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?

I have a plug in hybrid. The electric range easily gets me to work and back, if I need more I have it, eg picking up daughter from uni. I’ve only filled the tank (£40) 4 times in the year since I got it. It costs me 80p a day to charge. I used to spend £100 a month on petrol, now I spend about £20 on charging it.

I think I would choose Reuters as a source over a second hand car dealer thanks.

OK, here’s an actual real-life fact.

In the winter, we often put our EV on to pre-heat in the mornings before we use it. The heating runs for 30mins, and gets the interior of the car up from cold (car sat outside all night in sub-zero temperatures) to toasty-warm, and that uses less than 1% of the battery.

So if I were sat in a traffic jam, even in the middle of winter, it would use significantly less to keep the car at a reasonable temperature inside. And at max 1% battery per hour, that’s a lot of hours I could sit in a traffic jam without it running out.

The main drain on an EV battery is driving it. If you are sat in a traffic jam, then you only need to use battery to run the heating (or air con). if you are not using the electric motor to move the car, then the motor draws no power from the battery. Whereas in an ICE car, you would need to keep the engine running in order to keep the heating going.

Yes, of course an EV battery is drained more quickly if you are using a lot of heating or air con. But the same is true of an ICE car - petrol is used more quickly as well. The mpg on our petrol car went from 52mpg in the summer to 43mpg over the winter. That’s a 17% drop in “range”, so why are you not similarly worried about petrol cars running out of fuel when stuck in the same traffic jam?

I get it, some PPs for whatever reason do not like EVs. But really that’s no reason to post such absolute tosh about them.

Maybe I’m wrong about EV heating then.

But I’ll embrace the soundness of EVs when more politicians and other wealthy elite are driving them for personal use, instead of their petrol and diesel Jaguars, Range Rovers, and Rolls Royces.

Since when did politicians know anything? I have no idea what car most of them drive.

We plan to do this. Buy half a dozen in the last year for varying uses and keep them all on the road. If 2030 happens, we’ll be able to keep them going long enough for hydrogen to take over.

Wouldn't it still be plugged in while you were pre hearing though?

Not necessarily. You don't have to charge it every day.

If I had to go back into the office, I’d definitely buy an EV for the five mile drive to the train station. Cheaper to run, cleaner, more convenient (warming up in winter), lower maintenance etc). No experience of Minis but the new Renault 5 looks perfect (too soon to have any secondhand tho).

No, it’s not usually plugged in when it’s preheating.

It has 350 miles of range and in an average week I maybe drive 90 miles. So it’s only plugged in to charge about once a month.

I’m really enjoying hybrids tbh. (Mine is not a plug in)

In your current circumstances if you do mainly city and town journeys then an electric would make sense, but if you are worried about the range and circumstances change, what about a plug in hybrid as a compromise? The range is really good on them these days. Much that id like an electric car, it wouldn't work for me as I regularly do 200+ mile journeys, trips abroad and around 18000 miles a year, so still have a diesel car, but our next car will almost definitely be a hybrid and would certainly consider electric if mileage dropped and circumstances changed.

Similar to @Sw1989 as we have a diesel that we intend to run for another few years (only change car when it is becoming a problem). We don’t drive much in London, but do visit elderly parents c200 miles away and travel abroad (journey of 700 miles that we do in one day). By the time we change the car I’m sure tech and infrastructure means electric is the obvious choice for us.

@RockaLock

"so why are you not similarly worried about petrol cars running out of fuel when stuck in the same traffic jam"

Unlike an EV, which cant be towed (requires flatbed), a normal petrol/diesel can be towed if necessary - or better yet - be refuelled at the side of the road in seconds and be on their merry way again.

NO EV can be recharged in seconds at the side of the road. NONE.

And in case you think I am lying about EVs and towing (plenty of Google items on this as well):

https://pod-point.com/guides/your-guide-to-towing-with-an-ev

"Unfortunately, it’s not possible to tow an EV with another car. Unlike a manual combustion engine car, electric cars have no gearbox and no true neutral gear that disengages the transmission. The same applies to automatic petrol and diesel cars.

If you attempt to move an EV using a towbar and have it roll on its wheels, you’re likely to cause damage to the battery and wider electric system."

A lot of wealthy people I know do drive EVs and not enough Politicians doing something sounds like an argument to do that exact thing.
There is very little logic to the anti EV rhetoric so people throw out misinformation or overly dramatic nonsense.

Yes, I know this about EVs and towing.

I was really trying to make the point that they are no more likely to run out of battery in a traffic jam than an ICE car is to run out of petrol 🤷‍♀️

You realise you’ll find it increasingly hard to find a petrol station when most people have switched to EVs?

Definitely electric. Love ours. We can’t charge at home either. You just make it work. I do a lot of city driving really bad air quality where we live I felt guilty driving round in a polluting car.

Plus in London and Bristol it’s £12 a day charge and we go to both those places quite regularly.

No your point was, and I quote:

"so why are you not similarly worried about petrol cars running out of fuel when stuck in the same traffic jam"

The reason why petrol powered car owners are not worried is because the solution to their running out of fuel is almost instantly solved.

Something NO EV can match.

Also, you seem to be selectively quoting to fit your narrative. You have conveniently missed out the last sentence of the article you link to:

”Rest assured, you won’t be stranded if you ever need to tow your EV! An electric car can still be moved by a flatbed tow truck in the unlikely event that you can’t drive it at all.”

You don’t like EVs. Fine. But you seem determined to put everyone else off them as well, which is just a bit strange. I prefer to drive an EV to an ICE car nowadays, but I don’t go around slagging off petrol cars or posting crap about them.

I’ve been driving EVs for 8 years including some very long journeys to Europe & back in sub-zero temperatures with the heating on.
The infrastructure is getting much better.
I’ve never run out of battery and only had to wait for a free charger a handful of times, and never more than 10 minutes.
Mostly I charge at home on my Octopus EV tariff which costs about £5 to do a 200-mile journey.
Second hand EVs are very cheap at the moment too.

Not selectively quoting at all.

I responded only to the points you made. At no point did I say that EVs cannot be rescued.

I even stated (requireds flatbed) in my post at 0921 🙄🤦‍♂️

You're the one selectively quoting me - and getting it wrong now I've called you out on it.

"you seem determined to put everyone else off them as well"

LOL, excluding this post, I've posted three times in a thread containing at least 170+ posts, less than 2% of the total. 😂🤦‍♂️

I have a 7yr old mini countryman hybrid. It’s great, I have enough electric to do short local trips and petrol for longer ones. I would go hybrid again as I am not convinced fully electric would work for me

Ok, apologies, I missed that you did mention flatbed trucks.

But my point still stands, that it is so vanishingly unlikely that an EV will run out of battery in the first place.