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

[wellquickwoody]

Thank you - yes, the battery capacity seems to be (as with most things) the limiting factor. For example the new 2018 Nissan Leaf has a 50KWh battery, which although better than the original Leaf battery of up to 40, it's hardly ground-breaking. I know Tesla are bringing out much bigger batteries, but that's not this year.

The 2019 models may be able to get up to 300 miles per charge, which would be very practical.

Tesla are AMAZING, from a petrolhead!

 

[Indurain's Lungs]

We have a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (plug-in hybrid) which is ideal for our needs -

- 20-30 mile range on electric (for around 80p of electricity)
- Petrol for longer journeys
- Big enough to lump family, kids etc. around.
- Charges in around 3 hours from home

However, we both work from home (or close to) so nearly all journeys are short and stay within the electric range. Once you travel a long way, it is basically just a slightly more efficient petrol 4x4. It would be pointless if all of our journeys were long.

Have never used a public charge point as their cost is by time (30 mins for £5 or similar) which will get batteries up to 80% on "rapid charge". That is worthwhile for full electric but not worth me paying £5 for 15 miles.

May be controversial but non-plug in hybrids are almost pointless. You charge the battery with petrol (and some braking) so improve efficiency a bit but they are much more expensive than buying a really efficient non-hybrid.

If you go full electric, be aware that the range quoted is on a perfectly flat road on a warm day. Ours is quoted as 32 miles but we have never got more than 26/27. In the winter this drops a lot, both because battery power is used to heat the car and the batteries are less efficient in the cold - we drop to 16-18 miles when the temp is around freezing.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

We have a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (plug-in hybrid) which is ideal for our needs -

- 20-30 mile range on electric (for around 80p of electricity)
- Petrol for longer journeys
- Big enough to lump family, kids etc. around.
- Charges in around 3 hours from home

However, we both work from home (or close to) so nearly all journeys are short and stay within the electric range. Once you travel a long way, it is basically just a slightly more efficient petrol 4x4. It would be pointless if all of our journeys were long.

Have never used a public charge point as their cost is by time (30 mins for £5 or similar) which will get batteries up to 80% on "rapid charge". That is worthwhile for full electric but not worth me paying £5 for 15 miles.

May be controversial but non-plug in hybrids are almost pointless. You charge the battery with petrol (and some braking) so improve efficiency a bit but they are much more expensive than buying a really efficient non-hybrid.

If you go full electric, be aware that the range quoted is on a perfectly flat road on a warm day. Ours is quoted as 32 miles but we have never got more than 26/27. In the winter this drops a lot, both because battery power is used to heat the car and the batteries are less efficient in the cold - we drop to 16-18 miles when the temp is around freezing.

Totally agree. Plug-in hybrid is the way to go, until full electric is comparable with petrol vehicles.

 

[Triggaaar]

You’re right to say that 200 miles is more than a short commute, of course, but, in order to fully replace a petrol car (or hybrid), they do have to be able to do what a petrol car can do - even if it’s rarely.

Yeah but we know they're not going to be able to do what a petrol car can do in our lifetime.

This is why I chose the example of a round trip to a football game. Say you live in Brighton, and want to drive to and from the City game - impossible in a fully electric car, no? Therefore - not that useful really...

Not useful to you as a one car option, no. They obviously can't offer what a petrol car can, but they offer some things a petrol car doesn't. For some people they're ideal, for others they're obviously impractical.

 

[PHCgull]

Do you lease the car through your work or privately?

through work - VAT relief is very advantageous on these

 

[TimWatt]

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.

I agree it not trivial, but I think you've mixed up a bit:
1. In the medium future, every business will likely be 'turned on it's head'. Just look back over the last few decades. Change is to be expected, and where a change might lead to new ways of making money that change is more likely to happen.
2. It's not necessarily a case of either/or - sure, they'll need for more or more efficient power stations, but smaller, more local solutions, of smart grids may also be part of the mix... absolute answers about the future seem pretty unlikely guesses to me.
3. The 25GW I quoted relates to storage capacity of 4.7 million EVs (a number supplied by OVO Energy, which obviously will have it's now agenda). Such EVs may be effectively trickle charged during sunny days, windy days perhaps or other off-peak low charge times, and even with storage inefficiencies won't need 25GW of instantaneously available electricity to be generated as such. Besides that speculative suggested change to the grid supply model just an extra efficiency win-win, but might not itself critical to the efficiency of EVs, it's just an extra that might makes electro-mobility grow faster.

There are no facts about the future, but electric power and heating may well be long term best bet due to security of supply as any number of sources of energy could be used to generate it: solar, wind, nuclear, gas, hydrogen, whatever...

 

[happypig]

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?

my Honda costs about 10p/mile, a hybrid would be about half that so about £2200 vs £1100, still aint worth me changing. Planning to retire in 1-2 years and will be changing car for something cheaper

 

[Bob!]

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

I've been looking at a Leaf as a second car (mainly for work commute) for when my current petrol car gives up the ghost.
I could get a 2 year old Leaf for about £12k compared to £28k new.

 

[StonehamPark]

No idea how available Tesla cars are in the UK.

Putting a deposit down for a Tesla 3 here in Canada.
Hopefully a government rebate of between $5000-$6000 (Ontario gets a $15,000 rebate!!).

Would personally rather a hatchback Tesla, similar size and shape to a Focus ST, which I imagine they will do in a couple of years.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

No idea how available Tesla cars are in the UK.

Putting a deposit down for a Tesla 3 here in Canada.
Hopefully a government rebate of between $5000-$6000 (Ontario gets a $15,000 rebate!!).

Would personally rather a hatchback Tesla, similar size and shape to a Focus ST, which I imagine they will do in a couple of years.

