Just my 2p...

As an Old-school, proper car enthusiast, I needed to 'go-EV' so I could enjoy real cars without so much guilt.

Having decided to buy a Tesla but (in 2018/19) got fed up with their nutty sales systems, I bought an i3S. Full EV, rubbish range, no BMW DNA, uncomfortable, useless driver aids etc etc and £320/year road tax as list price was over £40k.

Sold it back to dealer in March 2020 and bought 'First Edition' Kia Soul EV, which, it pains me to say, does everything it is supposed to. The first car I have ever owned to get to this age and mileage with no faults/squeaks/rattles/etc. It is not exactly thrilling but is an excellent daily driver and does its job off-setting my carbon footprint perfectly well.

Environmental impact of manufacturing battery packs etc for EVs means they are not saving the air/population/planet if you are a low-mileage user. In many cases, if that's what you want to do,it's theoretically better to stick with the car you've got.

Also, if you treat an EV like a regular car you can come unstuck - there's some learning to do to get the best out of an EV (i'm 'older' - it took a little time!)

With the i3S I had to charge en-route many times. It was frustrating and stupidly organised (in every way - unless you have a Tesla) but things are slowly improving...

The Pod-Point 7.2kw wall charger at home is all I need most of the time with the Kia (285 mile range today as it was nicely warm)

With so many poor build-quality stories about Teslas, the frankly terrifying record LR has with reliability and customer service, the dimensions of the Taycan, the boredom factor of the iD3 or 4, the budget-Fiesta quality of the Mach-E interior and so on, choices for an EV narrow quickly.

The Audis and Mercedes look great but don't have the range I'd prefer yet (very soon will though...)

There's a year+ waiting list for an i4M.

Unless I'd had the Soul EV, I would never have considered spending £60k and more on a Kia but I am thinking my next EV will be the EV6 GT (577bhp!)

That or a GR Yaris, or an Ineos Grenadier, or an Alfa Tonale....

Can't say I'd never go back to ICE though. EV has it's place but I would still take a 'real' car everywhere if I could!

Also, I believe test drives are a good way to see the good things only about EVs. Most of the things that impress you on the test drive mean diddly-squat most other times. I would suggest renting for a week or two to get more of an idea of EV v ICE (less important which make/model for that, I guess) and see if it's a fit for you.

There's mention but rarely emphatically about how range in an EV can vary. It's quite extreme. 21 degrees like today seems to be optimum. Hotter and the aircon needs to work hard. Lots colder and batteries can't hold so much charge and you need heating. Town/varied driving is great for range, motorways not so much. Motorway on a cold day, three-up with heating and you're definitely stopping for coffee!

All minor stuff that everybody probably is aware of already but there may be some food for thought in there somewhere...

Best wishes to everyone here.

Reggie

(As in Reggie the Range Rover:-)

I daily drive an EV, a 2020 Model S Long Range. One of the last of the "old" model S which has been heavily updated in the US, the last deliveries here were the end of 2020 and its unlikely we will see a new one for at least 9-12 months. The last cars had more efficient motors and offer huge range/efficiency and a car the same as mine has been driven from Edinburgh to London without charging and now holds the EV record for the fastest John O Groats to Lands End journey in 15:24

Anyway, it was a rocky start to be fair the car was delivered with some cosmetic defects, and its been back to Tesla quite a few times for various things but since the end of June I have covered over 70,000 miles on electric. The car has free supercharging, and I have a special tariff at home where all my charging comes in at 7.5p a kWh, the car covers between 3 and 4 miles per kWh so worst case its 2.5p a mile to run. In reality its more like half that with 50% of my charging coming from the superb supercharger network and better economy than 3miles/kWh.

The car is fast, despite being the "slow" one at 0-60 in 3.7 it is comfortable and quiet and well equipped, it will comfortably do 300 miles on a full charge at 70mph on the motorway in moderate conditions (15 degrees plus). In the winter I admit this is nearer 250. It is rare I HAVE to stop and charge at an inconvenient time. (Perhaps 3/4 times in the last two years). I normally stop when I need the toilet/lunch and plug the car in whilst I am there. My average dwell time is just over 20 minutes at a charger, before the EV came I timed a few stops for the loo/buy sandwich and coffee etc and it typically takes around 15 minutes so with a higher cruising speed than my previous diesel pickup journey time is generally the same or less. I also now do not have to drive out of my way to a petrol station 2/3 times a week and get covered in stinking diesel. Saves a huge amount of time.

Speaking of the pickup, on average it used to do 33-34mpg. For those 70,000 miles at todays pricing I would have spent £17650 or so, vs just over £1000 in electricity by my calculations (based on average 1.5p a mile)

For long distance motorway work that I do, visiting customers the length and breadth of the country it is a wonderful vehicle and very convenient. The only downside is there is not much soul with them, very effective but not fun in that sense. I have an old E60 M5 which the polar opposite of the Model S despite being a 500bhp saloon and it gives a huge amount of driving pleasure, as does my L322. Both of which I use from time to time for a day out.

