Eletric cars are they worth it - do you have one

happyman70

I am considering buying an electric car but i am not sure. My concern is most of them only let you travel around 200 miles before they need a charge.

I would like to know of people's experience with them, and if there are still free charging points, and how the cost of fuel compares to a petrol car

MattMattMattUK

happyman70 said:

I am considering buying an electric car but i am not sure. My concern is most of them only let you travel around 200 miles before they need a charge.

That depends on the model and your driving style, but anywhere from 100-350 miles. How often do you drive more than 200 miles in a day?

happyman70 said:

I would like to know of people's experience with them, and if there are still free charging points, and how the cost of fuel compares to a petrol car

Were there ever really free charging points? I know Tesla did free supercharging for early adopters of their £100k+ early models but that is slightly different. The odd employer will let employees charge for free, but that is rare. Electricity if you charge at home can be as low as 7.5p per kWh, that works out at around £2.15 per 100 miles, standard home rate of around 30p works out at around £8.00 per 100 miles and the most expensive option is public charging which works out ar around £16.00 per 100 miles which it brings it roughly to parity with a very efficient petrol or diesel on motorway driving, or considerably cheaper than a petrol and diesel in urban or combined driving.

There are many articles and reviews online, look on genuine car sites, ignore the tabloids.

sevenhills

happyman70 said:

I am considering buying an electric car but i am not sure. My concern is most of them only let you travel around 200 miles before they need a charge.

I would like to know of people's experience with them, and if there are still free charging points, and how the cost of fuel compares to a petrol car

Don't most people just go to the local supermarket or work, which is always less than 10 miles, but if you were traveling 50+ miles on a regular basis, you wouldn't buy electric?

I haven't traveled over 80 since last year, even then it was less than 200 miles. Having said that, I am quite happy with a diesel, why should I change?

Perhaps an electric car would be a little cheaper over the long term, but people don't generally think that far ahead.

WellKnownSid

MattMattMattUK said:

Were there ever really free charging points? 

I noticed there were hundreds of free slow charging sockets at our local hospital when I visited.  I guess at 2.2kW that's enough to add 8-10 miles per hour you're parked there.  If you had to travel far to visit a relative for a few hours, it could cover a good chunk of the journey if not all of it.

YBR

I like and enjoy driving my electric car, but I wouldn't say they're going to suit everyone.

Don't go chasing after free charging - you don't get free petrol or diesel! Having said that Road tax is currently free and servicing is cheaper than ICE cars.

I don't regularly travel further than the car's range, but I do sometimes, and although I've been tripped up once by a broken charge point, and once had to fight a parking charge from using a charge point, it's generally very smooth.

I made the decision when I had to buy a new car, and my other half has an ICE car so we swap sometimes if I'm doing the long-distance journey. The (then) electric range of hybrids was less than my commute so hybrids seemed pointless for me. I think these things made my decision easier.

WellKnownSid

YBR said:

Don't go chasing after free charging - you don't get free petrol or diesel! 

If you have a drive, a roof, and the right equipment it is possible to charge for free via solar.  But I agree, it shouldn't be the reason to go EV.

TooManyPoints

I noticed there were hundreds of free slow charging sockets at our local hospital when I visited. 

Are there really hundreds??

subjecttocontract

I think the decision depends on your lifestyle.

As an example.....my wife rarely drives further than 30 miles from home, usually she drives a total of 10-20 miles round trip. So a fully electric (BEV) or plug in hybrid  (PHEV) would suit her perfectly. She currently drives a petrol MHEV that provides 40-45mpg and she is entirely happy with that. She also does only about 3-4000 miles  year so the extra purchase price of a BEV or PHEV may not be cost effective.

I prefer my diesel MHEV that returns 50-60mpg, it can tow a trailer, has an enormous luggage capacity, no range anxiety or higher purchase cost.

Keep_pedalling

Forget free charging, but if you can charge at home then your fuel costs will be cheap. If on the other had you have to rely on rapid public chargers you will see little or no cost savings. Having been driving an EV for the last 2 years I will never go back they are brilliant to drive.

As for range this really depends on how often you do long journeys. I only make 200mile + journeys 2-4 times a year so spending a lot more on a car with more range would be overkill. You have to take breaks on those sort of trips anyway so plan those stops somewhere with multiple rapid charges and you should be fine. My next EV is likely to have a smaller battery pack than my current one as I longer have range anxiety. 

WellKnownSid

TooManyPoints said:

I noticed there were hundreds of free slow charging sockets at our local hospital when I visited. 

Are there really hundreds??

Yes - I was walking through the car park, half way down one row and was at number 37 - and there were several other rows of them, plus other car parks with them all lit up.  

Herzlos

I wouldn't worry about free charging - even the most expensive charging is on par with a petrol car.

The biggest issue is convenience; depending on your driving patterns you may need to charge anything from once a fortnight to once a day, so do you have the ability to charge at home (off street reserved parking you can install a charger) or are you regularly at places which have charging already?

Most big car parks have some EV charging capacity, and up in Scotland at least there's always some available.