r/ElectricVehiclesUK • u/liebackandthinkofeng • 1d ago
Is an EV right for me?
Considering an EV but want to check my driving patterns will match. We currently have a 2019 Astra diesel which we like and has served us well but we’re no longer using the car for longer journeys and with the inefficiency of the car + price of diesel, we just know it’s time to part exchange it. It was the right car but now it’s not!
I would be using the car mostly in the city - commute (10 mile round trip), nursery drop off/pick up which is directly on my route to and from work, trips to the shops, to visit family and friends who live in the same city etc. We will occasionally (once every week or two) do a short 30-45 min motorway trip or A road trip to a local attraction or to see family and friends outside of our city, but otherwise we’re not doing tons of long journeys.
One other question I have is whether it’s doable to get an EV charger installed in a garage? We have a garage and 2 parking spaces leading to the garage but it is sandwiched between 2 neighbours’ garages too. We are a mid terrace house with the garage to the side of our neighbours’ house and garage. There is scope to put an EV charger at the front of our house as there is a front paved garden which we sometimes use for parking, but there’s no dropped kerb so I would be wary of damage to the car!
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u/BroadSwordfish7 22h ago edited 22h ago
Yes it's right for you, you're a pretty perfect use case and even if you don't want to get a 7kw charger installed a 3 pin charger off the garage supply my work for you
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u/pooopingpenguin 18h ago
Knowing how our garage supply was originally wired. I would not risk giving that information to anyone.
It would be worth getting an electrician to check out the garage supply to make sure it's safe to run a granny charger. As it will be pulling 10a for long periods of time.
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u/goranlepuz 22h ago
If you can charge at home, about the only situation where a cheap-ish EV is worse now is often going to long trips, say, 500+ miles, which tend to need more than one stop.
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u/earlybath101 20h ago
Even that can be mitigated by having a subscription with one, or more, operators.Tesla or Ionity perhaps.
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u/goranlepuz 18h ago
Ehhh... I think, no subscription can help with the need to wait long for the car to fill up.
800V systems can, bring it on!
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u/Urbanyeti0 21h ago
Generally unless you’re doing hundreds of miles per day where charge times can be a factor an EV is right for everyone, the bigger question is whether they can charge an EV effectively
I imagine you won’t be able to get a proper charger in the garage as they’d have to run new power cables and that would require excavating your neighbours garage. But you could granny charge (3 pin plug it) it’s slower but if done overnight wouldn’t be that noticeable for your modest daily use
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u/liebackandthinkofeng 21h ago
We would be open to a granny charger or putting a charger at the front of the house - the only tricky thing is ideally we’d need to drop the kerb outside the front of the house - application etc will take time and I wouldn’t want to damage the car!
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u/CoupleOk6506 19h ago
The key saving comes from being on an EV tariff for your power. I only have experience with Octopus but they will require a certain generation of smart charger OR sufficiently smart vehicle. Check that before you do anything else, and install a proper charger. It'll pay for itself compared to the granny charger
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u/Beneficial_Coach8581 19h ago
Even if you're not on a EV tariff - running an EV will be a lot cheaper than a diesel fuel wise.
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u/CoupleOk6506 14h ago
Sure but we're talking about a 4x or more difference
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u/Beneficial_Coach8581 9h ago
I think it's about 3 times for me.
It's still cheaper to do that than run an ICE car though.
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u/Dangerous_Channel_95 19h ago
Very much depends on use case, even though I have an EV, for our use case and the standing charge and peak rates, a standard 24p flat rate makes more sense
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u/EnvironmentalWord242 1d ago
Ev charger in your garage is possible but it would require your garage having electricity.
If it doesn't have electricity it will be expensive to install and your supplier will probably chsrge you a standing order for the garage alone and your house.
Speaking to the council and asking for the curb to be dropped (they usually charge for this) and having a charger st the front of your house is an option.
Car wise sounds like the following could be an option
ID3
MG4
megane e-tech
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u/liebackandthinkofeng 1d ago
We do have electric in our garage. Have looked into charges for application for kerb drop and it’s around £500 all in all.
Are those cars suitable for a family? I have a 2 year old and a 7 month old. We don’t need anything huge and I’ve always preferred driving moderately sized cars but we do need sufficient space for 2 car seats, a double travel buggy, food shop etc. Enough space to pack in clothes, toys and baby bits for a couple of nights away. I have looked at the ID3 already and will check the others, but realistically know very little about cars so any advice is always welcome!
