Odds on “pavement vigilantes” cutting “dangerous” cables anyone?

Odds on them doing it twice?

Righty electric bods. My employer has just announced they are going to participate in the salary sacrifice scheme for leccy motors.

I’m higher tax payer, so this looks like a decent option – it’s a fully serviced/insured scheme from the sounds of it, no deposit, just a monthly fee.

My car is 20 years old, the Mrs’s 10 yrs and a little run about is 10 years. I could be tempted to get rid of my car if the deal is good. Wouldn’t want anything big, doesn’t need to be. I actually cycle to work, so this wouldn’t save money, well it might, MrsF would use it.

I do like to look of the little Honda. Ideally, MrsF would commute to work in it.

Worth it ? Don’t have an idea of cost, but leasing an EV seems better. Can anyone tell me what they are paying a month on a similar scheme (after tax etc).

If you already own your car outright, the cost of a new lease is a big expense, even with the tax breaks. That’s the position I’m in. Even the cheapest deals cost a lot more than fuel and maintenance for my 8 year old diesel c4 picasso.

My company uses Octopus as a provider – everything included. The Honda E seems disproportionately expensive – net cost, after tax, BIK etc is £547 (your prices will prob be slightly different)

Best value one that I can see is the MG 4 (normal range) which comes in at £319. These are both 3 years/10,000 miles.

319 a month is 456 gallons of diesel a year at current prices, or about 22,000 miles. of course this doesn’t take into account the potential pleasure of owning a new car that is perhaps nicer to drive and also the chance of a nasty repair bill to pass an MOT or something.

If the car was a bit bigger, and we could use it for holidays, weekends away as well as everyday/school run then it would be just about worth it financially, but with three kids and a dog, it’s not practical yet.

The iD Buzz, which would be cool, is £675 a month and not scheduled for delivery till may 2024.

If it’s Tusker, check the maffs very, very carefully. They have a sneaky trick of raising the price just before the car is delivered and then presenting you with an ultimatum the day before. They also use weird residual values so you will almost certainly be better off buying privately via PCP and bank loan (eg an 18 month old Tesla Model 3 with 20,000 miles will happily go for more than the new price at auction). Profit goes to Tusker.

They also have the highest charges of the bunch and the most restrictive policies regarding maintenance etc (eg they insist that you use their preferred back street garage for servicing etc, even if it’s 100 miles away).

Tyres don’t get replaced until below 2mm across the whole tread, so you may have some sketchy moments in the winter when they’re part-worn. I sent a recorded delivery letter putting on record that I considered it an unacceptable risk, which will be “exhibit A” when it comes to paying any excess in an insurance claim.

You’ll automatically lose any no-claims discount if you come off the scheme.

Good luck getting hold of them if there’s a problem.

Worth it ?

Depends on the miles you do.

We’re doing 26 miles a day and saving about £100/mo on fuel.

@mert

Odds on them doing it twice?

Pretty high given the charger will have an RCD.

Anyone got an i4? If so, what do you think, or if it’s currently on order, what’s your lead time looking like?

My Tesla lease is coming to an end next Autumn, and I fancy a car built by grownups.

I’ve got an i4 on order – was ordered in August, the lease company tell me an estimated late Jan delivery but that appears to be a guess as BMW havn’t given a leadtime yet. From what I can gather from others on facebook forums e40’s seem to be running 6 months ish, M50s 9-12 months. Big emphasis on “ish” there.

I did test drive both a Model 3 and an i4 and when ordering had a choice between a RWD Model 3 and an e40 i4 – pretty comparable in lots of ways. The i4 feels much more grown up and like a premium car, the Model 3 feels more modern and futuristic – a quick test drive will make the differences obvious. The i4 is a hatchback so far more practical for my uses (bike in back etc). One other thing is that the base i4 is missing a lot of tech that you’re likely used to from the Model 3 – 360 cameras, adaptive cruise etc as with BMW a lot of premium functions come as part of option packs. Worth checking before ordering as a dealer demonstrator will likely have a lot of options boxes ticked that might not be on you actual car.

Thanks. I’d got the feeling the lead time would be around 9 months.

Spec’ing a base 40 with the stuff I have on my Tesla comes in at a price I’m happy with, and having had a Model 3 Performance I’m happy to have the slower car and more comfort.

https://configure.bmw.co.uk/en_GB/configid/pnlbd21z

Will get the company lease outfit to arrange a car for a weekend test. Am aware that most demonstrators have the adaptive suspension on, but I’m pretty sure BMW know how to do standard suspension well, especially with 18in wheels.

Well we’re five weeks and 1k miles in with the Ionic 5 and loving it. Been getting free top ups at the nearby Tesco and got a Zappi installed last week. Used it once so can’t give any cost analysis that is meaningful yet.

However the love dropped a notch today. Picked up a nail right on the edge of the side wall so a repair isn’t viable. £325s worth of new tyre on Thursday!!!!!! A mates Aston has cheaper tyres FFS.The fitters reckon theres a real shortage of the appropriate EV tyres with Hyundai being responsible for the shortage. Apparently the are buying up any available stock.

