound idea, but attempting to link EVs to climate – not so much.
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A quarter of people say they will become an EV driver in the next five years, according to a new survey, reports Energy Live News.
Coronavirus is convincing people to buy electric vehicles (EVs) with 45% of UK drivers claiming they would consider swapping their current car for an EV in the wake of the pandemic.
That’s according to a new poll conducted by Venson Automotive Solutions, which reports the current lockdowns around the world and the radical improvement on air pollution as a result of the demobilisation of transport have a positive impact on people’s awareness of the benefits to the environment.
As a result 17% of the respondents said that their interest in buying an EV had been reinforced by the new scientific data, 26% confirmed they intend to become an EV driver in the next five years and nearly 20% of those noted their next car would be battery powered.
The survey also reveals that the public would like to see more done by government and businesses to expedite the take up of EVs once the UK has recovered from the Covid-19 crisis.
The majority, 62% of them would like to see further investment in the charging infrastructure, while the 38% of them supports the introduction of more Clean Air Zones in cities and new legislation that encourages businesses to move to fully electric company car or commercial vehicle fleets in the next five years.
Full report here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
If only the decline in “pollution” was measurable in some way…
I looked at three random posts in the Energy Live News. All three have been written by Mr. Dimitris Mavrokefalidis. Is the ELN a one-man operation?
CG – no, Jonny Bairstow is or was the main reporter.
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45% of UK drivers claiming they would consider swapping their current car for an EV
It costs nowt to *claim* you might *consider* doing something one day. Would you consider having a tattoo…etc. etc.
OB – the main article was Dimitris. The one you link to was Jonny. I read ELN to try and avoid being in too small a bubble, but sometimes it’s a struggle. If you can bear to go through the ‘about us’ rabbit hole, Jonny and Priyanka Shrestha seem to be the only permanent reporters.
In truth, for most of my trips a Leaf would be fine – but I don’t need two cars. I’d buy an electric car if it could do over 300 miles on a winter night with the heating and lights on. If it was cheaper than a diesel (mine will do over 500miles on a tankful, thank you). And Elon Musk couldn’t fiddle with the software while I was driving along. And I could recharge it from nothing in a few minutes. And it was still just as reliable at 12 years old, not needing thousands of pounds worth of new batteries.
There, I’ve considered it.
At some point the EV purchase subsidies have to stop. It’s one thing to subsidise the 1-2%, but another to subsidise 50%+.
And, where’s the replacement income for motor fuel taxes coming from? If it’s ‘all car users’ then EV owners will have to pay more somehow – quite a lot more.
For a start it would help if they published their survey questions, that way we could see if they were leading to a preconceived set of answers.
As it stands I hope those answering realise that to improve the charging infrastructure would require the building of several coal fired power stations because unreliable, renewables just don’t make it, as well as upgrading the national electricity distribution including the local supply power lines.
Yes, there’s a known overload issue…
Rapid EV take-up could cause blackouts on national grid
20 April 2017
Just six EVs on charge in one sensitive local area could cause grid overload and disrupt power supply with today’s grid, Green Alliance thinktank says
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/rapid-ev-take-could-cause-blackouts-national-grid
Somebody likened an EV charge to running your electric shower all night. Multiply that by say 25% of the number of car owners in the local area.
Taking into account current vehicle prices, efficiency, mileage, battery decline, woeful charging infrastructure and depreciation, the EV revolution just isn’t going to happen, unless by government edict, of course.
However, considering that the national credit cards, in those countries in the West who fixate about solutions to non problems, have been maxed out during Covidmania, and the great unwashed plunged into penury, who is it in these countries who will be able to afford to buy, subsidise or maintain the damn things, apart from the elite and a few city dwellers? The money just isn’t there. And banning ICE vehicles is a recipe for economic collapse / revolution without an affordable and efficient alternative being available, which EVs aren’t. Best keep a spare yellow vest in the wardrobe!
Edicts aren’t necessary. Financial and other pressures can do the job, as the London congestion charges show.
