Just to add – Twizy isn’t a car, it’s a heavy quadricycle. Crash safety results are…

…interesting.

http://www.euroncap.com/en/vehicle-safety/safety-campaigns/2014-quadricycles-tests/

TL:DR – would I ****.

Ecotricity have a network of motorway charging points. I’ve seen one in use once! I got quite excited about it…

Also, Tesla is investing in a massive battery factory – it’s quite amazing. Range is going up all the time. I think the Teslas are on the cutting edge but the new Leafs are looking at 150 – 200 mile ranges.

just googling around here. seems there is more than I’ve ever seen, ever, anywhere…

2 bays in the park + ride multi storey near work.
2 bays in the major out of town shopping centre.

I can walk to 4 petrol stations within 5-10minutes of my house.

now when every other bay in those multistoreys are charge enabled, then it’s an option. until then, petrol is king.

I totally fit the profile for a plug in hybrid. Most journeys less than 10 miles, plug in opportunity at my most distant office, company car driver. I’ll probably save about£1500-2000 per year over the equivalent diesel in tax and fuel. I doubt I would buy one myself though as it still doesn’t really stack up yet without the incentive.

My problem is whether to go for the Golf GTE (heart, but would have to take wheels off bikes and a bit small for the family), or Outlander (head: uglier, big, slower but will fit everything life throws inside it).

We had an electric car day at work a couple of years ago. We took out one of this Twizy quadricycles with the express intention of trying to roll it. Didn’t manage it.

Rachel

At the moment I work 11 miles away from home. Last night I got home and picked Surfer junior up from work on the way. Then dropped her off at her friends 3 miles away. I took Surfer Junior2 to Rugby and picked him up 12 miles in total all of my driving yesterday could have been done comfortably in an EV. Mrs Surfer works 25 miles away so could do all of her commuting in one and we already have 2 internal combustion engines sitting on the drive for non EV trips.
Having one as an only vehicle would be impractical.

Mrs Surfer is yet to be convinced.

If I could afford one I’d very seriously consider it for a second car. A small one, like a Leaf. Although I’d rather an i3 with the range extender since I tend to take the big car away to work so Mrs Grips might end up stuck or at least inconvenienced somehow.

I am amazed how many charging points are springing up around the highlands – a good few towns and villages on or near a-road routes now have a pair of charging points.

blimey at the price of a Leaf.
€80 a month battery lease might be a clever trick to reduce the initial outlay, but then it makes the monthly ongoing running costs no longer trivial. how many here put 80 quid a month of petrol in that second small cheap runaround car for going to the shops and dropping the kids off at school?

we had a leaf at work and I used to rob it nip home at lunch time with the on-call laptop (safed humping it in a pannier). I’d say it was almost perfect as a city car, it was a great laugh flooring it at the lights…surprisingly quick. if we had the money and needed a 2nd car for local journeys and the wifes laughable 4mile commute I’d get one (of something similar).

how many here put 80 quid a month of petrol in that second small cheap runaround car for going to the shops and dropping the kids off at school?[\quote]

since I have been looking at this a bit more seriously I have been thinking of all of my journeys and the opposite is actually the case. An EV would be the goto vehicle as oppose to the other way around. The IC vehicle would only be required for a small number of tasks per week.
My new job means it may not be practical for my commute but once I get my new employer to put a charging point in then job done!

opposite?

as in electric commute, and ICE local runabout?

with current prices, 35K on a electric/hybrid main car (would expect hybrid makes more practical sense for most), and 15K on a small cheap ICE probably might make a lot more sense than 25K on an octavia and 25K plus similar running costs on a tiny leccy car.

No I didnt mean that. What I mean is instead of thinking of the EV as an exception think about what you need the ICE for. For me other than trips to the hills, days out and travelling with work I could use the EV for a significant amount of my journeys. Of course they arent right for everyone but I suspect they are apporpriate for most.

Also Renault Zoe around £14k Nissan Leaf around £16k. Mitsubishi doing deals on the Outlander PHEV of £25,500 with metallic paint! Thats cheaper than the diesel.

Don’t discount the Ampera if you can afford it. Expensive, but it’s a full sized car with range. Worth a look into.

I don’t think it’s that economical on petrol though, so you migth still be better off with the EV as the runabout where it’d excel, and something else for long trips.

As for the Outlander – surely you want the big car to be the one with range, so that you can use it for long trips away etc with your gear. Which is I guess what you’ve said in your last post.

