I keep coming back to the eNiro, but I don’t think this is rated for towing.

The eNiro is the one that seems to tick all the right boxes for me – range, performance, spec, ride comfort, luggage space, price.

They don’t seem to crop up much, especially on this thread so any reason why?

I think the e-Niro has become the solid fallback benchmark. All the new options need to beat it. Personally I might well, end up with one – the range is just a bit better than the small battery Enyaq.

that’s the smaller battery model?

@Daffy Nope, mine’s the full 78Kw launch model with Performance Pack. Most people get 230-240miles or more but I have a heavy right foot!

All the buttons on my steering wheel work and have a purpose; I’d be interested to know which functions/controls are potentially missing.

On the one I took for a test drive the left and right buttons (which on a Volvo cycle between speed limiter / cruise control / pilot assist) weren’t activated, and you had to pick the one you wanted from a submenu on the centre screen.

I’ve just had a look in the online manual and this has been added since I drove one, so you can ignore me on that aspect.

Ah cool, at least I’m not being short changed!

The eNiro is the one that seems to tick all the right boxes for me – range, performance, spec, ride comfort, luggage space, price.

They don’t seem to crop up much, especially on this thread so any reason why?

I’ve mentioned my e-Niro here a few times. I’ve had mine 7 months and its been great. We’ve got rid of our old Merc diesel and are 100% electric and my business with the ICE has been concluded.

Dants is right to say its a benchmark vehicle. Although not built from the ground up as an EV and a 4 year old design even purpose built EVs released in the last year have a problem beating it for efficiency and usability- even HMGs new Ioniq 5 and EV6 vehicles. Kia are refreshing the design for 2022 so if they make it even better it will be a car to beat.

we traded in the petrol yeti for an e-Niro, it the poverty spec with the big battery but its got everything I want (adaptive cruise being number one but also car play so the lack of satnav isnt really an issue).
only took the plunge as the yeti was going for silly money, the niro is costing 100/month more (its a lease) than the yeti was costing us and we’ll save that on fuel.

Isn’t the E Niro the same as the Hyundai Kona?

Same powertrain but different size. The Kona is pretty much identical to our fiesta in size inside, the Niro is more Focussy. The kona looks bigger in pictures too than it is in real life too.

I test drove a Kona, it seemed plenty bigger than Fiestas I’ve known.

Anyway. I’m going to Llanbrynmair in Powys at the weekend. Zap Map found no routes. There are four rapid charging stations in the whole of Mid Wales away from the coast – Brecon, Llandovery, Llandrindod Wells and Newtown. Each only has one rapid charger. And the one in Brecon is broken. If I were driving to North Wales maybe two are realistically en route with short diversions. That’s the main north-south link in Wales.

That’s filtering for 50kW though. If you want 100kW or more, outside the Cardiff/Newport area there’s just one, in Aberystwyth, the other two are Chirk and Flint on the English border.

Isn’t the E Niro the same as the Hyundai Kona?

I drove a Kona for 3 monbths before getting my e-Niro. Although they use the same power train the e-Niro is quite different from the Kona. Its usefully bigger inside, the cabin is much better finished and the ride is much smoother and planted. Also the e-Niro uses SK batteries whilst the Kona uses LG batteries so the e-Niro doesn’t have the recent battery fire/recall issue that the Kona has had.

Anyway. I’m going to Llanbrynmair in Powys at the weekend. Zap Map found no routes.

Understandable when you look at the National Grid high voltage network and see that mid Wales is bereft of high voltage infrastructure.

nyway. I’m going to Llanbrynmair in Powys at the weekend. Zap Map found no routes. There are four rapid charging stations in the whole of Mid Wales away from the coast – Brecon, Llandovery, Llandrindod Wells and Newtown.

Yes I was near Machynlleth recently and as my mate was in his tesla had a look on zap map and thought the same. Even the Centre for Alternative Technology only had one (7kw?) charger. They have a big car park just off a main N-S route so crying out for a rapid charger provider to come in with a partnership offer.

