Electric cars

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Who else has no desire to buy one?

I have been wanting a brand new car for some time, but Honda, my preferred make is now moving heavily to hybrids and EV.

I think I will probably get a low mileage, 2 or 3 year old petrol Honda instead.

I might be missing something but surely a more expensive car will come with a higher months payment?

You're not missing something @keye it's basic maths! However you fund your car, a more expensive is always going to cost more! ok, salary sacrifice might save you some money in tax but you'll still have to sacrifice more for a more expensive car. I think people are just a bit in denial about it because they only see the day to day running costs and they aren't putting £70 of petrol in at one time.

I think the difference in monthly payments for DH's car which comes as both petrol, hybrid and EV is about £50. So yes more a month, but he saves that quickly driving the miles that he does. It's also a far nicer car to drive being electric. I had a petrol courtesy car this week and it reminded me again why we wouldn't want to go back.

My car doesn't have an exact ICE equivalent but in a similar car by the same brand is about £100 more a month. Again, I'd take my EV over any ICE car these days because it's so much nicer to drive.

Just checked our charger app and we spent £66 on charging in November. Goodness knows how much our equivalent petrol would be. I do 800-1000 miles a month and DH does 1500-2000 miles a month so both of us drive our cars. They're not runabouts doing a couple of miles here and there. DH does use public chargers so spends about another £60-70 a month.

I've added one comparison from Google - first search to come up. It compares a hybrid with an ev.

Has anyone had one for about 10 years
Has the range dropped over time.

I am quite wary about this also as all other battery powered things (laptop, phone, toothbrush etc) seem to

Technology has changed massively in 10 years so those EVs are the ones that have only ever had a range of 60-100 miles anyway. Theres always lots of discussion about this in EV groups and the general consensus is that the range does drop but not so significantly. Maybe 80-90% of the original. However, with a 10 year old leaf, 80% of 70-80 miles is quite a drop. They don't think current EV of the last 3 years or so will experience as much range loss as the EV haters like to say. Some older EVs also had different charging ports/systems as is used in the majority now (chademo as opposed to type 2).

I've just bought a 2 year old Renault Zoe for just over £11k, which seemed like an absolute bargain to me. It will do around 200 miles in summer, bit less in winter.

We do have solar panels, but will rarely be charging it at home as husband gets free charging at work so will get him to take it there when it needs charging. However, I have plugged the three pin plug charger in today to make use of the excess solar.

I do very low mileage. They through in a free service, but looking it up the yearly service from a dealer will be about £150. My fully comp insurance was £270.

I'm keen to get one as my next car - I have off the road parking and also a charging station 5 minutes away. But, it would have to be second hand, and at the moment the price of anything which isn't very low range is about double my usual car budget. I think my current car should last another couple of years, and I'm hoping prices have come down a bit by then.

Its a badge of honour on here to sneer at EV's. "Oh no I couldn't have one of those" etc.
I have no use for an SUV, doesn't suit my lifestyle. Diesel? Again, no, my journeys are too short and the DPF would never regen. At this point there is choice in the market, petrol, diesel and electric.
You choose the one that suits you.

What you probably shouldn't do is perpetuate ridiculous myths and half truths. Funny how nobody posts 'Ooh I wouldn't buy a petrol car because they explode!' Because as has been explained the reality is petrol and diesel cars are much more likely to catch fire.

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy an EV. Suits some, doesn't suit others. That simple innit.

To be honest nowadays as a London driver the inconvenience of finding a petrol station for our elderly petrol car is getting to be a genuine issue. So many seem to be shutting down or charging punitive rates or are inside the congestion zone. Finding somewhere before we hit the motorway and the ruinous prices there needs special planning.

Well the government will be forcing anyone who wants a new car to buy an EV from 2035.

It will be 2030 if/ when Labour get in.

So just six years away from freedom of choice being removed.

I have 2 EVs. I have no idea what you are talking about. Sounds like he just has a bad car. Nothing to do with being an EV

@keye I don't understand how they are cheaper. They cost so much more to buy initially
Because purchase price is only one factor in the overall cost. Charging at low tariff time of day or even better off your solar panels if you have them means they are incredibly cheap to run compared to filling the tank. No engine so virtually zero service costs. Tax is low. So many ways they end up better value. It does friend how much you drive though.

We just trickle charge overnight. Plugs into a regular power point

Im not opposed to them, but they dont suit my driving at the minute as the range is short.

Maybe when they've found a way to extend the range I'll consider it but at the minute I like my petrol car.

Yes, that would be fine, but we don’t have a driveway, and it wouldn’t be fair on our neighbours to trail a power cable halfway down the pavement with them all passing by, and sometimes unable to park near the house. It’s fine if you have a drive, but a lot less easy without.

I was very dubious about buying an EV. In fact I had a thread on here about it. Was definitely, definitely not going to buy one but... somehow I did. And I love it! Wouldn't want to go back to an ICE car now.

It costs me £2.50 to 'fill up', with Octopus Go, and less to insure than my old car.

I have an EV, but mainly because I have a driveway and can charge at home with 100% certainty. I don't think I would have bought it without that facility.

As all of our family is spread out across the country, we have no desire to go all electric.

The queues to charge at service stations plus the waiting time to charge, have convinced us that our self charging hybrid is the best solution for us.

What range would want?

400 minimum.

Having just looked, a Polestar 2 apparently does 403.
So thats just about enough to get me there, before id have to find somewhere to charge before heading back on one of my regularly chewed routes.
This is on the proviso that the entire journey is at maximum charge from the outset and maximum efficiency which is not as convenient for me as nipping into a petrol station for 5 minutes when the tank gets low.

Tesla Model 3 with extended range, spec says range is 390 miles, I find I get 350 without issue due to stop/start/ speed/etc. You can drive a petrol car through deep puddles as long as they aren't over the air intake (or if you create a bow wave and keep the air intake clear) but you apparently cannot take a Tesla through puddles over 6 inches safely so I have to take a different route to work on very heavy onslaught of rain days as I don't want a £12-15,000 bill! I routinely drive 4-8 hours without a break depending on congestion and weather (I average over 100,000 miles per year on my vehicles). I have to say the savings over the £800+/month I spent on diesel and now get for free (free charger/electricity at work) is a big help now. Something I learned from an interview with Elon Musk - letting battery drop below 20% or above 80% damages the battery, I thought it was good to run it low before charging - its not. He said obviously do it if going on a long trip but know that it does cause excessive wear and tear on the battery. The UK has allowed almost the full value of an electric car to be deducted which is why there are so many being driven, especially by company car drivers.

mol.im/a/12950765

Not strictly on message with the thread as this is or was an electric bus.

Huh? You seem confused. They blow up with less frequency than fossil fuel cars catch fire. EVs are 30 times less likely to catch fire.

Oh no. You'd better get rid of your car if that was worrying you