EV recommendation

With my Enyaq, I get pretty close to the advertised mileage if I have a max speed of 63mph. I use the aircon.

I take a tractor if I am going anywhere muddy.

I have been looking at published road tests and picked out the Citroen EC3 as appearing to fit the requirements. Cash purchase seems to knock the prices back a bit! Lack of a heat pump a consideration but losing range doesn't matter much for the shopping job.

The plan is to get some experience with existing family cars before going to the dealers. Thanks for the Autotrader heads up. We haven't bought from a dealer since 2009!

For a home charger you can go up to 7kW single phase or 22kW 3-phase. With E7 that gives you 49 or 154kWh at cheap rate per day. Most EVs have a

(there are also EV specific tariffs offering a lower rate for eg 5 hours overnight at 7.5p/kWh)

If you're on a road trip away from home you can use a 50-350kW rapid charger so you don't have to stop for much beyond a pee/coffee/lunch break - you pay more per kWh for that facility.

Most people don't do hundreds of miles road trips very often so it's a small part of their overall charging expenditure.

Theo

I think the Renault Zoe is out of production now, but one to avoid as its NCAP score went down to zero after they removed some airbags!

Was it you that mentioned (either here or in u.l.m) the Citroen Ami? I can't find that thread.

I know that technically it's not classed as a car, the chap who bought the first official UK car, only did about a thousand miles in it over two years, during which time it needed a new motor, apparently then it b0rked again and requires a full drive train replacement costing more than the new price ... he did get Citroen to give him a full refund even after the warranty period ...

From the .gov web site:

This new measure removes band A under the existing VED system which is currently £0. Vehicles in this band will be required to move to the first band where a rate becomes payable.

How the changes will affect your vehicle

Electric, zero or low emission cars registered on or after 1 April 2025 You will need to pay the lowest first year rate of vehicle tax set at £10 from 1 April 2025. From the second tax payment onwards, you will pay the standard rate. This will be £195.

Electric, zero or low emission cars registered between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2025 You will pay the standard rate. This will be £195.

Electric, zero or low emission cars registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 These vehicles will move to the first band that has a VED value. This will be £20”.

what's known as a "Granny Charger" is a lead that plugs into a 13A socket. I use a dedicated 32A outlet for overnight charging.

If I'm on a long journey, yes.

Dear Lord, you really need to work out when to stop talking and revealing your ignorance.

Tim

A granny charger is typically limited to 2kW (as it plugs into a standard

Most EV owners will have a 7kW charger installed and will be on EV tariffs with much bigger discounts for off peak charging.

I’ve put over 60,000 miles on my EV over four years. I’ve probably used public DC chargers about half a dozen times over that time, all the rest on home charging. If you have a 7kW charger it’s possible to do the vast majority of the charging you need at home.

Yes, public charging can be expensive but then so is buying fuel on motorways. If you need it you just suck it up and pay.

Tim

Probably not, and the actual range loss may not be so bad.

The e-C3 does look good in terms of KISS, you can even get it without a centre dash screen (although the speedos are still a separate display).

One other useful place is Turo:

Theo

Early Zoes are worth avoiding because their batteries can be on a separate lease agreement, and it costs a couple of grand to buy out the battery from Renault else you're paying ~£50/month for the lease.

Yep. (uk.telecom.something)

They're very popular in France (where you can drive them without a licence). I suspect he just got a lemon.

Theo

This is just the vehicle tax.

How soon will the Government start taxing EVs for the loss of revenue from fuel duty? When the majority of cars are EVs the loss in tax will £25 billion (at today's prices). Approx £850 per household per annum.

It could be road pricing but possibly the cheapest option for collection, say, in 10 to 15 years time would be a vehicle tax of £1000+/annum.

It's getting harder to avoid touch screen controls for many functions on new cars.

My current car has got a mix of touch screen, knobs, steering wheel and stalk controls (as well as speech recognition) and the technology and functionality seems well designed.

I have driven other cars where the ergonomics have been very poor, such as having to go down two menu levels on a central touch screen display to blow hot air at the screen and then the fan having a delay of 5 seconds before it turns on. Too much time taking one's eyes of the road for a simple function, and then checking again when something doesn't happen to check that the correct thing has been selected.

You can get the EV tariffs even if you just charge from a 13 amp socket, we do.

Also 'a granny charger' is nearer 3kW than 2kW. 230 volts at 13 amps is 2990 watts. In reality most supplies are nearer to 240 volts than

Don't most granny "chargers" signal 10A max to the car, rather than 13A?

And it will get worse, as groups such as cyclists try their best to force people out of cars, using e.g. cycling infrastructure to make journeys slower and less convenient, roads closed twice a day for ‘cycle buses’, LTNs, 20 limits, casual criminal damage to cars that break their rules, claims (unsubstantiated) that cycling improves health, appeals to ‘Dutch models of cycling’ that ignore the fact that the cycling casualty rate there is no better than the UK, island bus stops, camera enforcement of the

Yes, you may be right there. It's still 2.4kW if the voltage is 240 volts.

The one I keep for emergencies in my car boot (A VW/Skoda part) says 10A max.

Neither of ours will draw 13A, more like 10.5A. And the plugs can get a bit warm even at that current!

nib

There's little - if any - mention in this thread of voice control, which is available on most new cars. This is a rather old review from this time last year:

An internet search of "voice control" and "EV" will yield many hits specific to makes and models if more information is required.