Anyone got an electric car ?

[UnrelentingFruitScoffer]

Seriously considering the Nissan Leaf as a second car and for short distances to my work and to the shops and such. Do you find it easy to use an electric car?

I've got a Zoe as a local runaround car and I ruddy love it. We plug it in to a 3 point (normal) plug overnight and it costs something like £1.80 to charge up to c100 miles. It is nippy and lovely to drive. I prefer to keep to 60mph to preserve battery so motorways are a bit of a challenge - you have to follow lorries. I think newer models are much more practical. What I love is meeting all the nice people at charging points when out and about, you don't have nice chats with people at petrol stations. We run it alongside a dirty diesel people carrier as we need something that can do long journeys with a full load of kids and dogs and luggage. In time we will upgrade to a huge electric people carrier with a better mileage but they are out of budget for now. When looking at range, consider the bladder test, with the Teslas the bladder often needs a break before the car does!

If you have off street parking where you can install your own home charging point then sure, give an EV a go! I think the i3's are excellent but they are expensive. Personally, I find the Tesla SUV completely soul-less.

We have had two leafs leaves fantastic cars, I would go for a 30kw as the range is that much better.

Overall I would (at the moment) use it for shorter journeys - the charging network takes some using and isn't for the faint hearted!!

Get yourself an external charging socket while the grant is still available. You will get a granny charger with the car BUT it charges more slowly (like 2kw per hour) than the dedicated charger which is either 3.3kw or 6.6kw per hour.

Join the facebook page UK Nissan Leaf owners - ask lots of questions - very knowledgeable people on there!

I had a leaf for 3 years and now have a BMW i3. Love my electric cars, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to petrol.

oh and try to find a dealer who knows what they are talking about.... many just seem to not know what they are talking about.

Also you can probably buy one through the Facebook page I just suggested... I will be selling my current on through there in a few months, lots of people do (if you know exactly what you want!!)

Most studies seem to suggest that lifetime emissions for an electric car are around 50% of an equivalent diesel. The German study seems to be a bit of an outlier. The German study assumes a 10 yr lifetime and 15000km (9400 miles) per year, which seems unrealistically low.

If you are interested Google "electric vehicle lifetime emissions" and read what comes up. It's not black and white, but I think the balance comes out on EVs being better.

We’ve got a Leaf. It’s about 5 years old. Very reliable. Great fun to drive. Cheap to keep on the road. It’s the best car we’ve ever had.

As it’s an older model, the range is a bit limited - maybe 80-90 miles. Which means it’s fine for everyday use.

We charge it up at home every night. On occasion we have to use public chargers. I hate the public chargers. Loads of different companies, all with their own cards. Sometimes broken. Often blocked by fossil fuel cars. The public charging network is the worst thing about driving an electric car.

I’d highly recommend an electric car though. You’ll never go back to an old fashioned car again.

Also if you live in an area where you can buy renewable electricity you can be sure that charging at home is emitting less CO2. In that situation you have a lot more control than a regular diesel / petrol. Plus better for air quality.

We get ours soon. Only thing to offer as info was the eGolf is a nice little car but we have a Golf now and so it would just be an electric version of that. We preferred the Leaf as it alias a bigger boot and you feel higher up. It was a close run thing. The battery on the Leaf is better and we need that for longer distances. Can't wait for it to arrive!

We have a Leaf and love it! Range 160-170 miles. Lovely to drive.
You can still get a govt grant for the car and to install a charging point I think
Also have a plug in hybrid (Mini) and love that too!

Watching with interest. We need to change our diesel car soon, and I would like to go electric. Worried about range for long journeys though - we regularly do 250 + journeys (each way) over a weekend and need room for 2 kids and associated luggage.

Some of the newer cars are good for 250+, but only a few. Kia E-Niro and Hyundai Kona spring to mind or, going upmarket the Jaguar i-Pace and Audi e-Tron. Beware though that quoted ranges might not be entirely realistic. Look into the difference between NEDC range and WLTP range.

There is also the "bladder test". Can you drive all that way without a break? Some modern cars will fill to 80% in half an hour, so even a 15 minute top up while you have a break could make the difference between "might just make it" and "we've still got a decent margin".

Some options here www.drive-electric.co.uk/vehicle/

There's lots of commentary and evangelism at www.patreon.com/FullyChargedShow/posts

We've had a leaf for four years. Brilliant car. Lovely to drive and very easy. Only pain is longer trips have to be planned around charges. When we first got it the services charge points were free to use
Not now, but still cheaper than fuel. Never had a moments trouble. However dh uses it now to commute very locally and only needs to charge once a fortnight! Our fully charges range is 80 miles which drops significantly in very cold weather, and if you have the heater on also if you are on the motorway I find that if you drive over 65 mph your range drops a lot faster. They are very very fast at accelerating though when not in eco mode!

Bump.

Oh, and is anyone waiting for the Tesla Model 3 later this year ? Or is it pants ?

Model 3 looks great.

I’m sceptical of the price though. Tesla are essentially needing to impoverish themselves to meet the promised base price. I wonder how long they can do that for.

I've had an i3 for nearly 3 years - bloody love it.
Fast, easy to drive. Easy to charge. Forget the environmental factors, mine costs me £20/month in electricity to do 15k miles a year. I used to spend £150+ on diesel every month. I'd never go back.

Probably selling the i3 in the next year though as have a reservation on the e-208 but also considering the VW ID which launches on the 8th May hopefully (if I prefer that I can cancel the e-208).

I am not a huge leaf fan - so you might want to hang on and see what else is launched this year. There's a lot in the pipeline.

@CruelAndUnusualParenting
There are other cars due out imminently with good range. Check out the VW ID and e-208
www.volkswagen.co.uk/e-mobility/en/id-family/id.html
www.peugeot.co.uk/showroom/new-208/e-208/

The e-208 is likely to be cheap

I think the pick of upcoming electric cars (aside from Tesla) are the Hyundai Kona and the Kia e-Nero. One of them is destined to be our next car. Can’t wait!

@PaddyF0dder
The Kona is very plastic and the finance deal was rubbish - the GMFV was terrible which made it really expensive. Shame.

The VW ID looks much better to me but waiting on the price. The Kia launch model is also quite pricey but the cheaper models look better value.

DH is a motoring journo so I get to try press cars.

Lexus hybrid here and would never go back - mostly electric urban driving, mostly petrol long distance. Next car change will prob be all electric depending on what’s available

Now announced we can order the Tesla Model 3 in the UK from next week, delivery about four months.

Does anyone think it will be a hit here ? Or are we better off sticking to the Leaf or a Hyundai Ioniq ?

Completely different price points... Unlikely you'll get a Model 3 for less than £45k by the time you've fully spec'd it up.

We are looking at the hyundai ioniq- interested to know if anyone else has one?

I also like the Leaf a lot but husband doesn't like the driving position.

Also there are two main different kinds of charging points I understand and the type that the ioniq has is likely to become more common than the Leaf's.

Ps the Kona/e-Niro are fab but according to our dealers they have a waiting list of about a year.

We have an eGolf. The range is 160 miles which works for us - DH uses it to commute and he can go three days without charging.

We don't have a charger at home (yet) but we have found plenty of free chargers so it seems rather pointless. About a mile from our house there are 6 free Pod-Point chargers. We can get a full 160 mile charge there in about 4 hours, so we sometimes park it there and walk back and get it later. Also, there is a free fast charger in Lidl car park which does a full charge in 40 minutes, which is brilliant. As a last resort we can plug it into a normal socket at home overnight.