We are 100% sure that the battery electric vehicle (EV) is the future of personal motoring. It is a simply matter of maths and science. No other form of motorised transport even comes close in terms of energy efficiency and limiting environmental damage.
An ICE only about 35% efficient at converting fuel to motion, whether you burn petrol, diesel, hydrogen or e-fuels. The ICE is only about 10% efficient when considering the "well to wheel". Production uses a lot of energy just to extract and refine crude oil into usable fuels, and the process and use of the derived fuels is an environmental disaster.
EVs currently have a bigger 'production cost' on the environment than ICE cars but, much is common between them. EVs are without doubt much better for the environment when you look at the whole life cycle from manufacture, to usage, to recycling. The more renewable electricity used to power an EV, the greater this gap becomes.
This is one of the better videos we have seen that explains the reality of using internal combustion engines:
Without a doubt, EVs are cheaper to run than petrol cars. Our CUPRA Born has now done 22,000 miles and cost us just £900 in electricity to charge it. We do mostly charge at home and if we had used our solar energy (we get paid more to export it), this figure would be closer to £300.
A huge piece of mis-information on the Internet is that EVs are 'always catching on fire'. The reality from a study undertaken by a US insurer was that "EVs suffer 25 fires per 100,000 sold. Petrol or diesel vehicles were found to experience 1,530 fires per 100,000, with hybrid vehicles at a notably higher risk of 3,475 fires per 100,000."
It is very true that Lithium-Ion battery fires are extremely difficult to put out, once started. This is just one reason why we like the migration away from Lithium-based batteries.
It amazes us that some people claim EVs are old technology that has been around for more than a hundred years and failed to gain traction, so it will fail again. Electric vehicles have been around for more than 100 years but, the advances in the last 10 years have been huge and the technology is now progressing at an even faster pace.
The latest electric motors are incredibly efficient, powerful, compact and light-weight. Good examples of how far they have improved are the latest Tesla motors and the Koenigsegg Dark Matter motor, the latter producing 800hp, 922lb-ft of torque and weighing 39kg/86lbs.
Battery technology has progressed even faster, with huge improvements in storage density, safety, charging rates, discharge rates, wider operating temperatures, etc. The biggest change has been in cost though, with battery manufacturing costs falling over 50% between 2023 and 2024. There are also many more battery technologies coming on to the market, with many no longer needing rare earth materials, such as Lithium and Cobalt.
We are not big fans of fake engine noise but in an EV you can always switch it off. This YouTube video is a good example of it working well.
Compared to combustion-engined cars, electric cars have fewer moving parts. Regenerative braking means less frequent replacement of pads and discs/rotors and servicing requirements are greatly reduced.
Electrofuels (also known as e-fuels) are synthetic fuels used to replace petrol in an ICE, without requiring significant modifications to the engine. They are manufactured using captured carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, together with hydrogen obtained from water split by sustainable electricity sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power.
Hydrogen is a non starter for mass use. There just isn't a scalable source of clean 'green hydrogen' available and producing hydrogen from electricity is only about 70% efficient. You are much better off using electricity to charge an EV.
There is no distribution network for hydrogen in place and no real plans to put it place either. Storing hydrogen is challenging and it is also explosive.
The ICE is about 30% efficient, so you would never run an internal combustion engine on hydrogen. A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is essentially just a more complex BEV with a small battery, so it comes with increased complexity and cost. A hydrogen fuel cell is about 60% efficient, so it is not very efficient when compared to a pure BEV.
A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle makes more sense when you need longer range and have a centralised transport network. So it could work well for things like buses or lorries used for distribution between distribution hubs.
Is see loads of comments by people on the forums saying they won't buy an EV until they can do 500 miles on a single charge. Well some of them can but, this is missing the point. Our petrol cars only do 300 or 400 miles at best and it has never been an issue. As storage density improives through innovations, range will improve dramatically. Some battery and car manufacturers are already claiming 1000km range is possible.
Rob's Fisher Fury R1 only did 130 miles on a full tank of fuel. In 15+ years of driving it, the range was never an issue. This is why we know the MX-5e will be fine with just 120 miles of range.
