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The Electric Car Th...
 

The Electric Car Thread

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Posted by: sharkbait

It's very def in my list but as a used purchase - if buying new you must put it through a business unless you've won the lottery.

This one is £76k - would have been well over £150k new with a few extras ticked

£7k down, £1300/month PCP - roughly what HP and diesel cost me a month in my pickup.

Can only write down 18% each year on a reducing value scale with it being used, so the corporation tax offset isn't great. 

BIK 4% so overall used as a company car it's not a huge cost to have a supercar and erm save the planet...


 
Posted : 05/06/2026 10:39 pm
 mert
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Posted by: flyingpotatoes
Only thing I don't like is the middle vents don't have an adjustment knob to turn them off. Minor thing really
They're probably doubling up as cooling vents for the entertainment/infotainment system.

 

Posted by: molgrips
But if you are heating up the cabin from cold it uses maybe 2-3kW,
more like 5-7kW.

 


 
Posted : 06/06/2026 10:32 am
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Also just joined this club

The Mazda 5 has had it's HG go... Being as i will attempt to DIY it, that puts me a few weeks without a car

i had run the maths on how much it cost me in diesel, mainly for commuting and had a figure in my head

looked around, only car i could replace it with would have been an Outlander PHEV, but couldn't find a suitable one in budget

So i started looking at PCP (never had it before) 

Zoes, MG4, Leafs, few Ionics

Anyway, the OH rightfully dragged me to a used car supermarket, walked around 4 floors.. MG4 was written off as soon i saw one... Leaf's.. were so so...Saw a nice looking e208 GT and a few Vauxhall Mokka's in white with red details, looked like a special model... unfortunately neither had the service history which would support vehicle and/or battery and motor warranties..

The only car i test drove, a 2022 Zoe, somehow specced as a GT line, but listed as an Ionic...I think it has every extra except the Bose sound system. 12500 miles...100kw motor

Anyway... bought it, 1k downpayment, 182? a month over 48 months. 3300 Balloon payment.

honestly, so relaxing... so quiet.. perfect for just getting about

waiting for my friendly sparky to sort me out a home charger so i can hop electric tarrif and benefit from that too

It had no connectivity to the web, for the Renault app, remote warm up, live traffic etc

said to contact customer services.. a short whatsapp convo and sorted, apparently Renault have no way for me to pay for a subscription, as no one ever did the web site, so they chucked another 12 months of connectivity and live updates on for free, bloody good

 


 
Posted : 06/06/2026 12:24 pm
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more like 5-7kW.

Never seen more than 3kW but then I'm not in Sweden and it's not a big car.

 

 


 
Posted : 08/06/2026 1:38 pm
 jag1
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Sorry not been following this thread so these things have probably already been covered but appreciate your patience.

Our car was written off yesterday and it would make sense to go electric but I now have about a week to research and get a new car set up so have some questions I’m hoping people can help with:

  • If my house electric is 50 years old am I likely to be told we need to rewire the house to get a charger fitted?
  • Approximately how long does it usually take to set up home charging?  We have a drive next to the house so access should be ok.
  • Can you temporarily charge off a standard house socket while we’re waiting for an install?
  • Finally what car? Generally 30 mile round trip to work with occasional longer journey. 2 people so don’t need a huge car. Will sometimes want to transport 2 bikes

 
Posted : 09/06/2026 10:00 am
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Posted by: jag1

Can you temporarily charge off a standard house socket while we’re waiting for an install?

Yes, get a granny charger with adjustable output, and you can leave it going at a lower rate, e.g. 8 amp. It will give you around 2kwh per hour. We do this as our primary way of charging at the moment,  the plug/socket gets nothing more than slightly warm and it's been left going for 10+ hours. 

 


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 11:06 am
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@jag1 - what's your budget and how new of a car do you want?

