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Hopefully I can get some advise from you kind folk
I need to order a new company car end of this month and the conglomerate I work for are pushing us to go down the electric route - well at least the hybrid route
I’m currently doing around 2k miles a month in and around Yorkshire
Got my eye on either Tesla model 3 or maybe a Polestar 2
The choice of car aside , has anyone any experience of the ins and outs ?
Chargers , costs , range , charging networks etc ?
I can't help you MH. However, I'm about to make the same decision as you. The money is coming out of my pocket - sort of - thanks to a windfall from an ex-employers pension fund that I thought had gone bust. Cannot believe my luck. My time scale can stretch for about 2 years. I'll be keeping an avid eye on this thread to see what the Hive mind suggests.
Don't believe a word I say. I'm only kidding. Or am I?
New Company Car Advise on 22:17 - Feb 5 by Oldsmoker
I can't help you MH. However, I'm about to make the same decision as you. The money is coming out of my pocket - sort of - thanks to a windfall from an ex-employers pension fund that I thought had gone bust. Cannot believe my luck. My time scale can stretch for about 2 years. I'll be keeping an avid eye on this thread to see what the Hive mind suggests.
The limited research I’ve done does make it all seem bit of a minefield
P11D values , BIK, charging network , costs , expenses I can claim back for using essentially my electricity for works mileage , range of batteries , charging times etc etc
I’ve got a few weeks until i need to make a decision ( well start of March actually ) but will also be taking advise from a couple of colleagues who are currently going through the process
Swapping from the petrol Mercedes I have to either hybrid or full electric seems a really difficult decision - but I get the impression I’m thinking about it too much
Driven neither but Tesla has had a few recalls and issues recently
Polestar made by Volvo I think so I'd go there
One of the football lads up here has a Polestar and quite likes it although another one of the blokes has just had delivery of the I Pace - very nice car
New Company Car Advise on 22:26 - Feb 5 by Metal_Hacker
The limited research I’ve done does make it all seem bit of a minefield
P11D values , BIK, charging network , costs , expenses I can claim back for using essentially my electricity for works mileage , range of batteries , charging times etc etc
I’ve got a few weeks until i need to make a decision ( well start of March actually ) but will also be taking advise from a couple of colleagues who are currently going through the process
Swapping from the petrol Mercedes I have to either hybrid or full electric seems a really difficult decision - but I get the impression I’m thinking about it too much
[Post edited 5 Feb 2023 22:31]
An obvious drawback for me is that I live in a block of flats. There is no way a charging point will be made available in our car park. All 22 flats would be expected to contribute and only 4 of us have a car. There's no way I'm going to leave cheap rent social housing because of a car. I have a free bus pass 'cos I'm old. (check username). However, with loads of free time I'm sure I can free-hop the charging points and I might even make it a hobby.
Don't believe a word I say. I'm only kidding. Or am I?
New Company Car Advise on 22:38 - Feb 5 by Oldsmoker
An obvious drawback for me is that I live in a block of flats. There is no way a charging point will be made available in our car park. All 22 flats would be expected to contribute and only 4 of us have a car. There's no way I'm going to leave cheap rent social housing because of a car. I have a free bus pass 'cos I'm old. (check username). However, with loads of free time I'm sure I can free-hop the charging points and I might even make it a hobby.
Would be a little like train spotting. Perhaps you could charger hop and take photographs of each charging station used for sometime in the future when you want to reminisce
I run a dozen Teslas, I don't like them as much as the Polestar. As another poster has said, it's made by Volvo the most underrated marque that there is, I'd have them over anything German... But then I tried the i4... And am looking forward to trying Fisher Ocean.
Depending of what you need a car to do, if I had £40k to spend I'd be getting a Hyundai Santa Fe, recently drive hybrid on which returned 48mpg on my commute 17 miles across South London. 7 seats, heated 2nd row of seats. Drives great.
Charging network improving by the day, but I believe costs maybe catching up. But know less about this side as I have access to chargers at work.
If you get a BEV, you want to get a home charger ASAP. Charging a BEV off a 3 pin plug takes obscenely long. Especially the ones you list as they have sizeable batteries before you even think of speccing up to the long range version.
