Electric car with no charger at home?

[Leafywool]

The lease on our current petrol car is up soon and we need to be looking at a new one. There's some very good deals on EV at the moment and DH is really keen, but me not so.

We live in a terraced house with no drive. We do have access to parking around the back of our house as there's a wide alleyway and houses on our side are allowed to park there. But we live in a Grade 2 listed house in a World Heritage Site so I don't think we could even get a charger installed even if we wanted to as there's lots of restrictions on what we can and can't do. I've never noticed any other houses in this area with one installed so I assume not.

I don't drive the car much at all, only to the supermarket or if I take dd somewhere. DH commutes 12 miles each way Mon & Tues and his office has free charging points in the car park. Outside of this he doesn't use the car much either, usually only to go to suppliers for our business or if we go on a day out (quite rare as DH works weekends too).

Would it be a royal pain in the arse to have an EV with no means to charge at home? There's a Shell station at the top of our street that has just installed loads of charging points and there's loads of other places close by which have charging points (we are on the edge of a city.) DH thinks he could charge at work and it would do us all week. I have no idea!

Would love some opinions

Don’t be so ridiculous and you cannot seriously be trying to control the chat. Some people work in the industry and have valued insight.

Yes I completely agree. I think people should have an honest look at their circumstances and decide if an EV is for them. Personally 99% of my journeys fit well with using an EV. The 1% exception is the summer holiday, but to me that is just such a small part of life that it wasn't worth it for me to consider an ICE or an EV with more range. I currently have a Peugeot e-208 with 220 miles range.

I lease an EV through work and I must admit that I had range anxiety. Now I have had the car for a couple of months I realise it's really not much more work than a petrol car, it's just different.

I went from no car to an EV, maybe that has helped because I wasn't in a routine anyway wtih getting petrol.

@ShambalaAnna

Many Chinese cars are not the quality we have come to expect here. The high quality cars are expensive so the narrative is to buy green and buy tat. They have been on a ship and Chinese industry just isn't green at all. They are big polluters. We kid our drives.

For anyone looking at ev, think where do I drive. The infrastructure for charging is woeful in some places. Are you running a second car? We have hybrid. Range anxiety is a huge issue for some and anyone regularly doing longer distances can be spending a lot of time seeking out a charger. If you just pootle about, no issue.

Trip hazard to charge across a pavement snd not great for disabled. If everyone goes this, what then?

The idea that the nation that makes over 80% of all goods on the planet just sucks at making them is… false.

They build iPhones in China. Guessing they only managed that because of American genius, right?

And don’t give me that green argument. Know who has pumped more carbon into the environment than any of those Asian nations and made zero effective moves away from it?

In any case, it is not green to buy a whole new car, even an EV, when you could get a cheaper, nearly as efficient hybrid or small engined car that already exists. EVs are a big profit drive from Big Auto to stay relevant in the spectre of declining car ownership and profits.

We hear nothing else except buy EV. This thread has many saying just that. A second hand car is obviously possible but companies buy new ones. Generally Chinese cars are not great. So buying better quality as a used car is better. Just because a nation is a polluter to make 80% of the world's goods doesn't mean we should buy their products if we can avoid them. In cars, it's not difficult.

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/the-truth-about-chinese-cars-why-mg-byd-great-wall-motors-and-more-could-soon-dominate-the

My cousin has had an MG after previously only having a second generation Leaf and then a Toyota SUV. He swears by the MG now, and from what I’ve read, they seem to be winning hearts and minds like when Dacia came on the scene.

Remember in the ‘80s when Japanese cars were considered inferior? Then the ‘90s and 2000s for Korean ones? Look how well that turned out for the established brands.

It would seem, once again, the EU and US car manufacturers, and possibly now even Japanese and S. Koreans, are about to have their lunch eaten by another upstart market.

Unless you are literally doing full range trips a couple of times a week it just shouldn't be a concern.

The problem is so many people come out with "ah that's me, doing 20,000 miles per year". Thinking that somehow everybody else does that as well. Whereas the vast majority of people who do not post about it only do less than 50% of that.

If you do need to do long distances for once or twice a year, then surely just using the commercial charge point on one or two occasions isn't that bad ? And if it is you can always hire something instead.

Unless you have exceptional circumstances (probably less than 5% of road users) range anxiety just makes no sense. Range idiocy is a better description.

I think there is a bit of a public bragging element, look at me how great I am and how many miles I do per year. I don't regard driving for ages as something to brag about.

@poster22445 Obviously fires are not really likely. However it’s been said negative views are not welcome. Most people have to factor in negatives and positives. It’s never 100% of each perspective as some seem to suggest.

The MG suv, according to What Car, isn’t great to drive. So that is a No from me. However it’s as cheap as chips and even cheaper very quickly. It’s a slow charger too. I’m very lucky to be able to afford great cars. It matters to me how they drive. Others want value for money and will not care. I don’t want the faff of charging when I’m away and I’m away quite often. Others are home birds. So they will love EVs. Private buyers won’t like the depreciation though!

