Electric cars

[veevee04]

With the price of petrol going up I've been looking at upgrading to an electric car I only have a 1 litre engine so very cheap to run compared to some. I can't get over the cost !! Even basic ones with an ok range are very very expensive. I'm now looking at hybrid cars which seem to be a bit cheaper than EVs I'm wondering what will happen when production of petrol/diesel cars are banned will everyone eventually have to lease a car ? Many lower paid jobs rely on having access to transport, nurses for example.

I’ve got an electric car and I love it. Didn’t see the point of buying a hybrid in London as I could see the current restrictions on diesels eventually being applied to petrol cars.

We have plenty of charging points around so once or twice a week we fill it up. We have an ‘all you can eat’ subscription with BP so we can drive as much as we want for only £8 per month as long as we use BP chargers. We’ve got an app which shows where all chargers are so there’s no range anxiety.

The upfront cost was expensive but the running costs are dirt cheap compared to my old diesel SUV. No congestion charge, no ULEZ, all running costs are cheaper. Less chance of faults as there are less moving parts to break, it’s essentially an iPad with a battery and 4 wheels.

We get our Tesla on Saturday. Can't come quickly enough. Will work out at 2p a mile,compared to 20p we are paying at the moment.

@LetsGoCrazyPurpleBanana - you will love it. Got ours in November. It’s a joy to drive.

Thank you Jackie :) Heard nothing but good things :)

We were talking about this at work.

My colleague has an electric car and its 9 months old. 4 times its not started for her due to an issue with the backup battery. Shes had to call the AA out.

Spoken to the garage and they say there’s a long wait for the faulty part for the battery from the manufacturer. Shes stopped using the car and she’s usually her son’s car to come to work. Cant take a day off each time.

The price for these cars are beyond many many people’s budget. I often see Teslas and wonder how much their monthly payment is

Instead, he took it to a quarry a couple of hours outside Helsinki, strapped an effigy of Elon Musk into the driver's seat, and dispatched the car with about 30kg of dynamite before posting a video of it to Youtube.

He’d want to have a think about getting a life.

We bought a second hand leaf. It’s absolutely brilliant and so comfy.

You need to be able to make it work with regards to shorter range and how much longer it takes to charge compared to just sticking 50l of petrol in it as well.

Not too worried on that account. The EV we're going for has >250miles range on a single charge and can be fully charged overnight on a standard level 2 charger, or from 10% to 80% charge in 17 minutes on the (sadly still pretty rare) 350kW fastchargers.

Even where we live, which is quite remote rural, there's a couple of 50kW chargers in our tiny village. They could do 10% to 80% charge (around 175 miles of range) in 62 minutes.

Obviously even the rapid charging needs a bit more planning than just filling up with petrol whenever you like, but I don't think it's a big deal.

I've got an ID3 and love it. Charge it overnight which is 5p pkwh on Octopus Go. We've had it a year and had no trouble at all. It cost approx 27k to buy after a lot of negotiating, which is very expensive but not as bad as a Tesla. Often drive from Yorkshire down south with it.

My DH has a Tesla on business lease and we’ve got a charger at home. He commutes about 30-40 miles a day and he reckons it works out cheaper than his previous diesel Focus, plus it’s a much nicer car. I’d really like an EV that’s a bit more of a comfortable family car but the purchase prices are really prohibitive and I don’t drive enough to make it worthwhile to replace my owned outright petrol runaround. I’m hoping there will be better options available when my eldest goes to school in 2024. Also, the infrastructure isn’t there yet to make long journeys really comfortable, even for long range Teslas. We’ve only done a couple but it’s quite stressful.

The NHS lease / salary sacrifice scheme is a great example - ev from £190 a month including insurance, servicing, tyres. We can charge for free at multiple public points within 5 mins of house or at work. I could never run a petrol car including fuel, insurance, servicing and tax for that price.

We've got a standard Tesla with a charger at home and an EV tariff for our supplier.
It's a winner for short journeys but v stressful for trips over 180 miles. There's a lot of planning and, depending where you're heading, can involve quite long detours to a supercharger or a long time charging at standard chargers.
I wish we'd waited a couple of years.

@RabbitsNapping

There's no road tax, no congestion charge

Not yet, but there will be!

@Atlanticpa

The NHS lease / salary sacrifice scheme is a great example - ev from £190 a month including insurance, servicing, tyres. We can charge for free at multiple public points within 5 mins of house or at work. I could never run a petrol car including fuel, insurance, servicing and tax for that price.

Maybe not a new one, but you could certainly run a fairly decent used petrol car for that.

There is a LOT of misinformation on electric cars people are already quoting in this thread....be aware the oil companies are publishing scare stories that just are not true.

I can answer some of it but I am aware there are many nay-sayers out there (as an EV driver I'm used to people quoting them to me!)

1. EV's are expensive - well sort of yes, its a new technology and its coupled with the fact they haven't got into the used car market yet, there is very little over 3 years old. Basically if you are buying one you need to be looking at new or nearly new. Prices are also high as they are desirable and yes we lease at the moment. But even then it is cheaper to run (all costs included) an EV than a petrol vehicle

2. Fuel is MUCH cheaper. Especially if you shop and top up at the likes of Costco and Tesco who are free.

3. Battery problems - pretty much non-existent at least to the extent people think. There are currently 7/8/9 year old EV's and the batteries are doing fine. BUT they also have a normal 12V battery (like in a petrol car) and these do play up just like any other battery and need replacing. People who don't understand their cars and don't charge them enough don't realise the last bit of the charge charges the 12V....possibly @MrsDThomassDT friend issue.

