Streets ahead? What I’ve learned from my year with an electric car

Sounds awful. Especially around London. It’s going to be a long time until I consider EV. Only when the charging network is as common and available as the fuel network.
It's not, if you have your own off road parking so you can have a home charge point it's brilliant. No more queues at the petrol station, no more anxiety about filling the car up before a long journey, unless you are doing 200+ miles every day then range anxiety isn't a thing, bags of acceleration, and once the solar panels are fitted at home, free driving.
 
I presume as a Tesla driver this isn't an occurrence so I get why you wouldn't suffer any range anxiety. The infrastructure is much better for a Tesla. I do really like my electric car and the finances make it a no brainer but there are definitely not "no concerns" about owning one. An ICE definitely feels less hassle.
I think this is the challenge. The Tesla network is brilliant. I travel from Kent to Durham to see my daughter, it's hard to get a longer journey within England. Stop for 30 mins at Grantham, quick pee, grab a bite to eat, watch 10 mins of Netflix and then set off again. It takes no longer than it used to with an ICE, to be honest when we had little kids, getting them in and out the car, and watching them spend 20 mins nibbling at a sandwich, needing the toilet twice and wanting sweets would be longer than the charge time. I do a 15 min top up at Scotch Corner or use a Durham car park with EV chargers to top up.

So, Tesla have proven the tech for fast charging is there, for long journeys. The real challenge is lamp post parking capacity within cities, so that street front housing/flats aren't a barrier to having an EV
 
the whole EV debate is pretty much moot considering only around 20% of our electricity in the Uk is from renewable energy sources.

So using your EV in London might improve the local air quality, but its only moving the pollution to the places unlucky enough to have a power station near by, you know, like the north, or Scotland or Wales.

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if you are ecologically motivated then solar plus EV is the way to go
 
Simliar spec and performance MG ZS? Can you show me the comparison you have made? Seems a lot
Have a look on the MG website.
MGZS Exclusive 1.5 vti - £18795
MGZS EV SE - £29495
marginal difference between the two in terms of equipment and performance.

I will say at this point that I have the EV on order via a Sal sac scheme at work, although I struggle to see the justification in the extra cost.
 
Have a look on the MG website.
MGZS Exclusive 1.5 vti - £18795
MGZS EV SE - £29495
marginal difference between the two in terms of equipment and performance.

I will say at this point that I have the EV on order via a Sal sac scheme at work, although I struggle to see the justification in the extra cost.
within 3-4 years you will have likely paid more TCO for the ICE
 
Have a look on the MG website.
MGZS Exclusive 1.5 vti - £18795
MGZS EV SE - £29495
marginal difference between the two in terms of equipment and performance.

I will say at this point that I have the EV on order via a Sal sac scheme at work, although I struggle to see the justification in the extra cost.
Not exactly like for like, there's a significant performance increase between the 1.5 vti and the EV version. I wouldn't expect to pay the same for a BMW 330 as I would for a BMW 318 (if such a thing exists) also did you factor in the grant for the EV? with both these things considered the 9 grand becomes significantly smaller.
 
Can someone help with this question. I buy 2nd hand, usually with 15k miles on the clock. I never have and never want to do pcp and couldn't afford to buy brand new. I've heard there will never be a 2nd hand electric car market as the batteries don't last long, and when they die, it is so expensive that its better to just buy a new car. Does this mean the end of the 2nd hand market? Does it mean we will only be able to buy brand new, and if you can't afford to buy out right doesnit mean our only options will be renting or finance. If so that is totally unfair on poorer families, I hopemits wrong can someone advise?
 
