When are you going fully electric?

[On Holiday]

Coming up to a month / 1200 miles in a Volvo EX30 AWD now. Really pleased with it, surprisingly fun and capable too, not just point and squirt like I thought it might have been.

It was a very weird shortlist as I was looking at BMW M4's at the same time but ultimately it came down to this:
- Full of modern tech with a good degree of driving assist.
- Fast (428bhp-ish albeit ~1900kg, 0-60 in 3.4).
- New (warrantied) with not much to go wrong in terms of mechanical gear that typically does with fast cars.
- Not really favourable by tea-leaves.

I can't think of any ICE that meet that ticks those boxes with a £40,000 price-tag.

Fuel economy has never bothered me for any cars (except one that had an always-on supercharger) but free charging at work is a bonus. I've had to use a couple of super-fast chargers on a long road-trip which worked out to be the same as a car with 40mpg - not the end of the world.

Downsides?
Only thing I'd change is that my variant came with 20" wheels, I'd rather have 18" to save a couple hundred each time a pair of tyres need replacing

 

[Firegod]

Why is he changing his car? £5k burning a hole?

Hey, nah just curious he's happy to stick with the volvo if nothing newer grabs his attention. The 5k was just equity from the volvo.

 

[Journey]

Downsides?
Only thing I'd change is that my variant came with 20" wheels, I'd rather have 18" to save a couple hundred each time a pair of tyres need replacing

It's also add a big chunk to your range as well, which is never a bad thing.

 

[Penfold101]

It's also add a big chunk to your range as well, which is never a bad thing.

Only thing I'd change is that my variant came with 20" wheels, I'd rather have 18" to save a couple hundred each time a pair of tyres need replacing

Same with my Polestar - came with 20” but the smallest option is still 19”. It’s a fairly harsh ride…

 

[Journey]

Same with my Polestar - came with 20” but the smallest option is still 19”. It’s a fairly harsh ride…

I want an Ioniq 6, but the only option in the UK is the 20" wheels, and dropping to the 18" wheels increases the efficiency massively, to the tune of around 50 miles in the RWD version. The cost to change to 18's just isn't worth it unfortunately, they also only offer the 77kWh battery here in the UK, which is partly needed due to those darn 20" wheels!

 

[Penfold101]

I want an Ioniq 6, but the only option in the UK is the 20" wheels, and dropping to the 18" wheels increases the efficiency massively, to the tune of around 50 miles in the RWD version. The cost to change to 18's just isn't worth it unfortunately, they also only offer the 77kWh battery here in the UK, which is partly needed due to those darn 20" wheels!

I’ve looked at finding a set of 19” on eBay but it’s still too scarce for regular second hand stuff, and the tyre cost really isn’t that different at the end of the day. It’s just too much hassle to change them, plus it’s my own fault for not looking at the photos close enough and getting confused between all the vehicles I was looking at as I swear it had 19’s on the website

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Pah, 22” is where it is at

 

[Kenai]

Seen Joe Achilles jumping on the FUD bandwagon this morning on Instagram pretending a 23kWh charge cost him £45 because he doesn't understand the concept of Pre-authorisation on card payments

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Indeed. My local Tesco is doing same with pay at pump and people are miffed not understanding what’s happened.

 

[Firegod]

Had a look at EQB today. Not sure I like it. No EQA 350 in to drive. Took out the EQC400. Nice motor.

 

[bigmike20vt]

am at a holiday park at Hunstanton. on the bright side it has EV charging bays... and they are not under too much pressure.
unfortunately tossers kept ICEing them and the staff don't stop it. they should clamp them and charge £100 a day to free them

oh well. overnight granny cable through the van window it is then

(and if we get moaned at I will explain the ev bays have petrol and diesel cars blocking the chargers

 

[Tinders]

It’s all about the clicks with the YT journo’s. Harry Metcalfe has disappointed me the most in this regard.

 

[Tinders]

Had a look at EQB today. Not sure I like it. No EQA 350 in to drive. Took out the EQC400. Nice motor.

EQB is a decent package, I looked at the 350 premium plus, as they were daft cheap on our company car scheme. Perfect for the family duties, it’s just a bit awkward looking imo. Range is poor on them aswell. I thought the Enyaq sport line 85 was a better car tbh.