The cheapest (nearly new) Tesla hatchback on Autotrader in the UK is a Tesla Model X E 90D at £80k

The new Nissan Leaf (New) is about £30k.

 

[StonehamPark]

The cheapest (nearly new) Tesla hatchback on Autotrader in the UK is a Tesla Model X E 90D at £80k

The new Nissan Leaf (New) is about £30k.

The Model 3 base price (in Canada) is $45k or 25k Sterling - although this is just the exchange rate, I have no idea how much they are being sold for in the UK.

Fully-spec'd is 64k / 35k.

 

[dazzer6666]

Interested in the replies on here. Mrs D's car is really due for replacement, and she rarely if ever drives more than 20 miles in any return journey. Guy that works for me has a Leaf which seemed pretty good when he gave me a lift in it.

 

[happypig]

The cheapest (nearly new) Tesla hatchback on Autotrader in the UK is a Tesla Model X E 90D at £80k

The new Nissan Leaf (New) is about £30k.

A new Focus ecoboost is under £19k and does 60mpg. Eleven grand buys a lot of petrol....

 

[TSB]

In Britain, we're about three years away from the time of the EV cars.
In the Far East, it's already dawned. And they're fooking amazing.

 

[StonehamPark]

I was pondering whether now was the time to dive into the Hybrid / Plug In / Electric market... there is an increasing number of options across the ranges involved, from the all electric e-Golf and Leaf to the more numerous Hybrid configurations.

Have you looked much into the e-Golf?
That's my next serious consideration if I don't go for the Tesla. Extremely good local incentives knock off about 33% the total price, down to $24,000 / 13.5k UK
Although a 12-18 month wait-list over this way.
Only downside is the lower max-distance, but I suppose at 33% price of the Tesla 3, can't complain.

 

[carlzeiss]

A new Focus ecoboost is under £19k and does 60mpg. Eleven grand buys a lot of petrol....

Not according to their owners :-

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/ford/focus-2014/10t-ecoboost-100

 

[Half Time Pies]

I’m open to being persuaded, but I have 3 concerns about fully electric cars:

1 the bigger battery version of the car you’re interested in says 300 miles range. I assume that, like all advertising, is hyperbolic in the real world - say 250 miles in reality. That’s less than I need for a round trip to a home game... so...

2 where, near the Amex (or any other ground) can I recharge? And...

3. How long does it take to charge?

My sense is that fully electric cars won’t become mainstream until the range truly matches most fuel-driven cars, say 400 miles (genuine) and they can be charged in, say, 15 minutes (only 3 times as long as it takes to fill up with petrol), at as many locations as there are currently petrol stations.

Unless and until that happens, won’t they remain largely used for short hops in and around home? Great for dropping the kids off, short commutes, or decent length runs to someone else’s home where you can charge up overnight; but useless for many other use scenarios...

No?

I have been using a Nissan Leaf for the past year and a half, every morning we go from Woodingdean to Hove and then on to Eastbourne, we make the same journey in the evening. The old generation leaf has a range of between 100 -125 miles and we have a charger at home and one at work and have never had any issues with range.

Having said that should I ever struggle with range there are a number of chargers on my route and in and around Brighton including a 50kw rapid charger at Withdean, one in Lewes and one in Selmeston. These take about 30 minutes for a 80% charge up but you can get a decent chunk of range in only 15 mins. I actually took our leaf all the way from Brighton to Kenilworth and back (152 miles in each direction) using the rapid chargers at motorway service stations.

The next couple of years will be a game changer for electric vehicles with pretty much every major car manufacturer coming out with new electric vehicles with real world ranges of 300 miles +. The costs of the vehicles are beginning to come down and once they reach parity with the petrol alternative I belief you will see a massive shift towards electric.

 

[StonehamPark]

The next couple of years will be a game changer for electric vehicles with pretty much every major car manufacturer coming out with new electric vehicles with real world ranges of 300 miles +. The costs of the vehicles are beginning to come down and once they reach parity with the petrol alternative I belief you will see a massive shift towards electric.

100% agreed.
I'd give it 10 years and we'll see the pendulum swing, especially if the government incentives remain.

 

[Driver8]

I have been using a Nissan Leaf for the past year and a half, every morning we go from Woodingdean to Hove and then on to Eastbourne, we make the same journey in the evening. The old generation leaf has a range of between 100 -125 miles and we have a charger at home and one at work and have never had any issues with range.

Having said that should I ever struggle with range there are a number of chargers on my route and in and around Brighton including a 50kw rapid charger at Withdean, one in Lewes and one in Selmeston. These take about 30 minutes for a 80% charge up but you can get a decent chunk of range in only 15 mins. I actually took our leaf all the way from Brighton to Kenilworth and back (152 miles in each direction) using the rapid chargers at motorway service stations.

The next couple of years will be a game changer for electric vehicles with pretty much every major car manufacturer coming out with new electric vehicles with real world ranges of 300 miles +. The costs of the vehicles are beginning to come down and once they reach parity with the petrol alternative I belief you will see a massive shift towards electric.

The current range is the killer for me. I have quite a big car (A6) but can do the 600 mile round trip to the Amex and still have a quarter of a tank left. I can do 60 mpg if I take it easy and with the Adblue it’s supposed to be pretty eco friendly too.

Once the range is 300+ and charging becomes quicker and freely available I’ll look to switch but until then I’m sticking with Diesel.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Have you looked much into the e-Golf?
That's my next serious consideration if I don't go for the Tesla. Extremely good local incentives knock off about 33% the total price, down to $24,000 / 13.5k UK
Although a 12-18 month wait-list over this way.
Only downside is the lower max-distance, but I suppose at 33% price of the Tesla 3, can't complain.

My next door neighbour has a golf plug in hybrid and he's offered to let me test drive it. I quite fancy giving it a go.