Questions about electric cars.

Charging at home especially with off peak tariffs makes for very cheap motoring, but at present EV are considerably more expensive so a private owner is not saving money. The real benefit is for company cars where the tax advantages are massive and EVs are much cheaper to own

Don’t expect those concessions to last as we approach 2030 when all new cars will be EVs they will disappear, in the meantime make use of them if you can.

my sil has a tesla, range on a full charge has dropped to just 70 miles. Batteries degrade over time and do not hold a charge. Driving in winter runs down the charge very rapidly, heating, wipers, de-misting, lights. The stated range for a new car is the range in theory, on a summers day with a clear run on a track

He also has great difficulty in finding charging points and quite a few, in car parks, tend to be broken/in use or vandalised. EVs are most definitely not the holy grail

My daughter has a dual fuel car which is electric but also runs on petrol for longer journeys. Is that what they all do?

My SiL has a fully electric car (via motorbility). He is delighted with its economy. His house has cheap electricity due to the panels in their roof they had installed about ten years ago. So, charging at home costs very little.

When we had a family couple of days outing and he needed to charge to get us home, he used a fast charger at a Motorway service station. Took about half an hour, whilst we got ourselves a cup of coffee and cost him £7.00

Its normal range is approx 250 miles.

It also has the advantage that there is no vibration in the steering wheel - so he is able to drive it for longer, this was a problem with cars for him due to his very severe arthritus.

We have a hybrid -Toyota Corolla. We are very pleased with it and it is economic to run.

Thanks Karmalady that’s interesting to know. We only know the good things about electric cars. My DH was thinking of one next time, but I’m always reluctant to try new things!

Chestnut

My daughter has a dual fuel car which is electric but also runs on petrol for longer journeys. Is that what they all do?

No Chestnut ours is an electric car. Others can be dual fuel.

karmalady We didn’t choose a Tesla because of their small battery (being dual fuel) and because Tesla chargers are 60p/kilowatt hour plus they fine you if you stay on the charger once the battery is full. We have met two fellow motorists one was fined £30, another £100.
Electric charging points are social centres. Drivers chat to each other and pass on hints.

When we changed our car three years ago we looked into getting an electric car. The cheapest at the time and closest to our budget for a new car was a Renault Zoe and we were considering it until we found that you have to lease the battery at around £50 a month. We don’t spend that much on petrol, even with the recent price rises, so we decided against it. Hopefully they will become more affordable in the future.

jane we did exactly the same. You could buy the battery but they didn’t really know how long it would last.
I drive a 12 year old mini and do about 4,000 miles /year.
I am, according to a programme called sliced bread on R4, doing the world a favour by keeping it till it falls to bits.

We have two cars, one is more comfortable for longer journeys and the other is a petrol corsa, which we call the dog car as we just use it for local journeys for dog walking or going to the supermarket etc. We are going to keep the corsa going until it falls to bits and then replace with an electric car. Hopefully the price will have dropped a bit by then, however, we're currently reluctant to buy a replacement for the other car as recharging can still be an issue on long journeys

Esspee

karmalady We didn’t choose a Tesla because of their small battery (being dual fuel) and because Tesla chargers are 60p/kilowatt hour plus they fine you if you stay on the charger once the battery is full. We have met two fellow motorists one was fined £30, another £100.
Electric charging points are social centres. Drivers chat to each other and pass on hints.

incorrect this particular tesla is purely EV and certainly not dual fuel. I will most definitely not be getting an EV (physicist) and neither will my siblings, brother is expert witness for motor problems. We know enough about batteries, what they are made from, their capacitance and how long they hold their charge after degrading over time.

There will be other methods of propulsion developed in due course

I'm surprised that the Tesla battery has degraded by so much .Our experience is DH has had his 3 years and did a trip at the weekend and setting off he had 300 miles and that's pretty much what he got.He was advised when he got it to charge up to 80 % the majority of the time. Thats better for the battery than fully charging everytime apparently .Don't know why !So sets its to charge 80% unless were going on holiday eg. and that provides ample mileage for his general use daily.
I had an electric van for my business until I retired and was a bit of a pioneer I guess because not many on the roads then.I absolutely loved it and the battery capacity was slightly less when I sold it after 5 years but not by much.We have solar panels so that helps.And I also don't miss using smelly petrol pumps.

How does the load you are carrying affect range? How much space do the battery and engine take up compared with a petrol or diesel car?

We run a large estate car because one of our hobbies is antiques trading and the car needs to have a really big boot to get all our stock and paraphenalia in and transport us all to a location up to 100 miles away and back. We also have several other journeys we do of a similar kind?

We currently run a big square -rofiled SAAB estate. We have considered a smaller car and a trailer, but have nowhere to park the trailer.

Putting my tin hat on - charging points that are free to the user are paid for via our council tax. I, for one, am glad that Highlands council are rethinking this policy.

We have a Peugeot 2008 on order for July. We were strongly advised to lease the car as battery range will increase in the next few years and the car will lose value. The entire lease cost including insurance will be 370€ a month and there are no maintenance charges. Cost of charging at home about 4€ using a charging point on cheap rate.
MOnica the battery on the Peugeot is between the axles.
We know long journeys will need careful planning, but the French electricity network has already installed four times as many charging points as there are petrol stations. I wouldn't want to travel at the start and end of the holiday season, but we tend to avoid that anyway.

very good points monica and tizliz. Take hydrogen gas, it is very light, wheas a battery is extremely heavy, that alone will affect range. I very much agree with you tizliz, council tax should not be paying for charging points

karmalady the battery on the car we are getting is 34kg. Doesn't seem enormous down between the axels? That seems to be about the average.

There was a very interesting programme on Radio 4 recently on electric vehicles - worth a listen
Sliced Bread - Electric cars on BBC Sounds
I have decided listening to this that it would not be worth my while as I don't do many miles.

Sorry, I didn't read the thread through it's already been mentioned.

It’s interesting though shrub worth another mention!

thanks, this is very interesting. I think that all electric cars should be able to use all charging points, and unless that is sorted out, it will become an even bigger issue. We visit a pub that has 2 electric car charging points (thank you!) but as one is Tesla it is usually empty whilst people get called for their turn at the other one!
Karmalady - I have a feeling that Tesla points are targeted because some idiots think they're 'sticking it' to Elon Musk (although of course there are idiots who'll vandalise anything!).
I'd be interested to know if anyone tows a caravan / trailer tent with an electric or hybrid car.

Nanarose I thought that only Tesla cars could use Tesla charges. I could be wrong but that may explain why the charger is often empty.

If Tesla chargers are really 60p/kWh that’s why Teslas are charging at others that range from 30 - 50p/kWh but we charge at home for 5p/kWh off peak, which gets us 240 miles and 95% of charging is at home. I have hybrid because I didn’t want to pay so much extra for an EV.

Forget hydrogen, it may come in a few decades, remember electricity has to be used to produce it, then it has to be cooled and compressed before it can be used in transport.