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As an electric car driver, I would not recommend having one without a home charging point and a cheap overnight tariff.
Relying on public charging points would be, in my opinion, quite stressful, not to mention expensive.
We’re on holiday at the moment and I stopped at a Tesla Supercharging station for a top up charge, from about 40% to 90%. The cost was £17.25. This added about 120 miles. By my calculations, this is very similar to what a petrol car doing 40/42 mpg would cost for the same distance.
At home I can do a similar charge for around £3!!
Bear in mind that the Tesla chargers cost less than the other big names and you can see my point.
I would recommend going Full Hybrid in your circumstances.
2024 - BMW i4 Grand Coupe eDrive 35 Sport
2020 - Volvo XC40 T4 Inscription
2017 - Audi Q3 TFSi Sport S-TronicI would also say do not get an EV if you cannot charge at home. One of my nephews got an EV a few years ago and he can’t charge at home. The novelty of using public chargers wore off fairly quickly and he now finds the car to be a pain in the backside, especially on longer journeys. He can’t wait for the lease to end so that he can go back to a petrol car.
I would also avoid a plug-in hybrid if you cannot charge at home. They charge much slower than full EVs and have a very limited electric range, so are also only practical if you can charge at home. Also, if you don’t charge them you are lugging around a heavy battery and may get relatively poor mpg. I have a PHEV but charge it at home after every use.
Prior to ordering our PHEV (Hyundai Tucson) I had a self charging hybrid (also a Hyundai Tucson) on test for 24 hours. I was underwhelmed with it, as the mpg was actually worse than my 2.0i petrol BMW over the same route, which really surprised me. Other hybrids may be better, but do your research very carefully, including from users on this forum, especially if the hybrid model is more expensive than the petrol equivalent (AP wise).
If I couldn’t charge at home I would definitely have stuck with a petrol car, but the choice of decent petrol cars on Motability is pretty pants (SUV wise anyway). The key is to do your research, as you are doing, and be sure to have an extended test drive (at least half a day) before you order. What works for one person might not work for you.
As the others have said, if you can’t charge at home, stick to petrol. It can be done but can become inconvenient and given how the prices of some public chargers are going through the roof, it could become prohibitively expensive if you are forced to use certain chargers because of location.
Taps it’s difficult to give you advice as everyone’s individual circumstances are different. For instance if you are a low mileage driver then having a BEV, without home charger, is not that difficult. If however your mileage is above average then you might just get fed up charging especially if you have no chargers nearby. If you go into Zap-map and enter your postcode you will find all chargers in your location, this would be my first job.
With regard to a plug in hybrid without a home charger I would say forget it you would soon get fed up charging every day.
You say you can’t get a home charger can you say why as there are options if you don’t have a driveway but are able to park in front of your house.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.From another thread-
Hi, I have now driven almost 16000 miles in my Qashqai ePower , over the last 18,months, it is a hybrid, of sorts, in that it has both an electric motor and an ICE, but it is not a PHEV
The e Power , unlike other hybrids and PHEV’s has a 100% electric drive just like a full EV ,it’s driven by an electric motor, with no gear changes , almost silent running (most of the time) , it’s very smooth and leaves most ice cars standing at traffic light etc. it has been a revelation!
Rather than plugging it in , somewhere? at ‘who knows what cost’ – especially on Motorways? the battery is charged by a 3 cylinder ‘on board ‘ petrol driven ICE which , and this is the great difference from PHEV’s ‘ is not connected to the drive chain, only to the battery- no need to plug in, & no range anxiety over running out of charge, just top, up with petrol , and the engine cuts in when needed & tops up the battery & the car is averaging just over 56mpg.
I have an EV on order even though I don’t have a home charger.
My choice was easy because I only drive short distances which results in a very low mileage. I’m happy to charge once every three weeks or so at a local charger as I will have a really comfortable seat and good music in the car and all the time in the world to recline and enjoy, lol. Price isn’t a factor for me due to low mileage.
You need to make your choice based on your individual needs and usage. Also be aware that using an EV fast charger regularly is almost definitely more expensive than having a self charging petrol hybrid, and even straight petrol engines are becoming more economical.
I have an EV on order even though I don’t have a home charger. My choice was easy because I only drive short distances which results in a very low mileage. I’m happy to charge once every three weeks or so at a local charger as I will have a really comfortable seat and good music in the car and all the time in the world to recline and enjoy, lol. Price isn’t a factor for me due to low mileage. You need to make your choice based on your individual needs and usage. Also be aware that using an EV fast charger regularly is almost definitely more expensive than having a self charging petrol hybrid, and even straight petrol engines are becoming more economical
@POPS Assuming that your EV is supplied through Motability, presumably you will qualify for a free home charger installation? If so, I’d strongly advise getting one. My nephew applied the same logic as you when he ordered his EV and now deeply regrets it (his wasn’t a Motability car).As you say, fast chargers are extremely expensive (whilst still taking considerably longer than filling up with petrol) and fuel economy of petrol engines has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. I remember back in the 80s and 90s when around 30mpg was around the norm for a decent sized 2WD petrol saloon or hatchback, yet I’ve recently handed back a 2.0i 4WD SUV that averaged just over 42mpg over the 3 years I had it!
