Car buyers should have 'long, hard think' about diesel

Status
Not open for further replies.
My son used to do what is a five mile journey, in a car or on a bike, but on a bus, 3 changes and 10 miles later, it was actually quicker for him to walk!
( and he did several times)


For many its the only realistic option. ( as above)

Same with me. My 90 year old inlaws that we see every day are 10 mins away by car, I can't easily get there by public transport.
To get to the office, one junction down the motorway would mean a bus to town, train, then 20 min walk, that's easily a 75-90 min journey each way, rather than a 30 min drive.
 
Playing devils advocate petrol to me has gone down a lot over years adjusted for inflation hasn't it?
https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time
It's dropped recently but realistically has stayed about the same due to the fuel accumulator (which I know was stopped a couple of budgets ago). Inflation has been really low
As most of the money is in tax, it takes large fluctuations in the crude price to make an impact at the pumps

I think with the low wage rises, as a percentage of spending on a persons income, it's stayed around the same amount.
 
Ok, I've skipped a few pages of this thread on my phone but I have a question.
With people mentioning the Tesla infrastructure of chargers and maybe Ford and other manufacturers investing in a charger infrastructure of some sort, is it the case that theses chargers can only be used with thier make of car? Surely they have a common connector type.
You would have thought so. At some point there will need to be. It can't be economic to have charge point per manufacturer.

There's a standardisation of charger plugs, but they are owned by different companies, about 20 or so, all with their own charging scheme, ways to pay, Apps etc
 
My car has 22k on the clock, bought at 18k 3 years old in October. Battery condition went up from 94% on purchase to 95%, probably due to minor self adjustment and the increased number of cell balancing opportunities when I do my deep discharge daily commute.

The link you provided is fishy. Only sampled across 500 cars, 2011-2015-ish Leaf in America are known to have battery degradation in hot weather. 2013-2017 Sunderland built Leaf 24 and 30 are much more robust. This 2013 built Leaf with 100k miles on the clock in 2015 still has full battery bars: https://www.zap-map.com/electric-taxi-company-clocks-100000-miles-in-nissan-leaf/


EV battery are hardly the same as high power rechargeable batteries. When you leave your EV plugged in, it doesn't trickle charge the car at 100% like your laptop/phone. My experience with high powered Li-Po drone batteries tells me they are excellent as long as not left sitting at extremes (0 or 100% charged), I've had my drone for 3 years now and still get the same amount of flight time as before.

The cold temperature issue is true with my Leaf, 20% reduction in range compared to 10% reduction in MPG for ICE cars. Not too dissimilar. Similarly, I had to queue 1 hour to get out of a town last Friday in the snow, nudging forward slowly, a total distance of 1.2 miles. My fuel economy was in single digits. But in an EV, I would have only used 3kWh to keep the heater on, zero power is wasted moving forward slowly.

If I were to be spend £50k+ on a car, it will definitely be a Tesla Model S, No question about it. The EV powertrain driving experience is just so much better than ICE powered cars. As mentioned previously, Tesla supercharger infrastructure provides long range travel so there's no longer any real advantage to ICE cars.


Driving an EV lets you enjoy great acceleration from stand still up to 30 mph :D Higher power EV such as a Tesla gives you fantastic sense of power all the way to legal speed limits.

The sense of immediate power is very addictive. No turbo lag, no unpredictable kick-down power surge, no wait for slush-box to shift mid-roundabout. Just press the go-peddle and you always get exact amount of power you demand.


But the emotional attachment to ICE is going to go the same way as preferring to tend to a horse for your transport needs. The attachment to a brand that has "sporting pedigree" just seems plain stupid to me. If a new brand makes a superior product, then why dismiss it? I honestly don't see ANY reason to choose Jag I-Pace over a Tesla. The former doesn't have the charging infrastructure, no OTA updating firmware, and still sells their cars using slimy dealers.

