Considering an electric car?

Dandytf

almillar wrote: »

The Zoe uses fast AC charging. To do this, it uses the motor as the AC-DC converter to charge the battery. Very clever. It means that the chargers can be much cheaper. It's very efficient at charging at 43kW or 22kW, less so at 7kW, and quite inefficient at 3 ish kW (3 pin). The 22kW charging motor is a bit more efficient than the 43kW charging motor, but still not as good as smaller, more conventional AC-DC converters in other cars, which are getting up to 11kW. This is another reason you don't get a 3-pin cable with Zoe, they really don't want you to, and will charge you over £400 for a cable. I went 2 years of ownership of Zoe without using a granny cable. There are of course cheaper cables available as DrEskimo says.

As a Clio lover Zoe could be on of. The Future -80kw batteries -upto 200k miles.

NigeWick

k6chris wrote: »

I have really tried hard to come up with accurate EV fuel costs

I've got a 64 kWh Hyundai Kona.

70mph, below freezing with heater & aircon on it will do 200 miles+ The Guessometer was showing 3.2 miles per kWh. In summer, I can get a good 250 miles taking it steady. Really light footed folk have obtained 300 miles in summer.

Octopus Go offers 5p per kWh between 00:30 and 04:30. They do another one where the rate can actually go negative at night but is very expensive late afternoon/evening.

I'm with Ovo at present and their economy 7 is about 10p per kWh. I also have solar panels which have already paid for themselves so when the sun is shining, I get some free miles.

1st year servicing was £79 and it will be £99 this year.

On the road, cost is 30 - 69p per kWh depending which company one buys from. If you're doing a lot of miles, an £8 per month subscription to BP Chargemaster will get you 15p per kWh at their 50kW chargers.

almillar

As a Clio lover Zoe could be on of. The Future -80kw batteries -upto 200k miles.

It's kWh, kiloWattHours, when talking about storage. kW is the usage - motor power, moving the car, regenerating, and recharging.
I honestly don't think Clio sized cars will have 80kWh batteries any time soon. The new Soul EV has 60kWh and is around that size, but of course, is expensive. 50kWh on new Zoe, 208, Corsa, is pretty damn good and I would call it 150+ miles all year round. More capacity takes up more space, more weight, more cost, there's a balance. When do you drive more than that?

alanrowell

almillar wrote: »

It's kWh, kiloWattHours, when talking about storage. kW is the usage - motor power, moving the car, regenerating, and recharging.
I honestly don't think Clio sized cars will have 80kWh batteries any time soon. The new Soul EV has 60kWh and is around that size, but of course, is expensive. 50kWh on new Zoe, 208, Corsa, is pretty damn good and I would call it 150+ miles all year round. More capacity takes up more space, more weight, more cost, there's a balance. When do you drive more than that?

At least once a week. That 150 miles range is during the summer, in winter it could be nearer 100 miles.

DrEskimo

alanrowell wrote: »

At least once a week. That 150 miles range is during the summer, in winter it could be nearer 100 miles.

That's probably overly pessimistic....

My 41kWh Zoe can do 120miles in the winter and 170miles in the summer.

The additional 10kWh will likely translate to around 50miles more range, so that would 170miles in the winter and 220miles in the summer.

It depends on how much of the 50kWh packs in those cars is actually useable. I think 150-200miles all year round would be a fair assumption.

k6chris

Do people on here mainly lease or buy their EV??

DrEskimo

k6chris wrote: »

Do people on here mainly lease or buy their EV??

Bought used. Considering I purchased it for £14,500 and now 12months later it has a trade value of £14,000, I feel like it was the most sensible decision!

I don't want to pay for new car depreciation, and have no interest in committing myself into punitive contracts with finance companies that dictate how long and how much I can drive my car.

I know some people are looking at leasing some of the newer cars with the larger battery capacities, with the view that they can buy them either from the lease company at the end, or another used version of the same EV for cheaper (i.e. the depreciation from new would be more than the lease).

When I've looked over the numbers I see little justification that this would end up saving much money, if at all.

almillar

At least once a week. That 150 miles range is during the summer, in winter it could be nearer 100 miles.

No it's not. I actually said 150+ miles all year round. Where did you get summer from? 3m/kWh, 50kWh = 150 miles. I'll stand over that. Rip down the motorway at zero degrees and you mightn't see it. Summer will be closer to 4m/kWh, 50kWh = 200 miles. And if you do the long journeys, you can avail of the many rapid chargers on the way or maybe charge at the destination.

MX5huggy

k6chris wrote: »

Do people on here mainly lease or buy their EV??

Buy, never leased a car.

LukeLukeLuke

We are in the process of purchasing our first EV at the moment. Currently, the ICE is costing around £2600-2800 per year in petrol for our mileage, and it really is not a very good car at all. I would rather drop that fuel cost to around £250-300 per year for an EV (Octopus Agile tarrif with estimated 5p/kWh) and put the roughly £2400 per year saved towards being able to afford a better, safer, and more enjoyable car to do high mileage in. At least that's how I am trying to sell the Tesla Model 3 to myself !

Just looking at financing options at the moment. The Leaf lease deals look very good, as do some of the Tesla Model 3 ones. However, I would prefer to own for increased flexibility and the hedge that depreciation will be favourable to us over the next 5-7 years of planned usage (as it has been for current EV owners and early adopters).