Dont forget you can really only have a charger if you have private parking. I had a huge row with BP at one point as they claimed my driveway wasn’t private because I didn’t have a gate, my drive is in my back garden accessible from residents only road but there you go.
If you can’t have a charger there’s always a granny charger and extension lead (rated of course) that’s better than nothing. If you don’t take the charger you do get the BP Pulse 12 month subscription reducing the price of most of their chargers. As I already had a charger I took that this time, haven’t used it yet as I charge at home mostly and otherwise I use Electroverse and try to use Ionity chargers during the 20% off window which makes the rapids down to 63p/kwh which still expensive is nearly half what Instavolt charge.
I would consider your annual mileage, how much of that might be long journeys away from home as those would be on rapids potentially anyway. Then calculate how often you’d need to charge each week. Another option is some places have cheaper 7kw destination chargers if there’s one of those near home you could plug in and leave it there overnight. This is what I do when In Derby the airbnb has 7kw chargers walking distance from the house so I park there overnight and pay a fraction of the rapid rate at under 50p/kwh.
Also it will depend on the car range one with a range of say 150 miles is going to need more care than say an Enyaq with 300 mile range yet often both will charge at similar times due to charge rates on larger batteries.
I would see if a dealer will give you a weekend test drive and find out for yourself Good luck
I have an EV on order even though I don’t have a home charger. My choice was easy because I only drive short distances which results in a very low mileage. I’m happy to charge once every three weeks or so at a local charger as I will have a really comfortable seat and good music in the car and all the time in the world to recline and enjoy, lol. Price isn’t a factor for me due to low mileage. You need to make your choice based on your individual needs and usage. Also be aware that using an EV fast charger regularly is almost definitely more expensive than having a self charging petrol hybrid, and even straight petrol engines are becoming more economical
@POPS Assuming that your EV is supplied through Motability, presumably you will qualify for a free home charger installation? If so, I’d strongly advise getting one. My nephew applied the same logic as you when he ordered his EV and now deeply regrets it (his wasn’t a Motability car). As you say, fast chargers are extremely expensive (whilst still taking considerably longer than filling up with petrol) and fuel economy of petrol engines has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. I remember back in the 80s and 90s when around 30mpg was around the norm for a decent sized 2WD petrol saloon or hatchback, yet I’ve recently handed back a 2.0i 4WD SUV that averaged just over 42mpg over the 3 years I had it!
Glos Guy, I have a home charger at my home address (my youngest son and his wife and baby live there at the moment), and for the past couple of years I have mostly lived with one of my sons and his large family at their big house in the Malvern Hills where I’m fortunate to have a very comfortable annex with superb Severn Valley views. It is about 35 miles away from my own home. I could drive to my own property and recharge but it would mean a 70 mile round trip and an over night stay, so that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I would also miss my super king, incredibly comfortable bed, lol.
Sounds a perfect setup @POPS I’m pleased to hear that things have worked out so well for you. I can imagine my daughters reaction if I announced that I was going to live with them 😂
Cheers Glos, life is very good apart from increasing aches and pains and wobbliness.
Also, I have my uses. I’m a built in baby sitter and a local taxi for my eldest grand daughters. I cook a mean curry as well, which is why they put up with me, lol.
I know this is off the EV topic but I was absolutely gobsmacked today by what I think is amazing technical progress. I made a broadband speed check first thing this morning on our old SoGEA landline and we had just 19mbs recorded.
We then had our landline replaced by full fibre later this morning which took a couple of hours, and now with all the children home from school on their computers doing homework, someone else watching a film and me fiddling around on here, we have a speed check of almost 800mbs!
It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to switch to a full EV car, to experience the forward movement of technology.
Yeah we were watching a TV show from 2005 they were hinting a serial killer and it was from 1991 and they said we went thru his computer. Some I’m like well it wouldn’t have taken long.
No Internet Tim berners Lee has only just created it running on NeXT
Fastest computer was a 486 running at 50MHz memory was 1MB of you were hardcore you had 4MB and 170MB hard drive running dead slow.
Windows 3.0 was thing thing running on top of DOS. PowerPoint and Word etc didn’t exist and Word processing was Word Perfect 5.2
I have a BEV skoda Enyaq. it works great for me as I have a home charger and a large solar setup.
I am currently driving a hire hybrid Renault capture in Switzerland. Mega impressed by it and absolutely see a place for it. If I couldn’t have a home charger then a mild hybrid that isn’t a plug in hybrid is the option I would go.
2024 Skoda Enyaq estate- 85x Sportline plus in Race Blue. Extras: Supernova 21 inch wheels, Maxx Pack, Transport Pack, Heat Pump and Pano Sunroof.
Ordered 31/10/23, Delivery 27/3/24
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