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Time for an EV?

Livewiref9

Livewiref9

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Seriously thinking about changing to an EV as it would suit my needs now. Looking for something with a real world range of about 200 miles and have been considering the following, (used, nearly new).

VW id3
Cupra Born v2
Ford Puma
Toyota bZ4X
Suzuki eVitara

Has any one got any first hand experience, good or bad on any of the above to share.......

Cheers
 
I had a Ford Puma through work for a while around 3years ago. I was impressed by it. It was pretty economical and comfortable and fun to drive. I'm not a fan of the newer one with the big touch screen on the dash - it's like driving a laptop and, there's way too much set up to take your eyes off the road👎

If you can find an ST line version that's 3 - 5 years old, it's well worth a look 🙂👍
 
My friend has had four EV's now from different manufacturers and his advice to me was...
"EV's are a PITA compared to an ICE powered vehicle, but if you are going to get one -get a Tesla...They just do it better than anyone else"
 
Stay away from the ID3. What a horrible piece of crap is that! No physical buttons for most important features, lots of battery failures, lots of software issues.
I would expect the Cupra to be similar, just a tad better. Personally, I absolutely hated the Cupra seats of the new models, way to narrow in the shoulders. But YMMV.

Ford doesn't really have a great rep in EV's. The puma has a real range of 120 mi in winter on the highway. Combined 145 mi. In summer, it's doing better. Still not great though.

The Japanese I don't know about.

If you want maximum range, go for Tesla (if you can stands the interior and the seats). No buttons either though.
 
Last edited:
TD_boy said:
My friend has had four EV's now from different manufacturers and his advice to me was...
"EV's are a PITA compared to an ICE powered vehicle, but if you are going to get one -get a Tesla...They just do it better than anyone else"
Click to expand...
That is so true.
I get 320 miles per charge out of mine.
 
EVs don't suit everyone; I am retired & as a consequence my annual mileage is around 4000-5000 miles, mostly short distance trips of 50 miles max. In my circumstances I am able to charge my car (MG5) at home & have never needed to use a public charger. it costs me 2-3p per mile to run, annual servicing costs are around £150.

The EV is so easy to drive compared to a manual IC driven car. The MG5 is not our only vehicle, we have a diesel automatic motorhome for holiday use .
 
BZ4x two years now doing around 3.5 m/kwh, comfortable no problems, only thing I don't like is no rear wiper. Cheap to run and service, has cost less than 1/3 in the two years I've had it than my previous car CHR doing about 57mpg. Was getting about 230 miles per charge last winter now about 250
 
Between the wife and me we've had a few:
- started on a Tesla model Y - generally great, software was the best bit - trim/comfort not the best,
- Cupra Born v3 before they revised it - very poor and annoying software after having the Tesla and we didn't keep it long
- Smart #1 which had a nice looking interior but again software not the best, also worries about parts supply should they be needed and a few common faults
- Hyundai Inster, nice practical little car, a little small but the wife loves it
- VW ID Buzz - possibly the best car I've ever had (software not as good as the Tesla but much better than the earlier Born)

Teslas are really great on range and their software is really good. Always heard questions about how good the underpinnings really are and part availabilty issues (not sure if thats still a thing).
 
Livewiref9 said:
Seriously thinking about changing to an EV as it would suit my needs now. Looking for something with a real world range of about 200 miles and have been considering the following, (used, nearly new).

VW id3
Cupra Born v2
Ford Puma
Toyota bZ4X
Suzuki eVitara

Has any one got any first hand experience, good or bad on any of the above to share.......

Cheers
Click to expand...


Have evs for last 5 years, if you want good range go 2wd and not 4wd unless you need it.
Atb
Mart
 
Speaking from my parents' experience, and not mine.

  • EVs are great if you have off-street parking and can charge at home, and rarely do long journeys.
  • If bought (nearly) new, they haemorrhage value like a blind haemophile on bloodthinners trying to shave with a straight razor.
  • Expect the real-world range to be significantly lower than advertised if you intend to do anything crazy like...drive at motorway speeds on the motorway, or use the headlights at night...
  • BUT, they're economical to run and easy to drive if you're willing to live with the limitations.
 
Had two id3’s in 5 years on leases. First one did 280 miles from full. Current one does over 350 on a full charge on a warm day. Never had any problems. 25k miles a year, charge at home off a 3 pin plug on economy 7, way cheaper than petrol or diesel. Think it’s great
 
Hate the things will never buy one as long as my A hole points to the ground good car for a thief though can,t hear them coming as i know many times i,ve nearly been hit by one i,ll stick with my 351 windsor V8 5.8 litre and 4 litre lexus LS 400 and don,t be giving me think of the enviroment crap dosent wash with me and how many people say ooh that electric car sounds great i know it,s not about sound just nice to have a choice
 
As some of the advice above, if you really decide you want an ev, i would be looking at a tesla.
Whatever you do, dont go anywhere near a mercedes. Counting down the 2 1/2 years untiI I give mine back, and I very much doubt I will even go ev again tbh.
 
I just had a toyota urban cruiser ordered but the installation of the charging point became a pain so cancelled. Have gone hybrid instead which I am quite glad about now best of both worlds.
 
I've got a Tesla, the wife has a Mokka E and one of my sons has an MG4 and they all do what's needed of them and given your annual mileage, whatever you go for you'll probably only be charging once a week which you'll do overnight at the cheap rate and cost you between 2p - 3p a mile to run.

Although I rarely need to charge away from home having the national Tesla charging network available is a HUGE benefit as they're so simple to use with a Tesla as it's drive up, plug in and that's it, your account get charged automatically, oh and they're less than half the cost :) of all the other EV charger companies at peak times and even cheaper off peak. The Tesla's are the most economical to run as they're the most efficient, have the best operating system, which regularly receives remote over the air updates and they don't need annual maintenance. I openly admit to being bias as I'm a Tesla fanboy but whatever you choose you'll never look back 👍
 
Just gone down this hole myself....got a new Toyota chr plus model, over 350 miles on a full charge, still going through a bit of a pain with British gash and for them ti install a wall charger, not as straight forward as i thought

toyota have an offer on to fit a wall charger for £690, which i took up, but available to anyone not just toyota customers

driving experience is way better imho
 
two people i work with bought EV cars.
One was an id3 which broke down in the first month and the dealer had back and took them 2 months to fix it and the other was a new EV mini, the dealer contacted them and said they need to bring it back for a repair / recall but did not say why and they had it for 6 months as they too could not fix it .
In the end they both got given new vehicles .
 
My wife has a Tesla and the range and performance are pretty amazing. The build quality has improved massively from when they first launched.

I have always been a petrol head but with the price of petrol recently I decided to turn to the dark side. I purchased a Polestar 2 and absolutely love it.

If you have a wall charger fitted and have a good electricity tariff then it is easy and cheap to charge.
 
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