Electric Car

[Psycho Sonny]

Anyone have one?

I'm toying with the idea of getting solar panels (with battery technology) and an electric car for the wife. It's the way everything is going so why not adopt now?

There only seems to be about 2-3 models though. Nissan Leaf being the most obvious choice to dip toes into the water.

Apparently very low service costs as oil, etc doesn't need changing. Just tyres, brakes, and repairs and new batteries every few years.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

New Leaf's out soon, so might be worth hanging on for a bit

Don't need new batteries every few years - I would be surprised if you ever needed new batteries, to be honest. Anyway, most are covered by a warranty for several years (against complete failure, at least).

Zoe's good, if you're not travelling countless miles each day, too.

would have thought batteries would only last 3 years or so. that's good to know. tbh i haven't done any research at all which is why i'm asking. you can either lease your battery or own it outright. i was thinking owning would be the cheaper option and then i can upgrade the battery whenever i want.

Tesla Model S

£57K - ermm not exactly great for dipping toes into the water.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

But that is what they all are at the moment really :/

well i see a few leafs every other day in the city centre. saw one at the airport on saturday too. the bmw ones are rarer but there is one around the corner from work parked up and charging during the day.

i'd say they are becoming much more common now. it's only a matter of time before we are all either electric or hybrid and no more manual cars left in the UK.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

you have to think very carefully how long you want to keep the vechicle. the charging point standards are still evolving. In the last three years, few ground breaking technologies popped up, like DC and rapid charge. the infrastructure is lacking as it is. plus these new tech keep poping up, i think it's good idea to wait for abit. I have a 1 year old 225xe, and i am already missing out on the DC/rapid charge. if you are leasing the car for only one or two years, then fair enough because you will re-new/update as the infrastructure progress.

that is the problem with any car but obviously with this being so new advances are being made quite quickly. i think a new leaf would be a safe bet next year. it looks like it has 2 or 3 new technologies no other nissan has as well as double the range of the current leaf. so it's ahead of the game for what it is. might make it worthwhile getting one and keeping for a while. wait for technology to move on and then go for an upgrade. i think getting a 2018 leaf and keeping for 7 years would be very worthwhile to keep her costs down. it would pay for itself with the fuel savings.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I don't understand the whole battery rental. Seems to wipe out all the savings and then some.

in case it dies?

or it's because people are too stupid to think for themselves? renting anything is usually always more expensive long term than buying unless it's a short term thing.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/nissan-leaf-nismo-here-soon

^Looks quite nice and could potentially have ~200bhp or more and a range of ~300 miles with the larger battery pack planned.

Now if there were some stonking lease deals on something like that, I could be very tempted indeed. A large chunk of the monthly lease cost would be offset by the huge saving in fuel costs so would certainly be something to consider.

>£30K though and only around 200 bhp probably lower. It's all fur coat and no knickers. Perfect for the wife though if it was cheaper. Hopefully they pop up second hand after 3 years for £15K. That would make them much more appealing if what you are trying to do is save money by going electric.

I'd happily just take a standard leaf with just cosmetic changes to make it look like that for £2K extra.