Electric Vehicles

[admin]

Thanks LP, that was a useful read.

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[Luckypants]

/Smug mode on

Thanks to the solar panels, my car cost 2.8p/mile last month for 834 miles. It hasn't even been a good month for solar generation, yet can make big dents in the cost. The headline figure is also helped by my new Tracker electricity tariff, which has averaged 16.5p/kWh in July.

[Luckypants]

Dredging this up from the past for a quick update.

In September last year we went to France in our EV. We were going to a wedding near Nice. We could have flown down and back for similar money and just gone for the wedding, but neither of us is comfortable with the carbon footprint of flying and won't fly again unless absolutely necessary. Taking the EV made us feel better about the CO2 situation as France's grid is very low carbon due to lots of hydro and nuclear. We made it into a 20 day tour of France in the end to make the most of having our wheels. Suffice to say we had a great time and our VW ID.4 was flawless. The whole trip of about 2500 miles was an absolute breeze.

The finance plan on the ID.4 came to an end in May and we decided to keep it as we like it so much. We might have downsized into an ID.3 or similar (Golf sort of size) as due to their construction, pure EVs are more roomy. We think the ID.4 is too big really despite it having practically the same external dimensions as our previous car. We didn't change it as there weren't any good deals around at the time. Depending how things pan out, we might end up running this until retirement in 5 years or so.

We'd hate to go back to an ICE car now as our main vehicle.

[Luckypants]

A quick update on this for anyone interested. My car is now 4 years old and has 51k miles on the clock. I've had no problems with the car that are EV related but one or two items have gone wrong. The biggie was the doors locking / unlocking while driving and actually opening one time! This was a problem with the electronic door handles and seems to be quite a common issue with all VAG group cars. These were replaced under the extended warranty I took out when the manufacturer warranty expired. Running costs remain low with a lifetime average of 5.43p/mile for fuel.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Servicing has been £200 at main dealer to maintain the warranty, so quite pricey but probably the same as dealer servicing for a diesel. Certainly expensive for what actually gets done. When the next service is due in 21 months, my local mechanic will do it for about half the price (he is EV qualified).

Second service was done at 4 years old by my local man. Cost for the service, brake fluid change, front caliper strip / clean and MOT was £163. I have the front brake calipers cleaned/lubed annually as they get so little use it ensures they won't seize. The regenerative braking takes care of 90% of all braking so they get gunked up. Upside is my brake pads still have 80% pad material at 50K miles. Servicing every two years is also a saving.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

I hope in the future to be able to get a cheap overnight tariff when they solve meter connections in areas without O2 coverage and lower my costs still further.

This happened out of the blue when an O2 signal turned up in our village without any announcement in October 2024. My smart meter sprang into life and started reporting data. I'm now on an EV tariff with cheap leccy @7p/kWh for 6 hours overnight. Lucky for me I have a house battery so I fill that up on the cheap rate too, as the day rate is 30p/kWh. The working smart meter means my fuel cost per mile is now around 2.8p.

I probably won't be making another update like this until we change the car, as driving electric has been so easy that it doesn't warrant further comment really.

[BoltonSte]

I changed to electric last September year, I'm not a full eco warrior but at the price the MG5 was vs. what I was paying to run and fuel the Tucson it was a no brainer. We have mates with an MG ZS and have been camping for a week the last couple of years which opened our eyes with regards to practicality.

I've just ticked over 4000 miles, there's been an issue with the charging ECU, it happens with these on occasion. Besides waiting for the diagnostic...there's no free thinking mechanics at MG apparently, even after I'd given them the diagnosis and tests its been fault free if a little funky internal layout.

'Fuel cost' so far has been £25 total, one quick charge, the rest from the PV on the roof at work. so ~ 0.63p/mile.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by BoltonSte

'Fuel cost' so far has been £25 total, one quick charge, the rest from the PV on the roof at work. so ~ 0.63p/mile.

Must be a decent array to provide sufficient power in winter.

[garynortheast]

This is quite a feat. That's a very long way on one charge, and probably further than my diesel Peugot would go on one tank of fuel.

[Luckypants]

It is a bally long way. Note the drivers were doing 3 hour stints behind the wheel, which is really the sensible limit for a human to drive for. At my age my bladder range is more like two hours!

Things have moved on apace, with new cars giving improved range and a massive increase in chargers. We're going to Northumberland in early September and I've not even bothered looking at places to charge - I'm confident that my car has sufficient range and there will be somewhere to charge.

[admin]

Thanks for the update. My wife's motability car is up for renewal next year and I might consider going electric. Having said that the current car is two years old and only covered 10k so running costs have been low for an ICE vehicle.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by admin

Thanks for the update. My wife's motability car is up for renewal next year and I might consider going electric. Having said that the current car is two years old and only covered 10k so running costs have been low for an ICE vehicle.

A friend has just got her first motability car and said that she almost had no choice but to go electric, motability are really pushing it. That said, she is thrilled with her Skoda Elroq 60. She took herself and two sons to Cornwall on holiday in it two days after getting it and had no problems. She brought my wife home the other day to show it off, all she talked about was how roomy and comfortable it was - she never once mentioned charging. Motability fitted her a charger at home at no cost.