One EV and One ICE to One EV - Thoughts Please

[Turtle Shed]

Hello all.

I/we have always fancied dropping down from two cars to one car. Currently we have a Leaf and a RAV4. The Leaf is a 64 Reg thing, owned from new, 65k miles, love it for what it does. Loads of short journeys, costs almost nothing to run. Charges on Octopus Go overnight on the drive. I am totally sold on EVs in general

The RAV4 is a 17 Reg diesel, I'm a huge Toyota fan, and I love it for what it does too. Very occasional long trips, adapative cruise is excellent, carries big loads, very comfortable, will never, ever go wrong. It is also the car I use when I need a car and Mrs Shed is using the Leaf.

It is rare that we both need a car though. The RAV is usually just parked in front of our house. We could get away with one car, and it would be an EV, if it would manage a 140-160 mile round trip, with ease, at any time of the year. Longer trips (touring Scotland which we do occasionally I would rent a car for).

This isn't about saving money, I just fancy having just one car, and I think it is workable.

So... The RAV is probably worth £12k, Leaf £7k, this is a reaonable amount of money to have available.

What would the PH collective recommend?

p.s - If Toyota offered a pure EV (on the assumption it would do the range) I'd have already bought one.

[OutInTheShed]

Keep the leaf, sell the RAV, buy a cheap IC barge for the occasional long trips.
Maybe a 'modern classic'?

While one EV for all purposes sounds nice, it looks like more money for less functionality.

Unless there's a PHEV which would be as good as the leaf for local use?

[TheDeuce]

Is the 12k + 7k the entire budget to buy a do it all EV? Or just a deposit?

If the former... This might be a very short thread.

[Turtle Shed]

TheDeuce said:

Is the 12k + 7k the entire budget to buy a do it all EV? Or just a deposit?

If the former... This might be a very short thread.

Sorry, should have made that clear.

Don't mind paying another £6-7K, so something around £25k used. Ionic, the bigger battery new Leaf, MG ZS, e-Golf... A lease or PCP another possibility, though my preference is to buy second hand.

I already know I can't have anything with the capacity of the RAV, or anything new bought outright, just wondering what thoughts people might have.

Suspect "stick with what you have" will be the right answer, but the fact is we have two cars and just one EV with about twice the range of the Leaf would fulfil 95% of our driving needs.

[plfrench]

I can say with confidence that an e-Golf won't hit your requirement for 140-160 miles with ease at any time of year, unless that entire journey is done at 30 mph!

Really well sorted car in many other respects, and super efficient but a pretty small battery even on the later ones. Our 21 plate one would struggle to do 100 miles in cold weather unless you really tried.

[coach]

How about the new MG4?
https://www.mg.co.uk/new-cars/mg4-ev

[Snails]

We looked at the MG4 last weekend and were very impressed, so much so that I think we'll be ordering one this weekend. I think the Long Range SE which is rated for 280 miles under WLPT is £28,435. From the reviews I have seen it real-world range is around 225 miles is more realistic. When you do need to go further, it has 135kWDC charging taking it from 20 miles to 180 miles in 35 minutes.

[TheDeuce]

Turtle Shed said:

TheDeuce said:

Is the 12k + 7k the entire budget to buy a do it all EV? Or just a deposit?

If the former... This might be a very short thread.

Sorry, should have made that clear.

Don't mind paying another £6-7K, so something around £25k used. Ionic, the bigger battery new Leaf, MG ZS, e-Golf... A lease or PCP another possibility, though my preference is to buy second hand.

I already know I can't have anything with the capacity of the RAV, or anything new bought outright, just wondering what thoughts people might have.

Suspect "stick with what you have" will be the right answer, but the fact is we have two cars and just one EV with about twice the range of the Leaf would fulfil 95% of our driving needs.

I see, makes more sense now.

I think at that budget you could buy most of a decent modern EV with great range so long as you don't mind a tiny bit on pcp/bank loan, fairly easy to justify as it sounds like you don't do mega miles - if it was charged off peak it would be about £200 a year for around 7k miles. Also far less maintenance compared to the truck (oil, brakes etc). There are probably very savings to be made going the EV route over time.

[FarmyardPants]

I think with that amount down as a deposit you could do worse than look at a 3 or 4 year PCP. The monthly payments would be very low and you could get into a nice new EV which is likely to have some equity in it at the end of the period for trade-up or purchase.

[Turtle Shed]

Thanks all.

I do like the look of that MG, will go and view one up close next week I think.

[T1berious]

MG4 looks really good from the reviews I've seen and the few MG products I've seen in the flesh (there's one up the road) look pretty decent.

We were in a similar boat (sort of) and post car theft decided on an EV to replace ICE.

The MG4 has a range of 280 miles WLTP (say 250 real world) is almost miraculous at this price point. Had it been available when we were buying I would have put my name down.

The last 9 months for us has proven that we could survive as a single EV household.

[NS66]

Keep the Leaf for the short local journeys - get yourself a nice MX5 or Z4 for the longer journeys/ weekends away.
Best thing we did - try to get away at least once a month for a long weekend and when the weathers good its the only way to travel!!!

[Turtle Shed]

T1berious said:

MG4 looks really good from the reviews I've seen and the few MG products I've seen in the flesh (there's one up the road) look pretty decent.

