best small vehicle

[Traffic]

I'm tinkering with banishing the wife from the Skoda Octavia she uses to do her daily 40km commute.

We have solar panels on the house and 3 phase power, I can buy electricity at spot price +3% so almost at cost and very low prices in the small hours.

Now that the law has changed in Europe (I'm in Sweden) on used vehicles - used vehicle dealers need to offer a 2-year warranty now apparently!!! I was thinking of buying a used Renault Zoe or similar, something that has had a chunk of the initial depreciation nibbled off of already.

I'd essentially be able to finance something for the equivalent of the petrol costs we face right now and end-up with an even more used EV at the end of the loan compared to burning more fuel and cash with the Skoda which we would reserve for family days and longer trips.

Does my logic make sense and should it be the Zoe or something else at the very low end of the spectrum I should look into?

Cheers

[gmaz]

Yes, perfect sense. The lowest "end of the spectrum" would be a Nissan Leaf and that would easily handle several days of a 40km commute.

The cheaper Zoe's have a battery lease which requires monthly payments, so a Leaf would be a better option.

[Boxbrownie]

Or something smaller than the LEAF, the i3.

[essayer]

The Zoe is a great little EV. Even the 22kWh one is plenty for us day-to-day. Not sure on Sweden but a lot of the U.K. ones have had the lease bought out so no monthly fees.
Extended warranty a must, though.

[MOBB]

I considered a Zoe, ended up with a Mii Electric as the lease deals at the time were very cheap

It’s fantastic, I sort of discounted it initially due to the bhp and reviews, but it’s a nearly perfect little EV imo

[georgeyboy12345]

Might even be better paying the lease as you get breakdown cover and the battery is guaranteed should anything go wrong. Here you can pick up a cheap battery lease Zoe for £7000, then the monthlies for the battery are £59. You’d have to do the numbers to make sure it makes sense

[anonymous-user]

i3. Bought ours as "white goods" for commute, but family has fallen in love with it and now fight over the keys.

[SWoll]

Discombobulate said:

i3. Bought ours as "white goods" for commute, but family has fallen in love with it and now fight over the keys.

This all day long if within budget, a truly outstanding EV and the best city car we've ever owned.

We let ours go at the start of the Covid lockdowns as had recently received our Model 3 and didn't need 2 cars. The Tesla has also now moved on but of the two the i3 is the one we really miss and plan to have another.

[off_again]

Asking a question, because I really dont know - but does the Zoe have the correct charger port? The whole Renault / Nissan thing meant that there is a lot of sharing of technology and I am really not sure which charger port got supplied with both the Zoe and Leaf. Anyone know the details? That might impact things...

Other than that, I would say that a second hand i3 or Mii (or equivalent) should be good. The i3 has a very loyal following and can be had in a wide variety of specs, but the underlying car is very good. The Mii (or equivalent) seems to have shocked a few people on reviews and owners really rate them here on PH, zippy, efficient and good to drive!

[dmsims]

It's not so much the connector on the Zoe

It's battery is air cooled and lack of DC charging and/or "rapid" charging

Not really an issue if you plan to home charge!

[longblackcoat]

I'd thoroughly recommend a Nissan Leaf. I bought one after decades of owning fast German stuff - then I found I wasn't doing anywhere near as many miles, plus I wanted to dip a toe into the EV waters at little risk.

It's been brilliant. Bought it at 4 years old (so nicely depreciated) and under warranty - still has a further three of battery warranty to go - and it has yet to put a foot wrong. As a city/suburban car it's been perfect and I'll probably keep it for a good while until the market gets back to normal in '23 or so.

The range (about 100 miles) isn't an issue and once the battery drops below 9 bars (out of 12) I'll in any event get a replacement battery under warranty, which will extend the range significantly.

It doesn't handle particularly well, the ride's crashy and, well, it's a cheap Nissan so the interior's a bit meh; all that notwithstanding it's the car in the household that everyone picks first.

[Traffic]

longblackcoat said:

I'd thoroughly recommend a Nissan Leaf. I bought one after decades of owning fast German stuff - then I found I wasn't doing anywhere near as many miles, plus I wanted to dip a toe into the EV waters at little risk.

It's been brilliant. Bought it at 4 years old (so nicely depreciated) and under warranty - still has a further three of battery warranty to go - and it has yet to put a foot wrong. As a city/suburban car it's been perfect and I'll probably keep it for a good while until the market gets back to normal in '23 or so.

The range (about 100 miles) isn't an issue and once the battery drops below 9 bars (out of 12) I'll in any event get a replacement battery under warranty, which will extend the range significantly.

It doesn't handle particularly well, the ride's crashy and, well, it's a cheap Nissan so the interior's a bit meh; all that notwithstanding it's the car in the household that everyone picks first.

Thanks all.

The Leaf seems like one to look at, I have a friend with one here but he was not so happy with it as the charging time was too long (but that might be something to do with his house rather than the car!?).

I think it's between a Zoe and Leaf, both seem readily available as used cars.

[longblackcoat]

Traffic said:

longblackcoat said:

I'd thoroughly recommend a Nissan Leaf. I bought one after decades of owning fast German stuff - then I found I wasn't doing anywhere near as many miles, plus I wanted to dip a toe into the EV waters at little risk.

It's been brilliant. Bought it at 4 years old (so nicely depreciated) and under warranty - still has a further three of battery warranty to go - and it has yet to put a foot wrong. As a city/suburban car it's been perfect and I'll probably keep it for a good while until the market gets back to normal in '23 or so.

The range (about 100 miles) isn't an issue and once the battery drops below 9 bars (out of 12) I'll in any event get a replacement battery under warranty, which will extend the range significantly.

It doesn't handle particularly well, the ride's crashy and, well, it's a cheap Nissan so the interior's a bit meh; all that notwithstanding it's the car in the household that everyone picks first.

Thanks all.

The Leaf seems like one to look at, I have a friend with one here but he was not so happy with it as the charging time was too long (but that might be something to do with his house rather than the car!?).

I think it's between a Zoe and Leaf, both seem readily available as used cars.

Something to consider is that most Leafs have a 3.3kW on-board charger, though there is a 6.6kW which could be specified as an option from new. It's a bit limiting, but to be honest has never caused me a problem. My setup (with the slow charger) adds about 10-11 miles of range per hour, which is reasonably slow, though I have a charger at work so I'm rarely driving for more than, say, 50 miles before I recharge. You can direct charge at up to 45kW though, which is plenty fast enough.

Depends on how you're using it; if you're doing up to 100 miles in a day and returning home, leaving it overnight to charge outside the house then doing the same the next day, it'll be fine. If, however, you do 80 miles, come home, then need to do another 60 miles a few hours later, you'd have more of a problem.

[Traffic]

In this instance, the EV would typically do 45km per day tops.

I'm slowly leaning towards a private lease deal as I can see some vehicles on offer at about the £240 per month price which is pretty attractive when servicing and reliability are considered compared to financing a used car.

Edited to add Found a good deal for a Mazda MX-30 which I can private lease

Edited by Traffic on Friday 6th May 17:04

[Luke.]

i3 all day long. Best car I've ever owned.

[Mikehig]

Autocar have just written an epitaph for the i3; they rate it highly too:
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/farewe...