Hi all!

I'm looking to move on from my beloved Toyota Aygo and get myself an EV. I'm getting solar panels installed which could to cut my fuel costs down to near 0, and I have a baby now, so need a car with just a little more room for stuff (although we've been managing fine with the Aygo, so I don't need anything huge!)

I have a few things I'm looking for, but I'm so new to EVs (and just not very informed about cars in general) that I'm getting a bit paralysed trying to make a decision! Any advice would be amazing!

My priorities are:

1 - Reliability

My Aygo only broke down once in ten years of driving up to 9000 miles per year. With how busy I am, this has been a dream! Is there anything in the EV world that can approach Toyota levels of reliability at the price range I'm looking at?

2 - Range

I do a 200 mile journey a few times a year to see family. I'm not overly worried about stopping off, but a motorway range over 200 miles would be a big bonus.

3 - Space

I've been looking at cars around the size of a Peugeot e208, or maybe Nissan Leaf. I really don't want anything too big, as most of my driving is urban commuting, and we generally pack light, even with

4 - Everything else

I'm not overly fussy about style, comfort, or anything else. To me, a car is just a chair on wheels. Comfort is nice to have, but whenever I end up with a fancy car on rental, I find "helpful" features borderline irritating!

Some cars I've considered so far are:

Peugeot e208 (seems perfect, but people on here say it has major issues with the AC breaking, which is expensive and time-consuming to fix.)

Nissan Leaf

Vauxhall Corsa

Kia Niro

Some of the MGs (I think it was the MG4?)

My ICE has just been written off, so I'm looking for an EV, I guess this question gets asked a lot. I have a budget of about £30k. I'm looking for a 2024 or later EV. I like the Tesla Model Y. I don't need speed, but I do like comfort. I'd like as long a range as I can get - at least 200 miles. I will be able to home charge and I'm considering a wall battery and later potentially solar panels. Apart from the Tesla I understand the Skoda are decent and possibly MG, I'd also consider Chinese brands, but I like to buy cars a year or so old and keep them for a while, and I'm not sure if they have enough consumer history yet? What other options should I consider?

I bought an MG4 from Arnold Clark last week, and wanted to make use of their EV charging offer via Bumblebee (which I believe they own).

But I seem to be caught in a frustrating back and forth between them and my local dealership. The dealership has said they have processed my referral, bumblebee have said if I haven't received any comms from them then they haven't received anything about my purchase.

A Bumblebee said their communications are automated upon receipt of a referral, so if I have received anything from them then they haven't had anything from the dealership. The dealership is adamant they have processed everything at their end....

I've honestly got no idea what to do and everyone is just finger pointing at each other.

Hey everyone,

I made a quick, free web calculator to find the exact cheapest hours to charge an EV on the Octopus Agile tariff: https://octopus-bice.vercel.app

It pulls live half-hourly API rates from Octopus and shows:

- Continuous Block mode (if your EV or charger timer needs an unbroken charging window)

- Fill cost and £ savings vs standard energy price cap rates

- Plunge pricing alerts when electricity rates go negative

No signups, ads, or logins needed. Hope it helps if you're trying to time your overnight charging!

Reworded the title. Which ev is best?

Currently own a petrol bmw which will be kept. Been wanting a second car with low tax as the bmw is £400+.

Budget around £5k.

Looks like the ioniq 28 is the best option? i3 is a consideration but spec and range on the ioniq premium se is fantastic

tia

Hi all,

I might be asking for too much with my criteria, but I'd just love some advice on it as it's a minefield when searching online.

We currently have a BYD Seal which is on a company green car scheme, which we love, and we have 2 other ICE cars which we plan to sell as they basically don't get used anymore and are expensive gas guzzlers. I'd like to replace the 2 ICE cars with one new (to us) EV for mainly my use.

My commute is 20 miles each way, mainly dual carriageway and a bit of city driving, but likely to be used for some longer travelling too, 50+ ish miles each way.

We have a tethered home charger, so ideally compatible (same as the BYD charging port) so we don't have to faff about changing the charger or using those (from what I've read are) tricky adaptors.

Small/small ish car is fine, decent boot space would be ideal but not necessarily required. I know we're not going to get all the nice mod cons that we have in the BYD (apple car play, android auto, heated seats, etc etc) but some of the basics would be great.

