Changing to EV...questions

barneyrub

Apologies as I'm sure ye might be sick of these type of questions!!


Looking at changing car to an EV. At present have 2 large diesel cars. Due to house move one of these is only used maybe once a week or so.

We've been looking to sell one of these and downgrade to a small petrol for when we need the 2 cars at the same time but now wondering if we should look to upgrade to an EV now


Wondering what is a realistic budget to have? Looking at a Leaf but bit bamboozled by them all! Budget wouldn't be huge as we were looking at downgrading but willing to consider.



Usage would be every day. Usual distance would be 40km a day but it's in several small runs and some sitting on traffic. Charging would be ok as have driveway and can install a point.
No charge point near work or home that we'd use so all charging will be at home.
Family of 5. Be keeping a larger car so would use that for longer journeys probably when needed


tia

ELM327

Realistically if the only trips you do are within a max of 40-50km per day you have two different options:

1 - Any EV will do that distance without issues, even a high mileage 2011 Nissan Leaf.

2 - You could get a "PHEV" (Plug In Hybrid), it will do 40-50km on EV and then you have a petrol engine for additional range, that would allow you to do longer journeys too.


If you are planning to have two cars and keep the non EV car for longer trips etc then I suggest #1 as it is cheaper.

ELM327

As an example, this is the cheapest leaf I could find on Donedeal at the moment

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/nissan-leaf/19560345

It is a listed 11 bars of battery life which would give around 85-95km range when fully charged. Plenty of "buffer" once you can plug in at home each night.

I had a similar leaf before (recently upgraded to Ioniq) and we had 5 adults in it without issue. (Note, you will not fit 2 child seats and an adult though)

barneyrub

Thank you.
will you fit 2 high back boosters with a teenager?

Whats a good yr/model leaf to look at. Over 2012 or should we push to 2014?

jackc101

Maybe the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV might fit the bill so, you would be mostly running it off battery for that commute and could fit 3 in the back with the boosters?

You wouldn't need a specialised charger just an external socket for the granny cable to charge overnight.

Shefwedfan

jackc101 wrote: »

Maybe the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV might fit the bill so, you would be mostly running it off battery for that commute and could fit 3 in the back with the boosters?

You wouldn't need a specialised charger just an external socket for the granny cable to charge overnight.

Outlander seat size would not be much if any bigger than a Leaf I would expect

Shefwedfan

Ok my advice. Take or lave it. We had a similar situation, 2 diesel engine cars. We had done for long commutes but moved house and got rid of them. We have a SMAX and A6. In the end we swapped the A6 for a eGolf. I done a weekend test drive of the Leaf and didnt like it.

We now do the majority of our driving if possible in the eGolf. In the end we swapped the SMAX as well to a Galaxy for more space but really it is used for really long trips. We had a week off recently and the Galaxy never left the house....

I would look at both cars you currently have an see which one is deprecating faster. Then use that as the trade in for electric car and get a nice one. Once you have a home charger you will find you will use it more & more & more.

A thread on boards for boosters etc and you can get slimline ones which should give you enough space in back for 5. Depends of course on sizes etc.....I would trial it....if you are keeping a large car then you will have back up.....I am lucky as all mine are small and I stuck in a Multimac so everyone fits perfect....

ELM327

barneyrub wrote: »

Thank you.
will you fit 2 high back boosters with a teenager?

Whats a good yr/model leaf to look at. Over 2012 or should we push to 2014?

If the teenager is not fat
It's quite a squeeze. We had 2 of the high back boosters and you wouldn't fit easily another person between. Same as most in its class I reckon as it's actually quite large.


