Electric Vehicles (or EV's) - We'd love to know what you think!

The first all electric car to be built in the UK was back in 2013, but recently, Electric Vehicles (EV’s) have been a hot topic.



In the Queen's Speech yesterday, her Majesty announced that mandatory charging points will be at motorway services and full stations to encourage the use of electric vehicles, but do you think this is a good idea?



Do you have an EV? If you do, comment below to tell us about it, why did you buy it? How do you find it day to day, any issues you've come up against? If you don't have one, what would prompt you to purchase an EV? What do you see the benefits are?



Get posting your thoughts and if you have an EV why not share a picture as part of your comment!

Funnily enough I worked for a company that made Electric vehicles from 1996-99. It was based near Royston, Herts, and I remembering us testing an electric-bus chassis and an electric LDV van conversion. So 2013 is a bit late! Even then I do not think we were the first!



Personally I would love to have an EV, but I live in a mid-terrace house with only on-street parking. There are no lamp-posts as the pavement Is too narrow for them. I could not run a lead across the pavement as it would be a trip-hazard for the passing public.

Until someone comes up with a charging solution that gets round this sort of problem I don't think EVs are ever going to really take off!



I suppose I could go the hybrid route, but what is the point? The fundamental rules of physics mean that you cannot get more energy out of a gallon of petrol by converting it into electricity before using it to power your vehicle, so you are still going to be producing as much pollution, if not more due to the inbuilt inefficiencies of the conversion and storage system. At least power stations can have proper pollution-capturing built into them!



At the moment the only enviroment-friendly vehicle solution I have is a bicycle, which as a country-dweller is a non-starter. So I'll just have to stick with my diesel-car which I bought when the government were saying that diesel cars were better for the environment than petrol ones.

Hi Darren,



Financial saving is not the real point of an EV - if you are still burning a fossil fuel you are both burning a valuable finite resource and polluting the planet.

There are many Green ways of making electricity, so far no Green ways of making petrol/diesel!

We have a great electric car. We love it. We charge at home over night and it gets us around no problem.



On a long journey it's really comfortable and you just don't get the vibration like you would in a petrol or diesel car

The only downside is that the charging points at the service stations need to get their act together. Often the charging points don't

Work. You can be charged and no electricity given. We notice that Tesla are going big time and there will be lots available for that make of car. We don't have one we have a different make and I would be unhappy if this is not sorted soon. It is important that the rapid chargers are available working fully and more of them. We have been to a charge point and it has been full as demand is outstripping supply. So please more working charging points needed.

Hi there,

I do agree. There are too many charging companies offering too many poor charging systems and too few points, south of Bath and Bristol there very few.



Hopefully there will be rapid mergers and standardisation of offerings by the best. For me Pod Point offer just what I need and I hope and expect they will still be standing after the possible coming shake out. I agree with everything you say about the pleasure EVs are to drive. Having had one for a year I will never go back.

I have had a Renault ZOE for almost 4 years. There were a few niggly problems early on, but I'm happy with it now. It ticks all the boxes for local journeys (we have a petrol car for longer ones). I intend to keep it for a few more years, or least until there's an EV that provides a significant improvement at a price that I can afford.



I have solar PV and hot water. At some point I should upgrade the solar panels and inverter as new versions produce about twice the power for the same roof space.



I'm in the process of switching to OVO and I've only just heard about EV Everywhere, so I'd like to be on that tariff, but it seems it's not easy to change during the switching process, which means I'll have to wait until existing customers are allowed to join.



Hey Andy,



We'll be rolling this offer out to existing customers soon - but we're still making the final tweaks to our systems before we can make this possible.



Thanks,

Emily

Hi there,

I do agree. There are too many charging companies offering too many poor charging systems and too few points, south of Bath and Bristol there very few.



Hopefully there will be rapid mergers and standardisation of offerings by the best. For me Pod Point offer just what I need and I hope and expect they will still be standing after the possible coming shake out. I agree with everything you say about the pleasure EVs are to drive. Having had one for a year I will never go back.

I have been a driver of a Plug in Hybrid (The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV) for nearly 3 years. It has an electric only range of around 30 miles but that does most of my day-to-day needs. For my longer journeys no electric only has the range so I would need petrol or a hybrid anyway.

my savings have been enormous.

