Nordboy wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 7:28 am
Even with £12k off the Q4, still an expensive EV? Not sure how the likes of Audi/ BMW/ Merc are selling EV's at their prices?
We've started looking at replacing the wife's aging E220 Convertible. She'd like a SUV style car and I'm tempted to go EV to save her fuel costs. Looked at the Ford Explorer and Capri, the Renault Scenic e-tech, Skoda Enyaq and Cupra Tavascan. All of those claim to have a 300+ mile range. Only sat in them though, no test drives yet.
I didn't think any of them seemed nasty, all pretty pleasant to sit in, Cupra was funky.
Then I got thinking about maybe, as the EV market is still unpredictable and all over the place, that we may just lease one for a couple of years, rather than buy and take the huge depreciation. And tech is moving so quickly, especially range wise that, like with phones and laptops etc, as soon as you buy one, it's out of date. Obviously getting a used one is an option as well, but a lot of the models are still so new and peoples PCP's etc haven't finished yet to allow them onto the used market.
Most of the EVs that claim to have 300+ mile range, dont unless you play around with charge levels and its in summer etc as discussed in the range anxiety thread. But the reality is, for most daily high mileage drivers, you dont do 250+ miles without a break, no matter what car you're in, and most get enough charge in during that break to complete their journey. For the rest of the EV drivers who don't do big daily mileages charging and range simply isn't an issue. Whatever model you go for, do plenty of research on its charge and range first as the on paper side of things is often very misleading..
As for fuel savings, EVs are crazy cheap. Theres hardly any servicing costs compared to an ICE obvs and get on the right tarrif, something like Octopus intelligent and you can get charge rates at like 7p per kwh. Plus whilst you're on that overnight tarriff you can schedule things like your washing machine etc to be on at that rate too.
I got my EV in May and use it more than I ever did compared to my old car and the wifes Mini is pretty much parked up at weekends now. So far i've spent a miserly £21 on charging it. I should dig out the paperwork and see what mileage I bought it at to give that some credence obvs, but I was certainly spending a lot more on my diesel rangey and I used it a lot less. The marketing of EVS is a little bit misleading IMO, but the win is still there!
Dashboard instantly lit up red, it stopped charging and went into sulk mode and the charger itself gave me a 5 minute time out before I could even unplug the car. 
Just had to sit there on the naughty step before I could do anything at all.
