Anyone point getting an electric car if you do low mileage?

UKSBD

I will be changing cars soon.


Currently have a Polo and will be looking for something similar like another Polo or an A1


I'm also considering going electric with something like a Nissan Leaf or Renault Zoe.


The thing is, I live out in the sticks and do less than 10k miles a year, from what I can gather, electrics are best suited for city driving or higher mileage?


Is it worth considering electric yet for my circumstances or would I be best to put it off for another 3 years?

ElefantEd

If you're doing a lot of small journeys I would say they are ideal. The only type of journey they aren't good for is long distance (at least, if you are not in a hurry). We got a Nissan Leaf just over a year ago and for all those little trips to the shops, ferrying the kids around etc etc it is brilliant. Even using your own electricity it is cheap as chips to run (and very nice to drive), whereas in a petrol or diesel car, the short trips are the least economical and most polluting (on a per mile basis). We live in a small village and so do quite a lot of such trips! We also using it for commuting (a fair distance, about 50 miles) but even without doing that it is definitely worth it.

When we got ours we borrowed a Leaf overnight from a Nissan garage to see if we liked it - they started letting you have one for a week, not sure if they still do but worth finding out.

Londoner_1

Best is a prius, ugly car but good electirc petrol combo, a firm urban taxi favourite.

bigjl

Electric cars are only a good idea if the range is compatible with your daily use, or if your workplace has a charging point that you can use.

Don't know where you read that Electric Cars are good for high mileage drivers though, apart from the Tesla they would be a nightmare.

Don't expect much more than 60miles range from a Zoe though, in fact the current generation of Electric Cars seem to struggle to hit their claimed ranges. Apart from the Tesla.

Apparently Tesla is open to the idea of other manufacturers Electric cars using their rapid charger network, so that could be a game changer.

BeenThroughItAll

bigjl wrote: »

Don't expect much more than 60miles range from a Zoe though, in fact the current generation of Electric Cars seem to struggle to hit their claimed ranges.

With respect, that's balls. My Zoe consistently returns 90+ miles on a charge, and I've had 110 out of it on a steady run in August.

ElefantEd

Range for an EV depends very strongly on how fast you go and to an extent on how hilly things are (though the regenerative braking gives you at least some of it back when you go the other way). If you are driving at 30mph (say in a town) you get a huge range. The range is rarely as good as the manufacturers claim, but then the same is true of every other sort of car.

High mileage driving is ok so long as you don't do it all at once. We've done 24k in the last year, usually 100 miles a day.

UKSBD

bigjl wrote: »

Don't know where you read that Electric Cars are good for high mileage drivers though, apart from the Tesla they would be a nightmare.

I meant high annual mileage.
As in someone doing 70/80 miles a day 6 days a week (20,000+ miles a year) so you save on petrol costs.

UKSBD

ElefantEd wrote: »

If you're doing a lot of small journeys I would say they are ideal. The only type of journey they aren't good for is long distance (at least, if you are not in a hurry). We got a Nissan Leaf just over a year ago and for all those little trips to the shops, ferrying the kids around etc etc it is brilliant. Even using your own electricity it is cheap as chips to run (and very nice to drive), whereas in a petrol or diesel car, the short trips are the least economical and most polluting (on a per mile basis). We live in a small village and so do quite a lot of such trips! We also using it for commuting (a fair distance, about 50 miles) but even without doing that it is definitely worth it.

When we got ours we borrowed a Leaf overnight from a Nissan garage to see if we liked it - they started letting you have one for a week, not sure if they still do but worth finding out.

Thanks, that sounds exactly how I would be.
Basically school runs (20 mile round trip), nipping in to town (3 miles) half a dozen times a week and occasionally nipping to bigger town (20 mile round trip).


The Nissan looks a bit over my budget really, Zoe looks a better option but not sure if is quite big enough and I think they only do a 2 door?

UKSBD

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

With respect, that's balls. My Zoe consistently returns 90+ miles on a charge, and I've had 110 out of it on a steady run in August.

Do you know if they do a 5 door Zoe?


Edit: or are they all 5 door (it's hard to tell)

BeenThroughItAll

UKSBD wrote: »

Do you know if they do a 5 door Zoe?


Edit: or are they all 5 door (it's hard to tell)

They all are.

bigjl

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

With respect, that's balls. My Zoe consistently returns 90+ miles on a charge, and I've had 110 out of it on a steady run in August.

All the Zoe's they had a London ExCel must have been faulty then.......

I was personally shocked when the people using them told me the range, they are not driven for economy, most of the journeys done are dual carriageway into Essex.

And just because you are able to get decent range doesn't mean everybody will.

Does that mean I can call your opinion "balls" aswell.

Every driver is different.

The fleet of Zoe's that was at ExCel was driven by many different people and all reported similar range.