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

Nope will be buying one of the final new petrol or diesel cars and keeping it going I guess. I drive miles every day as a carer going to the most rural communities and wouldn’t be able to do it in an electric car. No off road parking here. So far we have two measly charge points in the whole of town. No plans for anymore. The place is swarmed with tourists looking for them in the summer as it is. I don’t have time in the middle of my day available to leave the car on charge so I can continue to work for peanuts.

We've had an EV with a home charger for 18m. Like a pp, we queued for a charger once, and we struggled a bit with slow chargers at my sisters house until we worked out that there was a fast charger down the road. Now DH goes out for a coffee and charge up first thing.

We also have a petrol car that we use mainly for multi stop beach trips - long drive to get there and lots of miles away from fast chargers while we're there. That sort of thing just isn't workable at the moment but I'm sure it will be soon.

Im not a big driver but do quite a lot of local miles, ive gone from spending about £100/month on petrol to about £20/month on extra electricity.

In your circs I would definitely go electric.

Electric with those parameters, without a doubt.
We have one full electric and one old ICE car which I keep hoping will die so I can justify a second EV. We almost never use the ICE. It feels like a dinosaur compared to the EV.

Honestly wouldn’t be buying a 5 year old electric car. Most (of the ones I looked at) have a 5 year or 100000km battery warranty and the cost to replace if if they go is astronomical.

If you’re mainly charging at home, an electric car could be really good. We have an EV and an ICE car. The EV is used for all day to day stuff, we can charge it for super cheap overnight so it’s far more economical and second-hand EVs are quite often now similarly priced to ICE equivalents, so the initial outlay isn’t necessarily bigger. In fact we weren’t considering an EV until I saw it was the same price as the ICE models I was looking at, and ran the numbers on how much we would save on petrol and then it became a no-brainer. Do budget in the charger too, around £1000 for supply and install. But if you’re on an EV energy tariff, all your usage overnight is cheap, not just the EV, so it’s great for other stuff too. I time my washing to go on at 5am!

We use the ICE car for long family holiday journeys as it’s a bigger car in general, but the EV is much nicer to drive! Very quiet and smooth.

Ours has a range of about 180 miles (capable of more but I’m not very economical on the acceleration and like to drive at 70!) and can be fully charged at home overnight so we’ve only ever charged away from home a couple of times.

We have an electric car and have not had any problem with charging it. We go on long journeys at least four times a month.

We have a drive and can charge at home. It costs just under £1000 to have the charging point put in at home (so you need to factor this in).

However, overall not only have our monthly car costs decreased significantly but our electric costs have as well. Even though we use more electricity each month (than before we had an electric car) as we run our dishwasher, washing machine, etc. at night the costs are much lower (as we have a cheap rate from 11:30pm).

Another vote for electric here. Never had a problem charging it (although only need to do this on 250 + mile journeys). We have 2 now and are about to trade first one in and get a 3rd. Charging through solar panels or at night is great value.
There are upfront costs (charger 1k +) but you can keep using it for future cars too.

Why on earth do you think you would end “stuck down some country road with no charger for miles”?

Do you often completely run out of petrol and find yourself stuck down a country road with no petrol station for miles? Or do you plan ahead and make sure you have enough fuel for your journey, factoring in stops for fuel if needed?

OP, it is true that some areas have more chargers than others. But like PPs have said, if you can charge at home then it’s not an issue for your day-to-day journeys, and for your occasional longer journeys then as long as you choose your EV carefully then it could comfortably do a 100mile journey there and back without needing charging. And there will almost certainly be public chargers somewhere en route on a journey of that length.

I think the main consideration would be cost: EVs are certainly cheaper to run, but more expensive to buy, and so it depends on whether you think that extra cost is worth it.

(We have 2 EVs and we love them!)

Electric definitely. Yet again there is some nonsense being spouted on here about the UK not being ready.
You won’t run out of charge down a country lane any more than you wouldn’t run out of petrol. Absolutely absurd!
The range of our car is over 300 miles and we don’t have a home charger, depending where you live they might not be necessary. Our council working with a firm have installed loads of on street lamp charging points. We live in a terraced house and it’s not an issue. It’s so easy where I live.
OP you will find most posters who have an EV will say it’s fine, people who don’t own one post all the negative crap.
You will defo have a bit of range anxiety at first but you get over it pretty quickly.

My DS and his wife bought an electric car with the plan to have the second car petrol driven.

Two years down the line they have changed the second car to electric too as it is so much cheaper and have found no inconvenience in charging.

They do have solar panels and a charging point.

Why would this happen? You would just charge the car before your journey? It’s no more likely to happen than running out of petrol

So what?
We had better stick to Diesel or petrol instead beacuse they are so much better for the environment?

I have an electric car and love it. You’re no more likely to run out of charge than you are to run out of petrol if you haven’t made sure you have enough before you start the journey

What device did you type that comment on?

You need a home-charger (£1200).

If you drive a lot in the countryside it's a definite no.

I have the ZapMap app. It will find the nearest chargers, tell me if they are free and satnav me there.

There are limitations and inconveniences and a bit more forward planning but they are now viable choice for many.

Minerals used in the EV batteries are finite…hydrogen vehicles are a long way off.
My main bugbear around EV’s is the reports of children being used in the mining of the minerals.

You sound like you’re ideally suited to electric OP - off street parking, lots of short journeys, even your long ones can probably be done there and back on a single charge.

Second hand EVs are really cheap atm. Even more so if you’re willing to drive a Tesla.

Definitely electric, I love ours . We’ve just driven from Devon to Scotland and back with no issues whatsoever. And with your home charger you can beetle about with no problem. Saves us a fortune in petrol too. I think PP is correct in saying that people with electric cars love them, people without only see problems which really aren’t there!

We have an electric car and would never go back. I love the convenience of charging at home and it's loads cheaper than buying petrol or diesel. One example - 4 of us went on a city break 100 miles away, cost £4 for the round trip. We've travelled all over the country and on the continent.
I don't know anyone who has an electric car who would go back and it's only people who don't have one say the infrastructure is no good.

I personally wouldn't switch to an electric car yet, but if I only used a car for the sort of journeys you describe I definitely would.

I'd go electric and drive electric. I think those who can, should. Even if just for the reduced air pollution.
The UK has a decent network for motorway charges and any distance driven here tend to involve motorways. For your day to day needs electric sounds ideal. The cost per mile with a home charger on an overnight cheap tarif is very reasonable. It's about 2p per mile for me.
The acceleration and torque with electric cars are excellent

Yeah there is if you plan. Most supermarkets and petrol station have charging points along with hotels, car parks, towns and street. We have no problem charging.

I would always go EV now. We have two. Always charge at home - very rarely do we charge out and about although you see chargers everywhere now. I don't agree that the UK doesn't have the infrastructure.

Because you can charge your car at home, I'd certainly go for electric. The range on the MINI is a bit short, but it sounds as though you don't have the need for long range anyway.

Secondhand electric cars are fantastic bargains.

@Hoppinggreen - exactly. I have queued for Petrol in the past longer than that.

It’s just not an everyday issue at all. If I have to que 10 mins once every 3 years due to an issue then so be it.