What electric cars are actually available in the UK . . .

Capodecina
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Simple questions really - and I am not talking about a Tesla, I am more interested in something more practical / economical.

Most driving would be local or with a typical maximum of 50 miles. However, in order to visit relatives I would from time to time want to cover distances of at least 300 miles in a single run.

What electric cars are actually available in the UK at the moment, what range do they offer and how long do they take to recharge? I am only interested in practical, personal experience, not some manufacturer's theoretical figures - which I could find online ;)
 
Capodecina
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Have you considered a Tesla Model 3 OP?
I have considered it but am not convinced.
It is my understanding that the Model 3 will not actually achieve 300 miles on a charge.
God knows what the actual price is, Tesla UK seem somewhat "evasive" on that ;)

EDITED:
12 months ago, Motoring Research suggested that a "basic" Tesla Model 3 would cost just under £40,000 and offer 260 miles on a charge. It is also a "larger" car than I want.​
 
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Soldato
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Will your bladder go 300 miles without being emptied?

Tesla is the only option if you want the ability to go long distances IMO, the SuperCharger network has great coverage and is pretty much guaranteed to work. Price wise it’s very clear as it’s on their website, just run through the configurator and it spits out a price at the end, read what it actually says, take 1 minute to understand it and unless you are deliberately obtuse (not saying you are but some people choose to be) it’s clear. Range in winter for 3 Long Range is 220-250 miles based on my real experience and I expect to be able to do close to 300 miles on a charge in the summer though in reality you don’t drive the car to 0% charge so you’re likely to stop on route for a rest and top up charge then.
 
Capodecina
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Will your bladder go 300 miles without being emptied?
. . .
Range in winter for 3 Long Range is 220-250 miles based on my real experience and I expect to be able to do close to 300 miles on a charge in the summer though in reality you don’t drive the car to 0% charge so you’re likely to stop on route for a rest and top up charge then.
How long does a top-up charge take? How common are the "SuperChargers"?
Incidenrally, I suspect that I can probably take less time to empty my bladder than to charge a Tesla Model 3 ;)
 
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Google SuperCharger network. It’s the first result for a page on the Tesla site with a map.

Charge time, well how long is a piece of string? ;) There’s lots of criteria to consider, temperature, how much charge is in the battery, how fast the charger is....... A good example would be a 15 minute charge that took me from 35-70% charge and added 100 miles of range. Sure I can wee quicker, but I can’t walk from the car to the service station, go to the toilet and buy a coffee any quicker.
 
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None of them will make 300 miles in a single charge at motorway speeds.

The only electric cars on sale that have a widely distributed high speed charging network available to them is Tesla.

Elsewhere, you're going to be limited to the 50kw of the Electric Highway chargers. For any high range electric car (the Kona for example) this will take at least an hour and a half to recharge and you'll have to restart the charge session after 45 minutes.

If you're not willing to make any concessions to your expectations - a hybrid would better suit your needs.
 
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Capodecina
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Hyundai Kona.
Yes, sounds just about possible; I'm not entirely sure what Hyundai plan to do in the EV market - perhaps the current Pandemic and the consequent reduction in pollution will have an impact on this?

. . . a hybrid would better suit your needs.
Indeed, this is pretty much what I have been thinking - the time is not right for volume EV availability yet :(
 
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Go to https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ plug in a typical long journey you do and put in the car model you're looking at and it'll tell you where and for how long you need to charge.

Tesla really is the only credible option currently if you want to do long distance and it not be a big faf. It's usually surprising how short an amount of time it takes with the Tesla superchargers, on a normal journey you're generally there less than 20 minutes from talking to people who actually own them. They say by the time you've gone in to use the facilities yourself and bought a coffee the car's app will be telling you it's time to leave as it's had enough charge.

Edit: Just put a journey in for me which would take me 300 miles and i'd apparently need to charge twice for quarter of an hour each. I know i'd need to stop at least twice on a 6 hour drive anyway as you'd be foolish to not stop at least once. That was with a standard range Tesla Model 3 selected and edited to have 30% charge on arrival so i could drive around a bit, if you were staying with relatives you could set this lower and charge up there overnight making the stops slightly shorter.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH7V2tU3iFc

Carwow tested a few cars until they ran out, by driving up the motorway essentially.