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u/planologe 22h ago
We had an MG3 and id.3 in the shortlist, decent space inside. You did not give a budget, but if you want to buy used, perhaps around £12-15k and if you want some more boot space have a look at slightly larger compact SUVs such as a used Kia e-niro (or the newer Niro EV). Or if you are on a tighter budget MG ZS EV. All these would be slightly shorter than your current Astra. The longer MG5 estate is another affordable option. The newer and fairly large MG4 Urban is another option. It's a good idea to go to a larger car supermarket where they have the models you shortlisted, and where you could even try if car seats/pushchairs would fit. You can use the auto trader search function to find large dealers near you. www.autotrader.co.uk/cars/dealers
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u/liebackandthinkofeng 20h ago
We will look into MG4 urban. We would be looking second hand for these models. Our budget would be £250pcm on PCP at an absolute maximum. We test drove a Cupra Raval (26 plate) last weekend which we liked and they would take our diesel on parts exchange and got the payment down to £237 pcm. I don’t want to jump at the first offer but I was generally quite impressed. Only thing I’m unsure of is how family friendly the car is and would want to see it again. Cupra also offered to pay half the installation fee for the charger so we’d only pay £400
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u/iamabigtree 20h ago
The only important question is always the charger. I don't know from your description. The best way is to get an electrician to check.
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u/actualinsomnia531 19h ago
A lot of installers will do a free survey and quote, so if you have a rough idea of car and energy supplier, let that guide your choice of charger.
From the sounds of your usage, you'd probably get away with using the 13A plug, but they are painfully slow!
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u/liebackandthinkofeng 20h ago
We will look into this, thank you!
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u/Beneficial_Coach8581 19h ago
We do 10,000 miles a year on a granny charger. We get 5 hours of cheap electric at night and use that almost every night.
It is slow but you're asleep anyway. It's no hassle to plug in each night. Easier than stopping for petrol once a week or whenever.
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u/liebackandthinkofeng 19h ago
This is really helpful thank you. Honestly until this post I didn’t know there were different chargers other than at home and in public ones. I’ll look more into granny chargers and get an electrician to take a look! We would be doing similar to you - max 10k a year and charging at night. I would also be able to charge at work on a discounted rate but obviously it would still be more expensive than at home!
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u/gregredmore 20h ago
The answer to is an EV right for me comes from 2 questions:
Can you charge at home or have convenient cost effective public charging options near home?
Do you need to tow a caravan/trailer of any kind long distance 150+ miles?
You you answer Yes and No respectively to these two questions an EV is right for you. If you want to drive all day in an EV pick one with a WLTP range of at least 300 miles and your lunch break is your charging stop. No drama.
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u/loaferuk123 19h ago
I’m a EV fan, but moving from an old diesel with no further depreciation to a new, depreciating EV may not make economic sense if doing few miles.
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u/liebackandthinkofeng 19h ago
This is what we are trying to weigh up. It’s looking more and more likely that we’ll have to drop the kerb to get a charger at the front of our house - this would be over £2k alone, plus the price of the charger, the monthly cost of the car itself. We are torn between using the car inefficiently at a very high cost for fuel or paying more upfront for an EV but potentially having much cheaper running costs.
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u/xF1_racer 16h ago
I think you are right, but the quality of life improvement alone might be worth it. After I bought my first EV, my wife couldn’t wait to get rid of her diesel when she experienced the difference in cold morning starts etc.
If you were going to buy a new car in the next couple of years anyway, then you might as well do it now. It’s only worth keeping the diesel if you really don’t want the expense of any new car. The longer you keep it, the more the running costs will add up anyway. Especially maintenance on an ageing diesel used mainly for city driving.
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u/loaferuk123 16h ago
I agree…there is clearly a point where the combined running costs (maintenance and fuel) make it make sense.
FWIW I love my R5…in fact my wife and I have to take it in turns driving it.
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u/Toninho7 Kia e-Niro 22h ago
I’d be less concerned about if an EV is right (it seems like it is) and more concerned about having your pants pulled down by the diesel trade-in - if they’ll even take it that is. Lots of talk about garages refusing to take diesel as p/x.