lol-lol

Those EVs that it is looking like will not get the UK government grant are likely slashing their prices to compete. Leap motors have already done so (this happened in Germany at the start of the year when they withdrew their 7,500 Euro subsidies). Now a super bargain. Chinese brand’s new LEAP-GRANT scheme undercuts rivals and puts the £14,495 T03 at the top of the UK’s electric car value charts Leapmotor has fired the starting pistol on a UK electric car price war by launching its own discount scheme. The LEAP-GRANT cuts the price of its entire EV model range by up to £3,750, undercutting both the competition and the Government. Buyers can now order the Leapmotor T03 from £14,495, where it previously cost £15,995. That makes it the cheapest new five-door electric car on sale in the UK right now, undercutting the Dacia Spring by £500. Of course, that could change once the list of government EV grants is confirmed. What’s new? - Leapmotor has taken the unusual step of introducing a manufacturer-funded electric car grant ahead of the UK Government’s incoming scheme. Called the ‘LEAP-GRANT’, it offers immediate savings of up to £3,750 on its electric vehicle range and is available across all of its UK retailers from launch. The scheme reduces the price of the C10 family SUV by the full £3,750, while the smaller T03 city car gets £1,500 off its list price. On top of that, both cars are also being offered with 0% APR finance, making the monthly payments especially competitive for drivers switching from petrol or diesel. ParkersHas Leapmotor just killed the cheap petrol car?Leapmotor launches its own EV grant, slashing prices across its range. The T03 city car now starts at just £14,495 – the cheapest new five-door electric car on sale in the UK.

Post about Leap Motors new lower prices put in this thread when should have been Truth about Electric cars.

Sort of glad that Chinese don't qualify as would have been gutted if the Mini we "bought", PCP, yesterday suddenly become much cheaper. But if the R4 drops a chunk that would be great though the Megane is cracking deal with 4 year 0% and it was even cheaper it will be incredible.

French should come out well in the CO2 production as so much of their Grid is nuclear powered. There was talk about production CO2 but not transportation in the UK EV grant scheme. Guess it probably takes about half a tonne per car to bring it from SE Asia to Europe. Below is the first of a new class of ship for us, launched 2023. 72,000 Gross tonnes, can car up to 7000 cars. Running three but plan is to a dozen or more. LNG powered which translates to about a quarter less Carbon emission. Interesting if the transportation Carbon is being included in the UK EV grant system. Picture at bottom, love piccy of a nice biggish merchant ship. Carbon taxing, or getting grants, is coming in big time. EU currently and close behind the UK is due to implements. GOV.UKFactsheet: Carbon border adjustment mechanismTaxation and Customs UnionCarbon Border Adjustment MechanismThe CBAM will initially apply to imports of certain goods and selected precursors whose production is carbon intensive and at most significant risk of carbon leakage: cement, iron and steel, alumin...

Apparently Public charging has been added to salary sacrifice schemes in addition to pension schemes, EV purchasing, nursery places ! 40% cheaper Public EV charging. Even I am thinking things maybe going a bit too far.... https://electroverse.com/business/salary-sacrifice

Us French firms usually know to the gram how much CO2 every stage of a process is but other countries, not so much I would have thought. Maybe that is part of the cunning plan ? French, German (& CZ) and Spanish car manufacturers maybe able to do this tout suit but CN, I have my doubts.

Was happy for my lad getting his Cooper E Exclusive level 1 with HOD and numerous quite nice features and Mini (with GWM) knocking these out at £31K is a good price I felt, always annoying if you feel one has lost out on possible lower monthly payments. Scheme will probably cause anyone even thinking of getting an EV to wait until September new Reg when the scheme should be in full swing by then. Let's see if Dealer/Agent discounts, cheaper finance etc just melt away and they take a good chunk of the pay out as happened under the last government's EV scheme.

Still a bit unsure ie second hand as well as new, as long as under £37k ? One can be sure that the discount will always be less than the VAT (still 20%) so Government will still get some revenue plus, hopefully ie a UK, or EU with our closer ties on buying each others made stuff, jobs etc from EVs made in Washington T&W, more sales at dealers who sell EVs, more car handovers, sales of associated stuff, finance and extras, it will be good for more turnover. Is there is list of cars out there ? Hopefully already having one lot of EV grant 4 years ago, and subsidised chargers as well, will not be a bar.

120 million Japanese work with it. I found, and my 6 foot fie friends, old mini fie for size. Remove seat rail stop. Drop the steering rack with a little bracket. Car has plenty of head room. I could not fit in a Hyundai Coupe just built for sub 6 footers. With EVs the one can tuck the electrical components easier. ICE cars fundamentally flawed as inline engines with the cylinder axis perpendicular to the road. Proper ICE cars use boxer engine or vvankel or the like to get a low bonnet or put the engine at the rear down low. Another reason EVs are superior.

