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Importing my EV from UK and the long journey home from London area to Cork – 550km
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12-04-2016 9:03pm#1For the benefit of anyone else who is looking at going to the UK to buy an EV I’d like to share my experience of the process/journey.
I’ve bought a 2015 LEAF SVE 24kWh and it has all the optional extras as well, as it is an ex-demo car from a Nissan dealer. Car is as new eventhough it’s a year old. Only 5000 miles on it.
Newbie stuff
Since this thread is primarily for those who are buying for the first time I’ll explain a few terms as I see the same questions being asked multiple times on here.
Public Chargers: There are AC and DC chargers. DC are called rapid chargers and charge the car to 80% in less than 30mins. AC is much slower and not really suitable for long journeys like this. The LEAF has a port for AC and DC charging(CHAdeMO).
For AC you generally use your own cable. For DC the cable is attached to the public charger so you don’t have to have that.
LEAF Battery: There are 2 versions of the LEAF battery available now. The 24kWh and the 30kWh. The 30kWh came out in late 2015.
LEAF models: There are 3 models. The XE, SV and SVE. The equivalent models in the UK are Visia, Acenta and Tekna respectively. See nissan.ie for the differences. The majority of the LEAF’s out there are SV. The UK also brought out a 4th model for a few months called the Acenta+. It is very similar to the Tekna except it doesn’t have the leather. It has the upgraded alloys and the 6.6kw charger. The Acenta+ is a good buy.
LEAF Charger: The LEAF by default comes with a 3.3kw built-in charger. You can pay extra (€900) for the 6.6kw charger and it means your AC charge will take half the time. Most don’t get the 6.6kw but it is useful but it is really a personal decision as to whether you feel its worth it or not. 2nd hand there isn’t a big difference in price so try to get a 6.6kw if you can. Its better to have it.
Home charging: You only get a free home charger from the ESB if you buy a new LEAF. If you buy 2nd hand you have to fund the install of the home charger yourself. Anything upto €1k for the supply and install of that.
If you know a sparky you could get it done cheaper.
This website will give you an idea of whats available.http://evonestop.co.uk
NOTE: If you buy a 6.6kw LEAF you need to get the 32A version of the charger so that you utilise the full 6.6kw. Otherwise you will only benefit from the 6.6kw when you are using the on street AC chargers. If at all possible just go with the 32A charger to future proof it even if you don’t get a 6.6kw LEAF. You might get one down the road and at least you’ll have the charger already in. The cost for 16A and 32A to buy/install is almost the same.
Charger: Tethered vs Untethered: Lots of debate on this forum and others about which one to get. There is no right or wrong answer. Its whatever suits you. A tethered unit means the cable to connect to the car is permanently attached to the charger and untethered means the charger is basically just a socket and you use your own cable to connect the charger to the car. I’d recommend tethered for convenience or else untethered but buy an extra cable and leave it attached. That way if you change the car or want to allow others who don’t have a LEAF to use your charger they can use their own cable.
Charging cables: The LEAF has a Type 1 AC connection and the chargers have a Type 2 socket. So, you need a cable that has a Type 2 connection at one end and a Type 1 at the other. This cable is usually provided with the car but you need to ask as some UK cars are delivered with the “granny” cable only and not the Type 2-Type 1 cable. The granny cable is a very slow AC charge cable that can be used on a standard domestic 3-pin plug. A charge on this cable would take upto 10 hours though so its not that useful in the long term but a useful fallback if you are going somewhere like a hotel or a relation who doesn’t have a charger but can provide a standard socket and you charge overnight.
Typically the 6.6kw cars in the UK are delivered with both a granny cable and a Type2-Type1 cable so you get the best of both worlds if you opt for the 6.6kw LEAF. The granny cable is outlandishly expensive to buy from Nissan. I don’t think the Irish 6.6kw cars come with both. Maybe someone will correct me on that.
SEARCH
I used a few sites to find the car but mainly the first one:
there are many more but the above have more than you’ll need to find one.
You need to realise that UK cars are not registered from Jan-Dec like IRL. They go from Mar 1-Aug 31 and Sep 1- Feb 28. So, a “64” reg car in the UK could be from 2014 (Sep 14) or it could be a 2015 car (1 Jan). This affects the price they sell it at and obviously what it will sell for here (i.e. is it a 142 or a 151).