As i've previously said EV are still not mature enough to be considered as a general viable alternative. Great if you live in a city where you are doing short hops or a shortish commute but not if you live in the real world where you need something that will cope with muddy lanes, ice and snow and a very sparse charging net work. You say how wonderful they are, you have bought into it, but a Leaf wouldn't be even vaguely suitable for my usage neither would a Tesla. Battery technology is in its infancy and its provides neither convenience or range and its is not sufficently mature to give any reliable indication of battery life which is the major part of an EV replacements seem to be from £5-£8k upwards plus fitting. I wouldn't buy a second hand EV period. Like I said before you can spend £70k on something far more entertaining than a Tesla -just remind me how much the Tesla sports car is - £250k IIRC which is just beyond ridiculous. Tesla seem to be the EV equivalent of Apple - elitist and overpriced so please don't suggest that attachment to a 'sporting pedigree' is stupid, you've demonstrated exactly the same with Tesla!!! We haven't even started to discuss the carbon efficiency of producing big batteries which I would suggest is not that clean !
 
Ok, I've skipped a few pages of this thread on my phone but I have a question.
With people mentioning the Tesla infrastructure of chargers and maybe Ford and other manufacturers investing in a charger infrastructure of some sort, is it the case that theses chargers can only be used with thier make of car? Surely they have a common connector type.
Lots of useful info here: https://pod-point.com/electric-car-charging-resources
 
I wouldn't be surprised if large supermarkets started installing E chargers to give an added incentive to shop there.
Asda and Tescos etc, spend £50 and get an hour charge for free, proper winner.
Asda do it here.
 
Asda do it here.
What capacity are the chargers and how many do they have?.
Low power ones are usually quite cheap for the hour around £1, plus something like a £1.20 connection charge, so if free thats a good publicity move.
 
My internal combustion engine powered car suffers from none of those things, having a naturally aspirated engine with a manual transmission ;)

I'm not arguing against electric power, and when I can 'refuel' an electric vehicle for 400 miles range in the same time as it takes me to put the 12 gallons of petrol in I would need to do that distance at 70mph on the motorway, I would seriously consider them. However, given that I've owned the same car for 14 years, the EV would need to be pretty inspiring to persuade me to replace it.

The driving experience is vastly different between EV and manual though, I don't mind manual on a windy country road, but manuals are so painful in the city and during daily commute. Personally I'd rather go *pilot and let the car drive autonomously.

Are you saying you'll never stop the car over that 400 miles? You got to be reasonable here. Everytime you stop you can top up the charge, with 350kW charging speed, you'd be able to regain 2 hours of driving within 10min.
(50kW charging speed gains 2 hours of driving in 45min, so as long as your car is capable of pulling 350kW, 7min for 2 hours of driving)

It's hardly fishy, its the only usage report based on a high number of users. Got a better example of a detailed examination of battery usage for leafs using more cars? I deliberately ignore the ones based on 50 or so cars. Your dismissing this case using 500 cars, yet want us to fully accept your experience based on a sample of one! :D

We get it, your an evangelist for EV and your usage falls into the exact point where these cars make sense, small journeys, limited mileage and you have an accessible charge point.

I'm pointing out flaw in the article you've linked. Without knowing background information on battery change over the years, the article do seem credible. There are known issues with 2011-2015-ish US Leaf battery in hot climates. Is there a report for early Tesla batteries?

There's a really good book Merchant of Doubt worth reading. Every article/paper on these things can be similar to the VW funded monkey gassing ;)

As i've previously said EV are still not mature enough to be considered as a general viable alternative. Great if you live in a city where you are doing short hops or a shortish commute but not if you live in the real world where you need something that will cope with muddy lanes, ice and snow and a very sparse charging net work. You say how wonderful they are, you have bought into it, but a Leaf wouldn't be even vaguely suitable for my usage neither would a Tesla. Battery technology is in its infancy and its provides neither convenience or range and its is not sufficently mature to give any reliable indication of battery life which is the major part of an EV replacements seem to be from £5-£8k upwards plus fitting. I wouldn't buy a second hand EV period. Like I said before you can spend £70k on something far more entertaining than a Tesla -just remind me how much the Tesla sports car is - £250k IIRC which is just beyond ridiculous. Tesla seem to be the EV equivalent of Apple - elitist and overpriced so please don't suggest that attachment to a 'sporting pedigree' is stupid, you've demonstrated exactly the same with Tesla!!! We haven't even started to discuss the carbon efficiency of producing big batteries which I would suggest is not that clean !

