EV general discussion

Deep said:
I'm in a bit of a quandary at the moment, my BMW was stolen a few months ago and just got the payout from the insurance company. I've been umming and uhhing about what car to get next. I had a hybrid Volvo XC60 as a courtesy car, I charged it up once while at my parents and genuinely the amount I would save on petrol is very good. I don't do much mileage, maybe about 7k a year and almost all of that is short journeys (up to 15 miles).

I was set on the Skoda Karoq, a smallish SUV would have been ideal for me, but I'm leaning towards the Kodiaq even though it's huge. It's a better car overall.
That would raise my budget to around £30k which I think at that point I might as well get a second hand Kia Niro 4 or Hyundai Ioniq 5! Are there many issues in getting a second hand EV or is it very similar to buying a normal ICE car?
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The Ioniq 5 is surprisingly spacious and great value at the moment. They have good warranties too so it's very similar to buying an ICE car, only much older EVs would you worry about battery health etc. but a 1-2 year old Ioniq 5 would be worry free motoring for a good few years
 
bigmike20vt said:
i have bought 2 2nd hand EVs in the last 2 years........ i blame @Deep when it goes horribly wrong tomorrow however so far both purchases have been fine.
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Ha, I am completely blameless! It'll all be a mere coincidence
Tinders said:
If you don’t need a SUV look at the like likes of a VAG based PHEV, Passat, superb or Octavia.
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I was actually looking at a Superb first, that was going to be THE car I'd purchase but after being in an SUV I much prefer the higher ride height and accessibility. I'm quite tall so it's always been a pain getting in and out of a saloon.
OspreyO said:
You give no information if you are single, family of 5 or go mountain biking every weekend. Do you do one massive trip a year, or lots of tiny journeys. It would be impossible to give you much advice.

For me a home charger is essential for an EV, and longer trips might require a bit more planning. Hard to advise unless we know how you intend using it.
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I'm not 100% sure on what vehicle I want, I'm mainly interested if people are buying 2nd hand electrics and if they've had any pitfalls or is it much the same. But just for info, single and it's all loads of small trips. I reckon I do on average 50-100 miles a week with some random weekends being 150 miles. So very little.

I'm also looking to get solar panels but that'll be in about a year/18 months time.
 
sandys said:
He has tried these things and that is his opinion based on experience, it not wrong, just different to some of you on here as the EV experience is very much personal to where you are and what you do.

Personally if I was a manufacturer facing charges for not hitting targets, I’d just pull out of the market, particularly the right hand drive UK market, I mean, why even bother, loads of jobs losses and general upheaval but won’t be their fault, Or just add the charger to the list price of every vehicle
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Harry does have a point.

The problem is the legacy car companies have been caught napping and it is entirely their fault but at the same time the government could potentially lose millions of jobs because said companies pull out or go under.

JLR for example are on very dodgy waters already.
 
Deep said:
Ha, I am completely blameless! It'll all be a mere coincidence

I was actually looking at a Superb first, that was going to be THE car I'd purchase but after being in an SUV I much prefer the higher ride height and accessibility. I'm quite tall so it's always been a pain getting in and out of a saloon.

I'm not 100% sure on what vehicle I want, I'm mainly interested if people are buying 2nd hand electrics and if they've had any pitfalls or is it much the same. But just for info, single and it's all loads of small trips. I reckon I do on average 50-100 miles a week with some random weekends being 150 miles. So very little.

I'm also looking to get solar panels but that'll be in about a year/18 months time.
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I bought a 5 year old Model S. It's still within a battery and drivetrain warranty; so far the degradation of the battery is around (I seem to recall) 4%. Basically, buttons.

For your described use, if you can charge at home I'd imagine a lot of the arguments against electric just don't apply.
If you can get a vehicle which can do the 150 miles in one sitting (not a big ask to accomplish this), you'd be able to do all your charging at home. So worries about range / recharge time just vanish; you'd get home, plug in, and walk inside the house.

