We currently have a Disco Sport 2015 2.2 with 55k on the clock and my 1995 +4 4 seater with 83k on the clock… we have twin boys so car seats in both and Morgan is used all year round as a car.
But I’m tempted to get a new R5 on the salary sacrifice car scheme - it would be £310 a month all inc insurance, servicing, tyres etc for 10k miles a year for 2 years no deposit..I expect if I don’t do it I will put the money into my pension, I’m 40 so won't see it for a while.
The logic being we would have a practical second car that we would use for short journeys and take a bit of strain of the DS and the Morgan. The man maths is based on the super cheap charging cost of home charging should help offset the cost.
We do 15k a year in DS and I do about 3k a year in Morgan
They've certainly had a great reception among the motoring press and if you can charge at home on a cheap rate they are dirt cheap to run. We have a Mini SE and it's a great complement to our Landy and Morgan. I say go for it.
Tim H. 1986 4/4 VVTi Sport, 2002 LR Defender, 2022 Mini Cooper SE
They look very good but the range is maybe an issue. We had two Renault 5s in the 80s & 90s and loved them the BEV keeps that feel. Typically you charge to 80% to ensure battery life and recharge before 20%. I have an MG ZS EV long range & love it.
The stated range is 273 miles. In winter the realistic range is 200 if I charge to 100%. In summer 250. But the mix of driving has a big impact. The slower the speed of travel the longer the range. Over 2k miles of mixed driving but a lot of A12, A14 & Motorways the weighted average miles per kWh is 3.04. but I have seen 5 when pootling around Felixstowe.
With Octopus Intelligent Go I pay 7p/ kWh whenever the car is charging as Octopus schedule the charge. But charging at public chargers is a rip off. Typically 52 to 85p / kWh. The Octopus electroverse App is a great tool combining route planning & chargers.It works on the "splash & dash" approach so you add the minimum of expensive public charging.
Luckily with MG & Octopus I got £299 free home power plus £299 credit on electroverse.
MG have major offers on now on the MG4 I believe. Carwow is a great site to throw up deals, I paid £23k vs list £36k for a new SUV.
JohnV6 2022 CX Plus Four 2025 Renault Scenic Alpine etech "Yvette"
Typically you charge to 80% to ensure battery life and recharge before 20%.
I've seen this loads of times, and it has made me wonder. I've only ever owned one EV, our Mini has a 34kWh battery that is limited to 28kWh of available capacity. BMW advice is that you can safely charge it to 100% as the unavailable capacity acts as a buffer to prevent any issues. It seems such an obvious strategy I wonder why it's not more widely implemented.
On the range issue, I would think for a local run-around the R5 would be fine. The Mini has a theoretical range of 140 miles (realistically 120 miles in the summer, 95 in the winter) and we've never come anywhere near running out of range for the use we put it to.
Tim H. 1986 4/4 VVTi Sport, 2002 LR Defender, 2022 Mini Cooper SE
Tim, it depends upon the battery chemistry as to the 80% or not. Longer range models have different anodes which mean staying at 100% for long periods can harm them. This video explains it . From 9 min in is the detail.
JohnV6 2022 CX Plus Four 2025 Renault Scenic Alpine etech "Yvette"
As a runabout, I think the Renault 5, and the spicy cousin, the Alpine A290, are an excellent choice. They both sound like fun to drive, have a reasonable interior space and enough performance to make them enjoyable to drive.
Honda did a study before releasing the Honda E, which had an atrocious range (real world circa 80-100 iirc), which showed that the average UK car journey was under 10-miles. In owning a smaller EV, I have to say, the range anxiety element was the biggest hurdle. However, in reality, bar one very long journey, in the winter, which was supposed to be 110 miles (and I left with the charge showing 160 mile range), I have never even come close to needing to stop to charge. On the journey mentioned, I ended up on the motorway for a large chunk of the trip (there and back) at 70mph (so no chance to re-gen and really motorways are the bane of EVs in terms of battery drain), then got stuck in heavy urban traffic for the in-bound journey for 10+ miles (so again zero re-gen). On the return trip, I put the car into full eco-mode, which cuts down on the system use (afaik, really only limits the climate control fan speed and also reduces acceleration rate) to conserve power. At the end of the journey I was down to circa 5-miles range. So all in all, range anxiety, in my use case, has been unfounded.
The Renault 5 also has the advantage of supporting Vehicle-to Home bi directional charging. So if you are thinking of a home battery, £23k will get you a 40KWh battery with a free car thrown in. Having said that I am not sure if UK DNOs allow V2H yet? - and Bi directional chargers are about £6k.
