Have any of you got all electric cars? Pros and cons please.

Sorry should have added this one.
www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/25/are-electric-cars-too-heavy-for-british-roads-bridges-and-car-parks

AreWeThereYet

^I wouldn’t feel safe driving round the M25 in an all electric vehicle, all you need is a traffic jam (which are frequent) and you could run out of battery.^

Which battery do you mean? When we're stationary we turn the car off. It uses nothing when we're sitting in traffic whether at lights or in a jam. When the car is moving very slowly the 12v battery is recharging, so car seat heating etc can be used. If you were stuck for hours and hours without moving I suppose it may become a problem, I don't know, but that doesn't happen often.

LOL, don’t worry about the M25 traffic is usually so slow it’s the most economical road in the UK and there are lots of charging points along it.. Yes you could run out of battery but believe, or not some do run out of petrol too

Seriously you do need to plan you journey if you need to charge enroute there are apps that enable you to do that easily. The latest EVs have a range of 250+ miles we do that about 3 times a year the rest we charge at home, just plug in as you need.
On off peak power it cost around £5 for a full charge, there no benefit if you can’t charge at home because public chargers will cost as much as petrol.

EVs are the future get used to it

Have you read this MOnica?
www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/26/electric-cars-air-pollution-problem-brakes-tyres
Do you know about regenerative braking, because it is important here?
As the article says big SUVs are an increasing problem.
Battery technology is improving all the time, but yes, if you buy an elderly EV you will have to be aware of the implications.

The other problems with electric cars is that they are very heavy and do more damage to the roads than ordinary cars, they do not have the pulling power to tow a caravan, if you have one, nor are they good load carriers.

The batteries also have a finite life, possible as few as 8 years and certainly under 20 and replacement is expensive. This means that those who buy at the old end of the car market, of which we are classic examples, are going to find that just when electric cars are old enough and cheap enough for us to buy, we will have to crank into our budgets the real danger of needing to fork out an extra £5-10,000 to replace the battery.

More than I have ever paid for a car.

Everywhere in this part of the country (south/south east) has charging points now.

I think most EV drivers would say that range anxiety is overcome pretty quickly (and I have travel anxiety). If you have a charging point at home you just plug in overnight. For long journeys you use an app in advance, or you head to one of the charging points shown automatically on the navigation screen in your car as you drive.

Thank you Mamie, will do.

The major EU car manufacturers are not stopping making electric cars, though a couple are slowing down. One of the problems has been that people with vested interests in fossil fuels have pumped out horror stories which have been taken up by some parts of the press. For example, car park or boat fires have been instantly blamed on EVs and there has been very little publicity when the proof emerges that EVs were not the cause. The Guardian published a series of articles debunking the myths, which should be easy to find if people are interested.
Joseann it might be worth a look at the ePeugeot 3008. We had one as our last petrol car and the bootspace was very good.
One of the initiatives here in France is to provide small low-cost lease cars for key workers who need to travel. So a small car can be leased for about the equivalent of £60 pounds a month often with charging facilities at places of work.

My DH is in the process of looking for a new can he is changing to a SUV to make it easier for him to get in and out due to a medical condition he suffers from. He presently has an xf Jag which looks very sleek but is very low He is looking at the F pace rather than the I pace he is still not convinced about electric cars. Apart from the cost the faff of having to stop and find a recharging point rather than a quick fill up is not appealing.

DH is a very keen car man. He's not a fan of electric vehicles at all and will point out all the problems at the drop of a hat. However, it's interesting that the major European car manufacturers are stopping making them. DH feels that synthetic fuels are the answer and that their use has been stifled by the rush to EVs. With synthetic fuels we could all go on using our existing cars.
I can only speculate on the hidden commercial agendas around this area. So many at variance with each other.

That's really interesting Mamie, the Peugeot is on my list, along with the new Citroën Aircross but that isn't available here in the UK yet. I often travel by car to France and it sounds like you are well set up for recharging points over there. The important thing for me is boot space for the large dogs.
Yes, I think rangeanxiety is a real thing. I'm not very good at keeping an eye on practical things, preferring a more impetuous attitude to driving, but I guess like anything else you get used to being more organised.

I would have a Hybrid but not all electric. The stress and uncertainty would be too much. I like to fill mine up with petrol and know how far I could travel on that.