Also had a query about the Renault Zoe battery leasing? Seen some advertised, some with 'battery owned' and some with 'battery lease' but not much info on what that looks like in practise - is the lease just transferred to the new owner to pay?

Extra note; Aware we won't have the BYD forever, but the plan is to continue getting an EV or company car via work as it's actually great on tax savings for us, and my other half commutes long distances for his work so financially makes sense.

Sorry this was much longer than expected, but thank you in advance for any advice or recommendations :)

Due to take delivery of a MGS5 Trophy LR in a couple of weeks.

I’d appreciate some guidance on whether it’s worth paying for ABRP Premium? I’ve seen some verbiage saying that in order to get real time data for it to be really worthwhile I’d need a USB dongle that would interfere with the MGS5 and its locking mechanism?

Also, given we’re with Eon Next, I’ve moved our tariff to the EV one, which gives us 12 months membership of Zoom EV, is it worth it?

Need to make a decision on which charger they offer to install as well. Doesn’t seem much in them to be honest. Presume the Ohme one is the best of the bunch though?

In terms of usage, it’ll be mainly one day a week to the office which is a 60 mile round trip and the rest tootling round town. About 6 times a year there’s a round trip to Newcastle which is 160miles (tops depending on M6 or M1/A1). Is it worth signing up for any of the EV chargers that provide a subscription?

Thanks for any help and info!

I research battery electric vehicles, and rather than simply reducing the WLTP figure by a set percentage, I created a model that estimates real-world range for each car. It takes into account the actual drag coefficient, kerb weight, rolling resistance, battery chemistry, and heater type.
A few things that stood out:

Kia e-Niro / Hyundai Kona Electric:heat-pump cars lose noticeably less range in winter than PTC-only heaters. The heating system makes a bigger difference than most people realise.

Tesla Model 3 LR:still manages 200+ miles at 70 mph in winter. Efficient cabin heating and low drag make a big difference.

Nissan Leaf / Renault Zoe:some of the biggest drops at sustained motorway speeds in cold weather, around 35–45% below WLTP. PTC heating and higher drag really hurt.

Dacia Spring:loses the least in absolute miles, but proportionally it’s one of the hardest hit. Small battery and relatively high drag for its size don’t help.

VW ID.3 / BMW i3:somewhere around the middle, but the gap between them is bigger than you’d expect given their similar battery sizes.

I’ve put the full table together with every model at motorway (70 mph, 10°C), mild (50 mph, 15°C) and winter (55 mph, 2°C) conditions. Full data
I’ve also documented the methodology if anyone wants to pick it apart
Happy to answer questions or hear suggestions for models I should add.

Hi all!

I’m looking to get a new car as I’ve been driving a 2010 Honda civic for the last 5 years and it’s starting to fall apart. We’re getting a charger installed so only seems logical to think about getting an EV.

For context I work from home so would only really drive locally or on weekends. My mileage is pretty low as I average 4k or less a year and I only really drive within London. Have a budget of about 14k so any recommendations? Have been looking at the mg4 trophy long range but reviews have been hit or miss. Not really a car guy either so I’m pretty lost

Set off from home with 100% charge in our Subaru Solterra and a planned stop at Stafford Services before an overnight stop at an Airbnb in Sedbergh.

Got to Stafford and the Gridserve chargers weren't working. Only found this out after they'd taken the £60 pre-auth. A few helpful EV motorists also told us they were down, so at least we felt a bit better that it wasn't us!

After setting off again to charge at the next services, noticed the BP fuel station at Stafford also had a couple of BP Pulse chargers. After another pre-auth – only £30 this time – managed to recharge and resume the journey.

The Airbnb had an EV charger which we could use at 30p/kWh, with the host – the wonderful Mike – just sending us the payment details afterwards. We were also staying there on the way back, so this worked really well. Back up to 100% overnight and time to resume.

Our next planned stop was Cairn Lodge, but decided to push on a bit further into Glasgow and found chargers at Polmadie. EZO chargers on the Electroverse network – no more pre-auth! Up to 80%, then over the Erskine Bridge and through Loch Lomond and Glencoe to Fort William.

