Yes I know this has been talked about to death over the past few years but I’m slowly coming around to EV vehicles. My current business lease is due to expire mid next year and due to the current lead time with the majority of manufactures I’d be looking at a 3 month wait time anyway.
Having been off for a fortnight and only going out days I’ve visited most of the major players with EV vehicles. Firsty what a huge difference there is between dealers and what you can actually sit in and road-test. I’ve gone from literally no stock of anything, to only having demos that are sat there, to ones to view only and can’t look inside, others have allowed to actually play inside and some Ive been able to crawl all over and road- test.
So far I’ve looked at the Hyundai Iconiq5 which the wife simply dismissed, the VW id3 and 4 which is ok but leaves me a little bit meh, looked at some of the Kia range but again left a little underwhelmed. Had a good look at Tesla 3 which again the wife hated the driving position. Looked at the French options which sadly something was missing and they didn’t seem to quite hit the range. Nissan and Mazda have never done much for me so have dismissed them without looking.
By far the best model I’ve been in so far and tested has been the Merc EQC, unbelievably smooth and refined and as yet other than slightly less range than the Tesla I’m struggling to find a reason not to buy. I’ve also got a road-test booked for the EQA which I’m expecting to be very similar if not smaller than the EQC.
Real life range is going to be about 200-220 from a claimed 260, this is way more than I’m going to need weekly and will likely cost me around a tenner per charge where I’m currently spending c£35-40 in diesel. They come with free chargers and I can utilise the bulb or octopus night time tariff of about 6p per kWh to charge.
Ive dismissed leccie cars for ages but for me they’re becoming increasingly a viable option
‘Anyone else considering making the change and if so what you looking at?
FFF
I know a couple of people with the EQC and they seem to like them a lot.
I think the Polestar 2 is a great looking car, that’s the one I’d be checking out first.
Mustang Mach-E? I know nothing about them, but the fact Ford used the name ‘Mustang’ when it blatantly isn’t would put me off!
Yeh I did look at the polestar but again I’ve been wifed!!Originally Posted by Kirk280
I-Pace driver here and love it
I thought my wife would take some time to get used to the difference in the way it drives but since day 1 she has loved it as well
Saves us around £150/month in running costa versus our diesel Discovery it replaced
We’ are going electric next but so far have only looked at the Audi Q4 E-Tron. Very nice.
The only disappointment for us was the unadjustable headrests being too far forward for our comfort.
The heads-up display disappears if you wear polarised sunglasses - no doubt that would be the case regardless of manufacturer.
Despite being a large SUV, internals feel no bigger and the boot space is definitely smaller than our current Golf. I guess the batteries have to go somewhere.
Last edited by Halitosis; 10th August 2021 at 06:39.
FFF, sounds like you better leave the whole EV decision making process to the wife as she seems to be calling ALL the shots here man !!!
I took a Polestar 2 out for an hours drive last weekend and it was pretty damned good. Twin motor performance pack with add ons.
Maybe if you could glue a Merc badge on the front and the ar$e end, she may not notice ??
She’s still coming around to the whole EV thing and is currently still in the ICE camp, the other slight issue with the Polestar is we have 2 largish dogs and they simply wouldn’t go in the boot meaning they’d have to go on the back seats which is far from ideal if they get covered in mud.FFF, sounds like you better leave the whole EV decision making process to the wife as she seems to be calling ALL the shots here man !!!
I took a Polestar 2 out for an hours drive last weekend and it was pretty damned good. Twin motor performance pack with add ons.
Maybe if you could glue a Merc badge on the front and the ar$e end, she may not notice ??
Both our cars are fully electric, having made the changeover in the last year and a half . We have off street parking so can charge them at home which made them a viable option for us.
Firstly we have had an Audi E-tron for about 18 months, and I love it. Effortless to drive, very quiet, reasonably spacious, more than quick enough for a family car. Real world range varies from 220+ miles in the summer, down to 180 mid-winter.
Earlier this year we got a Renault Zoe to replace my wife’s old Firsta, which obviously is pretty basic compared with the Audi but makes a great city car and is surprisingly spacious inside. Range is actually pretty similar to the Audi.
I had a Q4 e-tron as a courtesy car whilst mine was in for a recall and was pleasantly surprised by it. Contrary to the comment above I found it surprisingly spacious both in the cabin and boot. A quick google will tell you it’s way bigger capacity than the current Golf too (520l versus 380l).
