Electric Vehicles, river pollution and repair shops
Your questions answered on EVs plus the latest environmental news from the north of England
Good morning! I’m Sarah Hartley and this is The Northern Eco weekly update. As you’ve received this newsletter then either you subscribed, or someone forwarded it to you. If the latter, then you can click on this handy little button below.
A warm welcome to the many new readers who’ve joined us this week. Every Tuesday we look at the environmental news and events across the north of England and this week, we’re starting with a special guest issue looking at all things Electric Vehicle. (Scroll down for the usual news and events).
Ahead of the upcoming Everything Electric NORTH event, I caught up with independent electric vehicle expert Chris Minasians to talk through people’s commonly raised questions.
As an EV driver myself, I often hear the questions we’ve addressed below so it was good to get to the bottom of these frequent worries with someone who really knows what he’s talking about.
Chris is Director and Editor at TotallyEV, an independent site dedicated to articles, reviews and interviews about electric vehicles. TotallyEV has recently hit 5 million views on YouTube which is particularly impressive as a solo publisher. (If you’re interested in hearing more about his personal journey, this podcast is a great place to start). Let’s get stuck in!
Q. The issue of ‘range anxiety’ seems to come up as the number one issue when I speak with people, is that the same for you?
A. I think the range anxiety question comes up regularly and it’s something that's even posed by manufacturers, even on on press releases and in presentations of their vehicles. Range anxiety is the first thing that is on people's minds and it's understandable because we're used to petrol cars that go for, let's say, 400 miles and when they need to be refuelled, you stop for two three minutes. And and you're off again. At the worst case, if you do break down and you're let's say close to a petrol station, you can hitch a ride. Or you can walk to the petrol station, buy yourself a canister and go back to your car and fill it up. Whereas with an EV, you just don't have that ability to do that. So you have to call the breakdown service if you've broken down somewhere or carry a diesel generator (which I've seen some people do, which is quite funny and crazy!) but that kind of defeats the point or you just have to plan a little bit more. And obviously the latter is what most people do, including myself.
Q. Are there enough EV charging points around the country?
A. In all honesty, this really is an issue and something that both the government and EV charger infrastructure companies need to look at and really need to address. Without that confidence, people like your average Joe are not going to have the patience. They're not going to want to be not relying on these chargers. Sometimes they are the only means of getting charge in certain areas especially if you're a bit more remote. I've got multitude of examples of driving EVs and and going to plug into charge at a public charger and not being able to charge so unfortunately, it is a sad reality. I've got to be really honest with that even though as much as I love EVs that is a that is a real issue to deal with.
Q. Is it worth having an EV if you don’t have a driveway to charge at home?
A. In my opinion, truthfully in the UK, I would say no. I think destination chargers are the way to go. In other words, you've got one at home and you've got one at work. If you work from home, then you don't have to worry about at workplace. But if you're going to, let's say, a hotel, you're going to a pub, you're going to the town, you're going to a multi story car park, going to the hospital. It doesn't matter where you're going, these destinations should all have EV chargers. They should be incentivised to have those chargers so you know they're going to have a charger and it's going to be working and it's going to be available because there's enough of them. That to me would really solve a lot of stuff.
Q. True or urban myth - if you have an accident, even a small one like a rear end shunt, it's a total write off for your car because of the battery?
A. That's the first time I've ever heard heard that. I think that's a bit of an urban myth. It would depend on what's under the shunt, how much of an impact it made. But then the same could be said about any regular car. If the chassis is damaged, then the insurer will probably write it off.
Q. Does it cost more to insure an EV?
A. I have heard of people having more of an issue of insuring certain cars over others. It is really important to look at insurance before buying a car or even leasing a car because that can sometimes be a massive deal breaker for certain individuals. The cost of the insurance might be significant - maybe couple of 1000 pounds significant obviously depending on the value of the car. If you're looking at a budget car, then it's a matter of who can insure you and who will give you the cheapest quotes. Insurance is important and insurance costs of electric cars, I would say are generally higher than regular petrol or diesel cars.
Q. Your number one piece of advice if somebody was thinking about buying an EV?
A. First off, and I’m not plugging myself, I’d say this to anyone - look into the reviews, look into real world reviews, maybe owner reviews. Make sure that you know what you are buying because the manufacturer will sugarcoat it and certain influencers and even publications and magazines will also sugarcoat it because either they have incentives to do so and won't give you a thorough analysis of the vehicle. So make sure you do your research on the vehicle that you're looking at.
