Which electric car to buy?

[GrannyJen]

Have to let us have a look ! Local YouTuber ( I recognise East Preston railway crossing!) approves ….

Well,

He left home, looks like Chidham, or Bosham road.... travelled to East Preston... went past the bottom of my estate ....

I watched his first review. He's well impressed.

 

[This Eva]

We have an Audi Q4 Etron Sportback getting delivered tomorrow. Commute is only 50miles per day but a free charging point at work and low BIK rate made it the best option for us.

Hi thanks for your post. We have a Q4 sportback on order. Now 26 weeks into the wait since first planning the purchase electric costs have risen so much vs petrol it’s making me think about cancelling the order. Is the car worth it. Ps about 6000 miles a year only. Audi put a pod point in the garage for free.

 

[Lisabertiefiat]

How about the Citroen Ami? £17 per month rental or £5000 to buy. Great for City use and short runs.

View attachment 81079

I love this little car. I was chatting to a chap in France who said it’s amazing, inside is actually quite roomy.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

I love this little car. I was chatting to a chap in France who said it’s amazing, inside is actually quite roomy.

Love the Ami. Would be my current choice of town run about

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

You couldn’t make it up !!

 

[mjsmit]

We love our ID3. All family members use it when having to make long trips. My wife uses it daily to commute. VW ID.'s software was lagging, but they are catching up and may well overtake many other brands. 38000km's in 1.5 yrs.

 

[Dodge1311]

Hi thanks for your post. We have a Q4 sportback on order. Now 26 weeks into the wait since first planning the purchase electric costs have risen so much vs petrol it’s making me think about cancelling the order. Is the car worth it. Ps about 6000 miles a year only. Audi put a pod point in the garage for free.

The car is great, just like a regular Audi really. Dog crate fits in the boot and so far have only charged it once at work so it manages a full week. Have started to use it for other short journeys that I would take the van for. So it is a big saving for us as I could easily spend £100 a week on diesel before.Our solar install is scheduled for October so going to try and stick with free charging till then. Fair to say I am becoming slightly obsessed with going as far as I can on a single charge.

 

[Wildcamper]

I see that some are saying that with the electricity price rise, and more to come, that some electric cars will be more expensive to "fuel" than ICE vehicles. Not seen any numbers to confirm this yet.

 

[Wildcamper]

I see that some are saying that with the electricity price rise, and more to come, that some electric cars will be more expensive to "fuel" than ICE vehicles. Not seen any numbers to confirm this yet.

Today's Telegraph.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Today's Telegraph.

As per my post above

 

[GrannyJen]

I have one motivation above all other towards buying buying an EV.

Independence.

Independence of Yom Kippur war type pushbacks from OPEC, Blackmail from tyrants like Putin, industrial unrest such as the tanker drivers strike and the work of putinesque 5th columnists such as insulate Britain/Extinction rebellion.

All of them have seriously disrupted my life at various stages by restricting fuel supplies. Never again.

3 day weeks may happen again as they happened in 1974 which may interfere with refuelling my EV, but the inconvenience will be predictable and not subject to Lemming like panic buying. I am also fortunate enough to be insulated from that for, as long as the sun continues to rise, so I will be able to get some fuel into my car.

I am also impressed by the way the interior trim of the Cupra is made from recycled marine waste. My miniscule contribution to the future of the planet gets slightly less minuscule

 

[Elmo3]

Hi thanks for your post. We have a Q4 sportback on order. Now 26 weeks into the wait since first planning the purchase electric costs have risen so much vs petrol it’s making me think about cancelling the order. Is the car worth it. Ps about 6000 miles a year only. Audi put a pod point in the garage for free.

Pointless IMHO, keep the petrol. Notwithstanding the hugely increasing cost, there could well be electricity supply issues. IIRC EV’s lose charge if sat going nowhere so with such low mileage you’ll have to constantly replace lost charge which you’ll be paying for twice!

 

[pjm-84]

Lol..... cost 7.5p per kWh to charge an EV. Mine is currently being charged for free as I write via my PVs.

Work wise free charging in the local car park via a 22kWh charger and as an EV is 90% discounted on season tickets this equates to £110 a year for parking and free charging.

But lets say 7.5p. Miles per kWh on my BMW X545E is 2.4mile / kWh. Lets say petrol is £7.50 a gallon. Nice easy figure. So I'm at 240mpg. The ID3 would be around 400mpg cost wise, if we were paying for the electric.

Or put it another way we've done 3400miles and visited a petrol station 3x in the last 4 months in the PHEV. Total petrol spend is under £200 and I have 3/4 of a tank still

 

[Elmo3]

These cheap charging rates will soon be a thing of the past. The govt will start charging BIK for ‘free’ work charging etc. it’s no different to the switch from petrol to diesel 20 years ago. Get a critical mass converted then turn the screw. They have to, they need the tax revenue. No way the private motorist isn’t going to get hammered, whatever they drive.

 

[pjm-84]

I've just transfered onto one. So I have 12months at that cost. Afterwards, who knows. However in a few weeks I will have just shy of 15kwh of storage batteries to utilise.

Use of the car, and fuel is a BIK but the tax on an EV is minimal. Starts at £12 a month on the ID3. As for electric. They are not interested. Trust me my wife is an accountant.

