Monthly Archives: July 2022

Best electric SUVs 2022

July 29, 2022Electric Cars, I-PACE, Jaguar Land Rover, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

Thanks to big advancements in battery and charging technology, the best electric SUVs are now as usable as they are desirable. Here we count down the top 10 – and reveal the model to avoid…

Electric cars and SUVs are two types of car that are currently in huge demand, so electric SUVs are perhaps the most desirable models of all right now.

It’s about more than just fashion, too – the best of the breed are as practical as they are classy, and as good to drive as they are cheap to run. But which models are we talking about, exactly?

Well, below we count down our top 10 electric SUVs, and name the one we’d avoid. If anything on the list take your fancy, just hit the ‘Read our review’ button to find out more about it. Or, alternatively, check out the latest new, nearly new and used deals by clicking on the relevant links.

Tesla’s latest model his strong in a number of key areas, including performance, range, practicality and residuals, plus like all Teslas it has access to the firm’s excellent Supercharger network. We just wish it had quieter cruising manners and a smoother ride.

The first of three Kias to make this top 10, the Soul EV gives you a huge amount of equipment for your money, plus its performance is strong and its range long. The ride is quite firm, though, and while the Soul’s compact size is a boon in town, it does mean the boot is on the small side.

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‘Only a matter of time’ until diesel and petrol vehicles are ‘prohibited’ before 2030 ban

July 28, 2022Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

PETROL and diesel car sales are set to be banned from 2030 onwards, with one expert saying that cities may implement bans on polluting vehicles in the years to come.

From 2030, the Government will restrict the sale of all new petrol and diesel vehicles to boost its aim of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Major steps are already being taken to limit the use of petrol and diesel, including tax benefits for electric cars, and penalty charges for polluting vehicles.

A handful of cities have introduced emissions-based charging zones to cut down on pollution and give drivers the incentive to switch to electric.

ZOE Headlight Bulb and Owner's Manual (Image: T. Larkum) — ZOE Headlight Bulb and Owner’s Manual (Image: T. Larkum)

One of the most popular benefits for drivers is the car tax cuts they can benefit from.

Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax allows drivers to get an electric car at a much lower tax rate compared to petrol and diesel alternatives.

Currently, motorists pay just two percent tax on an electric car, whereas some diesel company cars can attract a tax rate of more than 35 percent.

David Hedges, Employment Tax Partner at Azets, said the 2030 petrol and diesel sales ban will have a major impact on consumer choices in the coming years.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, he said: “Employers, with environmental, social and governance on the boardroom agenda feel it is the right thing to do for the environment as we move away from polluting fossil fuels.

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Killing the roar: electric vehicles can calm us down

July 27, 2022Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

Dr Duncan Williams explains how electric cars’ quieter engines can help to reduce the stress of modern life – but only if we want them to

If you ask people which sense they wouldn’t mind losing, most would be prepared to sacrifice hearing. But hearing is vital for survival – the brain is always listening, dealing with sound processing long before vision. Because we don’t have ‘earlids’, we are at the mercy of our responses to sound, which is why unwanted noise is very distressing.

As a psychoacoustician, I deal with the psychology of sound and car manufacturers often seek me out for help with engine noise. When something is repeatedly exploding two to three metres in front of you, it’s usually too loud and annoying unless you’re protected in some way.

EVs offer the chance to solve that in a neat way: by reducing the noise. In general terms, modern life is noisy – with mobile devices, people playing music, shouting. Driving an EV is quiet, and we have found that it can make you less stressed than driving a car with a petrol engine.

In 2018, I placed an electroencephalogram [EEG, used for measuring brain waves] on the heads of four professional cabbies in central London and monitored their brain activity as they drove both electric and diesel black cabs.

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Electric vehicle breakthrough as UK’s ‘amazing’ progress set to save Britons £12billion

July 26, 2022Buying a new car, Economy, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

BRITAIN has performed “better than expected” as its electric vehicle masterplan is set to save Britons £12billion, experts told Express.co.uk.

Last week, the independent Climate Change Committee(CCC) released a landmark 600-page assessment of the Government’s various policies and strategies surrounding the energy crisis and climate change. While the report slammed several aspects of the Government’s handling of the energy crisis, particularly surrounding insulation and emissions reduction, experts involved in the report hailed the incredible progress that the UK has made in the past few years, surpassing expectations.

The Government has previously announced plans to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, as the report noted that the UK was “on track” to hit this target.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, David Joffe, the Head of Carbon Budgets at CCC, and one of the leads on the report said: “We’re really happy with most of the plans in the sort of road-transport area where electric vehicles seem to be adopted quite widely now.

“We’re optimistic now on the path to every new car being all-electric by 2030, so that’s really positive and the government has policies to ensure that it’s properly funded.

“The latest data says 12 percent of new car sales is electric and that’s more than we expected at this point and that’s growing at this time.”

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Carmakers Start to Starve Combustion Models Out of Existence

July 25, 2022Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

Investment in electric vehicles is coming at the expense of engines, transmissions and redesigns of gas burners.

Automakers have announced a whopping $526 billion collective investment in electric vehicles through 2026, more than double the amount they mapped out over a similar forward time frame a couple years ago.

Since the industry isn’t doubling its total capital spending, all that investment in EVs — tallied by consulting firm AlixPartners — will come at the expense of development dollars for new and redesigned internal combustion engine vehicles.

Makes sense, right? The hot growth is in EVs. But hang on. General Motors has said it aspires to go all-electric by 2035, and other companies are saying 2040 or later. That means consumers will be able to buy a brand new gasoline-burning vehicle for another 15 or 20 years.

If models running on fuel will be available that far into the future, but most of the investment is going into EVs, auto dealers will be selling some very stale sets of wheels in the coming years.

