Following on from the other EV topic, I was wondering if challenger banks like Monzo have a higher proportion of customers who are interested in purchasing EVs or are already EV owners #justforfun
I’m not talking hybrid electric cars here (I drive a Lexus now which is a hybrid) but fully electric battery cars - e.g. Tesla, Renault Zoe, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Ioniq EV, Kia Soul EV etc.
I already drive a 100% battery electric vehicle (BEV)
I am in the market for a BEV but they don’t have the range I need
I am in the market for a BEV but they are just too expensive to buy/lease
I am in the market for a BEV but there are not enough charging points near me
I am going to wait 1-3 years to see how the market develops before buying a BEV
I thought the new leaf would be a game changer. And while it does address styling and range the cost is still ridiculous. Because the depreciate so much you are paying most of the cost of the car in the 3-4 years of a lease/pcp. Tesla seem to retain their value really well but the S is out of my league right now.
So I am hoping the model 3 addresses the residual issues and puts the monthly cost £30k on par with a £30k petrol monthly cost. Or slightly higher given the saving in fuel.
I took it as a 9 yr project and put all the figures in on that time period
My previous car was around for 9 yrs and so I wanted to compare
But who pays the majority of a 9 yr running period up front ?
I don’t own an electric vehicle but use EVs quite regularly from local car clubs. Living and working in London means lots of car club memberships instead of owning a car. Ecar club has mostly Nissans and Drive Now has fully electric BMWs.
I have no way of charging one at current. I can’t park within 100m of my house, and there’s a ton of steps between my house and the road. A lot of the houses locally have the same issue, being built on hills means it’s all on road parking. I’m not sure what the future holds for these houses if we go 100% EV. I imagine there’s similar charging issues in cities and built up areas.
If I move somewhere I could charge one then I’d look at what options are available and what I could afford. At the moment in the southwest, we also lack public charging points
Better for the environment but not your wallet. The premium for a hybrid over petrol/diesel is still quite high and you would generally struggle to recoup the costs unless most of you driving was within the battery range.
You are right
Although I was quite interested when looking at a second hand BMWi3 with range extender
BMW where selling this second hand car with a brand new battery pack thatvcane with a 3yr additional warranty
Tesla where doing similar in offering a brand new battery pack in a second hand car with the warranty
That’s why I want to change my Lexus. As a car, very comfortable, well specified and it has the hybrid drive which is almost indiscernible around town.
BUT:
In Winter and with short trips, the fuel economy is not great < 38mpg plus the battery is available less because the engine is needed to heat the car more.
So actually worst of both worlds.
With an EV, you can preheat the car while it is charging and - although range suffers in cold weather - there are zero tailpipe emissions.
If you have an EV with a long range, then if you are unable to charge at home it’s less of an issue as long as the charging infrastructure is available on your route or at your destination.
The ability to start each day with a “full tank” is really compelling. Even with my Lexus, you can get “range anxiety” because there are fewer petrol stations in town centres now as it’s just not a profitable business for the retailer.
But what I need is decent range for reasonable money - ie my Lexus costs me £439 a month and that’s a “luxury” vehicle. A Tesla could cost me anything from £750 - £1250 a month and probably higher insurance - but I would save on fuel and road tax. So the higher mileage you drive the more you save on fuel - but if you lease or PCP the car you’ll pay more per month for a higher mileage contract.
So the Tesla proposition works really well for wealthy people with the ability to pay most or all the cost of the car in cash. After that drive as many miles as you like and pay hardly anything to charge it at home plus free supercharger use on longer journeys.
For “ordinary” people, EVs cost more than traditional ICE cars so there’s very little incentive at the moment. And the cheapest models are still around the 100 mile range mark which is not ideal - especially in winter when you might only get 66-75% of that.
We are nearing a turning point I feel but not quite there yet!
Anyone know what the carbon emissions are for manufacturing an EV?
Part of me says it could be better on the environment if I was to continue to drive a petrol car made in the 70’s that gets just under 20mpg. CO2 on this is around 370g/km, most parts are original with occasional oil changes and tyre changes (which happen on any vehicle). By using this, I wouldn’t be buying a product with recently created CO2 output.
Unfortunately car manufacturers still make cars even if people aren’t buying them, so CO2 during manufacture isn’t really going to change.
I’m wondering how long a ‘classic car’ with around 20mpg could be used (in km or miles) before a newly made EV becomes better for them environment. Or how long could a new ‘luxury saloon’ (BMW, Merc etc) be manufactured and driven until it reaches the same CO2 offset as say a Tesla.
I’m all for EV’s but even lithium extraction can be pretty bad, and it certainly doesn’t make traffic collisions any easier to clear up. Recently in the southwest there seems to be a local serious collision almost daily, with a high number of fatalities (head on RTC’s seem to be increased ) . If these were all EV’s the fatality count would be higher with the complications of passenger extraction due to the batteries. A lot of those collision batteries would also be waste, so is the CO2 still being offset with EV’s here?
As @rmacdonald said, we’re not at the turning point yet. The UK infrastructure needs improvement to handle all the EV’s and the manufacturing needs to have less CO2 production.