 


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 1:01 pm
 jag1
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Last time I bought a car it was £6,000 and 4 years old but that was 8 years ago 😀 Just starting to look now, hopefully under £20,000 and don't mind second hand.  We'd be buying outright and not on hire as tend to use a car for as long as possible.  The car before this was 16 years old when it was retired.  You may have guessed that I have no interest in cars.  The main criteria are practicality and longevity with minimal maintenance (just standard servicing)


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 1:17 pm
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Posted by: jag1

Posted by: jag1

 

Can you temporarily charge off a standard house socket while we’re waiting for an install?

 

 

Yes, get a granny charger with adjustable output, and you can leave it going at a lower rate, e.g. 8 amp. It will give you around 2kwh per hour. We do this as our primary way of charging at the moment,  the plug/socket gets nothing more than slightly warm and it's been left going for 10+ hours. 

 

 

Yep, I've being charging from a 3 pin wall plug at 10amp for 2 years. Smartened up the process by using a tapo p110m plug too save me trying to programme the car. 

Using octopus agile to get some cheap rates. I don't do many miles so it isn't a nightly charge up. Did 6hrs straight during the recent negative prices with no ill effect. 


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 2:48 pm
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Posted by: jag1

We'd be buying outright and not on hire as tend to use a car for as long as possible.

I'm a die hard "buy something and keep it a long time", but with electric cars it's definitely worth at least looking at lease schemes if you or your partner have access to salary sacrifice schemes through your employers.


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 3:17 pm
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My brother in law has an electric Porsche (Taycan I believe). I was really excited to get to go for a drive with him in it when we visited him in the States over Christmas. After about five minutes I was bored and completely underwhelmed. The interior was dull and boring (apart from a couple of bling screens - but all cars have them now so who cares). The acceleration is slower than my Lexus RZ. And it just looks drab inside and out. Apparently it is very good on a track though (briefly – until it needs some more AAs in) and he races cars, has a Lotus Elise amongst other cars so knows how to extract performance from a car, I just didn't get to see it when being driven around in it.

My neighbour has a Carrera Turbo, and that is a completely different beast altogether – looking, sounding and driving like a performance car.


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 3:33 pm
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Posted by: jag1

If my house electric is 50 years old am I likely to be told we need to rewire the house to get a charger fitted?

My charger is from a spur directly after the meter - all new and custom and up to regs from there. If you know a good electrician you can be good to go in a day. It's a long mornings work but not onerous for a good tradesman.

My house needed the cable from the network to my house to be updated. This took a year to organise and 3 days to do. No cost to me.


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 3:54 pm
 jag1
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Thank you for the replies.  It sounds like a quick swap to an EV is possible using a granny charger whilst we sort things out, so will look into them.  My husbands employer does a salary sacrifice on EV's so can check that out too.  Also good news that it goes at the start of the electrics so should be ok without fixing the house.   I now have just over 7 days to find a replacement car and get it home before the insurance company takes the hire car back off of us.  What fun....


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 5:41 pm
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Posted by: timmys

Posted by: jag1

We'd be buying outright and not on hire as tend to use a car for as long as possible.

I'm a die hard "buy something and keep it a long time", but with electric cars it's definitely worth at least looking at lease schemes if you or your partner have access to salary sacrifice schemes through your employers.

My salary sacrifice ends in 2 months, and the numbers I'm being offered mean I'll be buying used this time. Unlike in 2023, there are plenty of options now. @jag1, there are quite a few EV specialist dealers around now so i'd visit one of those to get a look at a few different cars. 1 week seems like a lot of pressure for a £20k decision, could you work around it for another week or hire a small vehicle?

FWIW, my budget was similar and there's plenty at that price point which are a decent size and well regarded:

Hyundai Ioniq 5

Kia EV6

Kie e Niro

Polestar 2

Skoda Enyaq

VW ID5 or ID4 maybe

Volvo XC 40

 

I'm having to budget more as I want a Genesis GV60 with manufacturers warranty.

On charger front, have done about 60k in 5 years with no home charger, just the 3 pin.

 

 


 
Posted : 09/06/2026 6:34 pm
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