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I love the idea of never going to a petrol station again and always having car full of fuel ready to go at home. My wife has, not so much range anxiety but charger anxiety. are there enough out there, will they work, will there be a queue.
Will you consider going EV if there is a suitable car on the scheme available?
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
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That’s the situation most are in at the moment if considering the change over DumfriesDik, I’ll be waiting though for now..
I think for many the clincher is the home charger. The ability to charge the car in the garage or driveway, perhaps at lower overnight tariffs and only use the changing network sparingly is appealing, whilst perhaps taking advantage of the free chargers which are still available whilst shopping at the supermarket etc and the very competitive AP’s. A 300 mile range should be more than sufficient for me 99.9% of the time.
i would.
may i suggest you write down your journeys as most people dont need to fill up. they just plan what they do.
what will you be doing as the Kona is great and cheap in terms of the battery. there will be lots of cars soon but they can’t supply.
I never missed the petrol station. and the the charger anxiety was only cos people said so. getting better. do you shop/restaurants etc. cos you can plug in there.
forgot to ask do you have a place to park.
had a leaf 24kw and have a zoe 40kw went to liverpool fully charged at home then charged for freee at the renault dealers so cost £1.20
I love the idea of never going to a petrol station again and always having car full of fuel ready to go at home. My wife has, not so much range anxiety but charger anxiety. are there enough out there, will they work, will there be a queue. Will you consider going EV if there is a suitable car on the scheme available?
i considered as there was and i did. lol. cant say ive any regrets either.
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistI wouldn’t worry about chargers because they are already loads of them, you can go on Zap-Map and check them in your area or anywhere
In our area there was an issue because most of them was free to use but last October most starting charging a fee so people with home chargers no longer use them and now where surprised to see a car on a local charger
Oh I have an ID3 on order. The home charger made it possible. I feel for folk who do not have this as an option as its going to be problematic for them, I think.
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
Morning Dik, still an early riser eh? ???
Firstly I’ve had an EV since 2014, love it and wouldn’t go back to an ICE… saying that the wife still has her diesel but it’s a sexy coupe with a 3 pointed star on the front so won’t be getting changed any time soon ☹??
Yes & No with charger anxiety….
Yes you can travel the country in an EV, I usually do about 20k a year in mine although its been closer to 17k since covid. There are plenty of chargers out there, your car satnav will probably shown them ? but there’s a few good apps to help find them (PlugShare, ZapMap, Instavolt, Shell Recharge, Gridserve, ABRP, Osprey, Polar, WattsUp)No they don’t always work so try to avoid leaving it too late before charging and if on a long trip in a strange area then have a Plan B. Non working chargers are a lot less common than the scare stories would have you believe but it does happen ☹. Sometimes there are queues but count that as a positive cause means it isn’t broken ?
I’ve got no worries about doing long trips in my MG5 and it’ll be the same in the ID3 ?
If you’re travelling less than 200 miles a day and charging at home then it’s easy… and if you’ve got preheating then nothing better than coming out to a warm, defrosted car ?
Hi @Rhodgie still get up early!! Something don’t change.
I can’t wait to get the ID3, I have very few concerns. Jane a bit more but she is being positive now she has retired. I thought you were coming down in 2014?!
I have a dirty secret in the garage but looking to sell it this year. Say no more!!
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
@DumfriesDik I was thinking about you 2 on Wednesday when I stopped in at Southwaite, I’m only up early cause at work ? feckin shifts ☹?
I should take a run down and let you see the MG5. I got it 4th Feb when it came on the scheme as it was the longest range for the cheapest deposit, it’s done 16k now in 11 months… some trips I would have done were cancelled due to covid and some trips we took her car to give it a run and cause it looks nicer ??
I’ll be holding my horses for the time being.
Dont need to change car for another 2 years thats how long my current deal has to run plus a few months choosing time.
I will be watching very closely where Putin takes us regarding the surge in energy prices,the only way is up,starting in April with a scary 50% + increase.
I may also be moving home so dont want to have a charger installed and then have to pay for another.
If you had my arm up my back and say pick and EV now,it would be a Kona Ultimate.
But i can sit back for a couple of years in my Kuga and wait for the EV flower bud to unfurl its petals and waft my sense with its strong perfume.
Question for those with EV’s. What’s the etiquette like when queuing for a charger, do you know who’s next in line, do people try pushing in?
I have found people very kind, who else would give you a ride or offer you chance to drive a Tesla. Most know that rapids are used for quick splash and dash. they also chat as they share info on stuff.
it can only get better. most charge at home.
I am hoping to find the love of my life whilst charging.
X
I am hoping to find the love of my life whilst charging. X
Best of luck!!
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
Mixed. Queuing isn’t so bad – it’s not always obvious that there’s a queue, and if new arrival tries to pull into a space vacated seconds earlier when you’ve been queuing for 45 mins then generally they are understanding when you tap on their window and point the queue out to them. Quite often a kind of natural queue forms, with the driver leaving a bay going and tapping on the window of the next queuing car to let them know the space if free. There is usually a little bit of cameraderie, a bit of banter, a bit of grumbling about how few chargers there are. EV drivers tend to be a friendly lot, as we’re all in the same boat.
