Forum Replies Created
- Replies
I don’t think this will change many peoples opinions on going EV, those like me who are pro EV will still opt for an electric car and those that are anti will opt for ice. By the time 2035 comes around battery technology will be far more advanced with ranges of over 600 miles, this may then convert some of the anti EV people.
I’m not anti EV, I just can’t run one due to a lack of off street parking for a charge port and local infrastructure (and the cost of charging on public chargers).
An EV is not a practical or affordable choice for me right now, that could change in the future but it doesn’t make me anti EV.
I am confident this argument will continue for many years but sometimes I feel there is one element that is lost. I sit in the lowest 10% of U.K. wealth, don’t misunderstand I am not unhappy but contented that due to unforeseen circumstances that’s where we ended up, so the birth of the EV has actually enabled us to continue driving financially which is huge as we live in a very rural location which in itself is costly. I read all sorts of arguments for and against and after 3 years with our new ev on order not 1 neighbour or relative has followed our lead. We calculate a mileage saving of around £176 per month which no body believes so I no longer tell them. I am now told with glee by many that the environmental destruction caused by the manufacture of my ev means that I will need to drive it for millions of miles for it to be better than ICE but here is where I feel the point is being missed and rarely mentioned my car emits nothing and now it’s built and found it’s way to my location you can lie a new born baby in a crib next to it and so long as you put the handbrake on no harm will come to the child. Not one of my neighbours can say that and they all have kids. so when you say what am I missing I say it’s the fumes we are missing and that can’t be bad can it ? I was not allowed to test my theory on anyone’s child just to confirm
It’s good that it works for you but for some others, it wouldn’t represent a saving or it would be so cumbersome so as to be not at all practical.
I too am in the lowest when it comes to income, an EV would actually cost me more to run than my current ICE car or would require an outlay first that would take many many years to recoup before I could even think about the savings being made on fuel.
When I look at cars, I don’t judge because it is an EV, I’m not a stick in the mud. Had I the infrastructure at home, I would have one like a shot because of the cost savings on fuel but I don’t have that infrastructure and to get it is unattainable due to finances and the alternative for me, is charging at public chargers at a nigh on 30 mile round trip on a stressful road and at an eye watering cost per kwh and that makes it unaffordable and not at all practical.
It may change at my next property (if I ever get to move, I’m rapidly losing hope), if I have a driveway. It would make it the obvious choice in vehicle.
Round here, very little has changed in the last 3 years in regards to charging infrastructure (or much else come to that – our council appear to be allergic to anything up to date and hark back to halcyon days of the 60s all the time ), I’m not too hopeful for the next 3.
However, even if they improved the infrastructure, there will still be the issue of cost. Public charging is not cheap, in fact it is blooming expensive and that, I fear, will not change as there will be the captive audience of those unable to charge at home. A year ago, there were a couple of free chargers that could be used within 10 miles of here, now there are none.
Diesel isn’t completely dead, I got a diesel car just over a month ago.
I’ve not got my head stuck in the sand, as I have said on another thread, right now for me, a vehicle that requires being plugged in, is not a practical, affordable or workable option for me right now. It could become so in the future given a change in finances, property and/or infrastructure but right now, it isn’t.
I researched massively in my quest for my new Motability vehicle, asked questions regarding provision of on street charging to my local council, searched grants for the same but it was all a big fat no. I even researched local charging points and costs, got help working out how much it would cost to charge at one, their availability, their busy and quiet times and how they fitted into my work and other responsibilities, my physical and financial limitations.
I did not blindly say nope! I, like I do with everything, researched the practicalities and just like a Fiesta or an i10 wouldn’t be suitable cars for me, neither is a plug in vehicle at the present time.
A plug in vehicle is not a practical vehicle for me at the present time. I cannot home charge, we have 2 (mostly never working) public chargers in my town and to charge one would require a 10 mile drive up the road at the very expensive public chargers.
It just wouldn’t be workable or affordable for me unless I could home charge and that isn’t going to happen unless someone wants to give me 5k to put a driveway in (AONB, so certain rules have to be adhered to), or I move house. I have investigated with the local council – no joy and relying on the public charging network would be a nightmare of epic proportions due to my limitations, both physically and financially.
I am not against EVs but any vehicle I have has to be practical and workable for my use and at the present time, one isn’t. That could always change in the future, it could be realised that we have a desperate need for more public chargers here and a massive schedule to improve it brought in, I could win the lottery and move house but right now, it just isn’t workable.
I don’t even know if I will still be driving when ICE cars have been phased out and an EV the only thing available on the scheme, I’m ok for at least the next 3 years for a vehicle as I have only just taken delivery of my new Motability vehicle, 5 years if I am allowed to extend (as I did with my previous car due to a struggle with the cost of an advance payment) but my driving days are limited now, an end will come and probably sooner rather than later, so it could all be academic.
For my current car, the dealership just handed us the keys and said off you go, no time limit and no accompanying us.
We took it for a blast up the bypass, round country roads, local roads and investigated parking it up etc and more importantly, swapped drivers to make sure youngest (who is 5ft), could drive it and he then repeated the blast along the bypass, on country roads and more local ones.
