Low end EVs

[skyhigh]

£21 for 4 charges totalling 280 miles (I’ve exited the post to make it clearer), on the price capped domestic standard electric rate. That rate will be reducing later in the year.

And even cheaper if you can avail of overnight tariffs.

Real example - my car has a 52kWh battery and does 4.2 miles per kWh. 7.5p/kWh overnight so a full charge costs £3.90. That gives you a 218 mile range.

 

[Bald Rick]

And even cheaper if you can avail of overnight tariffs.

Real example - my car has a 52kWh battery and does 4.2 miles per kWh. 7.5p/kWh overnight so a full charge costs £3.90. That gives you a 218 mile range.

yes, hence post #50

 

[paul1609]

You also have to take into account reduced servicing costs. There is very little to service on an electric car.

A used Leaf or Zoe at less than 5k

Would make a very cheap to run car and would serve most of your needs.

Having had Leafs as company cars when new. I can assure you that they could never do 140 mile round trips when new. I'd suggest a 5year old one might well struggle to do the 70 miles to work in winter without recharging. Our fleet manager reckons they are all showing battery degradation by the 3 years/ 50k when he returns them.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Having had Leafs as company cars when new. I can assure you that they could never do 140 mile round trips when new. I'd suggest a 5year old one might well struggle to do the 70 miles to work in winter without recharging. Our fleet manager reckons they are all showing battery degradation by the 3 years/ 50k when he returns them.

This is a problem. Batteries are very very expensive so a cheap second hand EV with poor range is a very expensive liability. A brand new smaller EV would be a lot less risk. But I wait to see if the batteries are improving in quality so that range does not decline with age so much. I am hoping its just teething problems with new technology but I am 15-20 years down the food chain so not very optimistic any EVs will be around at that age !.

 

[skyhigh]

This is a problem. Batteries are very very expensive so a cheap second hand EV with poor range is a very expensive liability.

It's a problem with early Leafs as they didn't have active battery temperature management. Pretty much everything else does.

 

[jon0844]

The Leaf was/is not the best example of EV technology (but was clearly part of the journey to where we are today), but someone on YouTube recently bought one for £4,500 and it appears absolutely fine for the school run, commute and popping to the shops. Cheaper than an Ami, and the battery has no reason to suddenly degrade any faster than it already has, especially now we know how to best treat the battery. Chances are it will last someone many more years, and if doing low mileage (as most people are) then it may even do 5 or 10 more years without issue.

I'd honestly consider one as a second car if it wasn't for the fact I think the first generation models were hideous, and I'm happy to confess that I wouldn't want one on my driveway. Fortunately, as time goes on there are going to be many other second hand bargains and as the years went on, car makers stopped trying to make EVs look like something out of a Sci-Fi movie and more like any ordinary vehicle*.

At least with an EV, you know the degradation will be gradual instead of something going bang and taking you off the road until repaired.

* Okay, Hyundai might be going a bit 'out there' right now!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Aug 2023 ==

I am hoping its just teething problems with new technology but I am 15-20 years down the food chain so not very optimistic any EVs will be around at that age !.

Frankly, like any new car (ICE or EV) the expensive computer systems, sensors and (sadly) subscription features are likely to kill off most cars in the future, not the battery.

If the car industry is allowed to lock down components to a specific car and we allow car makers to get around right to repair rules by claiming false security risks and the like, we'll have cars being effectively written off in no time - which clearly the industry wants. And even ICE cars right now aren't immune to this.

That's perhaps a separate issue worthy of discussion, but if we allow the car makers to lock things down and do silly things like re-lock features or disable functions if you sell on a car, we're going to have an all-new problem to deal with as cars go for scrap long before their time.

 

[paul1609]

And even cheaper if you can avail of overnight tariffs.

Real example - my car has a 52kWh battery and does 4.2 miles per kWh. 7.5p/kWh overnight so a full charge costs £3.90. That gives you a 218 mile range.

When the cheapest off peak rate that Octopus can offer breadline pensioners to heat their homes is around 26p kwh in the southeast you do have to ask why/how they can offer the same electricity to eV owners for 7.5p kwh (albeit it for 6 hours instead of 7). It's either a market share building exercise or something is morally very wrong with our electricity supply industry.

 

[jon0844]

One would argue that privatisation was meant to bring competition, and as such there will be winners and losers based on location and the company you choose to go with.

This might well be a good argument for a nationalised energy provider, which would be consistent everywhere. One must ask why the standing charges can vary so much also (charges that shouldn't even exist, with the 'cost' perhaps better off being included within the unit fee so heavy users would pay proportionally more).

 

[TheSmiths82]

My current car is almost six years old, it is a 1.0 3 cylinder petrol. While I like the idea of an electric car I think the charging will be an issue (I don't have a drive). The cost is also too much of an issue for me at the moment, I did look at a review of the Dacia Swing but as a motor vehicle it just seems far too flawed.

Long term though once we can get the batteries a bit cheaper I think electric cars are the answer especially as the UK is actually quite good when it comes to renewable energy.

 

[dcbwhaley]

How about a car with a range of 100 - 150 miles for town journeys etc, but if you are going on a longer trip, you hire a trailer with a battery pack to give you further range?

(Note it is difficult charging a car with a trailer since most stations are end-on, not side-on. Also few drivers know how to reverse with a trailer.)

Or you could mount a motor generator on the trailer and charge as you drive along.

Toyota call that concept - albeit without the trailer - "the self charging EV"

 

[Cowley]

This thread doesn’t really seem to be covering low end electric vehicles much anymore.

Can we try and get it back on course a little please - bearing in mind what was asked in the opening post and also that it’s an interesting topic:

BYD Seagull is sub-£8000 electric supermini for China | Autocar

What exactly is stopping cheap EVs being imported into UK. Is it safety regs (has the EU imported any?), LHD, or just demand? The government wants everyone in EVs, but when the cheapest is £25,000 atm , and the used market is a bit crap, sub 10k cars like this would be a godsend for lower income people when 2030 comes.

Thanks.