Can someone explain electric cars, hybrid and any other options

[m00rfarm]

I am honestly not a stupid person, but I really cannot get my head around what I should be looking at purchasing. I find something that looks interesting, then find there is a hidden battery cost per month for example.

I really want an SUV type electric vehicle (well, I think I do). But would a hybrid be better?

Any simple explanations would be greatly appreciated.

What make of car please?

I think all the EVs have regen braking

I am also considering an electric car. Most of our driving is city driving, so lots of braking and stopping at traffic lights. However we will be doing a lot more motorway driving from now on to visit family members, so maybe every three months or so. We need luggage space for those trips , so an SUV would make sense. Also need space for three adults to sit comfortably in the back.
we could have a charger installed so can charge in the drive, and there is a charger at the local library not far away. However I am really worried about trips to the Highlands etc and longer distances from a charging perspective.

I just have no idea what make and model to get, whether new or second hand.

Like a PP said, we used the Chargemap app to charge in France. You buy a card with it and use that to pay. This seemed far more reliable than using a bank card, whereas in the U.K. I would only ever use my bank card at a public charger.

We didn't find it stressful at all, although looking at the map of chargers, it's clear that the charging network is very much more developed along the toll motorways and in the east of northern France. We were on the west coast so less toll motorways and therefore less charging opportunities on hand. If you are on the motorway, the signage for the aires tells you if there's a charger which was really useful, although we had already planned our stop before we set off.

On our journey, we charged in Portsmouth before getting on the ferry and then stopped once in France on our way to our destination. We could charge at our destination (campsite with charger), then we used IONITY chargers at an Aire and a rapid charger at a supermarket in Caen (might have been Leclerc, can't remember). So all very simple.

We are heading to Mid Wales next weekend which looks more of a challenge TBH. But then we won't actually be driving that many miles (country lanes that take a while to get anywhere but aren't that many miles!) so we're probably only likely to need to charge once during our week away to come home.

@SilverLiningPlaybook Most EVs have regen braking. It's just how they're designed. It might be all - I'm not an EV expert!!

We've had 4 EVs this past 18 months (2 purchased, 2 short term loans) and they've all had regen breaking.

I'd seriously consider the Skoda Enyaq. We have that and a Kia E Niro and the Skoda is a perfect large family, lots of luggage car.

Also a PP said it cost £16 to charge their Kona. Just so people are aware, that would probably be at a rapid charger.

At home we spend about £2.50 to charge our cars from 40% to 80% mins which gets us about 190 miles in one car and 220 miles in the other. We charge each car every other night or every few nights if we've had a quiet weekend at home.

Last year we spent £350 on charging 2 cars at home and we do quite a lot of miles on each month. We would easily have spent that in a month on petrol previously.

At a rapid charger it would now cost around £25+ to charge the Kona for 260 miles.
The poster above is prob still on a low fixed tariff charging at home from the prices given, so anyone thinking of buying will need to check what price they would need to pay for their EV refill. At 25p/kwh it’s approx £16 for 260 miles.

Anyone curious about uk range can download Zap-Map and take a look

But EVs at rapid chargers don't generally charge 0-100%. We've never paid (so far!!) more than about £12 for a public charge to take us to 80/90/100%.

We lease an electric Renault zoe which was DHs idea - I must admit I was a bit reluctant but I absolutely love it. Driving is very smooth and easy. Electric cars don't have gears as they don't have an engine. The regenerative breaking also makes driving even easier and motion sickness hasn't been a problem for my dd who can sometimes suffer! Ours is used for commuting - about 20 miles a day- and local journeys. Mostly we charge at home about twice a week with a normal 3 pin plug. This is a slow trickle charge overnight. We also make use of the free charging at our local aldi when we shop. Personally I find charging out and about a bit faffy due to needing different apps/accounts and would prefer if there was just one system. However there are loads of places (north of england). If the car says you have 40 miles left or whatever, that is reliable so I don't worry about running out. We do have a larger petrol car for bigger journeys/holidays with the kids and dog as the zoe is quite small. I would have another EV but they are just too expensive to buy to have two.

Again, potential buyers please be careful. The cost of a charge depends on
unit price
battery size
% charged
Higher capacity batteries will naturally cost more to charge.

Well yes HairyKitty larger batteries will indeed cost more to charge. A bit like larger petrol tanks costing more to fill really.

@HairyKitty Cars with larger batteries also have a larger range, therefore potentially negating the need to charge as frequently as cars with smaller batteries.

Weird argument.

As PP said, smaller cars tend to have smaller petrol tanks, larger cars tend to have larger petrol tanks. This is an accepted fact when buying a car.

If this point was in reference to my posts about the cost of my EVs, we drive an E Niro (64kw) and an Enyaq (62kw) - neither of which have small batteries. I think you were trying to imply that my costs are lower because I have a smaller battery to charge which isn't true.

My comment was directed to the earlier poster who didn’t seem to realise that!

I'm looking to get a medium sized hybrid (about 3 years old). I'm looking at good safety ratings (currently have a Volvo) and reliability, etc. Any recommendations please? Toyotas (Prius and Corolla) seem to come out quite well and Hyundai Ioniq. Would love some opinions on these or any others (Kia Niro for example). Many thanks.

I have a Toyota CHR and the safety and reliability ratings are really good. Also so easy and smooth to drive. Favourite car I've ever had.

I would check out Robert Llewellyn Fully Charged channel on YouTube. The mechanic in our house doesn’t recommend hybrids at all - more to go wrong.

Update - my VW ID4 Electric Vehicle arrives on Friday. I have signed up to a charging app and appear to be ready to go. I really hope this is a good idea. I have sold both my cars to pay for this one, and have NEVER spent this much on a car in my whole life (nor even envisaged spending this amount of money!). Does anyone have an ID4?

Try the Speak EV forum. There is a VW sub-forum.
Enjoy your car! It is a bit of a steep learning curve at first, but well worth it.

@m00rfarm - we have had the id4 several months now. We love it

Why is it a steep learning curve?
i was gutted to hear that the fiesta will be gone and not be electric. Smallest electric will be puma with ford.

@Rummikub - vw already do the id3 which is like the golf. They will bring out id2 ( like polo) and id1 ( like vw up) eventually

You're going to be disappointed when petrol cars disappear as all hybrid and electric cars are automatics.

The "mild hybrid" is just an electric assisted petrol engine and I doubt will last much longer.

I have a Toyota Auris self-charging hybrid. I use about 1/3 less petrol than I did before, use it mainly about town and really like it. It was half the cost of an equivalent electric car when I got it.

That's amazing — how did you manage to get one in less than three months? When I was enquiring a few weeks back they told me the delivery time would be at least six months, but could be up to a year. Is it model specific? I was looking at the GTX.