Time to say bye to the E91 335i… diesel? EV?

[88LG]

I’m in need of something more fuel efficient and also comfier, instead of my 335i. Majority of the time it will just be me in the car, but 2 young terrors at the weekend ferrying them to different activities.

With the rising fuel costs and some man maths, I have considered switching to an EV. We have an XC60 for long distance staycations etc. As I’m working for a council, there is the possibility of salary sacrifice. Waiting to hear on that from payroll.

Going to be doing around 14k a year. My commute is around 80% motorway 20% town driving. Currently spending around £80-90 a week on fuel, and then about £60 a month on tax and insurance.

Is it wise to look at EV’s? The monthly outlay on the car would be higher, but then running costs lower, would do charging at home. Part of me going the EV route will be dependent on salary sacrifice.

Or do I go the conventional ICE route with the potential of a hybrid.

Any help would be great!

Edited by 88LG on Sunday 3rd July 23:10

[samoht]

If it's a second car, such that it'll never need to travel more than X miles from home, and if you can charge at home, then yes I think an EV would make sense.

If you can't have a snarling petrol engine then I think I'd rather have a perfectly smooth, silent and torquey electric motor than a rattly old diesel. Total cost of ownership should be lower too, home charging especially if you can get an overnight cheap rate tariff is cheaper than petrol or diesel, and maintenance requirements much less too.

How long's your commute, and could you charge at work too? Do you need it to do any longer trips than that, or would the Volvo cover those?

[88LG]

samoht said:

If it's a second car, such that it'll never need to travel more than X miles from home, and if you can charge at home, then yes I think an EV would make sense.

If you can't have a snarling petrol engine then I think I'd rather have a perfectly smooth, silent and torquey electric motor than a rattly old diesel. Total cost of ownership should be lower too, home charging especially if you can get an overnight cheap rate tariff is cheaper than petrol or diesel, and maintenance requirements much less too.

How long's your commute, and could you charge at work too? Do you need it to do any longer trips than that, or would the Volvo cover those?

My journey to work is about 30 miles. Mostly motorway. Currently there’s no chargers at work, not sure if it’s something in the pipelines. SWMBO has put us on Utility Warehouse, not sure what they offer off peak wise.

Indeed, for longer journeys where we have to take lots of stuff, we would take the Volvo. But for the more day to day stuff at the weekend, we’d probably use an EV.

In terms of running costs and economy, feel I would be going with a diesel, and they’d be the V60 or V90 (d4 guise) if anything.

Not sure where to start for best places to look at EV’s and leasing. I have seen that Polestar offer a test drive system where they bring the car to you, something I may try, depending on the monthly cost.

[nd0000]

If you have the ability to charge at home and a 30 mile commute, there's no reason to need chargers at work.

The main challenge on EVs at the moment seems to be lead times, over 12 months not uncommon.

[Turtle Shed]

88LG said:

Going to be doing around 14k a year. My commute is around 80% motorway 20% town driving. Currently spending around £80-90 a week on fuel, and then about £60 a month on tax and insurance.

Is it wise to look at EV’s? The monthly outlay on the car would be higher, but then running costs lower, would do charging at home. Part of me going the EV route will be dependent on salary sacrifice.

Edited by 88LG on Sunday 3rd July 23:10

I'll say what I always say on these type of threads when the required mileage is no more than a 60 mile round trip. Second hand Leaf. (Though I accpet that you might only be looking at new cars)

Prices have gone up a lot lately though, but £10k gets you a car that will save you £70 per week* and £30/month on tax. Call it £320/month.

Car has paid for itself in 30 months and then is effectively paying you (and will still have some value of course).

Also, in addition to the commute savings, you'll use it at other times for most journeys.

• You'll want the Octopus Go electricty tariff, the cost of charging overnight will be about £1.20

Edit to add: Important to note that the cars made in Sunderland, 2014 model onwards, are the ones to have. (Plenty of ways to tell, easiest is that they are Visia/Acenta/Tekna spec and don't have an electric handbrake.

Edited by Turtle Shed on Monday 4th July 08:26

[duff]

I went from an E91 330d to a Leaf about 8 months ago. Commute is 90 miles round trip, 3 days a week average.
I have free charging at work which saves me around £200 (at current prices) and the lease is £300p/m for 14k miles.
The Leaf is a great car for running around in and decent enough on the motorway. Bigger inside than the E91 but a smaller/awkward shape boot and the seats don’t go low enough for my liking.
Something to consider with home charging with the likes of Octopus is the increased standing charge and day rates. If you work for local council I’d see if they can get some chargers installed. I love the fact that I can get a full charge at work and use that for most of my personal mileage as well.

[88LG]

Turtle Shed said:

• You'll want the Octopus Go electricty tariff, the cost of charging overnight will be about £1.20

Pardon my ignorance, but is that £1.20 to charge the car over night or is that per unit?

duff said:

I went from an E91 330d to a Leaf about 8 months ago. Commute is 90 miles round trip, 3 days a week average.
I have free charging at work which saves me around £200 (at current prices) and the lease is £300p/m for 14k miles.
The Leaf is a great car for running around in and decent enough on the motorway. Bigger inside than the E91 but a smaller/awkward shape boot and the seats don’t go low enough for my liking.
Something to consider with home charging with the likes of Octopus is the increased standing charge and day rates. If you work for local council I’d see if they can get some chargers installed. I love the fact that I can get a full charge at work and use that for most of my personal mileage as well.

Yeah I’m not sure how I’d get on with a leaf. I prefer them compared to the first generation.

I just seem to want to lean towards a Polestar 2, Skoda or an EV6.

