Electric cars

[Jocko]

BMW I3swear their rear tyres very quickly

Have you had a close look at their tyres. They are skinny, to reduce rolling resistance. A Morris Minor had wider tyres. Trying to put modern levels of power through such narrow tyres are a recipe for high wear rates. Their road holding must be suspect as well.

[embee]

155/70 R19 by all accounts, slender indeed.

[peteo48]

Just on EVs generally I take the "i" newspaper. Their motoring correspondent - David Parsley - is, seemingly, quite negative about the whole charging infrastructure thing and advises his readers to hold off buying an EV unless you have more than one car and/or you live in a large conurbation. He lives in rural Devon and the charging infrastructure there is dire.

I'm comfortable with my purchase of the Jazz Hybrid. At my advanced years it may well see me out.

[Jocko]

Just finished watching this week's "5th Gear: Recharged". They had a city car test comparing the latest Renault Zoe (once queen of the city EVs), Mini EV, Fiat 500 EV, Peugeot 208 EV and the Honda e. The first test was general driving on a test track and the Zoe and 500 were eliminated for general feel and comfort. They then scored the remainders on looks, interior quality, tech, ease of charging and range. The 208 won comfortably (mainly on range and interior space - it's a much bigger car) with the Mini and the Honda e scoring the same points. The Honda e went through because it had scored 5 out of 5 for looks and the Mini didn't get full points in any category. Vicki Butler-Henderson then thrashed both of them around a winding test circuit and, despite it being the heaviest of the two, with the slowest 0-60 time, the Honda e was quickest and the most fun to drive. She reckoned the steering gave the best feedback and the suspension was just right. Good-oh for Honda. I'd love a Honda e and if I could afford it I'd have one in a minute. Perfect for my new driving regime. (And I could have had one if SWMBO hadn't spent the price of a Honda e getting a new kitchen installed.)

[Kremmen]

£30k for a new kitchen ! ? 

[hemming]

£30K for a car?

[kevinivtec]

just to add a friend of mine has just purchased a hyundai  ionic plug in hybrid its been a total nightmare!! firstly £500 paid out for a home charging point,  was using a 3 pin plug it was getting rather warm and too long to charge so was forced down the route of home charging point for ease or so he thought 12 kw no way car won't take more than 6 kw and when charged up 35/40 miles on battery ?? duh!!! then we have range problems on a long trip just not practical why?? he has to have about a dozen cards/ accounts to charge up away from home, only able to charge if he has the right account/ the charging point is actually working/ he has the right connection plug/ no one is already charging and god forbid there is a queue, and also no one with a petrol / diesel car is parked in the bay?? more hours wasted waiting  he says after hindsight  if you have more money than sense and dont do more than 40 miles a week around town sure get an electric car if you are young enough to recoup electric charge over petrol otherwise seriously think about a honda jazz hybrid?? offers from local dealer £500 off price 5yrs warranty 5yrs service and a decent mileage??? no brainer he say we  do not have the infrastructure in place and the cars are far too expensive also the battery has a life of aprox 8 yrs??? and not able to recycle and a trip from devon( where he is to scotland for a holiday just out of the question not practice) total waste of money

[Jocko]

£30k for a new kitchen ! ? 

Half of that was demolition and rebuilding. Then a kitchen with all the integrated toys and installation. My wife can spend £30K no problem.

[madasafish]

£30k for a new kitchen ! ? 

I agree .

Far too low.

Can't get solid gold taps for that let alone a marble sink .

And have you seen the costs of a maid's uniform?

[Neil Ives]

... total waste of money

I agree.

[Kremmen]

just to add a friend of mine has just purchased a hyundai  ionic plug in hybrid its been a total nightmare!!

If it's a plug-in hybrid then can't he drive it like our MK4 ? My neighbour has a Prius plug-in hybrid and he never plugs it in.

[ColinB]

just to add a friend of mine has just purchased a hyundai  ionic plug in hybrid its been a total nightmare!! firstly £500 paid out for a home charging point,  was using a 3 pin plug it was getting rather warm and too long to charge so was forced down the route of home charging point for ease or so he thought 12 kw no way car won't take more than 6 kw and when charged up 35/40 miles on battery ?? duh!!! then we have range problems on a long trip just not practical why?? he has to have about a dozen cards/ accounts to charge up away from home, only able to charge if he has the right account/ the charging point is actually working/ he has the right connection plug/ no one is already charging and god forbid there is a queue, and also no one with a petrol / diesel car is parked in the bay?? more hours wasted waiting  he says after hindsight  if you have more money than sense and dont do more than 40 miles a week around town sure get an electric car if you are young enough to recoup electric charge over petrol otherwise seriously think about a honda jazz hybrid?? offers from local dealer £500 off price 5yrs warranty 5yrs service and a decent mileage??? no brainer he say we  do not have the infrastructure in place and the cars are far too expensive also the battery has a life of aprox 8 yrs??? and not able to recycle and a trip from devon( where he is to scotland for a holiday just out of the question not practice) total waste of money

This doesn’t make sense, it’s almost as if the friend doesn’t understand the car he’s got. If the car is a plug-in hybrid, then EV range issues are irrelevant ... the combustion engine (ICE) will take over when the battery runs down. But all the rest of the comments imply they think they have a pure EV, so they think they have to find a charge point every 30-40 miles. And driving from Devon to Scotland should present no more problems for a PHEV than for an old-fashioned ICE car or indeed a self-charging hybrid like the Mk4 Jazz.

[Kremmen]

Yep, just what I said

[ColinB]

Yep, just what I said

Similar but not quite. My main point was the contradiction between stating that the car was a PHEV, and then going on to state all the issues that the owner of an EV with a very small battery would have. So does the friend not understand what a PHEV is?

[richardfrost]

Yep, just what I said

Similar but not quite. My main point was the contradiction between stating that the car was a PHEV, and then going on to state all the issues that the owner of an EV with a very small battery would have. So does the friend not understand what a PHEV is?

And they are seeing none of the benefits. I would love a PHEV as most of my driving is in the local vicinity and would be on electric, and then when you need to do more, well it's over to petrol. Yep, seems to me this person, and possibly kevinivtec also, don't understand what they have bought.