Bluntly, it seems that apart from the early EVs (Leaf especially), the general issues of battery degradation are largely worked out. Sure, there'll be the odd failure, but the risk of that is (from what I can see) appearing comparable to the risk of suffering DPF / injector faults if you buy a secondhand diesel; there'll be some forum posts wailing about it, and others going "dunno what you mean pal, mine's fine?"
 
blueacid said:
For your described use, if you can charge at home I'd imagine a lot of the arguments against electric just don't apply.
If you can get a vehicle which can do the 150 miles in one sitting (not a big ask to accomplish this), you'd be able to do all your charging at home. So worries about range / recharge time just vanish; you'd get home, plug in, and walk inside the house.

Bluntly, it seems that apart from the early EVs (Leaf especially), the general issues of battery degradation are largely worked out. Sure, there'll be the odd failure, but the risk of that is (from what I can see) appearing comparable to the risk of suffering DPF / injector faults if you buy a secondhand diesel; there'll be some forum posts wailing about it, and others going "dunno what you mean pal, mine's fine?"
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I'll be getting a home charger, I look at it a long term investment rather than a £1,000 charge.
The car after this will almost certainly be an electric car.

I'll almost certainly be charging at home (or my parents on a Friday if I really need to) so not worried about any range issues thankfully. It's mainly the purchasing of a new car. I've only owned 3 cars and I didn't have the best of luck with the last one so bit nervous about a complete new type of car
 
I had my home charger exactly a month on Saturday and looking through the app was amazed to see how little it had cost me. In a month with my old B-Max I would have spent around £55 on fuel and that includes the discount from my fuel card. The Leaf has cost me £5.10 and thats also including a extra 67 miles over what I did the last month I had the B-Max. The Leaf is a hell of a lot more fun to drive as well.
 
sandys said:
He has tried these things and that is his opinion based on experience, it not wrong, just different to some of you on here as the EV experience is very much personal to where you are and what you do.

Personally if I was a manufacturer facing charges for not hitting targets, I’d just pull out of the market, particularly the right hand drive UK market, I mean, why even bother, loads of jobs losses and general upheaval but won’t be their fault, Or just add the charger to the list price of every vehicle
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Over 75 countries drive on the left, rough hand drive, like the uk.
AnguillaAntigua
Antigua and BarbudaAustralia
BahamasBangladesh
BarbadosBhutan
BotswanaBrunei
Cayman IslandsCyprus
DominicaEngland
EswatiniFiji
GrenadaGuernsey
GuyanaHong Kong
IndiaIndonesia
IrelandIsle Of Man
JamaicaJapan
JerseyKenya
KiribatiLesotho
MalawiMalaysia
MaldivesMalta
MauritiusMozambique
NamibiaNauru
NepalNew Zealand
Northern IrelandPakistan
Papua New GuineaSaint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoa
ScotlandSeychelles
SingaporeSolomon Islands
South AfricaSri Lanka
St LuciaSt Vincent and the Grenadines
SurinameSwaziland
TanzaniaTasmania
ThailandTonga
Trinidad and TobagoTuvalu
UgandaUK
WalesZambia
Zimbabwe
 
sandys said:
He has tried these things and that is his opinion based on experience, it not wrong, just different to some of you on here as the EV experience is very much personal to where you are and what you do.
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Indeed. Harry's views may not be remotely representative of the general public's likely experience but that doesn't make him a paid-up stooge. I was watching a similar Doug DeMuro video earlier and he was talking about someone talking about how taking an EV added ten hours to someone's journey and he (Doug) could do the drive to Minnesota in two and a half day. And, sure, if you're doing two and a half day journeys, an EV probably takes a load of charging but, come on, most people just aren't doing those kind of journeys. I know people are happier doing crazy long driver in the US, but still.

Personally if I was a manufacturer facing charges for not hitting targets, I’d just pull out of the market, particularly the right hand drive UK market, I mean, why even bother, loads of jobs losses and general upheaval but won’t be their fault
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Because they make a lot of money in the UK market, and pulling out means abandoning all that - and probably struggling to ever get back in again.
 
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With a 15k per charge on each car where will the profit be? The choice is pull out or raise the Average selling price because no matter the Goverments intentions there will never be 100% EV take up by 2030.
 
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