I'm only stating the facts. I quoted your misinformation and corrected the facts. Now you've retracted to how EV isn't suitable for you, which is fair enough, but please don't spread misconceptions such as battery degradation.

Similarly, I wouldn't buy an EV without a good battery health read-out tool. But after buying my EV knowing exact battery health, I now don't feel comfortable buying a second hand ICE car, because there's just sooooo many moving parts that can go wrong and will leave you stranded (water pump in my current car, gearbox in the one before it). With EV battery replacement, at very least you know exactly how far you can drive and therefore the car is still usable.

I wouldn't be surprised if large supermarkets started installing E chargers to give an added incentive to shop there.
Asda and Tescos etc, spend £50 and get an hour charge for free, proper winner.

Been driving to Morrisons to do exactly this when it felt new. But don't do it anymore because it's not really worth the effort. UK 7kW "fast" chargers don't come with a cable, so you'd have to get a cable out of the boot, plug it in and pack up afterwards. Far easier to just charge up at home for such a short distance local trip.

Even these 7kW chargers need to have cables attached to make them easier to use.

Very mature, it's as though there isn't a fuel readout on ICE cars.;)
 
Last edited:
What capacity are the chargers and how many do they have?.
Low power ones are usually quite cheap for the hour around £1, plus something like a £1.20 connection charge, so if free thats a good publicity move.
No idea, my mate uses it (shops at Asda rather than Morrison’s for that reason)
There’s also a couple of free charging points in a town centre car park.
 
I'm only stating the facts. I quoted your misinformation and corrected the facts. Now you've retracted to how EV isn't suitable for you, which is fair enough, but please don't spread misconceptions such as battery degradation.

Similarly, I wouldn't buy an EV without a good battery health read-out tool. But after buying my EV knowing exact battery health, I now don't feel comfortable buying a second hand ICE car, because there's just sooooo many moving parts that can go wrong and will leave you stranded (water pump in my current car, gearbox in the one before it). With EV battery replacement, at very least you know exactly how far you can drive and therefore the car is still usable.

;)
I stated that EV is not a viable replacement meaning that it will not tick all the boxes for all the people as there is neither the infrastructure or is mature enough. I know it wont work for me as I checked out EVs and hybrids before replacing our Desiel Mini with a petrol. Batteries degrade full stop as they are a non stop chemical reaction, it is impossible for them not to degrade and you need to wake up and smell the coffee about that. Electric Motors also wear and you are more likely to be stranded because you've run out of capacity than you are to be left stranded because of gearbox or water pump failure. Incidentally I did look at the i3 but was somewhat put off to find out that if you ran out of charge you had to be towed back to a BMW I dealership. You also fail to mention the cost of replacing a battery when it has failed , because you don't know what it will cost and for a second hand car £5-8k is touted as being likely which is probably 50% plus of the value of 3 year old car plus whatever fitting charges are necessary. Yes a new Battery will solve the problem but for how long as the charging systems will not doubt become out of date or degrade!
.
 
Lots of people in cities really do use a pay per minute car. Whether you know anyone who does that or not, just says something about what you know, rather than what is actually going on. And regarding whether it's the minority, I personally don't need to do things because the majority do it.

I was replying to say that non-ownership is already here. It's not just the future, it is already a preferred choice for many people. As an example to learn from. And likely to become more widespread.
And I said it is a preferred method for a few people, yes that number is likely to increase, but only for people who have no real interest in driving or a need to drive every day of the week. It's only people who live in cities and don't need a vehicle to get to work that benefit from shared hire car schemes. Not everyone lives within that sort of environment.
 
