Just curious, I have been reading lately about people's frustrations with their electric/hybrid cars. From being overly complicated and expensive to repair (finding someone other than a pricey dealer to repair) to annoying software quirks. I have read about a 330e 2021 owner 45k, who after breaking down (the car, not the person) has been quoted £10k from BMW to replace the gearbox. They were struggling to find anyone else who would look at it because its a hybrid. Do you think they are better or worse than ICE for reliability? - I must say I think really its luck of the draw, you either get something that seem to go and go with little to fix apart from basic maintenance or a lemon. If you could turn the clock back, would you buy it again? - I nearly bought a MG5, test drove a few thought they were lovely to drive and very tempted, but ended up with the 320d. So far I haven't regretted my decision.
I had an iPace, hardly the paragon of reliability and ran it for 3 years and 34k miles (from 18n months and 10k miles) and not one thing went wrong. I now have an i5 Tourer and whilst its only 6 months old, nothing has gone wrong. Would I buy again, yes. Would I run outside of the manufacturers warranty (original or extended) no chance - but that probably goes for high end ICE cars too... (I own my Mini outright, but the i5 is leased and the iPace was on PCP and I never paid down below the GFV.... I think you need to have a different view of "ownership" with things that are latest evolving tech.) No regrets going to electric - apart from the cost of fuel if going back means I sort of discount them now! Take this weekend - 300 ish miles visiting family - full battery on leaving, 20 min top up on the way back whilst I stretched my legs and the dogs, total cost of charging for the weekend about £20, maybe £21.For a 600hp, super refined, high tech family size tourer)
Not ready for an EV as they're auto's, prefer manual. The Yeti manual has loads of life in it yet so no change imminent. May look at a hybrid or an EV at some point but for driving pleasure, manual old skool petrol for me.
I have one of those too.... perfect in the right place. The M25 in the world longest queue this morning was not the right place (but the sun is shining and I wanted roof down queuing on the way home!) Horses for courses, the i5 would have been perfect this morning...
Yup. If I was commuting in that type of traffic daily it would be an auto or an EV, if I was going by car. Fortunately my daily commute is on my motorbike and in the previous 7 years I've only needed to take the bus/train to work 3 days due to snow. Snow aside, which is rare on the West Cumbrian Coast, every other type of weather goes as all the roads to work are primary roads, well maintained and, when baltic cold, well gritted.
Mrs W has liked her EV Honda. As a transport tool for local driving it is great, plug it in, charge it up and run it until it needs plugging in again. It hasn’t been faultless, seems the software isn’t fully sorted, a few glitches over the 20 months we’ve had it. It is utterly numb in terms of driving, but it is comfortable and effortless. Couldn’t be any more the opposite of the Boxster if it tried! We will probably lease another EV this summer, likely for three years this time. 100% wouldn’t consider buying one though.
I haven't owned one but two of my good friends have had two each. One has had two Tesla model Y and as a tool over the last 4+ years they have been faultless although range has never bettered 250 miles. The other had a Tesla model Y which never missed a beat however it was replaced by a Polestar 4 a year ago which has been in the garage over the last year more than 10 times for various glitches.. Both use them for work and say they are fine for that but going further afield one has an F10 M5 and a new full fat range rover to fall back on and the other a 911 and a X1 M35i so certainly don't have to rely on them for everything. I nearly bought a used Porsche Taycan instead of the M440i but having spoken to several owners since I am so glad I didn't because of their general terrible reliability.
I’ve never owned an EV but have often considered it. Saying that, like others have posted, I don’t think “owning” would involve actually putting cash down to own it outright, I’d want someone else to underwrite the RV on that. For us, EV’s would work incredibly well for both family and second car use. I tend to do short journeys to the station and then airport runs which are no more than 100miles each way. My wife does 10miles most days, but that’s it. BUT - the family car needs to be able to irregular trips or 300-500miles in one hit a few times a year. I’m not sure I’d want to do that with an EV. And the second car needs to be fun too. The 911 speaks for itself in terms of fun and the 228i before it was super at that brief too. I don’t doubt that we could save a decent bit of cash if we had, say, an EV9 as the family car and a Renault 5 (which I love the look of) as our fleet. But the latter doesn’t raise my pulse in the way a 911 does and I’d still have huge range anxiety as regards the EV9. With the Disco (which isn’t cheap at all) we’re nearing a flattening of the depreciation curve. With an extended warranty I’m happy running it for another 6yrs or so. I’m not sure I’d be quite so happy doing that with an EV but maybe that’s just me being biased because I know no different.
