First electric car experience

[icowden]

They tested a few on The Gadget Show last night and none seemed to get the claimed range. It's improving all the time though.

And yet people make a big deal about that, but not about the fact that when you buy an ICE car you can never get the advertised MPG...

Plus ca change...

 

[Mo1959]

And yet people make a big deal about that, but not about the fact that when you buy an ICE car you can never get the advertised MPG...

Plus ca change...

There's lots of new houses being built here just now. I'm curious to know if they might have charging points fitted.

 

[cougie uk]

I'm coming late to this, and haven't read it all, but I've wanted to get an electric car for some time.

We have a van, bought to carry bikes inside and also tow a caravan.

I retired earlier this year, discovered I wasn't ready to stop and took a part-time job. That is 25 miles from home and leaves my wife without a vehicle. I'm supposed to work two days a week, but have got sucked in to doing more, which tips the balance to getting a second vehicle.

I saw some good deals on leasing, though stock was an issue, and got some quotes. Then I noticed supply was drying up and prices rising, possibly because of the fuel shortage. Quoted prices have gone up by £30-40 a month in the last couple of weeks.

I dived in, found a company willing to honour my previous quote (valid for 28 days) and they sourced a car. Taking delivery of a leaf next week.

It's all happened very quickly, I have no facility to charge at home, so will be subject to public charging, but I'm up for the challenge.

We used a socket in the garage to charge ours for a few weeks with no issues. We did get a proper extension cord for it and made sure it wouldn't get wet and kept an eye on it and it was no issue.
Enjoy the Leaf.

 

[cougie uk]

There's lots of new houses being built here just now. I'm curious to know if they might have charging points fitted.

I doubt it.

 

[biggs682]

Fair enough on the price, but how often do you actually drive 360 miles without stopping? That's a heck of a commute!

About 3 times a year and then we normally only stop when we really need to .
My current commute is measured in yards not miles

 

[stoatsngroats]

I had an interesting day last week, stopping to fill up a small works van with diesel at £1.38/Ltd which works out at around £6.40/Gln. This van will do an average of 45 mpg.
Later, I spoke with a Tesla owner, who said he rarely charges from a low percent to 100%, but when he does (at home) it costs around £6.
His range from 100% with a mix of driving, was reliably 240 miles.
I know there’s a premium for purchasing EVs in the UK, and the Norway tax shown bi @icowden earlier would go some way to improving local air quality and overall co2 emissions which is a good thing to do.
Regarding costs for personal transport, private car ownership costs will increase for everyone over the next 5 to 10 years, in my opinion, and the single most important thing to do is to begin to reduce our own reliance on them.
I used public transport for my commute a couple of weeks ago, and would spend £50 each week to get to work and home again, and took an extra hour and 20 minutes overall, for a 16 miles each way commute.
My fuel cost is the same for 11 days use.
My best alternative is either to find a job more local to me ( not easy) or retire. I have cycled the 16 miles each way, but cannot do this everyday, as I’m weak and feeble minded, and get tired easily.
EVs are an improvement, but we must change our way of life to make sufficient difference.
I really love the Model X in this thread btw!

 

[vickster]

I had an interesting day last week, stopping to fill up a small works van with diesel at £1.38/Ltd which works out at around £6.40/Gln. This van will do an average of 45 mpg.
Later, I spoke with a Tesla owner, who said he rarely charges from a low percent to 100%, but when he does (at home) it costs around £6.
His range from 100% with a mix of driving, was reliably 240 miles.
I know there’s a premium for purchasing EVs in the UK, and the Norway tax shown bi @icowden earlier would go some way to improving local air quality and overall co2 emissions which is a good thing to do.
Regarding costs for personal transport, private car ownership costs will increase for everyone over the next 5 to 10 years, in my opinion, and the single most important thing to do is to begin to reduce our own reliance on them.
I used public transport for my commute a couple of weeks ago, and would spend £50 each week to get to work and home again, and took an extra hour and 20 minutes overall, for a 16 miles each way commute.
My fuel cost is the same for 11 days use.
My best alternative is either to find a job more local to me ( not easy) or retire. I have cycled the 16 miles each way, but cannot do this everyday, as I’m weak and feeble minded, and get tired easily.
EVs are an improvement, but we must change our way of life to make sufficient difference.
I really love the Model X in this thread btw!

Get an e-bike to commute...rather cheaper than an e car (unless you have 80k burning a hole in your pocket )
Or retire then you can spend all day cycling which will make you stronger

 

[stoatsngroats]

Get an e-bike to commute...rather cheaper than an e car (unless you have 80k burning a hole in your pocket )
Or retire then you can spend all day cycling which will make you stronger

Yes, I have considered this, I was going to do CTW for this, but my company (a charity) declined to enter the higher value scheme.
I would have bought a Cairn e-gravel bike instead of my Genesis at the time, and would have been much better equipped to do the 16 mile each way commute.
My overall issues with health are age related, and time on the bike has decreased a lot over the last 10 years, so cycle to/from work is difficult without some assistance, and I’ll look again at my options.
I have 10 years work life left (less if I can make my pension work better!) and I’m really wanting to reduce my personal car use when I can.
I did a 40+ ride just last weekend, so I can do the distance, just not easily around my work schedule.
But thanks @vickster for the ideas… it’s always good to have others thoughts ! 👍

 

[vickster]

If you can afford to buy an E car (£30k+) out of your own pocket, surely you can do so for an e-bike without C2W (£3k)? Or find an e-bike seller than will do part C2W, part cash (Evans used to I think?)
Up to you obviously

 

[stoatsngroats]

@vickster , oh, I didn’t mean to imply that I could afford an ev, but have been looking at possibilities and alternatives 😀

 

[figbat]

We used a socket in the garage to charge ours for a few weeks with no issues. We did get a proper extension cord for it and made sure it wouldn't get wet and kept an eye on it and it was no issue.
Enjoy the Leaf.

That’s what I’m doing now - a weather-proof extension lead from the garage to use the “granny charger”, which is fully outdoors capable. The extension cable is 2.5mm^2 core - I made absolutely sure of this before using it!

 

[cougie uk]

If you can afford to buy an E car (£30k+) out of your own pocket, surely you can do so for an e-bike without C2W (£3k)? Or find an e-bike seller than will do part C2W, part cash (Evans used to I think?)
Up to you obviously

My EV was almost half this cost. Do we assume that all bikes are 12k superbikes too ?

 

[CXRAndy]

About 3 times a year and then we normally only stop when we really need to .
My current commute is measured in yards not miles

An EV would be perfect for 99% of the year. We use a Nissan Leaf for local-ish journeys. It does 100+ miles every day of the working week. We use our tesla for weekends or longer journeys. I don't drive more than 150 miles before wanting a break- that's roughly 3 hours of driving in the UK on major roads. There are plenty of chargers available- look at Zap Map.

Never had range issues. You just plan

We've driven 400 mile trips, camped and was still able to use a 3 pin plug to fully charge our car.

It's just different

 

[MrGrumpy]

Interesting news item on yesterdays BBC news. About Norways super reliance on oil . Massive tax incentives for EV vehicles but oil is the massive employer in the country. A conundrum that needs solved !

 

[nickyboy]

Interesting news item on yesterdays BBC news. About Norways super reliance on oil . Massive tax incentives for EV vehicles but oil is the massive employer in the country. A conundrum that needs solved !

They export their oil to countries that haven't made the transition to EVs and use this money to subsidise their own transition