Electric company cars

[donnk]

48 minutes ago, nepia said:

Sat in friends' garden last night with necessary nutrition.  This is his new company car - £80k Tesla.  0-60 in 3.6s.  Among the many features is a gaming one that allows you to play a kind of Super Mario using the car's steering wheel and pedals!

Please don't ask how the financing works - I have no idea - but he pays £200 this year and £800 next year; I know no more.

And doesn't my phone take the crappest pics, esp at night!

 

 

looking at £800+ a month to lease/hp. On the plus side zero /1% BIK and the company can reclaim the purchase annual investment allowance.

 

We dont have enough infrastructure to charge if you were doing say 25k a year but its getting better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[openspaceman]

10 hours ago, djbobbins said:

“self charging” hybrid (apparently a piece of terminology manufacturers have been banned from using in other countries!)

yes a misleading terminology if there ever was one

[nepia]

1 hour ago, donnk said:

We dont have enough infrastructure to charge if you were doing say 25k a year but its getting better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah it's a bit of an issue.  Experience so far on that score includes the one Tesla charging point at Clackets Lane being busy when it was needed, the one in the National Trust car park at the top of Reigate Hill being blocked by a white van (what else?!) but monthly trips to Newcastle being easy because there are 16 Tesla charging points at Grantham!

[Squaredy]

Thought some of you guys may appreciate an update after having my company EV for just over one year.

 

The car itself is fine, no issues and does the job really well.  Charging at home is also a piece of cake, and cheap as chips.

 

Charging out and about .... well that is a different matter.  I think that if you have a regular route and you get to know the charge points (that actually work) it may well be good.  Simply needing to find a charging point in an unfamiliar area is a nightmare.  For instance, we were in London at the weekend, and then went down to Surrey.  I found plenty of charge points near my hotel (Southwark) but could not get any of them working.  There were four in the NCP where I was parking - all refused to work.  Drove to another four or so roadside - none of which would work.  One of them I had to turn the car round to point the wrong way down a one-way street to get the cable to reach (the road markings were put in front of the charge point not next to).

 

Eventually my wife managed to download an app and we got one of the ones in the NCP to work.

 

My experience is that if you can always charge at home it is great.  If you ever need to travel beyond your realistic range then good luck.

 

I will be contacting relevant MPs about this as I suspect most have no idea, and the above incident in London was not an isolated one.  What is the point in pushing electric vehicles if they are totally impractical to use away from home? 

 

Re-charging will never be as quick as re-fuelling with petrol or diesel, but it should be as simple.  To fill up with diesel/petrol you don't need an app or a special card - so why electricity?  What a cock-up.

[Gareth Phoenix]

I have recently been given a warning about Electric cars, the weight of an electric car is silly for the size of the car we are used to.  Brakes, wheels and tyres are going to be punished and then highly expensive to replace. can anyone confirm this ?

[openspaceman]

6 minutes ago, Gareth Phoenix said:

I have recently been given a warning about Electric cars, the weight of an electric car is silly for the size of the car we are used to.  Brakes, wheels and tyres are going to be punished and then highly expensive to replace. can anyone confirm this ?

Doesn't make a lot of sense for normal driving, brakes have very little use and the regeneration slows you down unless you set  level to zero. My daughter's Kona came with it set to zero and the paddle on the steering changes it, I left it at 2 but personally would drive with a higher level, then bakes only used in an emergency or coming to a complete stop.

 

There have been issues with updates and recalls and the 12V battery has no under voltage protection so has gone completely flat on several occasions, possibly related to a recall update.

[Squaredy]

26 minutes ago, Gareth Phoenix said:

I have recently been given a warning about Electric cars, the weight of an electric car is silly for the size of the car we are used to.  Brakes, wheels and tyres are going to be punished and then highly expensive to replace. can anyone confirm this ?

Yes Mr Spaceman is right, we hardly touch the brakes in ours.  Also the weight is only a little above average for the type of car....remember no engine, gearbox etc.  Overall the maintenance should be a lot less than a traditional car as there are fewer moving parts.

[nepia]

I'm surprised to hear such tales of difficulty charging:  my newly wed son and wife have just spent a week touring Somerset and Dorset in their ID3 and Andy remarked how simple charging was.  To be fair I think he was using upmarket hotels a lot - but not exclusively - which obviously helps but your story is disappointing to say the least.

 

It will get better and quickly

[Mark Bolam]

Or worse when more people get them, then the coal that actually powers them runs out.

[nepia]

That would be s result; we'd be forced into something more sensible like wind power or nuclear to be controversial.

 

Once we've got nuclear fusion sorted there'll be no energy supply problems!