When are you going fully electric?

bigmike20vt · 10 Jun 2024 at 23:46

pastymuncher said:
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.

I have nothing against the leaf however just do homework on the real world range of what ever car you want

EV database is your friend and gives from what I can tell a pessimistic idea of worst case scenario

in a cold winter it may be touch and go if you can get 125 miles out of a 40kwh one. I think they did a 62 kWh one as well but am guessing not for £9290.

Nissan Leaf

All details and specs of the Nissan Leaf (2022). Compare price, lease, real-world range and consumption of every electric vehicle.

ev-database.org

someone said earlier you can get Kona and eniro for £14k. these will do what you want with ease , if you can't stretch for that right now maybe wait 12 months when you should be able to do that.

it is a horrible feeling not knowing if you will make it to your destination. IME it is better to over spec a bit so you can relax more.... at least for your 1st EV

b0rn2sk8 · 10 Jun 2024 at 23:59

The low range EV database range numbers are very pessimistic. They assume -10c and a constant 70mph.

That said 40kwh leaf isn’t a 200 mile car by any stretch of the imagination.

Nasher · 11 Jun 2024 at 01:42

I'm in Canada at the moment and in this environment you can easily see why EVs aren't a real ICE replacement. Single stretches on road can be well over 1000 miles and brutal winters. Further north some roads aren't even surfaced, good luck finding a place to charge one.

Quite a big portion of the cars are Japanese for a good reason too. Function over fashion.

bigmike20vt · 11 Jun 2024 at 07:11

Nasher said:
I'm in Canada at the moment and in this environment you can easily see why EVs aren't a real ICE replacement. Single stretches on road can be well over 1000 miles and brutal winters. Further north some roads aren't even surfaced, good luck finding a place to charge one.

Quite a big portion of the cars are Japanese for a good reason too. Function over fashion.

so your logic is because there is a real edge case in one area of the world EVs can't replace them anywhere else? (though presumably there are gas stations there to refuel ICE vehicles with under 1000 mile brutal winter range?)

FerretBoy · 11 Jun 2024 at 07:13

Maybe some good ideas from here:

b0rn2sk8 · 11 Jun 2024 at 07:17

How to make a statement about Canada without understanding Canada - Nasher 11/6/24

70% of Canadians live further south of the 49th parallel which represents the majority of the boarder with the US, e.g. they are further south than Seattle.

90% live within 100 miles of the US boarder.

A road being 1000km long makes no odds as to whether you can drive it with an EV or not. Sure there is off grid settlements in the north and they may be last to electrify but effectively no one lives there.

Contrary to popular belief, not a material number of people drive across Canada, north to south or east to west. You can do east to west easily if you really want, the trans Canada highway has been electrified for years.

Sure, up to the north will be more patchy but any settlement with a material amount of people in them are covered.

Simon · 11 Jun 2024 at 08:29

EVs can’t work in the Uk either. That A38 is a pretty long road

b0rn2sk8 · 11 Jun 2024 at 09:07

what about the A1? Heaven forbid you need to drive up there.

bigmike20vt · 11 Jun 2024 at 09:10

b0rn2sk8 said:
what about the A1? Heaven forbid you need to drive up there.

to be honest the state of the road on the estate where i live, its so pothole ridden i will probably need a proper offroad vehicle to get out of my street........... probably caused by all of those heavy EVs.

dlockers · 11 Jun 2024 at 09:33

I am just surprised Nasher has a passport

Jonnycoupe · 11 Jun 2024 at 10:11

Nasher said:
I'm in Canada at the moment and in this environment you can easily see why EVs aren't a real ICE replacement. Single stretches on road can be well over 1000 miles and brutal winters. Further north some roads aren't even surfaced, good luck finding a place to charge one.

Quite a big portion of the cars are Japanese for a good reason too. Function over fashion.

Where do you put fuel in if they are 1000miles long?

dlockers · 11 Jun 2024 at 10:20

Jonnycoupe said:
Where do you put fuel in if they are 1000miles long?

In the fuel tank duhh

Jonnycoupe · 11 Jun 2024 at 10:22

m4rmite · 11 Jun 2024 at 11:38

Jonnycoupe said:
Where do you put fuel in if they are 1000miles long?

