Puma EV UK testing

[Deleted User 1867]

what are the insurance costs like on full electric vehicles?

[DB74]

what are the insurance costs like on full electric vehicles?

Mine was slightly higher than the Puma ST, yet performance was a lot slower. I still think synthetic fuels will be a better investment, as it's greener and impacts all ICE cars making it better for the environment. I'm still reading lots of charging issues with EV's. The best charging network I used was Grid Serve but recently there have been software issues, either with the car or the charging network, so they currently do not work, with the car manufacturer blaming Grid Serve and Grid Serve blaming the car manufacturer. It's not nice being stuck in a service station after midnight being either unable to charge, or having the charging cable stuck plugged into the car and having to contact the one person on the charging network help desk to ask for help!

[Rizmo]

Apart from factors such as limited range,high price,time to recharge batteries, prohibitive cost of replacing batteries eventually (which must impact on resale values), one thing that puts me off buying an electric car is the tendency of most manufacturers to supply a car that looks like the ice original, but with the radiator grille blanked off. A sort of make- do afterthought.

A lot of those are urban myths though.

Limited range - Over 95% of all journeys are under 10 miles so range isn't an issue for the vast majority of people actually. When was the last time you did more than 200 miles in a day? Most will only do that once or twice a year. Range is increasing year on year as the tech gets better.
High price - yes but that will even out as more sales happen. The smaller cheaper models are coming. They needed to do the big expensive cars first to get some of their development costs back.
Time to recharge - the overwhelming majority of charging will be done overnight at home so that's not a factor. If you're on a long trip you just design in a stop for a while which should be no more than 30 mins.
Battery replacement cost - When was the last time you needed to replace the engine on a combustion car? What evidence is there at anything other than the really early first gen cars suffered significant enough battery depletion that they needed new ones? There are plenty of EVs with over 100,000 miles on the clock and still getting over 70% of their battery capacity. They're not like phones. Battery life is currently estimated at 10-20 years. People seem to think they'll go pop after 5.

I'm not an EV fan either and they will not be the only transport solution but they have their place and actually would suit the majority of people just fine if they did the correct research about them first. The trouble the car industry has is that more people want to go to the half way house of a hybrid first before jumping in completely.

It seems both residual values and insurance costs are also issues when considering an ev.

[DB74]

I forgot to say that you also need to factor in the weather when charging and driving the car. In winter the range and charging rate drops, which can be quite significant and the same can happen in the heat too. At 15 degress I would get around 36kwh charge, which was the max for the car, but at 10 degress it was more like 9kwh, so the charge would take 4 times longer!

[KevC]

It seems both residual values and insurance costs are also issues when considering an ev.

Yep absolutely that's a factor. But the flip side is so are running costs. I recently listened to a podcast where someone was saying their tesla had been run for 4 years and nearly 50,000 miles and servicing was £120 over that period. That's a lot cheaper than just a base Puma. They didn't mention charge costs but that would have been a huge saving too. So you have to look at the whole package. I'm not saying it evens out necessarily, just that you have to look at all the numbers and not just cherry pick things that fit one side of the argument or the other.

[Sparks]

It seems both residual values and insurance costs are also issues when considering an ev.

Yep absolutely that's a factor. But the flip side is so are running costs. I recently listened to a podcast where someone was saying their tesla had been run for 4 years and nearly 50,000 miles and servicing was £120 over that period. That's a lot cheaper than just a base Puma. They didn't mention charge costs but that would have been a huge saving too. So you have to look at the whole package. I'm not saying it evens out necessarily, just that you have to look at all the numbers and not just cherry pick things that fit one side of the argument or the other.

Yep, done that and they still don't add up for me. The overall cost would take me more years than I maybe want to drive to break even.
6 to 10 years seems to be the average unless you are doing really high mileage.....So fuel cost etc doesn't even come into the equation when I'm looking.
Range is important because I have family all over the country and should any emergency arise I don't want to be fannying around planning a trip to include a charge stop.
I'm not anti the idea, but, Toyota already have hydrogen cars which may make the EV's take a back seat.
Either way, I'm not buying an EV....

[KevC]

Yep they didn't add up for me when I was looking for the puma or similar. The fuel bill versus sitting at the local park and ride for 30-40 mins every other weekend was about the same. However, if and when we get chargers on my estate, then the balance tips quite a bit because charging will be vastly cheaper at home than at public chargers. Car cost and insurance will come in to the equation then.

For the moment, it's not for me though. But I do think these smaller (relatively) cheaper EV hatches coming in the next 12-24 months might start tipping the balance a little bit for some people if the PCP prices can be made favourable.

[Sparks]

In my view an EV is only worth considering if you live in the centre of a large City and you buy a small city car. You wouldn't want to drive one of those on a daily run elsewhere IMO......Otherwise it's no competition.