Living with an electric car

[Ryeman]

Hopefully there will be other contributions to this thread for those following BEV developments

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1110512_bmw-i3-rex-owners-3-years-with-range-extended-electric-car

[lol-lol]

7 hours ago, Ryeman said:

Hopefully there will be other contributions to this thread for those following BEV developments

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1110512_bmw-i3-rex-owners-3-years-with-range-extended-electric-car

 

Trying to get hold of one of my companies Blue Solution cars but it not it will be a Renault Zoe.  Tyres will be one of the first things to be changed to normal road tyres. Lighting is another ie change to LEDs.  Use the phone app to pre-warm the car before disconnetiing. Lots of tricks to learn and lots of charge points being added in the UK ie 200 in the last 30 days so there are now heading on for 13,000 charge points.  Free to charge at work. 3p a mile to charge at home so about 1.5p a mile for energy. Zoe will do up to 140 kph and effective range of about 250 Kms.

 

   

Edited 25 May, 2017 by lol-lol

[Liger1956]

Is it still the case that Renault sell you the car but only hire you the batteries i.e you have to factor in the annual battery rental charge to your figures of pence per mile?

 

I have also read somewhere that if electric cars take off big time then the times that they will be allowed to be charged will be limited otherwise it will put too much of a strain on the National Grid at peak times. I know that there are some charge points in Manchester city centre where Nissan Leafs are left charging all day so that they currently get free charging and free parking all day. That must have to end if electric cars become more popular.

 

My money is on Hydrogen fuel cell cars taking off when the refueling points become more widely available but we will see.

 

Just my 2p's worth

 

[moley]

9 hours ago, Liger1956 said:

Is it still the case that Renault sell you the car but only hire you the batteries i.e you have to factor in the annual battery rental charge to your figures of pence per mile?

If you rent the batteries the costs vary between £50-£110 a month depending on your annual mileage.

[Ootohere]

Renault do not only hire you the batteries.

http://renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/zoe-250/purchase-options.html 

[KenONeill]

The battery rental for a Zoe is £50 - £110 a month; which happens to be about the same as my diesel costs.

[Ryeman]

4 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

The battery rental for a Zoe is £50 - £110 a month; which happens to be about the same as my diesel costs.

For me the warranty servicing costs are equal to my fuel costs.

Hopefully vastly less in wear n tear or emissions equipment and high tech transmission mechanicals to worry about.

 

[xpower]

I have my 300+bhp vRS and I brought the mrs a LEAF.

I have to admit it but I like the LEAF (not the looks - its awful)

 

Its actually very quick and nice and quiet, and we have an economy 7 electrical tarrif so it does the equivalent of 300mpg.

The car can be set to only charge at certain times, plus we have a great deal on pcp on it with £0 deposit.

 

I use it to commute (50mile per day) when she's not using it and it's perfectly fine

Look forward to extended ranges though

 

Oh - and I looked at the Zoe and the rented batteries thing is a joke, it's way to expensive.

Ours is not rented batteries, shame and Nissan and Renault are one of the same......

 

Edited 26 May, 2017 by xpower

[Ryeman]

The fact that a much better range version is close means depreciation is a significant factor unless you can retrofit.

[Ootohere]

Actually depreciation as it is now and has been for a few years means you can pick up used or Demonstrator EV's pretty cheap as it is and asking prices are not what you have to pay main dealers sitting with stock not shifting.

Better range models are not important to those that do not need range with a car sitting as a 2nd car or one just for short trips around town or city.

[Ryeman]

1 hour ago, Awayoffski said:

Actually depreciation as it is now and has been for a few years means you can pick up used or Demonstrator EV's pretty cheap as it is and asking prices are not what you have to pay main dealers sitting with stock not shifting.

Better range models are not important to those that do not need range with a car sitting as a 2nd car or one just for short trips around town or city.

Yep

Certainly ideal as a second car.

[warley]

Today I was overtaken for the first time (that I have noticed anyway) by an electric car. I was doing about 30 in a 30 speed limit when a BMW electric hatch came past at a rate of knots (or amps). I assume he was not suffering any range anxiety!

[Ryeman]

We were overtaken on the Melbourne Sydney motorway by a the first Tesla I've seen .....110kph limit.

The route through to Brisbane has been Tesla 'enabled' already.

[Ryeman]

You can show-off too

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1110669_souths-good-ol-boy-drag-racers-whupped-by-tesla-not-happy-about-it

[lol-lol]

10 hours ago, warley said:

Today I was overtaken for the first time (that I have noticed anyway) by an electric car. I was doing about 30 in a 30 speed limit when a BMW electric hatch came past at a rate of knots (or amps). I assume he was not suffering any range anxiety!

 

A Zoe on the M40 I was zooming along with was hitting indicated 135/140 kph ie was going a few Kph more than me because I was keeping to the speed limit of course.  New reg so was probably one of the new 41 KwH battery ones with the 300 km range though probably was only doing a 100 km journey before charging from his wall box at 3p per mile of charge on his overnight cheap lecky or leave it until the weekend and charge for free with Brit Gas deal.     

[Ootohere]

Put on trickle charge.

(Reg No. F 8ATH )

[warley]

9 hours ago, Awayoffski said:

Put on trickle charge.

(Reg No. F 8ATH )

 

Great Plate!

[Ryeman]

Chevy Bolt:  0 - 60 in 6 

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1110633_2017-chevy-bolt-ev-electric-car-at-6-months-owners-likes-recommendations

[lol-lol]

8 hours ago, Ryeman said:

Chevy Bolt:  0 - 60 in 6 

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1110633_2017-chevy-bolt-ev-electric-car-at-6-months-owners-likes-recommendations

 

I do hope we get the GM Bolt over in Europe one way or another ie via PSA or another route.   

 

When there is a Lecky car that does 0-60 in 6 seconds (when Octy diesel VRS take 8) and pretty useful range that would start to change people's minds when also linked to relative depreciation.  Leaf and Zoe are main stream EVs in UK and Europe and can be had quite cheap but not exactly fireballs of acceleration.  New car but pre-regd....   http://www.suttonparkgroup.co.uk/used-cars/renault/zoe/dynamique-nav/bv17nhz 

 

US cars might pay less duty post BREXIT and EU cars more so that could be interesting for Bolt, Model 3 and other Tesla imports.   

 

[Ryeman]

 

^^^^^ I like the aspect of having brake linings that could last the life of the car.

i always thought serious regenerative braking was common to all leckies.

[xpower]

The LEAF has 2 options whilst driving. Normal and aggressive regenetive braking.

 

i always drive it in aggressive mode and you hardly have to use the brakes.  Only thing is that I wish the brake lights would come on when slowing down quickly under regenetive braking 

[Ryeman]

1 minute ago, xpower said:

The LEAF has 2 options whilst driving. Normal and aggressive regenetive braking.

 

i always drive it in aggressive mode and you hardly have to use the brakes.  Only thing is that I wish the brake lights would come on when slowing down quickly under regenetive braking 

That's not good in my book!

[cheshire_cat]

Tesla does 65 mph down to >20 mph  in 200 yards on trailing throttle only (stronger of the 2 options set)

[KenONeill]

Does a BMW i8 count as an "electric car" for the purposes of this thread?

[Ootohere]

As a 'Plug in hybrid'.