I did read an article recently that suggested EV batteries were wearing out at a quicker rate than expected. Will try to find it when I have more time.
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The general conclusion I have read is the opposite, that manufacturers are revising longevity estimates upwards. Battery and charging tech has also improved from 10-15 years ago when these cars were being developed.
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I think this is the article I read…EV Battery Life…I guess you take you pick. I note in this article the cars are not new, so it could be as you imply that this is not such a problem for more contemporary EVs.
Anyway, if I got at EV now I’d more than likely take it on a PCP and return it rather than keep it, as things are likely to move on quite quickly in this area so what is SOTA now may well have been superseded in three years or so and I wouldn’t want to be stuck with it.
That article is a lot of ‘yes, but, maybe and on the other hand’. I think the early Leaf is well known to have a fair bit of degradation compared to other models. Degradation seems to be very model/user/usage dependent from what I read.
Of course at 8-10 years a lot of ICE cars have had new exhaust, clutch, timing chains, oil filters etc etc. Cars degrade!
Bruce
This is a very interesting point.
How much mechanical expenditure does an EV incur on an annual basis.
ICE vehicles cost £hundreds every year in servicing costs at a minimum…
@WeekendWarrior one scenario not mentioned so far IIRC. Select a suitable EV for local use if that’s your majority use, with a reasonable range versus size, lease to avoid unknowns.
Weekend use - do as you likely do when you are away for accommodation - rent.
Book when you book accommodation - better deals away from peak times.
Does assume you have easy access to a rental station. Calculate rental v costs of the forgone second car as well as not spending more on a bigger / longer range vehicle, which is under utilised most of the time.
I have the opposite issue, almost no short trips, monthly trips for a few days away dog walking, around 300miles each trip.
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And look at the last couple of paragraphs in the article - far more positive than the rest of it.
I have been driving EV for over 7 years now - 39,000 miles in a BMW i3, 30,000 miles in a Jaguar iPace (would have been 40k plus but for lockdown) and now 8,000 so far in a Volvo c40. The i3 and ipace were “my” car but the c40 is my wife’s. I do somewhere around 20-30 trips a year of 300 to 400 miles in a day and the charging network where I go (SW Scotland and Edinburgh in particular) is not good enough - hasn’t really improved in three years.
It depends where you are travelling and it is improving but patchily. And there is no EV with a boot big enough for university runs - so I have a phev Volvo xc90 which can be used to do a round trip to Edinburgh (390 miles) 2-3 hours faster than the ipace. But we have done Edinburgh runs with no delay form charging as we have shopped / had lunch while the car was charging. And on one weekend run to Essex (320 miles each way I think) with excellent chargers at M1/M6 rugby services and the Braintree charging forecourt the car was ready before we were.
We use the c40 for local running, wife commuting and work, day trips out up to around 180-200 miles in total, but generally use the xc90 on holidays and longer trips. The xc90 is an early phev but manages 12-13 miles electric at the moment which manages most local trips. Up to 18-20 in the summer. Overall average mpg is about 40 v 30-33 on petrol only.
Another issue (which might not bother anyone here) is that there is virtually no EV with a spare wheel - had a space saver in the ipace which nicked half of the boot. I have a Range Rover sport phev on order with a full size spare wheel and towbar (and 60+ miles electric only range). With that I may feel brave enough to go abroad - bad memories of coming back from France in discovery 4 on a space saver at 50mph for 300 miles plus another 300 miles in England - and we would have been there another two nights without the space saver
Generally v cheap though there are many complaints in EV forums about servicing being a rip off considering the amount of work required - plenty of Nissan leaf owners spending under £100 pa. The i3 had one service in three years for about £200, and the jag was the same. There are EV specialists who will come to your home or work to service your car
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Tim, I shall be very interested to hear your experiences when your RRS arrives - what was the lead time?
After four discos over 25 years, the latest design of disco didn’t appeal and I opted for a RRS - very pleased, but annual mileage is now lowish yet all long runs.
I opted to keep at end of lease, instead of a new phev, largely due to delivery uncertainty.
Seems early caution on towing with EV is not it seems an issue although perhaps it has to be a phev.
The issue of spare wheel is a pertinent observation - first puncture in a very long time last year, at home, so all local but didn’t take away the agro; tyres towards end of sensible mileage so full swap. One or more replacements, do depend on being immediately available, I do though have full size spare (not in my sports car though).
You will do doubt be aware, the spare is not fitted to “reduce” the certified weight; another less than bright idea and backward step.
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Does it have hydraulic brakes?
Tesla’s recommended service interval is… non required
We thought about full EV but went the PEHV (Outlander) route and I’m glad we did.
A trip to Aviemore last year saw us at a two station charging point when a chap in a smart Jaguar EV connected to the point next to us. No charge was coming from the point, and then the cable socket wouldn’t disconnect from his car. We left him tethered phoning the help line.
‘At least you have an engine’ he said to us when we tried to assist.
G
I’ve (actually my partner) had a 2017 Leaf since 2019. It has done about 20k in our ownership.
It’s had an annual service which is pretty much just checking brake pads etc., charging way too much for some washer fluid, changing pollen filter and every other year changing the brake fluid. It costs around 100 quid (it also gets valleted and washed).
Besides that I’ve had once set of tyres and one set of front disks/pads (the disks rot in the UK because they don’t get used enough to get the ‘damp’ out of them.
I’ve also got a Subaru estate and a few motorcycles. I’d be a bit stuck without an estate car for buying DIY stuff, moving dogs around etc. I keep (half) thinking about the MG but frankly I think I’m sticking with the old Subaru for about 1000 miles a year and doing the bulk of miles in the Leaf.
If I go anywhere interesting it’s on a motorbike, on my own…
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Wonder how that works with cabin filters and brake fluid?
Ordered September, lead time 9-12 months. Am coping with the wait by assuming it is never coming 
otherwise I would be going nuts. Had a couple of punctures on the i3 which lost me half a day each time - the gunk just sprayed over the M6 without f doing anything for the tyre so don’t trust them!
I think it does. Service interval was two years I think
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A very good question that many of us are starting to ask now.
The answers are really as long as a piece of string, or it all depends (on several factors).
First, what size of car do you need and do you have a rough budget in mind?
Second, do you live somewhere very remote with low population density (N Scotland, perhaps) or in a more urban area?
Third, for longer journeys, where would you like to go to?
In our case,
- we needed a car to take 2 of us plus a very large dog (which claims all the rear seats)
- we live in southern England and there are Ionity, Shell, Gridserve and Instavolt chargers across the south of England, as well as Tesla’s excellent Supercharger network.
- We have already driven to the Corbieres in south west France (twice) and Bavaria in winter (once)
We ended up picking a Skoda Enyaq iV80. It’s brilliant, practical, well under our budget (we had expected to buy a Tesla Model Y Long Range), has claimed 333 mile range, which for us means it’s 280 miles in the summer and 230 miles in the winter.
Charge pricing is almost irrelevant. 90% of electricity comes from our home wall box. At 11p/unit (Octopus Energy Tesla Tariff), that’s under 4p/mile. 10% of electricity comes from DC fast chargers at 50-80p/unit.
Hope this helps, BF
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The official line is bring it in when you want these things checked but there is no recommended interval. Remember they are very light ob brakes as most of the deceleration is using regenerative braking.
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I cant see hydrogen being used on passenger cars. It does make sense for plant/construction equipment and possibly for boats/trucks. But passenger cars, I am doubtful it will happen.
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If it did then the brakes cannot have been serviced properly if at all as 200 quid won’t go far at a main stealer. 