‘That’s according to a new poll conducted by Venson Automotive Solutions’
My Bible.
‘which reports the current lockdowns around the world and the radical improvement on air pollution as a result of the demobilisation of transport’
A “begging the question” fallacy. The only evidence for this assertion is . . . the assertion itself. Actual data shows nothing of the sort is happening.
‘have a positive impact on people’s awareness of the benefits to the environment’
Polls produce whatever output the commissioner desires. As ivan says, we need the actual questions, and interview text. “Would you consider an EV in the next 5 years, or would you rather this puppy gets shot?”
Well it obvious really …
People of course want to be stuck at the only charging station in the county, waiting for hours in a line of vehicles, then upon getting to the charging station expose yourself to possible infection while wrestling with the electrical connector and the dispensing unit. And once all that’s done there’s what to do while hanging around with all the other battery bunglers, trying to stay safe while waiting all that time for the darn batteries to charge.
Or you could keep your easily repairable ICE vehicle and on those occasions when you need to fill up feel mildly reassured that it’s quickly done.
EV’s are not a bad idea in crowded metros like London, NYC, etc. as far as reducing actual real pollution from the air we breathe. However, and it’s a BIG however, All they do is transport the pollution elsewhere, which may pay off vs the opportunity costs.
Then…. there’s the real pollution costs of the batteries. Fix that and I’m in.
How much of the pollution in crowded metros is due to IC vehicles? For a start how about tyre wear, brake pad dust? And how many people are using wood fires to get around expensive electricity?
As for replacing diesel vehicles I wonder how you could switch buses and delivery vehicles to electric? Even if you could, where will the electricity come from? And how will it get to those vehicles so they can maintain schedules etc.?
@Stuart:
“thousands of pounds worth of new batteries.”
That’s the point. You haul thousands of pounds of battery chemicals around with you, chemicals soon to be in short, expensive supply. In addition to the inconvenience of lengthy recharge times.
@pochas94
Perhaps the aluminium “battery”? Actually not a battery in that it can’t be recharged in situ. The (light) aluminium metal reacts generating electricity. The amount of energy per kilo is at least 5 times that of the best lithium battery, then the whole case can be removed and replaced.
The exhausted aluminium contents can be reworked back to the metal in industrial factories.
As far as I know no-one is interested in higher power weight ratio, longer range and quicker replacement of energy. Must be some drawbacks in the idea.
I’m told you can drive your brand new Ford Focus for seven years before your cost reaches the capital cost of a Nissan Leaf assuming electricity is free.
IONITY European hi-end charging network is charging (!) 0.69 euros per KWh. £60 quid for 160 miles? How is the second hand market? Ten grand down in a year?
I always buy newish second hand diesel saloons, assured that I won’t have to renew a large battery. (For Leaf $5,999 today)
The weight of batteries is perhaps the main reason they’re talking up hydrogen. Not sure how cost of production compares with batteries, but hydrogen is certainly lightweight.
05March2020
World-first hydrogen double deckers to be in Aberdeen within weeks
The new £8.3million project has been funded by Aberdeen City Council, the Scottish Government, and the European Union (FCH JU), with an investment of about £500,000 per vehicle.
The buses are as efficient as electric equivalents, with refuelling taking less than 10 minutes and offering a greater range.
https://news.aberdeencity.gov.uk/world-first-hydrogen-double-deckers-to-be-in-aberdeen-within-weeks/
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The original experimental single deckers broke down a lot, according to a driver interviewed on TV.
£500,000 per vehicle – wow, how many bus fares is that?
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London Routemaster diesel-electric double deckers cost £355,000 each upto 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Routemaster
Clown world. This shutdown has proved that IC vehicles cause very little pollution, as some of us have pointed out for some time….
Himalayas seen for first time in decades from 125 miles away after pollution drop
People in northern India are posting pictures of the mountain range after the peaks came back into view
Wednesday 8 April 2020
The Himalayas can be seen from parts of India for the first time in 30 years after pollution dropped due to the coronavirus lockdown.