I’m interestd in how you get on here actually – I think an EV runabout is bound to be good at its job as far as the actual vehicle is concerned, but I’m interested in how people might adopt them and if there really is a benefit.

We have one ‘family car’ and one car I use for work travelling. We also have a caravan so one needs to tow, and this can be the work car as diesel suits both. So then a Prius plugin would be an ideal second car. If we had the money.. 🙂

As for the Outlander – surely you want the big car to be the one with range, so that you can use it for long trips away etc with your gear. Which is I guess what you’ve said in your last post.

Its the wrong time to sell my ICE really otherwise I would buy an Outlander as it looks a good deal, I will look at this in 18 months or so when I come to change. The thing at the moment is we are adding another car so it is making more sense that it should be EV given we have to ICE available for the other duties.

blimey at those prices.

€43000 for an Ampera
€33000 for a Prius
€37000 for Leaf originally, but reduced now to €25000 plus €80/month battery rental.

€16000 for a Seat Leon to replace my Seat Leon (so similarish sized car to at least the Ampera and Prius) at a similarish sportiness spec to the Prius/Ampera. 100% electric is no go here. Best I could do is leave car near work and get an APCOA season ticket and commute home.

seems UK must be ahead of germany both in terms of prices and power points.

If I sit down and work out what I *really* use the car for, then a season ticket plus 5-6 rental cars per year (octavia estate sized for 1-2 weeks) will wee-wee over anything with an electric motor here. but it’s not just about €€€ but convenience. I could ride a bike more too.

Seat Leon (so similarish sized car to at least the Ampera and Prius)

Prius is a bigger and more upmarket car than the Leon. The Leon compares to the Auris hybrid I’d say.

no actual gear shifting transmission either manual or automatic. It’s all done with the flow of electrical or kinetic energy. The heart of it is a planetary gear system

This… is just jaw droppingly clever. So simple. Beautiful piece of engineering.

Ultimately, we still get close to regular Prius MPG from the diesel family bus. So won’t be changing any time soon.

A plug in prius would make a lot of sense for my commute though. Even more if it could do sensible range (like 30+ miles) in all-electric mode.

Vauxhall Ampera is about 30 miles electric range. And of course if you run out you can still get home. Or the BMW gives you ‘up to’ 100 miles which should see you right, but with the generator as an option.

molgrips – Member

Seat Leon (so similarish sized car to at least the Ampera and Prius)

Prius is a bigger and more upmarket car than the Leon. The Leon compares to the Auris hybrid I’d say.

Do you think? Now I know there has been some ‘healthy debate’ about people using “car bore codes” for Cars, so I’ll avoid it, but it’s all but a rebodied Golf / A3 – The Prius is a little longer (20cm) but the Seat is taller and wider. The interior is much larger thanks to the lack of batteries and such.

If you compare the 1.8VVT-i T3 and the Leon CR 2.0TDI 184FR (they’re about the same price) the Leon comes with a lot more kit as standard.

If you care about ‘the badge’ neither Toyota nor Seat will get the Golf Club Bar chattering, but who cares.

The Prius is better on fuel around town (72mpg v 55mpg) but if it wasn’t you’d be amazed given that’s it’s purpose – out of town at a constant 70mph the Leon is actually better 74 v 72 – it’s also so much faster a drag race would be as one sided as a Chuck Norris v Heather Mills arse kicking contest.

I reckon the best Green/Economic car of the moment is the Focus 1.0T, unless you’re doing 1000s of miles a month on the motorway when a turbo diesel is still the best.

Do you think?

Yep. Mine is certainly bigger than a Golf (at least, it was a few years ago, not been in a new Golf), and I’ve been in the back of a MkIII as a taxi and been very comfortable. I don’t think a taxi driver would be ferrying people around in a Leon. The batteries in a Prius go under the boot floor behind the front seat, so reduce boot depth rather than passenger space.

