Electric cars

[Westside Green]

Pre EU foreigners could come over here drop off, do one cabotage trip then pick up a load and leave we could do the same. After the borders opened EU drivers could do unlimited interior trips, as could we which wasn't a problem at first as there wasn't a great rush of german ,dutch ,Belgian or French drivers rushing to work over here because they were no cheaper than us. It wasn't until the EU was expanded into former soviet block countries that the wave of cheap foreign drivers arrived in this country , and businesses realised they could hire these drivers for a lot less than they were paying us. That's as much the reason for the driver shortage as brexit.
Also foreign trucks don't have to go back empty, nor do we.
I'm not sure if cabotage is back in operation or not.

• UK and EU road hauliers will be limited to a maximum of two journeys within the other’s territory before having to return to their own territory.
• UK operators will only be permitted to undertake one extra operation within the same member state, called cabotage, meaning the second would have to take them to another EU member state.

I suppose it depends on who's keeping an eye on them, i'm sure there will be chancers out there.

 

[hibadelic]

I've had my EV for a couple of weeks now and it's good, very good. The only thing it fails on is sometimes trying to be too clever.

There is a little bit of getting used to it. For mine it's not having gears, a key, handbrake or the need to brake - it does this automatically when you take your foot off the accelerator, feeding the energy back to the battery, apparently.

It has almost all controls on the touchscreen which is weird and until you know where everything is, quite annoying. There are hardly any controls or buttons in the car at all which is actually quite nice but makes doing things a bit tricky whilst driving.

That stuff is probably just Tesla though so more about electricness...

I've charged it twice so far. Both times I plugged it in at a public charger and charged for free what would have cost 70 quid in my old car. I suspect that won't happen forever but not a bad perk for early adopters. I worried that it would be complicated or there would be some issue but it was as simple as plug in and walk away.

Getting a charger at home is not straightforward if you hate personal admin, as I do. There are a few hoops to jump through to get the funding etc.

Range anxiety - I'd read a bit about this phenomenon and got the extra range i.e. bigger battery. First few days I worried about how much power was left but barely think about it now. I'm sure Elon will pop up with a reminder 'bing-bong' when things are looking bad.

On warnings, this isn't limited to electric cars but the amount of warnings these days is terrible. My car is unable to identify child car seats or let me switch off the warnings it wrongly sends when it thinks that seat has someone in it. It's utterly infuriating.

So basically in the pros corner, it's fast as fuck, like ridiculously fast, lovely to drive, it's futuristic, cheap/free to run, not as bad for the environment, there's a boot in the front and back ( 'cos no engine).

On the cons, there's a period of getting used to, the car seat problem is insane, sometimes it would just be easier to have a button, you do have to consider charging ( compared to just filling up petrol)

Probably more I've forgotten but some of this might help the OP. Going to take it up to Sutherland soon, will test the range anxiety...

 

[Rocky]

I've had my EV for a couple of weeks now and it's good, very good. The only thing it fails on is sometimes trying to be too clever.

There is a little bit of getting used to it. For mine it's not having gears, a key, handbrake or the need to brake - it does this automatically when you take your foot off the accelerator, feeding the energy back to the battery, apparently.

It has almost all controls on the touchscreen which is weird and until you know where everything is, quite annoying. There are hardly any controls or buttons in the car at all which is actually quite nice but makes doing things a bit tricky whilst driving.

That stuff is probably just Tesla though so more about electricness...

I've charged it twice so far. Both times I plugged it in at a public charger and charged for free what would have cost 70 quid in my old car. I suspect that won't happen forever but not a bad perk for early adopters. I worried that it would be complicated or there would be some issue but it was as simple as plug in and walk away.

Getting a charger at home is not straightforward if you hate personal admin, as I do. There are a few hoops to jump through to get the funding etc.

Range anxiety - I'd read a bit about this phenomenon and got the extra range i.e. bigger battery. First few days I worried about how much power was left but barely think about it now. I'm sure Elon will pop up with a reminder 'bing-bong' when things are looking bad.

On warnings, this isn't limited to electric cars but the amount of warnings these days is terrible. My car is unable to identify child car seats or let me switch off the warnings it wrongly sends when it thinks that seat has someone in it. It's utterly infuriating.

So basically in the pros corner, it's fast as fuck, like ridiculously fast, lovely to drive, it's futuristic, cheap/free to run, not as bad for the environment, there's a boot in the front and back ( 'cos no engine).

On the cons, there's a period of getting used to, the car seat problem is insane, sometimes it would just be easier to have a button, you do have to consider charging ( compared to just filling up petrol)

Probably more I've forgotten but some of this might help the OP. Going to take it up to Sutherland soon, will test the range anxiety...

Can't you just plug the seat belt in?

 

[hibadelic]

Can't you just plug the seat belt in?

That's what I have to do and yeah, first world problems, but should have to really. For some reason you can't turn it off in UK versions as you can in US.

 

[BVilleggiante]

I've had my EV for a couple of weeks now and it's good, very good. The only thing it fails on is sometimes trying to be too clever.

There is a little bit of getting used to it. For mine it's not having gears, a key, handbrake or the need to brake - it does this automatically when you take your foot off the accelerator, feeding the energy back to the battery, apparently.

It has almost all controls on the touchscreen which is weird and until you know where everything is, quite annoying. There are hardly any controls or buttons in the car at all which is actually quite nice but makes doing things a bit tricky whilst driving.

