£0.00! 😃😃😃
I look forward to being told I have no right to drive it on the roads as I don't pay "road tax"!
This part is quite satisfying, isn't it?
I also quite like driving past the big petrol station next to my Sainsbury's and thinking 'I never need to go in there again.'
We do have a wee petrol as our second vehicle. So still occasionally have to use petrol stations for now. Not very often though! 😃
Just wondering, what make of van have you bought? Brand new or secondhand?
Env200, second hand.
I smiled at my £0 VED bill too. I also get to drive in the London congestion charge zone for free, not that it's something I'd recommend for fun but I do feel smug.
Hope you enjoy your new van.
Thankfully I don't think I will ever need to think about London congestion charge, but I think Glasgow was talking about having some sort of low emissions zone, so I guess I can feel smug there if I ever go through! 😊
> I also quite like driving past the big petrol station next to my Sainsbury's and thinking 'I never need to go in there again.'
Posh eh! Getting your flowers from a florist are you?
Both my previous and current diesel estates are £0 road tax as well
Wonderful move. Currently drive a diesel VW Caddy - a great van and keeping an eye on developments, bearing in mind I live in a completely rural area. (must be 50 years since last London visit 😂) Please keep us informed as you get used to it.
I am totally going to be going down that route with one of the new electric vans. I have a 2016 Wellhouse terriers at present which I want to sell to make the cash to buy the exceptionally expensive van. and then make a simple conversion. This doesn't make any sense from an economics standpoint but the ICE has had its day and I want to move with the times. GirlyMonkey, what are your plans for long journeys? staging every 100km for a recharge isn't particularly appealing but perhaps I can adopt a slower pace of life.
Hehe. Nice work. I'd love an electric car but this thread reminds me of a certain South Park episode from about ten years ago.......Theeeeanks!
youtube.com/watch?v=AnFAAdOBB1c&
;p
Regular charging stops is exactly our plan! We figure that driving is a lifestyle choice. So he just have to make the choice that churning out diesel fumes is not a lifestyle which we can continue to justify, and the alternative is charging stops! There are many free chargers in Scotland still too, so it also makes long journeys much cheaper, even if a little slower. It will definitely take some getting used to and a bit more planning.
If we really have to, then we still have a petrol car as the second vehicle, or we could hire a normal van for a trip. Both seem unlikely though.
I admire your decision and hope that more people do the same in future. We are not high mileage car users and with limited funds it is likely that our current small car will last us until they take our license away due to infirmity!
However I could own one of these and pay no road tax as a Vintage car. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Silver_Shadow
It would rather poignant as I was an apprentice at Rolls Royce in 1971 when they were being produced at the rate of 50 per week.
Good luck with your 'lecky car'
> This part is quite satisfying, isn't it?
> I also quite like driving past the big petrol station next to my Sainsbury's and thinking 'I never need to go in there again.'
On the other hand you'll have to go to other places to give your car the energy it needs to work and you'll have to go there a lot more often than the Sainsbury's and it will take you a lot longer when you're there as well.
I would have thought the 'not having to go to filling stations' was the least satisfying bit about owning an electric car.
My driveway?
> My driveway?
You can't get very far from your driveway on one charge though so you've got to stop somewhere.
Okay fess up. Why the 4 dislikes at GM saying she still has a wee petrol car.
I think this is more than justified living and working in Scotland. I would love to know what is to dislike.
She also got 4 dislikes for saying she had an Env200. There's no pleasing some people.
Eh? I can go 240 miles or so, more if I turn the AC and heater off or drive a little slower.
Without these measures, I can do Oxford -> Stanage -> home again with ten minutes at a motorway supercharger each way whilst I have a coffee. I'm not seeing any problem here!
Fair enough, I suppose 240 miles is at the better end of the spectrum for an electric car, most seem to struggle to get much over 100 in real world conditions at motorway speeds.
Still, I can drive from my home in the north of England to the South coast of France with one five minute fill up.
And I've still got half a tank left when I get there.
Out of interest, what car do you have? That's the sort of range I want from my next car.
> We do have a wee petrol as our second vehicle. So still occasionally have to use petrol stations for now. Not very often though! 😃
I'd have thought that, if I were going to have two vehicles, a little electric car would make sense for short local journeys (work and wall) and a diesel van for longer trips away; I can't see myself going electric (unless no choice), until range and/or charging infrastructure make a weekend in the NW from the Central Belt viable without significant compromise.
Kia e-Niro. I'll jump in on the other thread.
The vast majority of our driving is done in the van. I take kit and dog all over the place and my husband takes gardening supplies all over. We don't take people anywhere, so no need to waste space with seats. This is the first time in years that we have had a car, and it's a last resort vehicle. If I'm local and not humphing more than 2 paniers and a rucksack of stuff, I take the bike. No point in buying a nice electric car to sit in the driveway until we are desperate!
And charging in the central belt is amazing, and the rest of Scotland is also very impressive! Most chargers still free and there are loads of them.
I reckon it's a mark of honour to have so many dislike stalkers! 😜
Out of interest, what's the (realistic) range? There's an electric Transporter now but the range is only 82 miles, which is nowhere near enough for my average climbing journey, especially considering that you wouldn't want to run it down all the way.
The ranges on the best electric cars are getting comparable to conventional cars though - about 400 miles. Again, question whether that's a realistic range and you wouldn't want to run it down. However once a journey is longer than about 100 miles, I'd want to stop anyway, so in practice a realistic range of 300 miles should be fine and this will improve with time. Could do with prices dropping to more reasonable levels as well!
