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If you can afford it, will you go electric?

172 replies

ShiteheadRevisited · 17/05/2021 09:10

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?

OP posts:
Lostinacloud · 18/05/2021 10:38

I have all the same worries about whether or not they are actually any more environmentally friendly than the current petrol and diesel cars when you factor in the manufacturing process and battery disposal. Then what about the finite life of a battery that we all know so well within our mobile phones. Do we have to buy a new battery every few years! And mostly what puts me off is the running time. There have been many occasions where we’ve needed to drive for more than 2 hours to get somewhere. Having to factor in two hourly battery charges on a long journey with kids in the back just sounds awful. I wish they had waited to come up with a much better and cleaner system.

changi · 18/05/2021 11:32

I wish they had waited to come up with a much better and cleaner system.

Such as what? Human or animal power? Compressed air?

Nothing clean is a practical proposition.

MrsArchchancellorRidcully · 18/05/2021 12:52

@MaryJosephJesusAndTheWeeDonkey

Yeah some electric cars will tow, if you're a millionaire! Nothing in our price range (currently towing with a £33k diesel Ford Edge). Our caravan weighs 1.8 tonnes so I'm guessing electric capability for that is going to be a long time coming. Plus getting into charging points is a non starter!!

MrsArchchancellorRidcully · 18/05/2021 12:53

@changi

I wish they had waited to come up with a much better and cleaner system.

Such as what? Human or animal power? Compressed air?

Nothing clean is a practical proposition.

Hydrogen fuel cells. Waste product is water. They are making these cars right now. Will take a while to be affordable.
changi · 18/05/2021 13:10

Hydrogen fuel cells. Waste product is water.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars have batteries too.

Plus, virtually all hydrogen is made from steam reformation of methane. A fossil fuel.

headintheproverbial · 18/05/2021 15:32

It's funny people saying having the charger at home is inconvenient. What could be more convenient than not having to go out for petrol?!

MargaretFraggle · 18/05/2021 17:32

You don't run out of battery if a car is standing still. You do run the battery down more in cold weather but when driving. Heating and radio are a minimal drain on a battery compared to driving in bad weather. Also there is usually a podpoint within range for emergencies if you take a lead.

Car batteries are not just one battery, they have lots of little batteries. They can usually be recycled or after being sold could be put in petrol cars. They can be used as home battery storage after they have been in a car.

ItsMondayy · 18/05/2021 17:33

Youre only renting a car. Subscription is just a fancy name for it.

@torquewench you were saying it's a "finance scheme" before. Now you're saying it's renting. Renting isn't a finance scheme is it.

Not sure what your beef is with EV's or why the "subscription" services get your goat so much.

torquewench · 18/05/2021 19:27

@ItsMondayy

Youre only renting a car. Subscription is just a fancy name for it.

@torquewench you were saying it's a "finance scheme" before. Now you're saying it's renting. Renting isn't a finance scheme is it.

Not sure what your beef is with EV's or why the "subscription" services get your goat so much.

Whatevs. The fact people are apparently willing to chuck a significant wedge of money every month at something theyll never own doesnt get my goat, it boggles my mind. A subscription makes good financial sense for something like Netflix, rather than paying to rent every film/boxset individually, or a for a magazine where theres a discount on the monthly cover price. I cant, however, get my head round spending thousands of pounds a year just to drive someone else's car.
ItsMondayy · 18/05/2021 19:59

@torquewench so now you've switched from being irritated by a non-existent finance arrangement, to now the fact that many people in the UK prefer not to own a car. Has it occurred to you that not everyone's like you and that it might make perfect sense for many people? Cars depreciate in value. They're a terrible investment. They cost a lot of time and money to service and repair and they decline with use. An all inclusive subscription (or "rental") means you're not liable for any of those costs and you're always driving the newest vehicle. No unexpected costs and a guarantee of your outgoings. Partner and I spend less on this EV than we used to spend on public transport and hire cars for holidays, so it's a no brainer.

torquewench · 19/05/2021 07:35

[quote ItsMondayy]@torquewench so now you've switched from being irritated by a non-existent finance arrangement, to now the fact that many people in the UK prefer not to own a car. Has it occurred to you that not everyone's like you and that it might make perfect sense for many people? Cars depreciate in value. They're a terrible investment. They cost a lot of time and money to service and repair and they decline with use. An all inclusive subscription (or "rental") means you're not liable for any of those costs and you're always driving the newest vehicle. No unexpected costs and a guarantee of your outgoings. Partner and I spend less on this EV than we used to spend on public transport and hire cars for holidays, so it's a no brainer.[/quote]
... hang on while I find my MN Bingo Card ...

I appreciate that comprehension clearly isnt your strong point, but you are very much mistaken in your assumption that Im irritated. I am not irritated by anything. What I am, however, is highly amused by your perception that giving away thousands of pounds on something that you'll never own, (whilst, as someone else has pointed out, being under the mistaken impression that it isnt costing you anything related to service or repair) is somehow not a "terrible investment". You crack on handing over hundreds of pounds a month to have the "newest vehicle" parked outside your house. Yes, cars depreciate in value, but not at the rate per month that youre happy to spend on renting.

As for your point about public transport - a monthly travel pass here is only £69.90 for rail, bus and ferry, you can verify that with Merseytravel.

