Electric cars - advice needed

We're in the process of moving back to the UK, and looking at petrol prices, we've decided to go electric. But to be honest we don't really know where to start.

Range per charge is the main point, but I'm sure there must be other factors that I haven't really taken into account. It'll be mostly used for city driving, plus regular trips from Lincoln to Barnsley and back. As we'll be living in the city centre, we're unlikely to be able to install a home charging point, at least in the short term.

Any advice about models, practicalities, drawbacks etc would be hugely appreciated.

 

I was looking into getting one on lease through work but ended up leaving for a different job so didn't materialise.

Tesla have the best charging network around so they are best place to start especially if you aren't having a charger at home initially. Personally I don't think I'd get an EV at all unless you have the charger at home, it will be too much of a faff IMO.

If you aren't a fan of the Tesla's, the new Kia EV6 and Hyundai Inoniq 5 get very good reviews. Your budget is also a big factor too. When I was looking, most of the nicer stuff that had good ranges etc. Were expensive, the cheaper ones were more suited to city life which was no good for me. Could work for you but then again with your regular trips from Lincoln to Barnsley, you'll need something with a semi decent range as the figures you see on the manufacturer websites are not fully accurate. You will get much less than that figure during bad weather for example

 

One bit of advice from me would be to get your order in asap. I ordered the Kia ev6 in April and was given a date of delivery for march 2023. Other manufacturers may vary but at the moment there is a delay on most new vehicles. I was offered a free home charger as part of the deal and it is being installed on Tuesday.

 

Been looking at Kia and Hyundai. Tesla out of our price range at least at the moment, as we've got so many other expenses with moving. I've also heard that ranges can vary according to a lot of factors, hence why I'm after some advice!

 

Yep, heard that waiting lists are long. I'm going to get my order in as soon as we sell our current car, but we're resigned to having to buy a cheap runaround as a stop-gap.

At the minute a home charger isn't an option as we'll be renting for the first six months at least, but even after buying, the majority of property in Lincoln city centre is town houses with on-street parking. I've read that it's still theoretically possible to charge from home if your parking is on-street, but that you have to be wary about causing a nuisance to pedestrians.

 

From my searching I found they vary a lot. The figures you see online are best case scenarios much like the MPG stats car manufacturers post on their websites for petrol/diesel cars.

Weather is the biggest factor for the EV battery, when it's cold you get much lower performance and the more gadgets you are using within the car such as heaters/air con etc. The lower the range.

 

Agreed, both my brother and Jr. Didcot Red 1 have VW ID3s on order and the lead time is almost a year.

 

Tesco have charge points at their bigger stores that offer free charging. Up until recently, as we have a Tesco within walking distance we would leave our Renault Zoe there for the day for a full charge, but they have now restricted parking to 2 hours. It is probably because some anti social people have been abusing the free offer .

 

MG ZSEV long range, 7 year warranty apart from the software what needs a major update the car itself is pretty good…. If you can get hold of one.

 

My colleague has a Nissan Leaf on lease which she has been very pleased with, cost and range wise. No problems at all with it.

 

It is undoubtedly more inconvenient to run an EV if you can't charge at home but it is not impossible and many people do it. The main thing about that scenario is that the big running cost savings you can make when charging at home will be diluted because charging on the public network is more expensive in most cases. But you can find ways of bringing the cost down by being careful about where you choose to charge.

It would be useful to know your budget to be able to give you options in terms of makes and models. As well as some pointers such as what is important in the car itself (big or small, large boot or not important, SUV style preferred or not etc)

The range of an EV is impacted by several factors. For example, cold is the big one. But also speed and rolling resistance (I.e. wet roads). So what you get out of a car when you are banging up the motorway at 80mph in the cold and wet in the middle of winter will be 2/3 of what you get tootling around Lincoln at 30mph in the summer. But if your main longer range journey is Lincoln to Barnsley then that isn't much of a problem. Google tells me that is 130 miles return and as long as you choose a car that advertises a WLTP range of 200+ miles then it should do that return journey in the worst of weathers.

