6.11 /// From Petrol To Plug: The time to change?

Thinking of trading the pump for a plug? I take you inside a candid decision to move from petrol to electric, weighing the numbers, the nerves, and the day-to-day realities. A low-pressure visit to a BYD showroom surprised my wife and I, with thoughtful design, generous standard features, and pricing that undercuts legacy brands without feeling cheap. Heated and vented seats, clear infotainment, voice control, and a calm drive make a strong case for comfort and value over badge prestige.

I break down where EVs now win: predictable running costs with home charging, a UK charging network that finally feels usable, and real-world range around 220–230 miles that comfortably covers school runs, commutes, and hospital trips. Long journeys still demand a new rhythm—plan a rapid charge, grab a coffee, and go—but they’re no longer deal-breakers. I also compare full EVs with plug‑in hybrids: if most journeys stay under 30–40 miles, a PHEV can sip petrol; yet a pure EV simplifies servicing, reduces emissions over its life, and aligns better with future policy.

There’s a bigger story behind the spec sheets. Chinese manufacturers like BYD are redefining value, proving that build quality and tech can be excellent without the legacy price tag. At the same time, we don’t dodge the hard questions: battery materials, recycling, rapid-charger pricing, and the uncertainty of phase‑out timelines for petrol and diesel sales. My view lands on cautious optimism. If you can install a home charger, the weekly maths already tilts electric. For the rest, infrastructure is improving, policy needs clarity, and drivers deserve transparent warranties and fair charging costs.

If this helped your thinking, follow and subscribe so you never miss an update, and leave a quick review to tell us where you stand on the EV tipping point. What range would make you switch?

