Tony Porter Ponders: Are we at a crossroads regarding EVs and card payments?

Mixed reports regarding electric vehicles in the UK, many sources are stating that sales have slowed significantly, Tesla for obvious reasons, then other reports say we are going to be flooded by imported Chinese EVs. I still know only a handful of people who have owned EVs and all have said they would be reluctant to buy another in the future.

The main reason for those who have had the car a few years is that the battery seems to lose charge quicker than it did when new, just like mobile phones if you think about it. This, they say, means more stress on medium to long journeys regarding the availability of charging points. I have noticed many more in and around Wigan from supermarket car parks to the car park near the Omniplex cinema and popping up at McDonalds sites.

My opinion on EVs is well documented, but I seem to be of a similar opinion to many that they are not green, just the infrastructure alone needed to charge them and the making and eventual issues with recycling the batteries make them far from a friend of the environment. One other thing I have noticed is that there are more than a few EV cars around that can do a real good impression of a seventies milk float, they just need to work on the clinking bottles sound for full authenticity.

As you know I own and run a shop in The Grand Arcade, there is a subtle change in habits of people paying for items, for a while it was about 80% card payments, but that is slowly changing, reverting to cash with many telling me cash is king. I have also noticed a few queues again at cash machines, not huge lines, but noticeable. Are we about to see a revival in the fortunes of cash where even at Poundland the five self-service tills were replaced by just four, but only to accepting cash, there seems to be more people waiting for them with the card only ones being idol.

Of course, the banks are on a win win either way, most folks know when you pay by card that the retailer pays the bank for the transaction, which now is a percentage not a flat 35p, at least in my case. But fewer know that as a business you get charged for paying cash into or withdrawing from your branch or ATM. It seems many banks are keen on closing branches to save money, but will they have to rethink if we as a nation revert to analogue payments?

I fear the next mass closures in our town centres will be mobile phone shops. How often do you go in and they say you have to go online to do that, most mobiles phones these days have the internet as standard so how long will phone companies keep open bricks and mortar stores with high rents, staff costs, rates and the rest?

On Sunday I went for a night out in Wigan, a friend’s leaving do, starting at the Raven and an Irish Bar, I have rarely felt so uncomfortable, the sheer noise of people having fun, chatting, loudly, singing along to the artists on stage. Seven Guinness in I was joining in, great fun.