Has anyone bought a fully electric SUV? Any thoughts or insights appreciated.

[Cakes4Teatime]

We will be buying on finance and not in the market for the high end Tesla price range. Have started to research the
Kia e-Niro
MG ZS EV
Hyundai Kona
Nissan Leaf (but want a higher up car really)

Would love to hear from anyone who has one of these.

Nobody on Mumsnet had a fully electric car? Maybe this is a warning I should heed!

They’re not SUVs though!

They’re not SUVs though!
Ah yes. Fair point! I would be interested in hearing experiences of owning other fully electric cars from a more general point of view even though I’m likely after an SUV. Don’t think I can edit my title now.

The Kia e-Niro has great reviews. I contemplated buying it but I think the infrastructure is still quite patchy around charging. Although it does have a long range, it wouldn't allow us to travel to family without factoring in a charging stop and more pertinently I wouldn't be able to charge at family location. (similar applies to semi regular long distance work travel) If I hadn't had those constraints and could manage more easily on the range it would have been a serious option. I opted for the hybrid Kia Niro and really like it. Never driven a Kia before and reviews were variable but it definitely does the job I need it to!

We have a Toyota RAV4 hybrid (non plugin, self charging) and it's great. Cheap to run, comfy, large boot, lots of interior space and food for country roads.

*good, not food

I had a Leaf - it’s about as far as you can get from an SUV! It was great but the range was limiting for me. I had a look at the Kona but I felt that the finished was a bit poor to be honest. We couldn’t have relied on the Leaf as our only family car but perfectly okay for ordinary commuting. The range was specified as 150 odd miles but I wouldn’t have trusted it for anything more than 100 miles round trip.

I’ve upgraded to a Tesla which has a much better and reliable range but is considerably more expensive. The Tesla charging network is second to none. I can plan a full journey in advance and have the confidence that I will be in range of a Supercharger at key points in my journey.

How many miles do you do in an average day? Are there any regular longer trips you make? Ignore the once a year trip to the south of France that always gets bandied about as a reason not to choose an electric car - hire a car suitable for that one week a year rather than basing your other 51 weeks of driving on it!

Look at an electric car specific energy tarrif like Octopus if you do go for it. Off peak energy prices can be as low as 3p/kW sometimes.

This would be better in the Cars sub forum. There's a big thread about electric cars in there too

I know that the Daily Mail is hated on here but there was an article about electric cars in the 'motoring last section yesterday.

I would say think carefully about it from a charging point of view. My EV is coming in a couple of weeks and I'm also currently looking to move house. The requirement to be able to put an exterior charger somewhere is seriously limiting my search!

Have you looked at the Tesla model 3? They're more in the price range of lower brands mentioned.

The infrastructure isn't perfect for electric cars yet though it's well on its way. Depending on how long you will keep it (and I'd suggest not long with an electric as technology moves so fast so you may find it difficult to sell if you don't get contract hire) you may want to consider a plug in hybrid. They haven't really taken off as well as they could but for day to day they're great with the added familiarity of petrol/diesel for long journeys.

@penpotted you can Daisy chain an electric extension out the window, if it helps but it's really not recommended.

I have a hybrid purelybecause I couldnt quite find what I wanted in a reasonable price range.
The next car hopefully be be a full electric.I have aBMW 225xe - I get about 70mpg combined and I love this car as it's suv height, has 4 wheel drive for winter ( live rurally) and it has a decent boot for the dogs whilst still being a little luxurious.
Can reccomend it.
We have installed a charger at home and my husband gets his new hybrid ( company car) next week. He has gone for a skoda superb estate as we need the boot space for dogs and university pick ups.

I’ve heard from a colleague that a Kona is fab. No personal experience though. They’ve got an electric charging point at home and work too.

We have gone fully electric this year. I drive an eGolf and DH has a Tesla Model 3. Happy to try and answer any questions I can. We have had a pod point charger installed. I rarely do long-range driving in the Golf and so rarely charge it away from home. We take the Tesla on longer journeys and plan our stops at super-chargers on the motorway.

We looked at it but weren't happy with the range/boot space of the fully electric ones. Instead we've gone for a XC90 PHEV which is perfect for most of our day to day driving, which is all on the electric charge. Longer journeys obviously less fuel efficient but we don't do that many of those.

We haven't got a plug point installed yet, yet use an outdoor extension cable plugged in at the hall way socket.

Our neighbour has a Konya but it looks tiny compared to our car and I need all the space o can get for camping equipment etc.