Some cars are more efficient than others and get closer to their WLTP range in real life than others do and Kia and Hyundai are particularly good for this.

Without knowing your precise requirements, some initial pointers:

Kia and Hyundai are superb EVs. The Ioniq5 and EV6 are top of the tree. But they are big cars and expensive and out of your range. So why not check out their other offerings. Depending on budget, there is the new Niro EV, which is the replacement for the existing eNiro. It is has been open for orders since May and they are getting deliveries through from August. However, you need to be fast if you want to avoid a longer waiting time. They open the order book to fleet sales soon and then the waiting times will shoot up to match the 1 year waits for other cars. They range in price from 36k to 42k for the EV version and have great reviews. They have a 287 mile WLTP range and will be good for 250 or more in the real world, and over 200 in winter.

If that is not an option, then there is the old eNiro that it is replacing. Second hand only now but there are lots of then around because it is the 2nd best selling EV in the UK after the Tesla model 3.

Or the Kia Soul EV. I have one of these. Funky number but very good EV for the money, same tech and underpinnings as the eNiro and same range. I am selling mine in around 6-8 weeks with 20k miles on it because I have a new Niro EV coming.

Or the Hyundai Kona. Same family again as the eNiro and the Soul. But quite small. Very efficient.

Moving away from Kia and Hyundai, if budget was a factor then worth taking a look at the MG ZS EV (SUV style) or the MG5 (estate). MG is Chinese owned these days but have made big strides in the UK marketing these cars as very competent EVs with decent ranges at the lower end of the price range. A few rough edges but very good for the price. The original ZS EV had a range of around 165 miles. The new one has a range of around 250 miles.

Let me know what your criteria are.

 

Are you speaking from unfortunate experience here?!

 

Another thing you could do now is to download one or more of the charger mapping apps such ZapMap, Plug Share or WattsUp to check where the public chargers are in Lincoln. Without home charging, you would want to have a plan about where your regular charging will work.

If you have no home charging, then a sensible plan would be to get a car with the largest range your budget will stretch to. With a 250 mile range, that could mean that you might only need to charge once a week, which really makes it not as bad as people make out. But options for grazing on low speed chargers, such as the local supermarket would help as well. Just don't rely on being able to get on the free chargers at the supermarket. There are too many people that hog them just because they are free. I never bother with them myself.

One supermarket option worth looking for is the PodPoint rapids at Tesco. They are only 28p per kwh which is super cheap for a rapid charger and cheaper than most people's domestic rate these days. I don't know how much longer they can sustain that price though.

If you wanted to test out whether an EV would work, one option would be to get one on a monthly subscription from On.to You can rent on a short term basis, minimum of a month, but the price reflects the convenience so you'll get nothing for less than 500 a month. Can be a useful way to try them out though.

 

Thanks for this, massively informative. Size isn't massively important. I currently drive a Volvo XC60, but that's with Russian winters and country roads in mind, plus we bought it when my daughter was small and we regularly had a buggy or two in the boot. I'd never have anything so big in the UK. Looking for mid-size family car or small SUV.

Budget - going for leasing, will probably put down a deposit of £5-7k. Hoping to keep the monthly payments to around £400.

Thought about going for a second hand EV, but bearing in mind this is extremely new technology which is improving at an exponential rate, my line of thinking is that getting a brand new one is definitely the way forward.

The eNiro caught my eye, and it's the first thing I'll be looking at once we're back in the UK in August. Not so keen on the Soul, as it looks very boxy.

250 miles has to be the minimum range I'd consider as less than that could get very inconvenient.

 

The one thing there I agree on is that public charging costs have risen a lot and mean that the running cost savings are not there if public charging is your only option. But many people now will be wanting to switch to EV for environmental reasons not just because they can save money on running them. So it's not the only factor.

If you have a car with a 250 mile range and are tootling around your locality with it, it is possible then that you only need to charge once a week. It's not that much of a ball ache.

In terms of reliability, you need to have a plan to stick to the reliable networks. Some are much much better than others. And some are awful. I don't public charge too much but in 2 years of ownership, can count the non working chargers I have encountered on one hand.