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

heol

Bicycle has lowest emissions

gzoom

To answer OPs original question:

My inlaws have just ordered their Zoe: £500 deposit, £156/month, free home charger, free first service, 2 year deal, 7500 miles per year. It's replacing a 5 year old Mini Copper.

For them, even doing so few miles, EVs are worth it.

gzoom

heol wrote: »

Bicycle has lowest emissions

I actually cycle a lot, but if you just consider 'fuel' costs. It costs me more money to 'fuel' my self on a pedal bike than it does to fuel my Leaf. Our 340 mile trip in the Leaf this weekend cost us £2 in fuel. £2 of food will barely get me 100 miles on my bike

WellKnownSid

gzoom wrote: »

free home charger

Be interested to follow this - particularly how soon the charger can be installed at home. Apparently they take up to 10 days to authorise installations where there is no GPRS - that would be 10 days I couldn't use the car, on top of any other delay getting things set up.

Regarding charging in general, I don't think dedicated charging stations and swap stations make much sense in future - that's old think. We all have to park somewhere - so I think true e-parking will appear where all spaces offer charging points. No waiting around for one to become free - the satnav directs you right into the next available floor / bay.

The cost of charging will then be tied up with parking charges - the sort of complex billing strategy that competing businesses love, making it harder to compare.

Local power constraints will make it very hard to charge 1,000 vehicles at 43kW, at least in the short term. Diversity will solve some of the problem, but maybe that's where the consumer has a choice. Perhaps 'free' charging remains, but it's a 7kW trickle charge - if you're shopping for a few hours it's a no-brainer - probably the default for shopping centre parking and the like. Railway stations where you're normally there for much longer might only offer a 4kW trickle - fine if you're away for ten hours at work.

If you want to pick up a take-away and need a 43kW boost then you'll just need to pay for it.

almillar

Be interested to follow this - particularly how soon the charger can be installed at home.

I ordered in May, charger was installed in August, car is expected in November. You should have your charger long before your car if it's being built! It's an o2 GPRS signal you're looking for, but I don't know what happens in absence of it.

BeenThroughItAll

almillar wrote: »

I ordered in May, charger was installed in August, car is expected in November. You should have your charger long before your car if it's being built! It's an o2 GPRS signal you're looking for, but I don't know what happens in absence of it.

Bought mine in May, charger was installed in June (by which time the car was at Renault anyway, so it was several months before it got used).

ElefantEd

You can charge from a standard 3 pin socket, it just takes longer - we did this for a few weeks whilst we were organising the charge point being installed.

BeenThroughItAll

ElefantEd wrote: »

You can charge from a standard 3 pin socket, it just takes longer - we did this for a few weeks whilst we were organising the charge point being installed.

Not on a Zoe one can't, unless one pays Renault several hundred quid for an 'occasional use' charging lead.

Richard53

gzoom wrote: »

I actually cycle a lot, but if you just consider 'fuel' costs. It costs me more money to 'fuel' my self on a pedal bike than it does to fuel my Leaf. Our 340 mile trip in the Leaf this weekend cost us £2 in fuel. £2 of food will barely get me 100 miles on my bike

Ah but, ah but, ah but ... that £2 of fuel to get you 100 miles isn't just for the transport. It also keeps you alive. That's quite a bonus that the Leaf doesn't provide - yet. It's as if you put £2 of 'fuel' into the Leaf, and as well as carrying you 340 miles, it did the shopping, worked out the best credit card deal and phoned your mother-in-law as well.


I don't count food as a running cost of the bicycle, as I would be eating it anyway. Just the odd tyre and brake block, and around a penny a day in electricity to get me to and from work if I'm on the ebike.

ElefantEd

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Not on a Zoe one can't, unless one pays Renault several hundred quid for an 'occasional use' charging lead.

Ah, right, our Leaf came with a 3 pin lead. Seems like an obvious and potentially useful gadget for all electric cars! We just carry it around in the boot on the grounds that if all else fails, knocking on someone's door and pleading might get a needed energy boost.