Can someone help with this question. I buy 2nd hand, usually with 15k miles on the clock. I never have and never want to do pcp and couldn't afford to buy brand new. I've heard there will never be a 2nd hand electric car market as the batteries don't last long, and when they die, it is so expensive that its better to just buy a new car. Does this mean the end of the 2nd hand market? Does it mean we will only be able to buy brand new, and if you can't afford to buy out right doesnit mean our only options will be renting or finance. If so that is totally unfair on poorer families, I hopemits wrong can someone advise?
No, that's totally incorrect. It's another one of the myths that needs busting but is proving so difficult to get out of peoples heads. I assume all these myths are being upheld by both the motro industry trying to make money out of all the ICE vehicles it makes and the FUDs trying desperately to defend their old ways. It's incredibly frustrating to still read so many mistruths about EV

The batteries do degrade over time, granted. As does a petrol engine, who's performance will get steadily worse the more miles it has on it.

The advantage of EV is that the motor is so simple so it won't wear out anywhere near as quickly as an ICE motor.

This is all based on current technology of course. Tesla are working on a million mile battery. Which will significantly outlast the car

Also it's worth pointing out that all car companies give significantly longer warranties on their batteries than they do on an ICE engine. Usually 8 years/100000 miles. or 10 years in the case of warranty kings Kia.
 
Can someone help with this question. I buy 2nd hand, usually with 15k miles on the clock. I never have and never want to do pcp and couldn't afford to buy brand new. I've heard there will never be a 2nd hand electric car market as the batteries don't last long, and when they die, it is so expensive that its better to just buy a new car. Does this mean the end of the 2nd hand market? Does it mean we will only be able to buy brand new, and if you can't afford to buy out right doesnit mean our only options will be renting or finance. If so that is totally unfair on poorer families, I hopemits wrong can someone advise?
there will be multiple solutions to this to build the second hand market.

First the lifespan of batteries has been greatly exaggerated, current estimates are 10-20 years for battery life. Buying a 1-2 year old car and running it for 3 years will have no noticeable difference.

Second the cost of batteries will likely reduce


Third, it is likely at some point that swappable batteries will be the norm. Rather than buying the batteries with the car, and recharging them, you will simply pull into a motorway services, or battery station, and they will pop your old batteries out and put fully charged ones in. You then pay a rental fee for the batteries. This alleviates the battery lifespan issue as the cost of that is born by the battery service company.
 
OK, this sounds far more promising. I have no issues with charge time, etc, those things are a worth while sacrifice, I do need there to be a robust 2nd hand market though, we generally by with 15k miles on the clock, usually for less than £15,000 and we then run the car for 7 years. If I can achieve this in electric market I'd happily switch over
 
OK, this sounds far more promising. I have no issues with charge time, etc, those things are a worth while sacrifice, I do need there to be a robust 2nd hand market though, we generally by with 15k miles on the clock, usually for less than £15,000 and we then run the car for 7 years. If I can achieve this in electric market I'd happily switch over
Or even a bit more considering the other savings
 
OK, this sounds far more promising. I have no issues with charge time, etc, those things are a worth while sacrifice, I do need there to be a robust 2nd hand market though, we generally by with 15k miles on the clock, usually for less than £15,000 and we then run the car for 7 years. If I can achieve this in electric market I'd happily switch over
7 years in a used EV with only 15k on the clock will be no problem at all.

Sadly, you'll have to wait for the used car market to catch up. You can get a billion Nissan leafs but there will be so many better EV coming up second hand in the coming years
 
I'm currently in the process of sourcing a new works car as I'm going onto an allowance and I'm doing some research. Range seems to be the issue, I like the Q4 E-Tron but the 150kw only comes in at 317 miles, I'm assuming that's top end as well so realistically might pull in 250 miles. I cover an area from Durham up to the Scottish Borders with my job so that's going to cause me a bit of an issue. They also seem to be expensive, for example I could get a 5 Series Diesel BMW with M-Sport package for approx. £100 less a month than I could get an electric Skoda. The BMW is Luxury Car of the year for 2021 as well.
 