I reckon in about 5 years' time e-cars and e-vans will be getting fairly common as range increases, availability of charging improves and prices reduce.
One of the ironies at the moment is that some people who may well be interested in getting an e-car can't do that because they don't have home charging facilities. For example, people living in city centre flats who don't use their cars much and/or don't travel very far most of the time - there is no provision for charging in all those car parks in city centre apartment blocks. I don't know if the government has mandated it for new builds - if not, they should do.
The dealership told me the target market for the e-Transporter is business users whizzing round cities all day but never doing that many miles (eg delivery drivers). One of the issues with that driving pattern is the DPFs on the diesels don't like it, resulting in lost time etc.
Realistic range is always variable. The display for the range is called a Guessometer! We are likely to get similar range to the VW, and less in cold weather.
Climbing trips and other long journeys are luxury lifestyle choices. It has reached the stage where we decided that a slower trip with more charging stops has to be the better option. We don't have an inate right to pump out noxious fumes just for fun. We have the luxury of living in Scotland where charging infrastructure is way ahead of the rest of the UK, so it's time to make the most of that. A few 15 min top up stops at rapid chargers every so often won't kill us, and they are mostly free here too so very much worth it, I think.
And I am smuggly getting ready to take the dog running while my van pre-heats itself and melts the frost off the windscreen! I am very much liking this! 😃 My wee t-rex arms can't reach the middle of van windscreens with a scraper, so previously I would pump out masses of diesel fumes to de-ice it.
> And I am smuggly getting ready to take the dog running while my van pre-heats itself and melts the frost off the windscreen! I am very much liking this! 😃 My wee t-rex arms can't reach the middle of van windscreens with a scraper, so previously I would pump out masses of diesel fumes to de-ice it.
You can get scrapers up to 4 foot long. Pre heat would be great though. The inside of my van mists up like you wouldn't believe and unless you are driving it your looking at 20 minutes on the drive waiting for it to demist.
I would love an electric van but definitely not there yet, on Thursday I did 80 miles to site (no way to charge on site) and at the end of the day 80 miles back again. I walked in the house at 1800 and the phone went at 1815 and it was back to the same site getting home at midnight. Out at 6am the following day to go 120 miles to a different site again with no charging and took a circuits route back visiting 5 sites across North Yorkshire (I just checked the tracker log and I did 257 miles that day. I didn't get called out when I got home but I could have done.
My van is a 3.5 ton van and the tools and spares I have to carry gives it a constant weight of around 3.1 ton.
The sooner electric vans catch up the better.
I tried a long scraper and found I couldn't get enough force through it for a proper frost. It helped a bit, but still not enough.
The pre-heats is amazing! 😃
I think both vans and charging infrastructure are going to come on loads in the next few years. The difference in number of chargers in Scotland and England is incredible!
Ha, makes me wonder - Do hybrids have a pre heat?
Yesterday, I was surprised a neighbour who has a hybrid, had the car started and running on the petrol motor. Maybe to defrost, maybe it was automatic due to battery condition. He was also scrapping the windscreen which was covered in ice though which makes me wonder.
I though at the time what was the point as he was only moving it for a contractor’s van coming; he drove it about 10 metres and parked up for the day. Left it till evening and drove it the 10 m back.
I would have thought ideal for an electric only move if that’s possible.
My Peugeot diesel estate is zero VED rated, registered at that time when diesel was still 'in.
> Ha, makes me wonder - Do hybrids have a pre heat?
Yep. My PHEV Outlander could preheat when plugged in.
Thanks. Makes sense if plugged in. I don’t think my neighbour’s is a plug in one, there is certainly no plug in point at his house, which maybe the reason why it was on petrol.
In all seriousness, do not forget to go through the motions to "renew" your tax at zero when it expires as I believe there is a £100 fine for not renewing, which doesn't take into account whether any tax is due or not...
Thanks, good pointer. I presume they still send a renewal letter?
Yes, you get the letter.
It might be fun, if you ever see a cyclist being told off for not paying road tax, if you stop and say 'Well neither do I, and you're not grumbling at me'.
Fair enough and it is a lifestyle choice as you say (though I wouldn’t go as far as luxury). I’m impressed by your dedication to the cause, as it were, but personally I’d wait a few more years while range improves etc (plus currently I don’t have the ability to charge at home so it’s simply not feasible - if I did have that ability, I would think about it a lot more).
Of course electricity isn’t entirely green either and there is the issue of difficulties with recycling car batteries but things are moving in the right direction on both of these fronts.
> I tried a long scraper and found I couldn't get enough force through it for a proper frost. It helped a bit, but still not enough.
I have one of these.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drivaid-Squeegee-Extendable-Removal-Telescoping/dp...
It's a beast and a 2 handed grip puts lots of power down
> The pre-heats is amazing! 😃
I had a van with a wire matrix in the windscreen, that was great. Took about 1 minute to defrost.
> I think both vans and charging infrastructure are going to come on loads in the next few years. The difference in number of chargers in Scotland and England is incredible!
It's coming. I keep our vans about 8 years and I'm hoping the 8 I bought in 2019 will be the last ICE ones we buy.
> And charging in the central belt is amazing, and the rest of Scotland is also very impressive! Most chargers still free and there are loads of them.
Just a heads up if you are going into Falkirk Council to plug-in - they are starting to charge from Monday (19th April) for some 30 currently free chargers. I think Dundee has already gone to charging for the majority of it’s previously free chargers already.
https://chargeplacescotland.org/tariff/falkirk-council/?utm_source=twitter&...