Tesla Model 3 LR - 270 miles
Audi e-tron - 206 miles
Jaguar i-Pace - 223 miles
Nissan Leaf - 208 miles
Kia e-nero - 255 miles
Mercededes EQC - 194 miles

To me, that suggests a Model 3 LR would be plenty capable of achieving what you need with a 15-20 minute stop off in the middle.
 
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300 miles in a single run isn't happening. You'll need to charge once in that journey.

Affordability-wise, really only a used Nissan Leaf IMO but even those aren't cheap.
 
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I find this interesting. General 50mile usage profile and occasional demand for a 300mile trip and public perception is obsessed we all need to do it none stop. Even if it means people have cars that are more expensive/larger/heavier than they need to be.
 
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300 miles in a single run isn't happening. You'll need to charge once in that journey.

Affordability-wise, really only a used Nissan Leaf IMO but even those aren't cheap.

In the summer, if you drive at the speed limit on the motorway then it very definitely IS possible to do 300 miles in a Tesla M3 if you charge it up to 100% and are prepared to run it down to less than 10%. I know, because I've done it in an M3 Performance, albeit running 18' wheels and aero-caps.

But let's be clear. To do this, you need to drive with the right frame of mind and be prepared to get tail-gated a lot. And in the winter, when it's REALLY cold, I'm expecting to lose anything up to 30% of the range. Driven normally I'm getting about 250 miles from a 90% charge.

As several others have stated, if you use the fastest Superchargers, and you pre-warm the battery as you drive to the Supercharger, you can be in and out of the services in 20 minutes because you are encouraged to top-up and move on. And while in my younger days I used to do over 400 miles in one hit across Europe, I couldn't do that now and I'm not sure how safe I really was then.

It's also worth considering the savings you make on a full Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) as opposed to an ICE car. No Road Fund Licence, servicing is about a third the cost of the equivalent Diesel car (Tesla M3 Performance vs. Audi S4) and best of all, the most it ever cost me to charge it to 90% was £12.80. So lets say I get 230 miles of it in the winter on £13 worth of electricity - that's 5.5p per mile absolute worst case scenario. It's still about a third the cost of the diesel equivalent. And mine is a company car, so it's basically free this year and it will cost me £224 in tax next year (£19/month) and then £38/month thereafter.
 
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Soldato
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH7V2tU3iFc

Carwow tested a few cars until they ran out, by driving up the motorway essentially.

Tesla Model 3 LR - 270 miles
Audi e-tron - 206 miles
Jaguar i-Pace - 223 miles
Nissan Leaf - 208 miles
Kia e-nero - 255 miles
Mercededes EQC - 194 miles

To me, that suggests a Model 3 LR would be plenty capable of achieving what you need with a 15-20 minute stop off in the middle.

While this is true, and I think that test was conducted fairly, these range figures were obtained in winter and all the manufacturers state their 'official' WLTP figures based on warmer temperature driving. In the summer much higher numbers are possible.
 
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While this is true, and I think that test was conducted fairly, these range figures were obtained in winter and all the manufacturers state their 'official' WLTP figures based on warmer temperature driving. In the summer much higher numbers are possible.

I think they mention this in the early stage of the video - that at 7 degrees, it's not ideal for an electric car to perform it's best. However, unless you only want to do long drives in warmer weather, it's still a good 'real life' usage case to show that long distances are probably best served by a M3LR, especially if you can take advantage of Tesla's charger network.
 
Capodecina
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I find this interesting. General 50mile usage profile and occasional demand for a 300mile trip and public perception is obsessed we all need to do it none stop. Even if it means people have cars that are more expensive/larger/heavier than they need to be.
I'm not quite sure what you are saying here but I would certainly agree that a "more expensive/larger/heavier" car could reasonably be seen to be an unnecessary indulgence.

The purpose of my opening this thread was to see if the time is right to switch from a small petrol car to a small electric car (if such a thing exists). It appears that as I rather suspected, a Hybrid would probably make more sense.
 
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I think they mention this in the early stage of the video - that at 7 degrees, it's not ideal for an electric car to perform it's best. However, unless you only want to do long drives in warmer weather, it's still a good 'real life' usage case to show that long distances are probably best served by a M3LR, especially if you can take advantage of Tesla's charger network.

Yes, agreed. It is a fair test, because all the cars have the same temperature to deal with and I was just pointing out that on days when the temperatures are over 15C you will get better range and anything over 25C will see a further improvement.
 
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