Nice. I’ll be interested to see how it is, my work are starting a salary sacrifice thing from next month, don’t know what the deal is yet, but if it’s similar to yours I’ll be jumping in.

Remember company cars. Does that happen anymore anywhere?

The Daddy wrote:

Nice. I’ll be interested to see how it is, my work are starting a salary sacrifice thing from next month, don’t know what the deal is yet, but if it’s similar to yours I’ll be jumping in.

It seems like a great deal. The monthly amount covers insurance, road tax, all maintenance, breakdown cover and all services and MOTs and is taken from you salary pre tax, so you save on your tax bill each month.

@Wookienopants there's no issue without a home charger.  You'll probably get a 3-pin plug 'emergency' charger, which will manage 1-2KW.  A home charger is almost always 7KW.  Out and about, you'll have 'untethered' chargers which are ones where you use your own cable (provided, and don't lose it, they're expensive).  These are AC, so are 11KW or 22KW, but only charge at the capacity of your car's inverter.  My Hyundai was 11KW, my Nissan is 22KW.  

The DC chargers are the 'fast' ones you see at McDonalds etc.  They have a CCS (combined charging system) plug instead of a normal type 2 one, so they'll use the additional 2 plugs on the bottom of your charging port.  They're DC, so will run as fast as your car's internal infrastructure.  Some are 400V, some 800V, so you generally get at least 150KW as a maximum.  Some are limited to 50KW.  My Hyundai could handle 350KW, but because of battery temperature, time of day, etc, I don't think I ever saw more than 185KW from it.  My Nissan's capped at around 150KW because it's a lower voltage system.

Hyundai had a 77KWh battery, so 77 kilowatt hours; if you charge it at 1KW, it takes 77 hours to charge.  Charge it at 154KW, it takes 30 minutes to charge.  That's in theory, because charging tails off as you get towards 100%, but the maths works for the critical 20-80% range.  In general, minimise the number of times you run your battery below about 10%, and minimise the number of times you charge above about 85%.  In 2-3 years of ownership though it doesn't really matter.

It took me ages to learn all this stuff.  Download Zapmap immediately, and look at who provides local chargers; I got a Chargeplace Scotland account before the car arrived, which helped hugely, but also have a BP Pulse subscription to access their cheaper prices because we have a few of those.

We've managed fine with an EV since October 2022 without a home charger.  It's the least important part of the equation; but when you get one, consider Octopus's EV tariffs, that can give you a full 200-ish-mile charge for about £6 overnight.

Still not comfortable with going full 'leccy. Will probably opt for a sporty PHEV when I buy my next car. Can charge it when I go into the office.

Here’s a few others

Big mistake having Volvo XC40 PHEV for a year believing we’d save money - but going anywhere except the commute cost an arm and a leg because the weight of both drive systems. Hybrids still throw out toxic emissions unless you’re pootling about and they still need servicing.

Been together in electric dreams for nearly three years and will never go back to a fossil fuel car.

Those waiting for hydrogen or ecofuels to be a thing, I’ve got a bridge to sell ya.

Was talking mainstream Pops. Absolutely with you keeping classics on the road.

I would love our next car to be full EV. the only even vaguely affordable options for our needs (size mainly) are Model Y, and it's not a great option imo for lots of reasons; and maybe the Polestar 3 (which is really stretching the definition of affordable at £75K up. or rather, it has broken the definition so let's just rule it out). There are a few others - the Kias look OK for eg - but they're still pricier than even a nicer hybrid like the new Superb coming this year.

I'm quite happy with the build quality of mine; even the last one (which was a Hyundai Ioniq 5) was very nicely put together, and even had EV-specific road-noise-deadening tyres on it.  You can obviously get an EV from Mercedes, BMW, Audi, even Lotus if you want something higher-end.  

Funk, I'd still consider one.  We get an easy 300 mile range out of ours worst case, and do a 100-ish mile trip to my mother-in-law's monthly.  We often stop for a coffee and charge for 20 mins on the way up and down to arrive with more, but rarely bother charging there unless we've gone somewhere local with a rapid charger.  

For a 1500 miles trip through France, yeah, there's a whole other whack of planning for that.  You could always take the phenomenal fuel savings (Octopus Energy again; £5-6 for a full charge as long as it's after midnight!), and hire a car for the holiday?

I really didn't like the Model Y I test drove, so people considering EVs, make sure you realise there are a lot of good alternatives to Tesla now.  The camera suite was the only thing I liked. The Kia/Hyundais have the same blind spot views, but the sentry mode is a brilliant idea.  

I'm a tech guy, but I hated the infotainment.  No CarPlay, and I don't want to have to go through 2 menus to open the glovebox.

The Model 3 ride comfort is supposed to be much improved in the latest model. When I EV I’ll still be considering a Tesla.

They do do lovely interiors and that’s a handsome car.

My hope with driverless cars in the long run is that I no longer have to own one at all.
Instead being like Uber but can go tot he opposite end of the country if I so wish and the car will just redistribute themselves.
Or like a rental without insane credit card deposits.

That Lexus is lovely. I think their coolness stock improved massively with the LFA. I'm considering an RC myself, from 2018 onwards as the face-lift elevates them into most gorgeous car ever made territory.

There is nothing this year that has caused me more stress, pain and financial loss than car ownership. I hate it. HATE IT