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Lots of us on here, what info are you after?
If an EV is right for you you’ll never look back. Personally the things you need to look at first to decide are:
1. Can I have a charger, if not it’s not quite as attractive, but I did nine months without one and was ok.
2. What’s your usual maximum driving distance, if you need to do more than 250 miles a day, you will probably need to use destination chargers that can be expensive.
3. Make sure you get the vehicle that meets your range requirements for 95% of the time and you will find it relaxing and incredibly cheap motoring
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 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate
Ex Corsa EV.
Beautiful to drive.
Why ex? Range. I live in West Cornwall, tween St Ives and Penzance. Infrastructure currently very poor. I had a home charger attached to the cottage and benefitted from Economy 7 night rate electric. Another positive. How8 … trying to leave Cornwall particularly in any season bar summer the battery gave half the advertised 220. With lights off, keeping to 50mph we might get 130-150. In winter it was very difficult. Returned to Exeter airport, 115 miles to home. By Cornwall Services near Bodmin, 8 chargers, 5 out of service. Snowing. Phoning Gridserve. 3 hours. Because a full battery of 220 was down to below 100 and I wasn’t quite halfway home.
Switched to a hybrid. Getting 550 miles with 62.4 mpg despite it being petrol. Of the 2000 miles traveled thus far 1200 have been electric….in and around town etc.
For me hybrid is the answer but my geographic isolation and the poor local infrastructure may not be significant in your case.
Perhaps when an affordable EV can really go 350 ( London eg) I’ll return.
Best wishes
Harry Carson
Ex Corsa EV. Beautiful to drive. Why ex? Range. I live in West Cornwall, tween St Ives and Penzance. Infrastructure currently very poor. I had a home charger attached to the cottage and benefitted from Economy 7 night rate electric. Another positive. How8 … trying to leave Cornwall particularly in any season bar summer the battery gave half the advertised 220. With lights off, keeping to 50mph we might get 130-150. In winter it was very difficult. Returned to Exeter airport, 115 miles to home. By Cornwall Services near Bodmin, 8 chargers, 5 out of service. Snowing. Phoning Gridserve. 3 hours. Because a full battery of 220 was down to below 100 and I wasn’t quite halfway home. Switched to a hybrid. Getting 550 miles with 62.4 mpg despite it being petrol. Of the 2000 miles traveled thus far 1200 have been electric….in and around town etc. For me hybrid is the answer but my geographic isolation and the poor local infrastructure may not be significant in your case. Perhaps when an affordable EV can really go 350 ( London eg) I’ll return. Best wishes Harry Carson
Interesting Harry and exactly the reason I won’t have one untill they actual do 350+ miles!
Good economy from your Hybrd, which one did you go for?
Just coming up to the 30k service on our 2021 Kia Soul EV, it’s been totally reliable and, unlike the Stellantis cars (Harry’s Corsa), its decent in winter (thank you heat pump) in North East Scotland, 180-200 miles at 70 mph with the usual heater on at 21 and heated seats etc. Summer range around 230-250. The Kia has been a hoot, comfy, quick on the road, decent range, cheap and loaded with gadgets. Nothing’s broken trim wise and nothing rattles or squeaks. Great in the snow as well, very controllable.
It’s been very cheap to run as we can charge at home and are on Octopus Go, an EV tariff which gives us off-peak leccy at 9,5p for 4 hours – and there are better deals than that. A full charge is £6, so worst case, 200 miles for less than the price of a gallon of petrol.
I’ve done several long distance trips and apart from one trip where I should have charged but didn’t, its been no problem. Yes, it does add a few extra minutes whilst charging, not a huge issue, and nor is the “high” cost of motorway charging as we do it so seldomly compared to our cheap home rate and it’s about the same as getting 35-40mpg in a petrol car anyway.
I’m not a massive EV evangelist and my replacement may be something else, it’s more what I find most comfy and reasonable cost wise on the day. Some EV’s on the scheme have such high AP’s you’d be cheaper taking a normal petrol car as the AP difference more than covers the fuel. Others are relative bargains like the current Enyaq 80/80x.
