Electric cars - talk to me

wildest_jjk said:
OP I’m in a bit of a similar situation and have been looking at something like a 2017 Leaf for around £10K.

My thinking is that it would be past the worst of its depreciation and if you sold in 2/3 years I would hope you’d still get over half that back. I think they have 8 years/100K miles battery warranty so would still be well within that as well.

It would be good to hear other peoples thoughts on this? Might be a terrible idea but sort of makes sense to me at the moment!
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Spot on. I'm over 4 years into owning a Leaf I bought for £10k. Still worth around £8k - so very little lost in depreciation. It's been the most cost effective, reliable and hassle free car ownership and running I've ever had. Just unplug, get in, turn on and drive. The most work I've had to do to it is filling up the washer fluid.

It covers the majority of our family driving - doing school runs, going to the shops etc. And on occasion pre-pandemic I've used it for longer destinations for work.

It would be awkward if it was our only car though. On the occasion we do longer family runs (holidays / camping / etc) I wouldn't want to be keep stopping to top up the battery.
 
Fusion said:
You said it yourself, you don't understand how it's possible. Me and Jonnycoupe will summarise- it's not. Be very wary of claims made by people. You can't circumvene the laws of physics. Capacitors are great for discharging energy in short timeframes. They aren't a basis for an electric vehicle power source.

Heat is one of the biggest barriers to improving electric and electronic system performance, whether it's charging a 2500kg vehicle, or designing a new chip for a smartphone. It all boils down to electrical resistance, which is unavoidable unless as I mentioned, you develop superconductors which can work at a sensible temperature. This may be possible in the distant future. Whichever team makes the breakthrough will end up being Nobel Prize recipients- it's one of the holy grails of physics/engineering and has already been in pursuit for several decades!
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These are hybrid though made with "curved" graphene and are a half way house between a capacitor and a lithium ion battery.

Yes, they arent usable in electric cars as the main power source yet due to them only being 60 Wh/kg vs Tesles 260 Wh/kg and the company sees them been used intitally as the batteries to run aircon, windows, infotainment etc which even Tesla use a lead acid battery for.

Also they see an immediate use in the mild hybrid car market with the 48v based systems as the battery is ideally suited to add power to the system and quickly recharge from breaking etc.

So we wont be seeing EV cars with 100% graphene super batteries yet but I mainly listed it as other people rather than Tesla are making massive strides in battery tech and who knows what we will have in 5 years time.

And yet tesla is meant to keep expanding their ev cars by 15% per annum for the next 10-15 years and will have the best selling car in the world in 2022.

I think they are going to get a shock.
 
Bug One said:
Spot on. I'm over 4 years into owning a Leaf I bought for £10k. Still worth around £8k - so very little lost in depreciation. It's been the most cost effective, reliable and hassle free car ownership and running I've ever had. Just unplug, get in, turn on and drive. The most work I've had to do to it is filling up the washer fluid.

It covers the majority of our family driving - doing school runs, going to the shops etc. And on occasion pre-pandemic I've used it for longer destinations for work.

It would be awkward if it was our only car though. On the occasion we do longer family runs (holidays / camping / etc) I wouldn't want to be keep stopping to top up the battery.
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Same here. Only had it one year, got it for a bargain so have limited depreciation so far.

It’s brilliant. Overnight cheap tariff means it’s only just over £1 to charge. I really can’t fault it...well apart from the looks. Great second family car.
 
Bug One said:
Spot on. I'm over 4 years into owning a Leaf I bought for £10k. Still worth around £8k - so very little lost in depreciation. It's been the most cost effective, reliable and hassle free car ownership and running I've ever had. Just unplug, get in, turn on and drive. The most work I've had to do to it is filling up the washer fluid.

It covers the majority of our family driving - doing school runs, going to the shops etc. And on occasion pre-pandemic I've used it for longer destinations for work.

It would be awkward if it was our only car though. On the occasion we do longer family runs (holidays / camping / etc) I wouldn't want to be keep stopping to top up the battery.
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That would work for us too.
The trouble is however I would still need a petrol or diesel vehicle for work and as you said distance.
I’m one of the lucky ones that has a drive however.
 
Bug One said:
Spot on. I'm over 4 years into owning a Leaf I bought for £10k. Still worth around £8k - so very little lost in depreciation. It's been the most cost effective, reliable and hassle free car ownership and running I've ever had. Just unplug, get in, turn on and drive. The most work I've had to do to it is filling up the washer fluid.

It covers the majority of our family driving - doing school runs, going to the shops etc. And on occasion pre-pandemic I've used it for longer destinations for work.

It would be awkward if it was our only car though. On the occasion we do longer family runs (holidays / camping / etc) I wouldn't want to be keep stopping to top up the battery.
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Thanks @Bug One

Good to hear that what I've said isn't such a bad idea in reality!

I've only got short runs to do so for me I think it would be a good step into the world of electric. As mentioned I'm thinking perhaps somewhere around a 2017 model and possibly the 30KWh model. Do you have any recommendations on model/trims? I think from a trim perspective the go to seems to be the Acenta.

The battery warranty part is quite reassuring as well which was one of the big plus points for me. I assume all of the at home charging is pretty standard? I would have to get a podpoint or something installed as well.

Cheers!
 
Greebo said:
These are hybrid though made with "curved" graphene and are a half way house between a capacitor and a lithium ion battery.

