Electric cars

Herzlos

cfw1994 wrote: »

Well, we've dropped in an order for a Hyundai Kona - the 300mile range (which should be at least 200-250 in general) means it can be a proper second car....& actually, the convenience of not wasting time at petrol stations is a big plus to me!
Shame it won't arrive until next August:(

Yes, I agree they remain relatively 'elitist' at the moment. We have an off road (shared) drive that will easily accommodate our charger needs - but it does feel like it will be at least a small step into the future of motoring.
We don't feel we could go without an ICE yet - need vehicle with greater capacity, as well as something more easily up to longer drives, but I can easily imagine 'Sparky' becoming the local vehicle of choice!

That's a long wait! I'm not in the market for a new car at all, but I think it's more than likely we'll get an EV next time, possibly a 3-4 year old Kona.

250 mile range shouldn't be an issue for me, I rarely do more than 100 at once (I occasionally do 300 mile days but it's usually a series of trips with plenty of charging opportunity) and by 250 miles (3.5 hours @ 70) I or one of the passengers will likely want to stop for a break (we're meant to stop every 2 hours or so for the kids anyway).



I bet that once you get it you'll use it for a lot more trips than you'd expect

Nickolai

I look after our relatively modest fleet at work but we believe that the range and infrastructure just isn't in place at the moment. We would love to switch but for some of our high mileage drivers it's an absolute non starter.

The models just aren't there either, there's Tesla and Jaguar I Pace at one end of the market or I3, Leaf, Renault Zoe at the other end. We need some cars in the middle ground. We're not going to lease a small hatch with a P11D of £28-40000.

The VW Ibuzz concept cars look interesting but time will tell.

Herzlos

I've been having a serious look at an electric Berlingo van, but the range is just short of what I need (it claims 102 miles, and I'm an 80 mile round trip to work, so I'd want 150 mile range to deal with any detours and range anxiety - I avoid going below 50 miles left on petrol). As a 2nd car I'd have bought it already but we're a 1 car household.

Hitman999

Range and charging infrastructure are the main issues with EV at the moment. This will improve in time but I think people need more initiatives to go electric. The costs are still high compared to the alternatives.

scaredofdebt

Hitman999 wrote: »

Range and charging infrastructure are the main issues with EV at the moment. This will improve in time but I think people need more initiatives to go electric. The costs are still high compared to the alternatives.

Depends on circumstances.

I currently run a 6 year old Kia Rio, paid £5k for it over 5 years, repayment is around £140 a month.

I do a lot of miles, 40 miles commute each way, cost for fuel is around £220 a month and rising. Other cost, MOT, service, tyres etc is around £40 a month.

Now, I could lease a brand new Renaut Zoe for £350 a month, recharge the car at work for free, so it would actually save me money over running the current 6 year old car. My only problem is once or twice a month I do a 120 mile journey so I would possibly have to recharge en-route in bad weather etc.

Assuming my circumstances don't change I will be leasing an EV once I have paid off the current car (2 years), or at least paid off enough so the residual value can pay the loan off, if range has improved slightly then problem solved, if it hasn't then infrastructure will likely have improved enough for it not to be an issue.

Herzlos

jeepjunkie wrote: »

No charging on-route? I have loads of free rapids on my route so range a non-issue. Cheers

One services on the way home, nothing on the way out and as far as I can tell no rapid charger yet.
I could always get my work to fit a charger or run a granny charger out of a window.
Or I could even just park somewhere else near work with charging facilities.


So I could make it work if I really wanted to, but I'm fundamentally pretty lazy :beer:

AdrianC

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Now, I could lease a brand new Renaut Zoe for £350 a month, recharge the car at work for free

You mean "persuade my employer to pay for my commute"? Currently, there's no BiK on that subsidy - but that is very likely to change in the future.

scaredofdebt

AdrianC wrote: »

You mean "persuade my employer to pay for my commute"? Currently, there's no BiK on that subsidy - but that is very likely to change in the future.

My employer has free charging on site for any employee with an EV.

Now that may change and of course that will influence my decision. But even factoring in costs of electricity, if I charge at home it's no more expensive than my ICE vehicle currently.

AdrianC

scaredofdebt wrote: »

My employer has free charging on site for any employee with an EV.

That's very good of them. Ultimately unsustainable, of course, even notwithstanding tax changes.

scaredofdebt

Not really, a fairly trivial cost when you consider the grand scheme of things.