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Try the Mustang, I was very impressed. We tried it around the same time as the Q4, Q5 and EQA (no EQC available but above budget anyway). My favourite by far was the Mach E.
You’ll probably find the EQA something of a let down after the EQC, it’s two thirds of the price and it shows from the drivers seat.
I did like the HUD in the Audi though!
Nearly a year on with a Tesla Model 3 Performance and I could not be happier.
Running cost is just nuts, I will actually do the year one calcs in a couple of weeks and the sheer grunt still leaves me smiling, I will never get bored.
Long journeys have proved effortless, the Tesla Supercharge network and ease is streets ahead. Sniffing out the free local chargers is nice and helps to keep the already crazy cheap cost even lower.
Are EV’s the answer……. I don’t think so, the infrastructure is just so behind but maybe okay for a few years without a major injection of cash.
The Model 3 ……. Quality is ropey in places but the tech, design and sheer fun more than makes up.
Pitch
A little advice, the true mileage of 160-200 is what my real-world customers are getting, depending on temperature, accessory usage etc.
I’ve sold 20+ of these and that’s what the clients are saying they are really getting, for transparency.
We have a demo car that’s sub 200 miles to a full charge (I used it to 170 ish before panic sets in but you are at ~5% battery by this point) and that’s based on a lot of accessory usage on test drives (testing sunroofs, stereos, ambient lights etc.) and very variable temperatures over the last 8 months
It’s a fabulous vehicle however IMHO, for the money, it’s difficult to see past a nice speccy GLC43 AMG and lots of cash left over for the high fuel cost!
HTH
Thanks for the info- always good to know.
I think Teslas USP is the supercharger network. We had a leaf many years ago and any time we had to use a charger away from home (admittedly not often) it was a complete nightmare, refusing payment, not having the right payment card, charger out of order, charger in use or blocked by an ice car.
maybe things have changed but I still think my first port of call come car change time in 4 years will be Elons door.
Hey Franky,
I don't own an eV, but have been monitoring their technological progress for many years. I did just buy a 20" fat tire eBike that I love! With costs coming down and battery life growing, I think we've reached that threshold where the rank and file auto buyers/lessors are going to embrace eVs in large numbers. I live in a suburb of San Diego, CA and it seems like every other car here is a Tesla!
Good luck, and keep us informed!
Tom
Do you have solar power at home?....if so I’m guessing you’ll have many more hours daylight (sunlight) than us Brits and EV cars make even more sense.
Ive seen a Zappi charger that’s extremely smart which diverts any power not used by the house directly to the EV. During the summer months I’m producing 2.6kw and using only about 500w in the house. I know this will only trickle the battery but it’s literally something for nothing rather than sending to the grid.
Reading the info and watching vast amounts of YouTube vids I think they have that issue nailed down now, obviously I'm not certain about this but it seemed a few years back you almost needed a load of different apps on your phone depending on what charging system you were using....nowadays it’s just a case of tapping your debit card on the machine and plugging in.
For some EVs are a viable option, less so for others.
I regularly do round trips of over 200 miles with no easy access to household charging.
I'm still doubtful of the availability of usable fast charging points (watched a few YT videos on the subject and the experiences have been mixed at best) to make a break along the way a practical solution and I'm not sure I want to take a 20 minute break on a 100-mile journey anyway.
I'm sure EVs are cheap and practical to run if you do relatively short journies and have home charging capabilities, but I can't see us replacing all our vehicles with one for a while.
My car is reasonably new, so I doubt I'll change it in the near future unless my requirements changed dramatically, but we would certainly consider an EV for a second car as there aren't too many occasions where my wife and I both need a car with 200+ miles range at the same time.
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
It's still a mixed bag for me - Tesla have the charger network sussed but it needs to expand (and I still baulk at handing Musk my cash). The rest of the providers seem very hit and miss - both Schmee and Guy Martin have experienced faulty chargers, wrong accounts, blocked/occupied spaces and Guy Martin ended up paying double what the diesel bill would have been!.
I can see the people staying local who do not drive long distances getting a good experience, the rest of us less so - for now.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Yeh, it’s certainly not a “done deal” for me yet however I’m embracing the change sooner than I’d imagined.
I'm genuinely interested to learn how you've been quoted 6p/kWh (night) with bulb. We've been with bulb for years (economy 7) and our night tariff is 13.52p at the moment. AFAIK their tariffs are non-geographic and there's only one plan for all called 'Vari-Fair'.
