Why I won’t be buying an EV anytime soon...

[Mito Man]

The stupid thing about forcing EVs on everyone is that as it is, one can purchase a Kia Picanto for however much it costs per month or £10k and have a car which is capable of driving anywhere and doing over 400 miles to a tank. I would like to see how long it will take for an EV which costs the same and does 400 miles to a tank.

[Delphi]

An EV makes perfect sense for us as the only driving that gets done is short trips of < 10 miles. We've had the V60 for just over 3 years and the Mrs started to idly browse cars. I suggested an EV and she flat out refused the idea. Not even a hybrid. She wanted a Porsche Macan until she saw how much they were, she seemed to think paying more than £200 per month for a car is a lot!

I think we'll wait until next year and see if I can change her mind. Quite fancy a Polestar 2, but because I've got the 928 we agreed she gets to pick the next family car.

[duncs500]

Looks nice mik.

EV might feature in my next fleet decision, but it really depends on life choices I guess. If we go to a three car fleet, then one ICE (or PHEV) family car, and one full EV city car would probably be ideal, but £££.

If the wife can cope without a car then ICE/PHEV would be the choice. I need to replace the Focus next summer, but TBH I can't see anything remotely EV being able to compete on cost, which will really be my only consideration (I only do significant mileage through work, and that's all covered by them).

[mr_jon]

EV's are brill, I just wouldn't want to do a Cornwall 350 mile trip in one....just yet. I think the 2030 date is fantastic news and can really drive the green economy. I just have to find some sort of killer business angle on that!

[V8Granite]

I wouldn’t buy a mundane petrol engined car and that’s what’s keeping me away from an EV.

The Renault Zoe was a plan but now the TT is proving cheaper than any electric car. That’s not a like for like though and my maintenance labour is free.

It will happen but even a fast Tesla I was bored of after a few runs.

It’ll be really interesting to see where it goes though, there is a lot of fanciful nonsense but also a lot of room for improvement.

Dave!

[Matty]

Very nice Mik

I must be getting old, though - as my first thoughts on cars like this, especially with those mirrors are "I bet they're expensive to fix/replace"

[integrale_evo]

Same

Surely there’s a way to use a funky wide angle camera in a mount tucked much closer to the body and use some sort of distortion correction filter to bring it back to a normal flat image for the internal screens?

[Mito Man]

My only thinking is that as it’s an SUV you want wider “mirrors” in case you tow something - it’s not like you can strap on a mirror to that stub is it.

[Rich B]

My only thinking is that as it’s an SUV you want wider “mirrors” in case you tow something - it’s not like you can strap on a mirror to that stub is it.

they wouldn't go to the expense/compromise of producing those for the 3 people who'll be towing a caravan. If you need long mirrors for that it's not beyond the realms of science to make a long set that stick on without the mirror stalk there.

[ZedLeg]

Who's buying a £60k EV to tow a caravan

At least you'll have somewhere to stay while it's charging I guess.

[mik]

And it’s already pretty wide. I towed our van with our Disco3 & 4 without any mirror extensions, and it was a Euro spec van so 2.2m wide (ie more than UK vans). Never an issue.

[Mito Man]

Who's buying a £60k EV to tow a caravan

At least you'll have somewhere to stay while it's charging I guess.

Everyone from 2030 onwards is my guess.

[PaulJ]

I seem to remember that the outer tip of the door mirrors is required to be a little wider than the widest part of the car's bodywork. This being a safety factor for vulnerable rear wings on some cars when going for narrow gaps.

Apart from that I'd make the towing of caravans a criminal offence.

[simon_g]

My only thinking is that as it’s an SUV you want wider “mirrors” in case you tow something - it’s not like you can strap on a mirror to that stub is it.

Standard mirrors are a no-cost option (on grades that have the virtual door mirrors as standard) for those people. Or I'm sure someone will work out how to clamp a towing mirror to the etron's stumps.

[V8Granite]

I seem to remember that the outer tip of the door mirrors is required to be a little wider than the widest part of the car's bodywork. This being a safety factor for vulnerable rear wings on some cars when going for narrow gaps.

Apart from that I'd make the towing of caravans a criminal offence.

I’m not a caravan lover but I’d say if we ban caravans we also need to ban race car trailers, horse trailers, anyone with a trailer Ofer 750kg basically

As much as I’m not a fan, I’d love to see a 300hp and gazillionty lbs/ft of torque electric car decimate all at the lights towing a caravan

Dave!

[Mito Man]

I have 3 trailers but no caravans

[16vCento]

The problem with going ballistic at the tlgp with the Van on the back is, if anything isn't fastened down or stored properly, it promptly fucks off out of the cupboard its stored in, and smashes on the worktop, and the smell of rhubarb gin doesn't half take some getting out

[Rich B]

As much as I’m not a fan, I’d love to see a 300hp and gazillionty lbs/ft of torque electric car decimate all at the lights towing a caravan

Dave!

then spend the next two hours re-charging to do the rest of the journey!

[ZedLeg]

Yeah, we're a long way from EVs being useful for that sort of thing.

If Saint Elon's electric lorries work out it'll probably be a good start.

[integrale_evo]

From a technical point of view evs would be perfect for towing.

However in the real world it ruins all the hard fought efficiency gains and absolutely destroys the range.

So yeah, unless they start making caravans with built in additional battery packs then a cross country caravan trip will take some planning.

Luckily you’ve got somewhere handy to sit and have a brew / watch tv / have a snooze while you wait for it to charge up again.