 

[Elmo3]

Trouble is, tax breaks and incentives is the only way people can justify it. Once they are removed (and they will be), all bets are off. The govt simply won’t allow people to drive around in £50K+ EV’s for 2% BIK in the medium term.

 

[pjm-84]

Wanna bet.....key date at the moment is 2030!

The government does but when it becomes the norm the incentive will be removed(because it no longer needs to be incentivised). To be honest I dont have an issue as I don't benefit from a "free" car.

 

[blondebier]

We nearly went for a Cupra Born for Mrs B. The dealer's unwillingness to confirm a price put a swift end to it.

Apparently they don't need cash buyers. They'll arrange finance with a fixed monthly payment, the deposit or balloon payment might change when the vehicle arrives in X months.

We have now got a petrol Touran on order via Autoebid.

We love our other EV (it's my company car lease). Incentives, low bik, free charging at the office and at Tesco etc make it appear "cheap" to run, but there's no way I'd buy one with cash.

Remove the incentives and they make no sense at all.

Solar won't cover 2 cars and all our other energy needs.

From October at 0.3kwh per mile and 56p/kwh our P2 costs the same per mile as a petrol skedonk at £1.70 per litre.

Our Touran R Line fully kitted had a 26% discount. £8k less than the CUPRA V2 we had specd.

That's an awful lot of unleaded fuel! (+ another e-bike)

And the Touran's fuel tank won't be 25% smaller in 10 years time.

As much as we loved the Born on the test drive (and we really wanted it) no amount of man maths would ever make that fly.

 

[ArunAlec]

I have one motivation above all other towards buying buying an EV.

Independence.

Independence of Yom Kippur war type pushbacks from OPEC, Blackmail from tyrants like Putin, industrial unrest such as the tanker drivers strike and the work of putinesque 5th columnists such as insulate Britain/Extinction rebellion.

All of them have seriously disrupted my life at various stages by restricting fuel supplies. Never again.

3 day weeks may happen again as they happened in 1974 which may interfere with refuelling my EV, but the inconvenience will be predictable and not subject to Lemming like panic buying. I am also fortunate enough to be insulated from that for, as long as the sun continues to rise, so I will be able to get some fuel into my car.

I am also impressed by the way the interior trim of the Cupra is made from recycled marine waste. My miniscule contribution to the future of the planet gets slightly less minuscule

Hopefully not the “marine waste” that Southern Water have been pumping out recently!

 

[wilburthewombat]

I have one motivation above all other towards buying buying an EV.

Independence.

Independence of Yom Kippur war type pushbacks from OPEC, Blackmail from tyrants like Putin, industrial unrest such as the tanker drivers strike and the work of putinesque 5th columnists such as insulate Britain/Extinction rebellion.

All of them have seriously disrupted my life at various stages by restricting fuel supplies. Never again.

3 day weeks may happen again as they happened in 1974 which may interfere with refuelling my EV, but the inconvenience will be predictable and not subject to Lemming like panic buying. I am also fortunate enough to be insulated from that for, as long as the sun continues to rise, so I will be able to get some fuel into my car.

I am also impressed by the way the interior trim of the Cupra is made from recycled marine waste. My miniscule contribution to the future of the planet gets slightly less minuscule

Gosh. I've never been called a 'putinesque fifth columnist before'!

 

[Kernowboy]

Apparently they don't need cash buyers.

That may be the case but they were very happy to take my cash and provided excellent customer service as well.

 

[Kernowboy]

Remove the incentives and they make no sense at all.

£3k a year saving over previous car makes a lot of sense to me. Much better driving experience as well.

 

[Kernowboy]

From October at 0.3kwh per mile and 56p/kwh our P2 costs the same per mile as a petrol skedonk at £1.70 per litre.

From October I’ll be paying 4.5p per kWh to charge the car, same as I do now. And all my other electric use during those hours will be at the same cost. And all electric use outside of those hours will be at 40p per kWh. All fixed fir 2 years. Other providers are still available with similar fixed rates. It’s not difficult, perhaps providing a more balanced discussion would be of more benefit to more people.

 

[blondebier]

From October I’ll be paying 4.5p per kWh to charge the car, same as I do now. And all my other electric use during those hours will be at the same cost. And all electric use outside of those hours will be at 40p per kWh. All fixed fir 2 years. Other providers are still available with similar fixed rates. It’s not difficult, perhaps providing a more balanced discussion would be of more benefit to more people.

Good for you.

I was trying to do bring some balance to the discussion.

If you haven't got a "cheap" electricity source they make no financial sense.

Most people won't be paying 4.5p/kwh from October.

See what you think in 18 months when you've lived with it for a while and charged it with some dirty expensive electricity.

 

[Kernowboy]

Good for you.

I was trying to do bring some balance to the discussion.

If you haven't got a "cheap" electricity source they make no financial sense.

Most people won't be paying 4.5p/kwh from October.

See what you think in 18 months when you've lived with it for a while and charged it with some dirty expensive electricity.

You can sign up to this today, fixed rates, with Oct and future predicted price rises built in. Why anyone would be paying 56p/kWh at home I just don’t know. Away from home is a different story and already discussed elsewhere.