EV tyres

?
When my Model S needed new tyres I just bought the regular version rather than the foam-damped ones. No obvious difference in any way.

Picked up a nail right on the edge of the side wall so a repair isn’t viable. £325s worth of new tyre on Thursday!!!!!!

Christ , what tyre is it ?

I’m assuming the expensive tyres are to reduce the rolling resistance to the minimum and allow them to advertise a fraction of a percent more range? Like the full wheel ‘hubcaps’ to reduce drag. A typical ICE driver doesn’t mind spending a bit more on fuel, but EV drivers are paranoid about range?

Let’s hope the tyre thing gets a bit more sensible. EVs are heavy so I get why bigger / stronger tyres are needed but I can’t see why they should cost massively more.

Just checked and the tyres for my ETron (400BHP 2.5 tonne behemoth) are £210 fitted – Bridgestone Alenza 255/50 R20 H – pretty beefy tyres and whilst not cheap don’t seem so bad compared to your quote

Thankfully my Tusker car includes tyres! As above, manufacturers fitted EV tyres are based on efficiency, not the best grip. Fit what you like.

I’m assuming the expensive tyres are to reduce the rolling resistance to the minimum and allow them to advertise a fraction of a percent more range?

No. There is no such thing as a ‘special’ EV tyre as far as I know, they are just normal tyres. However, due to the low noise inside an EV, tyre noise became the loudest and most annoying thing so they pushed tyre companies into developing (or at least rolling out, no pun intended) the tyres with the foam damping on the inside. These might be sold as EV tyres, but they’re just tyres and you can fit them to any car. Who wouldn’t want less tyre noise?

EVs are heavy, but so are plenty of other cars – my EV max load is less than that of my diesel estate. I’d guess wingnuts’ tyre was in an odd size, and he needed one there and then so it wasn’t on special offer at that time. And it sounds like Hyundai have been playing silly buggers too.

All cars now come with rubbish versions of eco tyres on. These are much worse than the after market eco tyres with the same name, which are pretty good. It puts people off eco tyres which is a shame because it shouldn’t.

Black circles are showing £150 for Bridgestone Turanza T005 in the 19″ size for the Ioniq 5

dantsw13
Free Member

Thankfully my Tusker car includes tyres! As above, manufacturers fitted EV tyres are based on efficiency, not the best grip. Fit what you like.

Including accident damage or just age related wear and tear?

Both

So molgrips is right I did need it there and then. Its a Michelin 20″ with EV, Extra load, acoustic etc etc. Looking on line now I can find the same for about £35 cheaper but I think stock is an issue for many dealers so the point about Hyundai playing silly buggers seems valid. I mean in a car this advanced why oh why isn’t there a road debris removal app!?!! Still I think it illustrates whatever way you travel there’s a cost to pay one way or the other!!!

Leasing company called me cos the lease is up in 6 months. I had a quick check on their own sites and they have some Citroën C4 EVs at under £300 depending on mileage. Anyone had a look at one of these?

My Octavia iV plug-in hybrid has been on order since late September. I believe Skoda has stopped taking orders for the plug-in hybrid indefinitely. Supply issues continue to bite hard. Lease company said 6 months delivery, but it’s looking like that was pie in the sky. Skoda forums are suggesting it’s more like 18 months.

Boot is pretty small (think Mazda3 size). Brother in law has one.

C4 range isn’t huge, if that bothers you? Having had an MG5 on short term lease waiting for my Ioniq5, I’d be tempted with the MG4.

No. There is no such thing as a ‘special’ EV tyre as far as I know, they are just normal tyres.

When the Zoé was launched Michelin did a specific EV tyre for it called the Michelin ENERGY E-V. My first Zoé had them. They were claimed to give 6% more range. They were OK: round black and didn’t cause me to take any interest in them. BW i3s also had EV specific tyres.

The Zoé 50 came with Michelin Primacy 4. They felt more precise but required caution when very wet, and they wore unevenly (a known problem, some people even persuaded Michelin to give them free replacements). I changed them early for Cross Climates. The Cross Climates are round black and don’t draw attention to themselves except maybe when going through standing water when anticipated loss of grip doesn’t happen. Most of the benefits of a Winter tyre without the slightly wooly feel of a full Winter tyre in Summer.

Yep cross climates are great. Sadly my package means I can only have th3 standard manufacturers model.

We looked at the C4 and had a test drive. Nice enough inside and outside. But main takeaway on driving one is very light steering, took some getting used to. So defo have a test drive

Reading up at the time, I think there was some question marks about the range but newest versions have some update to address this – so I’d do some tradition that

Could anyone work out which EVs were in fire on the M1 today? I wonder how much mileage the media will try to get out of this one?

I’m nearly at the point of taking the plunge. I either need to put a deposit on a new MG4 EV and wait about 4-5 months, or for only a bit more I can get a Tesla Model 3 Long Range with around 20,000 miles on the clock.
I’m hovering towards the Tesla on the basis of they are much nicer (but presumably people will think I’m a flashy git) and probably better residual value, although the main reason I can afford one is they have lost a lot of value in the last 2 months so difficult to say if this will prove to be true.

