Buying an EV for the first time

Goudy

15K will get you into a pre reg BYD Dolphin Surf. It's about the same size as your i10 if that's what you are looking for.

Used BYD Dolphin Surf 65kW Active 30kWh 5dr Auto Electric Hatchback for Sale | Vertu Motors

The above is the Active version with a smaller 30kWh battery, so it might be worth seeking out a Boost with a bigger 43kWh battery as you seem to do a fair few miles..

BYD Dolphin Surf details | Carwow

You'll get almost all of it's 6 year (8 year for battery) warranty bar a few months as even the older models are less than a year old.

My Mrs had one recently as a loaner when her car went in for some work. It's no motorway cruiser or blistering traffic light dragster but it's perfect for scooting about in.

WellKnownSid

Renault Zoe (but the motor bearings fail at 50-60,000 miles)

Gary C has a video which explains this is fixed in later cars (20-ish onwards I think).

The replacement bearings which he showed have an earthing strap which is missing from the originals, which prevents I guess some kind of spark erosion from induced currents.

The big problem we've found with the Zoe after three years of owning one is the tiny screen wash bottle which barely lasts a week of rural Scottish driving in the depths of winter.

QrizB

If you would prefer something that's more like a "normal" car without touch screens or most of the driver aids, the early 2020s VW e-UP! is a similar size to an i10. Real-world range with the 36kWh battery is about 120 miles but from your description of your use that's likely to be plenty.

You should be able to get one for under £10k.

middlewife

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82125281#Comment_82125281

That's the main reason I went for the old style e-niro as I don't like touch screens and it's like a "normal" car. One thing to watch with older Nissans is they use the chademo charging system, which will become harder to source public charging as just about every other vehicle uses CCS charging so new charge points sometimes don't include a chademo charger, or if they break, they're not in a rush to fix them

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82124963#Comment_82124963

Personally would not bother on anything less than 5 years old. Norm is at least 7 year warranty on batteries. & often motor & reduction gearbox.

facade

You can actually buy an adapter to charge a chademo Leaf from CCS, but they are comedy prices- like £600.

I've no idea what is inside one, but I bet you could take a zero off in China.

My Lidl has chademo and the chargers are around 12 months old.

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82125330#Comment_82125330

It's complicated - charge point operators are trying to second-guess potential Chademo usage going forward.

Most motorway services charging hubs seem to have some Chademo connectors. So do Lidl. Tesco is a bit of a mess for charging, generally, although they did used to have some.

Of the new sites - Morrisons/MFG seem to be going CCS only. Sainsburys typically have a single dedicated Chademo at larger charging hub sites.

The Mk2 Leaf and other cars with the Nissan charging platform have two connectors - Chademo for DC and Type 2 for AC. Type 2 is widely available at slower "destination" chargers.

lordmountararat

Stellantis seem to have a bad reputation on this thread, but if you're ok with a small car the Fiat 500e was designed and developed before Fiat became part of the Stellantis group. Mine is five years old and still has 93.3% of battery and is good for 165 miles in summer, 145 miles in winter (42KW version),

Ectophile

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82125330#Comment_82125330

There's a computer inside the adapter. Both CCS2 and CHAdeMO work at 400V so that's OK.

But the car needs to constantly talk to the charger to tell the charger what charging current is safe, given the temperature and state of charge of the battery. Unfortunately, that's where CCS2 and CHAdeMO are completely incompatible. So the adaptor has to fool the car into thinking it's plugged into a CHAdeMO charger, and the charger that it's plugged into a CCS2 car. Then it has to translate all the messages going back and forth so that the charging all works properly.

The price will be because they had to be specially developed, with no help from the car manufacturer. And they are pretty niche. The version you would need would only work with European CCS2.

littleredhen

Thanks everyone, lots to think about - very helpful as always🤩