[Lovejoy]

Hi, I have almost convinced myself an ev is a good idea (E-208) but am very aware all the reviews etc I have read have all been focusing on the positives or not mentioning living with it long term. For the sake of balance in my devision making process, anyone out there regret tieing themselves to an ev lease? Does the novelty wear off and you long for the convenience of good old petrol? Thanks all.

 

[freddym]

Convenience of a petrol? ( I'm missing something here).

Same as I don't miss the " cinvenience" of hitching up my horse to my buggy before I can travel into town....its progress.😁😁😁

 

[Todor]

Lease - yes. EV - no.

 

[toscal353]

In broad terms they are easier to live with than an ICE. No oil to check or change for example. Cheaper to service, tax, insurance competitive. Quiet, smooth and fast (or at least nippy) to drive. Convenient to charge at home with no nasty petrol station visits.
Downsides: obvious one is range and/or range anxiety. Does it meet your needs? Charging on the go is still risky and slow. Can you have a wall charger and charge at home?

 

[TJEV]

EVs work if you have home charging, or a Tesla for the Supercharger network.

I wouldn't own an EV without home charging, instead I'd have one of those EV-with-a-generator things like the Jazz or Ampera.

Cheaper servicing is not true in reality

 

[andrew*debbie]

the convenience of good old petrol?

???? Waking up to a full battery is so much better than queueing for petrol.

Owing an EV is a paradigm shift. The petrol model doesn't apply. With an EV you charge at home overnight and don't worry. Long trips can be a problem if you don't reseach them.

I've been driving an EV since 2014. I've never run out of charge. I have been inconvienced by broken Rapid chargers a few times. Most of the time it is painless. With planning, I find a good place to stop and charge the car while we get a meal or just a cuppa.

 

[andrew*debbie]

I wouldn't own an EV without home charging

This.

 

[James Watson]

Some EV’s are cheap to service. I’m paying £59 for a dealer service on my Soul EV. The major service last year was £99.

 

[Orrery]

It is a different mindset. If you can't cope with having a smaller petrol tank than 600 miles range, it probably won't work for you.
If you travel in mid Wales a lot ...
If you tow ...
If you must have the roar of an engine ...
If you like the smell of benzine ...

 

[UKTechie]

If worried about a long lease, try a Zoe from Onto for few months, my experience is once driven only electric will do.

 

[E7EV]

You’ve probably come to the wrong place to ask that question! Those that do regret it, have long gone over to PH. Those of us left are hardly likely to answer in the affirmative! That would make us look very stupid 🤣

 

[Hitstirrer]

There have been a few in here who have reluctantly gone back to a fossil-fueled car. But usually, because their personal circumstances changed and at the time there was no affordable EV with sufficient range to cover their new travel needs. Mostly they say they will be back when they can either afford a longer range EV or they could go back to a normal distance commute. Other than that I think you will find it hard to discover many EV drivers who would willingly go back to 100 year old technology.

 

[TomH]

There have been a few in here who have reluctantly gone back to a fossil-fueled car. But usually, because their personal circumstances changed and at the time there was no affordable EV with sufficient range to cover their new travel needs. Mostly they say they will be back when they can either afford a longer range EV or they could go back to a normal distance commute. Other than that I think you will find it hard to discover many EV drivers who would willingly go back to 100 year old technology.

So the EV drivers prefer to stick to their arguably 130 year old technology?

 

[Dion Rust]

If you can't cope with having a smaller petrol tank than 600 miles range, it probably won't work for you.

Goodness, can you actually get a petrol that does 600miles? I can just squeeze 500 out of the diesel Galaxy if lucky, and that costs £70 to fill!

 

[Phil Himsworth]

Since we switched to an EV for our main car there have been two occasions where we've had to resort to our second-but-used-to-be-main ICE car; both weekends away a few hundred miles away where we just didn't have time to wait for the car to charge (a Zoe, slowly, at 22kw).

The Zoe's replacement charges faster though; we will use it when we have to do the same again. It's certainly an awful lot cheaper

For absolutely everything else though, no regrets at all. We bought it to be our second car; it rapidly became the main one once we knew what it could do.

 

[foureyes]

I don't regret buying an EV in general. The convenience of charging at home for day to day use is great.

The novelty has very much worn off though. That's partly frustration with Renault and partly boredom of having the same car for nearly two years.

 

[Fenix]

Surely it depends on what your circumstances are ?

Can you charge at home.?

Do you use the car enough to see any savings on fuel and servicing ?

Do you regularly do multiple hundred mile trips where charging away from home may be slightly trickier ?

Only had my EV a week but I'm delighted.

 

[donald]

Hi, I have almost convinced myself an ev is a good idea (E-208) but am very aware all the reviews etc I have read have all been focusing on the positives or not mentioning living with it long term. For the sake of balance in my devision making process, anyone out there regret tieing themselves to an ev lease? Does the novelty wear off and you long for the convenience of good old petrol? Thanks all.

5th EV.

It's just a car that happens to run off electricity.

Novelty wore off by at least the 3rd one.

Now I have a shit box Zoe that creaks grinds, drips water on me and steams up the windows because it won't run the AC with heating and recycle.

EVs can be crap too, just like ICE. Crap cars that happen to be powered by something a bit clearer than dinosaur puss.

 

[srichards]

I'm on my 4th EV. Each one has significant issues.

Soul EV had crap range and pre heat stopped working in winter so it was binned off.
Zoe squeaked and rattled and then the heater stopped working and Renault dealer wouldn't fix it so it was binned off.
Leaf was appallingly uncomfortable after an hour drive or so and charged too slowly so it was binned off.

Now got a Corsa Electric that won't reconnect to Bluetooth without blaring the radio first, with auto wipers that aren't automatic, with keyless that doesn't work half the time and which randomly won't start unless you hold the start button for ages and ages.

It is however not crippling to drive for more than an hour and the Nav map display in the dash binnacle is excellent and it's fun to drive and it has 100kw CCS and an app that works. So I have to hope some of the idiocy will get fixed.

 

[Aragorn]

I dont regret it, but i also do as it has caused me a bit of a dilemma.

I've always owned older cars. Infact i still have a 20 year old A4 and a 25 year old Range Rover alongside the LEAF.

I really like the EV drive, but i find myself frustrated that getting one that actually ticks the boxes is basically impossible. Being new, and expensive, means i cant apply my usual approach of picking up a top end 8-10 year old model for peanuts. Prior to my first EV for instance, i had a 9yo BMW 330d. It had all the spec, was a really great car, cost 6 grand to buy, and sold it for 5 two years later. It needed some maintenance but overall it was pretty reliable, and the things it did need done werent all that expensive. The LEAF, well its not even close as a car, the BMW was simply better in every dimension. Despite being diesel the 6pot engine was great. But i decided i didnt want to drive diesel any more, and really enjoyed the EV driving experience after the first lease car (a B250e)

Finding something a bit more like the BMW, with a bit more spec, and a bit more space and a bit more power, results in a tiny list of really expensive nearly-new cars.

So the regret is i'm now "stuck" in an ugly slow car that can barely drive the length of itself, and cant actually afford to buy the car i want (which probably doesnt actually really exist either), while simultaneously feeling like i cant "go backwards" back to ICE land.