EV's . . . . No Surprise There Then . . .

[Bobby Dazzler]

On that basis what would you suggest to replace my 2008 BMW X5 3.0SD?

What’s your budget, and how do you use it?

 

[Deleted member 149005]

I hardly ever drive and my wife does 6 miles a day for her commute. We visit friends and relatives outside of London approx 6 times a year. The car is used for the odd shop but we get our food delivered by Ocado.

sounds like you don’t need to own a car at all.

I hardly ever drive and my wife does 6 miles a day for her commute. We visit friends and relatives outside of London approx 6 times a year. The car is used for the odd shop but we get our food delivered by Ocado.

sure you need a car?

re the EV have you asked your local authorities if they are willing to contribute to the cost of a charge point adjacent to your space?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

It's a shame the debate about EV's has become so polarised. As has been said several times it's entirely the governments fault for appearing to dictate the solution rather than the target for reducing emissions and allowing the automotive industry to innovate. Who knows by the time we get to 2030 EV's may already look like the wrong solution.

The great benefit of an EV to me would be that it doesn't suffer when used for short trips. There are many times I'm reluctant to use an ICE vehicle for a short 3 mile trip because we know short tripping does an ICE no good at all and MPG is very poor. An EV on the other hand has no such limitations that I'm aware of.

An EV is the perfect commuter but the worst choice for a long trip. The fact that an EV can be used for long trips at some inconvenience to the user is by the way and I can't see them ever being the perfect choice for long trips. If EV owners would just accept that they are not perfect for long trips there would be much less argument. One of my regular journeys involves driving to York using the M62 over the hill from Manchester. Has anyone done that trip in an EV as I'd be interested to hear what it does to the battery range. The professional road tests I've read suggest that any claimed battery range would be halved or worse when climbing a hill like that and doesn't recover on the down hill sections.

I’ve never seen, heard or read an EV driver suggest that an EV is even half way close to perfect for long trips. Doable for occasional long trips, but certainly not perfect.

 

[Darrell]

sure you need a car?

re the EV have you asked your local authorities if they are willing to contribute to the cost of a charge point adjacent to your space?

Our old Jaaag died a couple of months ago and I won’t use my Porsche in this crap weather so effectively we are car-less.

My wife came off furlough on Thursday and has to take 2 busses each way to work so that’s a pain and sometimes when the rain is heavy, cycling to the gym isn’t attractive.

So here’s the rub. I’m after something for a max of 3 grand which I expect to last us 3 years with minimum expenditure during that time.

RE the council helping out with a charger. I’ll post up a photo of our little cul de sac.

 

[Big Janner]

Fill up at any 3 pin plug...

Or rely on a dwindling number of petrol and diesel stations...

When I go to Cirencester, via the M25 (bless it and all who sail on her), who's 3 pin plug do you suggest I use?

 

[glojo]

To me it should be all about what the owner\wife\husband (fill in anyone not imncluded) want. Look at what is wanted and look at the budget we are prepared to pay. Does it really matter whether it is EV\Steam|Hydrogen\petrol or diesel. It's all about what we want. I can never justify buying a hybrid but it is what we wanted and hopefully we will be happy.

Go for what you and the wife want and who cares what others think.

Truth be told I would have loved to buy my wife an AMG but that would have been cruel to the car

 

[Smiley]

We have added an EV to our ICE cars to see what the experience is like. We have had it about three months and our experience reflects pretty accurately a lot of the comments on this thread. It is fantastic for short local journeys where you would think twice about firing up a large petrol or diesel car; it is also very good for local journeys within the range of the car. It is super quiet to drive and you know that you are driving something a bit different - the regen is good and means very little use of the brakes. It can work for longer journeys but you need a plan of where to charge the car - and then you need a plan B if the charger is not working. Repair of charging points out of service seems to be measured in days (or even weeks) - not hours. So you need to have the patience of a saint and not get stressed about interruptions to a longer journey. We have got used to charging at home - it does need a bit of planning especially as we have solar panels so try to charge when they are generating if we can. But even paying for the electricity the cost is about 3p per mile which is pretty cheap. The simplicity of the servicing is another benefit. Would I recommend it? Not as an only car and not if you can not easily charge at home or work, but yes to complement an ICE car if you have the space and ability to charge at home.

 

[Dickster]

Skip?

 

[Dickster]

What’s your budget, and how do you use it?

Hypothetically £12k and it’s the family runabout, including three dogs, two of them quite large.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Hypothetically £12k and it’s the family runabout, including three dogs, two of them quite large.

Well I’m a Mercedes fanboy so assuming that you like full-size DUVs then I would suggest the best Mercedes ML/GL within budget, an ML 63 AMG perhaps?

 

[Dickster]

Very nice choice, I’ve looked at them previously but they’re not EVs?

 

[Benzowner]

The problem with EV's as I see it, is they are not a single car for all uses. I would imagine we all have the once. twice or more times per year when we need to drive a long distance either for holidays, visiting relatives and in my case visiting my daughter in Luxembourg or holidaying towing my caravan. I cannot afford to run 2 cars so I will be sticking to the ICE diesel car I have which on a motorway run returns over 60mpg and averages in the mid 40's. £30 per annum road tax to boot. I will admit though an EV would probably suit 75-80% of my normal driving shame about the other 20-25%