My wife ran an iPace from August 2020 for three years via a salary sacrifice lease, and so financially it made relatively good sense. In this time it was recovered to JLR twice due to failing to charge and we had to take into the dealer once when the charging hatch wouldn’t open. The recoveries were a story in themselves ... when I rang JLR to book it in I was told the only available slot was several weeks in advance and no courtesy car would be available. When I asked how I would be able to run the car for several weeks with no charge they advised me to call JLR recovery. They would then be duty bound to prioritise the repair and a courtesy car would be provided. I asked why they didn't suggest this immediately and was advised ".... they are not allowed too ..."!). Due to circumstances I won't bore with, it became our main car for 12 months or so and in hindsight I think this was the main reason I never 'gelled' with it. I rarely saw more than 200 miles range and although better these days the public charging infrastructure at the time was expensive (it still is), relatively limited and charge speeds sparodic (l once waited an hour at a service station for a charger to become free and then another age for it to charge to 40% or so to get me home - an engineer who happened to be fixing one of the machines told me the grid in the area couldn't support fast charging and so "they had been turned down"). I have a home charger but because of the above on longer family or business trips I used to swap cars with my brother. Since September I have had an X5 50e and love it. It is comfortable, quick, a fantastic drive for a 2500 kg car and the cabin is a nice place to sit. I've recently retired and so the plug in hybrid is perfect for our purposes with the majority of our usage on fully electric and the ICE available for longer trips. For the past 8 weeks the car has been sat as an expensive ornament on the path whilst we are on an extended holiday (which is currently being elongated due to an orange baffoon). Out of interest I ensured it was 100% charged when we left and have monitored how much it is using whilst 'idle' .... it is currently at 94%. Back to Astonreds original question ... MHEV (I ran an M440d Touring (fantastic car) between the iPace and the X5) & PHEV - definitely yes. EV not until my range and infrastructure anxiety could be fully sated
Slightly off topic. Either you have cat like reflexes or the roads your way must be pretty good. I wouldn't even dare ride a push bike on my local roads.
I've noticed a lot of people talk about how electrics are not very exciting to drive and the disconnected "feel" of them, and that's the main reason they wouldn't have one. This is something that has never occured to me (although it is slowly to the manufacturers as they are adding fake engine noises and even a fake gearbox to entice people), https://www.topgear.com/car-news/future-tech/ford-has-patented-a-fake-manual-gearbox-evs I guess because I never just take the car out for a "drive". I'm an A to B person. Don't get me wrong I do like taking care of the car cleaning/basic maintenance etc, (partly because I think I have this very expensive object sat on the drive I better look after it). If I have a day free I quite enjoy spending it getting the car waxed up and looking good, nothing more satisfying than seeing the rain bead and blow off a nicely waxed bonnet when driving along. I enjoy doing oil changes, taking wheels off to clean and checking suspension, brakes etc knowing the car is good for another 8k. My dad taught to drive in the best way for the car i.e. don't be hard on accelerator or brake you can have your foot on neither, "light foot saves fuel", not to enjoy it. I don't think I have ever really learned to enjoy driving. None of my friends were petrol heads, we justed used them to get about not to drive. I have certainly never thought is this car exciting to drive or I'll just go for a drive. On every car I've bought it's how much? How economical? What's the tax/insurance? With the 320d that changed a bit, it was oh, this is a comfortable and relaxed place to be, I like the colour, What's the mpg? Ok sold. To this day I really don't know why the colour make a difference. Like many of you say about EVs I found the MG5 just comfortable and easy, I quite liked the "disconnected" feeling, to me it just made the driving experience less stressful and a lot more calming. I do find the 320d a great place to be I do enjoy being in it and it does bring a smile to my face, and it's lovely to be in it going into London either moving or sitting in traffic. I think the main reason I opted for the 320d over the EV was between myself, father and uncle we can fix the basic stuff, and at least work out what is wrong with a degree of accuracy on the more advanced stuff. Also the Infrastructure was lacking a bit at the time, will it ever be as they promised? I never realised how important to many people it is to have an exciting and engaging driving experience, I guess this is why my uncle loves his 3200. That said I do much prefer the rev of an engine to the whine of a milk float. I guess this will be an age thing as the kids learning today will know nothing different, it will just be start, go, stop. It's interesting I've yet to notice an EV driver smiling.