If you’re wondering, what does Chris drive? Well, he has the choice of many vehicles but most likes the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo. I couldn’t be happier with my rather more humble Fiat 500e.
Everything Electric NORTH is festival of electrification showcasing thousands of electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes plus the latest clean energy technologies. It’s taking place at Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate HG2 8NZ from 24th - 26th May 2024. 10am - 5pm (4pm Sunday)
In other news
🗳️ Congratulations to the new mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith. When we polled him before the election, David promised action on sewage in rivers saying:
“Ending self-monitoring and forcing all companies to monitor every single water outlet under independent supervision so companies can no longer cover up illegal sewage dumping. Finally, Introduce severe and automatic fines that water companies can’t afford to ignore for illegal sewage discharges.”
We look forward to reporting on that and the other promised action in due course.
💦 Wild swimmers and other river users will be able to get almost real time data this summer on sewage being pumped into rivers. Yorkshire Water has launched an interactive map that will provide current information on the operation of storm overflows. It shows the live status of each of Yorkshire Water’s storm overflows, when they last discharged into a watercourse and for how long. The information refreshes at 15-minute intervals.
💦 If you missed my report about a new group forming to undertake water quality monitoring at the River Ure in Wensleydale, you can catch up with that here. Once we hear more from them, we’ll bring you the next steps via this weekly Tuesday newsletter.
💦 Northumbrian Water, which tried to keep secret details of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of raw sewage discharges into the sea has been ordered by an appeal tribunal to release the data in the public interest reports Sandra Laville at The Guardian.
💦 Farmer Richard Webster believes that pollution in the River Swale caused the deaths of 30 of his sheep through poisoning.
He said: "I was at a loss why the sheep were dying - it seemed strange that it continued when they were in the shed together, but it was eventually linked to the floodwater.”
Patrick Gouldsborough at the D&S has more details here.
🦅 Regular readers may remember we brought you the story of Merrick the golden eagle who had disappeared from the North East England/southern Scotland area. Sadly, police now believe she was “shot and killed” whilst sleeping in a tree before “someone then removed her body and destroyed her satellite tag“. More information here at Raptor Persecution.
🌿 Thousands of trees have been planted on a fell after it was bought by a community interest company that plans to turn it into a nature reserve.
Sally Phillips bought Low Fell in the Lake District three years ago through her company Buy Land Plant Trees. A woodland has been created and about 275,000 trees have been planted so far, reports Judy Hobson at BBC North West.
🪚 The popularity of repair cafes is spreading around north Yorkshire. A repair café is to open in Harrogate and another in Richmond. The initiative, which is part of an international movement, promotes repairing items as an alternative to throwing things away. People are encouraged to come along with broken items and get them fixed on the spot with the help of volunteer repairers. There are over 2,500 repair cafés worldwide, with the closest ones previously in Leeds and Thirsk. The initiative was created by Dutch woman Martine Postma and the first repair café event took place in Amsterdam in 2009.
🌿 The Duke of Devonshire’s Bolton Abbey estate in the Yorkshire Dales is introducing a conservation retreat with moorland ‘safaris’ as it focuses on more sustainable forms of tourism, writes Grace Newton at the Yorkshire Post.
🌞 ‘It’s like a bomb has gone off for us’ says a campaigner fighting a solar farm plan near Darlington and Stockton. Hundreds of people from Bishopton, Great Stainton and the surrounding villages are opposing plans for the large-scale site. The Byers Gill Solar Farm is set to generate energy for around 70,000 homes, writes Bill Edgar for The Northern Echo.
The three most clicked links from last week were:
Stop the new bee killing pesticides
The Northumberland village in danger of falling into the sea
Events
Nidderdale Community Orchestra Spring Concert at Grassington Town Hall on
Sunday, May 19 to raise money for Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.
We’re joining forces with Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership to host a People, Planet, Pint event on Wednesday, June 5 at the Buck Inn, Richmond. Reserve your free ticket here.
Save Our Swale Public Meeting is being held on Saturday, June 8 from 5pm -- 6:30pm at Richmond Town Hall. Tickets available here.
The first Richmondshire Repair and Repurposing Cafe, is taking place on 9th June at Richmond Town Hall. Doors open at 10am and the last items will be accepted for repair at about 12 noon. The event is FREE to attend.
Do you have an event to share with readers of The Northern Eco? Drop me an email with the details: sarah@thenortherneco.com.
That’s all for this week! Next week we’re looking at some environmental art as well as a full round up of the eco news across the north. Thanks for joining us.