Cost wise it's a bit of pain right now. High electricity prices make it much less beneficial than it was 18 months ago. I'm luckily on an EV specific tariff which increases my electricity price for most of the day, but the positive is between midnight and 5am, I get electricity for 4.5p per kWh so I charge then which gives me a full charge for less than £2.50*. However I don't think it's easy to get on theses deals right now because of the energy crisis.
Public chargers are getting more expensive ATM. Especially rapids along motorways. A function of the high electricity prices we're seeing right now. If you'd need to use these regularly it might make something else more economical.
What is the nature of your 2k miles? If it's less than 200 miles round on all trips, you can avoid any public charging and just charge at home overnight which is always the simplest.
New Company Car Advise on 00:40 - Feb 6 by Kievthegreat
If you get a BEV, you want to get a home charger ASAP. Charging a BEV off a 3 pin plug takes obscenely long. Especially the ones you list as they have sizeable batteries before you even think of speccing up to the long range version.
Cost wise it's a bit of pain right now. High electricity prices make it much less beneficial than it was 18 months ago. I'm luckily on an EV specific tariff which increases my electricity price for most of the day, but the positive is between midnight and 5am, I get electricity for 4.5p per kWh so I charge then which gives me a full charge for less than £2.50*. However I don't think it's easy to get on theses deals right now because of the energy crisis.
Public chargers are getting more expensive ATM. Especially rapids along motorways. A function of the high electricity prices we're seeing right now. If you'd need to use these regularly it might make something else more economical.
What is the nature of your 2k miles? If it's less than 200 miles round on all trips, you can avoid any public charging and just charge at home overnight which is always the simplest.
Yeah generally my trips are meetings during the day in and around Yorkshire rattling up no more than 200 miles a day if doing the East Coast etc
There lies the other scenario regrading the charger .We're selling ourselves as being carbon neutral by year dot etc and we're encouraging as a business all company car drivers to assist by jumping in either hybrid or electric cars.They insist we have a home charger which is all very commendable but we are not offered any assistance financially with the purchase and installing of the required charger . Just a big bear to be honest and a moan but I'm connected to an industry where I can get one at cost through a mate but hardly the point.
Anyway all very industry comments so far and great advise .Thanks guys
New Company Car Advise on 07:45 - Feb 6 by Metal_Hacker
Yeah generally my trips are meetings during the day in and around Yorkshire rattling up no more than 200 miles a day if doing the East Coast etc
There lies the other scenario regrading the charger .We're selling ourselves as being carbon neutral by year dot etc and we're encouraging as a business all company car drivers to assist by jumping in either hybrid or electric cars.They insist we have a home charger which is all very commendable but we are not offered any assistance financially with the purchase and installing of the required charger . Just a big bear to be honest and a moan but I'm connected to an industry where I can get one at cost through a mate but hardly the point.
Anyway all very industry comments so far and great advise .Thanks guys
I’ve just bought the self charging Nissan Juke
Really like it and around town getting nearly 50 mpg
I run a dozen Teslas, I don't like them as much as the Polestar. As another poster has said, it's made by Volvo the most underrated marque that there is, I'd have them over anything German... But then I tried the i4... And am looking forward to trying Fisher Ocean.
Depending of what you need a car to do, if I had £40k to spend I'd be getting a Hyundai Santa Fe, recently drive hybrid on which returned 48mpg on my commute 17 miles across South London. 7 seats, heated 2nd row of seats. Drives great.
Charging network improving by the day, but I believe costs maybe catching up. But know less about this side as I have access to chargers at work.
I noticed the Fisher Ocean last week which I don't think is available yet but watched some YouTube stuff on it - looks amazing
Press for a cash alternative ad get a proper car you can fill up when and where you need it. Yorkshire hasn’t got a fit for purpose rail network after 100 years - what chance a charging network - or the electricity to make it fizz it in the next 100 years?
I don't know about the tax side but I know 2 people who drive 100s of miles weekly as part of their job and both say the same re eletric cars 'buy Tesla buy nothing else'. Both have tried other electric cars and given up after a few months. The reason being Tesla's charging network is far superior to any other charging network.
They got fed up at arriving at other charging points to only find the fast charging wasn't working or even more annoying the charger was faulty.
