AIBU to not want an electric car?

[Elevenfourteen]

I know IABU for asking such a dull question, but my Dh wants to buy an electric car and I’m not convinced.
I guess they’re better for the environment so that’s one thing. But are we set up for them properly yet? Do all garages have charging points? Do you have to hang around the garage for ages while they charge? I just can’t imagine how they can be a practical option.
Driving to work and back and charging at night is fine, but what about going on holiday?

Do any of you have electric cars and can you reassure me?

I cant justify it either yet

i still dont think the infrastructur eis there ther ewere three charging points at service i sto0pped at on m1 and m6 thats pathetic

so you have to wait then what another couple of hours of charge if youre on a long journey compared to two minutes fill up of fuel

i also dont have a drive where do i charge go and sit in the shops every few days and wait?

Husband has one. Our electric bill was sky high when he was working from home, I’m so glad he charges at work now. He went to charge it at a service station recently and all the points were broken, there was a guy there who hadn’t that factored in and didn’t have enough of a charge to get him to the next point. I would hate worrying about that. Husband loves his car though. My dad has a hybrid not plug in and he loves it. Drove 50 miles round trip last week and the needle didn’t move on the petrol gauge.

@SwanBuster

Absolutely not denying your experience and probably is the case for your Model S. I think the Model S is 2.2 tonnes, whereas my i3s is 1.3 so would explain a lot. EV motors are supposed to be about 97% efficient (vs about 20% for ICE) but accelerating all that weight is still a big ask for any motor.

Love that you have a bike though and I'd quite like a GR Yaris too. Terrible time to buy a new car though so am waiting and hoping that lead times/availability improves!

@SwanBuster this is reassuring as I was wondering! 😆

[quote MobLife]@SwanBuster this is reassuring as I was wondering! 😆[/quote]
😂👍

Actually - it is possible to watch something whilst driving because there is a workaround by using the built in browser and dodgy streaming sites, but I only briefly confirmed that to myself out of technical curiosity as a passenger whilst I told my partner to ignore what I was doing and keep their eyes on the road!

The (well, my) car does have the capability supposedly to one day drive itself - I’ll believe it when I see it - so who knows in future 😳

Anyway, for now hopefully Tesla will fix that stupid possibility in a firmware update.

[quote Lunar27]@SwanBuster

Absolutely not denying your experience and probably is the case for your Model S. I think the Model S is 2.2 tonnes, whereas my i3s is 1.3 so would explain a lot. EV motors are supposed to be about 97% efficient (vs about 20% for ICE) but accelerating all that weight is still a big ask for any motor.

Love that you have a bike though and I'd quite like a GR Yaris too. Terrible time to buy a new car though so am waiting and hoping that lead times/availability improves![/quote]
The good thing about owning a luxury car is it gives you the possibility of taking test drives in other very exotic cars, where the dealer definitely takes you more seriously if you rock up in a car that originally cost £120k.

I’m saying no more - we’ll, ok I will - I can get my fix occasionally for free 😂😂😂

@MobLife

Aren't they really incredibly dull to drive? I love driving and hate automatics 😂

I think it'll be a while before the really driver oriented EV's arrive as they need to sell the bread/butter first.

Having said that, my i3s is a hoot. I came from a hot hatch so was worried but all's well. Sure it's not a driver's car but is fun in different ways and I'm no longer crying when I thrash the thing and the mpg falls off a cliff.

I do miss the noise of a straight six but nowadays so much fake exhaust noise is pumped through the stereo that I'd rather silence to fakery.

@FuzzyPuffling

I've never driven an automatic in my long life. I'm not sure I want to learn that now.

Easy as can be. And once you’ve done it there’s no going back. I’ve been driving an automatic for 12 years now, I doubt I could drive a manual any more. We have a hybrid and it’s a joy to drive. We’re considering fully electric when we replace it.

Not sure why some people are saying they cost 30 k ? That's not the only option at all. You can pick up second hand ones really cheap. Or buy on finance to spread the cost. I would never put down cash for any depreciating asset like a car.

@Lunar27 - if you can blag it somehow, try a Taycan 👍

I haven’t tried the Model S Plaid yet obvs because they aren’t available here, but the Taycan is very good as a drivers car. Nowhere near as good as my personal favourite drivers car though ….

…. My dads old Mondeo was an absolute beautiful feedback through the wheel monster 😂

Ah @Blossomtoes! Have a read - if only those buy to let landlord parasites on the other thread read this, they’ll see that I wasn’t bullshitting when I said I can more than afford to do what they do but don’t 😂

@SwanBuster

If business was going well enough I'd happily go for a taycan but sadly I could only afford the BMW!

Not that it's the booby prize by any means, as it's a great (albeit expensive) hatch but the taycan is in another league!

Haha. I remember the Mondeo.

Mind you, I guess I’m a bit of a parasite when it comes to the EV freebies and perks currently available 😂🤦‍♀️

We've had one for about 18 months now and absolutely love it. The acceleration and braking is brilliant, very responsive. And we charge it at home overnight at cheap rate. I zip about all the time on school runs and parent help so clock up about 100 miles a day. But we also have a diesel estate which we use for longer journeys so we've never had to test the ecv on charging stops (in fact never charged it anywhere other than home). Still not quite confident enough to trade in the estate but when the range is longer or charging en route more reliable we'll trade that in for a second electric.

