To ask if you'd buy an electric or petrol car in these circumstances?

I charge at 6p per KW at home
In March I saved £150 over using petrol

Looking at ZapMap, all those locations appear to have plenty of chargers. The network is expanding all the time. Many, many filling stations are adding them, as are out of town retail parks, public car parks, anywhere that people might stop for half an hour and top up en route.
Its about mindset. If your decide it is going to be hard, it will be.

The cost of electric is high so currently it doesn’t balance out enough for me so I’m sticking to petrol for now.

How long are you expecting it to take?
Its been a while now

I'd never buy an electric car. It's only a matter of time before they realise it just isn't going to be a viable option.

I would advocate electric. Especially in the circumstances you are, with a driveway for a charger and mainly short journeys. We've had an electric estate for 4 years and wouldn't go back. We've even driven to Scotland from Gloucestershire just stopping to charge twice. By which point we need the loo anyway! It does take a bit of prior planning to check what chargers are where. And I would say to get the longest range car you can afford.

@Chiseltip· Today 16:15
You've never been to Wales have you . . .
Or Scotland . . .
Or Devon . . .
Or Cornwall . . .
Or The Cotswolds . . .

Yup, drove all around Scotland without issue, even finding a fast charger on the Outer Hebrides which was free to use!
MIL lives in Cornwall so drive there often,
Devon, only really drive through it so can't comment,
Cotswolds, live very near there so visit places often.

I've gone from spending £80 per week in diesel to £20-30 per month in electricity. And my EV is much nicer to drive :)

We went EV a few years ago - and would NEVER go back to ICE.

There's an absolute MASS of horesh*t written on facebook about them.

People will say theres no infrastructure - well there's only 80,000 public chargers, and 8000 petrol stations - so its out there. But, its often in places you don;'t see. So, you might use a motorway service station charger - or - you might choose to go a little bit further and sit in a lovely hotel and use theirs :)

Also, 99% of your charging is done at home and we pay about £6 for 500 miles
Our cars range is a claimed 300. We get 290 in the summer and 275 in the winter, with full heating on etc.

The absolute BEST thing is when you go out in the winter and see all the ICE drivers literally scraping their cars - we preset ours to be ice free and toasty a few mins before we leave the house and just... drive away.

Also, regarding weight - apart from some SUV's most EV's are only about 100kg heavier than ICE cars - which is the equivalent of a chubby man sitting in the car! :)

They aren't TONNES heavier as people claim.

We've driven everywhere from the south coast to the north of scotland in it - and had absoluitely no problems.

go for it - you'll never go back to petrol!

Really? Do you really think that none of us in Scotland have electric cars? And if you are thinking of a usage case of the arse end of nothing in the Highlands for a holiday maybe in 5 years time, then that is a poor usage case.

Most of the people I know that don't like EVs work in the motor maintenance trade.

Because more EVs means less work for them. People underestimate how many people rely on this trade for their salary, and of course there are a huge amount of people involved in the sale and distribution of petrol.

EVs require a lot less maintenance than ICE. No engine oil. No exhaust to fail. Brakes often last longer due to regenerative braking. No spark plugs/injectors to go wrong. The list goes on. I know a few taxi drivers that were forced on to EVs and they were quite unhappy until they started to realise how much they were saving on maintenance and servicing.

I think those that don't like the idea of EVs are the kind people who really struggle to plan ahead, and are comforted by the reassurance that there will generally be a petrol station within a few miles of wherever they are. They are the kind of people who never keep an eye on their petrol and suddenly panic when the red light comes on. To be fair to them these people probs wouldn't be suited to EVs for this reason. It does need some logical, level headed planning and basic maths.

Your use of fear tactics is kind of basic. No, there is no reality where no EV battery will fail to have its warranty upheld. This is one of those frankly ridiculous statement with no merit because you aren’t in a position to make that claim

My PHEV weighs about the same as the petrol version of the car (a Kuga) - I don't use tires any more quickly than I did on my old petrol car.

I have a plugin hybrid. My commute is a 50km round trip, and my car (in summer - in winter it needs a bit of petrol) can do it on a single charge. Then when I visit my parents, which is about 600km one way, I can use the petrol.