Transcript

Setting The Scene And Tangents

Stephen 0:05

Hello, welcome to InfoPlass. Today we're going to be talking about um well than mean all things that might be all like how. And yeah, I like to talk about it. Yeah, electric vehicles is the topic of today's podcast. But first, wearing a team GB hat uh as the Olympics is on currently. Unfortunately not seeing as much of it as I would like, but this hat was a bargain, so bonus. Uh also I'm gonna have one camera angle today, and it's not because I'm doing something serious, it's because I'm an idiot and I turned this plug socket strip off behind me when I leave my room, um, because otherwise the lights come on and stuff. And I'd plugged my the spare phone that I use as a separate camera angle, I'd plugged it in and then obviously turned the power strip off. So I walked in today thinking it was charged and it wasn't, so this angle, which you can't see, isn't gonna be available for better or worse. It'll make editing a lot easier for me. Um I'm what 11 episodes in and it's all fallen apart already. Uh yeah. Anyway, I've moved my little sign as well because um when I'm doing the video podcast, anyone that's watching them, like I have noticed that apart from the reverse angle, you can't see my sign scrolling through all the cool stuff that I've got displayed. So uh and for anyone that's that's interesting, uh interested, that's uh by a company called DeVoom, D-I-V-W. And it's pretty good, pretty good screen to be fair. It's like pixelated display. Anyway, on with electric cars. Uh, I'm not saying I'm an expert in this, by no means. I'm not gonna Donald Trump it up by proclaiming that I'm some sort of uh expert in anything, if I'm honest with you. If if you're a long time listener to this podcast or recent viewer, thank you. Uh but yeah, you'll know that um I talk in general out general general out general generalities? Gen general I'm struggling with words recently. Generalisms. Is that the word? Is that the word I was looking for? I don't know. I'm a very general person when I speak about things, unless it's something I'm really into, like aliens. And I'm gonna do an Alien Romulous and um Alien Earth podcast soon. Um I think I've done an Alien Romulous one, but I'm gonna do a bit of a deep dive into Alien Earth um six months after the event. I was a bit late doing podcast. Anyway, electric cars, Christ. Um Welcome to Infinite Prattle. Um Yeah. So the reason I'm gonna do this one today is me and Sarah have what's called a motability car in the UK. Uh because of Sarah's illness, um, she's allowed basically a I would I want to say free, but it's not free, you still have to pay deposit, and there's still some outgoings on it. Essentially, she gets a free car and from a selective range from different different manufacturers. So we're very lucky in that respect, um, because it would be massive extra resource going out of our pretty much sole income into the house. So we're very lucky, so I'll I'll start by prefixing that and saying I know not everyone's in this position, and I feel very privileged that basically we get a f a free vehicle essentially. On the other hand, I do pay an excessive amount of tax on my wages, so I almost feel that it's a bit of compensation for that. Um, but yes, we'll we' we'll we went today to BYD. Uh they've got a garage in the in my hometown of Crewe in Cheshire, and uh yeah, we went and had a look around. And first off, it's not an advertisement for BYD, but it's just an advertisement in general for good customer service and friendliness and how things should be nowadays. They weren't mithery, they weren't trying to sell us anything, although they were, but they they came across very, very well. And they were just just very open with us, and um yeah, it was a nice experience to be fair. My dad recently had had a car from them, he's he's got a mobility vehicle as well, because he's got bad knees from his time in the army. Um and he he qualified a couple of years ago, and he he recently got a BYD BYD seal U, which is like an SUV. So I we went today and thought, well, our mobility vehicle, a motor ability vehicle's up soon. Let's go and have a look at one because I was considering an electric vehicle and I was considering one of these Chinese vehicles. Um which I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit I was a bit apprehensive about because I think in the UK and maybe other parts of the world, I'm not sure, a lot of our stuff's manufactured in China, and I think you kind of see it as kind of like good stuff uh if it's been produced for a company, but then when it's a Chinese company released stuff, you think, oh well, it's just being produced in the same warehouse but for for for worse quality. And I don't think that's the case. I think the sites like TMU and stuff like that have really proved that manufacturing over there is good enough to produce cheap, cheap products, they're actually still usable and still excellent value. Uh I know I've done an episode on Timu about some of the things I've bought and I've not really found anything that has been super super bad for the price at least anyway. Um I mean recently I bought um a new case for my vlogging kit. So if you're watching online you can you can see this case, and uh it's it was like 13 pound and it's solid and it holds my vlog kit for going away, or if I'm on location, like when I went to Ireland, even though I never actually recorded one, it was a waste of time taking it, but it's a cracking case for the price, and I'm thinking, you know, does that apply to vehicles? I think it does. So the whole elect electric car game has been out for a while now. It's not unusual to see electric cars on the road now. In fact, they're quite common. Uh, again, not sure what what it's like where you live, let me know. Um, but in in England, UK in general, you can't really go out now without seeing a few electric vehicles on the road. Even in my small town of Crewe, there's there's a lot of electric vehicles about, and quite good infrastructure for charging electric vehicles. See a lot of supermarkets, a lot of car garages and office buildings, etc., all have electric chargers. So, in the advent of us getting a new car, um we were considering when we first uh switched to the motorbility scheme, but really seriously considering it now, maybe it's the time to switch. Um but they've