I stated that EV is not a viable replacement meaning that it will not tick all the boxes for all the people as there is neither the infrastructure or is mature enough. I know it wont work for me as I checked out EVs and hybrids before replacing our Desiel Mini with a petrol. Batteries degrade full stop as they are a non stop chemical reaction, it is impossible for them not to degrade and you need to wake up and smell the coffee about that. Electric Motors also wear and you are more likely to be stranded because you've run out of capacity than you are to be left stranded because of gearbox or water pump failure. Incidentally I did look at the i3 but was somewhat put off to find out that if you ran out of charge you had to be towed back to a BMW I dealership. You also fail to mention the cost of replacing a battery when it has failed , because you don't know what it will cost and for a second hand car £5-8k is touted as being likely which is probably 50% plus of the value of 3 year old car plus whatever fitting charges are necessary. Yes a new Battery will solve the problem but for how long as the charging systems will not doubt become out of date or degrade!
.
Again, you are spreading false information:
1. battery degradation is NOT a problem in EV, as per my observation (95% after 3 years) and evidence from stats gathering thread (https://speakev.com/threads/the-battery-health-thread.18923/) predicts 80% after 6 years. Degradation is certain, but certainly no where near needing a replacement.
By that metric, you'd want to replace the ICE engine every time there's a sensor failure and definitely replace the whole engine when cambelt is due.
2. Nissan Leaf 24kWh whole battery replacement service at main Nissan dealer costs £4,920, and "buyers will also receive £1,000 cashback for the their old battery" http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/89694/nissan-leaf-battery-replacement-to-cost-4920
3. Electric motor are far more reliable than ICE, they are used everywhere and are known to be highly reliable.

I'd say EV by itself is more than mature enough to own, hence I keep saying if EV day range suits you, it's an excellent mode of transport. But I do agree infrastructure is totally inadequate. They are totally unreliable at the moment for all EV's without manufacturer's own charging network.

I also agree it's not for everyone, as I've pointed out multiple times. It doesn't suit you personally, fair enough, no one is forcing it on you.



Also, another problem for i3 is the skinny tyres. They are really expensive to replace. I did look at leasing a new one as our sole car mid-2017 when they were doing their 0% deals.
 
Ok, I've skipped a few pages of this thread on my phone but I have a question.
With people mentioning the Tesla infrastructure of chargers and maybe Ford and other manufacturers investing in a charger infrastructure of some sort, is it the case that theses chargers can only be used with thier make of car? Surely they have a common connector type.
Other than Tesla, I believe all or most other manufacturers can use the same socket.
 
Again, you are spreading false information:
1. battery degradation is NOT a problem in EV, as per my observation (95% after 3 years) and evidence from stats gathering thread (https://speakev.com/threads/the-battery-health-thread.18923/) predicts 80% after 6 years. Degradation is certain, but certainly no where near needing a replacement.
By that metric, you'd want to replace the ICE engine every time there's a sensor failure and definitely replace the whole engine when cambelt is due.
2. Nissan Leaf 24kWh whole battery replacement service at main Nissan dealer costs £4,920, and "buyers will also receive £1,000 cashback for the their old battery" http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/89694/nissan-leaf-battery-replacement-to-cost-4920
3. Electric motor are far more reliable than ICE, they are used everywhere and are known to be highly reliable.

I'd say EV by itself is more than mature enough to own, hence I keep saying if EV day range suits you, it's an excellent mode of transport. But I do agree infrastructure is totally inadequate. They are totally unreliable at the moment for all EV's without manufacturer's own charging network.

I also agree it's not for everyone, as I've pointed out multiple times. It doesn't suit you personally, fair enough, no one is forcing it on you.



Also, another problem for i3 is the skinny tyres. They are really expensive to replace. I did look at leasing a new one as our sole car mid-2017 when they were doing their 0% deals.
Your views/knowledge of ICE is somewhat outdated, more and more engines are running chain for belt in oil to drive the cam shafts and don't need replacing. I am not sure if any manufacturers have put such engines into production cars yet, but engines are in development that have no cam hafts and the valves are operated by solenoids.
As engine development is progressing service intervals at least as far as mileage is concerned. Most are at 12.5k miles some are at 18k.
 
Just been out, popped into the Nissan dealer on the way back, that was 45 mins of chat...
The new leaf is £32K for the top spec, pcp deal is £369 per month over 3 years, 12K miles a year. I'm sure there must be deals somewhere as thats a lot of dosh

The models are:
Visia is basic, no heat pump heating, but you do get e pedal on all models.
Acenta adds the apple car play and a leather steering wheel.
N Connecta goes upto 17" wheels, privacy glass, front and rear parking sensors and camera
Tekna has LED lights, Bose sound system heated leather steering wheel and seats and propilot - adaptive cruise control and auto parking.

Impressions are that the boot size is bigger. Seating position for the e-pedel felt a little off, might have to test drive one to see...
The slow charge socket is the type 2, fast charge looks the same. May be important to those with a charging station at home.

