[Travel] Does anyone on here own a Electric or Hybrid car?

[LowKarate]

On my 3rd Toyota Hybrid now. All very good and the fuel economy is my main reason for having them. I usually get 20mpg more in a hybrid than I did in standard petrol cars.

Hybrids don't cause any fueling risks as it is effectively a petrol car with an extra battery to improve mpg through friction energy conversion.

Small downside is the lack of manual gearbox, but I have got used to driving Automatics now.

 

[seagully]

Ok.Thank you for your reply. For some reason I thought the leasing fees were a lot higher. Gives me something to consider now.

This article gives some good advice around leases etc, at least when buying a used vehicle

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/how-buy-used-ev

 

[Doc Lynam]

Toyota Yaris Hybrid
Excellent little car and a lot of tech for the money! What are they 7 generations deep in this tech now!? Super cheap around town, uses electric for AC and most things, first time with an automatics really easy, hill starts go into auto hand brake through the angle of the car so it’s literally brake and go! Motorways very solid with the extra battery weight feels more stable to me in a smaller car! Very good all in all! Oh yeah every time you brake or go down a hill means the car is storing the energy in the battery!

 

[Don Parasol]

Is your Prius a plug in hybrid?

No - not a plug-in. It self re-charges the battery as you drive. The technology has been around for ages - some of the Prius batteries from 15 years ago are still going strong today apparently. Thats an area of concern for some buyers as they're costly to replace, so reliability was one area that gave the Prius the edge.

 

[middletoenail]

Interesting topic. Where I live, a lot of Ubers are Tesla S models, and these cars are fantastic!

I'd own one of these in a heartbeat providing that I travelled short distances (less than 100 km) a time, and there were some kind of government rebate for E-vehicles.

 

[happypig]

For example the new 2018 Nissan Leaf has a 50KWh battery, .

Thanks! 1*3kw charging point in Sussex Uni. Otherwise central Brighton. I suspect a 3kw outlet would take quite a while to charge a car battery...?

From flat, 17 hours, give or take. If the charging point isn't in use.

I'd consider an electric as a second car if we ever need one but I don't think the technology and infrastructure is there to make it viable as an only car for me. I have thought about a hybrid too but I'm not sure the figures stack up that well for my sort of mileage (10k a year max); I would save about £500 a year over the car I already have, but I would have to shell out £5k to "upgrade".

 

[Papa Lazarou]

No - not a plug-in. It self re-charges the battery as you drive. The technology has been around for ages - some of the Prius batteries from 15 years ago are still going strong today apparently. Thats an area of concern for some buyers as they're costly to replace, so reliability was one area that gave the Prius the edge.

So, the advantage is primarily in increased fuel economy, due to the electricity harvesting. Does it allow you to drive purely on electric, and if so, how far can you go?

 

[TimWatt]

fully electric wont happen as things stand because of the burden on the electricity network. there would need to be wholesale change in battery technology and how we use/create electricity. there are grand ideas about solar panels charging battery banks to power your home and the car battery being treated as an extension of that system, but that fails to account for flats, non-perfect weather and willingness to change.

I think this scenario, often raised as an objection by those with an agenda, is a complex equation and probably will turn out not to be such a drawback...

On the one hand, there may be very large costs for upgrading the (100 year old) electricity distribution grid to required levels, but who's to say this wouldn't have needed to be done anyway... The stresses on the system, aren't the general load as I understand it but the peak, and there may be ways to mitigate that..
Another oversight is to think this increased capacity won't be a new profit centre for generators, ie the grid could be a new oil rush.
And further, it maybe that new technology put in place such as local generation and domestic generation and storage, will form a Smart grid that will enable the grid have more capacity. It maybe that peak demand could be supplied by home and in car storage with incentives provided to meet peak demand and EV owners, home solar generators etc. might make money by supplying their local neighbourhoods, say at half time during the cup final etc, just before drive time etc. I gather that 2.5 million EVs would store about 12GW, and 4.7m EVs 25GW of storage capacity, in comparison to Hinkley B's nuclear power station planned capacity of 3.2GW. So there would be a localised source of energy which would be nearer, so potentially more efficiently supplied to local demands (potentially at least).
Another part of the equation is petroleum refining is itself a very high consumer of electricity (equivalent to about 1 million electric cars), plus the energy use of distribution of petrol/diesel is by truck requiring lots of fuel, road maintenance etc. While electrons move around a grid network at the speed of light without causing road traffic congestion, or wars in the middle east necessarily.
The bigger issue is the need to decarbonise. Three cheers for those early adopters...

 

[Papa Lazarou]

From flat, 17 hours, give or take. If the charging point isn't in use.

I'd consider an electric as a second car if we ever need one but I don't think the technology and infrastructure is there to make it viable as an only car for me. I have thought about a hybrid too but I'm not sure the figures stack up that well for my sort of mileage (10k a year max); I would save about £500 a year over the car I already have, but I would have to shell out £5k to "upgrade".

Does that 5k include the plug in grant available for low emission cars?

 

[happypig]

Does that 5k include the plug in grant available for low emission cars?

Nope, that's to trade in my 2008 Honda CRV against a second hand Toyota Auris.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Nope, that's to trade in my 2008 Honda CRV against a second hand Toyota Auris.

Ah ok, so the grant isn't part of the equation.

 

[Goldstone1976]

From flat, 17 hours, give or take. If the charging point isn't in use.

I'd consider an electric as a second car if we ever need one but I don't think the technology and infrastructure is there to make it viable as an only car for me. I have thought about a hybrid too but I'm not sure the figures stack up that well for my sort of mileage (10k a year max); I would save about £500 a year over the car I already have, but I would have to shell out £5k to "upgrade".