It works perfectly for me - I never have to worry about a charge or running out of petrol, because I always have one or the other.

As others have said though, I wouldn't go electric if I couldn't charge on my drive.

No horror stories that I know.

EVs are heavy but so are SUVs. I got tyres changed recently and got totally standard ones on my hybrid.

You can get tyres I think that are reinforced for EV use, but as far as I am aware standard tyres are fine.

I probably wouldn't run a budget tyre on an ev but then again I wouldn't run a budget tyre on anything because I value my life more than that.

You definitely need a home charger.

We drove to Cornwall only stopping once for 45 mins charge (from London).

Might not work for you but as the average distance driven in the uk is 19 miles a day, clearly electric is totally straightforward and easy for the vast majority of UK drivers.

Would anyone with an EV like to comment on tyres? 3 years ago there were horror stories about cost and availability of tyres, they were special sizes and tyres from ordinary cars did not fit the rims of EVs.

@tastethestrongbowthere really ISNT chargers everywhere. The village I live in has NO electric chargers at all (apart from any privately owned ones). 60% of houses in this village have on street only parking and no prospect of off street parking. There is also no or very narrow pavements - so nowhere for on street chargers.
The neighbouring town has 2 chargers on a street. None in any car parks. And again the majority of households don’t have off street parking.
There is a petrol station in the small town.

where do you propose everyone charges their cars?

Actually, I’ve been to three of those places regularly. I’d plan my trips just as I would if I was reliant on petrol.

if I lived in or travelled to an area with a genuine lack of charger points then I probably wouldn’t get an electric vehicle. But I firmly believe that’s the exception and most places seem well catered for.

What’s with the excessive … use? Weird.

The people who are saying don't get one are the people who have never had one!

I have had a Renault Zoe for 2 years, its a 72 plate and one of the last ones built. In the winter it will do around 150 miles on a full charge and in the summer around 250 miles.

Same as you, I work from home and most of my driving is around town but occasionally a longer trip to see family.

I charge at home on a normal 3 pin plug, I usually only charge a couple of times a month at a cost of around £15 per charge. Yes, it takes around 24 hours to fully charge but if I need to go somewhere mid charge, I just unplug, go on my journey and then plug back in when I get home.

The infrastructure for charging is getting better every day but to be honest, it's really good already. Around my home down, there are around 100 chargers of all speeds and most motorway services have fast charging available. Fast charging is dependent on the car you have. Check that, as if you ever want to do a tour of the UK, being able to use a fast charger may be important.

A good place to check out EV's is https://ev-database.org/#group=vehicle-group&rs-pr=10000_100000&rs-er=0_1000&rs-ld=0_1000&rs-ac=2_23&rs-dcfc=0_300&rs-ub=10_200&rs-tw=0_2500&rs-ef=100_350&rs-sa=-1_5&rs-w=1000_3500&rs-c=0_5000&rs-y=2010_2030&s=1&p=0-10

They have checked most of the cars available and will give you an idea of real range rather than what the manufacturers will tell you.

I can without doubt say, I would never have an ICE car again.

You've never been to Wales have you . . .

Or Scotland . . .

Or Devon . . .

Or Cornwall . . .

Or The Cotswolds . . .

Of course there is. There’s chargers everywhere now including lots of pubs and hotels I’ve stayed at.

You just have to plan your journey like you would with a petrol car.

I wouldn’t get stuck in a rural area with no petrol so I don’t know why that would suddenly happen with electric.

Agree with all the pro EV posters. We got one a few months ago and I was really nervous about it before we got it but I absolutely love it. We would never go back to combustion engine now. The charging has never been an issue. If you add up all the time you spend filling your car up at the petrol station then the (very) occasional charge at the services is nothing in comparison. Plug it in, go for a wee and a coffee and it's time to go. You rarely fill it to full at public charger, it's usually only a quick 10 minute top up to get you home. It's a completely different mindset. All the people saying the infrastructure isn't there mustn't have an EV. The chargers are everywhere. My only caveat is that I would only have one if you can charge at home as the public chargers are too expensive to be the only way of charging.