Dealers tend to drop their prices in Mar and Sep as they see that as a new reg period and hence the cars are now considered older…. Same as going from 151 to 152 reg here. I did some negotiating in Feb and they wouldn’t sell but I got it for the price I originally offered when I bought it towards the end of Mar.
When searching I think its useful to have the postcode of the airports that you can fly into. I am from Cork so there were a few airports that I could fly direct to and then you can put that into the websites above and it will tell you how far the cars are from the airport. It’s a good way to initially see how viable it is for you to get there.
You could do the same search with the ferry postcode.
Some dealers offer to ship the car to anywhere you wish in the UK free of charge. Usually the bigger dealers that have multiple dealerships.
Charge cards for the Rapid chargers
There are multiple charge vendors in the UK unlike here where it is just the ESB. Ecotricity are the largest, I believe, and have a very good motorway network.
Another major vendor is http://chargeyourcar.org.uk/
Ecotricity is free. Chargeyourcar is not.
Based on feedback from other users here, Ecotricity is not suitable in some parts of the country so you need to figure out which vendor you need to get the car back.
The majority of my trip was motorway and the Ecotricity website gives reasonably up to date status and location of their chargers. I sent them an email asking for a card even before I bought a car and they posted one to Ireland no bothers.
ESB were not so accommodating. They require proof of purchase first and I did not receive the card in time for the trip so I had to borrow one.
Flight
The flight worked out easy for me as it was direct from Cork. Flight cost €91.
Ferry
I booked with Irish Ferries and it cost €130 for Pembroke-Rosslare.
This ferry doesn’t have on-board chargers. I think the Dublin based Ulysses is the only one that has a full DC charger. They did provide a 3-pin power point that I was able to connect the granny cable to but the LEAF is fussy about finding an appropriate earth and it would not charge on it as the ferry is not earthed the same as a house is.
It didn’t matter that much as there are 2 rapid chargers within a few miles of the port so I just pulled in there. It would have saved me that one charge if they provided on board charging. They did say they were looking at installing them in this ferry but who knows when that will happen. Bottomline, plan for having no charge on the boat and ensure you have enough miles left when you board to make it to the rapid in Killinick. It is tight from the last rapid in Wales to the first rapid in Ireland so I did drive a bit slower on this last bit of the journey to make sure.
TRIP
I had driven a LEAF before but only briefly so it was a steep learning curve to do a 550km journey in a foreign country as my first trip in it.
You have to plan it and have a plan B in case a charger is down or you miscalculate distances etc.
This website is good to do some planning on:
Check the status of the chargers on the day you are travelling to ensure they are all still working.
My Charges:
I initially drove at 70mph based on the speedo readout. My GPS told me I was actually only travelling at 65 so I upped it to 75 for a real world 70 in the latter stages of the journey. That does of course reduce range but there are plenty chargers on the way.
It started out at 11C outside and finished at 3C and it was dry conditions with no major winds.
Distracted by the new car and it was dark, I missed my first exit from the motorway and had to find a slow AC charge in a nearby town. The LEAF sat nav located that for me. Pretty cool. I had to call a support number on that charger to get it remotely turned on as I didn’t have a chargemaster card but they kindly turned it on for me and I took a 15min charge here which just added 15 miles of range but was enough to get me to the next rapid(Jct 17). That was a heart thumping moment for sure…. Foreign country, first time driving an EV long distance and missed the first charger and boy was I glad to pull up to it! The range was showing zero for a few miles!
In case anyone else is doing an M4 run to Pembroke these are the stops that I made.
All the charging is a pain but it’s a once off and the savings on buying in the UK are quite significant but also the choice and spec of the cars in the UK is way better than here. Taking flight and ferry into account I put the saving at about €4k on an equivalent car here. Sterling is also on a slide right now so its favourable to buy.
The new price for the car I bought is €28140 in Ireland. A 1 year old version of it with 5k miles on it is standing me just shy of €18k. Its a lot of work/planning to bring one back but €4k is worth it!
VRT
A lot of UK dealers are not aware of the process to sell a car to someone who is exporting it. It is very important that they give you the original V5C form as the VRT folks will require the original. Some dealers keep that form and send it off to the UK DVLA and it takes ages to then get that from them to VRT your car.
