Have any of you got all electric cars? Pros and cons please.

I'll be watching this with interest.

I'd like an electric car but I think the battery angst would be too much for me

In principle they sound like the best... but what about those stuck in snowbound motorway pileups etc? Yet in my quiet life I am sure one would suit me fine

My research shows that the majority of journeys we make are 35 miles or less, this is definitely the case for myself.
Longer journeys are done in my husband’s car, I am happy to drive his car.

My concerns are range, how safe are they in a collision and the long term impact on the environment, ie battery production and disposal and the actual car production.

I guess for pootling about an EV would be ideal and cheap to run, however it’s a big outlay, I haven’t as yet looked at insurance.

EV sales dropped by over a third in December. I think people are really thing about the charging problems. Last week Chicago was described as a EV graveyard due to the fact that so many EVs had been abandoned.

Trying to keep this near the top in the hope of some responses.
I’m amazed there are no EV owners on this group.

We visited our son in Oslo late last year and the EV’s are everywhere, they don’t pay any VAT on the purchase of an EV and the infrastructure is fantastic, chargers are in abundance.

Even though we live in a City there are few charging points.

We have 4 in our Booths car park near our holiday let in Ripon, they are hardly ever occupied!

We have only ever had 1 guest with an EV, they drove up from Bristol and needed confirmation that there were definitely charging points nearby.

We were one of the first owners of an electric car in North Yorkshire. The local radio station appealed for someone to give a local journalist an hours ride while they recorded a live interview. So. my husband volunteered and the presenter was very impressed. The car was a Zoe, and we had it for many years. Now on our second car - same model but much bigger range now on the battery.
I should mention that we have our own charging unit on the side of the house, so have never needed to find a charger when out and about.
We are both eighty, and dont do many journeys more than 40 miles. So for us it ticks all the boxes.

Whilst chatting to our post lady this morning she said she didn't like the all electric vans in this weather as she can't have the heater on too much as it runs down the battery so quickly

I’m amazed there are no EV owners on this group
I’m not. They are super expensive to buy. We don’t all have that kind of disposable income. We can only afford to run one petrol car and that’s 18 years old!

The initial expense is too much for us and I share your concerns Sago.

I don’t want to change my car, but if I did I wouldn’t choose an all electric one because there are so few charging points in my area, should I need to charge whilst out - which with lights and heating on is entirely possible. Also, we get power cuts in the sticks so charging at home can’t be guaranteed, in stormy weather especially.

I’d only ever have a hybrid, but we don’t have one yet, and my car will probably see me out. Dh’s bigger, very comfortable diesel that we use for longer journeys will need to be replaced at some point (it’s not ULEZ friendly either) but I can’t see us having an all-electric since our 7 hour trips to France would necessarily be quite a bit longer because of the time needed to charge.

Our garages are in a block and dh recently spent literally months and endless hassle, organising sufficient electricity to be provided to them, for us and several neighbours who were willing to pay the not inconsiderable cost.

So we now have an EV charging facility, which will presumably be a selling point in future, but we also have garage lighting and power points, which are a big plus - especially for the neighbour who had an electric garage door installed on the first day it was finally possible!

I’ve got a hybrid Corolla. It is quiet and lovely and you don’t have to charge it.

We have hired a hybrid car in Norway, we were very impressed but it was avery expensive model.
I test drove a hybrid Toyota Yaris, I loved it but my husband hated it😬.
Whilst at the Mini garage yesterday, we looked at a hybrid BMW, the aesthetics were great, it was however £155K!

I’m back to collect my car later today, I will have a chat to the lovely salesman who would love to sell me an electric Mini.

a hybrid BMW, the aesthetics were great, it was however £155K!

Blimey O’Reilly! You can buy a house up here for that money and still have change in your pocket.

We have an EV (Kia). In general quite happy with it, but I'm a passenger as no longer able to drive. A lot depends on what EV you buy as they have different features.

Charging hasn't been a problem as we have a drive and have installed a charger. Would be more of a problem if you're not able to do that. It's no cheaper to run with the increased cost of electricity. When we go anywhere we plan the route and check out where the fast chargers are. We've done a few trips from the South to the NE and haven't had a problem yet. The range decreases a lot in the cold but we plan for that.

It's very quiet to drive.

There are some potential problems - we broke down recently and needed to be transported to a garage. It was a busy night for breakdowns and the RAC took 5 hours to pick the car up because it needs a larger transporter and can't just be towed. The 12v battery doesn't last that long so no hazard lights left. It's left me a bit nervous of breaking down now. Having said that our garage was so amazed that we broke down that they responded at the crack of dawn next morning, trying to get our car in to check it out as they see so few problems. That's the only problem we've had in just over a year.

Urmstongran

^I’m amazed there are no EV owners on this group^
I’m not. They are super expensive to buy. We don’t all have that kind of disposable income. We can only afford to run one petrol car and that’s 18 years old!

I was glad to read this post. I sometimes think I live in a different world than most gransnetters! We share one petrol car between us. We have state pensions and small private pensions, but virtually no savings. Live in a smallish semi. Genuinely affected by the increase in cost of living. Never had a cleaner or a gardener.

We have a Dacia Hybrid, we’ve had it 3 weeks, it doesn’t enjoy driving up the mountain in the very cold weather we’re having, unless it’s ‘warmed up’.
Apart from that it seems excellent.

I know 3 people with EVs. I hesitated to post as I too was expecting more posts to appear, and from actual owners.

For 2 out of the 3 people I know, range is a big issue.
Charging points less so now, as more and more are appearing, or look like they are about to appear.
They both admitted, that if it wasnt because they are company cars, they would not pay out the huge initial expense themselves[they are both reltatively young].
On the plus side, I have ridden[in both I think].
I am not a fan of anything expensive generally, so most of it all goes over my head. However, I did notice it was a quiet car to ride in.

And the other reason I hestitated to post - 1 person[who I dont know very well], had an accident while in his. I cant remember exact details. I think he put his pedal on the brakes and it didnt stop. He was on a motorway. Thankfully the car did stop, before it hit anyone.
It shook him up.
But as he said, if he had been in a "normal" car, he could have had an accident in that one too, at some point.
But he has lost some trust in his EV.

Last year we changed our family Tesla for a hybrid car as we often do a journey of about 6/7 hours up to Scotland and the charging network was simply not fit for purpose.

I’ve since also bought a hybrid, which around town works fabulously but for longer journeys I’m still using petrol. Not ready to change back again to a fully electric until the charging network vastly improves.

👋 LucyAnna! We may be in a minority group on here but the nice thing is our opinions still count and GN’s are a friendly bunch. They tolerate my nonsense.
😁

We have looked at Hybrids but they are pricey £££, and according to DH he will be dead before he gets his moneys worth.

I wouldn’t feel safe driving round the M25 in an all electric vehicle, all you need is a traffic jam (which are frequent) and you could run out of battery.

I wouldn’t feel safe driving round the M25 in an all electric vehicle, all you need is a traffic jam (which are frequent) and you could run out of battery.

Which battery do you mean? When we're stationary we turn the car off. It uses nothing when we're sitting in traffic whether at lights or in a jam. When the car is moving very slowly the 12v battery is recharging, so car seat heating etc can be used. If you were stuck for hours and hours without moving I suppose it may become a problem, I don't know, but that doesn't happen often.

It does happen though, and it would be a very stressful situation. Not for me.

Germanshepherdsmum

It does happen though, and it would be a very stressful situation. Not for me.

Not for me either - we once arrived somewhere with 7% battery left. It was a bit scary as we were in the middle of nowhere.