Please tell me about your experience with electric cars

[electricsix]

Thinking about going electric, purely for the BIK/p11D saving as I don't rate them too much myself. I do a lot of business miles a month but never more than a full charge in one day - probably even allowing for the real life reduction of performance. I've seen a few threads here about electric cars so was hoping I could piggy back off your experiences and not make a massive mistake because I'm uninformed.

My concerns are
The increase in my electricity bill - how much does it cost to charge yours from empty to full as I will be doing this almost every day?

Range anxiety but I imagine I will get used to this?

Those rare occasions we go on a family holiday to somewhere really far away - what are the chargers like at services, reliable etc? And in Devon, Cornwall, Scotland middle of nowhere, are there public chargers??? How much of a faff is it?

What electric car do you have and can you tell me pros and cons?

Are you happy with your choice or do you regret?

Anything that I haven't thought about that you think I should know.

Long time user but I always name change if I start a thread just in case. Cancel the cheque etc.

Thank you wise mumsnetters

@SophiaLaB I'm a director of my own Ltd company - can I buy the car as a company asset? What else do I then have to do and what's the benefit over just buying as a family car?

No designated parking, no, but permit-controlled. Usually a fair bit of moving around in the day.

Dp lives near an industrial estate which has a couple of public chargers and uses those.

I read something recently about insurance being very expensive for electric cars, is that true?

Also, anyone here drive an EV in NI? We don’t have a range of electricity suppliers so we can’t switch, and I don’t think we can access this magical intelligent tariff PPs have mentioned.

@electricsix hoseasons sites and many caravan parks will have them. Happy to put money on it. And like I said any large tourist attraction you have will have them too.

you do need to need to be willing to put in a bit of effort to find and plan chargers while you’re away (Less so as time goes on tbh) . But the 50 weeks a year we’re at home it’s far less faff and expense. Worth the trade off IMO.

@TheLonelyGoatTurd
our insurance has gone up yes but not any more than friends who drive ICEs
bear in mind servicing costs etc for EVs are less(less to go wrong). Breakdown insurance is consequently a bit less too.

Parkdean look a bit more organised than Hoseasons atm link here

We have a mgzs through motability so can't help re insurance but it's around 285 miles per charge in summer (not
Used it in winter yet). Big enough boot to fit an adult wheelchair in by only folding back rest down. We
Are not in a low tariff just average 27p one. My daughter has an electric fiat 500 170 miles in summer. I drive a little differently to take advantage of regen braking. It's great, I love it but it's different.

@Ifailed most EV drivers don't need to charge every night, so would only need the close street parking every week or so. There is also a rapidly increasing network of fast chargers, often at petrol stations, where people without home charging can fill up in 15-20 minutes while they pop to a shop etc.
Unlike ICEs you don't have to stay with the car while you fill up, just park and plug and do what you like.
Some people charge during the work day while the car is parked up somewhere rather than overnight.
There are a range of solutions to a range of difficulties, it's just a matter of adjusting from the mindset filling up at a petrol station, to a mindset of filling up a lot of other places.

@Ifailed we have had our Renault Zoe for over three years, and can't get. Charger at home because were mid terrace and our local authority has decided that off street parking requires a minimum front garden space that we don't have. Yes that means our charging is much more expensive than people who can charge overnight - but we are still total converts and I'll never go back! It's a lovely car to drive and driving our second car (manual, petrol) feels such hard work in comparison. I'm spoilt!

The infrastructure is definitely developing but it's frustratingly slower than it should be and inconsistent - so motorway services with banks of chargers and others with four people waiting on one that's working. There's an amazing car park in Oxford that has about 40, all free while you're parked - this is how it ought to be.

If I regularly had to drive long distances for work and couldn't charge at home I'd pause - but otherwise I'd definitely go for it.

Have a chat with your accountant. It costs me a lot less to have a company EV car than it would to own myself. I pay BIK but it’s nowhere near what it would cost me to have an EV as a family car. Business pays for the car and all associated costs eg insurance. Your accountant will be the best person to talk too.

Yeah, I have a Leaf, and no on street parking. I mostly charge at work or one street away where there are lamppost chargers. But obviously that isn't always accessible, so occasionally I end up finding a charger 10 minutes walk away, which is a pain. I don't like fast charging on the regular as its not so great for long term battery life. And I can't be bothered sitting in a petrol station twiddling my thumbs on a week night. Too much to do!

Accelerating away from engine-revving boy racers is amazingly good fun.

I noticed a house near me has a sign on their fence saying the parking outside their house was priority parking as they have an electric vehicle that they need to charge. People ignore this because those people don't own the space outside their house.
I imagine this does annoy them but in their case there are three public charging points a few hundred metres down the road which I am yet to see anyone use.

have replied above to you

If you're only doing shortish journeys they are great and you change at home. We didn't really notice the extra cost in electricity, but did notice the lack of money going towards diesel.

What I have found is that longer journeys are a right royal pain in the arse. We simply don't have the infrastructure in place.

