Please tell me about your electric car

[Partey]

I’m beginning to seriously consider an electric car.

my commute will soon increase to a 30 mile round trip, 4 times per week. Occasional trip to sports clubs and stuff after school and weekend spent doing maybe 30/40 miles per day Sat&Sun.

it’s just cost me 73.00 to fill up my 1.0 litre VW, and at the minute I’m spending around 210/260 per month on fuel.

my budget would only allow for a Zoe or Leaf, and by my calculations I would at least half that even doing each gill charge at home(although my new employer will install charge point too which would be free). It feels like a no brainer has anyone made the switch with similar commute/current costs who can actually tell me they’re better off?

Running a few calculations I have you doing about 32mpg in your car. This is far less than many real world reviews come out at.

Rather than changing cars have you considered your driving style is the possibly costing you a lot of money?

That was my assessment too. My engine is 40% larger, in an older and larger vehicle, yet even in the middle of winter and without being frugal I get at least 48 MPG.

We have a 4 year old leaf as our only car. As a day to day car I can't fault it, we charge at home very cheaply, upkeep is cheap as the way the regen braking works means it is very gentle on the tyres and brakes, road tax is free.

Longer distances, need a little logistics applied particularly as it only has 140ish mile range, obviously have to remember to plug in the night before to make sure it is fully charged, plan route thinking about charging points, back up charging points if planned ones are in use and charging at destination.

I think if you are regularly doing longer journey's then a car with a short ish range might be annoying but if they are only an occasional thing then electric cars are great, even at the, slightly more, budget end.

That was my assessment too. My engine is 40% larger, in an older and larger vehicle, yet even in the middle of winter and without being frugal I get at least 48 MPG

I bet a lot of people are in a position to save money on fuel costs through more thinking ahead. The number of drivers I see accelerating towards roundabouts and red lights or using excessive acceleration astonishes me.

I have a 2013 Leaf with a 24kwh battery. I think it's a great car. I charge it at home and sometimes score a free charge at Tesco although not often since the electricity rates increased.

I have a solar power array and home battery now so the cost is very little but how much you spend would depend on how and where you charge it but I think most ev owners make use of a time of use tariff and charge overnight at a much reduced rate.

DH and I both have electric cars. Mine is our 3rd and through DHs work we also have other electric cars home for the weekend to try. We’ve had an iPace, Hyundai ionic, and an Citroen ec4, and from his work we’ve driven the Kia Rio and the VW ID4. The best was the Hyundai, followed closely by the iPace, and the worst the Citroen ec4 (nice car but the range prediction is awful.) I wish I’d had the Hyundai Kona electric instead of my Citroen. We’ve really cut our fuel bill by both going electric. DH charges for free at work and I charge a couple of times a week at home on a cheap night rate. He’s having to go to a plug in hybrid for his new work car and I’m not looking forward to the fuel bill! Hoping in a years time he can go back to full electric.

My friend and her DH both have a Renault Zoe and love them.

I’m not a driver who hurries anywhere, not a late braker, I don’t hammer the accelerator, experienced driver etc.
I’m definitely going to manually calculate my mpg and take it from there.