That stuff is probably just Tesla though so more about electricness...

I've charged it twice so far. Both times I plugged it in at a public charger and charged for free what would have cost 70 quid in my old car. I suspect that won't happen forever but not a bad perk for early adopters. I worried that it would be complicated or there would be some issue but it was as simple as plug in and walk away.

Getting a charger at home is not straightforward if you hate personal admin, as I do. There are a few hoops to jump through to get the funding etc.

Range anxiety - I'd read a bit about this phenomenon and got the extra range i.e. bigger battery. First few days I worried about how much power was left but barely think about it now. I'm sure Elon will pop up with a reminder 'bing-bong' when things are looking bad.

On warnings, this isn't limited to electric cars but the amount of warnings these days is terrible. My car is unable to identify child car seats or let me switch off the warnings it wrongly sends when it thinks that seat has someone in it. It's utterly infuriating.

So basically in the pros corner, it's fast as fuck, like ridiculously fast, lovely to drive, it's futuristic, cheap/free to run, not as bad for the environment, there's a boot in the front and back ( 'cos no engine).

On the cons, there's a period of getting used to, the car seat problem is insane, sometimes it would just be easier to have a button, you do have to consider charging ( compared to just filling up petrol)

Probably more I've forgotten but some of this might help the OP. Going to take it up to Sutherland soon, will test the range anxiety...

How much is the range reduced in Scotland because of the cold weather? I know batteries struggle more in cold conditions and can drastically cut down on range. Was that a concern upon buying?

 

[Hibees-Mad]

I've had my EV for a couple of weeks now and it's good, very good. The only thing it fails on is sometimes trying to be too clever.

There is a little bit of getting used to it. For mine it's not having gears, a key, handbrake or the need to brake - it does this automatically when you take your foot off the accelerator, feeding the energy back to the battery, apparently.

It has almost all controls on the touchscreen which is weird and until you know where everything is, quite annoying. There are hardly any controls or buttons in the car at all which is actually quite nice but makes doing things a bit tricky whilst driving.

That stuff is probably just Tesla though so more about electricness...

I've charged it twice so far. Both times I plugged it in at a public charger and charged for free what would have cost 70 quid in my old car. I suspect that won't happen forever but not a bad perk for early adopters. I worried that it would be complicated or there would be some issue but it was as simple as plug in and walk away.

Getting a charger at home is not straightforward if you hate personal admin, as I do. There are a few hoops to jump through to get the funding etc.

Range anxiety - I'd read a bit about this phenomenon and got the extra range i.e. bigger battery. First few days I worried about how much power was left but barely think about it now. I'm sure Elon will pop up with a reminder 'bing-bong' when things are looking bad.

On warnings, this isn't limited to electric cars but the amount of warnings these days is terrible. My car is unable to identify child car seats or let me switch off the warnings it wrongly sends when it thinks that seat has someone in it. It's utterly infuriating.

So basically in the pros corner, it's fast as fuck, like ridiculously fast, lovely to drive, it's futuristic, cheap/free to run, not as bad for the environment, there's a boot in the front and back ( 'cos no engine).

On the cons, there's a period of getting used to, the car seat problem is insane, sometimes it would just be easier to have a button, you do have to consider charging ( compared to just filling up petrol)

Probably more I've forgotten but some of this might help the OP. Going to take it up to Sutherland soon, will test the range anxiety...

No brake? Interesting. I heard about the braking is when you take your foot off the accelerator but I thought that was only in the Nissan Leaf.

Electric is just outside my price range just now. I'm hoping that when I go to buy a new car in some years time the price has come down, longer range and easier charging.

Still wish I could afford it now though!

 

[Jamie]

Looked at the eberlingo. Almost double in price per month, even taking into consideration the low cost electric it would still cost me 100 quid more per month. They harp on about saving the planent, they are gonna have to reduce the cost to buy considerably for that to happen. I was all for getting one but not at that price.

 

[hibadelic]

How much is the range reduced in Scotland because of the cold weather? I know batteries struggle more in cold conditions and can drastically cut down on range. Was that a concern upon buying?

Not sure really. The advertised range was 360 miles but it seems to only get 340. Not sure if that's to do with cold weather as it hasn't really been cold since I got it.

No brake? Interesting. I heard about the braking is when you take your foot off the accelerator but I thought that was only in the Nissan Leaf.

There is a brake but I find I only really use it for emergency braking.

Looked at the eberlingo. Almost double in price per month, even taking into consideration the low cost electric it would still cost me 100 quid more per month. They harp on about saving the planent, they are gonna have to reduce the cost to buy considerably for that to happen. I was all for getting one but not at that price.

Aye, prices are higher than the equivalent petrol version, no getting away from that. Have you investigated any tax savings you could make on profit, salary etc.? Not sure how it works for vans but I'd bet there's some way of making a saving that you won't get with petrol/diesel.

 

[Jamie]

Aye, prices are higher than the equivalent petrol version, no getting away from that. Have you investigated any tax savings you could make on profit, salary etc.? Not sure how it works for vans but I'd bet there's some way of making a saving that you won't get with petrol/diesel.

Aye mate. They are pretty poor, the grant would only pay for 35% of the purchase price for these vehicles, up to a maximum of £2,500. That was taken off the price I got

My present van is a 20 plate, just over a year old but thought if I can help the environment more (present is an adblue version so helps a bit) then I would have done so. Alas naw.