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

bigjl

UKSBD wrote: »

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.

That isn't what I would consider a high mileage driver.

Also to be considered is the battery lease, as when I looked into the Zoe last year the mileage a on the battery lease where not huge.

One reason why a used early Leaf whose battery is not leased may be a better choice for some.

bigjl

ElefantEd wrote: »

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.

The 60mile range I mentioned on the Zoe was indeed at high speeds down the A12/A13 from East London into Essex and back.

Do you lease your battery? If so what is the leasing cost for your24k miles?

I noted they had fairly low mileage limits on the battery leases last year.

Just to add that I was particularly interested in the Zoe but I was put off by the mileage restrictions and range.

I suspect the Zoe range will improve with new battery technology as the Leaf has done.

Have seen pictures of the new Lead and it is much nicer to look at.

gzoom

UKSBD wrote: »

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?

An EV would be ideal for your trips. Don't forget it's not only cheaper than using a petrol car, it's ALOT more refined

Nissan do a fair amount of discounting at various times of the year. I got an amazing year back in May, and you might get lucky calling up your local dealer and see what Septmeber deals they are doing!!

scaredofdebt

Someone on this forum opened my eyes to the new deals that are being done on the Renault Zoe, they are extremely good value.

So much so that I am considering one even though I do almost 30k miles per annum.

The deal is £130 a month over 2 years including battery, then just hand the car back. It's best to hand it back as the technology is improving so quickly that you will probably find they are even cheaper then with increased range and faster charging times.

Drawback is it's PCP so 6p per mile for mileage over the 12k allowed over the 2 years, but I have read that others have negotiated cheaper deals. Even with that extra charge it works out at £250 a month (10p a mile) for the car, which for a brand new car with no fuel bills is exellent - I currently spend about £200 on fuel alone running an 11 year old diesel to keep depreciation costs down. When you factor in the savings on repairs, MOT, servicing (£60 to service an EV) then it's a no-brainer.

Apart from the one drawback of range. My daily commute is 35 miles each way and I can charge the car at work for free so that's not a problem.

Once or twice a week I do a 150 mile run which would need a recharge en route - there is a free rapid recharger on the way so it will add 30 minutes to the journey, if the charger is not being used. I need to weigh this up before I go ahead with the purchase.

This year I have only done one long trip, again, need to consider if the hassle of stopping to recharge every 100 miles or so is worth it.

The rate technology is advancing and prices falling EVs will be the norm fairly soon. The government will then need to decide how they are going to replace the £27Bn they make each year on fuel duty, this may kill EV sales!

ElefantEd

We looked at leasing the battery but worked out early on that it wasn't practical for us as the maximum mileage was far less than we knew we'd be doing. So we just bought a second hand Leaf outright, it cost £15k (1 year old, very few miles on it). I think they are cheaper now, one of our neighbours (our local car mechanic in fact) got one recently and he paid less than we did.

Edit: there are rumours that they will be producing a Leaf with substantially greater range next year. Might be worth waiting for, though I guess it will be expensive as the batteries are the bits of the car that cost the most (as far as I can tell).

LandyAndy

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Once or twice a week I do a 150 mile run which would need a recharge en route - there is a free rapid recharger on the way so it will add 30 minutes to the journey, if the charger is not being used. I need to weigh this up before I go ahead with the purchase.

!

This is the problem for me.


An EV would suit 90% of my usage perfectly but the other usage would be impossibly difficult.

almillar

The 60mile range I mentioned on the Zoe was indeed at high speeds down the A12/A13 from East London into Essex and back.

That explains it. The motor gets less efficient above 60, so driving at 70 really kills the range, including the air resistance. The quoted range on the standardised electric car test, which no manufacturer actually stands over, is over 100 miles. Renault, and users themselves will say 60 upwards in the winter and 80 upwards in the summer.
Trying to nail one number to a car is futile, for electric, petrol or diesel. But that 60 mile range is simply unrealistic over a RANGE of uses.
An electric car is perfect for lots of short journeys, and for sitting in traffic.

dannyrst

The only problem with an EV at the moment is you have to plan your journeys. You can't just jump outside and drive somewhere if the car is still charging from the last journey. For this reason, I'd only consider one for a second car.

BeenThroughItAll

almillar wrote: »

That explains it. The motor gets less efficient above 60, so driving at 70 really kills the range, including the air resistance. The quoted range on the standardised electric car test, which no manufacturer actually stands over, is over 100 miles. Renault, and users themselves will say 60 upwards in the winter and 80 upwards in the summer.
Trying to nail one number to a car is futile, for electric, petrol or diesel. But that 60 mile range is simply unrealistic over a RANGE of uses.
An electric car is perfect for lots of short journeys, and for sitting in traffic.

Following this thread I've done a test today. I've used the car since last night without 'ECO' turned on, and I've thrashed it. Done 67mi since 100% charge at 17:00 last night. 60 of those have been on the A1(M), mostly at the speed limit (or indicated + 10% on the speedo) and I still had 16% battery capacity remaining when I put the car on charge at work earlier. Based on that, even thrashing the car (on/off throttle, etc) I would still get ~80 miles out of a charge.


60miles on a charge is, I expect, the result of multiple non-owning users driving a car that's probably not often charged to 100% capacity, and relying on the Zoe's Guess-O-Meter to determine how far they think they can go, rather than how far they *actually* can go.


None of the owners I know (and there's three of us at my work now, plus others I speak to online) return 60mile range - I'd trust their figures over secondhand information from people who don't actually own a Zoe.


Let's face it, pool/hire/company/courtesy cars never return the same MPG as they would if they were your own, do they?

FreddieFrugal

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Once or twice a week I do a 150 mile run which would need a recharge en route - there is a free rapid recharger on the way so it will add 30 minutes to the journey, if the charger is not being used. I need to weigh this up before I go ahead with the purchase.

That in itself would be a deal breaker for me. What a faff.

The government will then need to decide how they are going to replace the £27Bn they make each year on fuel duty, this may kill EV sales!

As you say. Almost certainly they would simply have to change car tax rules again. Remove future ring fence of only spending on roads. Increase road tax on EV vehicles from free to a variable level, maybe based on the size or original cost of the car?

SO someone buying a premium EV pays more tax than someone buying a more mainstream make. Or charging a smaller car less because it takes up less space on the road?

Maybe just when energy companies start having rapid charging points instead of petrol stations, the government will levy a tax on charging, meaning that the charging stations have to charge customers a fee based on tax + station upkeep costs and profit

So in the end motorists just swap petrol and diesel prices for increased electricity prices when charging away from home.

I dunno I'm sure they'd come up with something!