Go and have a look if you don’t believe me. 20cm is a lot of passenger legroom.

out of town at a constant 70mph the Leon is actually better 74 v 72

In theory. I suspect the Prius will get closer to its published figures – certainly more so than a Ford ecoboost 1.0 will. Although – where do you get constant 70mph figures from? You do realise that the extra-urban cycle figure is not constant 70mph..?

they’re about the same price

Aye. You pay for the hybridness.

remembering that the larger Exeo (Seat answer to Octavia) is now called a Leon too.
At 2x the price, I’d seriously hope the Prius is a more luxurious model.
And being nosy at several models of various cars in our car park to find something that will take 2 bikes in the back with seats folded down, 2 man weeks worth of MTB luggage plus 2 adults OR 3 pairs of skis, 3 man weeks of ski luggage and 3 adults with only half the split fold down (or 1 seat removed in cases of things like a Yeti)… I’d class a Prius as a Golf/Astra sized hatchback.
Although, tbf, older Leon is roomier than new Leon (not Leon ST), or at least it certainly looks like that (and indeed longer loading area than a Yeti)

Octavia vRS Combi, and a shed load of petrol is higher up my list than a Prius (although I expect most will have deduced that). Far more practical. Now if there’s an Octavia vRS-hybrid estate for €35000 we might be able to talk.

If I wanted an ultra-eco runabout, it’s not going to be a second car, and most certainly not going to be a second car that’s priced like a maxed out Audi A3 or reasonable spec A4. It’s going to have to be €15K.

Had three people, camping gear, a big pushchair and a bike all inside the Prius. The new model is bigger. The aero shape requires it to be quite long.

Speaking as someone who owns one rather than has simply nosed around, I think it is bigger inside than the last Golf I went in which was I think a 62 plate and therefore a mk6..? As said, you don’t see Golfs as taxis.

I’m not trying to get you to buy one but I do think it is bigger than a Golf 🙂

the one parked outside my house was what I would call golf sized. maybe new one is bigger. by golf sized, I really mean Leon mk1 sized. and the aero roof “looks” like it would be uncomfy in the back (speaking as someone who’s 6ft3), but I have seen worse.

I wouldn’t buy one anyway. it’s bottom of my list. so no point trying to get me to buy one any way 😉

a hybrid powered model of an existing car… perhaps. if the additional price is no more than say the extra you pay for auto/dsg, if it can be run entirely on petrol. any more than that, and I’m out.

hybrid specific design… no.

anything that needs a plug doesn’t even make the list (for pretty obvious reasons).

what I don’t understand though is how the ampera is claimed to be the biggest selling hybrid, but every single one I’ve seen is an Opel test car or dealer demo, and it costs BMW money. see lots of priuses. maybe it’s just because the prius has been out longer.

I was interested in a Lexus RX400h and was looking at an older one at a main dealers in Coventry, one of the questions I asked was about it being an older model, they told me that once serviced at the main dealer, the battery is then warrantied for the next 12 months, and that they hadn’t changed one yet.

If I bought one it would have a full dealer history!

a hybrid powered model of an existing car

Ford are introducing a hybrid mondeo soon. They say it will be priced at the same level as the equivalent diesel model – could be very interesting.

hybrid specific design… no.

The deign brief of the Prius was to make the most economical car without using diesel, for the American market. Because NOx regs are so tight they could not sell diesels. So people were upgrading from 25 US mpg cars and halving their fuel bills. The hybrid powertrain is only one of the features. The shape is another. So if it weren’t that shape it wouldn’t be as good 🙂

In any case there is a hybrid Auris and Yaris which are the same as the normal ones with a few body tweaks. Without checking, I think the Yaris one is pretty similarly priced to the diesel with similar spec.

I’ve got a brand new (6months old)Yaris hybrid I also work on hybrid forklifts so know more than the average person about hybrids and they are bloody fantasic to drive and own and don’t care what others think love mine and going to get another 😀

*Mini update* for anyone marginally interested.

Picked up a Nissan Leaf yesterday for an extended test drive. it is the top of the range so has all the mod cons. Did a load of local running around yesterday PM then spent most of the late afternoon doing DIY 🙁
Even though we only did around 30 miles mrs Surfer is already obsessed with the reducing mileage indicator!
The drive itself is great and it accelerates very well and as well as being virtually silent outside inside is also very quiet at motorway speeds.
Had a day off today so did some more trips and instead of parking where I was shopping noticed a charge station in Asda next door. Didn’t need to but being nosey I thought I would have a look. Disappointed to see you had to purchase an RFID tag and the charge costs were very high (Chargemaster) Didnt expect free but £8,50 for a 30 minute fast charge is ridiculous!
Although I am seriously looking to buy either an EV or a hybrid I have to say this car has probably saved me around £20 in the last 2 days so far!!

mrs Surfer is already obsessed with the reducing mileage indicator!

Possibly the most significant energy saving technology in the Prius is the bar graph showing you fuel consumption history and regenerated energy in 5 min chunks 🙂