Electric Cars

[EsmereldaBob]

Hi everyone,

We are thinking of getting an electric car. I understand that they are cheaper to run and I quite like the idea of one.

Will be our main family car so used for short and long journeys.

We’ve had a test drive in a Kia EV6 and it was great. Lots of room and nippy.

Any advice gratefully received!

Well cheaper to run but not to buy.

Question is will you do the mileage to compensate for the extra purchase cost. The 15k or so extra purchase cost buys an awful lot of fuel, tax and servicing.

Also look into insurance - it has got horribly expensive for some electric cars recently.

Finally remember if you need a fast charger that is going to add in maybe 1-2k to the costs to get it fitted.

We have a fully electric. To have a charger at home needed a new consumer unit as ours wasn't up to the job (fortunately this also needed doing as part of our extension), and before that it was a pita as our nearest fast charger is inconvenient and expensive. Other local chargers are often out of use.

On long journeys you do have to plan more, and you seem to have to have an array of apps and cards (depending on mobile signal, you may need an actual charging card) with you. I did a 300 mile round trip this week - chargers at my destination were rfid card only and not compatible with any I had. Fine. BP garage - one charger out of use, the other was the wrong way round to be able to get the cable to my car. Next place on the map was out of order. Next there were loads of chargers but a queue but then slower chargers were available which I used. So you have to sort of take it as it comes. Our car can go on Tesla chargers which helps to find places

Bear in mind that they're not always cheaper to run.

The information here says it starts at around 6 p a mile based on 25 p/kWh. I drove past a charging station with a big price sign outside it (like you see for petrol, but for electric) and it was 65 p/kWh, which would make it over 15 p/mile, which is more than my petrol car, which costs about 13 p a mile.

Electric vehicles vs petrol/diesel/hybrid | Guides | DriveElectric (drive-electric.co.uk)

Plus the extra cost of a like for like car means you have to save a lot of petrol money before you see a saving. A couple of years ago I bought a nearly new petrol car for £8k. The same model in electric just a few months newer was £19k. Even if I could have charged it for free, it would have still taken nearly a decade for me to break even with electric vs petrol.

Then there's the inconvenience of waiting around at charging stations because a fill up takes half an hour not 5 minutes.

We have one. You definitely need a charging point installed at home when you get it. Having an electric car does get a bit of getting used to. If I’m doing a long journey I have to plan my charging points in. I use Zapmap for info.

I personally find the network of charging points not hugely reliable. For example I stopped one evening on my way to a work event to charge, and none of the chargers were working. For that reason you need to be a bit more prepared than you would normally be in a petrol car. Also, if a charging point says it’s 150kwh, you won’t get that speed. I get maybe 80kwh if I’m lucky from an 150kwh charger. So it will take a full hour to go from 0 - 100% charge in my car.

Hope that helps!

We have 2 electric cars and I would not go back to petrol now. We have been driving electric for over 8 years now and it's a game changer. If you can lease one/ or buy one and have a possibilty to have a home charger - you can in fact save money on the running cost and enjoy the new driving experience, which indeed is fun. KIA EV6 is lush actually, and the GT version even more so!

There are a couple of really good EV groups on FB which I recommend joining to speak to actual EV drivers for firts hand experience and EV knowledge:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UKEVDrivers for general EV chat
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1124691494663936 for Kia EV6 specific

there are plenty of others brand specific ones as well though, I found them to be most helpful as you are getting info from the drivers, rather than sales people.

Have you test driven any other EVs? they are all quite fun to drive tbch

Thanks for the pointers everyone. I’ll have a look at the groups you’ve suggested.

What other EVs of a similar size / price to the EV6 should we test drive?

that's a perfect question to ask on the EV Drivers UK group I mentioned https://www.facebook.com/groups/UKEVDrivers

almost 20k drivers of all types and sizes of EVs. these guys are a very supportive and friendly bunch :)

I have the MG ez and love it. It does take a bit of a lifestyle change but I like the slow travel if stopping for lunch and a change or a walk and a charge. I lease mine on a salary sacrifice scheme with reduced tax. It's generally suited me really well. I have a home charger.

I have a Tesla and love it for local journeys but it’s a challenge when driving on long road trips .
Charging stations are busy or out of order more and more .
I would not consider it again for my next car .

I have an Audi Q4 etron, it’s supposed to do 250 miles but definitely doesn’t! I wouldn’t recommend it but it’s nice to drive.

I have heard good things about polestars

I’ve got a Fiat 500 Red and love it. Really zippy. BUT I don’t go huge distances in it and charge at home so not run into the charging issues away from home. For short city driving it’s a dream

Check your insurance costs my dad was shocked at the cost of his insurance skyrocketing he won't use it for long distance due to charging issues they ended up getting the train the last time and are hoping to switch back to a petrol soon

We have two, I drive a Peugeot 208 as I don't do many miles, DH has a BMW i4. We have a home charging point and an EV tariff from British Gas that gives us 9p per kWh from midnight to 5am. Half a charge on my car is around £3.50 and I generally only use half per week, however once the temperature drops I will likely use 3/4 as heat uses more battery.

DH does a lot more miles than me so has a bigger range and I think his is about £15 for a full charge

I have a Renault Zoe and I don't have a home charger as no driveway so I rely on the charging network. I'm in London where we've a fair few. I've driven it since 2020 and have got used to how it all works, how to plan ahead, factor in charging and use ZapMap before every long journey. I've done trips round the UK, holidays in Norfolk, south west and Cotswolds successfully! As a pp said you get used to planning in the charge around your day trips and the community of EV drivers are very helpful and clued on.

I love it, it drives like a dream, it's easy and bring in a traffic jam I wish everyone was driving them.

I disagree with a previous pp who said charging can be more expensive than petrol. It's so cheap and efficient! You learn to drive using the kinetic energy to charge effectively and be efficient - eg using down hill roads and traffic lights to your advantage! When driving at everyday speeds it uses virtually nothing eg I drove 1 hour from west to east London at 0-30mph all the way and used 0% of the battery charge, as the rolling stops enabled me to boost the charge.

Just worked out it cost £20/month to charge ours at home for Aug/Sept. Used to be £150-200/month in petrol. The charging unit and installation will have paid for itself in six months. Car on a lease with same payment as before for petrol car and this one also had 0% interest on repayments so can’t argue there. Very nippy, acceleration is great, features good eg wireless phone charging etc. Longer journeys do take planning. Will be easier when family also have electric charging points fitted so can top up when we visit.

We have a Tesla but would look at other brands for our next electric car. We have an at home charger and solar panels so running is free but any repairs now cost a bomb as we are out of warranty.

We would still get an ev though.

Reviving this thread as I am trying to decide between an Audi Q4 and a BMWix1, does anyone have either of these? I see the range on the Audi is meant to be 321 miles but someone above posted it does not even do 250, is this everyone's experience?

The BMW is only meant to do 286 miles, does anyone have any experience of this? I was also wondering if the BMW is a bit more fun to drive?