[Misc] Electric Cars

[Audax]

Similar.

Our 2012 Honda Civic has just gone through 100,000 miles. It's always been reliable, but I expect something major to go on it sometime soon, and a repair to be uneconomical. The last MOT cost over £500 because of a siezed brake caliper, and I don't want to be shelling out that kind of money again if I can help it.

From your research what can you get for, say, £10k today?

For 200+ mile range (in spring/summer/autumn...):

High spec Renault Zoe's (look for the R135's) are under £10k now. Older VW ID3's will be creeping into that range, but the cheaper ones will have massive miles on them already. Lower mileage examples look to be closer to £15k (maybe more for top spec versions). There's some current-gen Nissan Leaf's (same motor/battery tech as in the Zoe, but bit bigger) on Autotrader. Corsa-e. Can see some MG's sneaking into that price bracket (MG's electric range are better than their ICE range from what I've heard). Peugeot e-208's are creeping into that bracket as well (bit smaller, though - but mentioning them as they held value better than the Zoe initially).

For 250+ mile range:

Hyundai Kona's with 250+ mile ranges are slightly over that £10k mark (see a few between £11k-12k).


Personal, biased opinion, having driven one for the last 4 years an R135 GT Line Zoe for under £10k with less than 30k miles on the clock is awesome value ... if the car is big enough for your usage. Worth measuring it up, it's surprisingly roomier than it looks (eg same basic boot space as my Prius!).

 

[nicko31]

That looks decent.

Is that essentially an electric Golf?

Yes, I've got one. Not the biggest boot but very spacious inside.

£30k new so most of the value has already gone, bit of miles but I think they will do big miles, VW build quality...

 

[Change at Barnham]

A 3 year old VW ID3 with 200m+ range for 12k...

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I was working in London for several weeks last summer and was using Addison Lee cars to get about on a daily basis, the drivers were mostly driving VW ID4's or VW ID3's.
I thought both models were superb. They were spacious, smooth, quiet and good for the environment and the looked great. When talking to the Addison Lee drivers they all said that they had been incentivised by the company financially to move from petrol to EV.

Every one of the drivers said they regretted the move. The quoted the inconvenience of charging it and also how quickly the juice from the battery reduced the moment they either started using the heaters or the air-con. On cold winter days they said they often needed a top-up during the working day.

As mentioned before, I have only a basic knowledge of cars and would not offer advice to anyone.
But from my perspective I think I'll hang on for a bit to see how things pan out.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Nope because quite a few on here seem to be sold on EVs

I am certainly not anti EV but having been in them and driven them they‘re definitely not for me. A Hybrid one day…maybe

Er... sounds like it:

'I bloody love certain ice cars and HATE EVs, the ugly feckers'

 

[Bozza]

For 200+ mile range (in spring/summer/autumn...):

High spec Renault Zoe's (look for the R135's) are under £10k now. Older VW ID3's will be creeping into that range, but the cheaper ones will have massive miles on them already. Lower mileage examples look to be closer to £15k (maybe more for top spec versions). There's some current-gen Nissan Leaf's (same motor/battery tech as in the Zoe, but bit bigger) on Autotrader. Corsa-e. Can see some MG's sneaking into that price bracket (MG's electric range are better than their ICE range from what I've heard). Peugeot e-208's are creeping into that bracket as well (bit smaller, though - but mentioning them as they held value better than the Zoe initially).

For 250+ mile range:

Hyundai Kona's with 250+ mile ranges are slightly over that £10k mark (see a few between £11k-12k).


Personal, biased opinion, having driven one for the last 4 years an R135 GT Line Zoe for under £10k with less than 30k miles on the clock is awesome value ... if the car is big enough for your usage. Worth measuring it up, it's surprisingly roomier than it looks (eg same basic boot space as my Prius!).

Cheers.

We don't need big as we do very few long journeys where comfort could become an issue.

We do have a big Labrador though and although we don't have a need to put him in the car often, it is still a consideration. The Zoe looks like it may struggle on that front.