The 2014 is a better car than the earlier model, less degrading battery, separate heat pump (much more efficient), and a percentage state of charge readout on the display (the first gen 2011-2013 didnt have the actual percentage, just the lines)

If you can get a 2014 onwards SVE spec it's a lovely car (that was what I had).

unkel

ELM327 wrote: »

We had 2 of the high back boosters and you wouldn't fit easily another person between. Same as most in its class I reckon

+1

That's like having 3 adults in the back really. It's doable but not the most comfortable in cars of this size. OP is only looking for short journeys so that should be ok.

barneyrub

ELM327 wrote: »

If the teenager is not fat
It's quite a squeeze. We had 2 of the high back boosters and you wouldn't fit easily another person between. Same as most in its class I reckon as it's actually quite large.


The 2014 is a better car than the earlier model, less degrading battery, separate heat pump (much more efficient), and a percentage state of charge readout on the display (the first gen 2011-2013 didnt have the actual percentage, just the lines)

If you can get a 2014 onwards SVE spec it's a lovely car (that was what I had).

He's very thin!!:D

ELM327

barneyrub wrote: »

He's very thin!!:D

So was I (well not really ) until all the stops at chargers, with the coffee, doughnuts, mcds etc!

barneyrub

Thanks for all the replies.

We have a kuga and grand picasso at present. Both were driven 50km daily up to recently. Now only the kuga is used daily for 40(ish)km of small runs. It's used then for longer runs prob once a week average varying from 50km to 150km and occasionally 200km plus.

The picasso doesn't suit sitting up not being run so we were looking at selling that. Using part of the sale money for smaller petrol car (for cheaper insurance/tax too) to be used when 2nd car needed and kuga on the long runs. And the rest on few house improvements.

Then the conversation turned to a small ev to be used daily and keep the kuga for the long runs/weekends.
Or do we get rid of both cars. Trade up to a large ev or PHEV and get a small petrol for when second car needed.

If we did get rid of the kuga we would need something that would take all 5 of us/dog/bags comfortably. The picasso has to go as costing 1k per year(tax/insurance) to be driven fek all. And all the short runs prob isn't doing the kuga any favours either!!

Sorry for the braindump there. Not sure which direction to concentrate on!!

Shefwedfan

Personally I would keep the Picasso.

The Kuga will be harder on diesel and probably losing more per year depreciation than the Picasso.

If you swap to electric you will end up driving that more so the Kuga will be left sitting up more. So a more expensive assest wasting away. The Picasso will have a bigger boot, probably cheaper to run for those long trips and more of a family vehicle. You have probably lost all you can on it now anyway, those cars get to a certain point and dont lose value after that because people will always buy them

You will get more for the Kuga and then can get a better electric as you will find that will become your core vehicle.

One thing to note, the electric boot will be smal, the Kuga boot is small. So you could get roof rack for Kuga but this drives up diesel costs. The Picasso should have bigger boot for family trips. But even picking up bed/washing machines etc those type of vehicles are a lot better

Please note some guesswork above as no idea of year of vehicles

I think you need to consider how much extra or if any extra the Picasso cost per year, tax might be higher but tax is only a small bit of cost

marklazarcovic

Could I hijack with a question


Using the car stereo/Sat nav etc .. does it drain much battery/range ?

KCross

marklazarcovic wrote: »

Could I hijack with a question


Using the car stereo/Sat nav etc .. does it drain much battery/range ?

No. Practically zero.

The only thing that takes any decent amount of power is the resistive heater. Everything else (wipers, stereo etc) is largely irrelevant.

unkel

KCross wrote: »

The only thing that takes any decent amount of power is the resistive heater.

Not just resistive heaters, any heaters and / or coolers (airconditioning). The modern and efficient heatpump in my car does a great job at heating the car, but it does use up to 4kW at full blast which is more than the car uses for driving in town and at low speeds!

barneyrub

Thanks Shefwedfan.
Won't be an option to keep the picasso. It's been giving a small bit of trouble recently and we just don't drive it. On long journeys we find the kuga more comfortable. OH wont drive the picasso unless he has to!!