I’d be happy to take a pre built one if they had them in stock. Not sure what the situation is with them.

Not sure what the best comparison site is to compare leases. CarWow?

[Turtle Shed]

88LG said:

Turtle Shed said:

• You'll want the Octopus Go electricty tariff, the cost of charging overnight will be about £1.20

Pardon my ignorance, but is that £1.20 to charge the car over night or is that per unit?

duff said:

£1.20 in total. 24Kw/h Leaf, Octopus Go at 5p per Kw/h (I have a fixed rate until October I think, then it will go up to 7.5p, or possibly more, but it's always going to be cheap).

The above assumes charging from compeltely flat of course, which I can't do in four hours, but the battery is rarely below 20% and if it doesn't get fully charged one night, it will get to 100% next night. We cover 30/40 miles at most in a day.

Edited by Turtle Shed on Monday 4th July 22:38

[88LG]

Turtle Shed said:

Pardon my ignorance, but is that £1.20 to charge the car over night or is that per unit?

duff said:

£1.20 in total. 24Kw/h Leaf, Octopus Go at 5p per Kw/h (I have a fixed rate until October I think, then it will go up to 7.5p, or possibly more, but it's always going to be cheap).

The above assumes charging from compeltely flat of course, which I can't do in four hours, but the battery is rarely below 20% and if it doesn't get fully charged one night, it will get to 100% next night. We cover 30/40 miles at most in a day.

Ah jeeze! Completely missed that point. That’s why it’s very tempting. We’ve just switched to utility warehouse so not sure how easy it is to get on them. Didn’t approve of going to them but the wife handles the majority of finances.


With that sort of price even with energy prices rising EV does seem like the logical way to go. I assume bigger the battery the more it costs. But still under a fiver to give a full battery is decent.

I tend to put £40 in my car at a time and that’s about half a tank. Around 250miles.

Edited by 88LG on Monday 4th July 18:19

[ZX10R NIN]

It sounds like a diesel will work for you.

[ATM]

Details of your e91 when you decide to sell please. I had one and I still miss it.

[georgeyboy12345]

What is your budget?

[88LG]

ZX10R NIN said:

It sounds like a diesel will work for you.

I had been looking at the V60 and V90 via the Volvo Selekt page. Around 250 a month. There’s the 5 series and then jag. The Swedish cars really catch my eye with their looks and interior it.

ATM said:

Details of your e91 when you decide to sell please. I had one and I still miss it.

Will do!

georgeyboy12345 said:

What is your budget?

On an ICE car around 250 a month. As Volvo have their estates with a 4k deposit and 14k miles.

EV around £400-450 as it’s a newer car I’d be happy to spend a little bit more.

[Turtle Shed]

I must offer my apologies to the poster 'Duff' for my quoting error above. It seems that I messed up my editing and the stuff I wrote about Octopus Go is attributed to him and not me.

To the Mods - If you could fix this it would be appreciated
To Duff - Sorry, an honest mistake.

[georgeyboy12345]

The issue is going from a 335i to a new leased EV like a Leaf or an Ioniq 5, Niro, Kona etc could feel a bit slow and like a bit of downgrade.

Maybe something like this used Jaguar I-Pace could work

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202206277...

Edited by georgeyboy12345 on Monday 4th July 22:38

[samoht]

88LG said:

Ah jeeze! Completely missed that point. That’s why it’s very tempting. We’ve just switched to utility warehouse so not sure how easy it is to get on them. Didn’t approve of going to them but the wife handles the majority of finances.


With that sort of price even with energy prices rising EV does seem like the logical way to go. I assume bigger the battery the more it costs. But still under a fiver to give a full battery is decent.

I tend to put £40 in my car at a time and that’s about half a tank. Around 250miles.

While it's true that a bigger battery costs more to charge completely from empty to full, it will also cover more miles on that charge, so the £/mile is largely independent of the car's battery size.

The current Nissan Leaf got 3.6 miles per kWh ( AutoExpress )

So your 250 miles that you get to £40 worth of petrol would require about 70 kWh of electricity.
At the current standard capped tariff (28.34 p/kWh) that would cost £20, so you're halving your fuel costs without changing tariff.
If you can get a cheap overnight rate of 7.5p / kWh that would slash the cost to £5.20, so an eighth of the cost of petrol. You would however pay a higher standing charge and daytime electricity rate.


While electricity prices may well rise in future, in general the rate rises are being driven by the cost of fossil fuels, hence petrol prices are rising at the same time. So while motoring of both kinds will go up and down in price, it's a fairly safe bet that EVs will remain cheaper than petrol cars.

[88LG]

georgeyboy12345 said:

The issue is going from a 335i to a new leased EV like a Leaf or an Ioniq 5, Niro, Kona etc could feel a bit slow and like a bit of downgrade.

Maybe something like this used Jaguar I-Pace could work

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202206277...

Edited by georgeyboy12345 on Monday 4th July 22:38

They are a really nice motor. Not sure if that is over my budget.

Yeah I know any car after the 335i will now be a downgrade. Sometimes I don’t make enough of the power. Especially when I have the children in the car.

[GreatGranny]

Cupra Born

Says September delivery!

£480pcm 6+35 15k miles

https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/car-leasing/cup...

[88LG]

GreatGranny said:

Cupra Born

Says September delivery!

£480pcm 6+35 15k miles

https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/car-leasing/cup...

Must say, quite like the look of that. Assume it’s similar to the ID.3. Will have to read some more on them.

[ZX10R NIN]

The V60/90 are both good options & they do a best of both world option in the form of a B4 diesel hybrid.