Electric cars

henry24

People say how cheap they are to run but as petrol sales drop so tax income drops won't they start taxing electric cars the same so no saving.

almillar

She currently has a Zoe, on a full charge we are getting a range of 217 miles

Even on the new, 41KWH battery, that's optimistic. The range on the screen is not usually the range you will get. Drive the car for some full charges and let the range (they call the guessometers, GOMs) adjust. Should be more like 180 odd miles at this time of year, unless you've got very economical journeys.

What do you do with an electric car?

Push it? Whilst they're new, there are usually free (well, you've already paid)recovery options. It's a bit different from petrol/diesel because you could turn up to a faulty charger, and need recovery. You don't usually turn up to a petrol station with no petrol!
The Renault Zoe, for example, includes recovery as part of the battery lease.

Keep an eye on the distance remaining (like a fuel gauge) and slow down if necessary.

Yes, they can go far further at a lower speed than you would think possible.

yes what do you do if you are not need a charger?

Charge whilst shopping or having a coffee for example. Have a look around you for chargers and see how you can integrate a charge into your routine. Convince your workplace to install chargers if you can.

Annual service is very cheap (about £100 compared to about £360 for my diesel).

£85 on my Zoe's 1st year service. 12v battery needs replaced at year 3 or 4.

supersaver2

almillar wrote: »

Even on the new, 41KWH battery, that's optimistic. The range on the screen is not usually the range you will get. Drive the car for some full charges and let the range (they call the guessometers, GOMs) adjust. Should be more like 180 odd miles at this time of year, unless you've got very economical journeys.


Push it? Whilst they're new, there are usually free (well, you've already paid)recovery options. It's a bit different from petrol/diesel because you could turn up to a faulty charger, and need recovery. You don't usually turn up to a petrol station with no petrol!
The Renault Zoe, for example, includes recovery as part of the battery lease.


Yes, they can go far further at a lower speed than you would think possible.



Charge whilst shopping or having a coffee for example. Have a look around you for chargers and see how you can integrate a charge into your routine. Convince your workplace to install chargers if you can.



£85 on my Zoe's 1st year service. 12v battery needs replaced at year 3 or 4.

To be honest with my wife's driving the range is quite accurate. Her trip report is always at 99/100 and she often gains miles on short journeys! She does all her town driving in eco.

The warm weather obviously helps coupled with the fact she very rarely has to drive on roads with higher speed limits.

For round town driving I can't fault it.

Gloomendoom

Herzlos wrote: »

In theory they should be a lot. Your holiday place has no electricity at all? That's unusual.
Presumably in Wales it's not likely to be viable to run a solar panel either.

We currently have solar to provide electricity. It has very limited capacity though. Really only enough to power the lights. Any more and we have to run the generator. Recharging an EV with a generator would be a noisy and expensive pain in the bum.

n217970

vman wrote: »

...and Nissan breakdown cover is free providing you have your annual service with them (which you kinda need to do anyway, your local exhaust fitting company isn't a great choice for EV).

Does anybody know exactly what is done at an annual service? This just got me thinking about it and I can't think of anything that could be done apart from a "check" over.

Gloomendoom

dipsy wrote: »

I know very little about electric cars, but if I could be sure I could charge and never get caught short I would have one just for the cost savings

Ultimately, after the honeymoon period is over, there are unlikely to be any cost savings. The revenue lost from petrol and diesel sales will have to be recouped. Expect electricity used to charge vehicles to be hit with full VAT and fuel duty in the same way that liquid fuel currently is.

Gloomendoom

n217970 wrote: »

Does anybody know exactly what is done at an annual service? This just got me thinking about it and I can't think of anything that could be done apart from a "check" over.

Oil filters and levels etc. Batteries may have a cooling system that needs maintenance. The battery and power management systems may be scanned for current and historical faults.

Plus all the other stuff done at a service that isn't powertrain related.

BeenThroughItAll

n217970 wrote: »

Does anybody know exactly what is done at an annual service? This just got me thinking about it and I can't think of anything that could be done apart from a "check" over.

The service schedule for my Zoe was basically:

"Walk around the car and check it has four wheels and lights"
"Check the 12V battery is OK"
"Check the coolant level"
"Read fault codes if fault light on, otherwise don't bother"
"Relieve customer of £100ish"

Still irritates me that Renault were trying to get me too book it in for a service whilst it was in their workshop, where it spent more than 200days of my year-ish of ownership.

datostar

n217970 wrote: »

Does anybody know exactly what is done at an annual service? This just got me thinking about it and I can't think of anything that could be done apart from a "check" over.

I suppose they have brakes, steering components, bearings, door hinges etc. to be checked, lubricated and repaired/replaced if necessary. Probably everything on a normal car service checklist except engine, cooling, ignition and transmission related. There may be electrical safety checks too. One of those programmes on satellite about the Highways Agency showed one in a motorway crash which they feared was still 'live'. They had to call out a specialist because the normal recovery man wouldn't touch it. The man turned up with heavy rubber gloves on and a big earthing cable. The current they draw is likely to be massive.

NigeWick

I got a 30kWh Nissan Leaf last month. NEDC claimed range is 155 miles. Utter rubbish unless tootling round town at 30mph or below in warm weather. The American rating is 107 miles which is much more realistic if mixing town driving plus doing about 65mph on motorways and dual carriageways. I have adjusted my driving to get the most out of the vehicle and believe I can get a good 120 miles on a charge when going longer distances, in warmer weather. I have done a 225 mile trip up the A1 and A66 to Keswick and charged at Ferrybridge and Scotch Corner. I had plenty of miles left when I got to Keswick.

At present it takes a bit of planning to do a long journey but just about all motorway services have Ecotiricity's "Electric Highway" fast chargers and there are increasing numbers at Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Lidl, Ikea and others are installing them to get customers in. Council car parks are also starting to put chargers in too.

The government has just announced that motorway services and petrol stations should have chargers. A few years late with Mways, and, if petrol/diesel stations want to stay in business when all vehicles are electric they'll need to put chargers in soon.

In four or five years battery electric vehicles will be cheaper than petrol/diesel as the cost of batteries comes down. As Martyn said, the US academic Tony Seba shows how costs are coming down and that the take up of electric vehicles will be exponential and not linear.