BMW i3 Electric Car - Am I Mad!

Stageshoot wrote: »

My worries are with the rapid changes in battery technology is this thing going to be as out of date as in iPhone 4 in 4 years time!.

Will it depreciate faster than a standard petrol/diesel car.

That's my problem with something like an i3 or Tesla, nice though they are. Bought new or nearly with top notch dealer support, great idea (albeit for a large cash outlay).

But in 4 years time, things will have moved on. The type of person that wants an electric car, will be able to get one for less money as the tech becomes more ubiquitous, and the batteries get smaller and lighter and range gets longer etc etc.

Their choice will be, get an affordable and reliable long range "traditional" car new, or a slightly older and not quite as good but way cheaper "traditional" car at five years old, like your Volvo...

... or a brand new super awesome electric or hybrid car with 250+ mile range and all kinds of auto bells and whistles...

...or your five year old i3 electric car, limited to 80 miles, if their batteries weren't on their last legs, with 2015 stone age tech that puts you in mind of a Sinclair C5 compared to the 2020 iwhatever model. I think it will date heavily and the kind of people who are into electric cars, the early adopters, will move on to the new model must-have tech. People will want the new new electric tech, or the old fossil fuel tech, but nobody will want the old new electric tech.

So, depreciation has the potential to be pretty painful as nobody will want it any more than you do once the motor and batteries have 100k miles on them.

I think the congestion charge thing is a red herring. At the moment, you either suck it up and pay the £30 a week, or you change your travel times to go in early and avoid the charge (and get lighter traffic probably). If you have an electric car you can have the heavy traffic and not have to pay the £30. But buying a £21k car to save £30 a week takes 700 weeks. A thousand weeks if you were willing to drive at more awkward hours once a week.

Yes there is a fuel cost saving too. But laying out £21k for prospective per-mile "savings" does not always get you overall savings. Personally if I had a car I loved I would keep it, pay congestion charge and road tax when needed, and then eventually -once run into the ground- buy a proper modern electric, second or third or fourth generation or whatever, where they have solved the range issues, added many more charge points countrywide, probably steers itself, etc etc.