Thanks.

Cheeky question (currently too lazy to do the research) - what does the number look like if your mileage was, I don't know, say 22k miles?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Another question, I assume there's a requirement to have infrastructure put in at home for charging ? Lobbing a power extension out the letterbox seems a little basic and dangerous !

Also, what effect does it have on your electricity bill ? When Mrs W uses the tumble dryer I can just feel the dial whizzing round - I dread to think what car charging would do to it !

 

[seagully]

Another question, I assume there's a requirement to have infrastructure put in at home for charging ? Lobbing a power extension out the letterbox seems a little basic and dangerous !

Also, what effect does it have on your electricity bill ? When Mrs W uses the tumble dryer I can just feel the dial whizzing round - I dread to think what car charging would do to it !

There is currently a government grant which covers the majority of the cost for a home charger. Unfortunately I didn't qualify for one as I have a pathway between my drive and the house which gives access to neighbouring houses. I just use the charger supplied with the car plugged into a waterproof heavy duty extension cable.

I haven't noticed a huge difference in bills, but would probably be even less on an economy 7 tariff and charging overnight

 

[beorhthelm]

I think this scenario, often raised as an objection by those with an agenda, is a complex equation and probably will turn out not to be such a drawback...

On the one hand, there may be very large costs for upgrading the (100 year old) electricity distribution grid to required levels, but who's to say this wouldn't have needed to be done anyway... The stresses on the system, aren't the general load as I understand it but the peak, and there may be ways to mitigate that..
Another oversight is to think this increased capacity won't be a new profit centre for generators, ie the grid could be a new oil rush.
And further, it maybe that new technology put in place such as local generation and domestic generation and storage, will form a Smart grid that will enable the grid have more capacity. It maybe that peak demand could be supplied by home and in car storage with incentives provided to meet peak demand and EV owners, home solar generators etc. might make money by supplying their local neighbourhoods, say at half time during the cup final etc, just before drive time etc. I gather that 2.5 million EVs would store about 12GW, and 4.7m EVs 25GW of storage capacity, in comparison to Hinkley B's nuclear power station planned capacity of 3.2GW. So there would be a localised source of energy which would be nearer, so potentially more efficiently supplied to local demands (potentially at least).
Another part of the equation is petroleum refining is itself a very high consumer of electricity (equivalent to about 1 million electric cars), plus the energy use of distribution of petrol/diesel is by truck requiring lots of fuel, road maintenance etc. While electrons move around a grid network at the speed of light without causing road traffic congestion, or wars in the middle east necessarily.
The bigger issue is the need to decarbonise. Three cheers for those early adopters...

and your scenario is painted by those with their agenda. you trvialised where the 25GW of power would be generated from, needing every single property to have a few kWsolar/wind, instead of a dozen power stations. this highlights some of the change required, its not a technical impossibility, its economically and socially improbable to switch energy generation on it head from centralised to fully distributed model. and its a shame because attention gets diverted into these sort of dreams instead of safe nuclear or large scale hydrogen driven plant, both of which would be good de-carbonisation solutions.

 

[albionant]

Nissan Leaf
£500 deposit £200 a month
2 Year Term
Then hand it back
The bonus is if you need a car for a long distance they give you a petrol car free for 14 days a year
You get a brand new car with all the bells and whistles, the new Leaf even parks itself
It takes about 6 hours with the home charger and about 45mins at a service station
I'm on my second Leaf, Mrs loves it.
Car mainly used as a runaround, if your travelling distance of 50+ (and don't want to charge, the Leaf may not be for you )
We get around 100 miles out of it, noticed in the winter that can drop by about 20%
Ticks all the boxes for what we need

 

[Justice]

A brand new electric car caught fire in my local Sainsbury's car park the other week, burnt to a crisp in minutes think it was a Toyota that put me right off.

 

[PHCgull]

I lease a mitsubishi hybrid and its bloody brilliant.

I live near uckfield and work in brighton - just over 20 miles. The car has an electric range of 30 miles. Drive in on electric, park in london road NCP and charge while at work, drive home on electric and charge over night. Of course if I want to go long distances then its petrol, but if you get stuck in traffic you switch to electric and use no fuel, the electric can run for ever when youre not travelling at speed.

Full charge takes about 3-4 hours and costs either £1 per charge session on Charge your car, or about 90p of electricity at home.

My elase is up in about 6-8 months and im giving it back. I suspect a generation of hybrids is about to become available on the secondary market... making them affordable for many

 

[Don Parasol]

So, the advantage is primarily in increased fuel economy, due to the electricity harvesting. Does it allow you to drive purely on electric, and if so, how far can you go?

Yes better fuel economy is the main advantage. I haven't got the actual stats as it's my wife who mainly drives it. You can't drive it purely on electric, no, the car chooses automatically. There is a display that shows which engine is being used while you drive, and you could say it helps you drive more efficiently.

And FWIW I love automatic gearboxes, it's less tiring when you are doing long journeys stuck in traffic.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I lease a mitsubishi hybrid and its bloody brilliant.

I live near uckfield and work in brighton - just over 20 miles. The car has an electric range of 30 miles. Drive in on electric, park in london road NCP and charge while at work, drive home on electric and charge over night. Of course if I want to go long distances then its petrol, but if you get stuck in traffic you switch to electric and use no fuel, the electric can run for ever when youre not travelling at speed.

Full charge takes about 3-4 hours and costs either £1 per charge session on Charge your car, or about 90p of electricity at home.

My elase is up in about 6-8 months and im giving it back. I suspect a generation of hybrids is about to become available on the secondary market... making them affordable for many

Do you lease the car through your work or privately?