Very nice, great car, great company. BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

Reggie wrote:

J

Having decided to buy a Tesla but (in 2018/19) got fed up with their nutty sales systems, I bought an i3S.

The system is better now...

Tesla has done amazing things, including open-sourcing a lot of key research. The S and X are great but too big for me every day. I would still consider a Model Y. That said, my friend bought one and had issues with it immediately.

Back in 2018/19, I'd had a deposit down on a Model 3 for several months, ready to get a rhd one as soon as possible.

I was invited for a test drive once they had rhd cars here and they gave us a walk-round, a sit-down speech and a 30 minute test drive.

On return from the test drive, we had to seek-out someone to talk to about buying one. Once we found someone, I literally said "OK, I'll buy one now". It would have been around £60k. (4wd Performance etc etc)

Salesman confirmed there were stocks in the UK ready for delivery.

I gave my ideal spec and he said "we don't have one like that"

I asked what they did have, saying I would take the closest to my ideal.

Salesman couldn't do that, he could only input a desired spec and wait to see if it matched a stock item.

He didn't want to help anyway and suggested it would take too much time and I should follow this process from home.

On the way home, we decided not to proceed. I wasn't wild about an EV, or the Model 3 (apart from farty seats!) and the chaos was enough to turn me off completely.

At that point I actually bought a Mercedes GLC63 coupe and put a deposit down on the as-yet-unseen Kia Soul instead!

The i3S came because the Kia was delayed and I wanted to offset my carbon output asap. It wasn't what I thought so I tried the Kia instead.

I have read this morning that Mercedes have some new, high-silicon-content battery tech for 2025. It holds 20-40% more charge in the same volume/weight of battery. Increasing range will help all the others catch up with Tesla on this front.

R

Thanks, you are right it was chaos when the 3 and Y came out as some had been waiting to place an order for years, yes years.
much better now indeed,and it is made so you can order it from home, easy peasy.
We tried a Y this week, and an IoniQ 5 and the Y beats it, on top of the supercharger network.
However, the Ioniq 5 can be specced to be much cheaper if required as a 2WD medium range. The Y comes with everything.

These are both fabulous machines though. l=Oo\________/oO=l l:OolΞΞΞΞΞΞΞloO:l

Current
RANGE ROVER Vogue 4.4L SDV8 - 2013 - Indus Silver, on Almond.
RANGE ROVER Vogue 4.4L V8 - 2002 - ex-2003 G4 Challenge Event Vehicle, Stage 3: Australia
RANGE ROVER HSE 4.4L V8 - 2004 - one-of-one Overfinch
RANGE ROVER P38a 4.0L V8 - 1999 - ex-2000 TReK Event Vehicle: South Africa

Previous:
RANGE ROVER Vogue 4.4L TDV8 - 2012 - RANGE ROVER 3.6L TDV8 x3 - RANGE ROVER Td6 x1 - RANGE ROVER Classic 3.5L V8 x1

Didn't realise that free charging was still a thing for the model S. See, never stop learning.

It is very much a thing for earlier cars. Cars that were registered up to around March 2017 can have free supercharging for life and it is often transferrable to a new owner. The exception to this is if the car has been through Tesla where they often remove the perk.

In my case, after early 2017 they would often bring free supercharging back for the fist owner as a perk especially towards the end of a delivery quarter to push a few cars. In my case, when I started to look the Model S and X both had free supercharging but the base price was something like £82,000, at the end of May 2020 they dropped the price by £5k but removed the free supercharging. So I actually made my order then at the price drop as I felt it was a touch more reasonable. Then after I had made my order an almost identical car came up in new inventory at the lower price but with the grey wheels rather than silver which I preferred but it still had free supercharging so I swapped over as it was a win win situation for me. With the added bonus that the car was delivered a few weeks later rather than having to wait months. Actually if I had waited much longer I might never have got it, new orders made in the September onwards were never delivered as the production line wound up ready to make the refresh

As for others complaining about having to order a car on the internet and wait for it to come/be matched with a car that Tesla had built. Sadly that is just the way they do it, it hasn't changed you make an order and then you either get matched with a car in the country or on the way or you have to wait a very long time and even then it can suddenly move forwards or back when it comes to delivery times. A colleague and I both made orders 12 months ago for refresh Model S, its been a year there is no sign, I expect it will be at least another 12 months. Luckily the deposit is just £100. 2005 E60 M5
2006 L322 4.2 SC
2020 Tesla Model S Long Range
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2004 L322 4.4 Vogue, 2019 NP300 Navara, 2016 NP300 Navara, 2002 L322 4.4 HSE, 2006 (MY07) L322 S/C ,2001 330Ci Sport Track Car, 2005 650i Coupe, 2001 P38 Vogue, 2003 530i Sport Touring, 1999 P38 4.6 HSE, 2002 E39 M5, 1995 300zx TT Slicktop, 1997 M3 Evo, 1992 300zx TT Targa, 1998 323i Coupe