New car regret

[CarAnxietyArgh]

My faithful old diesel SUV was on its last legs so we took the plunge and got a new car at the weekend. It's a lovely EV SUV and it's so nice inside and to drive.

However since coming home I feel full of regret that I've done the wrong thing, worried about long journeys, had a dream last night that I was looking for a charger and couldn't find one. Now keep reading horror stories about EVs getting out of control and brakes not working/ unplanned acceleration and I'm spiralling. Woke up feeling sick with worry. Not sure what I want from this thread other than kind rational words to bring me back to reality!

I get you I've bought a brand new (to me) car she is great but she isn't my last car

Bet you end up an EV bore, telling everyone you meet about range!

I think it's normal to feel a bit like this with a new car that you're not used to yet.

Give it a week or two.

@Theunamedcat that sums it up well. Glad it's not just me, I should be really excited but I'm just not!

@NewsdeskJC haha this made me smile

Oh I had this feeling recently. I had to finally get rid of my old faithful '06 reg car and I replaced it with a shiny newer vehicle that had so many bells and whistles I honestly thought I'd love it. But I really don't. Hoping the feeling wears off as I get used to it.

Zap Map is your friend.

You will have to think about charging stops, you can't just jump into an EV and drive off like you would in your old car.

Just look ahead at your journey, check -Zap Map for chargers on route and plan your stop. An EV will only have 70% of the quoted range, remember that. So the manufacturers advertised 250 miles is in reality about 180.

Also, you need to plan each stop with a "back-up" charger location, in case the one you plan to stop at is out of service.

Otherwise it's just the same as a regular petrol car.

We got an ev a year or so back. I spent the first few months constantly checking range, but that anxiety eased and now I just use it like a car, and marvel at my amazing overnight charge cost.

@PrincessAnne5Eva I'm glad it's not just me, my DH just doesn't get it, he keeps saying "but it's such a nice car" I hope you start to enjoy yours soon too.

@Chiseltip @ScentOfAMoomin thanks I do think it's probably just changing mindset. The whole family has electric now and I was the last with an old ICE car, so think I always felt a bit smug that I could cover 500 miles on one tank and fill up in a minute!

I've seen two EVs conk out in the past two weeks. One on a busy road, lost all power and stopped dead, luckily the driver behind stopped in time. I'm not surprised you regret it!

Yeah, an EV isn't really progress, technologically speaking, we had EV's and electric scooters 100 years ago, but petrol was more convenient so the technology never caught on.

Running an EV is more expensive, more time consuming, less efficient, and more troublesome than an regular car, but you've bought one now so just make the best of it.

Oh yeah,

Be EXTREMLY careful of speed bumps and kerbs, if you put ANY physical mark or scratch on the battery housing your warranty is void. And I do mean ANY mark what so ever. I've learned this the hard way.

I have an EV, love it and have no regrets.
I leased one for 6 months and then bought one so its been 18 months and I have yet to burst into flames or run out of charge or anything else.
We have done quite a few long journeys and its been fine, we had to queue for a charger once for about 10 minutes

third EV here, no plans to go back to petrol ever. Yes was stressed like you first, checked all the maps and chargning points and signed up with all possible service providers, just in case. But I don't even think about the range, it's never been an issue. And so much more pleasant to just plug it in as opposed to handling some greasy smelly petrol pumps. You'll see what I mean.
EVs are less likely to cach fire than petrol cars, if you haveread any scary stories about that. www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/20/do-electric-cars-pose-a-greater-fire-risk-than-petrol-or-diesel-vehicles

@Chiseltip in what ways have you found it more expensive to run? (More faff I totally get!) My husband's EV has been very cheap so far (been running it for 3 years)...

@DecafDodger good to hear you're finding it ok, all my friends and relatives love theirs and are EV converts!

We are into our second EV and ... I just don't love it. It's kind of soulless and I don't know why. Has bells and whistles. God - so many beeps and cameras and alerts and gizmos.

It goes back in October and I Just Cannot Wait to wave it goodbye with a little spring in my step.

I have never once run out of charge or come close to it. The range is good - 300m plus. We don't have a charger at home but haven't ever really struggled to find one.

Even so - nah. After being EV early adopters we are sliding back to ICE for one last guilty blast. Or maybe a hybrid. Don't know yet.

We have a home charger. If you’re on the Octopus variable tariff you can recharge for pennies. Once it even paid us £2.59 to charge to 270 miles. It’s SO much cheaper than petrol - we are saving about £200 a month. Unless you are doing lots of long motorway journeys it’s not a problem, and even then just plug it in, go for a coffee and a wee at the services (you’d probably need to after a few hours anyway) and you’ll be charged up to about 60% in half an hour. I thought I was going to hate it, but it’s really much better. And there are chargers everywhere. We even have half a dozen at work, so they’re easier to access than petrol stations.

If you don’t like it, change it

I used to worry about this when we first got our ev - now don't even think about it - usually charge to 80%, charge to 100% if we're going on a long trip and use zap map to find chargers, it's never been an issue.

I thought about electric car but had worries like you so wasn’t ready. I ended up buying a hybrid. It’s great. Saved on petrol

I’ve been driving EVs most of the last 4 years and have never had it out of control or accelerating for no reason!

What’s your range and how often do you do a round trip that is longer than that? Ours is well over 200 and in the year we’ve had it we’ve used public chargers maybe 5 or 6 times. We can get to most of our family/friends and back without charging, and those where we can’t they’re happy for us to charge at theirs overnight (and we’d offer the same to them when they stay, or we’d offer to pay). As we rarely charge on the go, it’s way more convenient than petrol and a lot cheaper (though I’ll acknowledge the monthly hire fee is large!)

@modgepodge range is 250 miles and I reckon that will last me a week. Longer drives than that probably only a handful of times a year so logically it's really not an issue! Just need to keep tell myself that. I've worked out that I'm likely to save over £100 in fuel a month...