If you can afford it, will you go electric?

[ShiteheadRevisited]

Genuine question - and I promise this is not a goady thread - if you can afford a £40k+ car, why wouldn't you get an electric vehicle (EV)?

I've scrimped and saved for a year and have just got the VW ID-4 (which I love), as I knew I wanted an EV for environmental reasons. A straw poll of my social circle puts cost as the main barrier to buying an EV.

Our daughter goes to an independent school and I've just observed the sea of Range Rovers, Audi Q7s, BMW X3s, Bentley SUVs etc on the school run, and I wondered why, if you can afford it, you wouldn't get an EV? As the EV options get broader and their driving ranges even better, I wonders whether we will finally start to see a significant shift to electric cars in ten UK?

I live in a flat and have an electric car which I lease for £300pm no deposit. I charge it as I go about my day running errands etc. Granted in London there are plenty of chargers. It s ask add o means no congestion charge so you can drive through central London, and of course no road tax. If you own a house with on street or drive way parking then imo there's no reason why you can't get one. There are grants for free charge point installation and it's unbelievably easy and cheap to charge at night. The car is excellent, way more responsive than petrol. If everyone drove one just imagine how much cleaner the air we breathe would be.
OP I can recommend the app called ONTO from where you can subscribe to a car on a monthly basis, cancel anytime, free charging and no other costs. They deliver the car to you.

We live in a rural location and the range of EV isn't yet good enough for a return trip to our nearest decent town.

How far is your nearest town? Our small car does 250 miles on a full charge.

@TheDogsMother

We live in a rural location and the range of EV isn't yet good enough for a return trip to our nearest decent town. Also I am not convinced these vehicles fully address the environmental question when it comes to mining of metals for the batteries then the disposal and the general electricity consumption. I might be missing something but how can these be zero emission when you look at the bigger picture ? I think I will watch this space and hang on to my old car for as long as it lasts me..

Given range on most new evs is circa 300 miles, how far away from town do you live?!

We're looking into this now - for us, the Kona/ID3/4/Nero have been a massive tipping point. Basically the last 2 years have had a big effect in the number of 'family' cars with significant range coming on the market.. The range is enough that its basically as long as we would ever drive without a break with small children anyway.

I think the issues about batteries and the environmental risk is overhyped. Nothing is 100% clean - if you are going to buy a new car, then the electic/petrol/diesal choice is straightforward. If you're potentially able to keep your existing car/buying a many years old second hand one, its a bit more blurred. But its disingenuous to pretend that batteries are worse than a new petrol car, and its also blurring the lines between ongoing emissions and the Carbon cost of production.

I'm assuming most people owning 40k cars have access to charging facilities but maybe I'm wrong. For us, its all down to cost. If they were a few years older, I'd cheerily buy a 4 year old kona/niro as we could afford that, however even second hand they're a bit too pricey. Would love to put some solar plates on the roof and charge that way. The only issue for us is the price - however if I was looking at that end of the market, I would definitely choose electric if I was looking for a new car.

We have a drive, so have a charging point and 1 EV already, when I change my car it will also be to an EV. We will maintain our balance of 1 large family car for long distance road trips, no issue with stopping for a charge when travelling a distance. And a second small car for local use.

To answer your question OP I think it will be a long time before the parents dropping off at your school are predominantly EV

Me and DP have both decided that our next car will be electric, however mine and his are only 5 and 7 years old respectively, and we both had them from brand new, so it will be a little while (HOPEFULLY) before we replace them. I'll do it when it starts failing its MOT for more than tyres!

No, because they still pollute. It just happens in the power stations rather than my local area.

Also, although I have an off road parking space, there’s no way to put a charging point in, or any accessible at any of the relatives we visit. I would only be able to charge it at work, Asda, Aldi and IKEA. Seems a bit inconvenient.

No, because pissing about trying to get it charged will add far to much stress into my life.

I know people will be quick to tell me how easy it is but I am autistic and my executive function is dreadful. I don't need an extra thing to think about. Where? When? For how long? Do I have to stay with it? My house needs required at a cost, both financially and disruptively, that I can't afford so the last thing I want is to try and charge a bloody car at home. I do a lot of miles so where I may put fuel in my take once or twice I would probably have to charge a car many times over for the same mileage.

My guess is clearly out re mikes from a ev - I used to drive one for work and it did 80-100 only

It would depend on how I travelled. I used to travel approx 180 miles twice a week, if I had an ev (unless it's a Tesla) would mean I'd have to charge halfway home, and that would be a pain, so no. If that changed and I could do the journey in one go, or the range would realistically do 500 miles in a single charge I would. I quite like the look of the new EV mini.

I like the idea of an electric vehicle. I’m concerned that it pushes environmental impacts into the countries that produce the batteries while we benefit from less pollution. I do think electric is the future though.new technologies should increase production and lower costs.

The cost is painful though I drive a little car worth less than 1k cheap to repair, insure, tax and easy on petrol. I suspect a bit like home ownership the next generation will struggle to get on the first rung of car ownership.

Personally, I'll not be spending any money on a new car until it's clearer which way this is all going to go.

