Electric Car

whambam

Anyone got one share their experiences?

Pros - 1-3pence a mile with a cost of £4 for a full charge
Grants available for car discount upto £5000 off the price plus 100% funding for charge point to be installed at home.

Cons - Battery needs replaced (they say its expensive at the moment) every 60K miles. Low availability of charge points.

Is it worth maybe car leasing an electrical car before buying one?

Thx.

DUTR

Although you quote the adverts figure of £4 for a full charge, remember the range per charge will not be those advertised, the prices of the cars already include the £5k, the battery pack is usually not part of the purchase and is rented at around £60+/month (which buys a lot of fuel especially for a small/medium sized car).

pete428

we have the nissan leaf's at work, there 100% electric. if your doing big mileage every day then its prob not the car for you. Its current range is approx 100 miles. If its mainly for shorter journeys then its perfect. pros, zero road tax, free charging points, as part of a new car purchase they will install a charge point at your home or work for free, no exhaust (no harmful fumes) no oil or timing belt to be changing, no fuel costs every week. cons, the only one with the leaf is the range. you can buy your battery outright or lease it, leasing it would be better, if you have any problems with it, its up to the company to replace it.

topdaddy_2

Renault charge a "rental" on their electric one. Paid monthly. Sounds suspect.

bigjl

topdaddy wrote: »

Renault charge a "rental" on their electric one. Paid monthly. Sounds suspect.

Not sure why you are commenting on something with no knowledge of the subject.

Renault lease you the battery.

That is why their electric models are cheaper than everybody elses.

They have also brought in a similar deal on the Leaf.

I believe you can still buy the bettery outright as you could previously though it is more expensive.

I wouldn't be surprised if the batteries lasted a lot longer than some say.

As when the Prius came out everybody said the bettery packs would be dead in a couple of years.

But they have proved to be extremely resilient.

topdaddy_2

bigjl wrote: »

Not sure why you are commenting on something with no knowledge of the subject.

Renault lease you the battery.

That is why their electric models are cheaper than everybody elses.

They have also brought in a similar deal on the Leaf.

I believe you can still buy the bettery outright as you could previously though it is more expensive.

I wouldn't be surprised if the batteries lasted a lot longer than some say.

As when the Prius came out everybody said the bettery packs would be dead in a couple of years.

But they have proved to be extremely resilient.

So to clarify; your post is to tell me Ive mistakenly said "rent" whereas I should have clearly stated leased? HUGE difference. I cannot appologise enough.*






* I dont.

topdaddy_2

bigjl wrote: »

Not sure why you are commenting on something with no knowledge of the subject.

I believe you can still buy the bettery outright as you could previously though it is more expensive.

No you cant. Ironic.

Netwizard

Well with the Nissan Leaf you can either buy the bottom of the range car for £16,500 and lease the battery for £70 a month or buy the whole lot outright, including the battery for £21,500.

Seems pretty poor value when you think it will only do around 100 miles before needing to be charged up!

Meanwhile, you can buy a city runaround for £6k new, and probably fuel it for the month for less than the £70 battery rental!

I can't really see how the electric car makes any sense at all! It's expensive to buy, the battery lease is expensive, it only does 100 odd miles on a charge (but woppee, you save a whole £30 a year on road fund licence!!)

facade

Maybe if you lived 90 miles from London, and commuted every day to the congestion zone where you can find a parking spot with free charging?

That would save 3 gallons of petrol and £10 per day, but would cost £3.60 to charge at home, so it saves about £24 a day.

If you worked Saturdays as well, that would be £144 a week, if you take 2 weeks holiday, £7200 a year.


Less the rental on the batteries £840 £6360 a year saved :T

pete428

the nissan leaf is a mid sized/family car, its big enough for 5 adults-fact. its well spec'd out-fact, and a decent sized boot-fact. go and price a vw golf, ford focus or vauxhall astra, then come back and say 16,500 is overpriced. if you work out the running costs of any of those 3 cars, you will find that you are actually saving money every year owning the leaf.

System

Yes but due to the shortage in charging points away from conurbations (large ones at that) it can still only be considered a town runabout due to its range