 

[Audax]

That looks decent.

Is that essentially an electric Golf?

VW makes an electric Golf as well. But yes, that's the rough size.

ID range is a dedicated EV platform (whereas the e-Golf is EV tech shoe-horned into a chassis designed for ICE). I've heard very good things about the ID3 (one of the reasons I've gone for one to replace the Zoe, alongside the fact Renault have discontinued the Zoe and the Renault 5 that replaces it isn't available yet).

 

[Audax]

We do have a big Labrador though and although we don't have a need to put him in the car often, it is still a consideration. The Zoe looks like it may struggle on that front.

Yeah, you're losing about 150 litres boot space compared to the Civic. ID3 is a bit bigger, you'll "only" be 100 litres down.

MG5's might be worth a look for you?

 

[juliant]

Taken the plunge here and getting rid of our petrol Sportage Donkey and going Hybrid with a Captur next Monday. Hoping we can get a bit more then 30-35 mpg !!

 

[chip]

With introduction of ULEZ, my last Transit (LPG, loved it, very Eco etc) had to go and i wanted to buy a Elec Van - There were only 2 on the market at £54k and £63K plus vat, so bought a Euro 6 Diesel Transit as an interim.
The new E-Transit got introduced later at £55k which was still a bit out of range, but now seeing 1-2 year old main dealer pre-owned at £25-30K with sub 5k miles on.. thats a HUGE depreciation..! And my ICE transit has held same price 4 years later.

Bognor Motors offer the VW electric van for rent with a full charge but £20 a day more than a diesel transit. You'd think that electric vans would be easy to produce compared to cars and be better for urban air quaility, would have been worth offer a small business subsidy for this. Astonishing how well transits hold their value, the new ones are great to drive.

 

[Bozza]

I’ve just noticed that Tesla are doing contract hire on the Model Y for £299/month, which seems a great deal on what is a £45k car.

I suspect they are clearing stock ahead of the expected model refresh.

Any view on this from those more into EVs than I am? What else could you get for the same kind of money?

 

[nicko31]

I’ve just noticed that Tesla are doing contract hire on the Model Y for £299/month, which seems a great deal on what is a £45k car.

I suspect they are clearing stock ahead of the expected model refresh.

Any view on this from those more into EVs than I am? What else could you get for the same kind of money?

A great deal but I just couldn't live with driving an Elon car, the bloke has lost it

 

[nicko31]

I was working in London for several weeks last summer and was using Addison Lee cars to get about on a daily basis, the drivers were mostly driving VW ID4's or VW ID3's.
I thought both models were superb. They were spacious, smooth, quiet and good for the environment and the looked great. When talking to the Addison Lee drivers they all said that they had been incentivised by the company financially to move from petrol to EV.

Every one of the drivers said they regretted the move. The quoted the inconvenience of charging it and also how quickly the juice from the battery reduced the moment they either started using the heaters or the air-con. On cold winter days they said they often needed a top-up during the working day.

As mentioned before, I have only a basic knowledge of cars and would not offer advice to anyone.
But from my perspective I think I'll hang on for a bit to see how things pan out.

There is no doubt that range drops in cold weather.

Inefficient ICE cars have a huge resource of heat for warm the cabin. On mine I tend to run the cabin cooler and use the heated seats.

EV peform very efficiently on short slower speed journeys, the opposite of ICE cars

 

[Triggaaar]

A great deal but I just couldn't live with driving an Elon car, the bloke has lost it

I wouldn't want to buy one as I'd expect them to lose too much value, but £299 a month sounds like a great deal. But like you say, the link to Musk puts me off completely.

 

[Audax]

EV peform very efficiently on short slower speed journeys, the opposite of ICE cars

There's nuances to this, I think. 4 years of experience with my Zoe and the most efficient runs I've had with it have all been longer distance - 65 mile (each way) trips to the office, with most of the journey being on the M25 (majority of what isn't on the M25 being the A22). I would often get home (summer months) with better than 5mpkwh results (managed 5.6 once), which was completely unachievable doing short trips around Uckfield / Lewes (school runs, grocery shop, etc) - they generally topped out 4.4/4.5 mpkwh in summer.

