How long until we see €2 a litre and will it push more to EV's faster?

On my way home yesterday I noticed 2.06 in cicrlek Templeogue and 2.15 five minutes drive away in Rathfarnham.

We've just taken part in one as the ICE representative :) I would love, love, love to be able to do our trip in an EV. But the infrastructure is still lacking. EVs still seem to be restricted to urban environments and very few venture out beyond. Very few EVs on the motorways in France, I saw maybe 10-20 Teslas, an Ionic 5, 2 Zoe, 1 Enyiaq (221 SO) and 2 ID 4s. Italy even fewer, I think it was 6 or 7 Teslas 3/S/X. I think I saw more EVs going through Germany last year where the infrastructure was perhaps better. Beyond Slovenia, diddly squat, rien, inget, nista.

No matter how suited EVs are for our little island, they are still not the weapon of choice for the long distance European driver. Although French Motorway Services have EV charge points I couldn't see any at Italian service stations. France has way more space for their service stations and can afford to add spaces for charge points, but stops in northern Italy are on very tight footprints and can't afford to have dedicated space for a car recharging for 30 minutes. More infrastructure will help, but in some places you'd need to be halving the distance between recharge points. I reckon it will be another 2 years at least before we see EVs representing more than 1% of inter urban European vehicles.

I do think the current range of EVs are more than adequate for Ireland. Our windy, little country is really perfect for them.

What circle k in Templogue?

The circle k opp st Mary’s rugby club is 2.15

That's Fortfield Road, Terenure.

continue to fill your car with 200 litres of fuel every month until you feel an EV will be for you. It’s clear today’s ev will not work for everyone

while you do that, I will stick to my battery car and continue to spend 1 EUR per 100km on electricity while you stick with your 2 EUR + per litre of diesel

Funny thing is, it probably costs me less to charge the car per month than you save using your discount cards and AA app over the same period.

yes I care about air quality in our cities. I also care about the money I have in my pocket, who doesn’t??

Exactly. Supply and demand. If I owned a petrol station I'd sell it at the most expensive price that the market will take. If there's no drop in sales at 2.16 vs 2.09, why would you sell it cheaper? Makes no sense.

Of course it would, on paper. But even at that it's much closer now than it was 5-10 years ago. Bjorn Nyland's (popular EV youtuber in Norway) does 1,000km challenges trying to do the fastest possible time for each EV. The base time in a kia phev was 9hours (bearing in mind most roads in Norway are either 90-100-110 limits) and the fastest EVs were approx half an hour longer. If you multiply that for 3,000 vs 1,000km, the EV would be 1.5hours slower. On paper, without a human.

However it's not that simple, as you can't drive 3,000km in one go, you'll have to sleep, and the EV could be charging when you sleep, so 1* charging session per sleep session is "saved" from the 1.5 hour delta. If you take 3 30 minute naps (which is one nap after each 9-10 hours, and you'd be entering severe sleep deprivation at that stage) then the 1.5 hour gap is nullified to equality, and any further sleep (which is likely needed in a 30+ hour straight drive) will put the EV as actually being faster than a fossil car.

It's a valid argument, but becoming more redundant as battery range improves.

You'd have to stop 3 to 4 times between Cork and Dublin on a Gen1 Leaf. It was painful! But modern EVs require zero stops, unless you're flat to the mat on the motorway in winter.

If you wanted to do a round trip, you'd need one stop in a modern EV, but few people would drive 5 or 6 hours without stopping, even for petrol. Modern chargers will put about 80% battery in 40-50 mins. It's a pain, but then stopping for petrol, a pee, and a chicken roll will likely take 30 mins anyways.

Fast forward 5-10 years and this will likely not be an issue unless you're crossing continents or in a race. High initial EV cost may also be less as batteries are more common and a second-hand market is growing. I don't think we're at the EV tipping point yet, but the trend is that ICE will be in the minority of car purchases in the very near future.

I'm looking at new house builds, and most have provisions for an EV charger.

Did Nyland do those challenges with a roof box travelling at 140? Also a lot of the long haulers take turns driving and although a 30 hour stint would be unusual, 16 - 20 hours through the night without a sleep stop would be much more common.

No of course not. The rules are the same, travel at the speed limit + 10%, single occupied car. I'm not sure a roofbox would make that much difference. And there arent many places in the world where you can do 140 for hours straight. 16-20 hours non stop without at least a brief nap and pee and coffee stop is unrealistic. After 10 hours driving I'm knackered, mentally.

There are many places in Europe where you can do 140 for hours straight, especially so at night.

My 16-20 hours above was for a 2 person team driving without a sleep stop, not without a break. But the overnighters wouldn't stop for long once the kids are asleep in the back. And the mental toll (for me) depends on how busy and where the motorway is. I'd be more tired after 2 hours in the UK or Germany than 6 hours in France or Croatia.

Correct, I have never done it. With the roofbox on top I prefer to stay at 125. But I get overtaken by a lot of cars, many doing well over 140 and many of those with roofboxes. Our last leg on Wednesday was 1250km, Tuesday was 1050km. The week before was a couple of shorter legs, 750km and 850km. Next week we'll have a 1000km one. We bought our current car based on affordability, range, storage capacity and ease of getting serviced/fixed across Europe.

There are more things in heaven and earth Galway Man than are dreamt of in your philosophy.