o/t Anyone with an electric car

thecatintheroof

thecatintheroof

Well-known member
Can I just ask, do you ever have problems finding somewhere to charge it, have you bought a charge point for you own house, how close have you got to running out of leccy!

All serious questions. Would love an electric car but the 'worst case scenario' in me worries about being stuck a country lane at 3am with a blinking fuel gauge!
 
I haven't but my colleague splashed out on a top of the range Tesla. He loves it and has his own charging point installed. Unsure on other manufacturers but they have charge point locations installed in their Sat Nav app so you can easily recharge when needed. I guess the big glitches are the time to recharge, range (don't believe the manufacturers figures) and the cost of maintenance. I guess as long as you have enough range to suit your commute and you have chargers at home/work then it's easy. I'm going to sit tight for a couple more years before I make the plunge.
 
l was looking into this yesterday on the VW website and you get government assistance to buy an electric and also something towards fitting a home charging capability. Not ready yet but l will be in the next 5 years.
 
Looked into it last year but didn't buy.

Wasn't impressed with the life and replacement cost of battery which runs into thousands. Not impressed with distance between recharge..... lousy on a trip 'home'...... some years off yet.
 
I'm hoping to 'go electric' in the next couple of years but not looked into battery life costs yet.
However according to the link article there are already more electric points than petrol stations which surprised me.Link
 
Went for a plug in hybrid recently. Has an electric range of around 25 miles which is fine for local journeys. On longer journeys I use the car primarily on the petrol engine except when in built up areas when I switch to electric. No range anxiety with the petrol engine as the public electric charge network does not yet seem adequate nationwide. Got to say very quiet and serene when on electric only. Also feel I’m doing a midges for the local environment. Only charge up at home with the home chargepoint I had installed.
 
I tow a caravan so apart from an expensive Tesla possibly only a hybrid would be any use & according to the government they want to stop selling new petrol, diesel & hybrid cars in 15 years, my current dirty diesel will probably do me for another 5-6 years, I’ll reassess things then.
 
I'm thinking about it, but like others I'm waiting for wider availability of charging points. The providers will have to build them to encourage people to switch, rather than waiting for the number of electric cars to increase.
 
A power failure due to winter storms could leave some motorists high and dry for a while.
We had five power cuts in the space of a one day at the end of December, I was told it was due to many being at home and there was huge demand on the supply, it will take some power to charge up all the cars in the country on a good day.
 
Davepick said:
Will the day ever come when we can just shove in 2 or 3 AA batteries? 😉
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Slightly off topic here, but I buy my Mrs a pack of 4 AA batteries every fortnight, saves on all the huffing & puffing I felt obligated to do whenever she feels fruity.
 
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What about when loads of electric cars are stuck for hours on the motorway in traffic jams? Imagine the carnage when all their batteries are flat. Not sure about all the hype yet, long way to go.
 
We use the new fully electric Hyundai Kona at work, fantastic car to drive but it can only do around 260 miles when fully charged, not sure what people do when they do long journeys as it takes a few hours to be fully charged
 
tangojoe53 said:
We use the new fully electric Hyundai Kona at work, fantastic car to drive but it can only do around 260 miles when fully charged, not sure what people do when they do long journeys as it takes a few hours to be fully charged
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260 can get you a hell of a way tango but then say you have 100 miles left stop for a brew and top up. Granted it’s a mindset thing and a change of our habits but I think it will come
 
thecatintheroof said:
Can I just ask, do you ever have problems finding somewhere to charge it, have you bought a charge point for you own house, how close have you got to running out of leccy!

All serious questions. Would love an electric car but the 'worst case scenario' in me worries about being stuck a country lane at 3am with a blinking fuel gauge!
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Looked into this myself last night and backed away from the idea for now. The need to get a special unit installed at home was an unexpected shock. Thought you would be able to use the existing plug in the garage.

Then the fact there are so many different types of charge cables and connectors so you might then end up in a Betamax situation.

Also, the fact the batteries need replacing quite frequently and the cost of doing so also put me off. Then there was talk of special (more expensive) insurance in case someone trips over your charging plug etc. All seems to be a bit problematic and not sure paying £30,000 for one warrants any small savings in fuel.
 
SpionKop said:
260 can get you a hell of a way tango but then say you have 100 miles left stop for a brew and top up. Granted it’s a mindset thing and a change of our habits but I think it will come
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True 260 is a lot of miles but say if you were to drive to away games down south (for e.g. Oxford and Wycombe) from Blackpool you wouldn't be able to, unless you stop overnight that is.

Think he paid just under 40 grand for it as well and for such a big car it isn't really a lot of miles
 
No it isn’t to be fair we’ve a relatively big car and always having to fill up, diesel 😭😭😭
Suppose you need to charge up for the rest of the journey that you need to cut down your waiting time but get your point - day you were driving through France where sometimes there’s not a garage for 100”s of miles. Still work to be done mate but it will come....
 
I borrowed a Nissan Leaf from Nissan dealers for a week 2 years ago - 1st night set off to Blackburn with 70% battery - arrived at Blackburn with 40% battery - drove back to Blackpool and ran out 1/2 mile from home.
What people need to consider when thinking of buying an all electric car is electric miles seem to be much shorter than fossil fuel miles, and this is a huge problem.
After my encounter with electric vehicles I wouldn't go anywhere near one till the battery efficiency improves (massively) you can't pour any spare electrickery into the fuel tank when, like me, you run out.
 
thecatintheroof said:
Can I just ask, do you ever have problems finding somewhere to charge it, have you bought a charge point for you own house, how close have you got to running out of leccy!

All serious questions. Would love an electric car but the 'worst case scenario' in me worries about being stuck a country lane at 3am with a blinking fuel gauge!
Click to expand...
Had a few in past 7 years love them and BMW have a 10 year battery warranty. You need to consider your driver profile. If you do frequent long journeys then perhaps a hybrid would be more suitable. If like me you typically do no more than 50 miles a day go for electric. They use a lot more electric in winter due to the heating, in summer I can easily get 120 miles range.
 
Seasider1887 said:
They use a lot more electric in winter due to the heating, in summer I can easily get 120 miles range.
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But there lies the problem - if you just need a city car that's fine but as soon as you want or need to go anywhere further a 120 mile range is just not far enough by a long way.

The Leaf I borrowed was used for 3 consecutive trips to and from work, a 48 mile round trip, charging the battery as soon as I got home (3 pin charger charging for roughly 10 hours) each time I got back into the car it hadn't charged as much as it had used on the previous trip, granted this was in winter (February) I calculated that over a 6 day working week I would not have had enough time to charge the battery up to get back from work on the 6th day.

Electric cars are the future (so we have been told) but there are massive problems to overcome before this really happens, at the moment they simply are not practical.

It'll be fun in the middle east when oil is virtually worthless - hope i'm still around when the Saudi's are back to being camel herders.
 
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