Pro's and con's for buying an electric vehicle
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another good article to read.
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The clever ones might be able to help me understand this -
If it's going to take 30 minutes to charge the car that has 20% left does it mean that if you are in a traveling a fair distance and in a hurry you should stop more often to top up. I suppose they mean 30 mins when there is not a queue.
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That's excellent news! Let's hope that other fuel retailers will follow suit, including Tesco. Then I could earn clubcard points everytime I charge the battery!
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There are charging points in Tesco's now, haven't you seen them, don't know how much they charge.
The other link I posted made interesting reading with regards to payment, and method of paying, also different connections. Still impractical for me to consider buying one yet.
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Had to do an unexpected journey this afternoon, and stopped at a service area on the motorway and near by was EV charging point. In order to operate the charger you had to have downloaded an app to your phone, so not only will you have a smart car you will also have a smart phone. Let's hope there's a good phone signal in the area. There was 6 charging bays.
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It is mostly FOC but there may be occasions on longer journeys where there are no free charging facilities and paying a modest sum is better than the car grinding to a halt because of running out of power!
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Could I download the necessary app to my Ipad?
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I wonder if laid to waste in the search liathiaum for batteries in the western world a country the size Wales would we be so enthuastic about electric cars ?
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Thanks for the link, Metheven. I've just downloaded the app. However, I can't complete all the details yet because it's asking for the registration number which I won't know until I get delivery of the car. It's still under production in the factory according to the last email I received from the salesman.
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Some interesting info re potential range, using official figures.
If I have understood what I have read correctly. A new test was brought in at the end of last year to test the efficiency of vehicles, called the worldwide harmonised light vehicle test procedure WLTP. This is supposed to provide a more realistic figure for mpg, or range of EV's and will eventually replace the old NEDC (new European driving cycle) test, that we are familiar with.
The difference in the test results are reasonably large.
The new Nissan Leaf figures I have found are 168 miles WLTP and 235 NEDC.
The 99 mile figure quoted for the Smart appears to use the old NEDC test. I could not find a figure using the new procedure.0 -
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It is to be hoped that the new tests do provide more accurate results than the old ones. Although they are of course still done under laboratory conditions. However, it does show how flawed the previous tests were, particularly in relation to EV's. If similar variations are found in the Smart to the Leaf, it would mean you would be lucky to get much over 60 miles range in real conditions.
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OH did a calculation this week for our EV.
The average cost of running it, using electricity and a small amount of fuel works out at less than the average tax on a larger vehicles.
7000 miles @ £240
with a small fuel generator emitting non polluting 12 parts per million
extensive mileage due to the battery generation capacity of the range extender and fuel saving design of the engine including regenerative braking and programmed driving
Would we go for a pure EV at present, no but they are very good in local situations. Most of the time we run it successfully only on electricity.
As with all vehicle initial purchase costs need to be considered.
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Before buying an EV, I would want to have an extended test drive, until the battery was almost flat, to ascertain the realistic range..
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We've done night time running in ours, up and down the M5 etc and been caught in motorway hold ups. Remember the cars run on two types of battery, one for transmission, one for instruments. Would you run a conventional car right down on a test? No. One thing with EVs is you have to learn to drive to the computer using the various "fuel" saving devices. We both enjoy driving the EV, getting back into a conventional car or our motorhome seems quite strange. One thing we don't have to look at is fuel prices.
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This article is 2 years old but have things changed? and with a replacement battery for an EV costing in the region of £1,000 I don't think we would consider one at the moment.
https://www.wired.com/2016/03/teslas-electric-cars-might-not-green-think/
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As quoted by the Boss of Stagecoach buses just recently "it will be many years before a viable EV is available until then Hibrids can work or maybe some form of decent range extender,but the major problems will be getting the infrastructure sorted to cope with what the blue sky thinking of govenment want"
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Would you run a conventional car right down on a test? No.
I'm with Swifty on this. I would certainly want to know the real range with my style of driving, before I parted with £26,000 for the new leaf (that's after the grant).
A full EV cannot currently be compared to other types of vehicle when it comes to unforseen incidents. If I get held up diverted etc with my current vehicle, as I don't usually let the tank go below 50%, I have a range of about 240 miles, even if I don't come across a fuel station. Somewhat different to a full EV.
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A close friend has recently taken delivery of a Tesla 75 as his company car. (Previously always used BMW 5 series). It's a true supercar. He is impressed by it's performance, it's ability to handle winter conditions. ( 4 wheel drive ) It's comfort and it's range. Not to mention the vast reduction in company car personal taxation. I've travelled in the car a number of times and the quietness and comfort is an extremely pleasant experience.
The electric car is the future -
K
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