I had to travel from Harrogate to Essex and it took me hours. The chargers were full at the hotel so couldn't charge over night, on my way home I needed to charge first thing, first station I went to the chargers were broke, second on the A1 weren't fast charge so it took me over an hour to put some charge in, plus it was expensive, but not enough to get home. 3rd charger after using what I'd put in up north was broken, so had to find another one which again was a slow charge and expensive so had to wait another hour. You also have to have multiple apps on your phone to pay for your charge as they aren't all the same. It's not like you put in a charge and pay for it, like you do with fuel, you have to fanny about with apps and put money on them and use what you need, it them gets credited back into your account. Urgh gives me the rage just thinking about it.

We have a second, cheap car that I use for longer journeys

@wildwestpioneer
that does sound exceptionally shit and I can believe it but I don’t think that’s a typical experience.

increasingly chargers accept contactless payment, certainly all the new (many hundreds) of gridserve super chargers don’t

it is frustrating how many of the older chargers do need apps. I believe the government is insisting that all new chargers installed take contactless.

KIA EV6 here. Gorgeous car with a range around 300 miles. We charge overnight at home with Octopus which costs 2p a mile!
In the summer we travelled from the Midlands to St Ives, Cornwall. We made sure we topped up at Exeter and Cornwall services, took 20 mins tops so time for a wee and a coffee. It meant we had plenty of charge to get to St Ives and back to Exeter to recharge before travelling home, dead easy. The cost of public charging is about the same as petrol/diesel but it's obviously way cheaper at home. I'd never go back to an ICE car.

My electric car is leased through a salary sacrifice scheme at work which for me means paying from gross income that would otherwise be taxed at additional rate. The lease includes insurance, maintenance and breakdown costs.
I had a home charger installed which cost around £1200 but there are various deals which could reduce the cost of this.
my car and charger are not compatible with intelligent octopus but i do have octopus go which gives 4 hrs overnight at 9p kWh. I can run appliances overnight at this rate too but I also have the solar panels and a battery and at this time of year I fill the battery overnight so my day time electricity is also 9p
In the 4 hr window my charger/car consumes 30 kWh so cost approx £2.70. I think that takes me about 100 miles.
The car I’m driving is a Volvo xc40. I absolutely love driving it. It has a real life range of about 200 miles. It replaced a Range Rover evoque and feels slightly less luxurious to sit in (rr had leather arm chair like seats) but is far nicer to drive and apparently much nicer to be a back seat passenger.
I don’t think I’m atypical driver and since March I’ve only done one journey that required me to charge. I did this at a rapid charger on a motorway service station - no queue and got the boost I needed in about 10 mins.

I’ve just received the renewal quote for the insurance on my EV and it has doubled . Some quotes I’ve obtained are triple the cost last year .

Generally I rate my EV - Nissan Leaf - but only do low mileage . The range is significantly reduced in the winter -160 down to 100!

We have an ID4 and a Polestar 2. Range in both is approx 300 miles - in warm weather, that drops slightly in windy and cold weather.
Both cars are fantastic to drive, the ID4 has a nice high driving position and the Polestar is quick 😳 I like the futuristic look and feel - minimal buttons and just a touch screen console. My Polestar is like a spaceship inside which I love 😆
We have a home charger and use Octopus for our energy, they seem to be the best in terms of smart tariffs - charging overnight during a cheap 4 hour window.
We’ve driven to and around the Highlands of Scotland - they invested in a lot of chargers in the early days of EVs but unfortunately didn’t factor in maintenance so it wasn’t unusual to find them out of service. We didn’t have any issues driving up from the midlands and then touring the highlands for 10 days. We did end up staying an additional night on the way back home as we’d got to the most northerly point in the trip and it made sense to do an overnight charge on the way back.
Also been to the Alps in Winter - the French EV charging network is fantastic, we had no issues finding high powered chargers nearby.
You do have to plan and be prepared, roughly to know when you are likely to need to stop and charge and have a couple of options to stop at. This isn’t an issue for me as I’m a planner anyway, I can see why other people would view this as an inconvenience. On longer journeys where you need to charge from 10% to 80%+ then the charge time will be longer - but it encourages good habits in terms of taking a proper break from driving. Navigating to chargers would be harder on the long journeys if travelling solo - we rely on a passenger to be searching up the options on route.
Both our cars are company vehicles so it does make it very cost effective for us.

I think this will be me to be honest. We have DHs car but he doesn't want the dog in it and he does an MOT once a year and then doesn't touch it so I'd be cautious it would die on one of our long journeys. Poor things been crying out for a service for over a year.

I have an electric mini. I recently got a smart meter and I think a full charge costs about £5 or £6 but not quite sure. Could be less if I charged overnight. I can get 100 miles (120 is best so far) which is crap but I don't usually do many miles and I do very short journeys. I only need to charge it about once every two weeks. I have never stopped on a motorway to charge.
Our other family car is a hybrid so that's the one used for a longer trip. If we only had one car it would obviously have to be one with a much better range. But I love mine and have no regrets.

This is a car I'm considering. Can I ask why they're not compatible? How big are your back seat passengers and do they have enough room?

@Validus range isn't really effected by heated seats or lights, they run off the 12volt battery. AC will effect range though.

i went with the charger my electrician recommended - if I’d done more research I could have got a compatible one.
My children are adults with their own cars - 2 DSs 6ft 2 and 6ft 1 and DD 5ft 10. We have done odd journeys with them all in the back and it was doable but not ideal. Two of them in the back is completely fine - actually had that last night coincidentally and the two DC were commenting on what a vast improvement on the previous car.