As everyone has said, infrastructure and the environmental cost of EV means that - as it stands right now - I am not convinced they are a future that is here to stay. I'd rather keep my current car going for a few more years and get a better sense of how things are going to develop, before spending £££.

Infrastructure is woefully inadequate.

The batteries are an environmental disaster all of their own.

If the government are serious about moving all new vehicle purchases to electric within the next 20 years they need to get the infrastructure in place now so that as people are trading in their cars there's not an immediate issue of "how do I charge this without sitting in Tesco for 3 hours" for the majority of people who do not have driveways on which to guarantee an at home charging space.

As to the battery issue, this needs to be robustly and legally built into the manufacturers ongoing responsibility. If they sell an electric car they are legally obliged to safely and in an transparent/auditable way recycle the battery as much as physically possible.

I don't know how to begin combating the environmental impact of extracting the minerals required for the batteries. Sadly the countries that are being exploited for these have little care for the environment whilst they can make money...much in the same way that the Brazilian government is perfectly happy to turn a blind eye to rainforest destruction if it lines ministers pockets.

An extra consideration that people seem to ignore is fuel duty. I'd bet more money than I can afford to lose that when fuel duty revenues taper off the VAT on residential electricity will jump massively. It's currently only 5%, the government aligning this with normal VAT at 20% seems rather likely which means an increase in cost for everyone rather than just people who drive.

Ah now I’m understanding a recent radio 4 program where the scientist was very concerning about the potential of mining for metals in the deep ocean and the potential environmental impact!!! We go from one bloody disastrous movement to another it seems.

I’d love to get one and will when I can afford it. At the moment I only use my car (a small manual petrol Honda) for short journeys and very rarely (2-3 times a year) to drive cross country, so at the moment the outlay cost is too expensive for me. If I drove more or could buy a large expensive car, I’d definitely switch. I’ve driven a couple and they are fantastic to drive. Lots of people near me have them - including all taxis - and where I live has lots of charging points. If they could make lower cost small electric cars where the initial outlay was comparable with a supermini petrol car I’d get one no question!

Also it’s fair point about the environmental cost of the batteries, but one of the key positive features of electric is the lower air emissions which is also better for health as well as overall carbon load.

No. My partner has one and they're a pain in the arse. Always wanting to charge his car on my drive, always wanting to lend my car to him as his car won't make the distance. He's considering going back to a petrol one. Until they improve, I won't be buying one.

I bought a three-year old second-hand Nissan Leaf four years ago. It cost me about the same then as a three year old Focus or Golf, which are around the same size.

Four years later it's still going strong. It costs almost nothing to run. At seven years and 50,000 miles the battery's still around 90% of its original capacity. The only problems have been the non-'electric' parts of the car: I came out one morning to go to work to be greeted by a flat tyre; the passenger's side washer jet is always blocking and the driver's seat is wearing a bit fast; and its a bggr for misting up at the slightest drop of rain if you don't have the air conditioning on.

Newer ones are even better.

I'm assuming most people owning 40k cars have access to charging facilities but maybe I'm wrong
We have access to charging facilities. But we can’t put electricity down as a business expense in the same way as petrol. If we charged our cars at home we’d have to pay for it instead of the business paying for petrol.

This has all been rushed into. Apart from anything else, panicking about driving around finding working/compatible charging points, doesn't fill me with confidence. None of my family, friends could afford £40,000 on a car. However if other people wish to buy one, that's their choice. I'm not convinced the technology is as green as it makes out.

We're about to buy a car and will be getting an EV. Test drove a Kona at the weekend (and it was lovely!) and test driving a E-Niro next weekend. Will pick our fave and go for it.

I have no concerns really. They both have 290mile ranges. We're getting a charger fitted at home, but even so there are loads round by where we live (including a rapid charger that can do a full charge in 45 mins at the local Morrisons). I even saw yesterday them fitting 4 EV charging points into our local McDonalds at the weekend!

The newer ones which cost +£40k will do 300 miles on charge.
The cheaper 2nd hand market will not be full of these cars for a fair few years.
We don't buy new cars.
We pay cash and drive them for years and years.
It will be years until we'll ever be in a position to buy a 2nd hand EV which will work for us.

No. I don't have a driveway or parking space near my house.

I've gone with a PHEV, as that will cover the vast majority of my travel on electric, but when I need to visit relatives abroad, I can just fill up and drive (I'm not convinced infrastructure is there for me to want to attempt a multi-charge trip with kids).

If I hadn't had to travel abroad I would have gone full EV, and just rented a car if I thought a very rare journey would be a problem, but cross-country rentals are too difficult/expensive so the PHEV was the best choice.

For those of you debating the environmental merits of EVs this is a really good explanation of why electric are ultimately lower emissions

Full disclaimer - DH drives an EV and we did our first long journey in it the other week. Yes waiting for it to charge for 45 mins at a supermarket charging point after 250 miles is a pain compared to filling up with petrol but much cheaper and cleaner. Normally we have a charger at home so less of an issue

I have one, we have gone 2000 miles round Scotland last year without a hitch.

Has taken us to Scotland from London a few times with no issue.

We charge it at a garage and only needs charging every few weeks and tbh we may get rid of the garage if we get accepted to a trial for street charging points in my area...

i wouldn't swap for a petrol stinky car for the world