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

Thanks @Blanketpolicy but I'm already with them fortunately/unfortunately.

Sounds like that's the charger to get!

We have an EV, bought through my work scheme so quite a saving. Costs about £8 at home for a full charge. Probably gets fully charged about 3 times a month.
We mainly do local journeys. Travelling further if car needs charged does need planning ahead. But we've genuinely never had an issue getting the car charger when needed. Use ZapMap app and plan ahead. Often using chargers a bit more out of it than the big motorway ones.
Very easy to drive. Range anxiety is a thing but to be honest there's a lot more crap in the media about EVs than the actual reality of owning one. Which for us has been great.

Ha ha. Yes of course this happened.

I want and need to get in my car and for it to go as and when . Not book a bloody time to use it.

Then you plug it in and charge it at normal rates. Not that difficult.

Sorry- another question as this thread has set me off on a research quest! - does anyone have the POD home charger point? Any other recommendations? I think I’d prefer untethered so probably not Hypervolt. Prefer one that’s universal as don’t want to be tied to specific brands of car.

I have a POD, it does the trick but is not Flexible Octopus compatible yet.
We plug it in every couple of weeks and let it charge overnight on the cheap tariff rates, we can use the car's app to set it to start charging at 0030.

@Pasithean that's kind of my concern to be honest. What if I don't plug it in properly or something and I get in it to discover that I can't go anywhere. I'm also concerned about the ethics of lithium mining. I won't hit any horses tho.

Why the angst? If an EV doesn't suit you don't get one. It is a different mindset and you would only choose an EV if it suited your lifestyle and needs.

Fine for me. I keep it topped up each night and it is there in the morning with at least 150 miles in it which is always enough for my needs. If you need to do a bump charge at home you can but you will be charged normal rate for your electricity tariff.

Or you can do to a Rapid Charge at a rapid charger (we have a great network in our LA, but know others are not as well served), and have a full charge within the hour.

I haven't hit a problem yet, but as I say they suit some individuals more than others.

Not sure about other chargers as Ohme suited us as the MG4 wasn't compatible with Intelligent Octopus (IO) so we needed a charger that was.

After much deliberation we went for tethered as it means you can just grab the cable and plug in, then hang it back up when done without having to worry about rolling up and storing wet cables somewhere especially if unplugging in the morning in your work gear - guess it also depends on where your charger is and where the car will be parked, our charger and cable is nicely tucked away around the side of the house and the car parks in front near the corner.

The Ohme came with the options of both tethered (5m or 8m) or untethered, other chargers might be the same.

What is tethered and unthethered sorry?

Tethered is when the charging cable is hardwired into the charge point.
Untethered is when the charge point has a socket on it that you plug a cable into then plug the other end into the car (I think).

Ive not read the whole thread but this is my opinion - I drive a Model 3 Long Range Tesla. It is absolutely my favourite car ever.
I charge to 80% most of the time.
I get 4.5 miles per KW.
1KW = 7.5p on Octopus.

Its fast! Comfortable. Will seat 4 or 5.

Decent Boot. Extra storage in the Frunk.
Great coverage or Tesla Chargers both in the UK and Europe.

My ‘Range anxiety’ disappeared after a couple of days.

Honestly, I absolutely LOVE it!

Don’t worry too much about it being “universal”. almost all EVs use CCS connectors these days- it’s becoming standard. Notable exceptions are Nissan Leaves (except perhaps newer ones) and I think Renault Zoe but happy to be corrected

Scottish person here - no way could we do electric up near the Highlands. The charging infrastructure is very small, and seems to be either not working or already in use. Given we are already below freezing overnight, cars up here need lights, heaters, heated seats, window demister etc from October to May......thats going to seriously reduce any range. The AA were advising electric car drivers up here last winter not to run anything electric so they can have enough range left to get home.
My commute is 11 miles, takes about 20 mins. Last winter with the snow, it took me 3.5 hours to get home with a ninja storm out of nowhere. No way could i have done that with an electric vehicle and the AA can't bring me a Jerry can of electric to get me going again.

I think in large cities, they're probably the future but for rural living? Not a hope.

What did you drive before please? To compare it to being the best car ever? Frunk... I could have some fun with that!

So I'm essentially barring myself from the highlands?

We have 2 electric cars - a little bmw i3 (not made any more) and a bmw ix3 (medium SUV). Love them. We have installed a very fast charger at home as we were in any event on 3 phase electricity, but tbh since we plug in at night it could just as well be a slower one. We have taken the suv from oxford to Cornwall, Devon, the far side of wales and even up to Edinburgh and St Andrews without any problem. There are chargers everywhere. I don’t think we have taken it abroad yet. It is a fantastic car and much better than the petrol x3 which I had before. The i3 is also fabulous and whizzy and fun but a much lower range (135miles compared to 230in the suv) so it doesn’t go on long trips. DS takes it to Southampton and london and back on a charge though. He puts it in super eco modes and gets much more out of it that the range it is telling you.

I’ve never calculated the cost to charge as it is so much cheaper than petrol I don’t see the point! Basically free, at home anyway.

I think you might struggle up here, being honest. Charging stations are creeping in, but they're few and far between and as I say, either out of order or being used.

The weather up here just isn't suitable either - the trip I mentioned that took me 3.5 hours was awful. I was nose to tail with everyone else trying to get home, so I needed lights, wipers, heater, radio for traffic updates and being soft, my heated seats as it was -7 degrees and still snowing. I'd never risk it in an electric vehicle up here - I just bought a new car and bought petrol, as do the majority of rural folk.

Where do I start!
Chrysler Grand Voyager
Porche Boxster
Various Merc convertibles - still have one
Skoda Superb
Kia optima
Renault Espace
peaugot 807
Volvo XC90

None of these have come close to the Tesla In Fun alone!!

EVs are actually pretty good in traffic as they use very little power in stationary traffic. We've sat in traffic with the aircon running for over half an hour and lost about a mile from the range. ICEs would be idling the engine burning fuel all that time.
Ignore the doomsayers with scare stories of range anxiety unless they've actually got an EV.

My Zoe has CCS, but CCS is for rapid charging, not charging at home.

Most cars these days are Type 2, if that’s what you mean? (Including my Zoe)

What Zoes do have that is rarer is 22kw charging (I only discovered this when I had a courtesy e208 that didn’t!) but whilst this can be a cheaper than rapid/faster than 7kw option when out and about and is nice to have, 22kw chargers aren’t as common as rapid ones anyway.

@FlyingFlamingo
yes you are quite correct thanks for the info on the Zoe.
type 2 is the standard for home chargers that almost all cars should be happy with.

I'm a Skoda superb kind of girl so to hear it's better is bell's to my ears!

@FlyingFlamingo I can't quite you as in the app but your last post is 🤯 If I get a Tesla 3 Lr will I need more wires?