Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

[JamJar]

If you were going to buy a Tesla, or any EV, does the software tell you how much life is left in the battery pack?

https://tesla-info.com/blog/battery-degradation.php

[lostboy]

I have looked at an EV now we're planning to retire in the next couple of years, the ICE cars we have will be expensive to run.
But I noticed that the government have put a wealth tax on anything over £40k, which basically rules out Tesla.

Doesn't apply to zero emission vehicles.

[Mr. Dazzle]

But I noticed that the government have put a wealth tax on anything over £40k, which basically rules out Tesla.

Doesn't apply to zero emission cars at the moment.

EDIT: I snost and lost.

[JamJar]

On that basis then, I may buy one when we retire back to the UK.
My Defender is being priced off the road by the climate change gestapo and I don't want a gutless small petrol car.

All of the EV's I have driven seem to have more poke than a gutless small petrol, even the new Leaf that my friend has just taken delivery of and the she leant to me for a week was quite nice to drive. The only thing I found in all my test drives is that EV's seem to be about £10k more than an equivalent ICE although they do have nice gadgets.

[Mr. Dazzle]

There was a period when the fastest car BMW made between 0-40 was the electric i3, might even have been the fastest vehicle they made.

It's the metric everyone covets. 0 to 40.

[Mussels]

There was a period when the fastest car BMW made between 0-40 was the electric i3, might even have been the fastest vehicle they made.

It's the metric everyone covets. 0 to 40.

Clearly, it doesn't sound like something a desperate marketing department came up with at all.

[weeksy]

These days I only drive once a week, usually 300 miles.

So no. Still not for me.

Add to that how little I care about cars or driving

[Mussels]

I've been looking at solar panel options and the party line seems to be that 4KW is the right size for my house but I could easily go higher. If I can't use a car as a power wall then I wonder if I can get one to only charge to 80% on the mains and then above that using only excess solar power.

I like the sensible finances but it does little for my range anxiety.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I did the numbers on this myself. My wife and I both predominantly WFH and we only do ~120 miles of "enforced" driving a week. I.e. driving we have no choice on doing.

You might get something approaching 4miles/kWh from an EV, so we'd be looking at maybe 30-40kWh of charging power for a week's driving.

A modest solar panel installation could therefore power my driving needs with plenty spare. It wouldn't literally power it of course, but on average it would. The solar would actually predominantly power my house, but you see what I mean.

I can see myself with some kind of smart solar charging and power wall/car combination in the future.

[weeksy]

That's got to be the next step though? Solar panels on garage roof that you directly charge off? That sounds fairly appealing

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah something like that.

There are actually energy tariffs that will pay you to charge your car. Or at least, there were. I haven't looked in the last few months!

They'll pay you to charge and "soak up" extra electricity when demand is low (often at night when its windy) so long as you promise to leave your car plugged in and not use it af certain times so they can have that electricity back in the morning.

Obviously not ideal if you have to commute, but for someone like me who knows he's not gonna be in the office 4 days a week its fine.

Grid energy storage is the next "big thing". The UK has more than enough generation capacity for everyone to have an electric car (its the national grid saying that BTW, not me), the next challenge is smoothing out the demand. Having lots of big batteries plugged in will help with that.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/jo ... les-busted

[v8-powered]

We've just replaced our car.
Due to difficulty getting power out to the car we've not gone full EV but a mild hybrid, think it's more a way of lowering emissions and saving a few mpg than anything else....

[Pirahna]

I had a very brief look at electric cars on the internet last night, here's what I need if anyone has any ideas.

It'll be used locally and probably won't go more than an hour or so from the house in any direction. It'll be used for airport runs so needs to have room for five plus luggage. There are no charging points locally so it'll need to be charged at home. There is no mains electricity so charging will have to be solar, that's a cost that needs to be factored in. Sunlight won't be a problem as the house is 40k west of Alicante. The house is one km up a dirt track, so nothing too low to the ground. The competition is a petrol Dacia Duster.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Budget?

Tesla Model X would do you fine, but I doubt you'd mention that in the same sentence as a Duster I realise I've just done exactly that BTW.

[Mussels]

I've seen a solar panel system designed to charge electric cars away from the mains so they do exist, I have no idea how much they cost or how effective they are but they looked much nicer than most solar installations.

[Pirahna]

Budget?

Tesla Model X would do you fine, but I doubt you'd mention that in the same sentence as a Duster I realise I've just done exactly that BTW.

Budget is brand new Dacia Duster plus solar charge system.

Dacia actually make a leccy car, I can buy it in Spain but not in the UK. It's called the Nuevo Spring and comes in around 20k Euro. Sounds promising until you read a road test that reckons it runs out of puff at 40mph.

https://www.dacia.es/modelos/spring.html

[wheelnut]

Finally, a good reason to buy an EV

Isle of Wight: Council's electric vehicle chargers hacked to show porn site https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-h ... e-61006816

[Mussels]

Unless your family have three right type of dedicated high power charging point you're unlikely to get enough charge during your visit. My image of visiting my parents 200 miles away is parking at a charge point in the town and getting a taxi the to take me the last mile, not an attractive solution either.

[Taipan]

I'd really like an EV and have been looking into things with interest. Tesla quote 200 mile charge in 15 minutes at one of their superchargers. You can even book hotels with said superchargers now and if they become more readily available on M-ways and A roads, then it does become more feasible.

In real terms for me, that is unlikely to ever be a problem as we rarely stray further than the full charge distance and as time goes on the situation will only ever improve. But the whole EV thing still has the whiff of early adopters about it, so I'm not sure I'm ready to jump in just yet...

[Cousin Jack]

Just returned from a few days away in East Devon and Dorset in my hybrid. Filled the tank before I left, 550 miles or so range showing before I left. There, back and 2 days driving up and down the coast and it is still half full. Had I wanted to fill up I passed at least 2 dozen petrol forecourts, and could have found another couple of dozen with a very modest effort.

If I had an electric vehicle the hotel actually had a charger (1 as far as I could see) but it was being hogged all the time by a big 4x4 of uncertain but obviously expensive make, that may or may not have been plugged in. It was certainly blocking access for anyone else.

Fix the infrastructure, charging time, and range and I will buy one, otherwise it is hybrid for me.