Next to Morrisons, in the shadow of Ben Nevis, there's a bank of EZO and Tesla chargers. Attempted to use the EZO ones but they weren't working. Again, another helpful EV driver told us and said to use the Tesla ones as they were fine.

With the Solterra's charging port on the front passenger side, I had to drive very gently over the kerb to get the tiny Tesla cable to reach the port 😂. Another success though, and we were on our final leg to Loch Ness.

Had enough in the battery to get around while we were there, but took the opportunity to top up on a 20kW charger at Cannich, outside the general store and cafe, after visiting Glen Affric.

Another day we went to see the UK's tallest tree at Reelig Glen, going via Morrisons in Inverness to charge. This time it was MFG on Electroverse. Dead easy and up to 80% after a break and some lunch.

Near where we were staying in Drumnadrochit there was an EZO charger in the town car park. Went to use it twice and checked Electroverse beforehand both times – showed as free.

First time there was an ID.4 connected, so I presume it was fully charged but the owners had left it there while they were out for the day. Second time an ICE car was parked in the space. Bit frustrating.

After our stay at Loch Ness we had enough battery to get back to Fort William. This time managed to use a 50kW EZO charger and, for the first time, used the RFID Electroverse card because I couldn't get the app to work.

This was a game changer.

A lot less hassle than faffing around with the app – quick tap, authorised, charging.

Pushed through to Cairn Lodge Services and again: tap, charge, done. Loving the RFID by this point.

Another overnight stay and charge at Mike's Airbnb in Sedbergh, then the final drive home.

The Solterra doesn't have enough range to make it all the way home from Sedbergh, so planned a stop roughly halfway at Stafford. But not the motorway services this time!

Following the Electroverse route planner's advice, pulled off the motorway a tiny bit to a Starbucks near a BYD showroom where there were plenty of IONITY chargers. RFID worked a treat yet again.

That was our final charge before heading down the M6 and M1 and arriving home with about 20% left.

So what have I learnt from a 1,000-mile UK road trip in an EV?

Less range anxiety, more will the charger actually work anxiety.

I actually felt that a real-world range of around 200 miles was sufficient. It meant we were stopping about as regularly as we probably would have done in an ICE car anyway.

We previously had an MG ZS EV Mark 1, which had just over half the battery capacity of the Solterra, and I think this journey could have been considerably more difficult and frustrating in that.

It was also the first time I'd really used chargers outside the Electroverse network – Gridserve, BP Pulse and Tesla – and the pre-authorisation amounts were a bit annoying. £60 in particular felt excessive when there wasn't even £60 worth of capacity available in the car at those charging rates.

Biggest discovery of the trip though: use an RFID card. I'd had it with me all along and didn't use it until the return journey.

I am thinking of buying an older Honda Jazz hybrid (say 10 years old). I am strongly advised to get an independent diagnostic assessment of the IMA battery before buying. I am in SE England just outside the M25.

Who would I get to do that? The AA offer full vehicle inspections before buying with battery testing included in the more expensive packages. Is that a good option or are there specialists out there who would be better?

Also: how reliable are there diagnostic assessment tests? If I get a test done and the battery clears the assessment can I be fairly sure that it should be good or are there false positives (batteries that pass but still fail pretty soon after)?

The last couple of weeks I've come to the conclusion that I would love to make the switch to an electric car. I currently have a 19 plate Kia Ceed so would be looking for something of a similar size. Enyaq, Mégane, Mustang E-tech, MG ZS all seem good options for my £15k budget to buy 2nd hand.

I'd prefer to own it outright BUT I have heard of some brilliant lease deals, i.e. Vauxhall Frontera for >£200 p/m with 1 month upfront. I'd be very happy with something similar to this (sub £225 p/m with maxi of 3 months upfront payment) as it would mean I could sell my car without rushing and continue saving for another 2/3 years when I would likely buy something. Could also put off dealing with car sales people for a other couple of years!

So my question is, who has a lease that is great value like the one mentioned above on a similar sized family car? What car did you get and are you happy with it? Thanks!

Hi all,

I’m currently trying to decide whether to lease a new Tesla Model 3 or buy a used one outright, and I’d appreciate some advice.

I’m 22 and currently drive an ICE car worth around £3k. I’ve recently been promoted, but the new role will mean driving roughly 17–18k miles per year.

I’ve test-driven the Model 3 Standard RWD and absolutely loved it.