I think if I didn’t get another EV then it would probably have to be a plug in hybrid to take advantage of the cheap electric mileage that saves me about £6-8 a day.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Just coming to the end of a 3 year lease with my Soul EV and i have loved every min of ownership. Come November i will be ordering another EV for sure. My advice would be do your homework, do not rely on the WLTP figures for range. Check out the hundreds of real world videos on youtube you will find more realistic information on there or visit the EV database as the figures they show are compiled from ownership so offer a realistic view of day to day range.
Once you get used to the different way of EV ownership i doubt you would return to a combustion engine again.
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Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate trim
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Loves 3D printing & Plastic model kits
----------------------------Had my ZS 2 years now done 40k and despite a horrid software glitch a year ago causing awful problems I will never go back to ICE
I have had precisely zero problems with rapid chargers in that time. We have Merlin passes for the kids and that works brilliantly for a family with a disabled person can’t recommend Merlin parks enough but anyway.
We travel a fair bit and despite the ZS puny 170 mile range we do ok and it’s no hardship. Stop grab McDonald’s put car on charge, go after food car is charged.
Home charger install can be a pain mine took 9 months start to finish because of UK power networks, Octopus, Motability and BP all being fairly poo especially BP. Got a hypervolt put in by motability in the end.
No stinky petrol stations, no fumes, no exhaust, can refuel at home, if you can get solar fuel is free, EV cars are generally more reliable, no engine noise nor vibration thru steering wheel, that’s a big one for me used to hurt my hands over time. EV tend to be a higher spec than an ICE equivalent too altho less so that it was.
The range in some is getting amazing now at least WLTP figures of over 300 for the Enyaq 80 for example.
I’ll never go back I recommend electric to anyone esp if you have a driveway
Have a read of this: https://forum.whichmobilitycar.co.uk/forums/topic/ownership-of-a-battery-electric-vehicle/
I’ve put a lump of information in that and a few others have added a bit more.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Hi All
We have a Peugeot e2008 and we had it 1st March 23, so its six months old now.
When we had it i was not sure about the range etc so didnt feel to comfortable driving but over the six months its been great, in the cold weather (March was cold with a lot of snow) we recharges about every 100mile but still had about 50mile range left at that point, since we do no more than 100miles a week that was fine. now its got warmer the range has got much better, sometime i dont charge for 2 weeks and we seem to get around 200miles. i am also finding that the different modes such as eco/normal/ sports makes little difference to the real range of the car so i leave it in sports mode all the while now.
we would not want to go back to a ICE car now as we love the drive and not having to plan trips to go past a garage now.
more range would be nice i am sure but it hasnt been a problem, last week we did a 130 mile drive on the motorway and still had 46% battery left when we got there, a little top up while we had a coffee and we had more than enough to get home later. very relaxed drive and charge at home for about £2 aweek!
Ex Corsa EV. Beautiful to drive. Why ex? Range. I live in West Cornwall, tween St Ives and Penzance. Infrastructure currently very poor. I had a home charger attached to the cottage and benefitted from Economy 7 night rate electric. Another positive. How8 … trying to leave Cornwall particularly in any season bar summer the battery gave half the advertised 220. With lights off, keeping to 50mph we might get 130-150. In winter it was very difficult. Returned to Exeter airport, 115 miles to home. By Cornwall Services near Bodmin, 8 chargers, 5 out of service. Snowing. Phoning Gridserve. 3 hours. Because a full battery of 220 was down to below 100 and I wasn’t quite halfway home. Switched to a hybrid. Getting 550 miles with 62.4 mpg despite it being petrol. Of the 2000 miles traveled thus far 1200 have been electric….in and around town etc. For me hybrid is the answer but my geographic isolation and the poor local infrastructure may not be significant in your case. Perhaps when an affordable EV can really go 350 ( London eg) I’ll return. Best wishes Harry Carson
Interesting Harry and exactly the reason I won’t have one untill they actual do 350+ miles! Good economy from your Hybrd, which one did you go for?
Kezo I’m sure has the Renault Clio etec hybrid which I shall be test driving next month
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