My daughter's experience in the UK on long journeys is that it is best to plan ahead and stop where there are banks of fast chargers and a coffee shop. You do need to prepare with an app for this unless you have done the journey before. They have done lots of long journeys, including rural areas around the UK and haven't had a problem. If you don't plan and leave charging to the last minute you may miss out on fast chargers and end up with a longer wait. The number of charging points is going up all the time.

We have had an all electric Peugeot 2008 for two years and we love it. We have a charging point in our courtyard which does 90% of our charging needs overnight on cheap rate. No problems on longer journeys, plenty of fast chargers now and a 20 minute stop every 250 km is fine by us. We can plan our charging stops in advance on an app, which we tend to do for long cross-country journeys. Our range is 320km, but newer cars have more, our daughter's Audi does 300 miles. We use heating and aircon as normal. Range drops in minus temperatures, but not dramatically and traffic jams are not a problem, because of regenerative breaking, which you use about 90-95% of the time.
It is a joy to drive, handles brilliantly, there is minimal servicing and you don't have to queue for petrol.

energysavingtrust.org.uk/grants-and-loans/used-electric-vehicle-loan/

My friend, who is in her late 80s has had a second hand, all EV for 5 years. She drives fairly short regular journeys, has a home charging point and bought it with an interest free loan from the Scottish government.

She gives many of us lifts and is very much admired. She has a blue badge too as she is disabled.

I know 3 other EV owners who were inspired by her.
There are several local charging points but I think ranganxiety is still an issue.

In June this year strict emission rules will force many to get rid of their large or diesel cars if they want to drive into Edinburgh. Parking costs are prohibitive anyway.

One family, who have 2 EVs recently went from Scotland to Wales on holiday and ran into a few holdups.
Too much of an adventure for the faint hearted.

I drive a 10yr old petrol Toyota but I am well served by free buses so the car gets little use. I lend it to friends in emergencies.

My DS drives a hybrid which he leases from volvo.

It wouldn't be much use for us to get an EV. Several reasons - we live in a second floor flat and so no chance of us having a charging point. We are both retired and the nearest charging points are in a main shopping street a couple of miles away. We would have to go out early in the morning to get parked next to one of them as the street fills up quickly with cars.
We will keep going in our petrol car. I will be into my 80's by the time the 2030's comes so will probably be using my bus pass by then. We have a good bus and tram service to our local towns.

Jewelle and Germanshepherdsmum - I remember running out of petrol in "the old days" - and we nearly did it about 5 years ago in America (!)... no fuel for 100 miles or more.

DH's reliable and long-lived old, non ULEZ compliant diesel estate car (after 150,000 miles) developed several expensive faults. We considered an electric car replacement but not for long. There is no way we could afford a new EV and second-hand ones have lower ranges and the technology has already moved on. We feel that we can't get a local mechanic to check an EV over and how any maintenance can be carried out in our local village garage. We have family who live 200 miles away and who we visit as often as we can. We also have a trailer which we regularly use. EVs that are suitable for towing are even more expensive.

We ended up opting for a second-hand (2 years old) replacement diesel estate car. It meets current emission standards, is modern and comfortable, drives smoothly and quietly and does 600 miles on a single tank of diesel (yes -really 600 miles - we checked it carefully). No range worries, low pollution, lots of room (we helped family to move house with the back seats down) and less weight and size than the heavy electric SUVs that would have to replace the estate car.

If new diesel cars are phased out for the 2030's, we think we will be too old for it to matter to us. I just have to hope that, by the time we have to give up driving, our local bus to the nearest town runs more often than 4 times a day.

Joseann only guessing, but I expect they would be keeping an eye on their smart meter app!

A lot have Teslas here but I don’t know how they cope with our vast distances because there are very few places to charge them as yet. I suppose they just use them for local drives.

*Is it not Isn't

I did wonder that. Would they know I had charged the car if say I had used very little electricity otherwise? Like eating out (no use of oven), hardly using dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier etc. What I mean is, how is the car recharging consumption recorded? Isn't separate? (NOT that I'm thinking of cheating).

That’s very true Karmalady, however you could also carry a portable charger with you for emergencies.

If you ran out of charge on a quiet lane, you could not ask a passing motorist to bring a gallon of petrol to get you to the nearest garage