BEVs

[Nearholmer]

Yes, all makes sense to me.

But, this started with a discussion that was broadly a “rural vs not” comparison, and a throwaway comment about northern urban areas.

It wasn’t an attempt to forecast likely take-up rates in fine detail across the country. If we wanted do that borough-by-borough, even ward-by-ward, across the country, I guess it wouldn’t be too hard using maps of relative deprivation index as a starter, which I think would support my throwaway about northern urban areas …… they form a big geographic area of high relative deprivation.

Flip it the other way, imagine you are an EV sales company, and you have the capital to build ten new showrooms. Where will you definitely put them, and where definitely not?

[pete75]

Y
Flip it the other way, imagine you are an EV sales company, and you have the capital to build ten new showrooms. Where will you definitely put them, and where definitely not?

Boston for a start. The town has a population of not much over 40,000 yet has Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz and Range Rover dealerships. Obviously plenty of car buying money there. Wonder if there are many other similarly sized town which manage to support so many prestige car dealerships. On the other hand it might be a bad place to start because the companies mentioned are producing electric cars themselves and of very high quality.
The town also has a full complement of dealers selling lesser vehicles Peugeot, Vauxhall, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, VW etc all of whom cater for the cheaper end of the EV market.

[Nearholmer]

Does it serve a very large hinterland?

While we’re trying to work out where to set-up business, one question must be about “untapped potential”, places where although take-up has been modest so far, it could increase suddenly.

Anyway, I’ve got no eye for marketing, so best leave it to others!

[pete75]

Does it serve a very large hinterland?

While we’re trying to work out where to set-up business, one question must be about “untapped potential”, places where although take-up has been modest so far, it could increase suddenly.

Anyway, I’ve got no eye for marketing, so best leave it to others!

The next nearest place with those dealerships is Lincoln, about 33 miles away. It's in a sparsely populated area by the standards of most of England. Cheap area to live for house prices etc. Someone on a middling sort of income, say £60,000, can live well whereas in London they'd be just about managing. In London a Ford Focus in Boston a Landrover Discovery.

[Biospace]

I should imagine that rural areas will naturally see among the slowest take up of BEV for multiple reasons:

- average trip distances are probably longer than in more densely populated areas;

- more genuine element of needing a car in “hot standby” mode for emergencies;

- in some counties, a markedly older than average demographic, with a proportion unlikely to buy another car after the one they have now;

- some rural areas have quite low average incomes;

- etc.

I’d guess that some north of England urban areas will also see slow take-up, simply because of low average incomes.

Increasingly, the rural North has many people with high disposable incomes - often retired people, plenty have BEVs. Many are keen to make a statement as well as save money - an EV is seen by some as a lifestyle accoutrement. In my experience, younger people tend to have the attitude that's it's more tax giveaways for the already wealthy, unless they themselves have plenty of spare money.

Although the £thousands offered to buyers of new EVs has now vanished, there is still zero 'road tax' and the fuel is barely taxed, compared with 60%-70% on petrol and diesel. The losses incurred by burning fossil fuels to turn into electricity are included in the price of electricity, whereas these losses are absorbed by petrol and diesel car drivers once they've bought the fuel.

I'm not quite sure why it's assumed that poor Northerners will be slower to use BEVs than poor Southerners - unless there's an assumption of more of a natural cynicism and distrust of Westminster in the North.

[Nearholmer]

No such assumption. Poor is poor wherever you are.

I made that throwaway point simply because northern urban areas represent geographically the largest area of high deprivation, and I think (but would need to check) the largest number of people living in high deprivation.

[pete75]

No such assumption. Poor is poor wherever you are.

I made that throwaway point simply because northern urban areas represent geographically the largest area of high deprivation, and I think (but would need to check) the largest number of people living in high deprivation.

Here are some figures. BHC=Before Housing Costs AHC = After Housing Costs . London has the largest number and highest percentage of folk on low incomes after housing costs.

[softlips]

Does it serve a very large hinterland?

While we’re trying to work out where to set-up business, one question must be about “untapped potential”, places where although take-up has been modest so far, it could increase suddenly.

