EV general discussion

ICDP said:
The infrastructure here in N. Ireland was terrible even a few years ago. Something like 5 50kWh chargers for the region and because of stupid legislation they were free. So getting one was literally impossible with all the freeloaders queued up to use them.

The usual suspects who owned EVs were up in arms that new legislation was introduced that meant companies could start charging for charging. I had many heated debates with fellow EV owners who insisted the reason we had poor infrastructure was not down to them freeloading. Within a year of that new legislation we have a significantly improved infrastructure with plenty of rapids. The bonus is they are generally available because freeloaders can’t freeload. I also suspect it will drive EV adoption because no longer are you confined due to literally terrible infrastructure.
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free charging was never going to be sustainable and so being angry about losing that makes no sense to me........ when is the last time you saw a free Petrol station?.

However............ I must admit on the flip side whilst i do not expect free, charging more than the equivalent amount of diesel at a motorway service station does gall me somewhat...... and that is me only needing to use them single digit times a year. If i was going to be semi reliant on them i would bin off the EV. I wouldnt want to but its just not sustainable for regular use.... even more so when we start paying car tax and if/when they bring in charging per mile driving (if they do that they better do it for all cars and not just EVs!!!)

80p+ a kwh is insane, that must be double the cost of running an equivalent "efficient" diesel/petrol mild hybrid. Currently tesla owners are not so bad off on that front.
 
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The public rapids we used on the way to/from Wales were 79p/kw. At 3.6mi/kw that's ~21p/mile which is the equivalent of ~30mpg diesel or ~28mpg petrol. Fine if you're in a big powerful car, but not really what you expect from a medium sized family hatchback!

Interestingly, those chargers no longer show on any of the charging maps :confused:
 
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Haggisman said:
The public rapids we used on the way to/from Wales were 79p/kw. At 3.6mi/kw that's ~21p/mile which is the equivalent of ~30mpg diesel or ~28mpg petrol. Fine if you're in a big powerful car, but not really what you expect from a medium sized family hatchback!

Interestingly, those chargers no longer show on any of the charging maps :confused:
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realistically on long journeys with mostly motorway in i tend to be 2.9 - 3.0 miles per kw which makes the maths even worse! for me its ok though as i just take the odd rip off rapid charge as a rare necessity, like when i used to have to change the oil on my old performance(ish) cars..
 
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that's the FUD -

the ref'd ev warranty company https://altelium.com/solutions-with-battery-testing/ some web links suggest they will do phevs
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Haggisman said:
The public rapids we used on the way to/from Wales were 79p/kw. At 3.6mi/kw that's ~21p/mile which is the equivalent of ~30mpg diesel or ~28mpg petrol. Fine if you're in a big powerful car, but not really what you expect from a medium sized family hatchback!

Interestingly, those chargers no longer show on any of the charging maps :confused:
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Charge at Tesla, I would say. 51p peak or 43p off peak without membership.

If you charge battery full twice in one trip then you are better off with a one off membership £8.99 as it will lower the rate to 41p/35p

Using the Tesla chargers is exactly what I did on our recent south wales trip.
 
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Me and the wife are going out soon to look at various EVs.
We have £15,000 to spend and the battery has got to do over 200 miles in the best conditions.
Our current car is a Ford B-Max so don't want to go much bigger.

We are going to look at:
VW ID3
Hyundai Kona
MG MG4
Nissan Leaf
Renault ZOE
KIA Soul

Anything else I should put on that list or shouldn't?
 
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bigmike20vt said:
However............ I must admit on the flip side whilst i do not expect free, charging more than the equivalent amount of diesel at a motorway service station does gall me somewhat...... and that is me only needing to use them single digit times a year. If i was going to be semi reliant on them i would bin off the EV. I wouldnt want to but its just not sustainable for regular use.... even more so when we start paying car tax and if/when they bring in charging per mile driving (if they do that they better do it for all cars and not just EVs!!!)

80p+ a kwh is insane, that must be double the cost of running an equivalent "efficient" diesel/petrol mild hybrid. Currently tesla owners are not so bad off on that front.
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I think that may be part of the reason that, for this next round of cars at least, the company isn't opting to go EV. We'd be using rapid chargers multiple times a week and the disparity of fuel costs between home and motorway being 11 times higher makes expenses a bit of a PITA. There are solutions out there but none are as simple as a rate based roughly on what it actually costs for every mile you drive, not just the ones within battery range of your own home.

Still, we are going PHEV this time. So it looks like I'll be lugging an extra 300kg of batteries, 7kW charger, motor, inverters etc. around and if I ensure I charge it completely before setting off it might only be slightly less economical than my current car. Isn't progress great :D Still, 8% BIK is the figure that counts. I'm half tempted to not bother charging it at all, pay private mileage back at 15p/mile and just pocket the BIK saving while doing low 30's mpg. Ludicrously I'd still be about a grand better off per year :eek:
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
We've been to look at six different EVs and fell in love with the Kona with Nissan Leaf second. Still got the Niro to look at.
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Kona is best value in this sector IMO. I wanted one but ended up with the Pug. As soon as the Pug lease is up I will get the Kona. Leaf doesn't come anywhere near due to range limitations (in this sector).

