Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) buying an EV

SWMBO's Smart Roadster is getting on a bit now - we have had it for 18 years or so. Thinking of buying a small EV because they all say that depreciation is really high so a 3 year old one should be cheap . Thats the theory, but cheap where? I cant find them - at 3 years they seem to be 50% 0f new price which is what I would expect of any car.

Any recommendations? Thinking Korean or maybe Jap - not interested in French and its a bit early IMO for Chinese.

BMW i3s - buy one of the last ones - very cheap for what they are and, if I am not mistaken, BMW lost money on every one due to the cost of the carbon shell.

If she doesn't need more than 100-miles range, Honda E - small footprint, enjoyable to drive but the range, imho, is an issue. I also don't know what used prices are doing.

In conversation with someone within the motor trade, across all premium marques, his view was that EVs have firmed up and now it is ICE engines that are going to take a similar hit over the next 12-months. All crystal ball gazing but EVs do seem to have stopped falling and I'm hearing of some very strong deals on new and nearly new ICE vehicles, which would have been unheard of even 6-months ago.

Not a cheap option but my pal took me for a spin in his Tesla x .... size of a block of flats but when he put everything in 'hooligan' mode and floored it off the line the acceleration was nothing short of alarming!! (and this to someone who drives single-seater race cars!) ... crushingly fast ... far too much performance to be safe with the average punter behind the wheel (pal is ex TVR driver, so used to startling motors 🙂)... as there aren't mass fatalities one can only assume the myriad of sophisticated driver assists must be doing their job most diligently! ... still not for me but an impressive piece of tech.

K

Ps ... on the way back he took his hands off the wheel (he has a little weighted clip thing that convinces the steering wheel he still holds it) ... and the thing wafted us home, country lanes and all

If you exclude the French but not Japanese cars, note that Nissan and Renault are technically the same, the last years....! I've had a Tesla Model S for 5 years and now for 3,5 years a BMW iX3. Made in China.......! The BMW is very good, BMW has a relatively long experience with EV's. No issues over 95.000 km! That was different with the Tesla, although they have the E part from EV very claver made! But they come not cheap. Technically advanced are the (later) Korean Kia and Hyundai (tech the same) EV's.
The BMW i3 is iconic, I think one of the first EV-Classics!

I'll shove a vote in for the i3 too, if you go for the REx you effectively remove range anxiety and give yourself another 100 ish miles, even if you can't find a charge point you just drop in another couple of galls of VOC's and off you go again

We've had two, great quirky things and the tech support from BMW was good too

Another vote for the BMW i3. It's a hidden gem. Early ones had issues with the battery so get one of the last ones. And what a fantastic interior as well!

Have been thinking about it too.. A Dancia Spring is now £200 a month on the car scheme at work all inc insurance, repairs etc… for a cheap runaround.. but thing is with the choice of a Spring or the Morgan I would likely take the Morgan. I like the i3 too but difficult to get one cheaply on a finance deal.

A used i3 was on our list when we went to buy an EV. We ended up with a new Mini SE at £28k instead mainly because I was still concerned about potential issues with battery life on a used I3. We bloody love it, it's got great build quality and all the kit inside is nice quality BMW stuff like the iDrive system joystick thingy.

We've now had the Mini for 3 years, and have done nearly 19,000 miles. Total running costs have been 2p/mile for fuel, £240 for servicing, £200 in tyres, and £50 for its first MOT, which was today. In Sport mode it goes like a stabbed rat, which goes a long way to explain how we got through two front tyres in not much more than 12k miles.

The interesting thing from my point of view was that it also had a major software update. Annoyingly, it lost all our customised settings, stored destinations etc, but on the upside we appear to have gained another 20 miles of range. I suppose they tweaked the calculation algorithm because it does seem to be pretty conservative. Last week we went on a trip to Clevedon. Started with an indicated 101 miles of range, drove 86 miles, and got home with an indicated 50 miles still left.

Used ones with our trim level and equivalent mileage seem to be around the £15 to £18k mark. If you can cope with the size of it, then I'd highly recommend taking a look at one.

That is interesting. So far I have dismissed the idea of driveless cars in the UK given the large number oof poorly maintained country lanes with no markings, indeterminate verges, passing places etc . Bit different to the Land of the Free with miles of arrow straight multiple carriageways where such cars might just work.

Tell us more! What sort of roads did you use. Did correction ever be needed.,

A word of caution Howard. Most of the cars that have the better self driving aids sadly don't do so well with many of our UK roads. I had an ID5 which did brilliantly on a dual carriage way but once on a narrow A or B road, well, let's just say I thought it was out to kill me!

I always had my hands on the wheel and actually was doing all the driving, but the car couldn't distinguish what was what on a narrow road and often I had to take action to avoid being forced into a verge or the soft shoulder.

Same car had an advance back up system where it will break if it thinks you are about to hit something. Sadly, it mixed up cars 2 rows behind me and slammed on the brakes with full force!

Tesla seems to have things sorted the best from the last drives I've done, however it's easy to get caught out.

Perhaps you know but all newly registered cars from April must have traffic sign recognition and warnings if you go over the limit. Some even have gone so far as to retard throttle response if you are at the speed limit which can be quite disconcerting. It can be turned off but it's back again the next time you get in. I've been living with it since July and it's a massive PITA. Something to keep in mind.