EV owners: how do you choose an electric vehicle? Where do you look, what do you seek?

One thing that probably also helps is the massively reduced number of moving parts in an EV motor compared to a petrol or diesel engine. EV’s are basically a car wrapped around a giant battery pack and a handful of electric motors after all… Not much to go wrong!

I had no intention of buying an EV!

One day we were doing a Grandchild exchange at Cribbs Causeway and Dad’s delivery was late so we walked round the shopping mall.

Walking past one shop I saw a Tesla and had obviously read about them so decided to go have a seat in a model S.  The salesman arrived and asked if I wanted a test drive, I explained that we lived in Nuneaton and he said there’s a showroom in Solihull and gave me a contact there.

So, test drive booked and happened in Solihull, I WAS SOLD! until it got to the pricing, I decided £72,000 was too expensive for my family car.

I researched what was on the market which, in 2018 was rather limited, anyway, I plumped for the LEAF, logged on to CarWow and got myself a good deal on a 40KWh Tekna from Marshalls in Lincoln.

Having daughters at both ends of the country, Sheffield and Plymouth, I decided a larger battery would be advantageous so in May last year, again through CarWow I upgraded to a 62KWh e+ Tekna.  I looked at the other BEVs on the market but was so sold on the Leaf.

Next step in the journey is the V2G trial with Electric Nation!

Having being an EV driver for a few years now, it was very clear I didn’t want to go back. Having looked at a few options such as the Kona and E-Niro, we were still unable to get one due to production unable to keep up with the demand! With a little one here we needed to get a bigger car, bigger battery would be a massive bonus, but also the cost of running it and if upgrading to a bigger battery is really going to save us money in the long run.  This is why we decided to go with the MG ZS EV

I am a HUGE fan of Fully charged! Been a subscriber for many years and am a big fan of Robert, definitely would be a honor to meet in person if I could.

If it wasn’t for his videos, I wouldn’t know all about the amazing colaboration Ecotricity is doing with GridServe! or the Gridserve charging station in Essex! Couple of years ago I noticed Fully charged had covered the MG ZS EV and so we re watched the video to find for the bang for buck and the battery size. You are getting a lot of car and battery! It is a family car so it will need to fit push chair and food shopping in one go without having to have food shopping in the back seat like we used to do with the Nissan Leaf. I think now these days, US EV owners aren’t getting the best deals as we used to back in the day such as a higher goverment grant, free charging point at your home plus more! I believe the initial benefits moving from an ICE car to an EV have gone down hill massively due to the lack of support from the government. Maybe I am wrong and not sure how others feel on here about that, but you have to agree they aren’t the best now. 

But when looking to see my next EV or if I was a new EV owner! Do you research, look on forums such as SpeakEV, Look on youtube for reviews, go and test drive the cars. Although it’s all EV’s they still drive differently. Do not listen to the Jeremy clarksons who own a “JAAAAGGGG” and will never consider turning to an EV and tell you all the negative things they read in the Daily Mail.

I think it’s also fair to say this.

Quite a few EVs also have some pretty impressive performance stats too. Acceleration wise, a Tesla Model X will easily leave quite a LOT of ICE cars for dust in a 0-60 race! Hehehe.

But sadly, I don’t drive at all because I’ve never applied for a driving license. But then again, my “cars” probably have 500x the horsepower anyway. You can’t beat a British Rail Class 390 in any race up the M6! 

That is a good question. For me, the hard decision was new or used, and I think that is personal preference. The used market is reasonably small, so you only have a few options, and the price range narrows it down further. You can get some great bargains at the moment. 

For new vehicles, I would have a look at Compare electric vehicles - EV Database UK (ev-database.uk) . Once you limit by price, again the options become more manageable. There really is an EV for just about any purpose now, but prices are still a bit high. 

What I did not appreciate is how variable the range of an EV is, and I would certainly play around with A Better Routeplanner to figure this out ahead of time for some typical routes. The vehicle models in there are the best I have found so far. 

And of course you need to test drive it, as always. Some cars just feel right, others do not. I loved my test drive in a Tesla S, but I could not see it as my regular car. 

I made the change about 2 years ago and it was based on what I could afford but also didn't want to have compromise so upgraded to a Tesla model 3 performance and never looked back.

Best performance car I've had which never gives me the thought of wouldn't you rather have stayed with Dino juice or chosen something else

Wowza great to hear, @rajan. I don’t think we’ve got a topic about the Tesla model 3 yet.

If you were to share how you feel about it (good and not so good) via a new topic, I’ll happily do what I can to make it visible to anyone browsing our EV area. The same goes to anyone else here, more to come on this next week. I still need to review everyone’s answers above and create some themes. 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Have a review I've done previously and created a new topic with it here for you  @Tim_OVO 

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/electric-vehicles-ev-chargers-138/tesla-model-3-performance-9248

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I’ve read through all your comments (and admired your beautiful EV photos @Peetee!).

There seems to be a few key themes which were mentioned which we’ve put together to start building an EV review template, in order to encourage more great EV reviews like the one @rajan posted here. 

Is there anything that we’ve missed from the list below or equally things that might not be relevant to include in a review? (guess this could be based on personal preferences but would be good to see if there was some consensus)

• Upfront Cost (new vs secondhand)

• Potential savings (tax/maintenance/running costs) 

• Gov’t incentives

• Range (claimed and actual - which are your most trusted sources?)

• Charging networks (maps/charge points in area)

• Suitability for use/comfort/space

• Safety/Reliability

• Test drive availability

• User reviews (forums, Youtube)

• V2G/V2H potential (trials vs voided warranty)

• Emissions and environmental concerns

• Part exchange possibility

And with that in mind is anyone else up for reviewing their own vehicle - @Jequinlan, @jp1, @NeilG, @sylm_2000, @Peetee, @Andras, @ArundaleP, @PeterR1947, @NinjaGeek, @MrPuds?

Hey Jess!

I think in terms of missing anything, I believe those are the most important key factors to consider when purchasing an EV. Now I have had my car for about 4 months now, I wouldn’t mind writing a review for it if you that is what you like?