Electric Vehicles
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@jc said in Electric Vehicles:
BMW X5. It has amazing comedy tyres, 315 21s. Basically Sideshow Bob’s shoes.
Hey @gt12 remember how I said@nta said in Electric Vehicles:
76km sounds better.
Yeah, forget that...
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@jc said in Electric Vehicles:
@gt12 An X3 is a much nicer place to be than an X1. Mrs gt probably won't even notice the difference in width and length but it's a much more solid car.
In my experience they always notice the extra length and width
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@crucial said in Electric Vehicles:
@jc said in Electric Vehicles:
@gt12 An X3 is a much nicer place to be than an X1. Mrs gt probably won't even notice the difference in width and length but it's a much more solid car.
In my experience they always notice the extra length and width
You mean they come home spoilt?
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@jc said in Electric Vehicles:
@crucial said in Electric Vehicles:
@jc said in Electric Vehicles:
@gt12 An X3 is a much nicer place to be than an X1. Mrs gt probably won't even notice the difference in width and length but it's a much more solid car.
In my experience they always notice the extra length and width
You mean they come home spoilt?
I was waiting for that.
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@crucial said in Electric Vehicles:
@jc said in Electric Vehicles:
@crucial said in Electric Vehicles:
@jc said in Electric Vehicles:
@gt12 An X3 is a much nicer place to be than an X1. Mrs gt probably won't even notice the difference in width and length but it's a much more solid car.
In my experience they always notice the extra length and width
You mean they come home spoilt?
I was waiting for that.
So was she.
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@jc I have a 2018 X5 and it has same size tyres on it. I thought it was completely over the top until I took it on a high speed run down the M3. The thing cruises at 90-95mph smooth and effortless.
They know what they are doing those BMW guys.
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So, my work has just introduced an electric car leasing scheme. These sort of things come up often, but this one has really piqued my interest. Basically the benefit in kind Tax is only 1% this year, rising to 2%. What this means is that you can avoid paying tax on what you spend on your car. So for example if you earn 1k p/month and pay 40% tax .. you earn 600 a month. But if you lease a car at 100 p/month, you'll only pay 1% on that. Thus, your tax requirement changes to 900 @ 40% + 100 @ 1% ... so 539 take home with a car thrown in. I.e - you pay 61 a month for a 100/month car. Brilliant.
Now here is the kicker. The lease deals offering include insurance, warrant, all registrations/on road, servicing & next set of tyres/brakes if required in the 4 year lease period.
I'm trying to figure out the catch as it's an absolute steal in my view. I've been browsing what's available, and with the exception of the Taycan, everything seems to be there. You can even go on a waiting list for he BMW iX which won't be around for a few months yet. But I could get a well spec'd Q4 or E-Tron now for around 450 p/month.
There must be a catch here which I'm missing as this is simply too good to be true. I'm a BMW driver through and through, but that Q4 deal is just too tempting, so I'm doing a test drive next week ...
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I've looked seriously at EV's & PHEV's in the last few months and have decided to wait for couple of years to make the switch so am buying a stop-gap car in the meantime. The EV's I've driven were great, but even though the range is more than acceptable, I'm not convinced by the charging infrastructure is there just yet. Most of the PHEV's I drove either lacked space, were too big or just didn't appeal.
Had an interesting talk with a dealer in West Cornwall who told me the worry for many of his customers was towing trailers or caravans and the big hit on range. A lot of people buying electric cars are using then as a second car for local driving and keeping their petrol/diesel cars for grunt work and long distance stuff.
I genuinely like the idea of going green and love the way EV's drive, but the options aren't really out there yet for me. Maybe in a year or two they will be.
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@victor-meldrew I'd happily buy a PHEV, but the tax breaks aren't there for them.
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@majorrage Tax isn't an issue for us, more practicality. Ideally we need a 4x4 which isn't too big due to the roads we use. Nothing in the PHEV market which really fits our needs. The Subaru Forrester PHEV would be pretty ideal but its electric range is too small.
Sense the manufacturers are making a direct switch to EV's and there won't be many PHEV's which meet our needs. Think we'll have a reasonable choice and sensible charging infrastructure in a couple of years time. Might combine that with solar power on the house.
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@victor-meldrew doesn’t solar power work off sunshine?
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@victor-meldrew Yeah, understand. We are currently a 3 car family - big family car, small station / town runner and my toy. With the toy not going anywhere (I hope), I think our options to bringing something electric in to replace the family car and runner. The X5 is probably the best car I've ever owned and I'm loathe to be rid of it, but the economics of ditching that and the runner for the Q4 are extremely appealing. I barely commute anymore and will likely move to electric scooter for station / x-city and a basic refusal to go in if it's raining ...
The iX does look sensational though & the first reviews of it are pretty exciting. So perhaps we just wait 18 months for that.
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@crucial said in Electric Vehicles:
@victor-meldrew doesn’t solar power work off sunshine?
2020 sunniest ever year in the UK. I looked up our area and we had more sun than Auckland & Tauranga.
Don't go bringing 2021 into the equation though ....
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@crucial said in Electric Vehicles:
@victor-meldrew doesn’t solar power work off sunshine?
We get plenty of that, just plenty of wind and rain as well.
We have a 2 acre field which we really don't use (apart from the mini-orchard we've planted) so a mini-solar farm would give us almost free power and an RoI of around 10-15%
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@majorrage I sense one of the new cars coming thru will meet our needs - poss. from Hyundai/Kia (was really impressed with the eNiro) or the VW ID 2 platform. The Ioniq 5 gets rave reviews and could meet our needs pretty well.
My baseline is our Skoda Yeti - I love the space, practicality, reliability and comfort of the thing and it's been perfect for us.
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Bentley make a hybrid Flying Spur...
Ford won't bring the electric F150 to Oz, so I'm hoping they make a hybrid Ranger.
I really like the Honda E as a town car too.
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@victor-meldrew said in Electric Vehicles:
Had an interesting talk with a dealer in West Cornwall who told me the worry for many of his customers was towing trailers or caravans and the big hit on range
Towing affects efficiency. Who knew?
Good thing combustion engine cars are immune to that
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@nta said in Electric Vehicles:
@victor-meldrew said in Electric Vehicles:
Had an interesting talk with a dealer in West Cornwall who told me the worry for many of his customers was towing trailers or caravans and the big hit on range
Towing affects efficiency. Who knew?
Good thing combustion engine cars are immune to that
It's ease of refuelling v re-charging which should resolve itself when the infrastructure and 800v charging becomes the norm in a few years time.
Rules around transporting livestock are also an issue as you can only be stationary for a limited time.
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@victor-meldrew said in Electric Vehicles:
Rules around transporting livestock are also an issue as you can only be stationary for a limited time.
Didn't know that.
But are you really going THAT far? The UK doesn't seem that... well... big...
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@nta said in Electric Vehicles:
But are you really going THAT far? The UK doesn't seem that... well... big...
We regularly travel over 300 miles in a day and plenty of caravans do 200-300 miles a day. Dealer told me a Skoda Enyaq/Audi Q4 will tow a small caravan 100-120 miles on a full charge. Farmer up the lane regularly does 150 -200 mile round trips with livestock. (I don't know how normal this is). That's going to mean at least a 30-60 minute charge time.
Better charging infrastructure and a tweaking of rules will make it work though.