We've had a Leaf for about three years, and love it. Having said that, didn't love it so much last week when we had to get it towed because the brake was stuck on, or the day after we got it back when the brake wouldn't engage at all - apparently brake calipers rarely ever need replacing, but a few hundred pounds later we found out ours definitely did. Ouch.

Biggest issue we have is available chargers - we have a 3 pin lead, and while that used to be the only charging point available, as and when they break down they seem to all be being replaced with the newer ones, which we then can't use 😠

We're okay at home - have off road parking so got a charger on the front of the house, and solar panels so when it's a bright sunshiny day we make a point of plugging in the car.

Does anyone else driving an EV get tempted to frighten the life out of oblivious shoppers in supermarket car parks who assume they don't need to look over their shoulder before crossing the road (or just pushing their trolley in the road) because of course they would hear if there was a car coming...?:D

Hi Everyone... I have owned a 3 year old Nissan Leaf with 32k miles for 6 months now and love it. All my experiences are based on Leaf ownership. It replaces a 10 year old 2 litre diesel Peugeot. Only reason I changed was cost, I do around 18000 miles the Peugeot costs 14p a mile, the leaf between 2p to 3p per mile, these costs are just for the diesel/electric. Only negative cost was the insurance being 25% more expensive. The plus points far outweigh negative, Zero car tax, unexpected plus was how great the Leaf is to drive, its faster, so smooth and quiet, just a very nice place to be. I have the Tekna that comes with all the bells and whistles, which I highly recommend. I have now done 9k miles and no problems with the Leaf whatsoever. The vast majority of my miles are journeys of up to 40 miles. I live near Milton Keynes which has lots of EV points. When going further afield routes need planning using the Apps or the web. The polar plus and Zap map apps in my view are essential for using the charging network. Going further afield does take planning, and do not allow the car to get low on charge. They cannot be towed so breakdown cover is essential ( I have mine with my bank account) only used it once, and now do not allow car to get too low on charge. Other variable is the charge is used more quickly in cold conditions, this is what caught me out. I now know where all the chargers are on all my regular journeys, so range problems have all but disappeared. I do not anticipate getting anything other than an EV for our every day transport. Of course the new vehicles being launched make EV's practical for long journeys but the cost for me outweighs this as an option.



I also have an executive diesel which is used for long journeys, however it is used so infrequently last time I used it, battery was flat.



The bottom line is that I was spending about £400 on diesel a month I now spend £50 on diesel and about £50 on electricity and charging. Incidentally most Polar charge points are either free (rare in my area) or cost about 9p + VAT a kilowatt, one kilowatt gives about 4 miles range. However, some points on the Polar network charge very much more, for example our local council (Aylesbury) have a number of fast chargers outside their centrally located building, which are available via the Polar network, but cost a staggering £8 + vat every time you use them (or did when I last used them... never again). The Polar plus App tells you how much a charge will cost. The Zap Map App, doesn't but does give all charging networks locations. This also is more comprehensive than the Polar App. e.g. When you access it, automatically zooms in to where you are, also it is integrated with Google maps, so you just click on the location to get directions to the charge point.



Other facts you should be aware of is that there are basically 3 grades of charging point. 3Kw, 7Kw and Fast 32kw. As I said earlier, 1 Kw gives 4 miles, my car has a 24kw battery, as it is 3 years old, battery has degraded and gives a range now of a maximum 80 miles. I now frequently use the fast charging points for 10 minute charges which give me around 6 Kw just to extend my range, particularly in our cold weather. I have a 7Kw charger installed at my home and my office, so can recharge from flat in about 3 hours. I also have economy 7 electricity meter at home, so overnight charges only cost around 7p a Kw.



I welcome any questions.

The 2018 Nissan Leaf will do 200@ miles. They quote 235 but in real terms ...next year theres a bigger battery option i reckon will add a 100 miles to that.

I have a twin engine Volvo XC90 which gets me to office/airport and return on single charge as well as most weekend trips - given the increase in EV is there’s not even more of an owner proposition that OVO could offer to stand out from competition?