Which EV would you get?

[Buck]

@Gunk - I totally get what you mean re EV vs ICE but like you, I based mine on a cost decision, reckoning I'd had my fare share of fun with my cars over the years.

We've just come back from the Lakes with a decent journey there and back and a fair bit of driving to walk locations over the week as well as cabin warm ups on a couple of chilly mornings. The car was faultless and I just had to give it a small 15 min top up at Instavolt in Windermere whilst we went shopping to give me enough buffer to get home. We covered over 300 miles and got back this PM with 35 range remaining. The car was faultless and was lovely and smooth on the Lake's roads and motorway.

When I do change my car it will be for another electric and Mrs B bus currently looking at getting an EV when she replaces her car.

 

[Animo]

@Gunk - I totally get what you mean re EV vs ICE but like you, I based mine on a cost decision, reckoning I'd had my fare share of fun with my cars over the years.

We've just come back from the Lakes with a decent journey there and back and a fair bit of driving to walk locations over the week as well as cabin warm ups on a couple of chilly mornings. The car was faultless and I just had to give it a small 15 min top up at Instavolt in Windermere whilst we went shopping to give me enough buffer to get home. We covered over 300 miles and got back this PM with 35 range remaining. The car was faultless and was lovely and smooth on the Lake's roads and motorway.

When I do change my car it will be for another electric and Mrs B bus currently looking at getting an EV when she replaces her car.

What EV have you got?

 

[Buck]

BMW i4

 

[Gunk]

I based mine on a cost decision, reckoning I'd had my fare share of fun with my cars over the years.

Exactly the same thinking here

 

[Pblakeney]

For me personally the heyday of cars was between 1985 and 2005. During that period Ì owned everything from a 205 GTi, Golf GTi 16V, various 6 cylinder BMW’s a couple of air cooled 911’s, plus a load of other stuff.

I know we have electric cars with astonishing power outputs, my friend has a Taycan Turbo S which is blisteringly fast, but they are all lacking something, they’re sort of one trick ponies, just very fast in a straight line with a ton of torque, when are you actually going to use all that power in the real world? They just don’t have the soul and excitement of a reasonably powerful, lightweight ICE car. You don’t need 600 bhp and two tons of weight. The sweet spot in my opinion was around 1200kgs and 200 bhp, that really was enough, my 2005 MkV Golf GTi was probably about perfect, it was so forgiving it made you feel like a driving God, I always had a huge grin ear to ear driving that car.

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My decision to run an electric car two years ago was purely financial (Ì decided to retire), and it’s worked out very well, the Born is very capable with many attributes, it’s just strange owning a car that I have zero emotional attachment to. However I probably will have another But just don’t ask me to love it!

in summary, weight, handling and nimbleness.
Driving in a straight line at legal speeds (or even remotely close) is simply boring.

 

[Drago]

The EX40 is hardly svelte, but it grips like nothing I've ever come across through the corners.

In every substantive manner the E cars are a world ahead. Its only the soft emotional stuff, like noise, smells, etc, where the Ice cars are better, its an emotional memory lane pull for us older drivers. By every objective measure my old C70 is woeful in 2026, but the reasons I love it arent necessary logical.

 

[Alex321]

That’s worth expanding on, if you don't mind and have time.

I have never really been a petrolhead, but I do understand what they are saying here.

There is no engine noise, no gears for you to manipulate effective power, no real interaction with how it drives, you just press the throttle and it goes - rather fast if you aren't careful how you press it, but almost silently and smoothly throughout the range.

For a real car enthusiast, teh rev counter matters, and learning what revs are the best points to change gear for optimum power through the range. On an EV the rev counter doesn't even exist, and there are no gears, not even hidden ones like on a regular automatic.

Personally, I don't care if it is boring, a car for me is just a tool. But I do understand why tho0se who are more into cars find them boring.

 

[Alex321]

But stop start must use more energy than constant driving it's the laws if physics what ever the fuel type us....

Except tahat in the process of stopping, EVs are effectively creating more fuel via regenerative braking. That never completely offsets what is used in starting of course, but when you add to that the fact that an EV motor is just as efficient at 10mph as it is at 50 mph, and that accounts for some of the difference.

 

[Gunk]

For a real car enthusiast, teh rev counter matters, and learning what revs are the best points to change gear for optimum power through the range. On an EV the rev counter doesn't even exist, and there are no gears, not even hidden ones like on a regular automatic.

fortunately I still have a motorcycle and once you’ve ridden any reasonably fast bike, all cars are boring!

 

[figbat]

I have never really been a petrolhead, but I do understand what they are saying here.

There is no engine noise, no gears for you to manipulate effective power, no real interaction with how it drives, you just press the throttle and it goes - rather fast if you aren't careful how you press it, but almost silently and smoothly throughout the range.

For a real car enthusiast, teh rev counter matters, and learning what revs are the best points to change gear for optimum power through the range. On an EV the rev counter doesn't even exist, and there are no gears, not even hidden ones like on a regular automatic.

Personally, I don't care if it is boring, a car for me is just a tool. But I do understand why tho0se who are more into cars find them boring.

And pretty much all of this is celebrating the inefficiencies and compromises of an ICE. The noise is wasted energy. The gear changing is because of the limited rev range of an engine.

 

[Drago]

I agree. Modern medicine is soulless. I mean, give me rickets or typhoid any day.

 

[BrumJim]

And pretty much all of this is celebrating the inefficiencies and compromises of an ICE. The noise is wasted energy. The gear changing is because of the limited rev range of an engine.

I'm pretty much the same. As a romantic, the behaviour and noise of an ICE will never be replicated through an electric drive. On the other hand, as an engineer, all the characteristics of an ICE which give it character are its flaws.

In comparison, the sights, sounds, smells and quirks of running a steam engine tickle the fancies of a romantic way better than a high speed electric multiple unit (like a Pendolino or TGV). But one is quicker, safer, cheaper to maintain with greater maintenance intervals, easier to drive, and kinder on the infrastructure to a massive degree in all aspects. And a proper engineer would never consider that the move away from steam was a bad idea.

 

[Alex321]

And pretty much all of this is celebrating the inefficiencies and compromises of an ICE. The noise is wasted energy. The gear changing is because of the limited rev range of an engine.

Indeed.

But for many people, it still is what makes driving "fun". And while absolutely true, many of those who enjoy it probably don't realise thaht at all.

 

[figbat]

Indeed.

But for many people, it still is what makes driving "fun". And while absolutely true, many of those who enjoy it probably don't realise thaht at all.

Absolutely - I love my EV (currently on my third one, across two different models) but would jump at the chance to hoon around in something with a mighty engine. I also own a motorbike which at the moment could not be replaced by an electric one for the way I use it.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I enjoy driving EVs very much and don't miss the brrrrm noises at all 🤭