Bumpsadaisie · 19/05/2021 10:48

@headintheproverbial

It's funny people saying having the charger at home is inconvenient. What could be more convenient than not having to go out for petrol?!
This! It is so convenient!
lovelyupnorth · 23/05/2021 08:53

@Donitta

They’re too inconvenient to charge. The infrastructure isn’t in place yet. There aren’t enough electric car parking places with chargers, and it takes too long to charge at a garage mid-journey (filling up with petrol only takes 5 mins). At home I’d have to install charging points and remember to plug it in, and then try not to trip over cables when I went out to the bin. And I imagine the very rich have detached garages so it would be a right faff to run an electricity supply out there. It’s just too much hassle.

A BIG reason for not using electric cars however is if you have a company car. If it’s a petrol car the company gives you a fuel card and they pay for petrol. But if it’s an electric car you have to plug it into your home power supply and pay for it yourself. Free petrol vs paying for electric, hmm I think I’ll choose free.

You pay tax in a company fuel card

Also currently electric cars are taxed at 1% BIk where petrol goes in emissions so my last petrol was 33%

Also we can charge at work.

No brianer to go electric as a company car currently..

Toddlerteaplease · 23/05/2021 09:00

I've got a 7 year old Hyundai i10 wove I love. Will run it until it dies then replace with another. I don't want to have to stop for 30
Min on a long journey to wait for the car to charge. Or worry about cold weather affecting the range.

Doris86 · 30/05/2021 06:41

I’ll be getting an electric car when:

1 - A sensible family car version is available (rather than the Noddy cars or expensive luxury cars, which seem to be the only electric car options at the moment.)

2 - When the range and charging times are on a par with modern petrol cars. i.e 400 mile range and a few minutes to charge.

3 - When the price of good used examples reaches the level I would normally pay for a car.

I can’t see myself having an electric car for about 10 years.

LondonMiss · 03/06/2021 17:03

I just bought a petrol BMW I did consider a Tesla however the very few charge points we have are very busy.
As a consultant I may have to drive quite a distance and don’t want to have to charge mid journey.
The home charge point would be difficult as i’m often at my partners property.

ParentOfOne · 31/08/2021 15:20

I actually think that, for a lot of people, it's some kind of psychological block, more than anything, preventing them from going electric.

True, EVs are more expensive, and if you do thousands of miles every month they're probably not the best choice, but the UK is full of people who fritter money away on very expensive petrol or diesel cars, and then only do 400 miles a month or so.

Unless you do thousands and thousands of miles a month, you should be able to get by with a charging point a few blocks from your house. You leave the car to charge overnight every 2-3-4 weeks, depending on usage, and the next morning it's ready.

I think that, with time, a better infrastructure will make longer journeys easier, too. You don't need an 800-mile battery because no one drives 800 miles without stopping; you need fast charging infrastructure every 200 miles or so, so you can recharge while you take a break, eat a snack, have a coffee, go to the bathroom, etc.

A used, fully electric Hyundai Ioniq can be found on autotrader for roughly the same price of similar petrol cars (ie circa 50% depreciation after 3 years, give or take).

In my specific case, I'd like a bit more boot space than the Ioniq provides. I am hoping that newer models like the Kia EV6, VW Id4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 will become more affordable, in the used market, 2-3 years from now.

ParentOfOne · 31/08/2021 15:25

@Doris86

I’ll be getting an electric car when:

1 - A sensible family car version is available (rather than the Noddy cars or expensive luxury cars, which seem to be the only electric car options at the moment.)

2 - When the range and charging times are on a par with modern petrol cars. i.e 400 mile range and a few minutes to charge.

3 - When the price of good used examples reaches the level I would normally pay for a car.

I can’t see myself having an electric car for about 10 years.

  1. MG do a very reasonably priced family estate car. Not fancy, not the greatest range, but reasonable: mg.co.uk/mg5-ev/
    The Hyundai Ioniq is not an estate car, but can meet the needs of many families. Used, it doesn't cost much more than a comparable vauxhall or VW

  2. If you drive thousands and thousands of miles every month, fair enough. If you don't, why? What's wrong with charging it overnight, maybe 1 or 2 blocks from your house, every 2 weeks or so?
    Even if you drive to Scotland every week, surely you don't drive to Aberdeen without ever stopping? Fast charging infrastructure every 150 miles should be enough (and we are not there yet, I think)

ToykotoLosAngeles · 02/09/2021 18:07

I'm about to buy a Suzuki hybrid. You can get one for about £11k nearly new (Swift or Ignis). That's as far as I'm willing to go when both sides of the family are 200 miles from us!

Keladrythesaviour · 02/09/2021 20:59

We've got an i3 and a hybrid Passat and will never go back. We have all green electricity sources and use Octopus Go so pay for cheap charging over night.

I absolutely adore it. The hybrid is good but we will change it when the time is right and there is a decent full electric long range estate on the market.

Keladrythesaviour · 02/09/2021 21:08

@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..
Where do you live? My i3, which isn't a "long range" EV has a range of around 150miles. The offerings on the market have vastly changed over the past 5 years.
hyperspacebug · 19/04/2022 12:22

April 2022 now and the options for family EV 6+ seater cars are surprisingly still limited. We bit bullet and got Tesla Model X (Model Y while much cheaper, 7 seater option is available only in USA) which is brilliant for road trips without much range/charge anxiety. Supercharger infrastructure has a lot to answer for. Most of the time we charge using Ubitricity on street bollard charger which thankfully is rarely blocked, as we don't have a driveway.

I am definitely seeing a shift to EVs instead of BWM/Range Rover/Landrover, etc as status symbol when people can afford them around in London. Only matter of time.

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