I'n new to this EV idea

[jsab500]

For some reason that i cannot possibly imagine the idea of getting an electric car only occured to me a couple of days ago, but already i have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that i want to replace my current car with one.

I've been looking into it a bit, but i'm pretty busy right now and really should stop resarching electric cars and do some work, so i thought i'd be lazy and ask you people some questions, as you seem to know what you're talking about.

1. From what i can tell, there currently aren't any EVs that are fast enough to go on a motorway. Correct?

2. The current one available in the UK that seems the best is the G-Wiz - top speed 50mph. I'm assuming that there's a law that says that something that can only go upto 50mph can't go on the motorway. Is that true?

3. Are they allowed on normal national speed limit roads? And could i therefore make longer journeys by avoiding motorways and dual carriageways?

4. I don't live anywhere near London. Is this a problem for the current cars or likely to be for future ones?

5. I noticed someone somewhere say that you pay a certain price, fully or per month, and then an extra £100 ish a month for lease of the battery. Is this always the case, is it likely not to be the case for future models?

What i would obviously want (though i realise this may be too optimistic), would be an EV that could get to 70 on a motorway without too much trouble, and accelerate enough to be able to safely overtake old people on country A-Roads. I looked at the site www.greencarsite.co.uk/electric-vehicles-cars.htm. It has a list of future EVs that look potentially good, eg the Mitsubishi i MiEV.

6. There didn't seem to be a huge amount of information on these future models, including whether they'll be available in the UK. Do you think any of these future models will be available in the next year or so in the UK?

7. How expensive do you think they'll be? eg how expensive do you reckon that Mitsubishi will be, as it looks rather good.

I think i'll leave it at that. Sorry for being lazy and asking all this, and thanks in advance for your responses.

James

[qdos]

For some reason that i cannot possibly imagine the idea of getting an electric car only occured to me a couple of days ago, but already i have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that i want to replace my current car with one.

I've been looking into it a bit, but i'm pretty busy right now and really should stop resarching electric cars and do some work, so i thought i'd be lazy and ask you people some questions, as you seem to know what you're talking about.

1. From what i can tell, there currently aren't any EVs that are fast enough to go on a motorway. Correct?

No there are evs which can do 70 and more Stuart at MEV has one him and Ian at Lifebatt have developped and We're also developing one with a top speed limited to 100mph

2. The current one available in the UK that seems the best is the G-Wiz - top speed 50mph. I'm assuming that there's a law that says that something that can only go upto 50mph can't go on the motorway. Is that true?

not so far as I'm aware no but obviously it would not be fun and it would be sensible not to go on the Mway though I take the Zest on it frequently but it can do over 70

3. Are they allowed on normal national speed limit roads? And could i therefore make longer journeys by avoiding motorways and dual carriageways?

Most definately yes !

4. I don't live anywhere near London. Is this a problem for the current cars or likely to be for future ones?

It's being expanded by the likes of BVS members all teh time and there are numerous GWiz out side London

5. I noticed someone somewhere say that you pay a certain price, fully or per month, and then an extra £100 ish a month for lease of the battery. Is this always the case, is it likely not to be the case for future models?

Depends on which car you are talking about and are talking new or second had too there's nothing stopping you having our own batteries

What i would obviously want (though i realise this may be too optimistic), would be an EV that could get to 70 on a motorway without too much trouble, and accelerate enough to be able to safely overtake old people on country A-Roads. I looked at the site www.greencarsite.co.uk/electric-vehicles-cars.htm. It has a list of future EVs that look potentially good, eg the Mitsubishi i MiEV.

They will come

6. There didn't seem to be a huge amount of information on these future models, including whether they'll be available in the UK. Do you think any of these future models will be available in the next year or so in the UK?

It's a secret

7. How expensive do you think they'll be? eg how expensive do you reckon that Mitsubishi will be, as it looks rather good.

Ask the dealers

I think i'll leave it at that. Sorry for being lazy and asking all this, and thanks in advance for your responses.

You are very welcome I'm sure there will be more responses but before I end how about a hybrid such as the Toyota Prius or the Honda Insight? There was a superb write up in the last Plugged In by Peter Perkins who has got over 100mpg from his on average!!!!!

[hailstorm]

Personally I'd hold off for a while. The Misubushi MiEV won't be appearing until next year, correct me if I'm wrong.

The other car available at the end of the year is the Think City www.think.no

It's a 2 seater, 100 miles range, 70mph top speed. It's kinda pricey though at £14k plus £100 battery lease on top.

I'm not that sold on the Prius. It seems a lot of money for high mpg. The 100mpg average has got to be for the plug in upgrade for the Prius surely? If not thats got to be some pretty careful driving.

Further out there is a range of cars Renault Nissan are developing for Project Better Place. I won't go into all the details here, have a look at www.projectbetterplace.com

[qdos]

I'm not that sold on the Prius. It seems a lot of money for high mpg. The 100mpg average has got to be for the plug in upgrade for the Prius surely? If not thats got to be some pretty careful driving.

100mpg was for the Honda Insight which is in the last Issue of Plugged In and yes there's lots of tweaks and careful driving Peter has done but that's not just a one off figure, so far he's averaged 93.4 mpg over 85,000 miles!!

As you rightly say there's lots more mainstream vehicles comming and Project Better Place is one of the best projects going where the aim is to make Israel totally electric in 10 years! This is heavily invested in by Renault Nissan if you look on the main pages of the main site www.BatteryVehicleSociety.org.uk you can watch a video of Shai Agassi's excellent presentation about the project.