I'm currently in the process of sourcing a new works car as I'm going onto an allowance and I'm doing some research. Range seems to be the issue, I like the Q4 E-Tron but the 150kw only comes in at 317 miles, I'm assuming that's top end as well so realistically might pull in 250 miles. I cover an area from Durham up to the Scottish Borders with my job so that's going to cause me a bit of an issue. They also seem to be expensive, for example I could get a 5 Series Diesel BMW with M-Sport package for approx. £100 less a month than I could get an electric Skoda. The BMW is Luxury Car of the year for 2021 as well.
Range isn't an issue. What journies do you do regularly? length and location?

Please show your pricing for the BMW and the Skoda?

I don't mean to sound short, but as I've mentioned many times already "range anxiety" and "EVs a way more expensive" Are two extremely persistent myths that need to be addressed because a worrying number of people still think they exist. It's a hard job just simply sharing the truth about EVs
 
Range isn't an issue. What journies do you do regularly? length and location?

Please show your pricing for the BMW and the Skoda?

I don't mean to sound short, but as I've mentioned many times already "range anxiety" and "EVs a way more expensive" Are two extremely persistent myths that need to be addressed because a worrying number of people still think they exist. It's a hard job just simply sharing the truth about EVs

@SmallTown - I find it hard to believe you can say, with authority, that "range anxiety doesn't exist" simply because to you it doesn't.

How do you know that other people dont constantly fear running low on battery and being unable to find a charging point ? In much the same way as some people dont fret if their petrol light comes on, and others immediately start looking for the nearest petrol station, why can't you recognise that to some people it could be a legitimate concern ?
 
@SmallTown - I find it hard to believe you can say, with authority, that "range anxiety doesn't exist" simply because to you it doesn't.

How do you know that other people dont constantly fear running low on battery and being unable to find a charging point ? In much the same way as some people dont fret if their petrol light comes on, and others immediately start looking for the nearest petrol station, why can't you recognise that to some people it could be a legitimate concern ?
Range anxiety doesn't exist. It is an entirely made up construct in order to provide a handy, emotive and unprovable anti EV comment without much thought. It's an utter myth.

Charger anxiety does exist in this country. There is no question of this. But range anxiety no. If you plan a journey in an EV you have 0% anxiety about being able to complete that journey as planned. You do have anxiety over whether the charging infrastructure will support you but that's an entirely different matter.
 
We live in the UK, not only does range anxiety not exist: "Range" simply isn't a problem in this small, densely populated island with all but the small city cars. Peopel think they need the range of an EV to increase massively but you genuinely don't in the UK. For the big cars now, range is pretty much at it's optimum.
 
I'm currently in the process of sourcing a new works car as I'm going onto an allowance and I'm doing some research. Range seems to be the issue, I like the Q4 E-Tron but the 150kw only comes in at 317 miles, I'm assuming that's top end as well so realistically might pull in 250 miles. I cover an area from Durham up to the Scottish Borders with my job so that's going to cause me a bit of an issue. They also seem to be expensive, for example I could get a 5 Series Diesel BMW with M-Sport package for approx. £100 less a month than I could get an electric Skoda. The BMW is Luxury Car of the year for 2021 as well.

I am in the same boat.

Pick an EV off the company car list and pay a low BIK value, or take the opt out allowance, pay income tax on it, then be left with £450 ish a month to fund a car.

Currently thinking about buying a 1 yr old Golf GTI (or a BMW 520d Touring) and financing it over 5 years ( cant have a car over 6 yr old in the company car scheme) then at least I have an asset at the end of the 5 years when I look for a new car.

I like the idea of getting a Audi E tron or a Merc EQ, but I certainly wont be getting one that I actually pay for anytime soon.
 
As soon as you splash out the Tech is out of date and the range is better on the next model.
Yes I get thats the same as petrol and diesel cars to a degree but the range is much less an issue with them.
Range range range.
Fantastic if you don't leave the County but a max length trip of 150 miles for a there and back in the same day is no use to a lot of people.
 
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