Buy a EV battery car or not?

Arunmor

One of the reasons battery degradation doesn't look bad is they have more cells than they advertise which come in to play as the battery degrades.  If you get 10 years you will be doing well and that would assume only one4 charge per week..

Veteransaver

Arunmor said:

One of the reasons battery degradation doesn't look bad is they have more cells than they advertise which come in to play as the battery degrades.  If you get 10 years you will be doing well and that would assume only one4 charge per week..

Not strictly true, they do have a "buffer" though which means they charge the pack to a lower voltage than its nominal voltage which helps preserve the battery, which will get used eventually and then degradation will become apparent.
One full charge per week would still be above average for UK average mileage for most cars.
Even the battery in my phone is still above 80% health after 3 years and that gets fully charged around 4 times a week. And car batteries are managed much more effectively than phone batteries, Eg kept at lower temperatures, charged to lower voltage.

Keep_pedalling

Buying an EV with a large battery just to cater for the odd longer trip would be totally OTT. You have to stop on longer journeys anyway so to spend £5k extra to avoid a handful on route charges per year makes little financial sense. 

Peter999_2

I've had two electric cars since 2020.    When I got the first one there was an offer with Nissan to get a free Vehicle to Grid charger installed.   I figured these were worth about £5k installed so thought it was worth it.    I could charge the car and then sell it back to the grid for an extra 15p.

There were many free chargers, including rapid chargers back then and electric for the car and to power the house became free and I didn't pay anything.

Unfortunately the free charging has now long gone and electricity has more than doubled since then.   Fortunately, I moved my electric to Octopus and now charge up overnight for 4 hours at 9p per kWh which is great (I get about 42% of battery charge).    I then power the house using the car for the rest of the day (I no longer export, it just powers the house).    In effect I pay about 12p per kWh for the whole day, electric is costing me about £60 a month (I did 755 miles last month and only ever charge from home).

If I was buying an electric car now and didn't/couldn't have a home charger than there is no way in hell I would have one.   The public rapid chargers are about 60-70p per kWh (they were 15p per kWh in 2020).     Whenever I go on a drive over 200 miles I have to carefully plan where I am going to charge and quite often there is a queue or the bloody thing is not working - I genuinely hate it and wish I could go back to diesel for those long journeys, but seen as they are only a couple of times a year I just grin and bear it.

Miser1964

Peter999_2 said:

Whenever I go on a drive over 200 miles I have to carefully plan where I am going to charge and quite often there is a queue or the bloody thing is not working - I genuinely hate it and wish I could go back to diesel for those long journeys, but seen as they are only a couple of times a year I just grin and bear it.

Thanks for the realistic assessment as an EV owner. Out of interest have you considered rental for longer journeys, not necessarily from the Hertz etc. On Turo.com, there's a guy within walking distance of me renting his A3 saloon for £60/day.

HillStreetBlues

Just wondering what people class as a long journey that needs a stop? More talking about the drivers limits.

Grumpy_chap

Miser1964 said:

- Need charging at home and the EV-special overnight rate

I have an EV and I have home charging but do not have EV-special overnight rate.
You can use "granny charger" from a 3-pin plug if you can't have a dedicated EV charge point.  You still need to be able to park so that the plug can go to the car safely.

Miser1964

HillStreetBlues said:

Just wondering what people class as a long journey that needs a stop? More talking about the drivers limits.

About 3 hours of Motorway/fast A-road driving and I'd be taking a breather for 15 mins, with the option of a fill-up.

Miser1964

Grumpy_chap said:

Miser1964 said:

- Need charging at home and the EV-special overnight rate

I have an EV and I have home charging but do not have EV-special overnight rate.
You can use "granny charger" from a 3-pin plug if you can't have a dedicated EV charge point.  You still need to be able to park so that the plug can go to the car safely.

That can work if you're not charging a lot. From memory the Octopus EV tariff's overnight rate is around 9p/kWh but the downside is the day rate is north of 40p/kWh so you also really need to have dishwasher, tumble dryer on a timer and cook/heat by gas or you get clobbered. 

Keep_pedalling

Peter999_2 said:

I've had two electric cars since 2020.    When I got the first one there was an offer with Nissan to get a free Vehicle to Grid charger installed.   I figured these were worth about £5k installed so thought it was worth it.    I could charge the car and then sell it back to the grid for an extra 15p.

There were many free chargers, including rapid chargers back then and electric for the car and to power the house became free and I didn't pay anything.

Unfortunately the free charging has now long gone and electricity has more than doubled since then.   Fortunately, I moved my electric to Octopus and now charge up overnight for 4 hours at 9p per kWh which is great (I get about 42% of battery charge).    I then power the house using the car for the rest of the day (I no longer export, it just powers the house).    In effect I pay about 12p per kWh for the whole day, electric is costing me about £60 a month (I did 755 miles last month and only ever charge from home).

If I was buying an electric car now and didn't/couldn't have a home charger than there is no way in hell I would have one.   The public rapid chargers are about 60-70p per kWh (they were 15p per kWh in 2020).     Whenever I go on a drive over 200 miles I have to carefully plan where I am going to charge and quite often there is a queue or the bloody thing is not working - I genuinely hate it and wish I could go back to diesel for those long journeys, but seen as they are only a couple of times a year I just grin and bear it.

I must admit I have never gone on long journeys at peak times or on bank holidays, but I have not had to queue for a charger on my longer journeys (all to the south west) so far. Have always planed a couple of stops where multiple chargers are available if needed. 

I would hate not to be able to charge at home though. After a major !!!!!!-up by my dealer I am currently driving loan dinosaur car, and hate it.