Last edited by Mouse; 10th August 2021 at 10:40.
Yes, we had solar panels installed a couple years ago and they're a great benefit here at our latitude and high percentage of sunshine. Got a nice tax credit, too. Our next investment will be a wall-mounted battery (Tesla?) in the garage to store excess energy produced.
Can one of you describe a typical trip to the country from London.
Let's say it's 300 miles each way.
Compared with an ICE car, what is the increase in time and hassle like?
Let's say you spend two weeks in the rural location.
I received an email going back a few months ago with this specific tariff designed for EV charging, I can’t quite remember the exact figures however I’m sure it was 6p per KWH between 12-4 or 1-5, can’t quite remember now but I’ll try and dig it out.
Many thanks.
So a special tariff for EVs via a smart meter. East Midlands 5p/kWh ish. Almost a third the rate of what it's costing to run our washing machine/heat our hot water overnight - we are totally electric here as there is no gas at all to the village!
This is the G&D or I'd be using numerous expletives. I think I'll be having a chat with bulb (not that it'll change anything, but a good rant will make me feel better).
Obviously what I failed to mention was that it does slightly put the standard daytime rate up and you’d have to do the maths overall but it’s seems to make sense on the face of it
It does state that it’s still in beta phase so hasn’t yet been fully rolled out and that they are only taking on limited numbers for the trial.
Octopus also do an EV tariff which appears to be 5p per kWh fixed between similar hours. Don’t think this is a beta and is already in full operation
Edit: you can also lease vehicles through them which seem competitively priced with free 8000 miles included.
Gotcha. It's clearly a low (tempter) rate to instigate EV take-up and is being subsidised (for now) somewhere - maybe gov, but also seemingly via its 'basic customers'. But it really is taking the micky when my washer costs almost three times more to run than it does a car. It's all the same electricity for goodness sake.
This country!
One thing that frustrates me when I read about EV’s is a focus on the luxury/highly priced/high performance end of the market when the big change to emissions will surely be driven by adoption at the cheaper end. The other thing I genuinely don’t get is continued reliance on all the heavy, power sapping and - let’s be frank - luxury frippery we have grown to expect in a car but surely we should ditch to increase range in an EV? What’s wrong with manual wind windows, forget the electrically adjustable, heated seats and steering wheels (you’ve got hands to move the seat and a heater ffs!), hey maybe even the aircon here in the uk - we managed without all these things in the past and I can’t say my life has really been enhanced by them, they just started appearing as standard. Give me a modern electric version of the 2cv with airbags and decent safety systems and I’d buy one - imagine the running costs if the only bits could go wrong could be fixed easily at home, with a box of spanners and screwdrivers etc. If we are going to take emissions seriously we should produce the cars we need as opposed to the cars manufacturers tell us we want - like an ugly, heavy high performance electric ‘mustang’ which look like nothing of the sort! - and maybe focus on range as opposed to silly 0-60 times that might turn on the petrol heads, but Mr and Mrs average just want to know if they can get to their holiday without recharging twice on the journey!
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Have you thought about a horse and cart?
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
On my van, all the peripheral electrical frippery (not much, granted) is powered by a separate 12v battery where a normal car battery would be. Apart from the air con so I don’t use that. I open a window (electrically) instead.
I do agree that all modern cars have all sorts of electrical gear which is unnecessary and doesn’t get used which the car could do without but most of the heavy weight stuff is the now mandatory safety equipment.
It is counterintuitive but a larger (or additional) motor (hence greater performance) in an EV allows for greater regeneration and therefore greater economy. Look at the Tesla specs; the four wheel drive cars generally have a greater range than the equivalent two wheel drive and are more powerful but have the same size battery.
Last edited by Dave+63; 10th August 2021 at 12:11.
I guess I’m thinking more 80’s Golf or similar - all the cars now heralded as modern classics that lacked even power steering but somehow even as a 17 year old I could manage a 3 point turn without breaking a sweat. Imagine a millennial driving with their hands on a cold steering wheel or just opening a window on a hot day, how would they cope? Poor diddums. Oh hang on, they’re the ones keen on saving the planet. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, or god forbid operating a window using your arm muscles - although your Apple Watch would probably count that as steps on your elliptical trainer, so it would all turn out right in the end ;) ……
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I know a man with an F reg Golf GTi for sale if you’re interested?
You'd have more fun in one of those. I've had three, and along with the e30, they're one of the best motoring packages ever conceived.