Fingers crossed we have an offer on the picasso so our options are
1) small petrol to get us by a yr or 2. Kuga driven everyday
2) borrow small amount to get a leaf for c 11k (is that ok budget?). Kuga used for long journeys and 2nd occasional uses
3) sell the kuga too and borrow a similar amount to get an outlander. Use this for all but need to get small petrol for the occasional 2nd uses

Shefwedfan

barneyrub wrote: »

Thanks Shefwedfan.
Won't be an option to keep the picasso. It's been giving a small bit of trouble recently and we just don't drive it. On long journeys we find the kuga more comfortable. OH wont drive the picasso unless he has to!!

Fingers crossed we have an offer on the picasso so our options are
1) small petrol to get us by a yr or 2. Kuga driven everyday
2) borrow small amount to get a leaf for c 11k (is that ok budget?). Kuga used for long journeys and 2nd occasional uses
3) sell the kuga too and borrow a similar amount to get an outlander. Use this for all but need to get small petrol for the occasional 2nd uses

Go option 2, least change possible. But I would reduce budget


Maybe a battery rental Zoe if using Kuga for high mileage or just get a Leaf with lower budget, see if it works and then plan to upgrade. You will get same grant for charger if you spend 5k or 50k.....

barneyrub

Whatever we do now would have to be it for 3-4 years at least.

Would the zoe be much smaller than the leaf? would need space for 3 kids in the back at times

Shefwedfan

barneyrub wrote: »

Whatever we do now would have to be it for 3-4 years at least.

Would the zoe be much smaller than the leaf? would need space for 3 kids in the back at times

Leaf is bigger......

NIMAN

barneyrub wrote: »

Whatever we do now would have to be it for 3-4 years at least.

Would the zoe be much smaller than the leaf? would need space for 3 kids in the back at times

I find the 3 kids fit in my Leaf pretty well.

Certainly better than in our Golf.

Shefwedfan

NIMAN wrote: »

I find the 3 kids fit in my Leaf pretty well.

Certainly better than in our Golf.

I know you have said that a few times but I find that strange as the back seat in the Golf is bigger than the Leaf.....


Even doing a comparison with the new Leaf it still has a small seats
https://www.whatcar.com/nissan/leaf/hatchback/review/n17338/space-practicality


Check multimac and the 1260 will fit into eGolf but not in Leaf.....

NIMAN

Shefwedfan wrote: »

I know you have said that a few times but I find that strange as the back seat in the Golf is bigger than the Leaf.....

Well I do it every few days, and it appears easier in the Leaf.

I think the seats are more bucket shaped in the Golf, more recessed.

barneyrub

Ok, we've finally made our choice and gonna go for a leaf. 10k budget. Will save us €50 a month (conservative estimate) even with bit of extra borrowing. Now just have to find one!!

unkel

electricautos.ie have a cheap one coming in. See their website or the bargains thread in this forum!

barneyrub

unkel wrote: »

electricautos.ie have a cheap one coming in. See their website or the bargains thread in this forum!

I've been in touch about that one. Waiting to see pics of it.

I'm in the NW and very few around to even get a look at

glassmullan

barneyrub wrote: »

Whatever we do now would have to be it for 3-4 years at least.

Would the zoe be much smaller than the leaf? would need space for 3 kids in the back at times

I have a Zoe, and its mush bigger than most people think, its not that much smaller than a Leaf. fit 3 in back with no issues. and boot is very good in size. The big advantage to the Zoe is you get much more range than the leaf for a small battery. you also take the max charging speed from all charging points. and the best point is that on the public fast charges with the 3 leads you can change in parallel to a Leaf as Zoe uses AC and most others use DC. ive being done in 20 mins while a Leafe was waiting on another Leaf to finish a few times. Highly recommend the Zoe

barneyrub

Please don't confuse me again 😂 I'd want a battery owned zoe and that would be over the budget of 10k ish!

marklazarcovic

barneyrub wrote: »

Please don't confuse me again 😂 I'd want a battery owned zoe and that would be over the budget of 10k ish!

Get one in the north for that,the smaller battery but do your 40km daily run twice on a charge,battery owned

barneyrub

Just to update that put a deposit on 2014 leaf today. Under budget too. Looking forward to getting it