Japan adopted K cars ie short cars, taxed less and more cars can be fitted on the kerbside. UK cars have got much longer than average cars a few decades ago. Charge less VED for sub 4m, or even 3.5m ir 3m cars. Great car park in Stroud had a sign up "Minis only" (old 10 foot Minis). Smarts Twos are even less. We don't exactly deal with problems as they are creaky emerging. Glad to see some car parks banning 5m cars in the standard spaces as they poke out in to the pedestrian walkway.

Be interesting to see which way the government goes. I think EVs can compete against ICE cars already without subsidies though it is also clear the UK car sellers are offering deals with finance ie 0% compared to ICE cars, appalling deals like 7.9% or so in that way manufactures are encouraging EV sales and punishing ICE buying. Presumably so they hit their 28% EV sales and don't get whacked with penalties. EVs have just become some much cheaper for a similar spec car which makes returning cars after PCP etc a strange event. Would love to keep my Zoe ZE50 Riviera but the balloon payment is about £13k. The car is probably worth £9k at best. Car was £34K RRP when new. Had about £10k of subsidies Government, Renault and Dealer. Monthly payment well under £300 a month, very cheap to run, energy, service, tyres. But will Renault Finance, who call themselves Mobilize now, sell me the car for £9k ? Very doubtful. Will give them a ring but dealer does not want to get involved only wants me to choose one of the 4 options. So my Zoe, like thousands of other Zoes goes back in to the massive pool of ZE50 Zoes going back to Renault Finance. They will be lucky to get £8k from a dealer I reckon. The system is annoying. Maybe UK Gov, for England and Wales, might do a £1K pay in to 2,3,4 year old EVs but in general I think the dealers will just add it to their margin so UK Gove needs to be smart about this and not end up wasting scant public funds.

Lab government go a different way to Con party in funding roll out of chargers and cars (return of subsidies ?). Emphasis on local rather than Trunk road for chargers as we did years ago when we owned Source London)..... https://www.aol.co.uk/news/government-announces-63m-funding-ev-121238871.html The transport secretary has promised to make it “easier and cheaper” to buy electric cars, as the government announces £63m worth of funding to help build charging infrastructure. Heidi Alexander said on Sunday she wanted to make it more affordable to switch to electric vehicles as she announced new money for councils and other bodies to spend on facilities to charge cars. She announced £63m worth of funding for EV charging, with officials also finalising plans for a £700m package of subsidies to bring down the cost of buying a new electric car.......The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government introduced the first purchase subsidies for EVs in 2011, when sales and the number of models on offer were tiny. However, the Conservatives ended the subsidies in 2022 amid concerns that the policy was expensive and mainly benefited wealthier households, in a move that was heavily criticised by carmakers.

Totally agree with the VAT being a high 20% on public charging but only 5% is unfair. Sunak was challenged on this about 18 months ago in parliament and totally avoided the question. Labour gave not done anything about it but what is the way forward ? The current government have to deal with the Blood scandal, the PO scandal payouts. The Cons gave billions away in NI cuts in 2024 rather than in other directions. If I was me I would restore the diesel and petrol excise duty to 58p per litre from 53p per litre and reconnect to inflation and use that to fund the dropping of public charger VAT to 5%. Not popular with ICE vehicle operators but might spur then to accelerate the transition to EVs with vans and trucks as well as cars and bikes.

You don't seem to understand basic economics or how the UK power generation works. Whether it's Centrica, the German Eon company or our the homegrown Octopus energy they can sell energy at 6 or 7 p per kwh in the early hours of the morning and they still making a profit. Us EV user, and home battery adopters are simply buying lecky when it's cheaper to buy. To you understand Happy Hours in pubs and similar events ? The UK power generation network has a certain about of nuclear base load, this will be further enhanced when Hinkley Point C and new Sizewell come on line as well as wind turbines providing supply thru the night. There has been almost a billion pounds list with wind turbines being switched off due to excess supply in the network. Best ti get 7 or 8p a kwh off customers with car or home batteries rather than have to that energy wasted. So much neteirk energy at sometimes Octopus give us free energy for some hours. Supply, Demand and economics not charity or privilege just smart people doing smart things.

These fuses will supposedly run at well over their nominal max amperage but one does not want to push it and have to call out the Grid to replace as most electrician will not touch anything Grid side one electrician told me.