They should fill out the V5C/4 section and tear that off and send that only to the DVLA and you keep the rest of the V5C. The rest of the docs, like invoice etc, you require are listed on the NCTS website.
VRT on EV’s is generally zero unless you are buying an expensive EV. The VRT is calculated and if it is less than €5k it is written off so you pay no VRT for a LEAF as the calculation is always less than €5k.
You do need to make sure the car is more than 6 months old and has more than 6k km’s to avoid additional VAT.
All in all it was a good trip, albeit one scary moment.
Well done for reading all that!
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Good thread. I would not compare prices to Nissan main dealers Irish prices. These are crazy.
They're are ways of buying cheaper in Ireland without doing all that workFor the benefit of anyone else who is looking at going to the UK to buy an EV I’d like to share my experience of the process/journey.
I’ve bought a 2015 LEAF SVE 24kWh and it has all the optional extras as well, as it is an ex-demo car from a Nissan dealer. Car is as new eventhough it’s a year old. Only 5000 miles on it.
Newbie stuff
Since this thread is primarily for those who are buying for the first time I’ll explain a few terms as I see the same questions being asked multiple times on here.
Public Chargers: There are AC and DC chargers. DC are called rapid chargers and charge the car to 80% in less than 30mins. AC is much slower and not really suitable for long journeys like this. The LEAF has a port for AC and DC charging(CHAdeMO).
For AC you generally use your own cable. For DC the cable is attached to the public charger so you don’t have to have that.
LEAF Battery: There are 2 versions of the LEAF battery available now. The 24kWh and the 30kWh. The 30kWh came out in late 2015.
LEAF models: There are 3 models. The XE, SV and SVE. The equivalent models in the UK are Visia, Acenta and Tekna respectively. See nissan.ie for the differences. The majority of the LEAF’s out there are SV. The UK also brought out a 4th model for a few months called the Acenta+. It is very similar to the Tekna except it doesn’t have the leather. It has the upgraded alloys and the 6.6kw charger. The Acenta+ is a good buy.
LEAF Charger: The LEAF by default comes with a 3.3kw built-in charger. You can pay extra (€900) for the 6.6kw charger and it means your AC charge will take half the time. Most don’t get the 6.6kw but it is useful but it is really a personal decision as to whether you feel its worth it or not. 2nd hand there isn’t a big difference in price so try to get a 6.6kw if you can. Its better to have it.
Home charging: You only get a free home charger from the ESB if you buy a new LEAF. If you buy 2nd hand you have to fund the install of the home charger yourself. Anything upto €1k for the supply and install of that.
If you know a sparky you could get it done cheaper.
This website will give you an idea of whats available.http://evonestop.co.uk
NOTE: If you buy a 6.6kw LEAF you need to get the 32A version of the charger so that you utilise the full 6.6kw. Otherwise you will only benefit from the 6.6kw when you are using the on street AC chargers. If at all possible just go with the 32A charger to future proof it even if you don’t get a 6.6kw LEAF. You might get one down the road and at least you’ll have the charger already in. The cost for 16A and 32A to buy/install is almost the same.
Charger: Tethered vs Untethered: Lots of debate on this forum and others about which one to get. There is no right or wrong answer. Its whatever suits you. A tethered unit means the cable to connect to the car is permanently attached to the charger and untethered means the charger is basically just a socket and you use your own cable to connect the charger to the car. I’d recommend tethered for convenience or else untethered but buy an extra cable and leave it attached. That way if you change the car or want to allow others who don’t have a LEAF to use your charger they can use their own cable.
Charging cables: The LEAF has a Type 1 AC connection and the chargers have a Type 2 socket. So, you need a cable that has a Type 2 connection at one end and a Type 1 at the other. This cable is usually provided with the car but you need to ask as some UK cars are delivered with the “granny” cable only and not the Type 2-Type 1 cable. The granny cable is a very slow AC charge cable that can be used on a standard domestic 3-pin plug. A charge on this cable would take upto 10 hours though so its not that useful in the long term but a useful fallback if you are going somewhere like a hotel or a relation who doesn’t have a charger but can provide a standard socket and you charge overnight.
Typically the 6.6kw cars in the UK are delivered with both a granny cable and a Type2-Type1 cable so you get the best of both worlds if you opt for the 6.6kw LEAF. The granny cable is outlandishly expensive to buy from Nissan. I don’t think the Irish 6.6kw cars come with both. Maybe someone will correct me on that.
