EV cars, would you, wouldn't you?

[SidewaysSi]

So you had a DC2 and now you have a Leaf and a Lexus? No way can I ever see myself in that position.

[gangzoom]

SidewaysSi said:

So you had a DC2 and now you have a Leaf and a Lexus? No way can I ever see myself in that position.

Actually the Lexus is the wife's (it replace her old Civic), the Leaf replaced the 335i as I wanted to try out this EV stuff before dropping some stupid amount money on a Tesla.

I signed up to the Leaf contract knowing it'll stop me from wasting money on a car till 2017 - I was on the verge of dropping about £5K on hybrid turbo for the 335i. Looking at how much money I've been able to save now that I'm running a 'sensible' car, there is decent chance I can justify a P85D rather than just having to make do with the slower 70D when the Leaf contract expires

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 20th October 09:57

[liner33]

George111 said:

So I can get a full charge in 20 mins which takes me 300+ miles, from my parents house to my house ?

Even Tesla suggest a domestic socket only gives 6 miles per hour of charge.

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/models-charging#/...

No but 20 mins on a supercharger gives 200 miles range on top of 300 or so = 500

[SidewaysSi]

gangzoom said:

SidewaysSi said:

So you had a DC2 and now you have a Leaf and a Lexus? No way can I ever see myself in that position.

Actually the Lexus is the wife's (it replace her old Civic), the Leaf replaced the 335i as I wanted to try out this EV stuff before dropping some stupid amount money on a Tesla.

I signed up to the Leaf contract knowing it'll stop me from wasting money on a car till 2017 - I was on the verge of dropping about £5K on hybrid turbo for the 335i. Looking at how much money I've been able to save now that I'm running a 'sensible' car, there is decent chance I can justify a P85D rather than just having to make do with the slower 70D when the Leaf contract expires

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 20th October 09:57

That's all very good but what if you had died whenever owning the Leaf? Can you say you would have gone having the time of your motoring life?

Secondly, cars like the Integra arena bout more than straight line speed. Saying money is an honourable thing to do but what about excitement, feel, noise, agility etc. Do you not miss these things or are they less important to you than saving a few pennies?

[Alfa numeric]

SidewaysSi said:

That's all very good but what if you had died whenever owning the Leaf? Can you say you would have gone having the time of your motoring life?

Secondly, cars like the Integra arena bout more than straight line speed. Saying money is an honourable thing to do but what about excitement, feel, noise, agility etc. Do you not miss these things or are they less important to you than saving a few pennies?

We’ve got a Leaf, a 330d and an Elise. The Leaf is not the most exciting car to drive but it’s perfect for what we bought it for- a 10 mile commute that takes in both dual carriageways and stationary town traffic. It gets used for the boring journeys like going to the shops or work, going to the tip and also for short journeys that wouldn’t let the other cars warm up before arriving. Sometimes it’s actually nice to get in it instead of the other two- it’s quiet and a calm place to be. The Elise will always be my favourite car in the garage but the Leaf gets a lot more use. Just because you’ve got an EV it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve given up on life!

Incidentally we got our Leaf at about the same time that we moved house- in 4,000 miles and six months in the house our combined utilities bill was £250. Assuming an ICE car does 500 miles on £65 of diesel (the average for my 330d) we’d be looking at £520 in fuel alone.

[Devil2575]

gangzoom said:

^^ I actually commute more miles on my pedal bike than the Leaf - But we all know how much some people on here love cyclists

I also commute by pedal bike 4 days of the week.

Edited by Devil2575 on Tuesday 20th October 12:19

[Devil2575]

SidewaysSi said:

That's all very good but what if you had died whenever owning the Leaf? Can you say you would have gone having the time of your motoring life?

You could say that about so many things though. How many people on PH have devoted their cash to owning a certain car and as a result had to make sacrifices in other aspects of their life? You could "what if" about everything and anything but i'm pretty certain that when most of use were on our death beds our final regrets are unlikely to be about what cars we have owned/driven.

[gangzoom]

SidewaysSi said:

That's all very good but what if you had died whenever owning the Leaf? Can you say you would have gone having the time of your motoring life?

Secondly, cars like the Integra arena bout more than straight line speed. Saying money is an honourable thing to do but what about excitement, feel, noise, agility etc. Do you not miss these things or are they less important to you than saving a few pennies?

I have no idea what your on about, I count my self lucky as having owned some of the best petrol cars around, but time/progress wait for no one.

Keeping the 335i was no hardship, but it means I wouldn't have been able to get into a Tesla for another 3-4 years, where as now I will be swapping the Leaf for a Model S in a little over 16 months.

Life is short, certainly too short to waste time/money on things that have been superceeded. If I could have an Elise/Integra as a second car - great, but that'll be a hobby, much like how people these day still go horse riding. For day to day use I find it hard to fault the Leaf, but at the same time I cannot wait to get into a Model S (or similar) .

[CorvetteConvert]

Twizzys and Teslas are great fun, that's the point.

[otolith]

I think another stab at the roadster in, say, five years, could be fantastic. The issue with it appears to be that it's 400kg heavier than the Elise.

[ORD]

otolith said:

I think another stab at the roadster in, say, five years, could be fantastic. The issue with it appears to be that it's 400kg heavier than the Elise.

Quite. That statistic alone told me that there was no way it would interest me. Add 400kg to an old platform that relies on light weight and feel? Unmitigated fk up before you've even read the reviews. Why not just buy an Elise?!