[quote Lunar27]@SwanBuster

If business was going well enough I'd happily go for a taycan but sadly I could only afford the BMW!

Not that it's the booby prize by any means, as it's a great (albeit expensive) hatch but the taycan is in another league!

Haha. I remember the Mondeo.[/quote]
The i3 is a fab car and immensely fun 👍

Re the Taycan: I’d only get one if my work started offering the salary sacrifice EV deal that some do. If they did - I’d get (a cross turismo) for the 4 years and keep the Tesla for after.

Go drive one though anyway if you haven’t had a chance and can swing it! You just have to pretend very very solemnly you’re interested 😂 Though I did it last year and god knows if any dealer has a demonstrator available any more.

@SwanBuster

Ah *@Blossomtoes! Have a read - if only those buy to let landlord parasites on the other thread read this, they’ll see that I wasn’t bullshitting when I said I can more than* afford to do what they do but don’t 😂

😉😂😂😂

I've had my i3 two years now and I'll never go back to a non electric. I absolutely love it. Only once have I got into a slight range concern but I've done that in a petrol car too! We've got a drive way and gone charger, plus on Octopus Go so cheap night charging. Rarely use mid route chargers except when we travel to my in-laws caravan in west Wales.. the Welsh infrastructure is somewhat lacking still so we usually charge in Shropshire before heading over, but as a mid point in a 4 hour trip it comes as a perfect toilet stop. We usually use morrisons - get a coffee and use the loo etc.
DH has a plug in hybrid (vw Passat) as we needed one bigger car. It only has a 30mile range but it's perfect for his commute. We want to swap it for a full EV eventually but need one with a big range as we like to do driving holidays across Europe. They've got an excellent infrastructure so that isn't the concern, just the distance we want to cover between stops. The i3 has about 120-150 depending on weather so absolutely fine for UK journeys.
When visiting family or friends overnight we often put the grannycharger through a window and bung them a tenner whilst it charges over night (they offer, we will use public chargers otherwise).
There's a reason the vast majority of people who have EVs evangalise about them. They really are fabulous. Plus the i3 has a real kick to it!

Throw a car away? Do people do that? I sold my car because I’d had it 15 years and it couldn’t go in the ULEZ zone. I decided to replace it with an electric car because I live in london and the ULEZ is only going to get bigger and I don’t want to have to buy another car - ever!!
I sold it to a lady who lives in Sussex and only does a few thousand miles a year.

I’m not sure I could have thrown it away it wouldn’t go in my bin. Why are some people so weird about electric cars? No one is saying they’re perfect but they’re the best we have at the moment.
I also don’t fly or eat meat if that helps.

Completely dumb question - what will happen with vehicle excise duty if a majority of people start driving hybrid or electric cars? If I understand properly it's a tax to maintain roads (which is obviously beneficial to all road users) but currently you pay it - at various levels - if you drive a ICE vehicle. What would happen if those vehicle owners didn't generate the required amount?

Dh has a plug in hybrid Mitsubishi. I have a self charging hybrid Hyundai iconiq. Both bought 2nd hand. Fabulous.

We’re getting one in a couple of months, we’re going for the Hyundai Ioniq. We’ll be able to charge it at home and, as we have solar panels and a battery, we’re hoping that it’ll be pretty much free motoring. If not, there’s several free charging points nearby 😆

I have a Tesla through work and I love it! So far I haven’t had an issue with charging. The longest trip I’ve done so far was from just north of Aberdeen to just south of Manchester, my charging stops were also coffee / lunch / loo stops so in the end It didn’t take any longer than if I’d been driving an ICE car. The key is the charging infrastructure which is getting better and better as more EV’s are being produced. You do need to be able to charge at home though, otherwise consider a hybrid instead for now.

If that's ok they're selling by 2030, I wonder how on earth it's going to work in London where the majority of people live in terraced houses with only on-street parking? We are going to need a lot of charging points!

@wardrobewarrior

Not sure why some people are saying they cost 30 k ? That's not the only option at all. You can pick up second hand ones really cheap. Or buy on finance to spread the cost. I would never put down cash for any depreciating asset like a car.

I've never seen a second hand car that I would describe as "really cheap"

I had a quick look on Auto Trader. The cheapest electric car within 100 miles costs 7k and only has a range of 97 miles.

I paid less than 4k for my car - a second hand petrol and it does well over 400 miles per tank.

Yes, you would save money in the long run but only if you live somewhere with electric charge points (our town has one public point for a population of around 8k) or can charge at home, which is impossible for us.

I think it's you have to pretty fucking privileged to be able to say 7k for a car is "really cheap".

I agree, £7k is not really cheap.

My previous petrol car was £600. That is really cheap. I wouldn't even describe my current £1500 diesel car as really cheap.

However when an electric car can do what my current car does (400+ miles from a tank, tows a trailer, huge boot capacity), for the same price then I'd get one. Until then I'm sticking with this one. Unless that idiot Khan further expands the ULEZ into my area in the next year or so when I'll be forced to sell it - but hopefully that won't happen.