Driving style plays a huge part in it. I generally get better economy (in both ICE and EV) than my Mrs does.

 

[nicko31]

Head of Uber "Chinese-made electric vehicles are also "good for the environment"

Wait a few more minutes for an electric Uber, says boss

The platform wants customers to go 'green' as it tries to boost the take-up of electric cars.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Flounce]

Head of Uber "Chinese-made electric vehicles are also "good for the environment"

Wait a few more minutes for an electric Uber, says boss

The platform wants customers to go 'green' as it tries to boost the take-up of electric cars.

www.bbc.co.uk

EV and Chinese, hmmm

 

[chickens]

Here in the chickens household the wife has had her way. Our trusty Nissan Leaf will be leaving us at the end of the month, and being replaced by an MG ZS EV. There’s very good deals on them atm, as they’re being cleared out to make way for a new model in 2025.

I’m not a fan of SUVs, but the missus likes being sat higher up, and I can’t deny that having a real world range of 230-250 miles will be easier to live with than a real world 80 miles.

Should only need charging once a week, which will be a time saving, and will make the longer trips we do (Devon and Brighton) more straightforward, as stops become optional, though I’d always stop once on journeys of that length. It’s very much a “last generation” car, being end of life, but the new entries coming out soon don’t seem to actually be here yet. Kia couldn’t show me an EV3, Skoda couldn’t show me an Elroq, Mini couldn’t show me an Aceman.

There’ll be a choice of new and second-hand of all of those by the time we get around to trading in the MG. Plus whatever’s replacing the ZS EV in the UK, there are rumours MG will have solid state batteries in their range in 2025.

 

[Doc Lynam]

I’ve just noticed that Tesla are doing contract hire on the Model Y for £299/month, which seems a great deal on what is a £45k car.

I suspect they are clearing stock ahead of the expected model refresh.

Any view on this from those more into EVs than I am? What else could you get for the same kind of money?

Won’t touch a Tesla anymore because of Elon.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Won’t touch a Tesla anymore because of Elon.

Wouldn’t touch a Tesla Y cos they are so fxxkin ugly. A 3 maybe, the Roadster is nice, but never a Y.

 

[Audax]

I've had my shiny new VW ID3 Pro S for just about 3 weeks now. Salary sacrifice made it affordable. So many nice little features - such as the easy configuration to not charge the battery over 80% unless explicitly requested, which will help preserve battery life long term. It was slightly cheaper to get a higher spec model (go figure!), so it's also got things like adaptive headlights. Those things are taking some getting used to - doesn't feel right turning on the high beams and just leaving them on, but the system works so well. Being able to retain the high beam on the left side verge while not blinding the oncoming traffic is a revelation. Similar story with the cruise control - it's the first car I've ever had that remembers the settings even after being switched off, so it's ready to go again on the next trip - and it can be setup to auto detect speed limit changes (which it's pretty good at).

Not done any long trips yet to be able to see what the range numbers look like properly (next trip to the office next week), and it's getting colder already so I won't get peak summer numbers, but even an 80% charge is giving range numbers higher than anything the Zoe gave even in optimum conditions (unsurprising, it's a 50% bigger battery), so we might now be leaving the Prius at home even when we go on our Norfolk / Cornwall trips.

Few small annoyances with it: 1) Android Auto refuses to not play music. Even manually switching back to radio, AA kicks in 30s later despite all the settings on the phone saying not to auto-start music. I've had to disable AA on my phone, as for some unknown reason I've always preferred the radio when driving. 2) It doesn't remember the performance settings between trips, so having to put it back in Eco mode on start up every. single. time. 3) Same with D / B choice for driving. Zoe defaulted to B, ID3 defaults to D. I'm so used to single-pedal driving in B mode now, I'd like to be able to default it to B.