 

[Haggisman]

I like the idea of low maintenance, and especially charge at home, etc.
Also, that new toy feel!

Work do a salary sacrifice on used lease cars... But was still too expensive to justify. They obviously know you're saving 40pc so bump up the monthly cost. Looked like you barely saved anything compared to the best wider market deals.

Yeah, our SS provider sent an email out last week with "great deals" on used EVs.

Even at 40%, the eNiro "deal" was more expensive than I'm paying privately for mine (and only just on par including the maintenance)

Low maintenance happens with any new car. Why is an Ev magic low maintainence. You work at home. Get something fun, you aren’t commuting 50miles a day !

No oil or filters to change, brake last longer, less mechanical stuff to go wrong in general. Tires may need changing slightly more often, but that depends how you drive.

 

[Penfold101]

No oil or filters to change, brake last longer, less mechanical stuff to go wrong in general. Tires may need changing slightly more often, but that depends how you drive.

I suspect my brakes will outlast the car at the rate I’m using them

 

[sandys]

Controversial but towing a box around is just wasteful - use accommodation already at your destitution!
My guess - eventually the personal use Caravan business will die out

Sure - I'm referring to the people who specifically tow caravans and use this as a reason (excuse) to not move to cleaner transport.
Could even be the same people complaining about the weight of EV's when there are towing 1-2 tons of caravan around

I tow our caravan with our Model Y.

Could it be easier? Yes, is it particularly difficult? No. Is the infrastructure actually a problem? No.

Most caravaners are not doing 300 miles each time they go out. Most are doing under 100 if it’s a week or less. You can do 100 miles even the 60kwh Model Y with a standard caravan on the back.

What's the point in spending all that money, time and effort on a caravan if you're only going to go just down the road for a week?

I really don’t understand this either. What’s wrong with just turning up and living in equal conditions to your house. Don’t understand why you want to drag some piece of wood to then live less comfortably than at home. People I know do it because ‘the kids enjoy it’.

Every ones opinions are coloured by what there life experiences and often other peoples use cases seem irrational to them, that's fair enough, much like buying an EV to me as a main car when it lacks this flexibility, there's a cost saving and comfort element to 'vans and it opens up options.

We got a van getting fed up spending thousands on vacations in school holidays ( we actually started camping but wanted more comforts), a van is a big out lay but your school holiday breaks end up costing half a grand rather than multiples of grands, depreciation curve of vans is pretty much flat if you've bought a good used one, you can sell it in a decade for much the same.

For example, we let the kids stay in the south of France in the van for summer vacation, 6 wks, £700, bargain, no much local accommodation we could rent for that. you also have everything in these little mobile boxes, entertainment, bikes, boats, toys very handy for kids, sure I can understand many would rather pay an extra grand a week and stay in and airbnb/hotel etc and we still do that too, having a van didn't stop that, it just meant I could take many more holidays a year versus a couple of big ones.

Besides, also tow other things besides van.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Where do you get free ‘vans from?

 

[sandys]

Where do you get free ‘vans from?

You don't but as mentioned above the family holidays become much cheaper you can recoup the cost very quickly, then when you sell the van the depreciation is such that you get a lot back, ours was about £300/yr in just the van value over a decade, if I included how much we were saving over a typical school holiday vacation you could consider it a massive growth investment. Man maths FTW

 

[Firegod]

EQB is a decent package, I looked at the 350 premium plus, as they were daft cheap on our company car scheme. Perfect for the family duties, it’s just a bit awkward looking imo. Range is poor on them aswell. I thought the Enyaq sport line 85 was a better car tbh.

Yeah probably an alright motor for family stuff around the doors. It just didn't do it for me. I also didn't get on with the seats. The EQC seats were much nicer. I might check out some of the Skoda stuff.

 

[sandys]

I’ve looked at finding a set of 19” on eBay but it’s still too scarce for regular second hand stuff, and the tyre cost really isn’t that different at the end of the day. It’s just too much hassle to change them, plus it’s my own fault for not looking at the photos close enough and getting confused between all the vehicles I was looking at as I swear it had 19’s on the website

I just bought a set of aftermarket alloys because factory stuff was a bit pricey and I wasn't a fan of them, just do that when you next need a set, my insurance actually went down too, I guess because it is less desirable then when the car was on 22s. but yup tyre prices between 20 and 22 were negligible in my case.