been out for a while, and I feel that like the first adopters of anything always are I don't want to say the worst off, but they're the people that um help products grow, help mould things, and help manufacturers build a better product and a better service for people. So kudos to the people that had the money when uh electric vehicles came out, and hopefully you fed back and made things better. Um the price of electric vehicles has come down considerably, and companies like BYD, Gyco, it's um oh's that's the one that begins with a no that's a Chinese vehicle. I want to say I was gonna say Omega, but it's not Omega. I can't think what it's called. There's there's several companies now from China that have really flooded the market with I want to say cheap, but cheap is relevant, is is like relative to to how much money you've got. But I would say cheap for an electric vehicle or hybrid when you compare it to some of the conventional vehicles that are out and about that just are like petrol or diesel. And it makes it more accessible for people and hopefully cheaper. But yeah, Donkey Shares ago, like you know, even when Tesla first came out, they they probably led the way for probably commercial available vehicles that were like more mainstream, still a bit pricey. But I think they started leading the way with battery technology and actually being able to drive more than like 50 miles, and I think that's one of the key things because even though a lot of our journeys that we do are local, it's it's that whole um mileage anxiety you get with an electric vehicle. So I think that's kind of what always kind of put us off is the infrastructure and thinking about when you when you need to charge, the time it takes to charge. Um but I'm not as worried about that now. You drive around and see the infrastructure there, and cars have an average of a good good mileage now in in in electric mode. Uh so yeah, so going back like when when electric vehicles came out, they were super expensive in my view. Maybe there were some bargains. Uh, and I think the only ones that were like competitively priced, but if you think about it, they weren't, were these very, very small, compact city cars, but that had really low mileage on them. And a guy at work has has got one of these vehicles as well. He's got a little um citron, is it I can't what it's called, is it um I want to say Mimo, but that's completely wrong. There's a little citron one, and it's cracking little car, but really basic, but they're not particularly cheap in the sense of it is so basic and it and it only does say like 50-60 miles to a charge. Um and it takes a while to charge because it plugs it charges off a conventional plug socket rather than a fast charger or a high voltage charger. So the swings and roundabouts there, you you're like lacking on one thing to get a benefit of the other. But in a city they would be brilliant, and and he uses his just to get back and forth to work and probably saves us a fortune in in petrol uh or diesel because them short journeys are things that really kill uh miles per the gallon for for a vehicle, you know, warming the engine up, getting that fuel efficiency uh really up there, whereas your your engine's barely worn in and warmed up before you've actually got to war work, especially with all the electrical gadgets and stuff on cars nowadays. Um your fuel efficiency is just not there. Um my car I've got at the moment is a one litre Skoda Karak and the engine's fabulous on it to be fair. I was really impressed when I first took it for a test drive. Uh Sarah doesn't drive at the moment, but she's hopefully gonna pass soon. Um and for one litre one litre petrol, brilliant. It it's pretty good for miles per the gallon, but it still doesn't go very well around town, and if you need to put your foot down because it is a one-litre engine, it does still suck a bit of petrol, and it I don't think it's as fuel efficient as it should be for a one-litre engine, but it is quite a large vehicle for that size of engine. And engine technology has come a long way. Uh, I would have never believed. In fact, when I test drove it, I actually came back to the carriage and popped the popped the the bonnet uh and the guy came out and was like, is everything alright? And I was like, Yeah, I'm just checking it as a one litre because it seems quite nippy for a one litre. I was expecting it to be like a 1.4, 1.6. Not that I thought he was lying, but I thought he'd just maybe give me the wrong car to test drive or something, and it was indeed a one litre. Um so I was quite impressed with that, but you've still got to put petrol in it. And petrol's not cheap anymore. In the UK, it's currently hovering around£1. In my area, hovering around£1.30 uh for a litre. That's one litre,£1000 millilitres of petrol is£1.30. Which when I started to ride a motorcycle and have to had to buy petrol uh back in uh 2002, 2001, um, I think the price of petrol was in the 70s, uh 70 people, which is still quite expensive. And comparable to a country like America, we have very expensive fuel. Uh I know they do moan about their fuel prices, but they're still I think com comparatively a lot cheaper than ours. Um our cars are normally a little bit more uh eco-friendly and and get better mileage. I think they've only really just started to accept like what they call compact vehicles. Um yeah, I think I think in general I'm ready to make that switch because I I feel a little bit more confident, even though I am apprehensive. But we went to the BYD showroom today, and uh I've been keeping an eye on the old electric car market over the past year or two, uh, watching some YouTube channels that exclusively review electric vehicles, looking at the features, the functionality, um, what you get for your money. When it's not so much of a consideration in our in our view, because we have the motorbility scheme on our side, but you're still restricted about what cars you're allowed to get. We're not we're not open to any of the vehicles. So for BYT, BYD, we're only allowed to choose out of three vehicles in their range, so which is the um the seal U, which is like a big SUV, and I can't remember the the name's gone off the top of my head, but it's like this small compact version of that, and then there's like a middle ground one. Um it's gonna do my head on what it's called. It's something