Fon Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Im doing £200 a month in fuel at the moment. Iv found a Hyundai Ionic that is totally electric, not one of these hybrid things where you still have an engine to drag around. The range varies with temperature and driving style, but I should get between 130-150 miles on a charge. That charge will cost me £3 from a home charger. They can be charged from a normal 3 pin plug (10 hours). Or a faster charger that you can install at home for about £300 (4 hours.) Or a rapid charger installed at varies places around the uk (double the cost to charge but only 30 mins) IF you want to know how many rapid chargers there are near you get Zapmap. Seems like a no brainer to me. The money im going to save in fuel / tax, along with it being half the money to insure than my current Merc, makes it all make sense. And the battery has a warranty for 8 years, the car for 5 years, (im buying a two year old one for £16K) Its got all the bells and whistles, cruise where it will slow down if the car in front slows down, it will turn round bends if it sees the white lines by itself (you must still touch the steering wheel every 30 seconds) and android play etc. Ill let you know how I get on, but thought after many months of research Id share the idea to other geeks who fancy a new project. Fon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktv303 Posted May 18, 2019 Share Posted May 18, 2019 Sounds great mate. I've never been interested in driving cause I've never really had the need but I'm thinking of getting lessons over the summer. Might do one of those one week courses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l0gic Posted May 19, 2019 Share Posted May 19, 2019 Well done Fon! I'm still trying to get over my IC engine separation anxiety so have been looking at PHEV vehicles. I don't understand the selling point of 'battery charged from the car engine' stuff as all you are doing is converting fossil fuel to electric at a fairly low efficiency, you may just as well run the IC engine. I think it is purely for the company car crowd due to the tax breaks. I have a shit load of solar around the house that I currently pump into a set of Lion batteries to run the home, so I 'm comfortable that the technology and process seems sound. Keep us posted 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fon Posted May 19, 2019 Author Share Posted May 19, 2019 The battery's that are charged from the cars alone, come from braking. The car use's a generator to break, or when coasting. So they are more efficient. And your breaks can last several years without replacement (provided you actually put the car in nutural and use them once in a while or they just corrode) Phev models are ok, but I wanted less repairs. No filters, no DPF to get blocked, no exhaust to fall off, no engine management lights, no plugs, etc... Plus with a Phev you are only getting about 30 miles from a charge as your lugging the engine around all the time. You really have to be careful in your planning. When I collected the car I had to drive a few hundred miles back. I did lots of research and you need a plan b and c, as you may arrive at a charger to find someone else using it, or a petrol car (ice) blocking it. It could also be faulty. If you dont have spare miles in the battery to find another charger your screwed. Some people phone ahead to make sure its working. There are loads of different companies providing chargers. So you end up with loads of apps on your phone to start the charging process. I was lucky on the way back. I planned two charges and both were as expected. I charged from about 20% to 80% in 25 mins. I paid about double what I would pay at home. In that time I played with Android Auto in the car, and ate a Big Mac. I dont plan to charge on the road daily, as my work home commute is only 50 miles and I can charge from home. A lot of supermarkets are now installing free chargers so I may give that a bash later. Fon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgedawes Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 Fon. I have been looking on the net, to find apps that are available for free charging. i was speaking to a guy a while back about it and he shown me on an Android phone, where locations are around the UK. Can i find it now👿 Do you have any tips on getting started? Im looking at getting a Leaf, with a battery owned outright, battery lease to me doesnt seem viable. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fon Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 Use zap map. You can filter charges by the speed or cost. If your looking at a leaf get an OBD2 scanner and an app called leafspy. It will show you how much of the battery is already damaged. If it's 4 years old expect a 10% reduction on the battery. Fon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldringers Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 On 5/17/2019 at 10:07 PM, Fon said: Im doing £200 a month in fuel at the moment. Iv found a Hyundai Ionic that is totally electric, not one of these hybrid things where you still have an engine to drag around. The range varies with temperature and driving style, but I should get between 130-150 miles on a charge. That charge will cost me £3 from a home charger. They can be charged from a normal 3 pin plug (10 hours). Or a faster charger that you can install at home for about £300 (4 hours.) Or a rapid charger installed at varies places around the uk (double the cost to charge but only 30 mins) IF you want to know how many rapid chargers there are near you get Zapmap. Seems like a no brainer to me. The money im going to save in fuel / tax, along with it being half the money to insure than my current Merc, makes it all make sense. And the battery has a warranty for 8 years, the car for 5 years, (im buying a two year old one for £16K) Its got all the bells and whistles, cruise where it will slow down if the car in front slows down, it will turn round bends if it sees the white lines by itself (you must still touch the steering wheel every 30 seconds) and android play etc. Ill let you know how I get on, but thought after many months of research Id share the idea to other geeks who fancy a new project. Fon If you do a regular route, regular miles then its def a no brainer. I cant imagine what you'll save. The wife changed jobs from a 40 mile daily round trip commute to a 5 minute walk up the road job. were looking at a mnin £1500 saving and another on running cost of the car. Good luck, just make sure you don't do the old mobile trick and forget to put it on charge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldringers Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 (edited) On 5/18/2019 at 1:54 PM, ktv303 said: Sounds great mate. I've never been interested in driving cause I've never really had the need but I'm thinking of getting lessons over the summer. Might do one of those one week courses. M8 listen, don't fook around a lesson a week, crash course it. I only started driving later in life and I went from never been behind a wheel to passing & driving within a fortnight. Takes some doing the concentration levels are immense but it can be done. I think mine was about £800 everything test the lot, I turned into a fookin taxi come takeaway collector within 3 weeks Edited May 28, 2019 by goldringers 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktv303 Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Aye that's what I thought about doing mate... Just to get it done with no fucking about . Can get a week course for between 400/600 here so just gonna do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crashuk Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 Been six months + now, any updates on how it's going? Any new pitfalls to going electric? I got a 2ltr diesel and now only a 4 min drive to work and it dont even get warm so need to do something ie get a small motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fon Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share Posted December 27, 2019 7 hours ago, Crashuk said: Been six months + now, any updates on how it's going? Any new pitfalls to going electric? I got a 2ltr diesel and now only a 4 min drive to work and it dont even get warm so need to do something ie get a small motor. Its fantastic mate. No regrets, I do 50 miles a day for work. In the summer I charge every other day, and in the winter I charge every day. Im saving about £160 a month on fuel alone. Iv gone onto EDF electric car tariff so my electric is half price between 9PM and 7AM. Its also half price all weekend. It costs me about £1 to do those 50 miles. Im also saving by running the washing machine and dishwasher in the cheaper tariff. Also zero car tax. The warranty and piece of mind is fantastic. Had to use it once as the headlights were fogging up. Got a replacement car for the day free of charge. And the warranty includes AA breakdown for free. I thought id push myself and drove it to the Netherlands via Calais. Lidl have free rapid charging in the supermarkets so basically I drove there Lidl hopping! I got there for nothing!. I basically charged every hundred miles, which worked out well with the kids needing toilet brakes. The charge took 20 mins. The only way I can see this car not working for me, would be if I couldn't charge at home. As all the UK free chargers are in supermarkets, and they are not the quickest taking about 4 hours to charge from nothing to full. And paying for rapid charging at double the cost would make it about £6 for 150 miles which would start comparing to a efficient small car. (although you would still have all the troubles of dealing with car engines, oil leaks, exhausts etc. ) If you need any advice just ask. If you want to know where chargers are near you, get zapmap installed on your phone. Fon 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HackmanSlim Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 Hmmm it seems the transition to electric cars, is actually starting to make sense, but i have no license lol, so i good, but reading this, it seems to be a win win situation these days Slim 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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