Earlier this year I moved, to a city location. I say city, I moved into Chichester rather than a village nearby. As a result I find myself using the cars much less on a day to day basis, though total mileage doesn’t seem to have dropped much. It occurs to me, in the current climate of inflated second hand car prices, that now might after all be a good time to change the MINI, which while a fantastic car is somewhat a waste of 192bhp when it’s pottering around town. The Merc I am keeping. A smallish EV on the other hand might make sense… I have off street parking and a charger, and so perhaps it’s time to take the plunge?
As we have a few early adopters of ev cars on the site, I thought I’d bounce my thoughts off the group as it’s not a sector of the market I’m up to speed on. Based on cars I see locally the e-Corsa and Peugeot equivalent are quite common, as is the MINI. There are also a few of the little Hondas, which look good but that I think, along with the MINI, has a low range. I know range isn’t the be all and end all for cars used locally, but I do think that as technology continues to improve a car with a very short range will soon seem outdated. The sweet spot range wise seems to be 200/250 miles for small cars. Larger cars do better, and the BMW i3 is still a good looking little car I think, and again pretty common. But it is an old design now. The Zoe is also an old design I think. Should I be bothered? The VW iD3 looks a bit odd, and the others in the segment are bigger and more SUV like than I want - MB EQA, Lexus UX-e, Ionique.
So, I think the shortlist is an e-Corsa/e-208/DS3 electric (which I assume are all the same car) or an i3. I’d really like a MINI, but a 140 mile range seems too low. They all seem to be available to lease for between £250 and £350 a month, though they cost between £25k and £40k depending on spec etc. But, the Clubman I paid £30ish K for 3.5 years ago is still worth £20k or so, so it’s cost £250ish a month in depreciation and the cost to change could be £5k to £20k. Obviously the ev will be cheaper to run, to start with, though cost saving is not the object, just having a car suitable for the job and trying out living with a full ev. Oh, and let’s be honest, a new car ;) Have I missed any obvious candidate?
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Small-ish EVs new
Small-ish EVs new