Salesman said it was quicker than the old one, better range
 
Last edited:
Oh and guy at work has a 2016 leaf - Emailed him about it last week

Well my Leaf is astonishingly crap in cold weather, 8 mile trip to the supermarket today took 25% of the battery. I've gone back to wifes car for the trip to other office as it's showing a range of 40-50 miles.
I'm going back to 100% charging rather than the 80% mode which will presumably start to speed up further battery degradation. At 54K still has 10 bars, the first went at 22K, the second at 36K so I'm expecting another to go anytime soon.


However - he did point me to this - link the car to your google home
https://speakev.com/threads/google-home-ok-google-heat-up-the-car.91921/#post-1836705
 
Other than Tesla, I believe all or most other manufacturers can use the same socket.
Correct. Although there are 3 sockets for rapid charging:
1. Chademo DC 50kW pushed by Nissan, installed everywhere and currently widely available.
2. CCS DC 50kW or 100kW pushed by European manufacturers. only started to be installed last few years and some are not so reliable. At a few locations for example, there will be 1 Chademo+Type 2 charger and a Chademo + CCS charger. So currently it is less likely you'll get a charge driving CCS car. But it's set to change with more and more charging network coming on board CCS and 350kW planned.
3. Type 2 AC 43kW charging, mainly for Renault Zoe Q motor variant. This one will die out because too many uninformed PHEV drivers plug in their cars to charge at 3kW speed.

AC "fast" charging (aka destination / home / overnight charging) have 2 sockets:
1. Type 1 used by early cars such as Leaf and Outlander
2. Type 2 used by almost all new cars
Cable swap at home charger is very straight forward.

European Tesla uses Type 2 socket, so at home, you can use any type 2 cable to AC charge at up to 11kW, depending on car configuration. At superchargers, their car have special communication with supercharger Type 2 DC plugs. No other car can charge using their Type 2 because all other cars use Type 2 for AC charging.

Your views/knowledge of ICE is somewhat outdated, more and more engines are running chain for belt in oil to drive the cam shafts and don't need replacing. I am not sure if any manufacturers have put such engines into production cars yet, but engines are in development that have no cam hafts and the valves are operated by solenoids.
As engine development is progressing service intervals at least as far as mileage is concerned. Most are at 12.5k miles some are at 18k.
When looking for 3+ year old cars last year, it seems most are still belt driven. With chain driven VW 1.4 TSI have linkage problems and some BMW 3-er engine also have expensive chain failure problems. Same as EV technology, there's always newer better technology on the horizon.

How often does the newer technology get filtered down to second hand buyers? Why does the latest sat-nav routing algorithm require you to buy a completely new car? What about ECU fixes that don't require a recall, why aren't they automatically updated over the air?

18k service interval is quite standard these days isn't it? But for EV, if I DIY my cabin filter change and brake fluid change, there's absolutely nothing else needs doing! How is this not superior from ownership point of view? Less time spent looking after the car, more time spent actually driving the car.
 
Oh and guy at work has a 2016 leaf - Emailed him about it last week

Well my Leaf is astonishingly crap in cold weather, 8 mile trip to the supermarket today took 25% of the battery. I've gone back to wifes car for the trip to other office as it's showing a range of 40-50 miles.
I'm going back to 100% charging rather than the 80% mode which will presumably start to speed up further battery degradation. At 54K still has 10 bars, the first went at 22K, the second at 36K so I'm expecting another to go anytime soon.
2016 Leaf 24 means EV drivetrain warranty runs out in 2021. So if his car only has 8 bars (or 9 bars, he'll have to check the warranty booklet) remaining by 2021, he can get a new battery on warranty.

8 miles trip using 25% battery sounds like driven in -5c weather and car had to be warmed up from cold each time. I wonder what MPG you'd get in a diesel, 30-40's. While the cabin will not have warmed up by 4 miles, whereas he could have pre-heated the car using mains power and find the car without any snow/ice on the window.

100% charging is beneficial to EV. They do their cell balancing after charging to 100%. As long as you don't leave the car at 80+% or 10-% for weeks on end, it doesn't matter how you use the car.
 