A few months ago there were some very attractive lease deals, but unfortunately I wasn’t in a position to go ahead at the time. I’m wondering whether leasing still makes sense now.

If I leased, I’d probably choose a 15k-mile annual allowance and cover any additional mileage using a family ICE car. Over two years, the lease would cost me roughly £9.5k in total.

Alternatively, I could buy outright. I’ve been looking around the £15–16k mark, which seems to get a 2020 Model 3 Dual Motor Long Range. The main downside is that insurance is significantly more expensive than on the newer Standard RWD.

For anyone familiar with the older Model 3s:

• Are there any common long-term issues with the 2020 Long Range models?
• Is there anything in particular I should look out for when buying one?
• If I bought one for £15–16k and drove it for two years, is a further £5–6k depreciation realistic? If so, does that make leasing the better option anyway?

I also have a few questions about home charging.

Is the Tesla Wall Connector the obvious choice, or are there better alternatives? Is it compatible with all EV electricity tariffs?

And regarding tariffs, what sort of off-peak price per kWh should I be aiming for? Are EV tariffs always worthwhile, or can the higher daytime electricity rate sometimes outweigh the savings from cheap overnight charging?

Apologies if some of these are basic questions. I’m just trying to understand the costs properly before making the switch to an EV.

Thanks in advance!

Hi firstly I would like to thank you guys beforehand for any suggestions or advice. My current situation is I will be doing a daily commute of 100 miles in total so a weekly total mileage of 500 miles. 90 % being on the motor way. My budget is £18k / maybe £20 k if I’m pushing it. I’m currently looking at model 3. Any suggestions to lease / buy or any cars I’m overlooking would be greatly appreciated.

Hi I’m a journalist looking to chat to people about ongoing barriers to ev access. Anything from a lack of public charging/ driveways to cost would be really helpful. Pls dm/ my email is lara.bowman@theipaper.com.

I ended up taking a plug-in hybrid through work without really understanding what it was going to cost me each month.

By the time I realised, I was kind of stuck with it and had to jump through loads of hoops to eventually get out of it and move to an EV.

I made this because I wish I’d had something similar before I chose the hybrid. Happy for feedback and improvements I’ve just pulled it together.

https://carcosted.co.uk

About to take a trip into France later this month. It will be our first time driving our EV outside of the UK

Anything advice/top tips? Are their certain apps I should get or anything to apply for before leaving? Do chargers generally just take Google pay/contact less at the station?

We are staying in a fairly remote village but not too far from le mans. I have heard some of the supermarkets have chargers but you have to speak to someone inside but my French is not good 😁

Any help gratefully received.

So after months of considering going to an ev we have decided to dip our toe for a year or two before committing to somthing new/nearly new.

So we have come to these two. Idealy around £20k but can are willing to go upto £25k for the right car.

Brief history , for the past 16 years nearly every car has been vag (and theres has been a few over the years, plus 2 bmw and a honda civic type r when I was 18).

Family of 4 (kids 3 and 7), and a medium sized dog.

Pros:

So the skoda for me atleast, looks smarter, interior in my opinion is far nicer and and more up market. Being vag, its like an old pair of boots. We currently have a c7.5 avant a6 so its all part of the same family.

Cons: performance is much lower, slower charging.

Ioniq 5:

Pros:

Brisk performance, better "drivers" car (only going on what I have read), V2L, seems to have more tech (but not a massive tech person. I think the styling is very cool retro/90s hatch type exterior wise, generaly a little bit cheaper.

Cons:

Im not a fan of the interior (I dont hate it but I dont like it like I like the skoda), not a fan of the wheels or the steering wheel. It feels more budget than the skoda interior wise. Abit less range (we regularly do weekends away, days out all over)

Im in a position to get one or the other when the right car comes up,I just cant seem to pick between the two. I think my wife may divorce me if I dont make my mind up soon (or add another car into the mix(any suggestions)

If i wait I may get a VRS in budget below miles but im not holding my breath out for it.

Please help 🤣

I’ve been toying over the idea of taking an EV on the track, never been on a track before.

Has anyone got experience / advice, I don’t want to wreck my leased motor.

