To ask if you have an electric vehicle? Would you recommend it?

[LordGribeau]

Just that really. We are looking at replacing our current mitsubishi outlander with an EV. Possibly a Kia Niro or Peugeot 2008. If you have one, would you recommend it? Are they good as a family car? DC are no longer in booster seats, so fit a bit more comfortably in the back.

Also looking for a replacement for a diesel outlander and can’t find anything that’s a close match at all.

I can’t see us going full electric until we absolutely have to. By which point the oceans will probably be full of this set of electric cars. How green.

The Tesla or the toddler?

I'd love something like a Tesla but I'd have to sell my house to pay for it - I am astonished by all these people driving new or nearly hyper expensive cars. I confess I drive old bangers - by buying sensibly I have achieved really low cost motoring for many years. I am not sure how I'll ever make the transition - I tend to buy cars that already have a high mileage at the point where others are running away from them. Then I keep them running for many more years.

I understand the environmental arguments and I am lucky that I could charge at home, but there are going to have to be a lot more banger territory (price!) electric cars around before I can switch.

Why would the expensive, rare elements used in EV’s (and a lot of other things, actually) be dumped in the ocean? They will be reused, recycled, repurposed.

Just as a lot of the components in ICE cars are, actually.

This 👆🏻

We have a VW id3 (temporarily) and it's absolutely fine for local driving, school trips, etc. Makes perfect sense as it saves tonnes on tax and fuel etc., and is dead easy to plug in and charge overnight.

However, range isn't amazing (less than 200 miles even in warm weather) which means if we want to go further afield it requires a bit of forethought and planning. Even if you plan, you can be caught out by having to queue for a charging point or worse yet, finding it's out of order and you have to search for and drive to another one...

That doesn't sound too traumatic but it can really ruin a day out if you spend a while driving round searching for a charger because the one you planned to go to wasn't usable!

And then you have to factor in what to do with young kids while you wait for the car to charge.

We've only had it 6 months and it's already ruined a couple of family days out by adding an extra level of stress!!! So I'm really torn on the idea. Makes so much sense from lots of aspects, but really needs a LOT more range to be feasible.

We have a long range BMW and I love it. Driving an EV is simply a lot of fun.

Driving personal cars is bad full stop for the environment, but so is building houses and lots of other things we need to do for economic productivity.

What’s relevant is that lifetime emissions for a mid size EV (ie manufacture, use, maintenance, disposal) is about 60-70% less than an ICE and will go even higher as the grid decarbonises. There’s simply no comparison. I can’t find the paper but there’s a relatively early tipping point (IIRC about 5 years in) where it makes sense from a lifetime emissions perspective to ditch your ICE in favour of an EV.

https://theicct.org/publication/a-global-comparison-of-the-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-of-combustion-engine-and-electric-passenger-cars/

Mine is a company car, and part of the appeal is the low tax comparative to petrol cars. We no longer have diesel cars available. We can choose petrol, hybrid or EV.

DP has a Tesla (also company car) and it’s great. But the range on my Kia is almost as good.

Driving personal cars is bad full stop for the environment, but so is building houses and lots of other things we need to do for economic productivity.

True. The internet itself is one of the biggest offenders in terms of CO2 production, so using the internet to tell other people off about the environment is always going to seem rather ironic.

No gears, no hill starts, everything automatic, no fuel smell. Doesn’t do it for me, I’m afraid. I’ll stick to my 18 year old rally car. She’s 👌. Never found anything to compare.

I travel between 800 and 1000 miles a week for work. It’s just not practical for me whilst the range is low and the charging network lacking.

Good for you. I like my EV because it doesn’t stink of carcinogenic fumes, I’m not spraying more particulates than I need to straight into the lungs of passing pedestrians and it has a huge swathe of modern safety features.

Can’t say I think of 2005 when I think about good looking or well designed cars either…

2009, not 2005. Point still stands.

No regrets in buying mine. Most of my journeys are fairly short and within town so charge by plugging in at home.
Longer journeys take more planning but by driving a little slower can end up quicker in the long run (one charge instead of two) and having to take a break means I end up less tired at my destination.
Some charge points take £30 charge on the card but this gets sorted down to around £5 within 48 hours.
I don't recommend other to buy though (on purely selfish grounds - more electric cars before the charge points are built means I have to queue to get charged)

I have an electric and it's great. I'm not sure if I'd get the same one again (Tesla) but won't go back to a petrol when our lease is up. We don't have a driveway so not option to charge at home and it's never been an issue.

They’re too bloody quiet…when the roads are full of EVs I reckon there’ll be more pedestrian fatalities.

I have no experience of EVs driving wise to comment. Although I had a mild hybrid Ford Puma as a courtesy car and I thought it was bloody awful.

Last month we went out to buy a small diesel car, and came back with a massive electric car. A 3 years old COVID 2020 car with only 10K on it, at 1/2 the list price, and it seems still exceeding the manufacturers range, second hand EVs seem to be a bargain. After the first 'go' at public charging not needed to do it since with home charging. It's an Audi eTron, but we may look out for a second hand i3 as second car

We trialled a hybrid Tiguan a while ago and I hated it. To my mind, hybrids try to do two things at once and end up doing both of them sub-optimally!!

Not a troll....haven't said anything about fires or safety. I've just heard battery life is 7 to 10 years and warranty only with the original owner. Replacements are very expensive so second hand is not a good option.....so I'd like to hear from people who have old EVs.
I've also heard disposal is a problem with them being shipped to 3rd world and causing pollution.....but as I'm in the new Ulez zone if you can provide info to say it's okay to go for a 7 year ev I'd love it ....my car budgets about £4000 if I'm lucky

No it wouldn't be.

The whole idea is swiftly gaining traction but it has a lot of fine-tuning that needs to happen before it is practical for the majority of people.

DH has a BMW i3 that is 8 or 9 years old and still going strong.

It's always had a rubbish range, only 60 miles - I assume the newer ones are much improved!! - but other than that it's okay and is fine for the short commute he has.

We've had one for a whole week. A lease agreement through DH's work. I find it much nicer to drive than an old style automatic and it has lots of gadgets and gizmos .

All positive so far.

Lots of people use the old batteries in their house after they are no good for cars

What for?

To be fair that would be the pedestrians’ faults for not looking. I’m hyper aware of pedestrians when driving our EV because the number of people that walk out without looking at all and just relying on sound is ridiculous. Especially when they tend to have headphones in.