I got the car in just shy of 10 weeks and have had it just over a month now.
Some of the other dealerships were a little more awkward, wanting to accompany and then it only being a 10 minute drive around the local roads.
The best thing Sue is you can now relax with your new car for a few years as if your like me this ordering a new car has become a bit of a nightmare and glad I’m now settled with my new car for awhile.
It is a massive relief I have to say, I’m just glad my youngest son offered to help as I was being pushed (unwillingly) into a vehicle that whilst suitable for my needs, would have been really quite difficult to use on a day to day basis by the grants team. I know they were trying to do their best for me, I can’t fault them for that but the practicalities of having such a massive vehicle, just didn’t work with my current living, working or parking situation.
Advance payment was £2195, with the £750 new car payment it brought it down to £1445. Youngest helped with a £900 loan as it was outside of my affordability.
Update – Vehicle has arrived and handover is Friday.
It has taken just shy of 10 weeks from order to collection (factory order).
My car is now in the UK, expected at the dealership in the next couple of days and with a tentative handover next week.
Ordered 8th April – Citroen C5 Aircross automatic.
A very interesting and informative read, especially around the charging capacities and types, I must admit I had been completely confused by them too.
However, it has made it clear to me and confirmed that a plug in vehicle is not at all suitable or workable for me. We just don’t have the infrastructure locally, I cannot charge from home and when I go on trips, I don’t want to be mucking about having to divert because chargers are not available/not working at my planned stop.
I only have limited energy and the last thing I would want/need to be doing is to be driving around to the next available charge point a few miles away from my planned stop and to do so, would put the whole trip at risk. Too many of those diversions and I would have to abort and return home or fork out for a place to rest. For current trips, I don’t have to worry about refuelling the car on the way, just that the place I stop has drinks and a loo available, not all charge points have loos and refreshments available and not all tea and wee places have charge points (well certainly not on my usual trips anyway)
For the moment, I will have to wait until I am in a suitable property with a driveway and the infrastructure/battery strength has improved.
My car has been built and is due at the dealership on the 10th June, handover around a week later.
Ordered 8th April, Citroen C5 Aircross, diesel automatic.
I gave up on my grant application as they were pushing me to the WAV type option and not listening to the somewhat cheaper but still suitable solutions in normal cars.
I get what they were trying to achieve, complete independence but that requires a powered chair which I cannot afford and the fact remains, even if I could get myself out of the vehicle independently, it still didn’t change the fact that I need someone with me after that, so can never be truly independent.
We then got into a roundabout thing of applying for charities for a powered chair (need to have a WAV, not just one ordered and a house that is suitable), wheelchair services (had already declined due to house not meeting criteria even though my needs do meet the criteria) and I was just ping ponging between everyone. I kept saying that a normal vehicle with some tweaks would do the trick but it didn’t seem to get through.
In the end I gave up, found something on the scheme that sort of met things, cancelled that order after less than average customer service (a pleasant way to put it) and then youngest offered to help with an AP and I ordered a car that meets my needs, has all the things I had been suggesting to the grants team as standard, has one thing that would have had to be a specialised, very expensive thing on the van type vehicle and is far cheaper than anything they were suggesting (£2.2k compared to the 25-30k they were talking about at one point!).
Oh and I have space to park it too, unlike the bigger vehicle, wouldn’t have had a hope with that at home or at work.
It is a period of upheaval, coming out of a Pandemic, and transitioning to EV’s. The next 3 years will be more of a changeover period, with CATL batteries by the end of the year, EV’s will improve immensly. ICE cars will be gone, the way of Steam locomotion. You may think you can keep running your ICE vehicle, but you wont. Petrol stations will close as demand plummets, and petrol and diesel prices will go through the roof. It is basic economics. In a handful of years, the ULEZ zones will expand from the cities and engulf the whole country. We have seen the past 2 years the availability of Diesel vehicles plummet, give it another 3 years and the petrol engines will be unavailable as well. It is human nature to fight against forces that want to change your way of life. But EV’s are coming and there is nothing you can do about it. Some people just CANNOT handle change.
I can handle change but that change has to work and be suitable.
For me, an EV is just not suitable at this time. I cannot charge at home, we have very few charge points where I live and it would cost me an arm and a leg to get a plug in vehicle charged up enough to run about for the week, either through rapid charge prices and/or paying someone to take it to be charged and because of what would have to be used to get it there and back, would need a blooming big range to just do it the once a week.
EVs are great if you can home charge but are totally unsuitable for others at the present time and I can’t see that changing in our little town in the next 5 years…we actually have less public chargers than we did two or three years ago!
I’ve just ordered my latest Motability vehicle, another diesel. I’m hoping and planning on extending it and keeping it for 5 years, maybe by then things will have changed (have somewhere to charge or more charge ports available) by then.
Placed my order on the 8th April (after cancelling my Vauxhall Crossland one), got a phone call today from the dealership to say it is being built this week and it should be ready for collection early June if no shipping hold ups.
