electric revolution has fallen flat ... so dont buy electric

[pete]

Well

Nissan will let you have a leaf for 4 days
.

there is an autotest in a few weeks time.....

Do it do it do it.

[pete]

And they drive themselves...

Watch on YouTube

[Dominic]

Well

Nissan will let you have a leaf for 4 days
.

there is an autotest in a few weeks time.....

Do it do it do it.

What's the expression?.... Range anxiety? ...the venue is about 40 miles from home! (Not that I have been checking you understand)

[thinfourth]

I wouldn't if i was you

Mainly as it has a foot operated handbrake and I imagine the electronic overlord would have 5 minutes of dom driving before it hides in a corner and refuses to let the car move until the nasty man goes away.

[thinfourth]

And they drive themselves...

Watch on YouTube

If i could afford a tesla Model S

I would buy a tesla model S

Having the car drive me to work

Oh yes please

[j2 lot]

Scottish government loan 0% interest - you know you want too........

[KevD]

Family friend has leag and commutes 20 miles each way and has charging stations available at work. Paying just over £200 a month on 2 year lease (dont think its available for that now)

Im changing jobs in Jan with 35 mile each way trafficless Mway or A road commute so considering elec but would need charging station at the new work ( there's plenty of leccy to go round) . A few folk at the new site have Mitsu PHEV's so hoping they've a charger. The Mway services at Abington has a bank of tesla ones and 'normal' ones so they'd fit it. Lease mileage would be huge though. A £3k diesel volvo is currently winning I think.

Ampera's are down to £15k or so second hand, seem to be the forgotten range extender but could be good as well.

[rossybee]

Zoes (like them ) are cheap now second hand, but not sure where you stand wrt the batteries, as the were leased seperately when new...

[Dominic]

Zoes (like them ) are cheap now second hand, but not sure where you stand wrt the batteries, as the were leased seperately when new...

Duracel AA batteries are cheap in Costco, buy a sh*t load of them, jobs a carrott

[David]

I believe £80 per month for batteries. That's much the same as the fuel for a small car doing average mileage, and that's before you pay for charging it. But I think that has caused marketing problems and there have been some promotional deals where you can get batteries included.

[rossybee]

Hence the sh*t residuals then...

[ironside]

I've had an Audi A3 e-tron on a lease for about 6 months now.
It's a plugin hybrid, like the Mitsubishi PHEV. 30 miles max battery range (from a 2 hour charge) and a 1.4 turbo petrol for the rest of the time.
Using both powertrains at the same time it's a 6 speed (flappy paddle S-Tronic) ~200bhp car that looks like any other Audi A3.

I think it's a great car, my current commute is ridiculously short so most days I don't use the petrol engine at all.
Both home and office charge points are available fully funded from the government/energy savings trust. While the charge points are funded, the electricity is obviously not but mine also came with a year's access to the chargeyourcar.org.uk network of public charge points. I've yet to find one of those that costs money to use, they've all been free so far.

Real economy-wise the 30 mile electric range is almost never attained, it's more like low 20s in 30 to 40mph areas. At 80mph (the maximum speed on pure electric drive) it's low teens. On petrol only it returns 40 to 45mpg. Letting the car manage both powertrains itself it gets about 60mpg depending on the mixture of roads, speeds and traffic conditions. There's an 8 year/100,000 mile warranty on the battery. It's expected to lose 10 to 30% of its capacity in that time, only a fault or capacity loss beyond that would be covered under the warranty.

If your driving patterns fit (and especially if you can take advantage of the current company car tax breaks) it works really well. If you have a 50 mile motorway commute every day then you're probably better off with a turbo diesel.

[BigD]

Good review Simon. Nice to hear real life info on these.

[thinfourth]

I have looked at plug in hybrids and the one thing that sticks out to me is the utterly terrible electric range

I want an EV so I can toddle around in electric silence

If I only have 14 miles of toddling then i might as well stick with the panda

[Dominic]

Having driven Simon's A3, I can vouch for its performance, and usual Audi levels of quality. Engaging drive and moving off in silence was a bit weird. Great package, if as Simon mentioned, it fits your commute and requirements.

Accounting chat alert! Company car tax breaks are good on them just now, but will not remain the same, so look at future year's rates too when doing your budgeting.