28 Jerry cans on the roof

Didn't you know ice drivers don't ever have to stop to refuel.

Also the longest road in Canada is over 4700miles long, perfectly drivable in 1 go in a petrol car

Greebo · 11 Jun 2024 at 11:58

Jonnycoupe said:
They have glow in the dark grilles on BMW!

Not only do they glow but you get a choice of welcome light animations too!

pastymuncher · 11 Jun 2024 at 14:09

Went into town today to see what cars were available and hardly any full EV's but plenty of hybrids. As I fdound out four years ago when I last looked at cars they are very overpriced up here and it's gotten much worse since then. On average it would seem that there is a £3-4k premium over buying from England. One of the sales reps that jumped on me as soon as I walked into the forecourt tried explaining that it's to do with less competition up here but how can they say that when Inverness has a road nicknamed the motor mile as it has nothing but door to door dealerships down the whole road? It looks like I will be buying from England.

Back to EV's. How do I go about getting a home charging point installed? Who are the best companies? What sort of charger should I be looking at and are there any government grants to assist with the cost? I am with Octopus for my energy if that helps.

Minstadave · 11 Jun 2024 at 14:11

pastymuncher said:
Went into town today to see what cars were available and hardly any full EV's but plenty of hybrids. As I fdound out four years ago when I last looked at cars they are very overpriced up here and it's gotten much worse since then. On average it would seem that there is a £3-4k premium over buying from England. One of the sales reps that jumped on me as soon as I walked into the forecourt tried explaining that it's to do with less competition up here but how can they say that when Inverness has a road nicknamed the motor mile as it has nothing but door to door dealerships down the whole road? It looks like I will be buying from England.

Back to EV's. How do I go about getting a home charging point installed? Who are the best companies? What sort of charger should I be looking at and are there any government grants to assist with the cost? I am with Octopus for my energy if that helps.

Octopus offer installs, about £900 iirc. Not sure but I think subsidies have stopped for home chargers.

Get an EV charger with Octopus Energy

Get an EV charger with Octopus

octopus.energy

I believe Ohme are what Octopus offer, they're decent and support Octopus Intelligent Go which has massively cut my charging cost.

You'll likely want a tethered charger so your cable won't get nicked and it's less hassle.

b0rn2sk8 · 11 Jun 2024 at 14:13

You can get Octopus to do it, that will be easy. Any electrician can do it though, there is a form they need to fill in before they do it though.

Pricing is so so really most specialist installers charge a similar standard price for a basic install.

there may be grants specific to Scotland but all UK government grants for private buyers stopped awhile ago, there may be some for business and landlords still.

bigmike20vt · 11 Jun 2024 at 14:21

pastymuncher said:
Went into town today to see what cars were available and hardly any full EV's but plenty of hybrids. As I fdound out four years ago when I last looked at cars they are very overpriced up here and it's gotten much worse since then. On average it would seem that there is a £3-4k premium over buying from England. One of the sales reps that jumped on me as soon as I walked into the forecourt tried explaining that it's to do with less competition up here but how can they say that when Inverness has a road nicknamed the motor mile as it has nothing but door to door dealerships down the whole road? It looks like I will be buying from England.

Back to EV's. How do I go about getting a home charging point installed? Who are the best companies? What sort of charger should I be looking at and are there any government grants to assist with the cost? I am with Octopus for my energy if that helps.

bear in mind some EV car purchases - even 2nd hand - may come with a charge point thrown in with a purchase. I know my 2nd hand ipace would have come with one had i bought from marshals jaguar and my brother in laws audi hybrid also came with one.

dlockers · 11 Jun 2024 at 14:36

I was having a look at the Arval portal earlier - I am still a year off renewal, but I was surprised to see how inexpensive some decent EVs are.

For example - I currently pay £558 before tax for the PUG. I can see a Kona Advance (320 range version) with comfort pack for £501. A BYD Dolphin (vom in mouth) is only £448/mo. This presents some interesting ideas as my plan originally was to bin the EV and get an Alphard --- but at such low cost, considering she is a new driver and this scheme includes insurance, I might be mad to even attempt it...