SEARCH
I used a few sites to find the car but mainly the first one:
there are many more but the above have more than you’ll need to find one.
You need to realise that UK cars are not registered from Jan-Dec like IRL. They go from Mar 1-Aug 31 and Sep 1- Feb 28. So, a “64” reg car in the UK could be from 2014 (Sep 14) or it could be a 2015 car (1 Jan). This affects the price they sell it at and obviously what it will sell for here (i.e. is it a 142 or a 151).
Dealers tend to drop their prices in Mar and Sep as they see that as a new reg period and hence the cars are now considered older…. Same as going from 151 to 152 reg here. I did some negotiating in Feb and they wouldn’t sell but I got it for the price I originally offered when I bought it towards the end of Mar.
When searching I think its useful to have the postcode of the airports that you can fly into. I am from Cork so there were a few airports that I could fly direct to and then you can put that into the websites above and it will tell you how far the cars are from the airport. It’s a good way to initially see how viable it is for you to get there.
You could do the same search with the ferry postcode.
Some dealers offer to ship the car to anywhere you wish in the UK free of charge. Usually the bigger dealers that have multiple dealerships.
Charge cards for the Rapid chargers
There are multiple charge vendors in the UK unlike here where it is just the ESB. Ecotricity are the largest, I believe, and have a very good motorway network.
Another major vendor is http://chargeyourcar.org.uk/
Ecotricity is free. Chargeyourcar is not.
Based on feedback from other users here, Ecotricity is not suitable in some parts of the country so you need to figure out which vendor you need to get the car back.
The majority of my trip was motorway and the Ecotricity website gives reasonably up to date status and location of their chargers. I sent them an email asking for a card even before I bought a car and they posted one to Ireland no bothers.
ESB were not so accommodating. They require proof of purchase first and I did not receive the card in time for the trip so I had to borrow one.
Flight
The flight worked out easy for me as it was direct from Cork. Flight cost €91.
Ferry
I booked with Irish Ferries and it cost €130 for Pembroke-Rosslare.
This ferry doesn’t have on-board chargers. I think the Dublin based Ulysses is the only one that has a full DC charger. They did provide a 3-pin power point that I was able to connect the granny cable to but the LEAF is fussy about finding an appropriate earth and it would not charge on it as the ferry is not earthed the same as a house is.
It didn’t matter that much as there are 2 rapid chargers within a few miles of the port so I just pulled in there. It would have saved me that one charge if they provided on board charging. They did say they were looking at installing them in this ferry but who knows when that will happen. Bottomline, plan for having no charge on the boat and ensure you have enough miles left when you board to make it to the rapid in Killinick. It is tight from the last rapid in Wales to the first rapid in Ireland so I did drive a bit slower on this last bit of the journey to make sure.
TRIP
I had driven a LEAF before but only briefly so it was a steep learning curve to do a 550km journey in a foreign country as my first trip in it.
You have to plan it and have a plan B in case a charger is down or you miscalculate distances etc.
This website is good to do some planning on:
Check the status of the chargers on the day you are travelling to ensure they are all still working.
My Charges:
I initially drove at 70mph based on the speedo readout. My GPS told me I was actually only travelling at 65 so I upped it to 75 for a real world 70 in the latter stages of the journey. That does of course reduce range but there are plenty chargers on the way.
It started out at 11C outside and finished at 3C and it was dry conditions with no major winds.
Distracted by the new car and it was dark, I missed my first exit from the motorway and had to find a slow AC charge in a nearby town. The LEAF sat nav located that for me. Pretty cool. I had to call a support number on that charger to get it remotely turned on as I didn’t have a chargemaster card but they kindly turned it on for me and I took a 15min charge here which just added 15 miles of range but was enough to get me to the next rapid(Jct 17). That was a heart thumping moment for sure…. Foreign country, first time driving an EV long distance and missed the first charger and boy was I glad to pull up to it! The range was showing zero for a few miles!
In case anyone else is doing an M4 run to Pembroke these are the stops that I made.
All the charging is a pain but it’s a once off and the savings on buying in the UK are quite significant but also the choice and spec of the cars in the UK is way better than here. Taking flight and ferry into account I put the saving at about €4k on an equivalent car here. Sterling is also on a slide right now so its favourable to buy.