Yep it’s very telling, any thread about EVs, even if its like this one and clearly not asking if they should buy an EV or not - get loads of people who seem to need to stop anyone else buying one because it wouldn’t suit their lifestyle (even when someone like the OP talks about their very different lifestyle that could easily accommodate an EV).

my only conclusion is that either they are paid to post negatives on any social media platform about EVs as part of a smear campaign; or they are posters who really hate EVs and are terrified if too high a percentage of the population buy them, then the demand for petrol/diesel will fall to a level that petrol stations will start closing and the infrastructure they rely on for their long journeys will become an issue.

there are some posters who oddly seem to really really need others to not buy EVs.

You are delusional? The OP was wondering if a EV was the right way to go! They clearly aren’t suiting everyone for a number of reasons so now the pro lobby are reduced to slurs. I have had two hybrids. I’m not against them but they don’t suit me. It’s always worth considering lifestyle and how you use a car and what it means to you. To DH snd me - a lot. To others just a means of A-B. We are allowed to have differing views!

I drive an MG ZS EV and it's a delight, the nicest car I've ever had, though I'm not a car snob and I've never driven a really expensive car so who knows.

It was paid for on finance, charging it is so cheap compared to fuelling a family-sized petrol car, that the difference in running costs pays for the modest increased monthly repayments compared to buying an equivalent new ICE car.

If it's value depreciates massively, it is the finance company that will take the hit as I have the option not to purchase at the end of the PCP agreement. If it is worth more than their estimation at the end of the finance agreement, we'll purchase to resell or keep. That's exactly the same as with an ICE vehicle. The difference is I'm funding the electric vehicle industry and taking energy mostly from my solar panels, and not funding the fossil fuel industry (as much).

It comes with a 7 year warranty so I do not have to worry about it breaking down.

As mentioned up thread, we do not have a charger or a driveway but slow charging it at home using a 3 pin plug is no problem at all. We use an extension cable across the path which is covered so that it is not a trip hazard and anyone using a wheelchair can simply ride over it.

It is our main family car which we use frequently for journeys of up to 30-50 miles, commuting and also all holidays with longer distance driving. I don't have charge anxiety at all, it's just a case of planning. You simply get used to thinking about refuelling in a new way. Personally I used to find hopping into the car and realising I needed to go straight to a petrol station to be much more common and bothersome occurrence than I now find realising we forgot to charge the car. As we tend to keep it in the range 40-80% if we do forget to charge it we can still reach our destination and charge there.

I do not recognise descriptions of the battery running down when the car is not in use - this has never happened with our car at least not to any noticeable degree. The range of our car matches what was advertised, so long as the weather is not very wet or cold, where it does decrease somewhat.

I consider myself to be fucked if my car ignites whilst I'm trapped or unconscious inside it. This is by all accounts I have come across, more likely to occur in an ICE vehicle.

I think there is a group of people who seem to feel very strongly about discouraging others to buy EVs using false or exaggerated information, whom have never owned an EV themselves. I honestly don't think they're all funded by the fossil fuel industry(!!!) because I've come across many people like this IRL as well. I don't know why. I do think the fossil fuel industry is likely to perpetuate scare stories about EVs which people pick up on?

If an EV doesn't suit you then don't purchase one. But I don't think it's necessary to make up reasons to put other people off and I think it's worth applying some scepticism to the source/origin of published media criticising or casting doubt on EVs (likewise no doubt some of what you come across promoting EVs is going to be marketing from EV companies!). At the end of the day EVs are not perfect, are still very environmentally damaging (lithium etc) and we should all be aiming to drive less. However, EV technology has a future in which to develop / improve whereas we cannot continue to burn fossil fuels indefinitely.

*Just to add the other thing that's rarely mentioned is the hazardous air pollution that ICE vehicles produce. I think this is a small but significant safety bonus for a family car you use every day for transporting small children, as in our case.

I love our electric car but when people ask me if I would recommend one I always so only if you can charge at home.
We leased one at first to see how it all worked and if it was suitable for us and while we did manage to charge out and about it wasn't really convenient at times and not cheap either - we ended up running an extension out of the garage. Charging at other places is generally Ok but there can be a small wait and the charging infrastructure isn't joined up, need different apps etc
When we bought the car we had one installed asap and its great, we do occasionally have to charge other places but around 90% is at home overnight to get cheaper electricity.

In your current situation it's a no brainer. If your husband can charge at work and at a local garage in emergencies it will cut your fuel costs massively.
Our electric car is doing about 350 miles on 100% charge at the moment which costs just short of £5.

Think of it this way. The first cars mass used were electric. The reason they lost out to ICE was because people wanted to get away from being tethered to the city with a runabout. The discovery of more oil allowed petrol stations and diesel to be made on long distance road networks now being implemented.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it basically covers what we’re doing again well over a century later. If you need to do a lot of cross country driving, range is a massive consideration along with the charging infrastructure. If not, then just about any EV will work for basic commuting and short trips.

@Leafywool If car is with DH, what’s your car? Do you have one?

Im a fully signed up lover of cars. I’m not apologizing for that either. It’s what makes DH and me tick - partially. So I’ll stick to great cars over and MG would not be what I would want: and I do know the difference. I appreciate what great cars I can drive though and it’s given me real pleasure for decades.

@garlictwist Yes I do! Hello! Glad to hear it works well for you. I've not noticed a huge amount of EV in the village so assumed it was too much of a pain not being able to install a charger...

We only need one car for our household so it's shared. I WFH and live very close to a train station so only really use it for supermarket shopping or taking dd out somewhere not accessible by train.