4. I have never run out of electric, just like I have never run out of petrol. They don't suddenly stop.

5. The Which report - Complete load of rubbish - I have lost faith in Which after I read that. They are reporting and comparing faults in EV's that are resolved with a quick reboot (you know like a phone or pc or any other electronic equipment!) with a garage visit for a petrol vehicle.

6. How far you can drive - basically if you drive long distances regularly Tesla is the only viable option. But many people could run a short range electric car as a second vehicle and save tons of money. The charging network is fine however and I have a colleague who just drove to Scotland from London in a non-Tesla, all fine.

7. How long it takes to charge -- not as long as you think! Recently drove to South of France in our Tesla - it too no longer than our previous journey in petrol vehicle,. No one can drive 500 miles in one go, and a wee stop/short break is sufficient to charge.

8. No they are not silent, and they don't run over deaf people, nor are they invisible to guide dogs (one facebook post doing the rounds that my "friends" keep sending me...)

9. Its a very different driving mindset - you become more aware of fuel economy in a way you don't in a petrol vehicle. Most people who have one and drive it for a while usually end up getting another. We are fully EV and won't go back. It is amazing how smelly (polluting) and noisy petrol and diesel is, particularly once you get used to electric.

10. I see many stories about EV's not being green. they produce about 1/5 the pollution of a petrol/diesel vehicle over it's lifetime including how the electric is made and the battery disposal.

Happy to answer any questions...

@Asdf12345

Once you include depreciation in your sums running your current car for longer will almost certainly be cheaper.

Indeed. Both of our cars are long since depreciated (one is 13 years old, the other is 7 years old). Both bought new. Have only costed us running costs for many years now.

I can see the attraction of electric for those who always lease a new one and change every 2/3 years, but not for those who keep their cars for longer.

@PinkiOcelot

The price of electric cars is ridiculous. Even the really small ones. I was totally put off second hand electric when I read an article about a guy who had paid £27k for a second hand 4 year old Merc. He’s had it 4 years himself now and the battery has gone. The car is worth £12k and the battery is £15k to replace. Ridiculous.

That the battery has “gone” is compete rubbish Ours is 4 years old and battery capability is about 98% of what it was

EVs are far more reliable than fossil fuel cars. Less likely to go wrong.

Yes they are expensive but currently we pay literally a couple of quid a week to charge. We have saved thousands, easily, on fuel.

I do concede that if you don’t have off street parking it may not be practical. I live on the outskirts of Manchester and there are NO public chargers nearby that are convenient. We use public chargers on long journeys only, 2/3 times a year.

Nurses can access the leasing scheme. I'm other health care but leased a 250 mile range car for £265 a month. My petrol was £300 month at time. My electric bill went up £30-40. So it cost me nothing. That was 5 years ago I feel sick thinking what my petrol bill would be now. Service only £45 tyres last twice as long so breaks to fix. Trust me I didn't want one husband pushed no regrets (also love automatic now again being very relecutant)

[quote Kazzyhoward]@RabbitsNapping

There's no road tax, no congestion charge

Not yet, but there will be![/quote]
But road tax isn't retrospective. So if you buy now without road tax, you'll never pay road tax on that car.

My old car was a big dirty diesel, bought when there was incentives to buy diesel.£30 car tax per year, even after they changed the tax system. And the person who owns it now still pays £30 py

Agree with @Kazzyhoward’s post.
We have a second hand Nissan Leaf. I love it. We’ve travelled between the Manchester and Cornwall several times, despite the range being around 100 miles, there’s plenty of charging points to charge at, Na you soon get wise to the companies which are quick and reliable and those that aren’t (gridserve I’m looking at you). Lidl and Booths are leading the way for quick charging points in their car parks.

And the charge at my local garage for a car service has halved, as there’s just less that needs doing when you take the combustion engine away.

The average person needs to wait for the electric car to have gone through the company car life cycle to hit the second hand market. They are then still too expensive at the moment and currently I wouldn’t buy electric. I don’t see why we have to “pay” extra to be green when the car itself is no better performance wise than a petrol/diesel.

We have an electric car through a work lease scheme.

We live rurally so had to install a charger at home, which was £500. Something to factor in your purchase costs etc.

DH does long distances with work, and it's bollocks to say only the Tesla is good for long distances, sorry. His is the ipace and it can do around 230 miles on a full charge.

The charging infrastructure does vary across the country though. Stopping at a service station to discover that only two chargers are working and they are both in use can be really frustrating. A LOT of work needs to be undertaken before EVs can become much more widespread.

@Fcuk38

The average person needs to wait for the electric car to have gone through the company car life cycle to hit the second hand market. They are then still too expensive at the moment and currently I wouldn’t buy electric. I don’t see why we have to “pay” extra to be green when the car itself is no better performance wise than a petrol/diesel.

You may need to do your own sums on this but it has been slightly cheaper to buy and run my brand new Kia e-niro than it was to run my 11 year old Ford. And I included all costs in that, fuel, purchase and sale prices, servicing, repairs, tax etc.

Our second hand Tesla will almost certainly end up the same way. They are built really badly and has cost us a small fortune in repairs.

We've had 3 electric cars and love them. I've driven over 300 miles to Cornwall with 2 stops and charging
didn't take any longer than we took to get a drink/ meal and use the facilities. It's true that if you have a tesla it's much easier to find charge points and something we are thinking about for our next car, but once you've had to charge away from home it's no more stressful than stopping for petrol. There are apps to help you find available charge points and some places are free on a slow charger.

They are great if your usual journeys are relatively short and we've saved so much money on fuel costs. DH used to use around £300 a month and I used around £200 a month on fuel and even with the price increases for electricity we still won't be paying as much as we used to. And that's charging a car each night. Plus the fact that they are so easy to drive compared to a manual car, and even an automatic ICE car.