swindonseagull
Well-known member
No debate then?
[Misc] Electric Cars
- Thread starter Giraffe
- Start date
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- Oct 12, 2022
- 2,702
I think you may have misunderstood @Fungus’s post. In the same way that you don’t go to the petrol station every day, you don’t necessarily need to charge your car every day. I do, coz I have an elderly electric car with a small range, but most electric cars I could buy now would only need charging once every 4-5 days.
Horses Arse
Well-known member
He dropped the Bozza card. Its like the Staff Car card on the Colditz board game apparently.
swindonseagull
Well-known member
I would not leave a car with no charge on my drive waiting for a green charge. its like leaving an ICE with no fuel, ....imagine you or someone you know needs an emergency trip to hospital or something......sorry cant take you im waiting for a green charge,,,
swindonseagull
Well-known member
Hahahaha
I've never paid more than £4K for a car - and that only in comparatively recent times when a degree of financial stability (i.e, mortgae paid off!) became the norm.
That's less than a year's rent for one of your 'cheap deal' electric cars - and they last me well more than one year! And I don't pay congestion charges either. I might have to if I ever drove to London - I haven't checked their charges in details - but why would I want to drive to that benighted city ever again? It was a nightmare to drive round 20-25 years ago, and I doubt if the standard of driving has improved since then (it hasn't in the south east generally). And why drive anyway when London's got more trains, trams, buses, indergrounds and assorted public transport than pretty much the rest of the country put together?
Horses Arse
Well-known member
Really impressive. If I was looking for a car for around town right now I'd definately look towards that. But we've a petrol Fabia that we'll run until it can run no more. 2016 so must have another decade in it I reckon.
Really interested to see how long EVs manage. Sounds like impressive battery staying power based on feedback in this thread. Next car will certainly be electric but it will be a while yet I reckon.
Horses Arse
Well-known member
Thats the best way to do it I reckon, cars run so long these days and don't rust yet people seem to have to keep replacing them. No idea why
Neither would I. No-one suggested that.
My car has a range of about 180 miles; I do about 100-150 miles per week. Sometimes I’ll charge it from around 60%, sometimes I’ll run it down to 25%. I’m simply using the app to help me decide when to plug in - ie. when electricity generation isn’t producing large amounts of CO2. What’s the issue with that?
Having followed this chain back to see what I'm being accused of, it seems to be that I said the Hugo app was useful for monitoring home energy use. And it is.
I've got nothing to add to the electric car discussion, alas.
- Oct 12, 2022
- 2,702
I’m sorry, I feel you’re still misunderstanding. This is like leaving an ICE car on the drive with half a tank of fuel or a third of a tank of fuel.
If the car does 300 miles and I’m using about 60 a day, I only have to charge it every 5 days, so I can wait until the most convenient day out of the 5 to stick it on charge. The car is still usable until the charge is really low, so I only HAVE to charge it on day 5 if there hasn’t been a green charge opportunity in between.
GOM
living vicariously
The bulk of the car e.g. suspension and mechanicals exactly the same as an ICE car, since they are the same. The battery and motor will outlast the car, there are Teslas out there with over 300,000 miles on the clock and going strong. How many replacement parts and services will an engine have needed in that time. ?
GOM
living vicariously
Then it doesn't matter whether it's an EV or not does it ?
Too expensive for you and your needs / requirements / budgets
The chassis and associated parts (that are the same as on an ICE) is what will set the lifespan of EVs. An brand new EV bought today, both the motor and battery - as long as they aren't mistreated - will outlast the rest of the car.
3 year old Zoe, I have absolutely zero noticeable signs of battery degradation yet. In fact, my "best" range achievements were all during the summer just gone. Now, a large part of that will simply be down to me having 3 years experience driving the car and improving my own efficiency. But at the end of the day, Renault claim 240 miles for the Zoe and I was routinely achieving the equivalent of 270 miles across a 65 mile commute home from the office (mostly on the M25) in the summer.
The cost-of-entry is high, yes that's true (but there's ways of reducing it, such as the salary sacrifice leases). The total cost of ownership, however, is less than an equivalent ICE. And has been for several years. So no, it isn't as "simple as that".
EVs are far cheaper to maintain, and far cheaper to "fill", and ultimately far, far cheaper "per mile" once you've done the miles to overcome the initial higher cost. Also worth mentioning, that higher cost of entry is constantly coming down. Tesla is planning a new hatchback model that's expected to be £22k, and will pioneer new - cheaper - manufacturing methods that will certainly make their way into reducing the costs of the Model 3 etc as well.
Predictions are that a brand new EV will cost the same, or less, than a like-for-like ICE vehicle by 2030. Suspect that's pessimistic myself, it'll happen sooner.
More to the point for you specifically, from what I've gleaned from your posts, the second hand market is growing. It won't be many years until there are decent EVs available that do fit your price range, and once they are available they will be a no-brainer for anyone who has reasonable access to charging (which is something else that is constantly improving) due to the much lower operating costs and much lower risk of expensive failures.
- Oct 12, 2022
- 2,702
There are 29 electric cars for sale on Autotrader for less than 4k. Most of them are the same as mine (Gen1 Nissan Leaf)
If you have:
a) a driveway where a charger can be fitted and the car parked.
and
b) a typical daily use case (there and back inc. any little stops you make regularly e.g. to a supermarket) that’s less than the mileage the vehicle will do (I’d expect at the age they are the battery will be doing somewhere between 60-80 miles in total - insist on seeing it fully charged) you will save an absolute packet provided you can charge at home.
If however your regular daily use exceeds the vehicle range, you’re probably 2-5 years from the second hand market having what you need. (look out for Renault Zoe’s)
I don’t know exactly where you’re based, but if you happen to be anywhere near Bristol/Bath there’s a place called Drive Green which is EV only. The chaps there are really good and they have a ton of different vehicles on-site to try out.
It’s ok if you’re not ready to switch yet, I get the feeling a lot of people are going to cling on to the technology they know, even if it is air polluting/Saudi enriching. You’ve got a few years and the second hand market is only going to get stronger.
That’s exactly how I see it……current ranges aren’t enough for me to change our ‘main’ car as we do a lot of long journeys. When the Mrs finally agrees we need to change her car (it’s about 16 years old but has done less than 30k, costs peanuts to run and maintain and annual mileage is less than 1k) would like to get a suitable EV (which in turn would reduce the mileage on the other one as it’d get morenuse I suspect).
That’s rubbish. My EV heater would probably run as long as a petrol engine. Either fuel source, you’d have to be prepared in that extreme weather.