But seeing high voltage map above explains it a bit if that’s a prerequisite for DC rapid charging.

mid Wales is bereft of high voltage infrastructure.

It did occur to me that the grid infrastructure is not necessarily going to be in place where people want chargers, that’s an interesting graph thanks.

On the other hand, given the size the country and the road network you have to use, you really only need two or three charging hubs to cover most journeys people are likely to make.

Worth noting there are quite a few 22 and even more 7kW chargers. On holiday in West Wales this year loads of car parks in the small towns had a row of 7kW chargers – this explains why they were weren’t any faster ones. I suppose the intent is there from local government.

To be fair I could do a West Wales trip. I could top up rapidly in Carmarthen to get to my destination then rely on destination chargers such as the car park ones to keep ticking over.

There are rapid chargers available now with battery storage so even if the local grid can’t deliver the requireed power for 50kW or above charging as long as there’s a sufficient delay between charges to allow the battery to charge these chargers can deliver rapid charge power outputs without high voltage grid connections. These would appear to be ideal for mid-Wales.

isn’t that map a bit of a misnomer? even without high voltage infra it should be plenty easy enough to put a 50kw charger in – its not a huge amount of power compared to a street..

I suspect that without high voltages you might not get enough current to deliver the power you need.

@molgrips Powys County council have installed charging points (type 2?) in some municipal car parks – check https://en.powys.gov.uk/evcharging. I know they are available in Newtown, Machynlleth and Welshpool. Probably also Brecon, Builth Wells and maybe Llanfair Caerenion. Tesco in Newtown also has several different options. You don’t need HV power for chargers – they are probably a 3 phase 480v supply.

Yeah most of those are 22kW or 7kW ones no? As a rough guide the ones that have a cable attached are usually rapid which is 50kW or more, the ones without are the slower speed ones.

see that mid Wales is bereft of high voltage infrastructure.

Or any major infrastructure for that matter. When my late partner wanted to go to see her best friend for a short holiday, I looked into public transport, because she really didn’t like being driven, she had issues with being a passenger and would have panic attacks, but the best I found meant it would take longer for her to travel from north Wiltshire to Llanddewi Brefi where her friend lives than it would take to fly to New York to visit her sister!

yup, was 14 hours to do a 2 hour car journey when I looked at it once. madness.

Madness from one point of view, but from another – billions on rail infrastructure to serve a few tens of thousands of people? Personally, I’d support that to the hilt but you can see how a lot of people wouldn’t!

When we get personal drone taxis it’ll be really useful in Wales.

Anyone have or considered a Citroen e-C4?

I’ve found a decent deal on one and am really interested in the claimed high level of comfort (getting old it would seem).

The 100kW motor and 50kWh battery seems to be a decent compromise of cost, performance and range.

uponthedowns
Although not built from the ground up as an EV and a 4 year old design even purpose built EVs released in the last year have a problem beating it for efficiency and usability- even HMGs new Ioniq 5 and EV6 vehicles. Kia are refreshing the design for 2022 so if they make it even better it will be a car to beat.

I don’t really do SUVs but have to say the EV6 looks the bollocks. Looks like they’ve had a good look at the iPace and basically made everything better, then sold it 10K cheaper.

looked at the C4 as there were in stock but the niro beat it on range for about the same cost (at the time anyway, cant see any Kias in stock now)

6 month wait for an e niro. Can have a C4 in less than 2.

E niros are everywhere in my town. Not a fan of the styling either. Quotes were significantly higher for the e niro too.

Just wondering how people are getting on with the EC4.

Sorry, I didn’t realise you were looking for fast chargers. The plan for a HV line to connect some new windfarms got sabotaged by the local Conservative Association a few years ago.
So there is nothing.
We even have turbines spinning, with no grid connection! (Llangurig)

Just looked it up, you can install fast chargers on a 3 phase 380v supply. Come to think of it, I’m sure the ones in tesco Newtown have a cable attached – will see next wk.

There’s a 50kw charger in Tesco Newtown, maybe Welshpool aswell
https://pod-point.com/rollout/tesco-ev-charging

i’ve not read through all 1500 posts, so this question may have been answered already.

is there any talk of when the government is going to add fuel excise duty to the electricity used to power electric cars? additionally, does anyone know if the VAT on electricity used for gars will be increased from 5% to 20%?