We were in a similar boat (sort of) and post car theft decided on an EV to replace ICE.

The MG4 has a range of 280 miles WLTP (say 250 real world) is almost miraculous at this price point. Had it been available when we were buying I would have put my name down.

The last 9 months for us has proven that we could survive as a single EV household.

Thanks. I looked at the MG4 yesterday and to be honest I wasn't impressed. I know that it represents great value, and the range is certainly a huge selling point, but it just felt cheap, really built to a budget (which of course it is). I was also surprised at how small the boot was. Mrs Shed can get he golf clubs and trolley in the boot of the Leaf easily enough, the MG4 would have needed the back seats down just for the clubs alone.

So I shan't be getting one of those I'm afraid, even though there was a lot to like.

[Turtle Shed]

NS66 said:

Keep the Leaf for the short local journeys - get yourself a nice MX5 or Z4 for the longer journeys/ weekends away.
Best thing we did - try to get away at least once a month for a long weekend and when the weathers good its the only way to travel!!!

Ah I'm afraid that I like the bigness of the RAV4 and I really do only want one car. I know I'm not going to find the perfect vehicle but I have ruled out the MG4 (see above) which was really the only possible candidate when it comes to buying new.

Currently browsing used EVs around the £25k mark.

[plfrench]

Turtle Shed said:

Thanks. I looked at the MG4 yesterday and to be honest I wasn't impressed. I know that it represents great value, and the range is certainly a huge selling point, but it just felt cheap, really built to a budget (which of course it is). I was also surprised at how small the boot was. Mrs Shed can get he golf clubs and trolley in the boot of the Leaf easily enough, the MG4 would have needed the back seats down just for the clubs alone.

So I shan't be getting one of those I'm afraid, even though there was a lot to like.

Sounds like they've not moved on from the ZS EV We went to look at one with an open mind like you, but were really put off by a product that just didn't feel like it was production ready; stiction in the steering, poor 'throttle' modulation, really annoying thrumming road noise, and other things I can't now remember. The other thing that sticks in my mind were very limply stuffed side bolsters on the front seats.

Have you considered a Hyundai Kona? Looks like you can just about get one in budget glance on Autotrader shows a 70 plate available for £25k. With the 64kWh battery it will easily do the range you required and 204ps should be plenty for a daily

Edited by plfrench on Wednesday 19th October 22:22

[TheDeuce]

plfrench said:

Turtle Shed said:

Thanks. I looked at the MG4 yesterday and to be honest I wasn't impressed. I know that it represents great value, and the range is certainly a huge selling point, but it just felt cheap, really built to a budget (which of course it is). I was also surprised at how small the boot was. Mrs Shed can get he golf clubs and trolley in the boot of the Leaf easily enough, the MG4 would have needed the back seats down just for the clubs alone.

So I shan't be getting one of those I'm afraid, even though there was a lot to like.

Sounds like they've not moved on from the ZS EV We went to look at one with an open mind like you, but were really put off by a product that just didn't feel like it was production ready; stiction in the steering, poor 'throttle' modulation, really annoying thrumming road noise, and other things I can't now remember. The other thing that sticks in my mind were very limply stuffed side bolsters on the front seats.

Have you considered a Hyundai Kona? Looks like you can just about get one in budget glance on Autotrader shows a 70 plate available for £25k. With the 64kWh battery it will easily do the range you required and 204ps should be plenty for a daily

Edited by plfrench on Wednesday 19th October 22:22

I too have looked at one and it's pretty dismal. They get rated very high on all the 'EV' stuff... range, charging speed blah blah.. But as an actual car to love and be proud to drive!? Nope.

When all cars were ICE they were rated based upon the overall package. Now it seems that if a car happens to be EV it's only the geeky bits of EV-ness that decide how great it is.

One car I have been fairly impressed with is the Kia EV6, although it's still very easy to spot the cost saving if you look down below dash level. But nonetheless, it's not too shabby in it's worst areas and very good everywhere else. I'm keen to try an EV6 GT at some point.

[Turtle Shed]

Thanks to both replies above, interesting how people pretty much agreed with my take on it, yet reading and viewing online would suggest the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Used Kona is what I'm getting info on next, no rush for any of this, and of course next years used EV is this year's new EV.

[Fastlane]

Turtle Shed said:

Thanks to both replies above, interesting how people pretty much agreed with my take on it, yet reading and viewing online would suggest the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Used Kona is what I'm getting info on next, no rush for any of this, and of course next years used EV is this year's new EV.

We've had our Kona 64kwh Premium for just over 2 years and 24k miles. It's a really nice car, although quite small inside with a very small boot. It has averaged 4.7miles/kwh, so is very efficient but is also very nippy. We get an easy 250 miles out of it year round.

It has been bloody unreliable though. We've had to have the 12v battery replaced as it broke down twice, the heat pump failed and so we had no heating, so that had to be replaced, the screen has been playing up and we are currently waiting for that to be replaced (been several weeks now) and the off side rear door is permanently locked. As this was all warranty work, we have been in to the local dealer probably 6 times and been without the car for several weeks whilst we have to suffer a small ICE courtesy car.

I think it was probably built on a Friday...