Can we talk about electric cars?

Which one are you buying.

Tesla is still the sensible option on paper, but of the (small number of) people i know who drive one, most don't love them. i think though that if the quality of the vehicles ever catches up with that of their after care and charging infrastructure, it will become a no-brainer. i also hate how bloody homogenous they are. i did get chatting to a guy who had done this to his model 3 and (with the exception of the mahoosiv wing he had on the back) it looked 100% better - https://www.startech.de/en/startech-fahrzeuge/tesla-model-3/

JM's option (assuming he meant the 4S) was my number 1 choice, but i'm having one of my (many, it seems) changes of heart on EVs. i'm currently thinking that i would do better (both financially and in terms of my environmental footprint) replacing my ULEZ non-compliant diesel with a 2nd hand petrol engine runabout until battery tech/charging infrastructure has improved. the taycan cross turismo 4S is the best part of £100k and i couldn't justify it on the basis of running costs economies over an ICE car as i would be charging it roadside.

i'm hearing good things about the Kia EV6. maybe worth waiting for the 500bhp+ GT model, which will supposedly be quicker than the 4S, although £60k for a Kia will take some convincing.

That’s the conclusion we came to kingfaff when we were in the market for a family car around 12months ago - wait a bit (we bought a secondhand hybrid petrol instead to be ulez compliant). 
 

unless you are on one of the corporate EV tax plans (I was changing jobs and didn’t want to hand back the car) the prices on EV make no sense. £70k for an Audi e tron? £83k for a taycan? Nah. Even the Japanese ones are well into the mid £30ks. And in the U.K. Teslas are both expensive AND scarce - if you want the X you’re waiting for 12months+ at this point and the Y won’t be here for a couple of years 

Volvo is bringing out a fully electric x60 soon which I think is mid £50s and am hoping that’s the beginning of the whole pricing structure coming down. Otherwise in london where you’re largely not running power leads out your front door & need a proper recharging network it just doesn’t make any sense  

 

TC, re home charging in London, I've seen a few houses running cables over the pavement (fastened down with cable covers), which only works if you can secure parking right outside your property and is something down on which the council might start to clamp. one of my neighbours is running a cable from his house, looping it up into the branches of a tree on the pavement, and back down to his car!

The Green thing to do is for them to stop selling cars. 

 

It's the consumption of new vehicles every year that will have had a far greater impact than the emissions of the national car park itself  

 

Work out how to solve electric cars properly, get renewable power green infrastructure in place..

 

Then in one fell swoop replace all the cars. 

 

It's consumerism that is NOT green. Consuming lots of Green things is just as much of an issue 

 

Please note I believe this but in no way shape or form do I live by, nor intend to live by, this principle 

I have a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. 

It's the best car I've had, but the build quality is atrocious. The roof lining is peeling, the window trim is falling apart, there's random rattles in the car (which is perhaps more noticeable due to how quiet it is), and paint quality on the exterior has random blotches.

Cybertruck

Won’t be available for a while.  They’ll probably get approval for no wing mirrors. But I suspect they’ll nee to introduce wheel arches - which really won’t easily fit the geometry, or engineering, or economics.  Perhaps Elon can get exemptions as agricultural machines

As others have done I've bought a second hand diesel to drive into the ground until the infrastructure catches up with electric cars and the prices come down a bit.  Reckon I'm probably still five years at least from buying a fully electric car.

That’s ludicrous kingfaff re home charging

tbh if the pricing model of streetcar moved on a bit I’d be totally happy to go back to car sharing - we only bought ours last year after a decade plus of not owning a car, and it was only because public transport / zipcar fell over in pandemic. 

I imagine in 10 years from now you won’t be able to drive at all in london which is fine, it’s just how you get around the rest of the country that’s the issue 

Tesla build quality is shocking.  Probably reflective of the fact they are all made in USA / China.

From an environmental point of view you are better off running you old car into the ground than buying a new electric vehicle.

And the minerals for the batteries are almost exclusively mined by people with appalling pay and conditions in 3rd World countries. 

Toronto the difference with employer lease schemes are mental aren’t they.

My wife has an 81k etron sportback. Nobody in their right mind would drop that money on that car. But she pays just over £400 a month (taking into account salary sacrifice and 0% BiK) for 3 year lease with insurance, servicing and breakdown included. Half of what it would cost for a petrol/diesel car of same list price. 

Yes it’s fantastic if you can get onto one of those schemes. Am in the process of bringing one in at my current place as would like to use it eventually! 
 

 

What Archibald said. Get an e cargo bike to replace 98% of what your car does, rent for the rest.

Also what Archibald said about not exactly doing that (one of my cars an absolute gas guzzler. Gets about 16 mpg).

 

 

When you think how much they have closed the net on salary sacrifice (including childcare vouchers) it seems bonkers you can get such huge tax breaks on cars for personal use.  

nb123 - is this £400 after tax or out of gross earnings? and how come it is 0% BiK? i thought it was 1% for full electric (rising to 2% next year). and finally, is this a straightforward lease or do you have an option to purchase at the end of the term?

i have just learned that my company is planning to introduce this scheme, so I'm trying to get my head around it.

chz

Second-hand, quickest charging, BMW 3i, that also has a  range extender. It's just about the cheapest option for (nearly always) electric driving - the electric onlu range is around 125 miles.

It also pretty much eliminates range anxiety, cos you can chuck 90 miles of petrol in the tank if you get stuck without an electric charging point.