E-Golf Lease

Soldato
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It's in stock?
Just before closing the deal for the Mercedes A Class, some dealer at whatcar was offering a pretty good deal with the A250, but the 4 months, and potential for delays) put me off.
Just asking as most of the electric cars have long waiting lists.

According to Volkswagen dealer I spoke with last Friday there were 1208 cars in stock for delivery within 2 weeks. I guess that is why they are doing such a good deal. :)
 

Jez

Jez

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The issue I have with EVs is that the range is enough for my usage for MOST of the time.

Every now and then though, I'll want to drive to Scotland, or Germany, or France. When that happens, I then need to stop for an hour every 150 miles to charge the thing, or even more frequently depending on the availability of fast chargers on my route.
Agreed, I wouldn’t use an EV like that and it is certainly a shortcoming. Personally though I would just use another car for trips like that, I’d never plan to charge an EV in public, I simply don’t have the patience. For me they are a really nice prospect for day to day commuting and local use without constant filling station visits, and charge it in the garage over night every night :) Long trip like that bring out the gas guzzling old SUV :p
 
Soldato
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Agreed, I wouldn’t use an EV like that and it is certainly a shortcoming. Personally though I would just use another car for trips like that, I’d never plan to charge an EV in public, I simply don’t have the patience. For me they are a really nice prospect for day to day commuting and local use without constant filling station visits, and charge it in the garage over night every night :) Long trip like that bring out the gas guzzling old SUV :p

But if you only have a single car and need it to do everything, EVs become a problem.

Even though an EV would suit me 95% of the time, the 5% it wouldn't is a problem, just as I couldn't have a two-seater as, whilst it would be fine most of the time, when I need to take more than one passenger or cart crap to the tip, I'm screwed.
 
Soldato
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But if you only have a single car and need it to do everything, EVs become a problem.

I agree with this in respect to the E-Golf, it's not practical for everything, with the range being a little short and the fast charging being not quite as fast as you'd like.

I think the Teslas, I-Pace, e-tron & EQC genuinely can suit anyone's driving, perhaps the non-Tesla ones could do with the UK having as many non-Tesla rapid chargers as you find in Europe, quick ones like Fastned and Ionity. These cars are not affordable though.

The VW ID.3 is going to be interesting, I think it might be the tipping point.
 
Associate
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It's in stock?
Just before closing the deal for the Mercedes A Class, some dealer at whatcar was offering a pretty good deal with the A250, but the 4 months, and potential for delays) put me off.
Just asking as most of the electric cars have long waiting lists.

It says its for an in stock vehicle. To be honest the other deal posted by someone else is actually a better deal money wise.

https://www.21stcenturymotors.co.uk...511136491?mc_cid=cda6b0fe62&mc_eid=d659c01481

The 2 year lease works out to be £288 per month all in if you spread the intial payment over the lease period.

The 4 year lease works is 277.64 per month over the 4 years with no upfront payment. there is a £299.99 processing fee for this one which effectively adds 6.25 per month on making it £283.89 per month. Theres nothing about a processing fee with the whatcar one but there usually is a processing fee of some kind with all lease companies. So the 4 year lease would be the better option in my opinion. After fuel savings and no road tax it would work out to be about £159.75 per month for me to have the golf.
 
Soldato
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The issue I have with EVs is that the range is enough for my usage for MOST of the time.

Every now and then though, I'll want to drive to Scotland, or Germany, or France. When that happens, I then need to stop for an hour every 150 miles to charge the thing, or even more frequently depending on the availability of fast chargers on my route.
My dad is planning a trip to the Pyrenees via mid West France over Christmas in his I Pace. Sounds like a lot of extra stops at first but the route and charging options look pretty good expect for one potentially sketchy area that might need some proper eco driving but otherwise the prospect of stopping for an hour every 5 isn't that bad on a journey like that. Worse with the range of the Golf though
 
Soldato
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My dad is planning a trip to the Pyrenees via mid West France over Christmas in his I Pace. Sounds like a lot of extra stops at first but the route and charging options look pretty good expect for one potentially sketchy area that might need some proper eco driving but otherwise the prospect of stopping for an hour every 5 isn't that bad on a journey like that. Worse with the range of the Golf though

Well firstly, as you say, the i-Pace has twice the range of the Golf at 292 miles. That said, TG only achieved that by driving ridiculously carefully. In the real world, driving like you want to, it'll be more like low 200s.

Ignoring travel this side of the water as I don't know where you are, the journey from Calais is going to be circa 700-800 miles so you're going to have to stop at least three times, for about an hour a pop. Whilst obviously feasible, this is annoying. Sure one of these stops can be for a lunch break but having to stop for an hour each 200-odd miles is annoying in the extreme and adds significant time to the journey.

Basically, whilst some are better than others, EVs do not make good long-distance tourers.
 
Soldato
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On the front of lifespans, the 2011 Nissan Leaf can be found here:

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/nissan_leaf

Not really sure what to read in to the fast initial drop, as it would seem too early to be caused by batteries dying (they'd still be in warranty, assuming they hadn't gone over the mileage limit, which would seem unlikely). But lately, the number of licensed and SORN cars has been on a slow taper downward. No real suggestion of sudden and widespread battery deaths yet (after 6 to 8 years).
 
