We were very excited to join the EV club in April. We had been talking about it for a while and when I retired, we only needed one car anyway. We joined a project with Octopus Energy and Nissan Leaf where our excess energy from the car is transferred to the grid. In return, Octopus give us£30 a month off our electricity bill. The idea is that we charge the grid when its busy at 4-7 p.m. and we charge the car overnight during cheap rate.
We've got this car which we lease for 2 years, then we can decide what to try next.
That is more than interesting BB, I'd love to know how you get on with it and how the bones of this work out for you. We have also been talking about this but know we will never be able to afford to buy one or lease one either as the one OH would want is expensive, Kia Soul EV.
There is a lot to be said for being part of a group, and the support and friendship that is gained from this.
Financially I think we’re probably a little better off - what we used to spend on petrol for two cars is now paying the lease. No real servicing or MOT, no gear box, catalytic converters or exhaust to drop off, it’s mainly a computer with windscreen wash 😁 the project we’re with have put us on 5p per kWh overnight so charging is pretty cheap, the charger and electrical upgrade were free. The range for our 40kw battery is about 150 miles which will take us to Brighton and back with 1 charge outside the house. It’s VERY quick off the traffic lights 😁 no way we could have bought one but I wouldn’t want to now anyway because it’s still fairly new technology and improvements will be rapid over the next 10 years 👍
Yes we can - except we will exceed the mileage we thought we’d do - no penalty for that but we will have to pay possibly £150/200 when we hand it back. There was also an option to lease for 3 years but as it’s our first time we thought 2 was enough 👍
I think it's great that you have done this BB, you're the WT guinea pig for electric cars, throughly modern Milly
I wanted to ask how much it costs to lease one. We own our car and would worry that if the only way we could have an electric car would be to lease one, that's a chunk every month/year.
At the moment we have to do a very long trip of over 740 miles round trip to visit one of our kids several times a year, If they had a car that would cope with these miles it would be good.
There is a lot to be said for being part of a group, and the support and friendship that is gained from this.
It’s been fun! We pay just over £250 monthly. We’ve never had car payments before, usually just an oldish car each. Hubby did used to have a company car until 2009 when they decided it cost too much to supply them. I feel that the cost of leasing is covered by the cost of running a normal car. We’ve driven to Scotland from Cambridgeshire, Northumbria and then Cumbria and Wales this year with no issues. For long journeys you would be charging at service stations probably- about as long to charge as going to the loo, having a bite to eat and stretching your legs 30/45 minutes. Some cars go further on a charge than others - we might go from 40kw to 65kw next time which would offer more mileage but it really hasn’t been a problem with all the miles we’ve done - over 10,000 since April! Also, think about a try out. A company called Once will lease a car monthly for about the same price maybe a bit more. We tried a Hyundai for a month before our Nissan was delivered. It came with 2 different cards for charging - I think Shell and BP..
I am loving the sound of this Beckyboo and like that you put what journeys you've done and the other details, really useful to know. Sounds like you've had fun too going places.
My OH was so against them when they first came out, but of course he would be, he has a love of engines, before he did his patrol job he was an engine builder, so it's been a passion all his life, but he is a huge fan of Elon Musk and the tesla, and is now in his new job building training rigs for the new Nissan EVs, so he seems to have accepted the future and is now rather interested. He has quite a few years of work left and we have to run two cars at the moment because of that but I think he'll be ready for that change in the near future. Thanks BB for the info.
There is a lot to be said for being part of a group, and the support and friendship that is gained from this.