….currently awaiting ChargedEV to arrive and install charge point at home 🙂 The car isn’t coming for another 6 months though….

Lease deal through work, with Tusker, and the charger supply and fitting is included

I’d not been watching used Model 3 prices (gone off the car a bit since it launched), I’m guessing there’s a good supply of ex-lease hitting the market and people trading up to a Y, as far as I understand servicing and repairs are a bit ££££ with the Model 3. I’m currently driving an early MG ZS EV which is OK but rattles from everywhere and doesn’t rapid charge very quickly (newer MGs are much better in both respects) so my current plan is to get the MG4.

Could anyone work out which EVs were in fire on the M1 today? I wonder how much mileage the media will try to get out of this one?

Look like IPace’s at first glance.
And oh yes, get your EV bullshit bingo cards at the ready 😉

When I looked the other day, Model Y were on 2-4 week order, as was the Y performance.
The long range was Jan-Mar23.
basic 3 was 2-4 weeks with Jan-Mar23 for long range and performance.

Can’t imagine you can get your hands on any new EV quicker than that at the moment

Word of warning. I had a Rolec installed in 2015. The contactor in the unit actually melted (surprised it didn’t catch fire) – so 1. I stupidly expected car chargers to last a long time, not 5-7 years.

Secondly and more importantly check what cable size you’ve got running to your car charger – mine is a 2.5mm which is not rated for 32amps. I’m surprised it’s been working but genuinely there must be a risk that stuff gets a bit “warm” and burns the garage down. Net: your car charger installers might not be super motivated to ensure your whole system is properly speccced and setup, maybe they just want to sell you a charger to install….

I had also planned on an MG4 EV but the 5 mths wait time and my second hand experience from my father with regards to charging when away from home is making me err back towards a Tesla again.

@swedishmatt Good point. We upgraded the cable going to our outside RCD box to something thicker specifically to handle the sort of current the charger would put out. We were already specced for the three phase we have outside for the wood splitter, but the new cable is even heavier.

That said, we only have 16A on the circuits, so need to tune down the max amps in the charger software to avoid tripping the circuit for the water. I really should get an upgrade to 20A from our supplier, but not right now.

So, ChargedEV did survey this afternoon, they reckon pretty simple through integral garage where fuse box is on back wall. They’ll be back within a week to install, Charger is Easee 7kW, cable is approx 12-15mm dia and will go along garage internal wall at ceiling height, out through breeze blocks and brick wall to mount location near front door.

From the erroneously started thread.

I would share todays experience of using an EV at -2 degrees C. I am sure lots f people will say that newer batteries won’t be affected in the same way or that ICE cars are also less economical in the cold. I am not trying to preach for or against EVs, just sharing some facts.

I have a ten year old Nissan Leaf which has a battery that has deteriorated so that in the best warm weather it has an indicated range, when fully charged, of 45 miles which actually translates to 25 – 30 miles*

Today, when fully charged, it had an indicated range of 22 miles which actually left me with an indicated 2 miles after driving 6.5 – so probably less than 8 mile range!

WBO pointed out on the other thread that charging in cold temps doesn;t help and the car was charged while sat on the drive at about -2 using the 3 pin charger I always use.

*I know the ‘guess-o-meter’ range prediction is based on the most recent driving but this was also in sub-zero temperatures doing the normal supermarket type trip that results in the 45 mile reading at 20 degrees in the summer.

To add my experience to this, albeit a brand new (5K miles old) loan car rather than anything vaguely affordable.

I set off to see my parents this weekend, most driving somewhere between -2 and +2 degC. 267 miles covered, and I spend a total of 40 mins charging over the weekend. I did a charge 3/4 of the way there as it’s the Ionity stations are the cheapest fast charging my contract allows then another one on the way back. Total 42 mins charging over the whole weekend (about double the time I’d normally expect as batteries charge slowly when cold and my ETron doesn’t have pre-conditioning that most good modern cars have). Overall efficiency was 2.3 miles/kw.hr vs 2.6 or 2.7 I’ve seen in September. They’re all low numbers, a more sensible car would do better but the relative change summer to winter is what I’m looking at here.

Total cost for the trip was £22, a diesel would have to do 105 MPG to match that, and the ETron is a large, comfy, fast (400BHP) premium car.

I’m impressed that even in winter it’s manageable and “just worked”

I get about 2/3 normal range leaving the ski resort at about -5°C. The regen doesn’t work at all initially and I get a battery too cold warning. As the battery warms up the regen starts working and the range increases. By the time I get home the main thing affecting range is the heater being on max.

I lose on average about 35 miles in winter as I have the heater on low. Obviously, the higher the heat and the more the blower is on the less I get. So in reality I get about 230-240 miles a charge in winter compared to 260-270 in summer and my car is just over 2 years old and I haven’t noticed any battery degradation.

I’m not obsessed about the minute detail in battery & charging technology I just jump in it and drive.