In areas of the state of Punjab in northern India, residents posted pictures of the mountain range from around 125 miles away after the peaks came back into view when the air cleared.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/himalayas-mountain-range-asia-india-pollution-coronavirus-lockdown-a9456446.html
Gamecock says:
April 15, 2020 at 10:29 pm
@oldbrew
How much of the drop in pollution is due to EV vehicles?
Has there been any change in the weather?
More a case of fewer moving vehicles than EVs.
There’s a better way….. Hydrogen
There’s a better way….. Hydrogen
Until some of it escapes and meets a spark … BOOM.
Just like natural gas in your basement.
I’m enthusiastic about hydrogen, but I recognize that it is some distance in the future. There is considerable research to be done before a major commitment. Platinum is expensive, and much effort is directed toward reducing or eliminating it. There are other problems like fuel cell membrane hydration and corrosion of flow plates. Major companies are reluctant to go ahead until these technologies are mature.
“There’s a better way….. Hydrogen”
I’ve read that 76% of Hydrogen is made from natural gas reforming gasification
4% from electrolysis & rest from coal
So were’s the saving in the fossil fuel argument ???????
Nuclear powered vehicles appear to be the only way to go fossil fuel free
Flux capacitor being an optional extra !
Hydrogen!!? Reminds me of a time – many years ago – when I became interested in hydrogen as a fuel. Ever so keen I started by consulting a text book on its manufacture. In the opening paragraphs on the subject there was a caveat – “those who dabbled in hydrogen never lived to tell”. So my interest there ended with a pop; better than a boom. (of course I had from my chemistry lessons generated hydrogen in a tin with a pinhole and lit it to see the tin ‘pop’).
Aberdeen started hydrogen bus services in 2015. No explosions yet, or at least none that hit the headlines.
There was also a battery powered train up there in the late 1950s for a few years. It was very heavy and somewhat fire-prone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_BEMU
pochas94 says: April 16, 2020 at 3:25 pm
I well remember when I worked for Fords they were talking about Hydrogen fuel cell cars being 3 years away.
That was in the 1990s.
They also made the mistake of buying a small electric car company from Europe that was a total failure.
The European car Fords bought was the Norwegian Think City car in 1999.
They couldn’t even lease more than 1000 and dropped it in 2002.
Why ‘because of the coronavirus. No one would have noticed a drop in ‘pollution’ except where they live on a main road and in town.
Calcium carbide and water !! Used light lamps in my youth. :))
According to this there are 1.4 million natural gas powered vehicles in Europe, emitting 5% (*really? not sure about that) of the CO2, and fuelling at nearly 4000 fuelling stations. We don’t use CNG in the UK at all, except for a few trucks and busses, but natural gas is available nearly everywhere.
https://www.ngvglobal.com/blog/ngva-europe-publishes-2019-natural-gas-vehicle-catalogue-0909
Against that there are 300 thousand BEVs and PHEVs in Europe according to this:
https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/proportion-of-vehicle-fleet-meeting-4/assessment-4
If we seriously wanted to reduce CO2 emissions as fast as possible we should be being pushed toward CNG and LNG powered cars for which there is infrastructure in place already, and few(er) disadvantages than electric or H2.
I don’t know why we are not.
*too lazy to work out the heat output from the H and C bits of methane vs diesel vs the weight of the tanks needed to hold the fuel etc etc. 5% sounds wrong for CO2, but burning CH4 apparently produces far less NO2.
Calcium carbide and water makes acetylene which burns with a bright flame. Did some caving myself.
The headline to this story suggests that private buyers are taking a different view from fleet buyers, according to a survey mentioned at the GWPF:
http://www.thegwpf.com/global-ev-sales-expected-to-fall-43-in-2020/
COVID-19 Could Help Solve Climate Riddles
Date: 18/04/20 Scientific American
Pollution declines from pandemic shutdowns may aid in answering long-standing questions about how aerosols influence climate
https://www.thegwpf.com/covid-19-could-help-solve-climate-riddles/