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Original poster

Come and talk to me about ELECTRIC cars, please?

57 replies

JustCallMeDory · 04/12/2015 09:43

I know this should be in the 'cars' topic, but I'm putting it here for more traffic (har, har)

We're about to get an electric car on trial for about a year. I'm very excited, but also trying to do my sums and work out how it will affect our monthly budget.

I can't be sure at the moment, but I think we'll probably need to fully charge it every night. At the moment I pay a set direct debit to our electricity supplier every month.

Can anyone give me any idea by how much I'll need to add on to my direct debit each month to cover the cost in electricity of a nightly recharge?

Any info, tips or practical advice will be very, very handy! Flowers

OP posts:
Original poster
JustCallMeDory · 04/12/2015 16:37

Anyone?

OP posts:
BrushtheHeat · 04/12/2015 16:43

I saw on the Nissan leaf website that an overnight charge cost approx £2.50. Economy7 might be a good idea

ineedabodytransplant · 04/12/2015 16:44

Pretty difficult to say as different vehicles have different requirements depending on the battery pack

Any idea of the model you are getting and maybe it'll be possible to work out the potential power consumption for the battery type

gabsdot45 · 04/12/2015 16:46

We've had an electric car for 2 years. A Nissan leaf.
It has saved us loads of money. We live in Ireland so prices etc might be a bit different but basically we used to spend €80 per week on petrol plus € 450 per year car tax and it was an old car so maintenance costs were high too.
Now our electricity bill has risen by around €10 per week, car tax is €120 pa and we have a new car which we haven't had to spend any money on for maintenance or repairs.
For what we're saving on petrol costs we have a new car and in a year our car loan will be paid off.
EVs are brilliant. I'd be surprised if you go back to a petrol car.

Original poster
JustCallMeDory · 04/12/2015 16:55

It's going to be a BMW i3. It's a company car so it's not one I've done oodles of research for.

grabsdot that's v interesting about your electricity bill - that's the bit that's worrying me. It's going to cost us about £45 more pcm than our current car (salary deduction) but I'm hoping that we might save that in petrol costs.

At 10 euros a week - that's what, about GBP7.50? DH thinks he spends about GBP110 a month on petrol so we should be okay.

Can I ask how often you charge your car? Is it overnight every day?

OP posts:
Original poster
JustCallMeDory · 04/12/2015 16:56

All the online stuff seems to suggest £2-3 per charge, but that's the theory - it'd be great to hear from others like grabsdot what happens in reality Wink

OP posts:
ginghamcricketbox · 04/12/2015 17:33

The Auto Express review reckons a full 7 hour charge would cost around £2-00, with a range of between 80 - 100 miles. Zero road tax and congestion charge.
I would say it is one bloody ugly car.

gabsdot45 · 04/12/2015 17:36

We charge the car over night but sometimes I'll plug it in during the day depending on how much mileage I've done. We've done a few long trips. Ireland is well set up with public charge points which are free. You can go anywhere really and charge up on the way.
However EVs are really ideal for city driving.

Castrovalva · 04/12/2015 17:38

Bear in don't necessarily have to charge it at home, if you live or work near a public charger you could charge for free.

Castrovalva · 04/12/2015 17:40

Oh, and we just treat it like a smartphone, plug it in every night, regardless of charge remaining.

Original poster
JustCallMeDory · 04/12/2015 18:59

Castrovalva - do you have an EV too? How much would you say it's added to your electricity bill each month?

OP posts:
Original poster
JustCallMeDory · 04/12/2015 19:01

gingham I wasn't sure until I sat inside one - the difference not having all the engine / gear transmission gubbins inside makes a huge amount of difference to the interior space. They're super-cool.

OP posts:
ginghamcricketbox · 04/12/2015 19:09

Yes when you are inside at least you can't see the outside Grin

Original poster
JustCallMeDory · 04/12/2015 19:48
Grin

I'm going to find your house, gingham and park in your drive ALL DAY.

OP posts:
ginghamcricketbox · 04/12/2015 19:55

Grin No you won't I live 105 miles away.

MelanieWiggles · 04/12/2015 20:05

I work for an electricity company. We have a fleet of electric cars. As a rule of thumb, my colleagues reckon that running them costs roughly 10% of the cost of running an equivalent petrol car. Also with regard to the Irish poster above - Irish electricity prices are generally higher than those in the UK.

Buttercup27 · 04/12/2015 20:08

Depends I have done loads if research on electric cars and have found they would save me a fortune. Unless I bought a Renault zoe. You have to lease the battery, which for the milage I do would be £85 per month which is way more than I pay in diesel. It's a shame as they look really good too.

SkodaLabia · 04/12/2015 20:12

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how do you charge them? Does the battery come out, or do you run a cable out of your house?

SkodaLabia · 04/12/2015 20:14

And are they silent like a milk float?

Buttercup27 · 04/12/2015 20:15

A cable is inserted into the car. They come with adapters for your plugs. You can also use charging stations when out and about.

SkodaLabia · 04/12/2015 20:19

So I guess you can only have one of you have off road parking. Hmm, I like the idea but would worry about charging it.

TheFirstNoelHeadbands · 04/12/2015 20:20

We have an EV and it costs us about an extra tenner a month in energy costs.

Hopefully we will have charger points installed in the works car parks in the new year, so energy cost should go down to practically nowt.

SkodaLabia · 04/12/2015 20:20

And presumably you need to leave a window open while it's charging, unless you have an outside power supply?

TheFirstNoelHeadbands · 04/12/2015 20:22

We have a PodPoint charger attached to the outside of the garage. Looks a bit like a hi tech hose pipe reel, you just pull it out and attach to the charging point on the car

TheFirstNoelHeadbands · 04/12/2015 20:23

No open windows or three point plugs, no Grin