I’ve ordered a Citroen C5 Aircross, it had been completely out of my price range in previous quarters and still was even with the AP reduction this quarter but youngest son has offered to help and with the new car payment being able to go towards the AP, has brought it more into affordability. Still going to be a bit of a struggle but it is not a compromise car and a few weeks of beans on toast will be worth it.
It depends on your disability I suppose. I don’t need a powered tailgate, I don’t have a clue to be honest how many disabled not buying a WAV need a powered tailgate. Ive just checked the spec and the car is well specked with other things disabled would find useful, heated seats, heated steering wheel, power fold and heated door mirrors, rear view camera adaptive cruise control, adaptive lights. The Ionic5 does have electric tailgate and hands free
I need a powered tailgate (height challenged with dislocating shoulders), I am finally, on my third Motability vehicle, getting one. I got round it by just putting things in the back seat and/or leaving the use of the boot to other people…begger, just realised I won’t be able to use that excuse when the new car arrives!
Ordered a Mokka 17th September 2022 still nothing, have to say Vauxhall have been the worst company I have used for my motability vehicle, they just seem to “avoid” all emails and telephone calls when trying to get in touch with anyone.
That was the reason why I cancelled my order at Vauxhall, well that and the fact they spoke to me as if I was a brainless 5 year old when I did finally get them to respond which was the final straw.
Thankfully, I wasn’t very far down the road in waiting, had only put the order in 6 weeks before but my experience in those 6 weeks told me it was not going to be the easiest of orders and made me fear for when I actually got the vehicle.
It’s brilliant for me, I ordered a new car on Saturday (well cancelled an existing order and ordered a different one) but the advance payment is quite a bit higher than I’ve previously paid. It was going to be a bit of a mare borrowing money from family and moving stuff about and then paying it all back when the NVP and GCB came in, so this saves all of that.
That the dealership was so on the ball and gave me a call this morning to opt to do it, also bodes well after my experience at the now cancelled vehicle dealership.
New vehicle payment now available to be taken off the advance payment.
I saw something on social media yesterday, taken down quickly as it was embargoed until today, did a little checking and found it true and have just received a call from the dealership my new car is ordered through to offer me the option of applying it to my order.
My thoughts exactly, I have a test drive set up for a completely different car on Saturday.
That it took 4 phone calls to get that answer (and 3 previous phone calls trying to talk to them about something else – an appointmentfor youngest to look at and test drive and for them to remove the paintwork protection thing from the invoice that I had refused several times during the ordering process), only adds to my dissatisfaction.
Think I will be trying to speak to the dealer on Monday, ordered my car 6 weeks ago and the AP has gone down £300. I know it’s not a massive amount of money but it was a push for me to do the £749, so £449 is much more affordable.
Definitely worth asking Sue. The AP on our BMW dropped just £100 in the quarter after we ordered it. As it was such a small amount I didn’t have the nerve to ask. I was therefore amazed that, without even a discussion with the dealer, they phoned me to say that they had re-done the admin on the Motability system so that we’d pay the lower AP. When I thanked them and said that I wouldn’t have asked for such a small difference, the comment I had was “better in your pocket than Motability’s”. Just goes to show what a great dealer does, versus so many of the bad ones that sadly so many Motability customers have to contend with.
I’ve asked but they’ve stated it’s not possible as Motability have to change it and it could impact on my good condition bonus…yep, I know, a whole lot of rubbish.
Motability at first took the having to cancel, going to the back of the queue line but eventually said it was an admin thing that only the dealership can do and that it definitely would not impact my good condition bonus.
Think that will be my next move Chris, tried again today and apparently the Motability guy I need has his day off on a Tuesday, weird that, when I rang on a Thursday, that was his day off and I ordered my car on a Tuesday. Anyway, I said about my calls not being returned and she said she would get a manager to call.
Guess what? No phone call received.
Well I tried, strangely his usual day off has changed from Thursday (as I was told on my first attempt to call him), to a Tuesday (apparently he never works Tuesday, it is his regular day off – I ordered my car on a Tuesday). Apparently, they will be getting a manager to call me back….I don’t think I will hold my breath.
I was having a few wobbles with the car I ordered in February, not helped by bad reports on the manufacturers Facebook page and worrying if it will be big enough (it’s yet another compromise car). I’d tried to call a couple of times to arrange for youngest to test drive the car and to have a look around it (and also to settle my worries) but no call back.
We went up Saturday, at the time the Motability site was still in its settling down period so wasn’t sure if the AP being reduced was correct, so didn’t plan on mentioning it but he couldn’t spend time with me anyway as he had customers. I left feeling slightly more satisfied and settled with the car but still with no answers to my questions/fears.
Today I tried calling again as the advance payment is confirmed as being lower than when I ordered….and yet again, another non response.
Once is understandable, twice is pushing things a bit far but three times has now gone beyond what I expect as basic customer service (I work in customer services, my boss would have my guts for garters if I did the same).
I’ll try again tomorrow but if no joy, I may well take youngest up on his offer to top up what I can pay in an AP and go elsewhere.