The perceived etiquette is to only charge to 80% or under at the fast chargers – the last 20% is almost performed at a trickle compared to the first 80%, and on long journeys it can indeed be much faster to charge twice to say 60% than to charge once to 100%, so everyone wins. I set my limit to 80% in the app paired to the car, and I frequently top up less than that – why wait 60 minutes to charge to 80% if I can get home on 60% and charge to that level in 30 minutes? (just an example). I did once politely ask someone if they’d mind moving as they were at 85% and I’d been queuing for an over an hour already, but they were openly hostile and confrontational towards me for having dared asked, so I don’t bother anymore. Had to wait another 30 minutes for them to get to 100%. I have to stress though, that I think that was a one off event and during the petrol shortage late last year drivers of ICE vehicles were far, far worse behaved
@Adrian your description of life with an EV is concerning for me. At the moment “EV drivers tend to be a friendly lot, as we’re all in the same boat.” but in the not too distant future “drivers of ICE vehicles” who “were far, far worse behaved” will be driving EVs.
I can totally see why there’s “cameraderie” between EV drivers at the moment. You’re in the minority and all really want the whole experience of living with an EV as perfect as possible. ICE drivers may gradually and reluctantly be forced on to EVs and there’ll be little camaraderie resulting in some stressful situations at charging stations. There will always be people more than willing to push in as they will be certain that their journey is more important.
I’m sure this will only be for a relatively short period until the amount of (working) chargers increase, range increases and speed of charging increases.
I also worry about the cost of daytime electricity if I was to move on to a nigh time EV tariff. I don’t drive many miles, except for my 340 mile round trip to hospital, so do wonder at what point the vehicle fuel saving cost beats the increased electricity cost.
@Gilders, I can’t predict electricity prices in the future! But we have no special tariff. Our smart meter is broken and despite many (many, many, many) reassurances from Scottish Power that they’ll get around to fixing it, it has been broken for two years, and we can’t move to an EV friendly tarriff until it is.
With that said, we are extremely high milers in motability terms – we picked out Kona EV in august and have already covered 18000 miles. Our electric costs have gone up by about £100 / month and also spend around £50 / month on rapid charging. Sounds like a lot but we were spending over £500 / month on diesel before so just since August we’ve saved almost £2000 in running costs
When (if, Scotish Power, if!) our smart meter is ever bought back online then even if our daytime tariff goes up a fair bit I still expect our overall electric bill to come down given we have to “brim” the car from 10% to 100% at least twice a week.
The problem with queuing atr rapid chargers remains, of course, and is likely to get worse, if charge points aren’t added at at least the same pace as electric car sales grow. Personally, despite the drawbacks, I still much prefer EV motoring over ICE. The cost savings alone if you cover a lot of miles is staggering.
https://www.morzak.co.uk/calculator
This calculator tool is excellent for working out how long and how much to charge your battery.
Just put in the cost per Kw hr and the battery size and charger power rate and it gives instant cost and time to charge any given percentage 20%-80% for instance.
I’ll just be charging (rapid) at night. No queue just pop out and watch an episode on Netflix. Happy days!
X
@Adrian I think your last sentence is correct. The savings come with every mile you drive and I think that for many (especially buyers rather than leasers) you do need to drive many miles for it to pay.
I’m sure you’ll do the sums before switching to an EV tariff but you will likely be better off staying on your current one if you are “fixed” on a good tariff. I did the following sums, which clearly show that for a low mileage driver, such as myself since covid, I would be better staying on my current tariff (even the standard price cap one).
I only drove 2450 miles between last 2 MOTs.
Fuel at todays prices (140.7p) would cost me £412/year
EV charging cost based on current cheapest rate and only ever charging during 0030 and 0430 on a home charger costs just £75/year…a saving of £336/year.
BUT to obtain this cheap EV night rate I need to change from my current Octopus standard tariff (I was moved across from AVRO) which increases my day rate from 19.89p/Kwh to 29.82p/Kwh. My annual usage is 4060.5 Kwh. This means an increase of £403.20 in my daytime electricity. Giving me a yearly negative of £67.20 if I drove an EV over an ICE on an EV tariff.
It makes more sense to stick with a standard tariff for me as it would cost £194.92/year to charge the EV, a saving of £217.08/year over ICE. BUT the price-cap of gas and electricity prices are due to rise in April and this could be up to 50% I’m rather certain that a 50% increase would mean I’d be better off in my ICE car even with petrol rising in price (highly unlikely to rise by 50%).
If I return to driving around 5000 miles/year then EV starts looking more attractive……except for one important thing. I already have a ICE vehicle fully paid for and there’s no way that I’d be better off selling my car and purchasing an EV. There could be an option of me selling my car and re-joining Motability, but to get a similar vehicle as mine (but EV version) would either not be available or the AP would make it unrealistic. BUT I would never re-join Motability again unless I had another vehicle as back up. I just don’t trust DWP with their assessments and I could end up without any car.
A couple of questions for EV drivers –
-Is it detrimental to the battery to frequently rapid charge?
-Can you have the heater on whilst charging?
Does it even matter if rapid charging is detrimental to the battery or not?
We get a new car every 3 years!
X
Does it even matter if rapid charging is detrimental to the battery or not? We get a new car every 3 years! X
I hope that was said in jest, X.
Confused.com
Confused.com
You’re basically saying that you wouldn’t care about damaging the most expensive part of a Motability car because you’re likely to get away with it and just hand the car back.
This is the sort of attitude that gives the likes of the Daily Mail more ammunition against Motability and its customers.
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