And we are seeing more homes with two walbox chargers and one can even charge a third EV via a 13A plug. A charger could add 35 kwh in 5 hours which happens to be the size of the minis smaller battery size, looking forward to picking it up tomorrow. If the Zoe is replaced by a 40 kwh Renault 5, or Spring, they also can be charged from almost empty to full. Scenic can get over half a charge in the 5 hours. Still reeling as to why two gentlemen from National Grid lowered my mains fuse from 100A to 80A, apparently a policy now for houses. Still looking for a mobile house battery that could charge at up to 6 kwh or so but also power the house during the day. Saving nearly 20p per kwh. Ultimately would like to stop using gas completely but with gas at 5.71 p per kwh it is hard to argue with that. Any gas powered cars out there ? Dacia still do dual fuel lng and petrol. We do it for our 200,000 ton, 23,000 TEU LNG ships so must be something in it.

Maybe EV sales will spike upwards even faster as refineries close.... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/12/petrol-stations-run-dry-oil-refinery-collapse/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/12/petrol-stations-run-dry-oil-refinery-collapse

Wrong thread. This thread is about electric cars not hybrids. Hybrids have two whole propulsion systems, twice as much to go wrong. Be glad to see the back of the Clio hybrid this week and we will have 3 pure BEVs, hurray.

Just had a call from Sytner Mini and my lad's Cooper E Exclusive in BRG has arrived. Odd as I thought it was not due for a month. Perhaps just a same car cancelled from a previous boat. Think the finance has changed a bit as on the Cooper E it is 3.5% APR and not 3.9%. SE is 3 9% and JCW MINI finance want 4.9% APR. At a price of a nidge over £30k it seems a good deal to me considering how expensive Minis have been. With battery prices falling by 30% over the last year it is probably quite easy for Great Wall Motors to sell in the UK at these lower prices. As with all EVs it will be interesting how much lower per kwh batteries will go and with even better finance deals down the road as central interest rates continue to fall should be plenty of relative bargains coming up.

If you think the standard Cooper is hard the latest JCW, or sports spec i presume is another level of hardness. Even the Mini dealers/agent says it is really hard. I think we will be in touch with you when the Exclusive level one arrives on our shores from China, said in a Trump tone, we will be looking for nice 16 inch rims, alloy or steel, with good 16 inch all weathers to take the hardness edge of the mini suspension.

Expecting this sort of range ie 165 miles when just driven when not too concerned with range and in summer. Am in two about the Eco mode. In the Zoe it is restrictive, feels too sluggish in the 60-65 mph zone. Scenic is spot on, just keeps it below indicated 72 mph so good for keeping one's licence. Mini 2024/25 will still do indicated 100 mph even in Eco Mode. Son is really good keeping to,me not so good so I will have to watch it. Hopefully some nice pings when over the speed limit like I have with the Scenic's Google Nav system.

There are companies that prohibit the taking of calls at all when driving. How can I talk about a complex tax problem when driving ? Should call be limited a few seconds ie I will call you at the next services or the like ? Like they use to say about VP Gerald Ford " He cannot walk and chew gum at the same time "

Something some of us are even planning for our own homes. I am really just at the testing stage with my 2 Axis solar array and I am looking to scale up my battery storage and get a EV charger than can use the battery energy to power up what will soon be our fleet of 3 EVs, Mini, Scenic and Zoe/ R4 probably replacing the Zoe. Having 7 kw charger from the batteries or even a 3 phase charger running off the batteries as the Renaults can take 11 to 22 kw AC charging. The pace of technical advancement, month on month, year on year on all this related tech is considerable. Solar panels which are bifocal, efficiencies improving, costs falling. Same with batteries and inverter spec and cost. Self funding as it saves money on electricity usage using free sunshine. Hopefully soon the perovskite panels which will double efficiency, harvest the high energy shorter wavelength light will reduce the need of land use and these canopy solar setups, like my 2 axis solar tracker means the land below can be used and the solar array provides so useful shade... I can see my solar array, tempered to add a second one, could produce 4 kws plus per array at peak times with the right panels ie nine 440 w bifacial panels per array. Think I am going to need bigger solar invertors ! And I can take them with me when I move as well as the wheelable battery units like the Anker F3800..... Down to les than £2,499 now. Lack of transfer switch, home panel, on UK version is sad but if one has alternate low voltage lighting and power to fridge, TV etc then would still be very useful item to have and provide time shifting of power so one does not have to pay Day time lecky.

Honda Jazz. A part from the well known reputation and a grandma/grandpa car, and it good build quality, it still is a car that cost around 10p a mile for fuel compared to an EV's 2p per mile for fuel. 0-62 in about 10S, compared to a cheaper hybrid Clio which is 9s or so. Fugly. Doubt it handles as well as a Clio. Think I'll pass until I have given up on life completely ands stop caring about the environment.

Synthetic fuels hopefully. There will be a few historical cars knocking around but EVs, as they are becoming already, are so much cheaper to own that ICE cars one would have to be certifable to choose to run ICE vehicle.