Student car - EV or ICE - Cost comparison

Terrible advice. The Leaf is an extremely reliable car. Those built from late 2013 are super reliable. Take it from someone who recently owned a 2012 model and who still owns a 2014 model....you wont go wrong based on the needs you posted here OP.

The Prius won't give 20km on battery. The tiny battery will be degraded and performs very poorly in cold weather. Also it clai s 50mpg, but we all know that's horsesh1t.

I like the outlander PHEV but it too will struggle to top 20km on battery in any weather. The older ones are horrible to drive and are horrendously inefficient. I did a massive amount of research before deciding against one and went for the Leaf. So glad I did.

Shhh! Wash your mouth out...😁

I fail to see what was so bad about what he said, on the other hand its sometimes good to look at things out of context, take a 30 km round trip in a leaf, every one knows it can do it, its after that 30 km trip is where the problem lies, friends need picking up, boyfriend needs keeping an eye on etc.

I was going to leave it when the OP said he knows he can expect a phone call when she is stuck 50 km away, its his choice, I would not recommend that car to any one other than for local run arounds and they know what's involved.

I do feel strongly that giving a young woman a limited range car is a bad idea and will end up at the minimum asking for a phone call, all for the sake of a few euro a day.

Any of your research actually involve owning driving those cars? ok say they do not get the range, what is the worse that can happen? A few litres of fuel extra a week, I would prefer to be safe and sound in the place where I want to go, not at the back of some dark petrol station waiting 30 minutes to charge.

I misread his budget, I was using my phone, for the OP's budget I would recommend any hybrid, again from experience of driving 2 hybrids, 50 mpg is standard.

Every one missed the 250 euro monthly spend on fuel, for the OP get yourself an EV, get your daughter anything but a leaf, they had crap range 10 years ago and they are worse now.

He said M3 will be as numerous as corollas are now, be as reliable as a Toyota, that will prove itself in its own time.

Funny, Its 65 km range at best, unless you don't want to come back, assuming 130 km to start with,

its a young woman who is starting her own life and you assume that a 30 km daily trip is enough for her, ok say it is you have 90 left over, is 45 km now a better position to be in.

I misread the budget, even so its not a bad choice, 30 km is ideal territory for a phev, as you know driving a phev, even driving 25 km on battery would cost about 3 euro in petrol a week and no need to worry about anything.

Efficiency would be far better than a focus, and not a consideration when safety is at question.

I am going to put petrol in my phev, I have 30 km petrol range left after last night, a charge will bring me up to 60km, am I going to go another week or two without petrol?, NO, because anything can happen and I will not take the chance on it for a few euros.

See ya.

Thank you for your honesty.

only trade off with a phev, is you might put some more petrol in it.

Tolls discount may be not gone in June. It will probably be extended but it's not 100% confirmed. It will be reviewed each year.

Read here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120317627/#Comment_120317627 you even thanked him, I am leaving this now, as I have made my opinion known and the OP has shared his own concerns. Nothing more I can do.

Are you on a phone?

Lads it's a good robust discussion - I'd probably underestimated the security of the longer range a PHEV would provide, and that security is really important 

A robust debate is a very polite way to put it 😂

The Zoe is definitely smaller than the Leaf, I think it's a full segment down. I guess Polo vs Golf or i20 vs i30 would be the best comparison I can think of

The trick with PHEVs is that they work best when you run on electricity as much as possible. So you'll probably be plugging in every night, otherwise you get a petrol car hauling around a dead battery

It's really up to you how much self discipline you think you have

You'll probably be plugging in the EV most days anyway but the knowledge that if you forget to charge it then you're going nowhere kinda sharpens the mind 😁

About the car becoming the regular use vehicle, this is something which a lot of people here have experienced, including myself. A few years ago we had a Citroen C3 and a Leaf 24kWh

Now you'd think we'd use the C3 for every journey beyond the Leaf's range right? Wrong, we'd often use the Leaf even if it involved a top up on an ESB charger. There were only two times we used the C3, and to be fair one of those was Dublin to Limerick in January, which would be way beyond a Leaf's capabilities

I'll admit part of the reason why we used the Leaf was because I generally drove and I hated the Citroen. The French can build supersonic passenger aircraft, nuclear power plants and even an aircraft carrier, but are apparently incapable of designing a small hatchback car. That yolk was simultaneously uncomfortable, unpleasant to drive, unreliable and inefficient 🙄

So not much surprise the Leaf became the go to car 😂

Just consider yourself warned, this EV stuff can become an obsession. Before long you'll be comparing watt-hours per kilometre, debating where the charging port should be located, and planning to get solar panels installed 😉

The point is the PHEV is more expensive to run and as it has more (problematic and necessary to maintain) components, it is more likely to break down and need repairs.

The 70km Leaf was an example of my previous 2012 Leaf with the older and terrible battery. The point there was that even an 11 year old Leaf was still more than enough to cover the requirements set out by the OP.....but he was looking at a newer car with a bigger battery.

You have made your opinion known, but seem angry that others disagree with your opinion. We can only use our own experience to help the OP answer the question. Mine is primarily with petrol cars and BEVs. For me, a PHEV fits only a very, very narrow use case which leans heavily on emergency (or fearful) situations where a BEV is otherwise perfectly suited.

Indeed some strategy from the Gov would be great. We are more likely to see Elephant fly in the morning.

A PHEV will certainly offer greater security than a BEV (unless it breaks down). My old man placed a bet with my BIL that my new Leaf would run out of battery at least once in the first 3 months of ownership. Well, 6 years later and it still hasn't happened. We have been full BEV for almost 6 years now.

I fall into that category too. Got rid of a nice petrol Merc and got myself a little Leaf. We had a Zafira which was used once or twice over the next couple of months before we picked up a second Leaf which was going for good money. Since then, I have hated anytime I had to drive an ICE vehicle for work, or on holiday rentals. I was in Austria last month working for 2 weeks. Had a diesel Opel something rental. I drove it from the airport to the hotel and left it parked up the whole time while I car pooled with colleagues. I drove it back to the airport and was glad to throw the key into the return box.