When are you going fully electric?

Our V2H system seems to be working really well. So far we've halved our electricity cost to about £80 a month purely by charging overnight and letting the car power the house the rest of the time. Taking the car out for a drive dents that figure but we can charge it about 50% in the 4-hour slot overnight, 50% charge is good for about 70 miles I think.

In May the car took in 328.26 kWh and gave the house back 215.54 kWh.
 
nice.... My wife would hate me with that system. As it is i give her the evil eye if she puts the dishwasher or tumble drier on in the day.... .with the car providing power to the home i would likely be asking her if she *really* needs the car after all, or could she not walk / cycle or not bother :D
 
Looks like leadtimes are significantly better than before, got an email earlier this morning and my ID7 is being built at the end of this month and it will be at the dealer in August. Sadly my current car lease doesnt finish till end of Nov, so unless work and the lease co figure something out and let me have the new car, it will be sitting in a dealer compound for a few months :(

Also noticed a few more Tesla SC's are open to non Tesla, visited a customer in Havant this morning, and theres a SC right outside and it had non Tesla's charging, this will make my life so much easier. It just leaves my visits to SW scotland to be tricky charging wise :p

Its all starting to fall into place!
 
TheVoice said:
They haven't confirmed any plans either way:
www.carmagazine.co.uk

Seat and Cupra’s future: ‘it has always been clear’

CEO of Seat S.A. Wayne Griffiths hits back at speculation about the future of Seat brand
www.carmagazine.co.uk

They're still getting new models/facelifts for the timebeing in any case.
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I just wished they put more focus on the service their dealership network are giving. I don't need my dealership to look like a Starbucks or sell me a table lamp. I do need it to repair my car in less than two weeks and have courtesy cars available without pre-booking 6 weeks in advance.

Sorry, way OT as my one is powered by the devils fuel :p

Back on topic, sort of... am I going out of my way to look for EVs or am I actually seeing way more on the roads than the sales figures would lead you to believe? Which leads me on to my second rhetorical question... are EVs actually doing a lions share of the middle to upper mileage driving now? Or in other words, I'm seeing more as a proportion of cars on the roads because they spend more time actually driving on the road?

Tinders said:
Looks like leadtimes are significantly better than before, got an email earlier this morning and my ID7 is being built at the end of this month and it will be at the dealer in August. Sadly my current car lease doesnt finish till end of Nov, so unless work and the lease co figure something out and let me have the new car, it will be sitting in a dealer compound for a few months :(

Also noticed a few more Tesla SC's are open to non Tesla, visited a customer in Havant this morning, and theres a SC right outside and it had non Tesla's charging, this will make my life so much easier. It just leaves my visits to SW scotland to be tricky charging wise :p

Its all starting to fall into place!
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Is this a fastback or tourer? I love the look of the Tourer although the boot is a touch on the small side for my needs EDIT - scrap that, I was reading the capacity for the fastback, the tourer would be perfect. Zero chance of me getting one as a company car any time soon though!
 
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i think a lot depends on where you live.

In and around Cambridge I see a lot of EVs, when i go home to visit my folks (village in north west England near chester) I see some EVs but fewer.

and when i went to Wales for a break, i saw very few of them indeed.
 
bigmike20vt said:
i think a lot depends on where you live.

In and around Cambridge I see a lot of EVs, when i go home to visit my folks (village in north west England near chester) I see some EVs but fewer.

and when i went to Wales for a break, i saw very few of them indeed.
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This is most likely it. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time on the A14 than I do in my own home :p

Norwich seems to have a fair percentage of EVs on the road too :cool:
 
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lordrobs said:
I just wished they put more focus on the service their dealership network are giving. I don't need my dealership to look like a Starbucks or sell me a table lamp. I do need it to repair my car in less than two weeks and have courtesy cars available without pre-booking 6 weeks in advance.

Sorry, way OT as my one is powered by the devils fuel :p

Back on topic, sort of... am I going out of my way to look for EVs or am I actually seeing way more on the roads than the sales figures would lead you to believe? Which leads me on to my second rhetorical question... are EVs actually doing a lions share of the middle to upper mileage driving now? Or in other words, I'm seeing more as a proportion of cars on the roads because they spend more time actually driving on the road?


Is this a fastback or tourer? I love the look of the Tourer although the boot is a touch on the small side for my needs EDIT - scrap that, I was reading the capacity for the fastback, the tourer would be perfect. Zero chance of me getting one as a company car any time soon though!
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I see loads out and about and all types of drivers aswell.

Ive ordered the fastback, its a huge car as it is, so the extra space offered by the tourer wouldnt be of benefit. Current 330e is a saloon and has a daft small boot, i have use the wifes yaris for tip runs as its got more space!

The ID7, along with Merc EQA/B had excellent deals on them when i ordered my car, so i would ignore the list prices :p
 
bigmike20vt said:
I do think our media have over egged EV fires and the cobalt problem (why is the Express or the sun not raging at cobalt in catalytic converters or oil refining) however LFP batteries also may help put the minds at rest of punters who are worried about their car spontaneously combusting or supporting artisanal cobalt mining (regardless of whether or not these are genuine concerns - i am no expert i will be the 1st to admit but i thought most car manufacturers sourced their cobalt ethically..... perhaps i am niave........... but i didnt worry about blood diamonds when i got my wife her engagement ring either..
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I watched Soccer Aid last night and those storys of the kids in factories making clothes since they were 6 have nothing to do with cars, shame they choose narratives to suit the story they want for maximum clicks.
 
