EV car when no option to charge at home
Discussion
My wife is looking at getting her latest motability car, and they are making a huge push for users to go electric.
My wife likes the Berlingo XL, as it will fit all her mobility equipment.
We've never really looked at electric before, and wonder if it will work for us, most journeys are under 30 miles, but once a week we do a 180 round trip.
The biggest stumbling block is that we can't charge at home, she has a marked disabled bay outside our house, but we are an end terrace with no off-road parking, so motability say we can't have a home charger.
What do we need to think about, and would electric work in our circumstances?
My wife likes the Berlingo XL, as it will fit all her mobility equipment.
We've never really looked at electric before, and wonder if it will work for us, most journeys are under 30 miles, but once a week we do a 180 round trip.
The biggest stumbling block is that we can't charge at home, she has a marked disabled bay outside our house, but we are an end terrace with no off-road parking, so motability say we can't have a home charger.
What do we need to think about, and would electric work in our circumstances?
Edited by cjs racing. on Friday 14th February 18:59
The charging cost will be similar to buying petrol.
The battery is the same as my Citroen, I get about 105 useable motorway miles in winter, probably 150 or so off motorway. So that should tell you how often you'll need to charge it.
You can either go to a 'fast' charger while you wait, and wait about 35 minutes, or a 'slow' charger where you can leave the car overnight. Zap-map should let you identify chargers near your house.
The 'best case' is probably that you find somewhere you go frequently like your local supermarket where you can charge the car while shopping, minimising time waste.
It'll be smoother/easier/nicer to drive than the petrol version.
I wouldn't do it. The charging risks being a hassle and the cost saving isn't there.
It would work if you can run a cable across/under/over the pavement to the disabled bay and charge that way eg https://wepoweryourcar.com/about/chargearm/ (but note "you will need to obtain permission from your local council"). You'd still need to charge on the 180 mile round trip (possibly at the destination?) but would overall be a win.
Our only car is an EV. It's great. It does everything I wanted, and is a much better experience than when we had a petrol car.
However, a large part of that is down to home charging. It's cheaper and more convenient.
If you can't charge at home, stick to ICE. As others have said - DON'T DO IT.
However, a large part of that is down to home charging. It's cheaper and more convenient.
If you can't charge at home, stick to ICE. As others have said - DON'T DO IT.
Thanks guys.
Having read the replies, and looked at the price of public chargers, it's a no go for us.
It's a shame as hybrid, and ICE vehicles on the scheme need massive deposits.
May be time to get her a vehicle we own. Would rather run around in a £1500 shed than pay more than that as a deposit.
Pretty sure I can get her an older Berlingo for that money.
Having read the replies, and looked at the price of public chargers, it's a no go for us.
It's a shame as hybrid, and ICE vehicles on the scheme need massive deposits.
May be time to get her a vehicle we own. Would rather run around in a £1500 shed than pay more than that as a deposit.
Pretty sure I can get her an older Berlingo for that money.
A500leroy said:
Thanks, that explains the deposit difference between EV and ICE.I assumed it was to do with resale prices once off lease, but that puts a different spin on it.
cjs racing. said:
A500leroy said:
Thanks, that explains the deposit difference between EV and ICE.I assumed it was to do with resale prices once off lease, but that puts a different spin on it.
Having said that, I do agree that it’s probably not great to go full EV yet if you don’t have access to charging at home. Maybe try plug-in hybrid and see how convenient you find public charging in reality without having to worry if it turns out to be inconvenient where you live?
A500leroy said:
Man who clearly knows nothing about Motability shows how they clearly know nothing about Motability.I live with an EV and can only use public charging. It’s mostly fine, but it does become a lot easier if you have a reliable routine which can involve charging the car. For me, my gym has an 11kW charger outside, so that will charge about 40% by the time I’m done, which is enough to keep the car ticking over.
Longer trips will involve maybe a top up at a rapid charger the day before, but all my local supermarket have a rapid charger in the car park or around the corner so it doesn’t bother me.
I’ll caveat all that by saying I have a range extender BMW i3, which has a relatively small battery compared to modern EVs, so it is fully charged faster, and I have the splash and dash capability of the Rex. If the Berlingo really does get 100ish miles on the motorway, I would consider that too small a range to be practical to live with public charging, unless you have a public charger you can really count on. The total range of my i3 is acceptable, but I don’t think I could live with even the bigger battery BEV only i3
Longer trips will involve maybe a top up at a rapid charger the day before, but all my local supermarket have a rapid charger in the car park or around the corner so it doesn’t bother me.
I’ll caveat all that by saying I have a range extender BMW i3, which has a relatively small battery compared to modern EVs, so it is fully charged faster, and I have the splash and dash capability of the Rex. If the Berlingo really does get 100ish miles on the motorway, I would consider that too small a range to be practical to live with public charging, unless you have a public charger you can really count on. The total range of my i3 is acceptable, but I don’t think I could live with even the bigger battery BEV only i3
OP,
I think I’m correct in saying that if you can’t have a home charger, there’s an option (car manufacturer dependent?) to have a credit towards charging. We’ve gone for a VW iD4 under the scheme, so perhaps it was to do with that. Worth looking into though. 10,000 miles equivalent lurks in my crap memory.
Edit: as ever, I can’t find anything about that now. But, Motability will give you a BP Pulse card, and some of those chargers are free to use. Maybe search online for the situation locally with those chargers, and maybe seek advice from your motabilty sales specialist at the dealership.
I think I’m correct in saying that if you can’t have a home charger, there’s an option (car manufacturer dependent?) to have a credit towards charging. We’ve gone for a VW iD4 under the scheme, so perhaps it was to do with that. Worth looking into though. 10,000 miles equivalent lurks in my crap memory.
Edit: as ever, I can’t find anything about that now. But, Motability will give you a BP Pulse card, and some of those chargers are free to use. Maybe search online for the situation locally with those chargers, and maybe seek advice from your motabilty sales specialist at the dealership.
Edited by Tony1963 on Saturday 15th February 16:24
Don't do it yet. In another ten years it's likely that most such streets will have street chargers and some kind of residents rates/scheme, but it's simply too soon right now.
Nothing wrong with staying with ICE for now. The whole point of the Motability scheme is to make life easy and practical!
I'm interested in what the 'push' is that is being applied to adopt EV? In your situation it's plainly impractical so there should be no such pushing. Its great that you're interested enough to do the research, but you should not feel under pressure.
Nothing wrong with staying with ICE for now. The whole point of the Motability scheme is to make life easy and practical!
I'm interested in what the 'push' is that is being applied to adopt EV? In your situation it's plainly impractical so there should be no such pushing. Its great that you're interested enough to do the research, but you should not feel under pressure.
TheDeuce said:
Don't
I'm interested in what the 'push' is that is being applied to adopt EV? In your situation it's plainly impractical so there should be no such pushing. Its great that you're interested enough to do the research, but you should not feel under pressure.
Take the down payment needed for the Berlingo, the EV version is £0 down, and the diesel version is £3999 down. Monthly payments are your full mobility payment on both.I'm interested in what the 'push' is that is being applied to adopt EV? In your situation it's plainly impractical so there should be no such pushing. Its great that you're interested enough to do the research, but you should not feel under pressure.
It's hard to get anything other than a small hatchback unless you pay a four figure payment, or go EV. The scheme just about makes financial sense in our situation, but no longer does when we have to start adding a few thousand extra into the equation.
A family of 4, a mobility scooter, and a 4 wheeled walker (we also have a disabled child) just won't fit in an i10 or Aygo.
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