The family Merc is beginning to give bits of trouble - nothing major but our alternative transport is two two seaters and a bike. So Merc problems are difficult for us. Been putting off the replace in the hope of next going fully electric so now trying to decide whether to go for a cheap interim small hatch / estate and go leccy in say 4 years or go for an early leccy car now.

Our use is overwhelmingly for 30 to 50 mile journeys with maybe 3 times a year visit to my daughter in Surrey say 150 miles each way. Overnight stays allow for overnight charging

Tried the Kia Nero this afternoon and was quite impressed. Nice to drive. Suspension is a bit hard. Excellent build quality. Reasonable performance. Comfortable and beautifully quiet. But pricey at £38k. 7 year guarantee and a nearby dealer. And it has a rear compartment for the woofta.

Any views? Any experience? Heard stories of lots of charging points being broken

I dipped my foot in the EV pool a couple of years back, with a BMW 225XE - 20 miles at best per charge but with a cracking petrol engine to go with it. Most of our journeys are just a few miles - well within the battery range. So impressed was I that I quickly moved to a BMW I3 REX. 80 - 120 battery miles, depending on conditions, plus a 600 cc scooter engine to provide mobile charge when needed. A funky design, particularly the rear doors and seats, which at first impressed, but but then annoyed. Ok when just me and my wife, but when you add rear seat passengers it becomes a bit of a faff re. ingress and egress; more than once I part throttled my wife with her own seatbelt when opening the door behind her, due to the odd mounting arrangement. Plenty of room for a dog, though, with the rear seats down. Long story short, I am back to a 225XE, more spacious, more powerful, no range anxiety (which I experienced even with the range extender on the i3) and non wife threatening. Conscience might push me fully electric when I can see a real world 300 miles in a car the size of the 225Xe. On the other hand I might stick with my XE and spend the money on another Morgan.

If you covered the Kia badge with a Merc badge would you know the difference? It's quite remarkable how far they have come in the last forty years since the Rio graced our shores.

Use the Ferrari to go to Surrey then have a laugh with a broad range of leccy things.

Mini
Honda (Love that they have got their Mojo back)

No reason you cant have some fun.

I buy cars for a purpose. So for weekend fun I have the Morgans. For long distance touring I have the Morgans.

If I need more holiday space I have the diesel Golf . Day to day a Polo GTI.

An electric or hybrid doesn't fit any of my needs really. I would rather enjoy another Polo GTI, or similar, and I'm now thinking what's the best time to get a new one. Maybe 2024.

I have a friend with a Nissan Leaf, he's made up with it. Worth a look maybe? Says he with three V8's!

Had an e-tron for summer - will not be the last time for sure!
Have a frequent 150km trip that works perfect both directions.
Now it is followed by an A6 hybrid - rather stressful thing with only 50 km of e-range.
Never had range anxiety with the e-tron as it indicates range very accurately.

No need to worry about the e-thing. But I fully agree: the get more and more and better and better each year - bloody thing;-I

Had a Nissan Leaf a couple of years back for 18 months. Great Car. Had a 90 mile round trip each day and it would just manage it....
2 years ago there was a lack pf infrastructure and I started to suffer from range anxiety...!

Due to the corporation tax breaks and benefit in kind reductions, did look at a range of EV's, from the Zoe up to the Tesla X (everybody should try and get a test drive of a Tesla X or P etc as the performance is astonishing...)

Overall I found the Kia Nero the best value for money - especially with the real life range of 270 miles and 38k cost.

Charging points - there's a lot more of them now and with the GPS mapping tools a lot easier to find/see if they are working/occupied. Do you have off street parking at home? Fit a charger at home and you won't be needing to worry about on street charging anywhere else.

Decided to keep the Diesel Jeep for a bit longer and purchased an M3W instead

I personally don't agree with hybrid cars - they have their place but...very limited range and normally an old design/poor fuel consumption engine.

With the journeys that you do, I'd really say go for an EV!

Great first post Bensdad. Welcome to TM.
Back to original subject: Howard, send RobsMog88 a PM with the same question if he doesn't appear here in a day or two. He's been running EVs for a while.

Not relevant to Howards question really, but should I need a different shopping trolly at the moment it would probabaly be a second hand I3. (If grid connected vehicle experiments here progress then that may bring the day closer).

I'll second that. Kia and Hyundai have some very interesting cars right now. Not all of them are available in the UK unfortunately.

Bought a Kia Stinger recently and really enjoying it.

When the inevitable happens I'll be looking at a Kia again.