Personally I’m nowhere near convinced enough to buy one, apart from the expense there’s a lot of development to come yet and can’t see these earlier models holding their price against models yet to come. I also think that the governments timescale for all electric is not viable. They have done it before when they were encouraging everybody to buy diesel andI think there will be more twists and turns to come. Just my opinion obviously.
Ordered the Merc EQA in May, delivery put back 2 weeks to 30th Dec. Currently filling my petrol car up every Sunday for £69, uses the full tank every week due to weekly work mileage of 250 miles. Cost to charge the Merc is £14, that will get me to around Thursday so a top up for the rest of the week of 30%-50%, probably £20 a week. Would still be miles cheaper even at 50p a Kwh than petrol.
Given the knowledge on here, can I ask a really stupid question. I start a new job in Durham in August and will be commuting from York by train. There are pool cars for use at work and they are all electric. Having never driven one, are there any differences to a normal car when you're driving, or is it exactly the same?
Have you driven an automatic? It's essentially the same as that. Evs dont actually have gears at all, but you drive them like an auto. The big difference compared to ICE cars is the immediate torque. You put your foot down and it goes. Instantly. No waiting for the turbo to kick in. So, particularly in front wheel drive cars, it's very easy to scrabble the tyres on a poor surface if you have a heavy foot. Evs also have regenerative braking systems to put the energy normally lost through braking back into the battery and this slows the car down. In many cars, the strength of the regen can be turned up or down, so you can go from no regen, where it coasts for ages because there is no engine braking, right up to full one pedal driving in some cars, where if you are good at reading the road ahead and coming off the gas at the right time, you can travel for miles without ever using the brake pedal.
Massively helpful, thank you. I've driven automatics so will be fine. Can go back to complaining about the £575 a month rail season ticket now for a 45 minute train journey
just been talking about them and we were wondering what an 8 year old electric car will be worth on the secondhand market, bearing in mind that the batteries are supposed to be duff after 8 years and would be the most expensive thing to replace first. I presume that at the moment there aren't any over 8 years old at the moment, but I could be wrong. You tell me.
My solution once cars are automated is you book your journeys, so in fact you don't own your car (unless your very rich) Will free up space on roads and take a lot of cars out of circulation.
Complete myth that the batteries will be duff after 8 years. Don't believe everything you read on the internet Manufacturers warranty the battery for 8 years. The warranty says that in that time, the capacity won't drop below 70% of what it was when new. In reality, it won't get anywhere near that level or manufacturers would be spaffing all their money up the wall replacing everyone's batteries. They are not in the business of chucking money away. They will generally lose 1 or 2 percent a year and modern batteries often not even that as the chemistry improves and the battery management systems that look after them improve. It is more than likely that the car's bodywork will fall to bits before the battery is knackered. 8 year old EVs will have a lot of life in them. No worries on that. A car that had a range of 250 miles when new would still almost certainly have a range of 200 miles at 8 years old. Still a very viable car for lots of people. Other myths that we can put paid to at the same time: 1. You wont electrocute yourself charging it when it's raining 2. It wont leave you stranded if you get stuck in a queue on the motorway in winter because you've got the heating on. My battery would power my whole house for 4 days. An hour stood in a queue with the heating on won't touch the sides. 3. You can take them through a car wash.
I would say one pedal driving takes some getting used to though. also, I imagine the torque could get outright dangerous in the wrong hands. I suspect an aggressive driver is probably going to be even more aggressive, with instant torque at their fingertips
Yeah, it's a strange sensation to start with. But it's not difficult though. And if you don't like it, you can turn it down, or off. Most cars dont actually do full one pedal driving - in most, the regen would slow you to <5mph but you have to touch the brake to come to a complete stop. The effect is really very easy going and very quickly becomes second nature. They are easy cars to drive. Stop and go. Like a dodgem really. Aggressive drivers will be arseholes, no matter what they drive.
Keep 'em out of the sun https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1642743/electric-cars-heatwave-warning-uk
I use the one pedal driving on mine. Barely touch the breaks these days. It's a bit strange when I drive my wife's car to get used to hitting the break again though. You can switch that feature off
many people aren't actually 'buying' a £50,000 car though. mine's on lease, and it works out about £2k a year less than my current diesel car. so yes, makes perfect sense.
when I had my test drive, I nearly went through the window the first time got used to it pretty quickly though, and can also dial it down if needed
Exactly. I've come to the conclusion that buying a car makes very little sense these days. I'll be going for leasing all the way from now on.