Yes, they arent usable in electric cars as the main power source yet due to them only being 60 Wh/kg vs Tesles 260 Wh/kg and the company sees them been used intitally as the batteries to run aircon, windows, infotainment etc which even Tesla use a lead acid battery for.

Also they see an immediate use in the mild hybrid car market with the 48v based systems as the battery is ideally suited to add power to the system and quickly recharge from breaking etc.

So we wont be seeing EV cars with 100% graphene super batteries yut et but I mainly listed it as other people rather than Tesla are making massive strides in battery tech and who knows what we will have in 5 years time.

And yet tesla is meant to keep expanding their ev cars by 15% per annum for the next 10-15 years and will have the best selling car in the world in 2022.

I think they are going to get a shock.
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Best selling cars in the world....

Does he even know how much his own cars cost?

Unless they are going to get at least a 50% price drop that isnt going to happen lol
 
wildest_jjk said:
Thanks @Bug One

Good to hear that what I've said isn't such a bad idea in reality!

I've only got short runs to do so for me I think it would be a good step into the world of electric. As mentioned I'm thinking perhaps somewhere around a 2017 model and possibly the 30KWh model. Do you have any recommendations on model/trims? I think from a trim perspective the go to seems to be the Acenta.

The battery warranty part is quite reassuring as well which was one of the big plus points for me. I assume all of the at home charging is pretty standard? I would have to get a podpoint or something installed as well.

Cheers!
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You won't get the "new" 40kw 2017 model for £10k, so the 30kw would be the one to go for.

For a home charger, in this scenario you may be better going for socketed rather than tethered, as the Leaf uses a Type 1 connector, whereas all new cars use a Type 2, so with a tethered unit, if you were ever to change car in the future you would need a whole new charger, rather than just changing the cable on a socketed one.
 
wildest_jjk said:
Thanks @Bug One

Good to hear that what I've said isn't such a bad idea in reality!

I've only got short runs to do so for me I think it would be a good step into the world of electric. As mentioned I'm thinking perhaps somewhere around a 2017 model and possibly the 30KWh model. Do you have any recommendations on model/trims? I think from a trim perspective the go to seems to be the Acenta.

The battery warranty part is quite reassuring as well which was one of the big plus points for me. I assume all of the at home charging is pretty standard? I would have to get a podpoint or something installed as well.

Cheers!
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From test driving a few, I wouldn't take anything less than a Tekna, I really didn't like the cloth seats in the Acenta. At this age, price difference between the two is negligible.

Personally, I like the 24kw Leafs with the battery long life mode (ie - stops charging at 80%) and wish they'd left that feature in. It means I can plug in and not care about charging or leaving the car at 100% for long periods. That feature was removed some way in 2015. So an early 2015 with ~ 50k on the clock would be my target.

The increase in price to a 30kw wouldn't be worth it for my personal use. Or a 40kw really. I'd only spend more money on an electric car if it were something like a 64kw Kona / eNiro with 200+ miles range so we could really comfortably use it for long journeys.
 
Bug One said:
From test driving a few, I wouldn't take anything less than a Tekna
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Yeah - the Tekna range over Nissans in general is a big step up over the standard fare and if a bit plasticy usually has a well designed complementary look and a decent set of features - in many cases the seats are decent (not just material wise but support, etc.) as well at that level.
 
I drive a 2014 Acenta and it's been absolutely bulletproof. Wear and tear items aside, it hasn't had a single repair in over 7 years. And the battery still shows 12/12 health bars (i.e. >85% capacity remaining).

Only thing it lacks that I'd actually want is rear parking sensors. You get a camera, so it's not all bad. But both is better; the camera has blind spots.
 
McPhee said:
Only thing it lacks that I'd actually want is rear parking sensors. You get a camera, so it's not all bad. But both is better; the camera has blind spots.
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There are no sensors in a Tekna. You get the Sky View camera system - which is absolute genius.
 
Bug One said:
There are no sensors in a Tekna. You get the Sky View camera system - which is absolute genius.
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TBH I didn't know that.

I had a Tekna Juke as a courtesy car a few years ago when the Zoe broke and that had the 360 degree camera system and parking sensors. So I just assumed it'd be the same on the Leaf.
 
Nasher said:
Best selling cars in the world....

Does he even know how much his own cars cost?

Unless they are going to get at least a 50% price drop that isnt going to happen lol
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He was allegedly saying the Model Y would be the best selling car in the world in 2022 or so claimed by the shareholder on here.

There are £35k to £45k in price I believe.
 
JasonM said:
How does Tesla compare to Lucid Air?
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pretty damn nice if they can deliver. 500+ mile range, better batteries than tesla, 300 miles range charged in 20 minutes, cheaper models due in 2022 to compete with tesla across the whole range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46OEQoLClFA

Best thing for Tesla lovers though is that Musk has stated he's going to slash the prices of his cars on the back of the Lucid Air been launched. Thats perhaps not so good for profits and shareholders though.

Also i note Musk claims he will be making 22 million cars by 2030. I hope everybody still wants a Tesla by then. Since there are only 70million cars bought each year in the whole world, he expects almost 1 in 3 to be a Tesla. Since currently 21m of the 70m cars are made in China each year he is basically saying 1 in 2 cars sold in the rest of the world will be Teslas.

Just cant see it unless he improves their style and atrocious build quality. I would take an ioniq 6 over any Tesla every day.
 
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