There is rightly a lot of concern over the way Lithium and Cobalt are mining and processed into usable materials for many of the things we use in modern life, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, computer chips and EVs. There is a lot of hypocrisy though from the anti-EV factions, who conveniently forget that rare earth materials are used in many of their devices.
In comparison with the impact of oil-based products on our planet, EV battery production is almost insignificant though. Over 100 years of oil has been devastating to many whole communities and numerous environments on the planet.
EV battery technology is evolving away from Lithium and the use of Cobalt fortunately, with many cheaper and better alternatives being researched and developed for the near future. There is also a huge amount of innovation underway to recycle Lithium from old batteries as this much cheaper and better for the planet than mining it.
Electricity is a commodity item and it is cheap and easy to transport. It is found pretty much everywhere and the increasing majority of it is generated using sustainable and renewable technologies. You can also generate electricity at home using wind turbines or solar panels. Our own home generated 7.45MWh in 2023.
It is without a doubt much harder to run an EV using public charging only. Not only do you have to visit a public charger but, you also have to wait whilst the EV charges and usually pay a lot more for the privilege. Many people also do not have a drive or the ability to install a home charger. When you do find public chargers on your travels, they can be busy or sometimes they are not working.
Fortunately, the number of chargers is increasing rapidly as the demand for them increases. The costs are still higher but, it is still typically much cheaper than running a car on petrol or diesel. Just like there silly expensive petrol stations, there are also silly expensive charging stations too. With both, it pays to learn where the best/cheapest ones are and sign up to some kind of service or loyalty scheme.
One common argument against EVs is that we don't have enough electricity generation capacity now, so how are we going to charge all these new EVs? The National Grid have written an article on this and it states: "Even if we all switched to EVs overnight, we estimate demand would only increase by around 10%. So wed still be using less power as a nation than we did in 2002 and this is well within the range the grid can capably handle.".
The additional electrical energy required if the UK migrated to all EV transport would be distributed throughout the day and actually only add about 10% to the peak loads we currently experience. There are already times when the UK power network is running on 100% renewable power sources and the plan is to extend renewable energy generation both in the network and through micro-generation at home (wind turbines and solar panels).
It is amazing how often I read that the electricity powering all these EVs comes from oil powered power stations. This is typical of the mis-information found on the Internet. Fossil fuels made up just 33% of UK electricity supplies in 2023, their lowest ever share. Gas accounted for 31%, coal just over 1% and oil just below 1%. You can read more on this.
Producing hydrogen from electricity is only about 70% efficient. Producing e-fuels is terribly inefficient. Its simple maths. Battery electric vehicles are incredibly efficient and advances in technology are only making them greener and cheaper, also removing the need for rare earth materials. The BEV is the only viable future for mass transportation.
Batteries have been used in electric vehicles for more than 100 years but, in recent years the technology has advanced at an amazing pace. There have been huge advances in energy storage density, power delivery, charging rates, etc. Lithium Ion batteries are currently dominant but, other technologies are catching up and many do not use rare earth materials.
"Big Oil" has been lobbying for the oil industry and against alternative technologies for decades, at a huge cost to the consumer and the environment. As the number of EVs increase, their revenue stream decreases but, let us not forget that crude oil is used for many other things than just production of petrol and diesel fuels.
Because EV adoption breaks the links between consumers and petrol stations, without the need to visit one to refuel and pay opaque prices and taxes, the oil companies are pushing things like hydrogen. These maintain their role in the supply chain and hence their profits. It is the only way they can stay relevant.
Some people say that their government can't force them to buy an EV and that it's up to the customer to choose. They are wrong.
The medium-term plan of pretty much every government in the world is currently forcing you towards buying an EV, via a combination of vehicle purchase taxes, vehicle road taxes, fuel taxes, pollution charges, ultra-low emissions zones, etc. It is working too and will only accelerate as EV adoption rates increase. And then there are the numerous incentives and the fact that an EV will very soon be cheaper to buy over its ICE powered equivalent.
Europe has countries like Norway where 82% of new car sales are EVs.