Right then, where to start. I have a Ford B-Max Zetec Navigator with the 125bhp version of the 1.0 Ecoboost engine. I love the car as it's perfect for me and I love the engine as well which has proven economical and has the grunt when needed. However, I am sure you all know about the wet belt fiasco and the huge cost of having the belt changed at 10 years which would be 2027 for our car. There is nothing wrong with my engine at all, at the moment anyway, but hearing of £1500+ bills for the 10 year belt change started me thinking. On Friday I sent emails off to our local Ford dealership where I always get the car serviced as well as to our Housing Association regarding their position on getting EV home charging points fitted. The Housing Association got back to me first and although permission needs to be applied for it's just for a paper trail and permission would be granted. I then got a email back from Parks Ford of Elgin with a quote for the 10 year belt change and they quoted a ridiculous £3050.72. By then the car won't even be worth that!! So now it's time to look for a new car while the B-Max is still worth something. With what the Housing Association said I am leaning towards a EV as it would be perfect for our usage. However, I have bugger all knowledge about EV's so here are a couple of very noobish questions.

1. When charging is it safe to do so when it's raining? Told you I had noobish questions but water and electricity equals death!!
2. When using a public charging point or home point for that matter is it possible for someone to "steal" your charge? What I mean is if you leave it charging and walk off for a tea or something could someone unplug the charger from your car and plug it into theirs then plug it back into yours so you end up paying for their charge. Scumbags steal petrol and diesel from cars all the time these days so can they do the same with charging? Hopefully when it was unplugged from the car it would have to be signed in again before carrying on charging but I have no idea on how chargers work.

Now the biggie, with £11-12k available what should I be looking at that has 5 doors and a range of around 200 miles? Nothing French or Vauxhall. Nothing sporty with a rock hard ride and low seating position. I suffer from chronic pain in my spine plus am waiting for a double knee replacement so a decent seating position is important which is why the B-Max is so perfect for me. I have seen a couple of 2021 Nissan Leaf's that I like the look of but have no idea of how Nissans trim levels stack up. Presuming that the Acenta is the base trim, Tekna top? Not stuck on Nissans though.
 
charging in the rain is fine.
when charging the socket locks to your car, once the connection is broke the car stops charging and would need to reauthorise another charge (so its ok) i believe some cars unlock once fully charged but mine doesnt... but again, even if it did at public charge point you wont be charged for someone else.
your chargepoint.... my zappi - i cant comment on others - can either be free for all, anyone can plug in, or you can put a pin on the chargepoint so it wont charge without it. it would be pretty obvious if someone was charging on my drive, however if worried just put a pin on it.

for the price, and that range, maybe a stretch. 16-18k things get easier, but for 12k... i dunno, the ionic refresh from around 2018 perhaps (I am not certain when the refresh came in) but only 160 mile range iirc. or a 40kwh face lifted leaf? (but again you are not getting 200 miles out of a charge)
 
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Give it another year or so and a 64kwh Hyundai Kona or Kia Nero will be in your price bracket. A decent one can be had for under £14k now on a 70 plate.

They are probably more car than most people would ever need and they have up to 250 miles of real world range.

Leafs are fine but they use a dead end rapid charging standard (Chademo) and not all rapid charging operators are installing chademo chargers. Slower AC chargers are not impacted by this. You can get a chademo to CCS adapter (not cheap, its an active adapter) but there is a workaround.

The other obvious one is a Renault Zoe, small car but it has a big battery. Just make sure you get a 50kwh version with CCS rapid charging. CCS was optional on this car so don’t make a mistake!
 
Zoe is a reasonable size for what it is, good packaging in the Renault, it is directly comparable to a BMAX and the level of comfort in one is great, the suspension is very compliant. I was going to pick one up as a runaround, I was pretty impressed for what you get for 10k

Its range on motorway is about 160, round town 200+

But he did say no French which would rules it out, still worth a look IMO.
 
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lordrobs said:
Norwich seems to have a fair percentage of EVs on the road too :cool:
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You can add another one to the list, took delivery of my model Y the other day.

Loving it so far, although because it is 2nd hand and was purchased from a Volkswagen dealership I am having to wait until the V5 comes through the post before I can "claim" it on the app and do a factory reset etc. Don't feel I'm fully making use of it properly until I've done this. Hoping the V5 turns up soon!
 
Well I plan to keep buying internal combustion engine cars until they are no longer available new from dealerships.

Hopefully BMW / Porsche will keep something available until 2030-2035

I have driven a Tesla model x P100 D and also been a passenger in a Ford Mustang Mac E GT. Yeah they are quick, but they didn’t put a smile on my face. Most of us have hobbies that don’t make financial sense, but it doesn’t matter if you derive enjoyment from it.

I have nothing against electric cars, just a petrolhead through and through. :)
 
I think a Leaf would be ok actually, as long as I can get to Aberdeen and back on a single charge (around 62 miles each way) I should be fine. I saw a lovely gunmetal grey 2021 Leaf N-Connecta for £9290 on autotrader this afternoon. The downside is that it's in Nottingham. I don't mind travelling but that far in a type of car I have never driven and with limited range would make the trip rather anxious. We are going into town tomorrow to see what is available locally but as we found out four years ago cars tend to be overpriced quite a bit up here.
 
Any reputable dealer should be able to arrange for delivery.

That said, I'd just drive it back and get familiar with the rapid charge network which is actually pretty good.

Edit: Yikes, ABRP just loaded and suggests its a 7 hour drive plus 5 charges taking ~3 hours. Delivery sounds like a great option.

EDIT2: an alternative is using a car buying service like eco-cars.net Pretty sure they are set up for the north of Scotland and Orkney etc.
 
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