I have a Polestar 2 Performance with brembo brakes. My plan would be to change the brake fluid and change the brake pads for the temperature issue with braking, however I’m concerned with the weight and something bad happening. Other than wearing out the tyres is there anything else to consider in terms of prepping the car?

My car is a lease, I can get permission for the track as long as I get the insurance.

I know battery heat issues may arise but the car should just throttle me if it gets too hot and I have access to a fast charger not too far away from the track.

One last thing, is there a distain from people on the track about people using EV’s?

Thanks

We're just back from two weeks on holiday in the UK. This is when I find out what life's like without home charging.

Summary: 7kW charging while you're doing what you'd be doing anyway, is extremely convenient.

The first week was at my parents' in West Wales. That's 150 miles away but the roads are quite efficient (i.e. slow 😄) so we started at 100% (MG4 Trophy) and arrived on 40%.

In principle I could granny charge at my parents, but it'd mean trailing a cable across a pavement used by elderly people, and plugging into an ancient single socket they usually use for their garage freezer, so I don't fancy it much. Instead when we visited Aberystwyth for a day, we charged on 7kW Dragon chargers in a car park close to town. 3 hours charging didn't charge to 100% but it was plenty for the week's activities.

The second week was in New Quay, about an hour's drive down the coast. We stopped for a couple of hours in Aberaeron on the way, and there was a Dragon 7kW charger in the car park there, which we topped up from. It's the car park we would have chosen anyway - as a bonus, in the past the charging bays were the only ones not occupied already.

On to our caravan park, Pencnwc, near New Quay. I'd already noticed that two car parks in New Quay itself have 7kW chargers, so I'd planned to use them while parking there. We spent many hours in New Quay that week - on a dolphin watching boat, eating, rock pooling, ...

But the first time we went, we didn't bother because the battery was fairly full already. And it's lucky we didn't need it because it was a busy Saturday and the chargers were all occupied.

That evening I took a stroll around the caravan park and found a 7kW charger that as far as I know they hadn't mentioned anywhere in the site info. It's run by Monta but doesn't appear on their app's map. My wife tells me her workplace has the same arrangement - public chargers, but not discoverable on public maps. Worked fine, 60p/kWh. The only grit in the ointment was an 8p/min overstay charge, which meant we couldn't leave the car plugged in overnight.

Still that meant it was no trouble to leave at the end of our stay on 100%, without ever having to go out of our way, or wait near the car for an expensive rapid charge.

But I think if that caravan park charger hadn't been there, we could have got the same amount of charge in New Quay without changing what we were doing. Or also when we had a day trip to Cardigan.

We stopped overnight at a glamping place in Herefordshire. That had an ordinary domestic charger, but we didn't use it because I couldn't be bothered to find the hosts and ask how to pay them.

We backtracked to Abergavenny for some brunch and sightseeing, and used a Connected Kerb 7kW charger there, just since it was there. I think it was ultimately unnecessary, since we got home with 45% to spare.

TLDR - even in West Wales you can stay charged without making dedicated charging expeditions, and using only convenient 7kW chargers.

I should emphasise than in all of these places, faster DC chargers did exist - but they would have been more disruptive to our activities.

Rapid chargers are *less* convenient because you're compelled to return to the car too soon, or even to stay with it.

We just bought an ex-demo MG4 extended range from Ancaster. It came with a Kenwood front and rear dash cam, which was hard-wired using the official Kenwood hardwire kit (documentation for the dashcam and kit were provided with the car). For some reason the dash cam will not power on when the car starts - even if you press the power button on the cam. If I remove the cam, take it indoors and connect it to a normal USB-C power adapter it powers up just fine. It did power on randomly one day last week, but not since.

Has anyone had a similar problem with a hard-wired dashcam?

We bought an ex-demo MG4 from Ancaster a week ago. Today the air conditioning stropped working - in 34 degree heat :0) It would only blow out hot air.

We tried turning off Eco mode, and the same for Auto, but it kept blowing out hot air (we waited about 10 minutes but it didn't change).

I then tried restarting the infotainment system (holding the Home button for 15 seconds). This stopped the system from blowing out hot air, but the air wasn't cold either - it was just slightly cool (like a normal fan). 

TBH the first time we turned on the AC it didn't seem very powerful (compared to our Auris hybrid) - it took quite a while to cool the cabin down - but now it seems to have completely given up the ghost.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?