Electric Car For My Mum

[V8RX7]

I'm not into electric cars (as I drive old cars) but my Mum wants to change hers and asked me is it worth her looking at electric.

Last time I looked the "best" option was a Nissan Leaf at circa £9k with the larger battery pack, is that still the case ?

She does circa 3k a year and is happy to spend £15k if required but I can't see that the numbers stack up with her limited mileage

Small and automatic are the other requirements

[jason61c]

you know a honda jazz is the only correct answer!

My MIL has one, averages about 60mpg.

[Mr E]

What sort of range does she need. What’s her usage profile?
Can she charge at home?

They’ll all be ‘automatic’
A leaf isn’t that small.

[Mr E]

At 3k a year, whats the point? She won’t save enough to cover the up front cost.

[lost in espace]

30kwh Tekna is a good shout in Leaf flavour, otherwise a used Zoe is smaller and will be cheaper albeit with battery rental.

Electric is a good shout for oaps as nothing to go wrong with them. Well compared to an ICE, and they never have to fill it up.

[kambites]

What's the longest single journey she's likely to use it for?

The choice is really between the Leaf and the Zoe at that price point, they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

[aestetix1]

If she only goes to the local shops and charges at home then almost anything will be fine. The Leaf is actually fairly big. Zoe is a bit smaller, watch out for ones where the battery is on lease though. There is the Ioniq as well but she might find it a bit low for an older person.

Leaf is a good bet, a 24 should do her fine if she doesn't need more than say 60 miles range.

[V8RX7]

Can charge at home
Max distance 50 miles
Currently has old A3 3dr 1.9 TDi doesn't want any larger

It doesn't have to pay for itself as long as it isn't a financial disaster.

The issue with petrol / diesel is that AFAIK there isn't anything like her Audi - she's kept it 15yrs because the other options are either larger, much slower or cheap and nasty.

[SWoll]

BMW i3?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

[Frimley111R]

Zoe may be better, lower cost, smaller, easier to park and with enough range for her.

[biggles330d]

2nd hand i3 Rex. Most of the time she'll be on electric so it won't cost her. Does give the option of longer trips without worry. Super tight turning circle so they are great in the city. No rust issues as they are carbon/plastic. They sit quite high so getting in an out is easy.
Depreciation must have slowed a lot now and a good few out there with small mileages.
I'm on my second and think they are great!

[V8RX7]

Had a look at the Zoe - prefer it to the Leaf but every one on AT is on battery lease which seems to be £59 / month which is more than she spends on diesel.

[Steve57]

Have a look for a used Zoe, lots have just been returned due to the new ZE50 being released. we have a 68 plate zoe which is battery owned ( no monthly lease) and enquired about returning for a new one and PX price was around 16k. so she should quite easily find a ZE40i ( range of around 200 miles) with no battery lease for under her budget.

[CheesecakeRunner]

Mr E said:

At 3k a year, whats the point? She won’t save enough to cover the up front cost.

For some people it's not about the cost, it's about burning less fossil fuel.

[anonymous-user]

CheesecakeRunner said:

Mr E said:

At 3k a year, whats the point? She won’t save enough to cover the up front cost.

For some people it's not about the cost, it's about burning less fossil fuel.

Servicing on ICEs that do low miles is actually quite expensive, as the service becomes "time based" rather than mileage based, so they change the engine oil and filters after 2 years even if you have't driven anywhere!

If you wanted too, you could completely avoid "servicing" your EV (all they do on my i3 is wash it and change the cabin pollen filter...) and it would suffer no ill effects....

[aestetix1]

V8RX7 said:

Can charge at home
Max distance 50 miles
Currently has old A3 3dr 1.9 TDi doesn't want any larger

It doesn't have to pay for itself as long as it isn't a financial disaster.

The issue with petrol / diesel is that AFAIK there isn't anything like her Audi - she's kept it 15yrs because the other options are either larger, much slower or cheap and nasty.

In that case a decent well maintained Leaf would be ideal. Even the original 24kWh model will be fine as long as the battery as 11 or 12 bars left.

If parking is an issue the Tekna model has 360 cameras that make it much easier.

[Mr E]

CheesecakeRunner said:

For some people it's not about the cost, it's about burning less fossil fuel.

Fair enough.

[Mr E]

Max_Torque said:

Servicing on ICEs that do low miles is actually quite expensive, as the service becomes "time based" rather than mileage based, so they change the engine oil and filters after 2 years even if you have't driven anywhere!

If you wanted too, you could completely avoid "servicing" your EV (all they do on my i3 is wash it and change the cabin pollen filter...) and it would suffer no ill effects....

Well aware of this too. Doubly so this year.

[HTP99]

V8RX7 said:

Had a look at the Zoe - prefer it to the Leaf but every one on AT is on battery lease which seems to be £59 / month which is more than she spends on diesel.

The battery can be bought outright now, so if you have a lease battery ZOE, you can buy it.

[kambites]

On the other hand, there's surprisingly little difference in cost between leased and owned battery Zoes yet the battery buy-out is pretty expensive, so buying a leased one and then buying it out doesn't make much sense if there are owned ones available.