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Have Electric Vehicles Reached Parity With Their ICE Counterparts?

July 22, 2022Buying a new car, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, UncategorizedRepost

Naysayers argue that electric vehicles have too many obstacles yet to make them appealing to mass consumer audiences. Yet the numbers seem to indicate that we’re a lot closer to making EVs the better financial choice than many so-called experts want to admit.

Germany will end sales of new ICE vehicles in 2030. What has long been seen as a massive gap between the appeal of ICEs and EVs is quickly fading. Globally, EV sales grew 80% in 2021.

Kia Ceed Sportwagon PHEV and XCeed PHEV (Image: Kia)

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine declares that “the period from 2025-2035 could bring the most fundamental transformation in the 100-plus year history of the automobile” as battery costs fall and EVs reach price parity with internal combustion engine vehicles, leading them to become the “dominant type of new vehicles sold by 2035.”

It is expected that, by 2030, battery EVs will account for 81% (25.3 million) of all new EVs sold.

Besides eliminating exhaust emissions and tackling part of the 23% of global CO2 emissions contributed by the transportation sector, EVs will also provide key flexibility to the grid as we transition to a greater share of renewable energy supply.

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EV sales continue to rise despite supply failing to keep pace with demand

July 21, 2022Buying a new car, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

For the second month in a row, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) were the vehicle segment to grow, but data shows the government’s ambitions for the EV transition does not go far enough, according to the latest data from New AutoMotive.

The company’s most recent figures show that during June 2022, 20,837 pure EVs were sold, with EVs now representing one in six of all new vehicle registrations.

Meanwhile, sales of hybrid vehicles decreased to 31,531 in June 2022, from 40,265 the same month last year.

With sales of EVs already at 16%, up from 10% year-on-year, the government’s request to manufacturers to achieve 22% of sales from EVs by end of 2024 is “lagging behind consumer demand,” according to NewAutomtive.

This echo’s the Climate Change Committee’s findings in its recent progress report, which suggested that the adoption of EVs is already ahead of both its own and government growth projections, highlighting that consumers and households are willing to adopt low-carbon options when cost-effective products are offered.

Despite the increased sale of EVs in June, overall car sales decreased by a quarter and even with the rising prices of petrol and diesel driving consumers towards electric cars, supply is currently not keeping pace with demand, according to Ben Nelmes, head of policy and research at New AutoMotive.

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Europe’s ‘most powerful’ EV charging hub opens in Oxford

July 20, 2022Away From Home, Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, Energy Storage, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

Pivot Power has opened Europe’s “most powerful” electric vehicle (EV) charging hub in Oxford, with 42 fast and ultra-rapid chargers.

As part of the Energy Superhub Oxford project, the hub located at Redbridge Park and Ride could scale up to provide charging for 400 vehicles as EV adoption increases.

It will be entirely powered with renewable energy, with 10MW of installed capacity on-site.

“Electric vehicles form a key part of our strategy to decarbonise transport, so I’m pleased to see Europe’s most powerful EV charging hub opening in Oxford,” said Trudy Harrison MP, transport decarbonisation minister.

“Both the Government and industry, working together, are investing billions in projects like this to help provide the infrastructure to support the UK’s electric revolution and soaring EV sales. This in turn will help us decarbonise transport, create high-skilled jobs, and provide cleaner air across the UK.”

Several providers installed chargers at the facility, which has been developed by EDF Renewables subsidiary Pivot Power with the participation of the Oxford City Council, including 10 300kW charging bays from Fastned, 20 7-22kW from Wenea and 12 250kW Tesla Superchargers.

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Electric cars make up almost half of all new sales across London

July 19, 2022Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

Diesel sales have halved in the drive to go electric

Electric vehicles accounted for almost one in two new cars bought in London last month, it has been revealed.

Almost 6,000 fully electric or hybrid plug-in cars were registered in London in June, outselling conventional petrol cars by more than 200 vehicles. The figures, from New AutoMotive, a non-profit organisation aiming to accelerate the move to electric vehicles, show London continues to lead the rest of the country in switching to greener forms of motoring.

It comes after the Standard launched a major campaign, Plug It In, to highlight the benefits and explore the challenges of the capital going electric.

Battery electric cars, which rely solely on electric power stored in an on-board battery, were the second most popular type of new car after petrol, with 2,932 registered in the capital last month.

Hybrid electric cars, which have a smaller battery and a conventional internal combustion engine which kicks in on longer journeys, were only slightly less popular, with 2,909 registered.

It means 5,841 new electric vehicles were registered — compared with 5,628 petrol cars and 697 diesel cars. A total of 1,167 fewer patrol cars were registered in London last month than a year earlier. Monthly diesel sales have roughly halved year on year.

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Electric cars sold in UK passes half a million despite supply chain issues

July 18, 2022Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

A fifth of the electric cars on British roads were made by Tesla, the US electric car pioneer

The number of electric cars sold in the UK has surpassed half a million, according to analysis that underlines the rapid growth in demand despite supply chain problems caused by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The UK reached the milestone in June and the number of electric cars in the country is likely to overtake France later this year, according to Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive analyst.

New UK charge points (Image: Department for Transport)

The number of electric cars on the UK’s roads has soared from fewer than 100,000 in 2019 as carmakers have started to produce them in large volumes to meet tightening regulations on carbon dioxide emissions, and impending bans on petrol and diesel cars that will come in by 2035 in the UK and EU.

The figures mean that pure electric cars account for about 1.2% of the 40.5m cars on British roads, but that share is expected to rise rapidly as manufacturers roll out new models. UK electric car production in May was twice what it was a year earlier, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, a lobby group.

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