T
I'm only stating the facts. I quoted your misinformation and corrected the facts. Now you've retracted to how EV isn't suitable for you, which is fair enough, but please don't spread misconceptions such as battery degradation.

Sorry - just spotted this. See above. It's not misconceptions it's what I'm told by owners
You're insisting I ignore all other owners and data and just take your findings and experiences as gospel.

I'm eager to cut my monthly payments on fuel if possible, EV seemed a cheap solution until I started investigating the issues related. I'm trying to do due diligence, which included hiring one for a week to use for real, on real journeys

I may have to test drive the new Leaf :D
 
Last edited:
Sorry - just spotted this. See above. It's not misconceptions it's what I'm told by owners
I'm eager to cut my monthly payments on fuel if possible, EV seemed a cheap solution until I started investigating the issues related.

I may have to test drive the new Leaf :D

The 30kWh Soul is still £200 a month for 8000 miles pa on lease from Drive Electric. Cheapest EV and heated everything as standard. They always seem to have the keenest prices somehow. If you get the right lease deal then you can often buy your car at the end so it's not quite as clear cut that you have to just hand it back.
 
The 30kWh Soul is still £200 a month for 8000 miles pa on lease from Drive Electric. Cheapest EV and heated everything as standard. They always seem to have the keenest prices somehow. If you get the right lease deal then you can often buy your car at the end so it's not quite as clear cut that you have to just hand it back.

It's a bit ugly though isn't it?
I think it's leave it for another year, wait and see how the technology moves on. It's moving in the right direction.
Might go book a test drive in the new leaf on saturday, see what the e-pedel is like
 
It's a bit ugly though isn't it?
I think it's leave it for another year, wait and see how the technology moves on. It's moving in the right direction.
Might go book a test drive in the new leaf on saturday, see what the e-pedel is like

If you're in it you can't see it ;)

The 60kwh or more cars are a far better proposition for longer term ownership. They should be available to order within the next few months but lead times are quite silly for some of them.
 
It's a bit ugly though isn't it?
I think it's leave it for another year, wait and see how the technology moves on. It's moving in the right direction.
Might go book a test drive in the new leaf on saturday, see what the e-pedel is like

We dipped our toe in when Leaf's were really cheap. Our top of the range Tekna cost about £3300 over two years. When 'fuel' costs and lack of tax, MOT's and servicing etc were chucked in, I actually think overall ownership/running costs were probably almost as low as you'd get on anything, let alone a new car. It was a total bargain but when it came to replace it, the finance numbers no longer stacked up. Would have been brilliant to have another EV in the household but we weren't really prepared to pay a significant premium at the time because of the compromised usability. Like you, we're really just waiting to see when to jump back in. Either because of another too-good-to-be-true deal or when it just makes more sense on a like for like basis. I do miss the sheer refinement of an EV. When we had ours, I had an E39 Alpina at the same time and it felt so agricultural in comparison. Made a nicer noise though!
 
Actually one other thing that did maybe put us off another EV at the time. When we got our's it was still very much in the era of everything being subsidised to grow the EV market. There was loads of on street charging and they were always unoccupied and FOC. Many public car parks were free to EV's too not to mentioned free motorway charging. But over our period of ownership I saw a growing number of charging points become long term out-of-order and some actually removed. And many of the other perks of EV ownership were also dwindling too, in particular the motorway charging. And of the chargers available, so many more cars waiting to use them. It became frustrating enough that in our second year of ownership, almost all charging was done at home and the car was never used for journeys that relied on a charge stop. It's obviously natural for this blip to occur as the industry tries to support itself but it tainted things a little and is another reason that I'm happy to sit back on watch for a year or two.
 
We dipped our toe in when Leaf's were really cheap. Our top of the range Tekna cost about £3300 over two years. When 'fuel' costs and lack of tax, MOT's and servicing etc were chucked in, I actually think overall ownership/running costs were probably almost as low as you'd get on anything, let alone a new car. It was a total bargain but when it came to replace it, the finance numbers no longer stacked up. Would have been brilliant to have another EV in the household but we weren't really prepared to pay a significant premium at the time because of the compromised usability. Like you, we're really just waiting to see when to jump back in. Either because of another too-good-to-be-true deal or when it just makes more sense on a like for like basis. I do miss the sheer refinement of an EV. When we had ours, I had an E39 Alpina at the same time and it felt so agricultural in comparison. Made a nicer noise though!