How would they know what you use power for in your own home? I think it more likely that we’ll see some form of increased road tax or some form of mileage based tax, but these are not usually applied retroactively, just to new sales.

At the moment electric car sales are still a small proportion and they’re trying to encourage uptake.

Well, after a suspiciously low amount of discussion and thinking, we have bought an eNiro.

It will replace our Passat combo, so we are losing boot space and towing ability, but it will give us cheaper cost per mile and a better commute experience.

All told, the eNiro is a solid little car. Normal sized tyres, decent cabin space, decent visibility and very well put together. Yes, it’s expensive compared to a normal car, but for a commuting vehicle, the servicing and fuel costs just make it a better choice.

Oddly, Sweden only have the high power motor/large batter version available, so we have a 350km winter range capability, which is nice. Ours should turn up in week 50.

How would they know what you use power for in your own home?

Meter

Started looking at EV to replace the current 2nd car (a BMW x1) short list so far is a BMW i3 and VW ID3

The car will really be used for short commutes <10 miles, but need to be able to carry a large dog and be capable of the an occasional journey of approx 120 miles each way.

Has anyone driven both of these EV’s and can give pro’s and con’s of each?

We are looking at 24 month leases. The i3 coming in at £250 for 10k miles and the VW £295

Ta

We even have turbines spinning, with no grid connection! (Llangurig)

Tangent alert! This comment made got me interested. If a turbine has no grid connection, there is no way it will be spinning. The lack of a load means it would quickly overspeed and disintegrate. The turbine in question will have its brake fully applied. As it has apparently been in this state for years, it is probably running the risk of brake failure and a spectacular, fiery demise.

It turns out the wind farm at Bryn Blaen was built despite Powys County Council refusing to give planning permission, on a site that has no grid capacity to carry the newly generated power.

The plan for a HV line to connect some new windfarms got sabotaged by the local Conservative Association a few years ago.
So there is nothing.

Interesting. Couldn’t find any reference to that particular story, but according to someone on the internet called “jackothenorth”, the Bryn Blaen fiasco is the result of evil (English) Tories using underhanded tactics to extract grant money from the very land of the hard-working Welsh, and building a useless wind farm in the process.

Oddly, Sweden only have the high power motor/large batter version available

Probably the cold winters, so range drop

@FunkyDunc – I’ve driven the iD3 but not the i3. The iD3 feels like a quieter Golf – bigger inside apart from the boot which is Golf sized. A friend has had an i3 for a while – he really likes it for popping about the place but they have a Kia Sorento when they go long distances / take the giant hound.

Of the electric cars I’ve driven I’d rank them: Model 3, Enyaq, iD3, Ioniq5. I’d have any of them apart from the Ioniq5 – for some reason I hated it.

Oddly, Sweden only have the high power motor/large battery version available

That doesn’t seem odd to me, built up areas (and hence electricity supply and charging stations) are a lot more spread out in Sweden then UK.

be capable of the an occasional journey of approx 120 miles each way.

I’d be it’s only occasional, you could stop for a short charge if there’s a charging station in the way. Remember you don’t always need to do a full charge.

I think it is a combination of both the cold and the spread-out-ness.

We also get about 70,000kr of green reduction on the cost of a new vehicle, which is nice and is applied across the board. It’s nothing like across the border where Norwegians get something like a 50% reduction and have a lot of infrastructure to use, but it’s still better than a slap in the face.

All told, with insurance, second set of wheels/tyres and some other stuff, we’re going to be paying about 4500kr a month over three years. This is compared to a monthly commute cost of about the same just in fuel for the Passat.

For reference: 190 km round trip to work for the six months of the year that we cannot use bikes. We will still get tolled in the eNiro up to 90kr a day (boooooooo), but will be avoiding the use of approximately 13-14 litres of petrol or ethanol (petrol economy is about 6l/100km, ethanol is about 7,5-8l/100km).