two and something three, whatever it is. So we're not allowed to we don't qualify for the sea lion, uh, the dolphin, or the other one, which I can't think what it's called. Um but yeah um is it a seal? Seal, seal lion, yeah. Seal, sea lion, and dolphin. We don't we're not allowed to to look out. Um but to be fair, the seal is the like the saloon fast one, really. You can get a crazy car with that. My mate's got one of them. Uh the sea lion is probably too too much of a sporty SUV, really, for what for what we need. We need a bit more luggage space, and I think that that's kind of like a an SUV, like a like a hybrid SUV kind of thing. And then the the dolphins were just too small for our knees, it's more like a city car. Uh, that'd be more like a a spare car for us, so to speak. But yeah, we went down there today and we were very impressed. And I've been looking at BOYD for a while. See my dad got one, and I was quite I was quite surprised he did because I didn't think he'd be into like trying out a company like that. And it's not it's not a racist thing. I think you just have a perception of oh well Jaguar, you know, VW, all established brands, BYD hasn't been around that long, you know. They're kind of offering this product like that seems too good to be true, because the prices for their vehicles seem really low for what you get and for the quality you're getting and for the design you're getting, because they all look good, all the cars, even the little dolphin city car is a is a good look. This isn't an advert for BYD, by the way. I think this applies to a lot of companies now. Um, and when you look at like the Skoda versions and the VW versions, they look kind of boring and business-like even. Um very like utilitarian, which is I love from a vehicle. I'm I'm very much like I like styling, but I don't want to pay for it. I I don't want to I don't want to pay for the badge that's on a car. I had Dashes for a long time, which is a Romanian brand, which uses uh Nissan technology and Renault parts to to build a car, and they got a lot of they got a lot of shit, especially on Top Gear, um, which I can never understand whether it was tongue in cheek with Top Gear because it was such a cheap car, but they viewed it as being a bit shit at the same time. Um they used to say that Sandero is coming out and it's gonna have this new feature, it's gonna have heaters and stuff like that. So it was almost like in the UK people used to make jokes about SCOTAs back in the day and ladders, uh, and it's almost like uh a difference on that uh is been related now to to uh the um you know the the the more modern version of Dacha. But I I think Dachcha's are lovely cars, and I've I've owned a couple of them and they've been really nice and and I've absolutely fell in love with them a little bit really if I'm honest with you. Um just a bit dis bit distracted because it sounds like someone's just turned up my house. I'm wondering who it is. You might have heard the dog barking in the background then, who just barks when someone arrives. Uh so I'm not sure who that is, so I'm like, I want to go see, I wanna go see. But no, we must finish the podcast. Um Yes, we so I'll say for the like the 20th time, um they were really nice in BYD today, and and I think I'm convinced. I think I'm I think I'm there, I think I'm ready to get an electric vehicle. Um will I have will I have range anxiety? I don't know, I don't know. The one we looked at today, which is which I can't remember what it was called. Uh if I remember I'll put it in the description. Um which was the it was basically like a small SUV, like a compact SUV. Very nice design inside, a little bit different, a little bit it looked different than most cars. Um there was like the how you got out of the car, it had weird like door handles, the the the the gear shifter almost looked like a throttle for a plane. Very, very cool, very cool. Big big uh LED screens for information and and really lovely seating position, kind of bucket seat kind of style. Really, really lovely vehicle. Um 260 miles of range, he said. So you probably can take 10% off that, 20% off that maybe for how you drive it and environmental conditions. So you put you're probably really talking realistically 220 miles, 230 miles. I would probably say, as a guess, mate, don't take these as verbatim, these these this is what I'm seeing from from the YouTube channels that I've watched. Um I'm thinking is that that would be enough for our day-to-day drive of just going around crew, even getting to hospital and back, which is like a a 70 to 80 mile round trip. Um, but we do like to go on road trips every so often, and I was thinking, is that good enough? Like we go to when we go to Scotland, it's like maybe 300 miles, we'd have to stop and charge. Um, and it's expensive to stop and charge. Is it more expensive than filling up with fuel? Probably not. I don't know, probably have to do a bit more research on that. But day-to-day use it would save us money. Uh, they're doing a thing at the moment where they fit a charger in your house for you on the outside of your house for you for free. So even though there's like a£2,000 deposit on the car, you know, that's the downside of motability, but you are getting in the car for three years without really having to do any uh further expenditure apart from filling it up with fuel um or electricity in this case. Um yeah, and the one I was looking at is is a completely fully electric, whereas the one that my dad got, which is a CLU, is a high is a like a mild hybrid, that they call it mild hybrid. Basically, it's a plug-in hybrid, sorry. So it has a very small battery, it takes you about 70 miles, and then it also has a petrol engine in, and they kind of work together. And he's been getting really good mileage out of that, and that's kind of the way I was kind of going, because of you've still got the option to go on electric for small journeys around the town, you've got a big road trip, you've got the reassurance of a you know of a petrol engine. And uh yeah, I suppose environmentally, is it better to have an electric vehicle? I suppose there's uh pros and cons for each, isn't it? Like you buy a petrol car, you're polluting the environment, uh you have to extract that petrol and get it to you and refine it, and that's bad for the environment as well. But electric cars, they have to