Would you ever consider getting an electric car?

Hybrids do seem to be the way to go at present, although both the batteries and the infrastructure seem to be getting better all the time.

I worry about electric vehicles for their quietness - several times in London I've nearly done myself in stepping in front of Uber's ubiquitous Priuses. I would hate to injure someone driving one because they simply hadn't heard it coming.

Would you ever consider getting one today, and why?

Electric cars are certainly becoming more viable, the cost of "fueling" is certainly a bonus, with it being something like £5 to fully charge.

I'd buy a new one, but there's no second hand market for them unfortunately due to the longevity of the battery and then cost of replacing.

Tesla have an 8 year warranty on the battery and iirc expect about 30% efficiency drop in that time with most of the drop in the later years.

So a 2 or 3 year old Tesla could be ok, but might be hard to sell on afterwards. That said any 7 or 8 year old executive-class car is pretty much worthless whether conventional or electric.

Posted from TSR Mobile

hard to sell on afterwards.

See:

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/motors/2018/02/20/rising-demand-sees-electric-cars-go-up-in-value-at-one-year-old/

It was in The Times also but behind a paywall.

Interesting!

Define: "Ever"! I'm an electrical engineer [MSEE]. The current state of battery technology [and the state of it for the last 40 years or so], is such that it is not possible to store nearly an equivalent amount of energy in the vehicle with batteries, as is stored with liquid fuel. In addition, generating all that energy at a commercial power plant produces nearly the same amount of 'pollution' as is generated by a fossil fuel burning vehicle. You have to add to that the 'transmission losses' in transferring the energy from the commercial power plant to the consumer's home, and also add the 'storage losses' caused by the fact that all of the energy 'charged' into the battery pack is not recoverable [you put it in, but can't get it back out]. The transmission losses for commercial power are about 50%. A commercial power plant operates at about 85% to 90% efficiency. Storage losses for lithium ion batteries, is about 20% to 25% the last i heard. See:
https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/battery-charging-and-discharging-losses When you add this to the 50% loss due to transmission, and the 90% efficiency of the initial power plant, you quickly 'fall behind the power curve' as engineers would say. You also have the additional problem that, in many areas [in the US and elsewhere i would suspect], the 'power grid' can barely keep up with summertime demands due to air conditioning.

Consider a daily commute where the commuter burns about 15 gallons a week. This is 3 gal/day. 1 US gallon contains 115,000 BTU/gal, which is equivalent to 33.703 KWh. If we require a 4 hr charge [not unreasonable], simple math(s) reveals that - for a 220 volt charge circuit [available in US homes], The equiv of the energy used [for 3 gal] is 101.109 KWh. This would require a draw of 114.89 amps on a 220v charge circuit. The magnitude of this is shown by the fact that most single family "modern" houses here have "200 amp" service - that is 200 amps at 220v. It is also shown by the fact that my home [3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, with a 1 car garage, draws about 1.2 kW steady state total power consumption - with electric heat - when the outside temperature is 40 deg F, and the inside is 55 deg F. You are talking about roughly a 20:1 increase in average power draw for each house. The power grid cannot accept this load. Nor do we have the generating capacity to support it.

One way to circumvent this problem, would be to go to on board nuclear piles to generate power - something like a 'high powered' "SNAP". I fear that these are a number of years off, however. You also have the problem that saying the word "nuclear" within earshot of a 'greenie' would start an immediate riot. Cheers.

You make some good points, but I think your charging calculations are a little flawed in assuming that they would need to provide as much energy as petrol. For a start, an ICE only has an efficiency of 20-40%, which is far worse than a motor/battery combination. Additionally, most commuting is in traffic, where electric cars offer additional efficiencies over ICE. Also transmission losses of 50% seems very high - it's not an area I claim any expertise in, but I would be very surprised if they were really that high. There is, of course, also some benefit in moving the burning of fuels to extra-urban power stations rather than in cars from an air pollution point of view.

You also have the additional problem that, in many areas [in the US and elsewhere i would suspect], the 'power grid' can barely keep up with summertime demands due to air conditioning..

You make some good points, but I think your charging calculations are a little flawed in assuming that they would need to provide as much energy as petrol. For a start, an ICE only has an efficiency of 20-40%, which is far worse than a motor/battery combination. Additionally, most commuting is in traffic, where electric cars offer additional efficiencies over ICE. Also transmission losses of 50% seems very high - it's not an area I claim any expertise in, but I would be very surprised if they were really that high. There is, of course, also some benefit in moving the burning of fuels to extra-urban power stations rather than in cars from an air pollution point of view.