I will start by saying I am no petrolhead. Cars for me are a convenient form of transport. I have never had a really sporty one, but then I did have a fairly quick motorbike for years. I could happily live without a car, but where we live there is limited public transport. I can get to work by train, but doing the shopping and other activities need a car. We actually own three vehicles, but our old camper van is in need of repairs and my trusty Hyundai i10 recently suffered a gearbox failure, so we just have our old Honda CRV to use for now.
I have been keeping an eye on the electric car market for some years. They have been steadily improving and there is now a huge range of models to select from. It used to be pretty much just the Nissan Leaf. Now most manufacturers have a fully electric model. I could go for a hybrid, but that is a compromise in that you have both times of motor to worry about and most cannot go far purely on electric. We have the Honda for long journeys, but we rarely do more than fifty miles in a day.
The 'death' of the Hyundai has added some urgency to the search, but we hope to have extra funds soon. We may just need to buy a cheap petrol car to tide us over and it will also be something for the kids to practice in before they take their tests. You need a manual transmission for that.
So the plan is to lease an electric car when our funds come through. I have been looking at the options and it looks like you pay from around £1500 up front and then from £200 each month. Running costs should be minimal as electrics are much cheaper per mile than petrol. Leasing appeals due to the high purchase cost and the fact that there are likely to be better models in just a few years. We have a driveway and will, of course, get a charging point and that should cost a few hundred pounds after getting a government grant. The public charging infrastructure is improving all the time. I will have to look into how you pay for those.
If we have enough money we are also looking to get some solar electric panels for the house that may also have some storage capacity so we may be able to at least partly charge the car from the sun. This has a high up-front cost too, but it is something we have long wanted to do. Solar panels have come down a lot in price since we built our house sixteen years ago.
There is lots of information available on electric cars now. The major motoring press cover them and there are some more specialist outlets. Next Gteen Car has lots of reviews and information. DriveElectric specialises in leasing them.
I have watched a lot of videos from the Fully Charged channel. They have reviewed lots of cars and have some videos on other alternative fuel issues.
These are some of the models we are considering. Of course a Tesla would be nice, but cost is an issue and I am not looking for spectacular performance and some of the extra features like self-driving.
The Hyundai Ioniq is one of the cheaper lease options. This is from a couple of years ago, so there may be changes since then.
The VW e-Golf is also cheap to lease. Other cars may have a longer range, but that is not a high priority for us. I know some people need to drive 300 miles all the time, but they are exceptions. The e-Golf is more conventional than some electric cars as it is more of an adapted existing model than a whole new one. They have extended the range a lot over the first version. Batteries are improving all the time, but unless you can afford a Tesla you will have to accept that you need to plan long journeys.
I will have to look at the economics and see if it is worth paying more for a Leaf or BMW i3. There is the Renault Zoe that has less range, but that may be too limiting. There is an electric Mini due out some time.
I am interested in hearing from anyone with experience of electric cars. I know 
I would hope we will get our first electric car in the next few months and of course I will write about it on Steem.
I realise than all cars have an environmental impact, but given that we need a car we can try to make it greener. If we can generate our own power then the arguments about them using power generated with fossil fuels is less of an issue. Those arguments are a bit spurious as refining oil for fuel uses a lot of electrical power too.
Steem on!
The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.
