Utter noob EV questions

[BertBert]

Sorry, please point me elsewhere to other resources for my dumb questions if there any.

I am looking to get Mrs Bert a new car to replace her gen 1 mini. She pootles around town, has 10 mile journeys to work a couple of times a week, possible occasional longer journeys to work coming in the future (30 miles each way) and visits to her parents every month or so (100 miles each way). Normally at most 2 in the car, very occasionally 4. No babies, kids, luggage etc. She's not interesting in stuff and fripperies in cars or performance.

So on a practical note, how would one charge up on a 200 mile round trip journey? I can only see it happening in the motorway services as it's not practical at her destination with only on-road parking at her parents.

Then I have been reading about the deals for PCP etc and there are quite a few acronyms flying about which I have no idea what they mean. Can anyone pen or point me to an idiot's guide to buying an electric car please?

And finally, is there a de-facto choice for a car to fit this bill? Eg the Nissan Leaf which gets talked about a lot. Or is there a plethora of choice to suit personal tastes?

Thanks in advance.
Bert

[BertBert]

by and large, I use the 'big' car as I work away a lot, so it's not available for Mrs Bert to use for her monthly trip.

I have sent her off to the closest charge point to her parents where she is today (thanks zap-map) which is in a public car park round the corner to see if that looks 'usable'.

I suspect that the uncertainty of the charging will put her off in the end. Just depends if she is excited by being an an electric car.

We'll have a look around this weekend.

Bert

[BertBert]

What do I know as I am a complete novice too But 2.1KWh would probably be the amount of charge 'dispensed' to the car.
Bert

[BertBert]

Hopefully going to mooch around Nissan and Renault on saturday to have a look at what's what.

Thanks all for the helpful er help so far. I'll report back!

Bert

[BertBert]

Yes it involves an overnight stay. Can't really charge there are there is only onroad parking. But the local public car park looks good.
Bert

[BertBert]

So had a mooch around the Leaf and the Zoe on Saturday. As an aside, going in the Nissan dealer was really odd. They make really, really ugly cars! The Leaf wasn't quite right as it's a bit big for Mrs Bert and she is a slightly odd shape Long legs and short body (it's good this isn't it?). The Leaf steering wheel seems very low and even with the seat cranked right down, she couldn't get comfortable. However on the plus side we were largely ignored by the sales people which was nice.

Then off to the Zoe which seemed to suit Mrs Bert a lot more. Got a comfy seating position and the overall size works better for her. We didn't manage to get away without sales attention though and had to suffer the sales person who kept telling us there was no torque in an electric car and who abjectly failed to try and describe the difference between the models!

Ideally now we'd borrow/rent one for a few days to see if Mrs Bert can live with it. She loves the concept, but is nervous about dealing with the small range. At the moment, the petrol fairy intervenes and fills her mini up every two weeks.

Do Renault do extended test drives?

Cheers for all the help so far!
Bert

[BertBert]

That must have been incompetence on my part then!

austinsmirk said:

The leafs steering wheel fully adjusts. I've just had a loan leaf for a week Did 270 miles in it with no bother. I'm 5.11"

Anyway I'm getting one. We loved it.

[BertBert]

So by way of an update, we have looked in more detail at the Zoe and had a test drive. I really enjoyed driving it (which is immaterial), and Mrs Bert really liked it and wants to have one.

So I think we are going for one.

Although of course car sales people (other than any on here of course) are the lowest of the low. The dude was pretty poor at answering questions and even though we made some huge buying signs (Mrs Bert even said she couldn't think if a reason not to buy one), guess what, he's not made the promised call back.

So rather than go to the closest dealer, I'm tempted to shop around for the best deal. What's the best way to do this (other than the obvious, call them, go see them and play them off)?

And why does the Zoe have a 'normal' 12v car battery in the engine bay?

Cheers
Bert

[BertBert]

Thanks, I've registered there and seen the info about the club dealer. We like to try and buy locally, so will see how we get on with Wilson's in Epsom.
Bert

[BertBert]

So, by way of an update, we have put in a Zoe order from Hendy in Horsham. Mrs Bert is very excited!

When it came to it, we needed to buy from a sales person face to face as Mrs Bert had a lot of detailed questions. The people we were previously talking to were utterly useless. No idea about the facts and rubbish at phoning back. However Lyn at Hendy was excellent. Almost instant responses by email. Called when she said she would and face to face, answered all Mrs Bert's questions properly and looked them up if she didn't have the answer to hand.

A bit of a wait to get the right colour, but we are patient. Anyone want a 2005 mini one?

And thanks for all the help and pointers to other friendly places.

Bert

[BertBert]

Silence will arrive Chez Bert in mid-june. It's interesting that on an economic basis (not that I've done the sums in detail), with the Zoe being relatively expensive, it looks very touch and go in comparison with some of the costs for similar sized petrol alternatives. With pcp deals for VW Polos being around 150 per month. We spend £75-£100 per month on fuel in the mini. But we are in and playing our part in saving the planet!
Bert

blueacid said:

Sounds exciting! Has the new dealer given you any idea of how long it'll be before you're wafting around in near silence?
Hopefully with her driving mostly being urban, your Mini will have been using quite a lot of fuel to not go very far - thus the savings you'll make on the fuel bill will be even more pronounced.