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Soldato
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You are better off stopping more often for less time. Charging is faster with a low battery and tapers as it fills. If you can make it to the next charger once the tapering starts you should go, assuming you are on a reliable network.

On the front of lifespans, the 2011 Nissan Leaf can be found here:

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/nissan_leaf

Not really sure what to read in to the fast initial drop, as it would seem too early to be caused by batteries dying (they'd still be in warranty). But lately, the number of licensed and SORN cars has been on a slow taper downward. No real suggestion of sudden and widespread battery deaths yet (after 6 to 8 years).

The main problem with EVs and the current battery shortage is that once the car hits a certain price, the parts are worth so much out of the car they’ll start disappearing off the road to be dismantled regardless if they still run or not.

The batteries and motors have significant value while being easy to remove, even well used. They are used in storage solutions and classic conversions where there is a thriving market currently.
 
Soldato
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Not really sure what to read in to the fast initial drop, as it would seem too early to be caused by batteries dying (they'd still be in warranty, assuming they hadn't gone over the mileage limit, which would seem unlikely). But lately, the number of licensed and SORN cars has been on a slow taper downward. No real suggestion of sudden and widespread battery deaths yet (after 6 to 8 years).

nissans warranty and usa battery issues would seem to count against 2nd hand values .. even re-purposing them ...
(that's why I wouldn't buy a no mark battery pack/laptop battery on the web too)

Under the new warranty, Nissan will repair or replace a Leaf's battery within five years or 60,000 miles if it loses more than 30 percent of its charge capacity. For Leaf owners, that means the warranty kicks in if the 12-bar battery gauge falls under nine bars. The new warranty is the second for the Leaf's batteries; the first covers defects and flaws for up to eight years or 100,000 miles.
...
That's certainly the case for some southwestern Leaf owners who have noticed a loss of battery capacity. Several have filed a class-action lawsuit against Nissan. They allege hot weather causes the Leaf to suffer "widespread, severe and premature loss of driving range, battery capacity and battery life." The lawsuit also says Nissan should've disclosed issues with hot weather and the Leaf's batteries.

someones voyage across france with a leaf .. the nissan garages were the oasis's(?) https://ev20q.com/ev-public-charging-in-charge-in-france/
 
Soldato
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You would have to plan a trip based on where you can recharge your car. Running flat in the middle of Europe would be epic hassle :\

Could tow a generator I suppose :D
 
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Soldato
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You would have to plan a trip based on where you can recharge your car. Running flat in the middle of Europe would be epic hassle :\

Could tow a generator I suppose :D
Whilst true, this is going to be a relatively short term problem. Back when ICE cars were taking off, you can be sure there wasn't a Shell on every other street.

The charging infrastructure will grow with the demand, slowly but surely, as did the refuelling infrastructure back in the day. As it does, EVs will become a suitable alternative for more and more people. Most people aren't doing trans European drives in EVs anyway (or ICE cars for that matter) so it's hardly worth getting excited about whether they can or can't do it easily.
 
Soldato
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You would have to plan a trip based on where you can recharge your car. Running flat in the middle of Europe would be epic hassle :\

Could tow a generator I suppose :D

I was looking at a trip down to the south of France, it doesn't really matter what route I take, fast charging was available on it. It's really very hard to run an EV flat, the projected range and estimated battery level at arrival on the GPS is very accurate. I think it was looking at 5 25-45 minute stops in 18 hours of driving. The Tesla sends you a notification when you have enough juice to make the next charger and you can leave.

This would be no fun in an E-Golf, so far I find the Tesla is no hassle whatsoever on long trips, I doubt anything I-Pace or better would be difficult.
 
Soldato
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Whilst true, this is going to be a relatively short term problem. Back when ICE cars were taking off, you can be sure there wasn't a Shell on every other street.

The charging infrastructure will grow with the demand, slowly but surely, as did the refuelling infrastructure back in the day. As it does, EVs will become a suitable alternative for more and more people. Most people aren't doing trans European drives in EVs anyway (or ICE cars for that matter) so it's hardly worth getting excited about whether they can or can't do it easily.

In the old days people carried jerry cans of spare fuel though. You cant carry spare batteries.
 
Associate
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I can't decide if I should pull the trigger on this now. I really wanted an id.3 but they are probably a year away from being generally available (summer 2020 unless you have a pre-order).

Is there anything else I should be considering?
 
Associate
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Depends on your budget and what you want from the vehicle.

At the moment I'm doing 2k miles per year in a 350z as a weekend car only and my wife is not driving at all.

We probably do another 500 to 1000 miles a year in a borrowed b-class but we are going to lose access to that soon.

Within the next 6 months my mileage will double and if my wife were driving (instead of trains, buses and Uber) it would probably be a fair bit higher as well. She also gets a lot of lifts from people going out of their way because she won't drive a manual car.

I really like the idea of an electric car but don't want to spend more than £300 pm. She wants something automatic and blue and with 4 seats.

Edit: worth saying that 99% of our journeys are short city trips.
 
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