To ask if you'd buy an electric or petrol car in these circumstances?

[minniecoop]

I'm looking to buy a 2 to 5-year-old old car. I work from home, and the car will mainly be used for short local journeys on the weekend. Maybe once or twice a year I will travel 100 miles to see family, but I'm more than happy to stop off to charge the car and have some lunch, etc. I have a driveway and so I can charge the car at home.

I'm really not sure whether to go for electric or petrol. Petrol is obviously more familiar as it's all I've known, and as I drive so little I've never really noticed or been bothered by fuel costs. I would fill my car up with a tank of petrol and it would last me weeks. I'm looking at MINI Coopers specifically.

Would you go with an electric car or buy a petrol car for (probably) the last time before they're no longer made?

This, exactly. I live in the countryside and have never run out of charge anywhere, it’s easy to plan !
I wish people who don’t drive electric cars would stop making sweeping statements on something they have no experience of. I understand being a bit nervous or unsure, we were before our first long journey but we happily set of now without really thinking about it. As this poster has just said, you don’t set off without checking your petrol gauge, it’s no different for electric cars.

Ooh yes, good point ! EV tariffs have cheap overnight costs so we run washing machine etc then too.

The range anxiety is only ever brought up by people who have never owned an EV. I've never been close to having an issue.

Only thing I'd say is don't get a car with a low capacity battery. My car's range is c300 miles in the summer, 240 in the winter. I'd not want the faff of less than that

I've had an ev for a year now and have a home charger. My car will do 350 miles between charges. I do live rurally and like to travel around the country.
I can honestly say at I've never had a problem charging my car and I've never worried that I'm going to run out of charge

This

It's extremely rare that anyone would have to replace their battery

If you are buying a five year old electric car you need to think about how long is left on the battery warranty. I suspect that once this expires say after eight years these cars will have a little or no secondhand value. On the other hand our second car is 25 years old and going fine.

Have you looked at the price different in buying a petrol car vs electric/hybrid?

When I was looking for a new car last year, a hybrid car was going to be a lot more expensive than a petrol car so it put me off - and I live in a new build so I already have a charging point and solar panels so would effectively be charging for free some days!

Actually , it jsnt. Most ev batteries that have been tested at the 10 year mark still have over 93% capacity

Agree with all the pro EV posters. We got one a few months ago and I was really nervous about it before we got it but I absolutely love it. We would never go back to combustion engine now. The charging has never been an issue. If you add up all the time you spend filling your car up at the petrol station then the (very) occasional charge at the services is nothing in comparison. Plug it in, go for a wee and a coffee and it's time to go. You rarely fill it to full at public charger, it's usually only a quick 10 minute top up to get you home. It's a completely different mindset. All the people saying the infrastructure isn't there mustn't have an EV. The chargers are everywhere. My only caveat is that I would only have one if you can charge at home as the public chargers are too expensive to be the only way of charging.

Of course there is. There’s chargers everywhere now including lots of pubs and hotels I’ve stayed at.

You just have to plan your journey like you would with a petrol car.

I wouldn’t get stuck in a rural area with no petrol so I don’t know why that would suddenly happen with electric.

You've never been to Wales have you . . .

Or Scotland . . .

Or Devon . . .

Or Cornwall . . .

Or The Cotswolds . . .

The people who are saying don't get one are the people who have never had one!

I have had a Renault Zoe for 2 years, its a 72 plate and one of the last ones built. In the winter it will do around 150 miles on a full charge and in the summer around 250 miles.

Same as you, I work from home and most of my driving is around town but occasionally a longer trip to see family.

I charge at home on a normal 3 pin plug, I usually only charge a couple of times a month at a cost of around £15 per charge. Yes, it takes around 24 hours to fully charge but if I need to go somewhere mid charge, I just unplug, go on my journey and then plug back in when I get home.

The infrastructure for charging is getting better every day but to be honest, it's really good already. Around my home down, there are around 100 chargers of all speeds and most motorway services have fast charging available. Fast charging is dependent on the car you have. Check that, as if you ever want to do a tour of the UK, being able to use a fast charger may be important.

A good place to check out EV's is https://ev-database.org/#group=vehicle-group&rs-pr=10000_100000&rs-er=0_1000&rs-ld=0_1000&rs-ac=2_23&rs-dcfc=0_300&rs-ub=10_200&rs-tw=0_2500&rs-ef=100_350&rs-sa=-1_5&rs-w=1000_3500&rs-c=0_5000&rs-y=2010_2030&s=1&p=0-10

They have checked most of the cars available and will give you an idea of real range rather than what the manufacturers will tell you.

I can without doubt say, I would never have an ICE car again.

Actually, I’ve been to three of those places regularly. I’d plan my trips just as I would if I was reliant on petrol.

if I lived in or travelled to an area with a genuine lack of charger points then I probably wouldn’t get an electric vehicle. But I firmly believe that’s the exception and most places seem well catered for.

What’s with the excessive … use? Weird.

@tastethestrongbowthere really ISNT chargers everywhere. The village I live in has NO electric chargers at all (apart from any privately owned ones). 60% of houses in this village have on street only parking and no prospect of off street parking. There is also no or very narrow pavements - so nowhere for on street chargers.
The neighbouring town has 2 chargers on a street. None in any car parks. And again the majority of households don’t have off street parking.
There is a petrol station in the small town.

where do you propose everyone charges their cars?

Would anyone with an EV like to comment on tyres? 3 years ago there were horror stories about cost and availability of tyres, they were special sizes and tyres from ordinary cars did not fit the rims of EVs.

Might not work for you but as the average distance driven in the uk is 19 miles a day, clearly electric is totally straightforward and easy for the vast majority of UK drivers.

We drove to Cornwall only stopping once for 45 mins charge (from London).

You definitely need a home charger.

No horror stories that I know.

EVs are heavy but so are SUVs. I got tyres changed recently and got totally standard ones on my hybrid.

You can get tyres I think that are reinforced for EV use, but as far as I am aware standard tyres are fine.

I probably wouldn't run a budget tyre on an ev but then again I wouldn't run a budget tyre on anything because I value my life more than that.

I have a plugin hybrid. My commute is a 50km round trip, and my car (in summer - in winter it needs a bit of petrol) can do it on a single charge. Then when I visit my parents, which is about 600km one way, I can use the petrol.

It works perfectly for me - I never have to worry about a charge or running out of petrol, because I always have one or the other.

As others have said though, I wouldn't go electric if I couldn't charge on my drive.

My PHEV weighs about the same as the petrol version of the car (a Kuga) - I don't use tires any more quickly than I did on my old petrol car.

Your use of fear tactics is kind of basic. No, there is no reality where no EV battery will fail to have its warranty upheld. This is one of those frankly ridiculous statement with no merit because you aren’t in a position to make that claim

I think those that don't like the idea of EVs are the kind people who really struggle to plan ahead, and are comforted by the reassurance that there will generally be a petrol station within a few miles of wherever they are. They are the kind of people who never keep an eye on their petrol and suddenly panic when the red light comes on. To be fair to them these people probs wouldn't be suited to EVs for this reason. It does need some logical, level headed planning and basic maths.