Regenerative Braking

[Mike Watterson]

An EV would suit me fine, but it's unaffordable. I might give up driving when the Yaris wears out.

[Murphyv310]

An EV would suit me fine, but it's unaffordable. I might give up driving when the Yaris wears out.

I agree, I don't have deep pockets so I am being realistic that my driving days will terminate at some point in the future, sad as I won't be able to see some of my family and friends who are well away from public transport and one in particular could have to move away into town if their car fails and no cheap IC car is available.
The rich and poor divide gap is definitely widening.

[Mark Hennessy]

But second-hand EVs are reaching parity with equivalent petrol cars. I've just checked Autotrader, and the original Ioniq EV is the same price (around £15k) as a petrol Ford Focus - that's looking at 2020 examples that will likely be coming from 3 year PCP deals. Even the little Hyundai i10 sits between £10k and £13k if you want a 2020 model, so it might well make sense to find the extra £2k (or buy a slightly older model) to get into an EV. You'll soon get than money back in fuel savings (although moving to EV is about air quality, not saving money).

It's been that way for a little while now. Older examples of the Nissan Leaf can be had for less than £4k and the Renault Zoe starts at around £6k. They might be old tech, but they will be suitable for many, and there's plenty of life left in them.

Of course, these are relatively big numbers, but Covid sent the used car market nuts. 15 year old i10s with starship miles are on Autotrader for more than £2k, and those are described as "Good price" or "Fair price". They would have been a few hundred at best before 2020.

All of that was based on a 25 mile search radius - there's bound to be regional variations - and I'm quoting dealers rather than private sellers, so better prices can be had at a greater risk. But the bottom line is simple - cars are more expensive than ever, sadly, but you really don't need to pay a premium to get into a second hand EV if that's what you want.

[Mike Watterson]

I've never spent even half of £15K (or equivalent in the past) on a car.
Also old models likely need a new battery?
I suspect S/H EV are also rarer here.

[Mark Hennessy]

That's as may be, but all cars are a lot more expensive now post-Covid.

However, less than half of £15k does buy you an EV if you wanted one. As mentioned, you can get a Leaf for less than £4k in the UK. I see plenty for sale over there - here's a nice-looking example that I found for €4,250: https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/nissan/...7219918113 - it's in Wexford. No idea where that is in relation to you, but it's in the right country, at least. Private sale rather than dealer, admittedly, but it looks like a lovely example.

As for battery life, do your own research rather than listening to the so-called "experts" in the local pub or writing in the tabloids. That 12 year old example with 76,000 km on the clock apparently gets 105km (65 miles) of real-world range. When new, it would have been perhaps 70-75 miles, depending on who you believe. Either way, still plenty of life in that car yet.

Out of interest, I took a look at what's available over there for between €4,000 and €4,500, and that sort of money doesn't get you much. Searching for petrol cars, you're into very old and very high mileage stuff. Of the 25 results, there's a couple of tempting Suzuki Altos with low miles, but both 10+ years old.

Not telling anyone to buy an EV - they're not for everyone. I haven't got one yet, but I'm very tempted. I still remember travelling in a Leaf back in 2011 and realising this is the future once the range is up to something around 200 miles, and that's where we are now. As someone who lives on a busy road and still (not as often as I used to or should do!) cycles through the crowded streets, I'm grateful for the increasing EV numbers.

[Murphyv310]

I bought a 2015 Hyundai i10 in January for £3995.
Totally reliable so far even though it's done 114,800 miles!
In brilliant condition and FSH with an oil change every 6 months,

[Cobaltblue]

An EV would suit me fine, but it's unaffordable. I might give up driving when the Yaris wears out.

I agree, I don't have deep pockets so I am being realistic that my driving days will terminate at some point in the future, sad as I won't be able to see some of my family and friends who are well away from public transport and one in particular could have to move away into town if their car fails and no cheap IC car is available.
The rich and poor divide gap is definitely widening.

First time I have ever been accused of being rich   That would make my kids chuckle.

I have made the choice to continue working an extra couple of years (I am already past state retirement age) to help ensure my future.

It also meant when we were deciding to move or extend we stayed and extended as we are in the city with good public transport for when I do have to give up driving.

For less money I could have moved out of the city and had change but no decent public transport.

I use my car for work and as a result get paid for its use.

There are rules though, It cannot be diesel, cannot be more than 5 years old ( why I replaced the Mitzi now my wife's car) Must be ULEZ compliant other than that the lower the CO2 the higher the payment (up to a point). 
The cheapest solution would have been another plug in hybrid but now that Mitzi have pulled out of the market the nearest best option would be the Ford Kuga or the Hyundai Tucson which I did seriously look at. 

The delivery dates then pretty much decided my choice

I won't even be close to break even but it does mean the car is subsidised to a degree as long as I don't use public £0.72/KWH chargers too often.

For those interested in the public charger network I use Zap Map (to plan longer journeys) although the built in SATNAV shows all available chargers en-route.

Incidentally I did some checks on my Mitzi's range now that its 5 years old and just short of 80,000 miles and it seems to have retained around 85% of its original capacity on my most recent tests.

This seems to be inline with reports of 5 year old 80,000 mile Nissan Leaf's which use similar battery chemistry.

Cheers

Mike T

[ppppenguin]

The Leaf was one of the first mass market EVs so it's hardly surprising that there are loads of used examples for sale. Look at the increase in range between then and now. Shows how far EVs have come in 10 or so years.

Reviews of used EVs:
https://www.carwow.co.uk/electric-cars/used#gref
https://www.carmoola.co.uk/blog/used-ele...s-to-avoid
https://www.jthughes.co.uk/Blog/View/How...-Car/12515

Beware of early Renault Zoe with leased batteries. You may get a costly surprise. There may be others that did battery leasing but I can't think of any.

[Murphyv310]

Hi
I did consider an early Leaf at one point. A good few were hovering around the £3500 mark but the range was as low as 30 miles in one which didn't take into account winter conditions. That IMO was virtually useless. I did look at one a 2015 model for £5000 with 60 miles and only two bars missing from the display but the car was a heap with door hinges worn, full brake replacement required, tyres and multiple scratches on the paintwork also described as mint! A walk away from that one.

[Cobaltblue]

Thought I would do an update now that I have been living with the Tesla (not my first choice see earlier post) for 3 1/2 months.

Recommended
Supercharger network simple to use  and even peek cost lower than most other rapid chargers (Mostly varies between 32P and 45p /KWH on a 150, 200 or 250KW chargers)
Range
performance
integration with my mobile
General drivability not bad easy to set the cabin up for long range comfort.
I can get as low as 3p per mile when I plan ahead using Octopus EV overnight rate.
The predicted range on a given trip is amazingly accurate.

A Pain
That stupid screen and virtually nothing on the steering wheel.
Virtually everything is on the touch screen not too bad after getting used to it but still a pain when your in heavy traffic and needing to concentrate
the loose carpet that get tangled around my left foot.
Build quality I have avoided American cars in the past and this ones a doozie.
Adaptive cruise its a curse not very helpful it makes way too many mistakes to be relied on like stopping me dead in the outside lane of dual carriageway just because the truck in front of me (in the left lane) turned into a layby its done it 3 times now I rarely use adaptive cruise.
My Mum (85) has finally worked out how to open the doors 
Dorset they don't have electricity yet not a single supercharger in the whole of that wasteland known as Dorset!

Overall its been a pretty decent experience but I did prefer the Hyundai IONIC 5 as its more like a proper car.

I would quite like one of these I wonder where I can find £2,500,000 ?

(129) Driving The New Fastest Car Ever Made! - YouTube

Cheers

Mike T