Just wafted to work in my i5, definitely smiling. You can hustle the old girl along and have fun if you want (4wd, 4ws, anti lean fancy suspension) but on a sunny morning on the M25, the refinement, comfort and serenity were just what I needed.... To the comments on range anxiety, I have none these days. I'm more likely to get annoyed with the Mini for not refueling whilst I sleep and making me make a special journey to stand in the cold and spend a fortune!
We are considering replacing our 15 year old Fiesta 1.25 Zetec later this year for an EV. A new Renault 5 with less than 500 miles in mid spec Techno trim can be had for well under £20000. The smaller 40kWh battery would not bother me over the 52 kWh one as it would be a second car and we have the potential of 800-1000 mile range in the 520d on longer runs. I would not consider a plug in hybrid - still have the complications and service requirements of ICE together with the complexity of the hybrid system. Having completed a self build in 2022 we already have a wall charger (it was part of the planning conditions and it's been used once...lol) I see the new i3 has a potential maximum range of 560 miles so more likely 450 to 500 if keep the wheel sizes down. Starting to get interesting as a main car at those sort of figures.
Massive ranges are less important to me - my bladder wont do 400 miles, why should my car! A short break to stretch my legs, and the dogs very often, plus check my phone and have a short chill whilst the car replenishes rapidly, are much more the order of the day now I have lived with an EV - and the BMW recharges much quicker than the Jag. The latest with 800v architecture are even better...
It's not the massive range that's so important but the ability to do a round trip of around 500 miles without using the charging network or asking a friend who we are staying with to move his car off his drive so I can use his electricity!
The charging network is not the issue the media hype would have you believe... unless you are in some of the more remote parts of the UK. Even then a small amount of planning normally means that you can avoid that challenge.. It really is so much better than it was even 3 years ago...
It's not the network that bothers me, moreso the massive premium you pay in comparison to home charging.
But the overall balance across the two is massively cheaper... and if you charge publicly regularly get a subscription, and its then pretty reasonable.
I maybe changing my mind ...... To set the context .... following my retirement at the end of the year my wife and I have just returned from an extended holiday. We were inconvenienced (as opposed to the suffering being experienced by many) as a result of the war in the middle east. We were supposed to travel to our home in Manchester from our final stop in Hanoi via Doha but following an 11 day delay we travelled from Hanoi - Phuket - Hong Kong - Beijing - Heathrow - Manchester. For the final leg I hired a car but when picking it up I realised I'd made the mistake of booking an electric car. The journey is 220 miles and I know given it was cold my previous iPace would not have made it home without a stop to recharge, however we decided given the aforementioned delays if we did need to recharge we would 'chalk it up' to a further minor delay. The car was a 2026 Mercedes CLA 250+. I don't know what the base spec is but presume this was a typical hire car poverty spec, despite this it was very well appointed, with among other things faux leather seats, a full pan roof, active cruise etc. The journey was a point to point motorway run so I don't know what the driving dynamics would be on A roads/twistees but it was reasonably quick, comfortable and quiet (limited road and wind noise). Back to my original point ... including a quick coffee stop we did the 220 mile journey in 3.5 hours with no need to recharge. It was cold (6.5 degrees) and so had the heating on and although not going mad I didn't drive particularly 'economically', despite this the car still had 130 miles of range when we arrived home. This means I could do at least another hour or so and if I did drive 'economically' it would meet one of my base electric car requirements of a minimum real world 400 mile range.
