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

We have a BMW i3 Rex. We bought the Rex due to range anxiety, my husband was doing around 30k miles a year for work (spread across 2 cars). We have solar panels, so going EV made sense. In fact he hardly used the Rex in all the 18k miles he's run up on the EV (Rex is a range extender for those who don't know the i3, basically its a small 600cc petrol engine that acts as an electricity generator, to maintain battery level if it gets low and you aren't able to charge). We are extremely happy solar panel and EV owners.

Drive a Tesla Model S 75, got through lease at work

Went electric as technology is clearly streets ahead of ICE (internal combustion engine) both in terms of power train and onboard software.

And goes like a rocket.

I read in the news the other week that by 2035 all new cars sold in Europe could be electric!!

That's an exciting fact, and one that's not too far away!

Anyone thinking about getting an EV? I'm definitely interested more and more as time goes by, definitely seeing more charging points popping up around the country (there's even one at my local train station car park now!)

Keep sharing your thoughts on this, its a subject that's definitely gaining more momentum!

Darran


Research published this week, after the SMMT announced a further decline in diesel sales,

Official figures from the SMMT revealed that sales of diesel cars dropped by 25.6% in January.


Sewells Research & Insight’s twice-yearly Market Barometer has found that 71% of fleets currently operate diesel cars, but only 59% expect their replacement cars to be fuelled by diesel.

Petrol cars will take up most of the slack in the short-term, although by far the most dynamic growth will be in sales of hybrid and electric cars.

The Market Barometer suggests that as many as 30% of fleets expect to run hybrid cars within the next 12 months, and a further 7% will have pure electric cars on their books by the end of the year.

This represents a dramatic increase from the 12% of fleets that currently have at least one hybrid car, and the 3% of fleets which have a battery-powered car.

Corporate fleets (employing 250+ people) are leading the way towards a lower emission future, with 47% expecting to replace some of their cars with hybrids this year, and 16% preparing to run electric cars.

Essential vehicle users, such as utility companies, transport firms, and construction businesses are at the forefront of the move to cleaner emission vehicles, according to Sewells.

I think that company car users will quickly realise that potential tax saving amounting to many hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds will result from the lower BIK charges if an electric car is specified and fleet managers will quickly realise that the TCO( total cost of ownership) of those vehicles will save enormous sums. Much longer service interval, compared to ICEs, reduced cost of replacement parts like brake pads, discs, oil and of course the biggie, fuel.
On top of that their carbon emissions will be so much less.
What’s not to like, even if at the moment the capital cost of the car may be higher 🙂

I recently had a test drive of a Tesla model S but decided that the £76K for the model with extras was out of my budget!

Test drove a 2018 Nissan Leaf Tekna a few Weeks ago and was sold! Ordered through Carwow.co.uk and expecting delivery at the end of April at nearly one third the price of the Tesla.

The Leaf will replace my dirty diesel and save me about £1,000 a year on diesel. Most charging will be done at home with the occasional trip to see the grandchildren in Plymouth cafefully planned around charging points.

I will also make use of the free chargers on local supermarkets as much as possible when shopping although the charge points at our local ASDA are always "ICED" EV slang for obstructed by an internal combustion engined car parked in the space.

Having solar panels means I'll be able to charge the car at home using my free 7kWh charger kindly provided By Nissan with a bit of help from the Government. Nissan also give £1,000 deposit contribution and of course the government kindly donate £4,500!

Congratulations :)
I have a Mercedes C350e and when it’s warranty runs out in October of this year I was hoping to buy a BEV. I would also buy the Leaf but because so many other models will be released in the next twelve months I am now torn between the Leaf or perhaps keep the Mercedes for a few extra months.

Great conversation going on here, love it! Making me even more tempted to look at an EV when our family wagon is due for replacement....!!

@Dan W and @aquafambublish, do you still have your EV's? How are you getting on with them??

I've not driven a Tesla, but have ridden in one! In Amsterdam, there is a whole taxi fleet of them, its very cool! I have to say I'm with @PeterR1947 that a Tesla is a little out of my price range, so keen to here what other models people have test driven or owned and what they thought of them?

Darran

I finally took delivery of my Renault Zoe after a six month wait. I love it.

The only snag was with the home charger. It was installed several months ago and in the meantime the junction box had filled up with water so, oddly, it didn't work properly. We had to wait for a few days for Chargemaster to come out and repair which gave us plenty of time to get to know the local public chargers.

The most interesting charger we've found so far was in Talbot Rd car park in Blackpool. As you might guess in the slot machine capital of the country, it is coin operated. No fancy apps, just drop a £1 coin in the slot and charge for two hours at 22kW.

I finally took delivery of my Renault Zoe after a six month wait. I love it.

The only snag was with the home charger. It was installed several months ago and in the meantime the junction box had filled up with water so, oddly, it didn't work properly. We had to wait for a few days for Chargemaster to come out and repair which gave us plenty of time to get to know the local public chargers.

The most interesting charger we've found so far was in Talbot Rd car park in Blackpool. As you might guess in the slot machine capital of the country, it is coin operated. No fancy apps, just drop a £1 coin in the slot and charge for two hours at 22kW.

How much of a charge in % is £1 ?
Presumably you can get a free charge at Sutton’s dealership.

The Zoe has a 40kWh battery - it was freezing cold so it only went from 25% to about 80% in two hours.