Salesman said the new leaf was quick 0-60 about 8 secs he claimed. Might have to try that saturday, I've a test drive booked, really just to see what it's like and this new e-pedal with extra regen
 
Salesman said the new leaf was quick 0-60 about 8 secs he claimed. Might have to try that saturday, I've a test drive booked, really just to see what it's like and this new e-pedal with extra regen

Our 24kW was dog slow on paper but there is a lot to be said for instantaneous torque in cut and thrust traffic around town. Because almost nobody ever drives an ICE car in the manner thats used to achieve 0-60 times, the instant shove in the 0-20/30 mph sort of range meant that a Leaf is never going to be bullied at junctions etc

I found to drive, they lean massively towards refined and impressive rather than fun. But then most newer cars aren't much fun anyway and the EV side of things certainly adds some interest.
 
Actually one other thing that did maybe put us off another EV at the time. When we got our's it was still very much in the era of everything being subsidised to grow the EV market. There was loads of on street charging and they were always unoccupied and FOC. Many public car parks were free to EV's too not to mentioned free motorway charging. But over our period of ownership I saw a growing number of charging points become long term out-of-order and some actually removed. And many of the other perks of EV ownership were also dwindling too, in particular the motorway charging. And of the chargers available, so many more cars waiting to use them. It became frustrating enough that in our second year of ownership, almost all charging was done at home and the car was never used for journeys that relied on a charge stop. It's obviously natural for this blip to occur as the industry tries to support itself but it tainted things a little and is another reason that I'm happy to sit back on watch for a year or two.

What we do is have a petrol or diesel generator in the back to charge the batteries, if only one day we could propel a vehicle using that fuel :D
 
Hum had a quick look at the tax generated. About £30bn from fuel duty as theres Vat to be added to these taxes as well.
http://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/fuel-duties/

If everyone drops to EV, does the government then slowly switch the taxation to electricity as fuel usage drops?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/26/treasury-tax-electric-cars-vat-fuel-duty#img-1
I think they'll only tax the public charging infrastructure, and (hopefully) at the same time mandate apartment car parks to install untaxed 7kW charging posts.

It's fairer to tax higher mileage drivers who are using the road more, compared to tax all household electrical usage. But then, taxing household electric will push more people towards roof-top solar, which is a good thing.

What we do is have a petrol or diesel generator in the back to charge the batteries, if only one day we could propel a vehicle using that fuel :D
If only there's more choice in those type of hybrid.

The electric powertrain is far more refined to drive as mentioned by other EV owners.
 
Last edited:
I think they'll only tax the public charging infrastructure, and (hopefully) at the same time mandate apartment car parks to install untaxed 7kW charging posts.

It's fairer to tax higher mileage drivers who are using the road more, compared to tax all household electrical usage. But then, taxing household electric will push more people towards roof-top solar, which is a good thing.


If only there's more choice in those type of hybrid.

The electric powertrain is far more impressive to drive as mentioned by other EV owners.

I suspect pay per mile tech might be the answer. Cars tracked by GPS and charged accordingly. Depressing of course and all sorts of other implications but it just seems an obvious direction now.
 
I suspect pay per mile tech might be the answer. Cars tracked by GPS and charged accordingly. Depressing of course and all sorts of other implications but it just seems an obvious direction now.
Depressing but highly likely. Insurance companies will also be happy.


Sorry - just spotted this. See above. It's not misconceptions it's what I'm told by owners
You're insisting I ignore all other owners and data and just take your findings and experiences as gospel.

I'm eager to cut my monthly payments on fuel if possible, EV seemed a cheap solution until I started investigating the issues related. I'm trying to do due diligence, which included hiring one for a week to use for real, on real journeys

I may have to test drive the new Leaf :D

Evidence from Leaf owners stats gathering thread (https://speakev.com/threads/the-battery-health-thread.18923/) predicts 80% after 6 years. Degradation is certain, but certainly no where near the fear-mongering seen on traditional motoring websites.

