Pro's and con's for buying an electric vehicle

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  • Malcolm Mehta
    Malcolm Mehta Forum Participant Posts: 5,660
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    edited January 2018 #122

    Oh yes she will, Yertiz. The car will be unplugged whilst the kettle is on and then plugged in again once the water has boiled! If we kept spending money on gas at that rate, we will end up bankrupt!  There are times when we have to use gas, such as when parked in a layby and travelling between sites but our usage is so little that one cylinder has lasted more than a year and there's still gas left in it!

    Even when there's no electric, we try not to run the Alde heating on gas. My wife prefers to wear a thick coat to keep warm than use the heating on gas!

  • Yertiz
    Yertiz Forum Participant Posts: 324 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2018 #124

    Hardly going to go "bankrupt" on that sort of usage then, I'd have thought.

    Nice to see you have a plan but what a lot of faffing about just to have a cup of tea undecided

  • Malcolm Mehta
    Malcolm Mehta Forum Participant Posts: 5,660
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    edited January 2018 #125

    There's also the saying that if you look after the pennies, the pounds take care of themselves, EasyT!

  • Malcolm Mehta
    Malcolm Mehta Forum Participant Posts: 5,660
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    edited January 2018 #126

    My wife is quite happy to faff about if it saves money, especially as she's a full-time housewife and has to survive on my limited income!

  • Yertiz
    Yertiz Forum Participant Posts: 324 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2018 #127

    Err, why does your wife have to faff about, couldn't you do that?

    A full time housewife in a touring caravan, can't take that much effort to keep it clean and tidy, unless you're a mucky so & so. wink

  • cariadon
    cariadon Forum Participant Posts: 861
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    edited January 2018 #128

    Add pedals in the back, then kids can pedal.

  • cariadon
    cariadon Forum Participant Posts: 861
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    edited January 2018 #129

    Will only work if your sums add up.

  • cariadon
    cariadon Forum Participant Posts: 861
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    edited January 2018 #130

      you mentioned on another thread Malcolm that last night you had to take a long detour due to an accident, What I would like to know is what would have happened if an EV owner was on that road with a low battery, having originally set off knowing on the usual trip there was enough to get home. The diversion could be sending you on rural roads.

     

  • Malcolm Mehta
    Malcolm Mehta Forum Participant Posts: 5,660
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    edited January 2018 #131

    I think it might be necessary, in those circumstances, to give Smart Assist a call!

  • cariadon
    cariadon Forum Participant Posts: 861
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    edited January 2018 #132

    Do they come out to give you a quick charge, or tow you to the nearest charging point.

    The scenario might never happen, but I would like to know what happens if it did. I understand at the moment they are designed for urban use, but for people using them on longer journeys it's good to now, nothing worse than being stuck at night.

     

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #133

    I think we have found a new can of worms to open. What happens with an electric vehicle when the battery has insufficient charge to keep on going?

    1. Does it just stop where it is?
    2. How long will road lights still work?
    3. How long will hazards work?
    4. Can it be towed to a place of safety without harming the internals?
    5. Will the doors unlock?  And relock?

    As was said - it is a whole different mind set!!

     

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #134

    No problems for us, it's all part of the advanced technology. We can press a button in the roof, BMW will come to our rescue. laughing

    By the way, Nav, what would happen if your own car came to a standstill and nothing worked?

  • SELL
    SELL Forum Participant Posts: 398
    edited January 2018 #135

    Would Smart assist charge you a call out fee if you ran out of electricity.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2018 #136

    Do they come out to give you a quick charge, or tow you to the nearest charging point.

    Probably need to look at the small print

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #137

    It won't worry OH, he has gone from one type of car to another in the last ten years, advanced technology doesn't faze him....laughing

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #138

    By the way, Nav, what would happen if your own car came to a standstill and nothing worked?

    Depress clutch, put gears in neutral, steer to a safe(er) spot.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2018 #139

    I doubt that there are many of us daft enough to drive beyond our available range regarding fuel Brue

  • Grant705
    Grant705 Forum Participant Posts: 164
    edited January 2018 #140

    We can press a button in the roof, BMW will come to our rescue.

    Beam Me Wup! laughing

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #141

    No that's true, as with most types of modern cars there are on screen electronics telling you what is happening if not there is a wonderful thing inside our heads, jam packed with technology. laughing

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2018 #142

    I would never let my fuel reserve drop below about 120 miles. That's a bit difficult to achieve with a Smart EV though wink

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited January 2018 #143

    Does a Smart EV have a clutch? Can you disengage the drive train if the battery is dead?

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,302 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #144

    It has a Neutral Position on the selector, like our Yaris petrol auto. So one assumes it could free wheel.

  • Yertiz
    Yertiz Forum Participant Posts: 324 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2018 #145

    Think it might need to, although Pizza's might be a bit cold! wink

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #146

    Our EV, has drive, park (brake) and reverse, there is no conventional engine to think about. Single speed transmission drives the electronic motor. It also has a selection of drives...comfort, eco pro, range extender etc.

  • Yertiz
    Yertiz Forum Participant Posts: 324 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2018 #147

    Serious question here.

    Obviously, it is apparent that HMG have decided to do away with fossil fuelled vehicles in the future and move to alternative propulsion vehicles i.e Electric etc.

    Now, in case I missed it over the pages of posts on here,or anywhere else, nobody has yet said where or how all the additional electricity is coming from for this.

    There are currently over 36 million vehicles on the road, if half of those become EV's I just don't see it working.

    I mean who is going to supply it and how? I can't get my head around it really. It all sounds like pie in the sky to me.

    I doubt it will affect me in the distant future but I'm just curious, now.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2018 #148

    Well what they are saying is that in the UK in 23 years time there will not be cars using just fossil fuel manufactured. The government are not saying that hybrids will stop being constructed from what I read.

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2018 #149

    If you are interested the Radio 4 programme I mentioned a few pages back discusses all this. The idea is to get the energy from renewables which is what ecotricity is providing. Although some will argue that fuel is all mixed in at the moment the fuel used for EVs is programmed to come from as many renewables as possible.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2018 #150

    Sounds a bit like everybody is claiming to use renewable energy - which of course they are to some degree as renewable energy is not ringfenced for a single purpose.

  • Yertiz
    Yertiz Forum Participant Posts: 324 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2018 #151

    Thanks ET & Brue, must have missed your link Brue, I'll have a look.

    You see, I remember the 3 day week and all the associated problems that came along with that!

    As much as I want to believe that renewable energy is the way forward, if, for example, we have as many wind farms as we need, the whole country will be blown down to the Falklands!

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