As Peter has laid out quite clearly, most people do not want to be trapped by lack of utility in their vehicle. I think they will only be interested in it if they are already trapped by other factors.
The average length of a journey is not the factor that motivates almost anybody’s choice of vehicles and I think it is stubborn to imagine that it would ever be. My commute is 8 miles one way, about 10 minutes to drive, but I plan purchases around trips taken every few weeks or months, not my daily commute. When I take a trip, just like everybody else living in a place big enough, it involves long days driving.
Another obvious example of similar and very normal consumer behavior is that most cars sold anywhere have four seats, three of which aren’t occupied most of the time.
Silvaire wrote:
but I plan purchases around trips taken every every few months, not my daily commute.
As does pretty much everyone who isn’t ready (yet) to adapt their lifestyle for climate change reasons. That is only likely to ever change for the majority if the price of cars for the daily commute were to come down to the level of an appliance hence justifying a 2nd car just for that, and even then there are other hindrances: parking space, power supply at home and work. It will be a decade in Europe before every or even the majority of private or public parking spots have power.
I have three cars already to cover my needs, won’t be buying a dedicated commuter car. Storage space, insurance and registration costs are also factors.
The average length of a journey is not the factor that drives almost anybody’s choice of vehicles
Perhaps not, but maybe it should be – particularly for households with more than one vehicle.
The two questions would be 1) is it possible to travel long distances with an electric vehicle? and 2) does it bother me to have to stop to charge it occasionally if I do?
If you can charge at home and only make occasional long trips a year, like many people, then you might find that it’s worth considering whether the occasional hassle of stopping a few times on the longer trips to avoid the regular hassle of visiting a fuel station regularly. Provided you are actually able to do so.
If you actually average 1100 km whenever you get your camper van out of the garage then clearly the electric vehicle is going to be at a disadvantage.
Since we’re moving to France, we will have to get two new-to-us cars. For car 1, we’re looking at a Toyota Rav4. That is available as a hybrid, or a plug-in hybrid. Seems obvious to go for the plug-in version. But wait, it costs about €13,000 more. A quick bit of math shows we would have to drive it over 200,000 km to get that back, and that’s ignoring NPV. For get it. It’s just a because-we-can rip-off.
Car 2 will be a 2-3 year old Golf or similar. While an e-Golf would be fine for the mission, once again the extra cost rules it out.
Except maybe in Norway, an electric car remains a form of virtue signalling, unless you drive really huge distances. Watching the technology that will probably change some time in the next five years, but not yet.
chflyer wrote:
As does pretty much everyone who isn’t ready (yet) to adapt their lifestyle for climate change reasons. That is only likely to ever change for the majority if the price of cars for the daily commute were to come down to the level of an appliance hence justifying a 2nd car just for that, and even then there are other hindrances: parking space, power supply at home and work. It will be a decade in Europe before every or even the majority of private or public parking spots have power.
That isn’t the point. I don’t want a second (modern) car, even if it becomes very cheap and practical.
I want one car to fulfill all my needs, and I have it – a 2009 Honda CR-V diesel. It’s very reliable and economical, rugged yet civilised, carries anything I am likely to need it to carry, has off-road capability and is good for long journeys or short ones.
If you took it off me and gave me a Tesla Model S, then after the novelty had worn off I’d ask for the Honda back – because the only things the Tesla actually does better are things I don’t care about.
I don’t think climate change arguments hold much water. If climate change is really your concern when it comes to personal transportation and commuting then either use public transport or work from home.
The only EV that will get my attention is one that does everything my CR-V does and is available on the used market for less than £10k. Personally I think we’re quite a long way from that.
Here’s a typical trip for me: a friend calls on Thursday night who is (it says here) 855 miles or 1400 km away. He suggests we drive there for something happening that weekend. We leave on Friday after work in my everyday ‘driver’ and stop wherever we feel tired, after probably 250-300 miles. Then on Saturday morning we get up at 6 AM and are there by early afternoon to start festivities or whatever. We then hang out until Monday afternoon and do the same thing in reverse, getting home Tuesday night. I take two days off work. The entire thing from suggestion to completion is five days and involves no prior planning whatsoever.
The same friend does the same thing in reverse BTW, to visit his preferred dentist, 855 miles from his current home 
I would consider an electric car when it can do 14 hrs at motorway speeds without a time consuming recharge. That’s the basic entry requirement for consideration and is about 1000 miles. Then there needs to be enough recharge locations where I can stop anywhere I want overnight and expect to recharge without prior planning. And it needs to be no more expensive than other options that do the same thing.
Fun to see how varied the priorities and circumstances of the forumites are.
My wife and me have gone electric since 2014. I know one should never say never, but in this case I will: we’ll never go back to anything else than electric mobility. Even my bicycle has a battery.
Admittedly, it’s an easy choice in our case where you would never drive more than 200 km a day.
As to cost, don’t forget the savings on maintenance. From oil to brake pads and anything in between.
And don’t forget the comfort. We still marvel at the quietness and the comfort of one-pedal driving. The only snag of the quietness is that sometimes you find yourself behind a pedestrian or a bike on a narrow road. Sounding the horn scares people, so the only remedy is to open the window and say ‘“good morning!” I’ve suggested BMW to include a nice sounding, low volume horn apart from the regular one. But they told me that the new regulations call for a constant sound at low speeds. Hope it’s not too intrusive inside..
Oh, and there’s the green aspect too of course. We’ve put up quite some solar power to not only charge the cars but the house as well. While there are still instances where we need the grid, last year we had a surplus of 1.6 MWh (so feed-in minus grid usage), and that’s while driving about 30k km.
But crikey, what am I saying here at this forum of “low”-lead spewing maniacs who clearly see green talk as an inconvenient truth
Silvaire wrote:
Here’s a typical trip for me: a friend calls on Thursday night who is (it says here) 855 miles or 1400 km away. He suggests we drive there for something happening that weekend.
You need another plane ;-)
I had two planes until 2019, one too many for me to maintain in combination with three cars and I think nine motorcycles at last count.
I’m not really attracted to IFR flying, neither the training/currency, the formality/radio communication nor many of the planes that are suitable. So trips done on any kind of tight schedule are on the ground for me. Maybe that will change when I get my SF 260 