extract all the stuff for the batteries, have to recycle the batteries, where does it go in when they're dead? Um what if your battery just dies on your car, the expense of getting that replaced? Uh so there's a few things to look at at the moment, but I think at the moment, I think currently, um BYD seem the way to go for me. Um go look at other cars, don't be wrong, we're gonna look at some other other electric ones, but I think for what you get valley funny-wise, these Chinese companies are coming in, and you can see why their sales are through the roof. You know, you get like like I think in all the BYD range, and again, don't quote me on this, but you get like electric seats, electric wing mirrors, electric windows, and they're not standard on some cars nowadays, still, even like brands like Skoda and stuff, you don't get things like that. Um, my dad's car's got heated back seats, vented seats, uh, and these are all things that will stand on his vehicle as well, uh, for a certain band of class, like, but a lot of things come as standard, it's it's all voice control his car is he literally just speaks to it. He's got a sunroof, which I really like. That's the only thing that I really wanted that car for. I miss a sunroof in a car, uh something that's kind of gone out of fashion in recent years, um, which is a shame, really. So it is it is a shame. Um, and I'd love to see that come back if I might as well love to see like the you know the old sunroof make a reappearance, it would be nice. Um, but yeah, really, really nicely built cars, feel solid, and yeah, it's uh I think a lot of companies should be worried. I think VW Group, um, BMW, which are part of all that. Um and even high end group, even high end spec'd cars like Mercedes should should be worried. They should be worried because these cars are coming in at 30,000, 40,000 pounds, and you're getting a 70,000 pound spec'd car. Um, and people in this climate don't care where that car's coming from. They they're less inclined for a badge now, I think. Um is it nice to have a Mercedes? I've never really been bothered about it to be honest. I had Dadgers, like I say. It was a practical car, it got me from A to B, reasonable fuel consumption, it was big inside, I could throw crap in it, it was cheap enough that if I damaged it, wasn't overly bothered. Um that's when I owned the car myself, like. Um But yeah, these cars are coming out and they're they're nicely designed, comfortable, and full of specs, and you feel like you're getting a lot more for your money. And I actually don't know how they're making any money on these cars to be honest. I think it's uh it's quite crazy that the their profit margins must be quite strict. But yeah, I would uh definitely say, you know, thinking about making the switch, but I I don't know, I'm I'm on the fence at the moment about you know, they're on about phasing uh petrol and diesel cars out in the UK in the next four years, and I can't see that happening because everyone still has petrol and diesels. And what else what's gonna happen to all these cars when they do get phased out? Um, will you still be allowed to keep a petrol car? And how long will that be allowed for? Because the the fa they want to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel, and how long, you know, it's not actually gonna solve the issue of people owning them, and then they want to sell out say phase out the sale of petrol, but you can only do that within a certain time frame because it kills the commerce of it. So there's a balance between commerce, manufacturing, saving the planet, which I'm all up for. It's it's a big thing, it's a big thing at the moment, and um I don't know if the government's doing enough to help out, and I don't know whether manufacturers are doing enough to help out, and we're all just sat in the middle as consumers having the worst time of it if I'm honest, and it always comes back to us to kind of sort it all out, and uh that's why I said in previous episodes we think with our feet, you need to think with your feet, and if you're not happy with something, don't go and buy it and don't buy into it. Um I say that, I did a rant about coffee, and I still go and buy a Costa coffee or a Starbucks. So I need to practice what I preach about. Anyway, I've rambled on for a while on that. What do you think about electric vehicles anyway? Do you think they're the future, do you think it's still a bit of a fad? Do you think they've not refined them enough? How much range would you feel comfortable with? Like I fill my car up and it says I'll get 300 miles, 350 miles on a good day. Is that acceptable? Electric cars are getting there now. Um but yeah, for me I think I'm on the tipping point. I think I'm I'm going over the edge towards electric car world. Uh but we shall see. We shall see. Uh I'll keep you up to date if we do get one or if we're going to get one or we I changed my mind completely. I'll I might do a I might do an update um if I remember. So remind me if I don't. Um but yeah, thank you very much for joining us. If you if you've enjoyed this episode, please go back and check some others. If you haven't, go back and check some others. I don't stick to one topic. All my podcasts are different. Um if I ever don't get to a point as well in my podcast, sometimes I'll start off with trying to make a point and I never get to the point. Tell me in the comments and I'll come back to that point because um I don't like things things hanging and I do have a terrible memory. I go off on tangents, so um yeah, point that out to me, uh please. Um yeah, if you can give me a subscribe on YouTube, you know, subscribe on whatever platform you're listening to, it really, really would make a difference to me that I know that people are regular visit regular visitors and listeners. And um if you can leave a review as well, that'd be really really good. I've got five stars at the moment on most podcast platforms, so it'd be really nice to to accrue more five star ratings. Um yeah, you know, take care of yourselves. Uh and and best of all things is chill out, look after yourselves, and remember to keep on prattling.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Thanks for listening to Infinite Prattle with your host Steven.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

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