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Hello, we are long time lurkers of this forum particularly at new quarter time! We have happily been in out first motability car for the past 4 years its a BMW series 2 Gran tourer xdrive, and we love it!
our first car had issues and they replaced with a new one at 1 year old and started our leace again so our 3 years were up in january we had everything crossed the gran tourer might re appear on the scheme but no luck! (Anyone know why this left the scheme never to return?)
we are now in a 2 year extention, now we have 3 boys and an autism assistance dog!! And we just have not found a suitable car at all with 7 seats so we were looking at smaller Cars losing the 7 seats we did not use them that often and the boot is now the dogs palace! When travelling!!.
But now my husbands head has been turned by the id4 we think electric is the way the world will go, but we live in a house behind a house with no driveway or designated street parking (we do have a disabled spot in car park but anyone can use it) we have been told a home charge is a no go.
But after a lot of research and knowing our mileage (around 140 a week or less) we believe we can charge while we are out been disabled and when the boys are in school we have time and we think 30 mins to an hour a few times a week would work, bad weather we read a book while waiting, we can do the shopping, go for a walk in the park or round the town all while charging for free (we checked the points) if we need a faster charge we can pay instead we feel we can fit this into our lives and save money on fuel costs which is a huge bonus!
Are we stupid to think this is worth a try? Of course we can not afford the current AP prices for the id4 we are looking new quarter, but would love some other people opinions of this or the advice of others in this charging situation!
Thank you all so much in advance!
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Replies
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Hello there and welcome from lurking to posting.
I don’t think it’s a stupid idea at all Emma. Though not ideal with not being able to charge at home. However, it seems that you have given this a lot of thought.
There are many like yourself in the same situation of not being able to charge from home, but a little bit of thought and planning, it is doable.
Do keep us up dated.
Joss
Current car BMW X2 2.0i Sport sDrive Auto 2019 with Sport pack
Last car Ford Focus Titanium 1.5 TDCI"Men fight for liberty & win it with hard knocks. Their children brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves" - D.H. Lawrence
i am in the same situation unable to have a home charger but like you do very low mileage and my lifestyle means i am very flexible regarding using public chargers. so i will almost cetainly change to electric next time. my advantage is that all i need is an auto and a high driving position for ease of getting in and out so at the moment i like the look of the bmw i3 as its ap is reasonable the doors suit exactly and even though it has a relatively low range its enough for me.
as joss says you seem to have done your homework so go for it. fingers crossed the ap comes down.
Does your local supermarket have chargers Emma as if they do you could hook the car up while you do your weekly shop.
Hi Emma, no, you’re far from stupid. I live in a flat, do high miles and having no issues with public charging or range anxiety.
I have the Kona (previous was 2series Active Tourer), and between that and the Soul are probably the best EV’s currently on the scheme, all the extras are standard and they do the miles they claim!
Sadly they’re both to small for your needs. I’d personally hang on until the next quarter, I think the ID.4 will plummet in price as the new Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 come on general public sale (not Motability just yet) there’s also a good chance the Skona Enyaq might be on the scheme soon too.
Motability have some great mid size EV’s the bigger models will come but even outside of the scheme they are scare and really expensive
Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021- Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SEThank you all so much, good to know our plans are not daft!!
Yes our local supermarket tesco has chargers too! Free as well! To be honest my husband is a typical yorkshire man and has been scouring the free charging points! Could be a fun time as he tries to lower our charge costs to zero!!
We have also been told that as we are unsuitable for a home charge we will get the subscription to the polar network instead for free through motabilty so that brings charging costs down a little if needed like i say husband is all about the free ha!!
We are definitely waiting till next quarter mainly as our choice would have been the vw tiguan allspace but we have to wait for the facelift anyway
So sad the gran tourer 7 seater went, any one know why??
Thank you all so much, good to know our plans are not daft!! Yes our local supermarket tesco has chargers too! Free as well! To be honest my husband is a typical yorkshire man and has been scouring the free charging points! Could be a fun time as he tries to lower our charge costs to zero!! We have also been told that as we are unsuitable for a home charge we will get the subscription to the polar network instead for free through motabilty so that brings charging costs down a little if needed like i say husband is all about the free ha!! We are definitely waiting till next quarter mainly as our choice would have been the vw tiguan allspace but we have to wait for the facelift anyway So sad the gran tourer 7 seater went, any one know why??
I think BMW no longer produce the 7 seat Grand Tourer.
A friends looking into the id3 at the moment so I’m hearing a lot about ev charging etc at the moment, most supermarkets free charging points are only 7kw (if running at max) so you wouldn’t get a lot of range in an hour or two.
I’d also consider how many people, like yourself, are now looking at electric for their next vehicle. Growth this year and next will sky rocket, meaning charging points will be busier… You might get away with it; it could very well become a pain to go back and fourth to find a point you can use 🤷♂️
*forth
The charging points at my local Tesco are usually occupied during the day, but unused during the evening – I wonder how much charger availability is going to determine our domestic habits and routines in the future?
All depends on how quickly infrastructure and battery tech advances. On the plus side, if charging speeds stagnate there will be outrage from the public, but personally I wouldn’t like to be in that position and would only consider an EV if I had my own charging point at home, or at least one I had consistent access to; my workplace for example. It’s sensible to consider how things are today, but just six months from now will be a different landscape entirely, let alone 1 year, 2 years in to the lease.
What you are thinking isn’t in any way stupid. We are due to pick up our new Hyundai Kona next week and we are still deciding whether to have a charge point fitted! The only advice I can give is that it can be useful to leave aside what fuel is used and to start by looking at whether a car meets your needs and is likely to do so over the next 3 years. You can then consider fuels, cost etc. Having a vehicle which isn’t suitable is a real pain – no matter how it is powered.
We couldn’t move to EV and compromise space we have done that in the past and it doesn’t work for us so we have ordered this figure if we have to wait for charging may as well be comfortable with armchair seating and a cup of coffee that said not sure if we will see it this yearThank again for everyones advice, we did look at the vauxhall but the motability guy for the vauxhall we went to ended up almost talking us out of it, knowing our needs he said he had to be honest one of the fellas had taken the van over the weekend on a golf jolly cold, wet and 4 guys in the van plus luggage the got only a 82 mile range in it 😳 they could not get over the drop from the predicted range
So that put us off
Manged to make my last post look like a quote! Sorry ha!
Just to add some old school ICE dinosaurs into the mix, I can recommend the VW Touran and Peugeot 5008. I have 3 boys and a guide dog. Find the three individual chairs and the flexibility of the extra two seats in the boot invaluable.
Friends have 19 plate 2 series grand tourer and its great, we looked at one ourselves but went fir the Touran. It is still available but will be getting replaced soon. But why it disappeared from motability is anyones guess.
Hoping for similar style ev’s to these current cars in 3 years time.
Current car
Peugeot 5008 Allure Premium
Previous Cars
VW Touran SEL
