Before you buy an electric vehicle.....

[Pacemaker]

Depends on the type of van, plenty of electric HGV’s doing the rounds in Europe as well as vans.

My mate works for Mitie as a sparky and drives all over S Wales in his electric van, they pay him to charge at home and he says he manages ok, calls into the services and uses the super fast chargers whilst he has his McDonalds if necessary.

I think a lot of vans are not designed for EV from scratch but are converted having initially designed for diesel engines.

Once they start designing vans as electric from scratch i am sure they will improve. A lot of people do get stressed about range early doors but once you are used to it and know your real life range then its very convenient to plug in when you are doing something else.

 

[Pacemaker]

Most batteries in EV’s these days are not using Nickel but Iron Phosphate LFP, Nickel was very much an early development of EV batteries. There may well be issues with Chinese exploitation of labour but you can travel around the world and see the exactly the same exploitation of countries for fossil fuels by many multi nationals, and what about the harm that diesel has done to cities for decades?

We only have to look at the exploitation of Miners in the S Wales valleys for coal to see that capitalism will always exploit the vulnerable.

I don’t know the full facts on many of these issues but the Fossil Fuel lobby are putting out plenty of misinformation.

Once any ore is mined and used in batteries it can be used over and over again and even if an EV battery becomes less effective as a vehicle battery they are then often used as home storage batteries etc.

Once you burn fossil fuel that’s it its gone. We have very little left and we should be looking to conserve it for those who really need it.

Everyone is happy to use Nickel in their phone or other device to use on this forum though.

 

[Smurph]

I'm seriously thinking of biting the EV bullet in the autumn. I love my Skoda Octavia VRS turbo diesel to bits, it's the best car I've ever had and it'll break my heart to part with it, but it's coming up to seven years old from new and although it would probably go on for another four or five years without problems, I feel it's time for a change.
Got my eye on the new Skoda Elroq, the top of the range one with the biggest battery, which gives a quoted range of 540km. I know these figures are exaggerated, but 450km would be more than enough for me.
I'm thinking of installing solar panels and a home charging point in the summer, so my fuel charges would be next to nothing, and these installations have come down massively in price in Spain. I can get the whole kit and caboodle installed for around 6000€. Too good to ignore, and doing my bit for the planet .

Honestly, I'd be surprised if you regretted it.

Best thing I've done car wise is making the change.

The extras that come with the cars that Pacey mentioned in one of his posts aren't to be sniffed at either.

 

[Smurph]

If I might say to all the contributors to this thread, unless you have watched the video in the OP, you're kind of missing the point. The damage being caused to the environment in Indonesia and the flagrant disregard for health and safety on the part of the Chinese owners of these nickel plants is deeply disturbing.

If it's on Youtube it must be true

 

[Smurph]

Proper posh you are Pacy.
Different with a van loaded up with materials and other equipment, one of the lads from Merthyr called at a job l was on in Ystalyfera and had charged his van overnight and hadn’t been far, but left me to go and charge his van in Asda.
He’d been to port talbot before coming to me

Plenty of ways for managing the battery correctly. It's practically impossible to run out of battery if things are planned correctly.

 

[legoman]

If it's on Youtube it must be true

The original broadcast was from a respected investigative journalist from an Australian TV channel

 

[Smurph]

The original broadcast was from a respected investigative journalist from an Australian TV channel

Cool.