[aminorjourney]

If it's possible, I'd wait a year until the Mitsubishi iMiev comes out. I've driven the petrol version and if the electric is as good I think it's going to be a fantastic car.

Failing that, why not convert your existing car? It depends on your technical proficiency, but it is possible to get a fantastic conversion for a limited price outlay.

Thirdly, there's always the Elcat MiniVan, which should do 50 -60 mph. That is only available second hand. Also, remember that the Nice Car Company are now selling the microVett Range of EVs, which includes some conversions of Fiat vehicles capable of over 70mph!

Your best bet now I think would be to think long about your exact specifications. Do you need to always do motorway driving? Do you need really long range, or would you be willing to hire a car or join a city car club for distances greater than the range of your ev for those rare longer trips?

Where about are you James? Perhaps we can put you in touch with some local EV owners and you can take things from there? I think e need to get you sitting in an EV and giving it a go to see just what you would like.

Of course, there is also the PHEV (Plug in Prius) option. I'm in the process of selling my City El EV as I need a range further than the City El can cope with and need to tackle some pretty serious hills. Some Evs could cope, but my City El can't. I managed to purchase a second-hand Prius for £8,500 and with some careful planning hope to convert it to PHEV for under £2,500.

Regards,

Nikki.

P.S. YouTube is always a great place to do some research if you're interested in conversions. There's an guy who has done some fantastic videos of his conversion. His ID is Can'tThinkClearly.

[jsab500]

Well thanks a lot for answering. I guess i will hold off a bit. It looks like it's the price that will be a problem though. The one that was mentioned -£14000 + £100 a month is too high for me. £14000 by itself would be the absolute maximum i could even consider, and realistically that's more than i could really afford. So is my dream of getting a practical EV for less than (hopefully significantly less than) £14000 including batteries a bit optimistic?

I might get an electric scooter in the meantime for about £2000, as by using it i'd probably save nearly that much in a year anyway.

EDIT - i posted this before refreshing and reading the post above. thanks again for your answer, i'll look into what you suggested in a few days when i'm less busy i think. I might ask you for some more info. cheers

[ChrisB]

Some/all of this has been answered but heres my take on it

1. From what i can tell, there currently aren't any EVs that are fast enough to go on a motorway. Correct?

Sort of yes and no, I've had my Berlingo at just over 70mph down hill but its normally actually carrying out some regen braking by then but it will quite happliy and I do go on motorways driving between 50-65mph.
My converted 120volt ford fiesta had a top speed of 75mph

2. The current one available in the UK that seems the best is the G-Wiz - top speed 50mph. I'm assuming that there's a law that says that something that can only go upto 50mph can't go on the motorway. Is that true?

There is NO minium speed on a motorway , there is however a minium power lever and it is measured in cc and that is 50cc, but as EV's are not measured in cc then that could be tricky

3. Are they allowed on normal national speed limit roads? And could i therefore make longer journeys by avoiding motorways and dual carriageways?

Take a EV where ever you want the only issues you may have are with electric scooter type go-peds as they dont actually have a law and hence sort of end up being ilegal

4. I don't live anywhere near London. Is this a problem for the current cars or likely to be for future ones?

I dont live in london either and have no probs using my berlingo anywhere

5. I noticed someone somewhere say that you pay a certain price, fully or per month, and then an extra £100 ish a month for lease of the battery. Is this always the case, is it likely not to be the case for future models?

What i would obviously want (though i realise this may be too optimistic), would be an EV that could get to 70 on a motorway without too much trouble, and accelerate enough to be able to safely overtake old people on country A-Roads. I looked at the site www.greencarsite.co.uk/electric-vehicles-cars.htm. It has a list of future EVs that look potentially good, eg the Mitsubishi i MiEV.

Sorry new cars I just dont do as they are too expensive so I'll leave this one to the others

6. There didn't seem to be a huge amount of information on these future models, including whether they'll be available in the UK. Do you think any of these future models will be available in the next year or so in the UK?

7. How expensive do you think they'll be? eg how expensive do you reckon that Mitsubishi will be, as it looks rather good.

Again all new stuff for others to answer

ChrisB

[jsab500]

I've been thinking about your suggestions nikki, and will be looking in to those soon, but for now i'm thinking about electric mopeds. Does anyone know how insurance works for these? - Is it legally requried? Will it cover you properly for accidents, theft and things like normalr? I'm asking because the laws don't seem very clear.

If anyone has an electric moped, how much did insurance cost you? I'd just like to have some idea of what region the cost is likely to be in. Couldn't seem to get a quote.

Cheers

[aminorjourney]

With electric mopeds it's quite simple.

If the "moped" has bicycle pdeals (or has a place for them to be attached/removed) and can't go more than 15mph on electric mode and has a motor which produces less than 250W of continuous power then it's an electric bike which looks like a moped. For it to be legal on the road you need to keep the pedals attached, and be willing to demonstrate that pedaling moves it along if required!

Examples of electric bikes which look like scooters can be seen here:
http://flickr.com/photos/aminorjourney/288406206/

If the scooter/moped does over 15mph, has no pedals, or a motor above 250W then it's an electric moped. You need a CBT, insurance, crash helmet etc for these.

If you're looking for mid to long range transport go for an electric moped (registered one). The 250W bicycles are good if you're a keen cyclist and want to help out, but in all honesty the electric moped bicycles are heavy and only really good for short trips.

Hope that helps!

Nikki.

[hailstorm]

What about the Vectrix?

http://www.nicecarcompany.co.uk/vectrixbike/