Would you buy an electric car?

[poppyart]

DM has just found out she is entitled to a mobility vehicle which will be driven by my DF and probably myself as she doesn't drive, to get her to appointments and help out with shopping etc.
I've had a look and seen there are electric vehicles available but I honestly don't know the first thing about them, is there anything I should be looking for? When looking for a petrol or diesel car i was looking at MPG and the shape/size for the practicality of getting her in and out so not to low or too high.
Has anyone went electric and been converted?

I hate the long journey argument. One of ours does 280 miles and one does 240 miles. Most people don't actually travel that far from home on a regular basis. Happily taking ours over to France next month and absolutely no concern about charging

But perhaps the people making the 'long journey argument' are doing so because they do travel long distances on a regular basis and they're doing it for work, against the clock, not leisurely holiday travel? I'd also question that 280 mile range when you have the lights, heater etc on.

I have to drive up to 450 miles in a day for work and even with that range, I'd be lengthening my working day, when I just wanted to get home, while I waited for the car to charge. Oh, and I wouldn't be able to claim the whole cost back from work because they only pay 4 ppm for electric vehicles and service station charging is about double that.

And no, I can't 'do it on Zoom' not all jobs work like that.

Electric vehicles are very good in a lot of circumstances, but not all, it has to be acknowledged. They're also still too expensive for a lot of people. Not everyone can afford to commit to a significant three figure car payment every month or have it subsidised by their employer.

Both mine and dh's cars are ev's, I wouldn't go back to petrol now. Not just that the cost to run it is much less, but the car itself is so much easier to drive.

We are lucky in that we have solar panels, so during the next few months our charging at home will be free! And during the winter we charge overnight on a cheaper ev only tariff.

It IS a pain to have to stop on long journeys. Especially when the chargers are busy and there is a queue, however that has only happened to us once. We have small children so would be factoring in a stop anyway.

As has been said already, if they can install a charger at their home then go for it (or if they have a garage, they can charge from a 3 pin socket).

Home chargers cost about £750 all in to buy and install (not sure if the grant is still going). Charge times are:
3 pin plug (3kw) : 7-9 miles of range per hour
Home charger and supermarket chargers (7kw) : 15 miles of range per hour.
Rapid chargers (service stations and dotted about) (50kw-150+kw) : 150-500+ miles of range per hour.

With charging, you do not need to stand next to the car while it is charging, you plug it in and go and do something else. Very rarely have I waited in my vehicle while charging. At service stations we grab a coffee (takes about 15-20 minutes to rapid charge) from 'fairly empty' to 'fairly full'. If we're visiting a town a long way away we locate a 7kw charger before we leave. When we get there plug we in and leave it for the day, by the time we want to go home it's fully charged (if it's not, stop at a rapid on the way home). You get used to it. I wouldn't say it's more or less convenient - just different.

I wouldn't worry about battery life, modern vehicles with active battery temperature management have batteries which will outlast the car.

For the record, EV's aren't just moving the pollution to power stations, they are cleaner per mile as they are far more efficient. Even if the grid was burning 100% coal they're still cleaner than a petrol car. As it stands out grid is about 40% renewable and getting cleaner every year.

If it works for you, go for it.

But most people don't travel 450 miles a day for work. You must also accept that. A lot of people don't even travel that far to go on holiday! Particularly if they drive to an airport and then fly.

I get frustrated when these threads fill up with people saying they're only ok for short journey (not true) and they're no good for long journeys (also not true), mainly made by people who have never even experienced using or owning an EV.

They're not up to towing at the moment, I accept that. There's also a huge issue for people living in flats/houses with no parking, I also accept that.

As for 280 miles in my car, it's pretty accurate. At its lowest it dropped to 240 mid winter with heating and the works on on a motorway journey. I've charged today and it's showing 300 miles because conditions are mild and you neither need heating nor air con.

It's frustrating to see the same untruths pop up again and again. Not all EVs are the same but they get lumped together like they are. If you're unlikely to choose a petrol supermini because you need a family size car which is good on the motorway, you're unlikely to choose a VW E Up that has a range that is 1/3 of the range of the Kia E Niro SUV. But EV drivers are supposed to accept the criticisms about range, charging etc as if all EVs have the same spec as the lower end!

I hate the long journey argument. One of ours does 280 miles and one does 240 miles. Most people don't actually travel that far from home on a regular basis. Happily taking ours over to France next month and absolutely no concern about charging.

Why do you hate the long journey argument? Does not doing long journeys regularly make it any less annoying that you need to do extra planning and take extra time to do them?

Because some posters imply that you can't do 200-300 miles with stopping every 50 miles, which isn't true. Some people have previously posted that they wouldn't have an EV because they wouldn't be able to drive to their local big town/city because it's 40 miles away and they can't charge on the way with no understanding of the range that most EVs have.

