Go electric or get one last petrol car?

[Orangeinmybluelightcup]

Has anyone tackled this one yet? 13yr old estate is now borderline unsafe. Would ideally like to go electric. Most charging could be done at home, so constraint 1: need to investigate getting a charging point installed. Constraint 2 is looking like getting something big enough for X2 kids in car seats and larger sized dog in the boot. Constraint 3 is the price, looking second hand but bigger electrics are newer technology still so look like £25k! Hybrids are an option but from the reading I've done the petrol kicks in soon and when they're running on petrol they're less efficient because they're heavier. But getting one last petrol car seems like a shame... Has anyone else had this debate, what did you do?

The cost is my problem to, im looking at PHEV and the petrol equivalent model costs at least £6k - £8k (if not more) less, not sure im prepared to stump up the extra money right now.

We've had our e Niro for a couple of months now. It's such an amazing car! We have 2DC aged 4 and 6 and a medium sized dog. It is smaller than our old car but that was a 7 seater so it was always going to be!! The car can do about 280 miles so there's absolutely no range anxiety with it. So far the farthest I've gone was a 3 hour, 120 mile journey and I arrived with 55% charge still.

If you have the capability to charge at home you really don't need to be too concerned about the charging infrastructure. Yes you have to plan to charge if you're going away somewhere, but in our car I wouldn't worry about charging on a long journey until about 180-200 miles and that's being fairly conservative given the miles it can do. I don't think many people would travel 200 miles without a stop so what's the big issue? Stop, plug in, get a coffee and some lunch and then carry on.

Day to day I do about 50-60 miles. I plug in most evenings even though it's unnecessary, but it keeps the car at 80% charge and ensures I only use the cheap electricity. To top up to 80% after a normal 60 mile day of school runs etc costs me about 70p. I could not do 60 miles in our old diesel for 70p.

A lot of the negative comments about EVs tend to be by people who are thinking of the EVs of 5 years ago. The ones that are coming out now are very different and there are some brilliant cars.

@teaandbiscuitsforme we're looking at the Eniro and think we're going to go for it. I have an 11 year old and a dog!

[quote DarlingWithoutYou]@teaandbiscuitsforme we're looking at the Eniro and think we're going to go for it. I have an 11 year old and a dog![/quote]
It's such a good car - you'll love it! You might have already seen it but the Facebook group is really good, as are Andrew Till's YouTube videos.

Have you stopped to think where the electricity for your cars comes from?
60% of the UK’s electricity comes from either fossil fuel power stations - 40% (mainly gas) or nuclear ones - 20%. Renewables (wind, hydro etc) only contribute 40%.
Plus, 10% of all that energy is lost in power transmission lines as heat. So those cars are not as green as you might think.
Secondly, the large batteries make electric cars a lot heavier, so the tyres release a lot more particulate pollution when running on the road surface, and also wear the surface faster.

I live in rural Scotland, and will be sticking to a more energy efficient petrol car until forced to change.

@teaandbiscuitsforme what's the Facebook group called please?

@Babdoc some inconvenient truths there! So much greenwash about, thank you for sticking up for the facts.

to be green: drive less, fly less, have less, do less. Not fun, is it?

[quote DarlingWithoutYou]@teaandbiscuitsforme what's the Facebook group called please?[/quote]
It's called the Kia E Niro U.K. Interest Group

@Babdoc

Have you stopped to think where the electricity for your cars comes from? 60% of the UK’s electricity comes from either fossil fuel power stations - 40% (mainly gas) or nuclear ones - 20%. Renewables (wind, hydro etc) only contribute 40%. Plus, 10% of all that energy is lost in power transmission lines as heat. So those cars are not as green as you might think. Secondly, the large batteries make electric cars a lot heavier, so the tyres release a lot more particulate pollution when running on the road surface, and also wear the surface faster. I live in rural Scotland, and will be sticking to a more energy efficient petrol car until forced to change.

Yes for sure @Babdoc but the flip side is all the well known bad stuff that petrol and diesel cars do!

@murbblurb you said the same thing up thread. You are undoubtedly right. I'm looking at my holey patched jeans and ebay second hand trainers right now. They look pretty fun actually, nice colour.

But it's kind of besides the point of the thread, which is what type of car to buy.

A decision that's just become a bit more urgent as the bloody clutch has gone :S

I looked a few years ago, but stuck with petrol mostly because of the cost. I didn’t have a big commute and didn’t seem worth the big uplift.
There also wasn’t enough charging places on my commute and I knew I’d spend every journey anxious about running out.

We went full EV in 2019. Love it. We charge at home overnight with Octopus Energy which is all renewable energy, and the car’s range is just shy of 300 miles which is more than enough for general life. We’ve also driven it on long journeys to Holland, Belgium and France without any problems. I’d never go back to a petrol/diesel car now.

Was same as you 18 months ago.
Got electric car on work salary sacrifice. Couldn’t have bought it outright.
Overall very happy. Electric bill went up

Plenty of room in an Audi etron.

For us works out cost efficient. If you claim work mileage might need to agree on paying part of electric bills for work travel? I don’t but just a factor.

@VenusClapTrap which car do you have?

@CadburyCake

My problem is we could go electric easily 48 weeks of the year - I wouldn’t even mind getting a charging point installed on the driveway. But I want to be able to drive the length of the country easily for holidays. I don’t want to plan every hotel, holiday cottage, day trip, car park etc around chargers on holiday. So I’m not ready for fully electric yet, we’re buying another petrol. If we had two cars one would definitely be electric tho.

This is us too. We've just hired a petrol car for those two weeks a year. Saves faffing with charging points.

@Freshprincess if you don't have a big commute then range anxiety shouldn't have been a issue
My car has a real world range of over 250miles (in theory 295 ) so I have no need to charge away from the home unless I'm doing long journeys.
To be honest charging away from home hasn't been the problem I thought it would be. I think it's one of those problems that seems worse than it is once you finally have to do it.

@DarlingWithoutYou Tesla Model 3

Try a kia e-niro on a work scheme

Think it has 250 mile range so would be fine for holidays, you'd just need to stop for lunch!

So those cars are not as green as you might think.

Pretty much every, if not all, EV car on the market is far greener than a petrol or diesel car, even taking into account the creation of electricity to run the, and the manufacturing process for both the vehicles and the batteries.

The whole think about EV cars not being as green as a traditionally powered car has been debunked many times over now.

@Mn753

Try a kia e-niro on a work scheme

We're considering that model on salary sacrifice.

We have an i3 bmw since January , and I love it. It's a pleasure to drive and I've only ever had to charge it at home.

Do you have a wall charger, @Carriemac? If so, which one? I feel a bit overwhelmed with the options.

"Being green" is hardly the only reason to opt for an electric or hybrid car anyway!

And even if it is a factor, the fact is electricity will get greener over time as we switch more to renewable sources. Petrol will always be dirty.

We made the switch! Got a Kia E-Niro and absolutely love it.

It’s does well over 200 miles real world driving without needing charging. We got a PodPoint charger installed at home and charge at cheap rate 12.30-4.30am. All set on an app. So easy to keep it topped up. It was a big dilemma but absolutely no regrets.

I found Maddie Goes Electric on You Tube

very helpful when researching and I’ve also learned lots from the Kia ENiro Interest Group on Facebook.

We bought a wall charger recommended by our electrician - including the subsidy it was around 500 I think but it’s app controlled and easy to use and neat . When it stops raining I’ll check the make .
we have a small family company and it was bought as a company car for DH, there is no benefit in kind at the moment nad it’s fully allowable against company profits .