The Car Hub

The Best Way To Lose Money, Buy An Electric Car.
Let’s begin at the beginning, since the search began for a cleaner mode of motoring gained speed a few years ago literally billions of dollars/pounds sterling has been invested in searching for the solution.
Nissan, Honda, the Institute for Engineering and Technology plus the car price’s bible Glasses Guide  can’t all be wrong by having negative forecasts over the question of the residual value of 2nd hand battery cell electric cars.
For the moment put aside the absolute folly of removing fertile land away from the food production chain to grow maize etc. and to enable the refinement into ethanol fuel which has resulted in a shortage of food and an increase in food prices, what is the result of this folly now, all those newly built refineries for ethanol are now either closed down completely or running at a very low production level and with billions wasted in the process.
The situation has been repeated with the battery cell electric car.
One of the vital constituents to produce the new lithium-ion batteries is already known to have a very limited availability, some say only 2 years are available, meanwhile companies are continuing to blindly pour unlimited funds into a bottomless pit again hoping to discover the holy grail of battery technology i.e. long battery life and rapid charging periods.
Both Nissan and Honda have forecast in the last month that it will take a further 10 – 20 years before there will be more than 10% of cars on the road being battery powered;  which begs the question, which companies in the UK will be willing to invest in advance in providing the nationwide support infrastructure required for rapid recharging?
Should it be the situation that battery cell cars do succeed in being produced  in large numbers the follow up question is, will the UK National Grid be able to withstand the surge in demand with all the overnight recharging?
The motor trade’s bible of car prices, Glasses Guide, which is highly respected have also provided a killer forecast into the future of battery cell electric cars. They quote the case of a Nissan Leaf electric car, if purchased for today’s quoted price of £30,000 then over 5 years it would suffer 90% (yes, ninety percent) depreciation resulting in a residual value of only £3,000, having lost a massive £27,000 in only 5 years.
In addition to the quote above, would need to be added the cost of replacing the existing battery cell pack which makers at present only guarantee for 5 years, this cost is estimated to be somewhere between that of a normal engine replacement and as high as £8,000.
Lastly, the Institute for Engineering and Technology is now of the firm opinion that hydrogen will provide the clean fuel of the future as, they quote, “it is the most abundant element on our planet”. With hydrogen having a high energy-density by weight a fuel cell is estimated to be 2-3 times more efficient than an internal combustion engine.
It is acknowledged there are still some outstanding technology difficulties to be overcome with hydrogen power but industry analysts forecast that fuel cell vehicles (FCV’s) will be available, probably in 2014, in most regions of the world with Europe leading the way.
The first motorway in the UK designated to have hydrogen refuelling points will be the M4. As hydrogen cars become more available and the cost of fossil fuel soars the expected advances in hydrogen technology will make such cars much more affordable.
Bring it on.
Bill Williams