As I said in my last post, if you regularly do long journeys, you're unlikely to choose an EV with a 100 mile range, just as you're unlikely to choose a 1 litre petrol super mini. Many of the family sized EVs can do most people's 'long journeys' without the stress and hassle that is implied by some posters on here. It's really not the big deal for most EV drivers that it's made out to be.

Most of the family sized ones are much more expensive, you wouldn't fit a family in the ones about £20k-£30k, they look the same size as my small Fiesta. A lot of people haven't got £40k plus to spend on a car, many are over £50k for a reasonable size car

Even if the grid was burning 100% coal they're still cleaner than a petrol car.

Are you sure?

Poland relies heavily on coal to produce electricity and is often used as an example to illustrate that they are not.

No, because of where I live which means I have no practical way of charging it. Couldn't install a charger at home, and the one closest to my work is on the wrong side of a duel carriageway.

Yes this is the same as us, and I hate stopping off for petrol as it is,, Ive trained my bladder as best I can to cope although as I get older its less reliable!

But anything more than a quick run in, wee, run out again would annoy me so I expect to be able to drive long distances and only spend a couple of mins filling up if need be, its hard enough in some areas of the country finding a petrol station let alone a charger

Yes same here, I go to a lot of trouble researching stop offs, food serving times in pubs, parking opportunities, nice location etc etc and its important that I dont have to then factor in time to go to some godawful service station and then wait for a charger, ensure that the app is working/signal etc etc

Journeys in this country take long enough as it is, I dont want a 40 min fill up on top of that (at least)

Although you dont seem to consider that many of us have looked into the cost/benefit balance in trying to see if an electric car would work for us

My OH has a round commute of 160 miles a day, this is sometimes more dependent on diversions on motorways which is surprisingly and depressingly often.

To get a charge that could cope with that without worrying if the lights, heating, idling, diversions, head wind, fast motorway driving would eat into the range, he would have to pay a huge amount for the car. It would cost around the same amount per month as our mortgage!

I have a regular trip of the same distance for family and friends every few weeks and every 4 weeks I do a round trip of 408 miles. I drive to a place, spend an hour there and have to drive back. I do this in one day and I dont stop there or back. On a good day the total hours driving can be as little as 8 hours. A couple of times the individual journeys can be 7,8,9 hours, my max journey on the way home once was 9 hours. I simply do not have the time to spend any more time during the day doing anything else and I certainly dont want the risk of running otu of charge.

Plus we need a tow bar sufficient to carry a particular weight for carrying bikes but I think thats less of a problem.

I think so, I read it a while ago and to be fair didn't check it but found a Bloomberg article comparing a vehicle trip of petrol Vs 100% coal (plus some other sources). There's a visual comparison about half way down the page.

www.2oceansvibe.com/2018/11/06/the-coal-and-carbon-required-to-charge-that-clean-electric-vehicle-of-yours/

I'd link directly but Bloomberg is behind a paywall.

Sorry, previous post @etulosba

Got one. Wouldn't go back to an engine now.

You absolutely can.

My car comes with a towing thingy of you want it

In the seven months we've had our car we've spent probably £90 in total on electricity and that's including a driving holiday to Ireland. We were there or thereabouts for one tank of fuel alone.

Winter range is about 180 Miles in the warmer weather we've been getting 250 miles to a charge.

@bellac11 oh, 160 miles per day is a perfect use case, if you charge that off peak every night you will save a small fortune on fuel. Roadworks and delays only increase the range. It's heavily dependent on average speed. Heating only has a slight effect on range. Lights use basically nothing.

My son has a tesla and I can honestly say that none of what you said is true. The build quality is excellent, his is a new one so problems have been rectified. Charging stations both tesla and generic are without a hitch. They only need a look over every couple of years so much cheaper to run as there's less moving parts to go wrong.

We also have an electric car although not a tesla and it's more than worry it.

If you are getting the car through DLA or similar your charger should be included.
Be mindful of the delays on new car builds though... its effecting the whole industry. We ordered our electric car in January and its looking like we won't get it till autumn 😔

Except as I said for the cost of the car - prohibitive

I forgot to add, the road works and delays often add a huge diversion, down one motorway and up another, another 30 miles sometimes and completely unpredictable

Motability will pay for the charger at your mum's house, if it's all electric (not hybrid)

Even when you factor in saving £10k per year on fuel?

It's not for everyone so if it isn't for you then fair enough.

Not unless they make them super-fast charging. Unless you have a garage, a driveway or at least a designated parking space near your house then they are just stupid. If I could plug one in at home then I'd be a lot more keen.