Electric car or not?

[ABBAsnumberonefan]

I’m thinking of getting a bigger car and weighing up my options. What’s everyone’s opinion on electric cars? Is it worth investing in one now or do they still need a few more years to develop?

the prices of them are eye watering even on finance so I’m not sure if it’s worth it yet!!

This isn't true.

We've got 2 EVs - one with a 280 mile range and one with a 240 mile range.

We're taking the 240 mile range one to France this summer, a lot further south than Disney. I have zero concerns about doing that journey or charging at any point on our holiday.

DH drives 150 miles to get to work every week (and then 150 miles home!) - he doesn't charge as there's no need to. He uses about 60% of the battery capacity.

EV technology and EVs are changing rapidly - people's perceptions and knowledge of them isn't changing quickly enough to keep up.

Our one on order has a 280mile (450km) range. Locals already using we know drive a lot. Our nearest big city is 180km away, and it easily does there and back, even in -15 temps.

Our local small town, is installing 12 Tesla chargers and solar car ports as an initial ‘charging centre’. Every basic car parks I can think of with say 20 spaces, now has at least 2 chargers. Even our local supermarket with is a basic store, not a large superstore has 3.

home wall charger cost us €650. Government gives €600 grant.

I love mine. It has 280-300 mile range so have only used public chargers when we've gone away. We have a home charger. Saved so much money. Love that it is 'one pedal driving' hardly use brake due to regenerative braking. Love that I can set the temperature before I get in it from the app, which is fabulous in winter. Couldn't go back to petrol now!

We have a self charging hybrid.

We don't buy anywhere near as much petrol as we did before.

We've got one and we love it! Admittedly though it's our second car - not quite brave enough to go all electric as I really don't fancy having to try to find places to charge en route (we charge at home on cheap rate at night).
But it drives like a dream and we've already clocked up almost 30k miles in the 2.5 years we've had it.
Looking forward to the range being higher so we can trade in our other car as well.

Most new electric cars have a range of 200 +miles. Who does more than 200 miles in one journey each day ?? They technology is there so there's no reason to worry about that. Mine is second hand and has a 170 mile range. Can you fit a home charger ? If so, then you will save a fortune compared to paying for petrol.

• The * technology is there

You would't need to stop to charge for a 100 mile trip unless you bought a very, very old electric car which i would not recommend.

My sister and BIL have taken their all electric car on a trip in Scandinavia, BIL calculated that it would have cost them at least 400 quid more in petrol.

Would those who already own EVs mind telling us what make and model and year they have?

2019 Tesla Model 3

@WishILivedInThrushGreen ahh how do you find having the hybrid? Paying for petrol is my main motivator 🤣

@mafsfan totally agree about public knowledge not keeping up (me included!)

Anyone got an electric and live in a driverless terrace? I think I could get a home charging point in my yard.

I'm not ready for electric yet and the people I know with them have all said without a partner with a normal car they wouldn't have bought

We have a 2018 Ioniq, fab car but range is “only” 140 and most new family sized EVs have 300+.

Putting in an order this year for a new one to come next year. Current favourites are either the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia (new) e-Niro.

I recently purchased an Ev van for work and love it!! If I could afford it I'd go electric easily.
My van goes 120 miles without a charge, but a super fast charger at the service station cost me £12 for a full charge in 45 mins. With kids I'd be stopping that often anyway and cars have longer range than my van.

Yes you have to switch your mindset but as long as you can charge at home is totally doable unless you both literally rack up hundreds of miles on a very regular basis.

Also they were talking on the news yesterday about recouping the lost tax from electric cars by introducing a pay per mile tarrif

If you can’t install a charging point at home then I wouldn’t even consider it unless your local charging infrastructure is a lot better than it is near me!

Not for us at present.

We keep old cars till they are beyond repair but effectively pay no depreciation and fairly minimal repair costs. With hobbies requiring a decent towing capacity it’s likely to be a very long time before electric cars suitably capable appear on the market let alone at a suitable price point.

Taxing EV owners has always been inevitable eventually.

Saving £ is not the only benefit to having an EV.

frankly we’re all going to have to just drive less in the future whether we like it or not. If we all have our heads in our respective sandpits then frankly we’re all fucked.

not thinking for a moment that everyone switching to an EV is going to save the world btw.

I agree that environmentally (and usually financially) keeping on to what you have for as long as possible makes sense.

however having been researching towing capabilities on EVs just this week wrt our next one I can tell you that things are developing fast on this, having admittedly looked quite hopeless just 2 years ago.

Nope, I won't be bothering anytime soon.

We have no off-road parking and our town has one public charge point at present - hardly practical. I rely on my car to run my business so I won't be spending on money on one until the infrastructure is in place.

Plus, the upfront costs are insane.

We love it @ABBAsnumberonefan

Our children and a parent live far away from us and we don't have to worry about finding charge points. Local pootling is mainly electric but petrol kicks in when battery needs to self charge.

Vw Id4.

280miles is plenty. We only drive any distances with Toddler in the car. He won’t last longer than 2-3hrs max without needing toilet/ food/ run about so it’s fine to need to stop.
I have never driven 5/6/7 hrs without stopping even alone