Anyway, I’ve got no eye for marketing, so best leave it to others!

The next nearest place with those dealerships is Lincoln, about 33 miles away. It's in a sparsely populated area by the standards of most of England. Cheap area to live for house prices etc. Someone on a middling sort of income, say £60,000, can live well whereas in London they'd be just about managing. In London a Ford Focus in Boston a Landrover Discovery.

£60K middling income? Under 10% of people earn £60K or more.

[Nearholmer]

To be mega-picky, thereby detracting from a well-made point, the 90th percentile salary is now a bit above £60k, somewhere around £62.5k.

[al_yrpal]

Would £60k be the middling income of a working couple?

Al

[Nearholmer]

I think you might say that it is, in that the median individual salary a year ago was c£33k.

But “income” is often used to mean “disposable income”, i.e. salary net of direct taxes, so you might not.

[pete75]

Does it serve a very large hinterland?

While we’re trying to work out where to set-up business, one question must be about “untapped potential”, places where although take-up has been modest so far, it could increase suddenly.

Anyway, I’ve got no eye for marketing, so best leave it to others!

The next nearest place with those dealerships is Lincoln, about 33 miles away. It's in a sparsely populated area by the standards of most of England. Cheap area to live for house prices etc. Someone on a middling sort of income, say £60,000, can live well whereas in London they'd be just about managing. In London a Ford Focus in Boston a Landrover Discovery.

£60K middling income? Under 10% of people earn £60K or more.

Given the range of incomes in the UK it is a middling sort of income. Neither particularly high nor particularly low.

[softlips]

The car market in the UK is largely driven by company cars. Company drivers always choose the most tax efficient vehicles which then feed down into the second hand market. Almost all companies now only allow all electric or (increasingly less so) hybrids. This is partly for the tax reasons on the individual (BIK tax is much lower for electric vehicles) and partly as on tender documents companies have to now show how green they are. Even without the sales of ICE vehicles being banned, the reasons above would kill them anyway.

[al_yrpal]

Multi-storey car parks across the country could be at risk of collapse as heavier electric vehicles put pressure on ageing infrastructure, experts have warned.

Car parking experts and engineers have told The Telegraph that the growth of EV use in the UK could put pressure on car park floors, with unloved structures most susceptible to buckling.

So worried are some about the ability of car parks to hold new vehicles that new guidance is being developed that will raise the weight levels for what car park floors should be able to hold.

Chris Whapples, a structural engineer and car park consultant and the author of the new guidance, told The Telegraph: “I don’t want to be too alarmist, but there definitely is the potential for some of the early car parks in poor condition to collapse.”

“Operators need to be aware of electric vehicle weights, and get their car parks assessed from a strength point of view, and decide if they need to limit weight.”

New electric vehicles are much heavier than the average petrol or diesel car. EV batteries account for much of this, usually weighing around 500kg.

Source ... Torygraph

Al

[pete75]

Multi-storey car parks across the country could be at risk of collapse as heavier electric vehicles put pressure on ageing infrastructure, experts have warned.

Car parking experts and engineers have told The Telegraph that the growth of EV use in the UK could put pressure on car park floors, with unloved structures most susceptible to buckling.

So worried are some about the ability of car parks to hold new vehicles that new guidance is being developed that will raise the weight levels for what car park floors should be able to hold.

Chris Whapples, a structural engineer and car park consultant and the author of the new guidance, told The Telegraph: “I don’t want to be too alarmist, but there definitely is the potential for some of the early car parks in poor condition to collapse.”

“Operators need to be aware of electric vehicle weights, and get their car parks assessed from a strength point of view, and decide if they need to limit weight.”

New electric vehicles are much heavier than the average petrol or diesel car. EV batteries account for much of this, usually weighing around 500kg.

Source ... Torygraph

Al

For some reason the Telegraph has an anti-EV agenda. Strange how they don't mention the 2 1/2 ton Range Rover Vogues, S-class Mercs, Rollers and Bentleys driven by their plutocratic readers will cause exactly teh same problems.