To buy an electric car?

[Jobjobjob]

I can't see a reason why I wouldn't?

What have I missed, what are the downsides?

I would if there were more electric car charging stations around the place so I wasn’t worried about running out all the time

I think it’s a bit of a lifestyle adjustment getting an electric car. We have a tesla so circa 200 mile actual range (vs the advertised 260 - the range advertised is never what you get!) and whilst day to day driving is easy, long trips do require more planning.

Overall I absolutley love the car, I think the leaf is similar in that it’s quick, absolutely no delay when you put your foot down. They both have excellent safety features - the tesla is by far the safest car of its class. The one pedal driving takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s fabulous when you do.

I’d say where it isn’t as paractical is long trips, especially when you go away for just one night or need to do a lot of driving at your destination. Charging overnight on a 3pin plug is ok, but very slow. Realistically you need to be somewhere for a couple of days to fully recharge on that. Or for us we can use the tesla supercharger network, which is great when they are en route (today we’ve stopped and got a change rate of 255 miles per hour!) similarly in the leaf you can charge at most service stations, although I’m not sure how quick they are. The other difficulty would be if you didn’t have a drive so you couldn’t charge at home. I plug mine in overnight so always drive away with a full battery (well nearly full as it’s not good for the battery to charge to full every time) which mostly means I never worry about charging.

Battery life isn’t a massive worry for me either, there are Tesla’s out there with more than 500,000 miles on the clock and the battery is still going strong. It’ll be great when they finally manage to ramp up production of the model 3 and get it out here to the UK, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that happening any time before mid to late 2019 though.

An electric car would be great for me most of the time - but I can't justify the massive cost and I also need something that can do long journeys. So I'd still need a petrol car.

@Mapluck

“Idiot like Kim Briggs”

Classy. She was mown down by a careless cyclist with an illegal bike. Her family are left to go on without her.

The cyclist is not always right. What an ignorant comment you made.

Funny. That’s not what the court decided. But you know better eh?

Depends. Will the driver have removed the brakes from the car and be driving like an arsehole?

My next car is going to be a Tesla (I currently have a hybrid). DF has one in the States and he lives in the suburbs. The range of those cars is fantastic - no different from one tankful of my hybrid 4x4 (aver 300 miles per fillup/charge)

I think it all depends how much you drive and what kind of driving you do.

If you do lots of motorway driving them your range will be drastically reduced

If you do lots of long mileage 130+ miles a journey then it might not be practical

But if you do lots of town driving and short journeys then I’d say go for it.

I do lots of mileage for work, but all my journeys are on dual carriageways or motorways and 150+ a time so it’s a no go for me (I’ve looked into this lots).

If you did 20k a year it would cost you approx £250 in the extra electricity to charge the car.

Also electric cars can be expensive

I’m waiting for the new, cheaper Teslar to come out in a few years time with the extra mileage per charge

as for the noise, bmw offer an optional extra for noise to stop the ‘pedestrian walking out in front of you’

And yet he had time to shout "Get the fuck out of my way". Twice wasn't it?

I think they look great and as soon as the range extends along with the infrastructure I plan to get one. I do so much driving for work plusa long commute it's not quite feasible yet.

I read somewhere that the next Tesla plan is for removeable rechargeable batteries. So you could have a few and change them on the go then recharge them all at home etc. I think that would be a real game changer for people who don't have home parking. But it may be just fantasy!

At the moment we have solar panels that do most of our power and in the summer we sell back to the grid. So in theory could run the car for free... it seems to good to be true!?

The court specifically said that, had he had a front brake fitted, he would have been able to stop on time.

Honestly, where are you going with this? The guy went to prison for 18 months. He was in the wrong. Jaywalkers are an annoyance, but as road users we share a responsibility for each other. The cyclist was carelessly cycling an illegal bike. Those are the facts as ruled by the court.

You’re labelling an innocent woman an idiot and blaming her for her death, despite the court having found another person responsible. What on Earth? Is this really the hill to die on?

Anyway, moving on from the digression (and agreeing with PP that the court probably saw more evidence than any of us have), I'd also recommend an electric car providing that you have the ability to charge it and can cope with the range restrictions. Fast chargers should become more plentiful with time. In the meantime, the range extender versions of some cars do provide a lot of comfort as they mean you're not going to be completely stranded if charging doesn't work out.

Yep. The lawyers, jury and judge should have asked a random on the Internet. They know better.

Le sigh.

I've driven a Renault Zoe for four and a half years. I've never run anyone over - below 15mph the car makes a whining noise (you can change the sound) and above that the tyre/road noise is enough.

We have a drive so it charges at home. Empty to full charge is around £4 if it's dark, during the day the solar pv helps reduce that depending on whether it's sunny (I try to charge when the sun's out).

To those people who say the battery doesn't last, mine's still at full capacity. There is a software update which keeps the battery at optimum capacity, which your garage can do.

My range in cold weather is around 50 miles, in summer I've done a single trip of 117 miles and still had electrons left at the end! It's worth saying that the range increases as you drive, because braking or going downhill regenerates the battery. At the bottom of a hill my displayed range can be a couple of miles greater than at the top, because of the regeneration.

Yes, people with fossil-fuelled cars park in the charging spaces although this is getting better. Yes, sometimes charge points are out of order but there's an app called ZapMap which will usually let you check before you get there. Yes, if you want to do a journey longer than your range, you will need to stop and top up. But if you generally just do short journeys (and most of us do), electric cars can be great.

And yes, the torque is fantastic.

Our electric car should be delivered this month, very excited about it!
Great to hear so many positive stories about cars keeping their charge several years later.

We didn't fully commit to electric as it didn't quite work for what we needed but I've got a hybrid VW golf and I love it. Ours is leased via salary sacrifice scheme and so financially is quite complicated but works out for our circumstances.
I do the vast majority of day to day driving on the electric mainly charged at home or in town. I got it in November, drive lots of short trips every day and proper long trips about once a fortnight - I have only just finished my 2nd tank of petrol.
We have a driveway - you can only get the grant towards the home charging point if you have off street parking. We too have a green energy supplier and we will be having PV on my new office to supplement our green energy capacity.
Prior to getting the home charging point we charged from a 3 pin plug in the garage.
Our local town has free charging points as does the city we visit the most.