The new price for the car I bought is €28140 in Ireland. A 1 year old version of it with 5k miles on it is standing me just shy of €18k. Its a lot of work/planning to bring one back but €4k is worth it!
VRT
A lot of UK dealers are not aware of the process to sell a car to someone who is exporting it. It is very important that they give you the original V5C form as the VRT folks will require the original. Some dealers keep that form and send it off to the UK DVLA and it takes ages to then get that from them to VRT your car.
They should fill out the V5C/4 section and tear that off and send that only to the DVLA and you keep the rest of the V5C. The rest of the docs, like invoice etc, you require are listed on the NCTS website.
VRT on EV’s is generally zero unless you are buying an expensive EV. The VRT is calculated and if it is less than €5k it is written off so you pay no VRT for a LEAF as the calculation is always less than €5k.
You do need to make sure the car is more than 6 months old and has more than 6k km’s to avoid additional VAT.
All in all it was a good trip, albeit one scary moment.
Well done for reading all that!0 -
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Good thread. I would not compare prices to Nissan main dealers Irish prices. These are crazy.
They're are ways of buying cheaper in Ireland without doing all that work
What are these "ways of buying cheaper"?
If you dont buy from a dealer you are buying private and that will of course always be €2k(?) cheaper than a dealer. Even at that, its still cheaper to go to the UK than buy in Ireland and its not just the price.... its the selection in the UK. The "work" of bringing it back isnt that hard (find it, book a flight and a ferry and book the VRT. Over and back was just 24hrs for me).
I've brought back 3 cars from the UK now over the last 10 years and it was worth it each time for money and for selection.
I estimated that I saved about €4k. There are Nissan main dealers asking for €24-25k for an equivalent car in Ireland..... so, yea, I agree they are crazy prices so I think my €4k is conservative enough. Maybe €3k if I was lucky enough to find someone private to sell one with the spec I wanted..... but based on the number of EV's in Ireland its a tiny market and who is going to sell a LEAF private less than 1yr old... so I think UK is the way to go.0 -
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Thanks kcross for this guide - I used it last week - bought a 152 Tekna for the wife with 6,6Kwh charger from Nissan garage in the UK for €15,500 (including flight / ferry costs). Whole thing was flawless and thankfully the chargers from EcoTricity along the way had not been updated to their pay model. Had the VRT appointment set for 2 days later - went smoothly and got the Irish reg within 10 minutes.
ESB eCars also sent us the card before we had the car - once they had proof of address. They asked for car details once we had it imported.
I'm now keeping an eye out for chargers and considering the Rolec - they seem to have a discount of £25 on their custom colours but still expensive for what they are..
kcross - my wife jokes that I'm copying all your purchases, between the leaf and the automower....what are you planning next 0 -
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Car was £13k sterling - flight was €12.99 and ferry was €200. Used Revolut for the deposit and transferwise for the remainder. Exchange rate was 1.169 at the time.
One hiccup for others considering this is that AIB impose a €5k transfer limit per day. I was out of the country so I ended up having to transfer to Transferwise over a few days.
I got a 6.30am flight to Manchester, then the train to Picadilly and metro to Bury. Walked to the Nissan garage and was there for about 9.05. Completed all the paperwork and was driving off the forecourt at 10am.
Took the M60 around Manchester - stopped at Chester Motorway services - really was no need (about 61% battery left) but wanted to ensure there was no issues with charging, since it was my first time doing it. Went on then and stopped in kinmel Park - admittedly I was "testing" the car a lot on that leg so arrived with about 38% left and had lunch and a charge. On then to Holyhead and was there at about 2.45 for a 5.15 ferry!
Plugged in at the car park - two great chargers at the very back of the short term car park. I walked into Holyhead (not much to see or do there) and came back and switched everything to KMs.
Ferry left on time and was in Dublin Port at 7.15pm.
There's great value in the UK at the moment - and with the sterling, it's even better. As a comparison we were in a 152 in Windsor Airside a few weeks ago that the garage was looking for €22k for.
The dealer in Manchester said they have a lot in the Nissan network and even more coming back on PCP. He said most are upgrading but because of the volume of them, the prices are lower and people are not getting prices they would have expected. From one of the forums, I see another Nissan dealer selling an 151 Acenta with 6.6kw charger for £11,5000 -
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