Steering wheel and seat heaters are more efficient than then normal car resistive heater - why heat whole cabin when you are only using like 20% of it. Resistive heaters are archaic, slowly being replaced with heat pumps.
Last edited by kildareman; 10th August 2021 at 12:38.
Good to know the tech is evolving, and I’m not suggesting we go backwards, just that perhaps we dump some luxuries that we don’t really need in favour of more efficiency and if it means more, cheaper EV’s to choose from for the man/woman in the street as opposed to early adopters/the wealthy then I don’t see a problem.
Sorely tempted by that Golf gti!
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Own fewer cars per household...smaller and lighter would be better, make fewer powered trips and consume less that's what it's gonnna take.
I've had both loved the golf as basic as can be, loved the e30 325i wasn't much fun in the snow though
Dacia might well be one of the first to enter this end of the market.
https://www.drivingelectric.com/daci...ing-considered
Agreed, but in the absence of viable public transport in many areas, car ownership becomes almost a necessity to get to work on time. We’re wedded to the motor car whether we like it or not and I can’t see that changing. Smaller lighter vehicles makes a lot of sense, many modern cars are too big for narrow British roads and some incentives to get back to sensibly sized cars would make sense.
Electric vehicles will improve local air quality, that’s the big plus as I see it, but unless the rest of the world changes behaviours the CO2 emissions/ global warming problems will be unaffected by what we choose to do.
I couldn't agree more.
It's not about the range really, it's the reliability and speed of charging when on the road.
We have an E-Golf, and both prefer the driving experience to any of the many ICE cars we've previously owned. It's wonderful, and i'm sure most if not all electric cars share its smoothness and responsiveness.
It's perfect for (multiple) daily commutes and modest journeys, but I think unless you have a Tesla, with its superb, reliable fast charge network, venturing away from home is hazardous.
The media is full of tales of woe regarding hugely stressful journeys ruined by the public charging station availability, and our experience (n=1, we won't be trying it again) is the same.
The charging networks seem to be run by an assortment of small private companies and councils and government grants etc. It seems necessary to download a handful of apps, register with each, put credit upfront onto some of them, and then when you find a rusty, non-working charger in a back corner of a municipal car park, you'll call a number which isn't answered, before venturing off to the next town to try your luck.
We're lucky enough to have an alternative car for long journeys but would buy a Tesla in a heartbeat if we decided to have only one car.
Best wishes,
Martyn.
I would have said that MG have already done this with the MG5
Admittedly it’s not as cheap as the car in the link, but for a medium sized electric car, I think it’s good value.
Last edited by jaytip; 10th August 2021 at 13:44.
I’d kinda dismissed them as I believe even with the gov grant it’s base is north of £20k either way the market is calling for more players in the low end market.
Everyone's finances will be different of course.
I was wary of spending the necessary to buy a new/newish electric car, until someone pointed out to me that I would probably save about £2k/year in fuel/tax/servicing costs and that if you can borrow cheaply (eg mortgage) the cost of the borrowing would be far less than the saving.
Best wishes,
Martyn.
I’ve driven a Skoda Enyaq today and it’s fantastic. In the short trip I’ve done albeit a mix of town and country it retuned 3.5 miles per KW. I know I’m not currently using lights etc but even so this would exceed my weekly need. Just had the quote and it’ll be £455 a month which includes VAT with 3 payments down. Serious contender to the Merc IMO.
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My daughter bought a new MG ZS EV for around £21k last year; they’re about £26k now as there aren’t the discounts there were. The MG5 is similar.
I am not there yet, but I did drive a Taycan Turbo S last year and was deeply impressed. I walked away thinking I've definitely tasted the future and it was good.
Skoda or Mercedes I just couldn't imagine paying £455 per month. Might be different if I owned a business or it was via a company cars scheme but that's big money although I'm probably out of touch here.
The new Taycan cross turismo (estate) would be my lottery win car.
I have taken the plunge and ordered a Q4 that should show up around end Sept. Combined with a purchase discount, gov incentive and trading in a Polo meant the net cost to trade was a pretty decent deal.
It’s going to be used almost exclusively in the city and for school run. For this I think it works really well given its efficient, quiet, nimble in traffic, lots of space inside given the outside dimensions etc
I am looking at adding solar on the house roof as well, plus it looks like EV’s have much lower service costs as well as lower fuel cost all of which which should mean it’s cheap to run.
We will see how it all works out but I don’t think we have got this one wrong !
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