There are vested interest to keep the status quo of the oil industry (and countries) and ICE cars on the road. You'd have to look at source of information carefully. This is similar to how some energy companies are not keen on people install roof-top solar for energy independence: https://electrek.co/2018/03/06/tesl...ounted-powerwalls-settlement-arizona-utility/
 
Sorry - just spotted this. See above. It's not misconceptions it's what I'm told by owners
You're insisting I ignore all other owners and data and just take your findings and experiences as gospel.

I'm eager to cut my monthly payments on fuel if possible, EV seemed a cheap solution until I started investigating the issues related. I'm trying to do due diligence, which included hiring one for a week to use for real, on real journeys

I may have to test drive the new Leaf :D


I was the same and looked at the BMW i3 - I wasn't keen on the Nissan styling and Teslas are just stupid money. The other thing to note is that the Warranty on the Batteries are 8 years after which you are on your own! No thanks EV at least after 8 years you still have an engine with ICE!
 
I was the same and looked at the BMW i3 - I wasn't keen on the Nissan styling and Teslas are just stupid money. The other thing to note is that the Warranty on the Batteries are 8 years after which you are on your own! No thanks EV at least after 8 years you still have an engine with ICE!
Again, I don't understand why do you have to replace the battery after 8 years?

It's like wanting to replace the ICE after warranty runs out and say "it no longer do its rated economy so it needs to be replaced!"
 
What we do is have a petrol or diesel generator in the back to charge the batteries, if only one day we could propel a vehicle using that fuel :D

Petrol/diesel hybrids bug the hell out of me from an efficiency stand point but at this moment in time they serve a purpose at least.

It's funny I consider myself a petrol head and have been a total car nut all my life but I'm also obsessed with efficiency. I'm an engineer by trade and everything I have done in the last few years professionally has been efficiency driven. While I'm not particularly a greenie, I'm much more comfortable with the idea of our travel not relying on digging up non-renewable resources. It just seems like a dead-end thing to do no matter how long it can continue for. It causes quite an internal conflict for me! Now I realise that the reality of much of our electricity generation is heavy reliance of fossil fuels but the two reassurances for me there are that a) we can and are making strides to use increasingly renewable energy and b) power stations offer far better efficiency than ICE's can dream of. So as things stand, I still love petrol engines but I'm fascinated to see where things are heading. There are some amazing possibilities.
 
Depressing but highly likely. Insurance companies will also be happy.




Evidence from Leaf owners stats gathering thread (https://speakev.com/threads/the-battery-health-thread.18923/) predicts 80% after 6 years. Degradation is certain, but certainly no where near the fear-mongering seen on traditional motoring websites.

There are vested interest to keep the status quo of the oil industry (and countries) and ICE cars on the road. You'd have to look at source of information carefully. This is similar to how some energy companies are not keen on people install roof-top solar for energy independence: https://electrek.co/2018/03/06/tesl...ounted-powerwalls-settlement-arizona-utility/

All you have quoted is your perceptions and predictions, not hard evidence. But your perception of 80% battery life after 6 years is garbage backed up by the fact that no manufacturer will guarantee batteries over 8 years old. No doubt they will get better with time but the early generation EVs will be worth little when you have to pay £4k for a new battery for a Nissan( your figures). Like I said before EV needs to mature and the comments about chargers, queues and lack of infrastructure back this up even on this thread.
 
I think they'll only tax the public charging infrastructure, and (hopefully) at the same time mandate apartment car parks to install untaxed 7kW charging posts.
It's fairer to tax higher mileage drivers who are using the road more, compared to tax all household electrical usage. But then, taxing household electric will push more people towards roof-top solar, which is a good thing.

Toll road taxing is harder to collect than simply sticking a duty of fuel, just that this fuel will be electricity.
Personal solar/Wind generation with storage is the way to go and thats factored into my thoughts on the next house move, land etc as I can see that as an excellent way to reduce bills. National grid work their estimates on 7Kw usage per car per day for Ev at the moment. 3 miles per Kw?

If only there's more choice in those type of hybrid.
The electric powertrain is far more refined to drive as mentioned by other EV owners.
Some hybrids are much better than others, the BMW i8 is a stunning piece of machinery. A friend went toyota hybrid on his new company car and it's poor (35mpg) compared to his old CX-5 (45mpg)
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top