Niro looks nice and probably on par to Kona. Would come down to price.
 
niro and kona are on the same platform, v similar cars but the Eniro is slightly larger/more practical where as the kona is slightly more efficient and , (subjective) assuming the old shape eniro, i would say the kona is slightly the better looking car.

(the kona comes in a couple of cracking colours imo, the green/yellow "phlegm" one is my favourite :D
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
We've been to look at six different EVs and fell in love with the Kona with Nissan Leaf second. Still got the Niro to look at.
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Got our Niro last friday, albiet the HEV.


Instantly loved driving it. Even the base "2" spec has a lot of kit and the full EV is supposed to be even better.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Me and the wife are going out soon to look at various EVs.
We have £15,000 to spend and the battery has got to do over 200 miles in the best conditions.
Our current car is a Ford B-Max so don't want to go much bigger.

We are going to look at:
VW ID3
Hyundai Kona
MG MG4
Nissan Leaf
Renault ZOE
KIA Soul

Anything else I should put on that list or shouldn't?
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You got the Ioniq which is a sizeable car that’s sub 10k

If you are looking at Zoe and Leaf maybe also Seat Mii, VW E-up, Skoda Citigo.

All the above cars have good efficiency and can last 200mile range on best condition.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Me and the wife are going out soon to look at various EVs.
We have £15,000 to spend and the battery has got to do over 200 miles in the best conditions.
Our current car is a Ford B-Max so don't want to go much bigger.

We are going to look at:
VW ID3
Hyundai Kona
MG MG4
Nissan Leaf
Renault ZOE
KIA Soul

Anything else I should put on that list or shouldn't?
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The MG4’s are nice (looking at one for my wife) but you will be looking at a long range? So £15k might be a push.

Have you considered paying a little more and getting a Tesla model 3? Mine eats miles for breakfast and the fallback of the supercharger network is amazing.

Also they are very efficient, so savings a quite substantial. I’m over £400 beter off after 3 and a half months of use.

Edit: also if you can wait, the UK ZEV mandate of 22% will start some panic sales at the end of the year. So financing new might be attractive along with further suppression of used prices.
 
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crazyDAJT said:
The MG4’s are nice (looking at one for my wife) but you will be looking at a long range? So £15k might be a push.
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Come back from looking at all these cars and the only one we didn't look at was the MG4 Trophy but there just so happened to be one in our street we never noticed before.
My motto is "If you don't ask you don't get" so I knocked on the door, pointed to my house and asked if he would show me and the wife his car.
It just so happens he's a car salesman for Holdcrofts who deal with new and used cars in Stoke.
Let's say that car has gone straight to the top of our list, yes a bit more expensive but I think well worth it.
The drivers seat could be electrically moved with 6 buttons for the wife, I love the 360 degree parking and the boot can get all my music gear in.
Looking at the list of stuff it can do I'm well impressed.
I asked if he'd got an outside charging point but he still charges with the normal plug.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Come back from looking at all these cars and the only one we didn't look at was the MG4 Trophy but there just so happened to be one in our street we never noticed before.
My motto is "If you don't ask you don't get" so I knocked on the door, pointed to my house and asked if he would show me and the wife his car.
It just so happens he's a car salesman for Holdcrofts who deal with new and used cars in Stoke.
Let's say that car has gone straight to the top of our list, yes a bit more expensive but I think well worth it.
The drivers seat could be electrically moved with 6 buttons for the wife, I love the 360 degree parking and the boot can get all my music gear in.
Looking at the list of stuff it can do I'm well impressed.
I asked if he'd got an outside charging point but he still charges with the normal plug.
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I Think it’s a great car and I wanted one though work but I drive a very specific 200+ mile round trip for work (every week) where there is no chance to charge and I need to do it all year round. Hence why I settled on the RWD model 3.

Go try the Xpower for giggle!

One tip for buying, you want to try and get a 2023 update (the one with the rear wiper) apparently this fixes a lot of the firmware issues with the infotainment system.
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
Let's say that car has gone straight to the top of our list, yes a bit more expensive but I think well worth it.
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Don't overpay for one. Just under £21k for a brand new pre reg one - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202408203076941?.

They also have a metric crap tonne of stock landed in the UK right now, so you won't be short of options come the end of the month/in to October as you'll never get the best deal in September being new reg month.

How long do you intend to keep the car? Some good PCH deals if you are looking at 3 years, ~£9-10k/£270 per month, nothing up front.
 
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