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New Company Car Advise on 08:21 - Feb 6 with 2805 views
Press for a cash alternative ad get a proper car you can fill up when and where you need it. Yorkshire hasn’t got a fit for purpose rail network after 100 years - what chance a charging network - or the electricity to make it fizz it in the next 100 years?
A cash alternative unfortunately isn't an option unfortunately.As for going for something "you can fill up" that would go totally against the German's / parent company's strict directive sadly.
That aside , we're very proud of our electrical network in Yorkshire which we've now had for the best part of 6 months , next I believe we're also getting gas
I’ve recently had the same change and I’ve decided to go from an ICE vehicle to a full EV despite not currently being blue to have a home charge box (living in a flat and the landlord gave us the “in contravention of the highways act” bullsh1t)
Here’s my view, go for the longest range fastest charging car you can get, BIK tax will save you a whole heap of money each month ( I’m going to be going from £340 a month in tax on my BMW X2 down to £30 a month for a £45k car - 31% tax down to 2%)*
There are plenty of reviewers out there on YouTube but one I found particularly useful is this guy
I’d also from a public charging perspective look at an app/website called zap map.
*in case you are wondering what I went for car wise I’ve gone for a Kia EV6, I basically had a choice of this, a Skoda Enyaq or a Hyundai ionic 5 if I wanted something with a decent range, the Kia won for me because it looks better than the Hyundai and had better range and was just better all round than the Skoda, I’d say get a test drive or 2 as that can be wildly different to drive from one manufacturer to another. The only downside is the length of time you’re likely to have to wait for delivery. Skoda were quoting 8 months for the Enyaq and KIA are telling me December this year (officially it’s q4)
New Company Car Advise on 07:45 - Feb 6 by Metal_Hacker
Yeah generally my trips are meetings during the day in and around Yorkshire rattling up no more than 200 miles a day if doing the East Coast etc
There lies the other scenario regrading the charger .We're selling ourselves as being carbon neutral by year dot etc and we're encouraging as a business all company car drivers to assist by jumping in either hybrid or electric cars.They insist we have a home charger which is all very commendable but we are not offered any assistance financially with the purchase and installing of the required charger . Just a big bear to be honest and a moan but I'm connected to an industry where I can get one at cost through a mate but hardly the point.
Anyway all very industry comments so far and great advise .Thanks guys
Aside from the installation cost, will you still be able to claim part of your home electricity bill as expenses, as per petrol mileage? With the cost of domestic electricity at the moment, that’s surely likely to add a fair bit of cost for you, for the benefit of work?
New Company Car Advise on 00:40 - Feb 6 by Kievthegreat
If you get a BEV, you want to get a home charger ASAP. Charging a BEV off a 3 pin plug takes obscenely long. Especially the ones you list as they have sizeable batteries before you even think of speccing up to the long range version.
Cost wise it's a bit of pain right now. High electricity prices make it much less beneficial than it was 18 months ago. I'm luckily on an EV specific tariff which increases my electricity price for most of the day, but the positive is between midnight and 5am, I get electricity for 4.5p per kWh so I charge then which gives me a full charge for less than £2.50*. However I don't think it's easy to get on theses deals right now because of the energy crisis.
Public chargers are getting more expensive ATM. Especially rapids along motorways. A function of the high electricity prices we're seeing right now. If you'd need to use these regularly it might make something else more economical.
What is the nature of your 2k miles? If it's less than 200 miles round on all trips, you can avoid any public charging and just charge at home overnight which is always the simplest.
The one thing that you fail to note is that if he is a company car driver who is going to go from a full ICE vehicle to an EV his tax will drop dramatically so even if the electricity prices are high he’ll still be quids in
Aside from the installation cost, will you still be able to claim part of your home electricity bill as expenses, as per petrol mileage? With the cost of domestic electricity at the moment, that’s surely likely to add a fair bit of cost for you, for the benefit of work?
Yep it is a slightly one sided story in terms of the charger and installation to be fair , very annoying
As for claiming £'s back , we have the standard 5p per miles ( business miles) allowance
I'm told in short it takes approx £15 to fully charge an electric car offering again , approx 300 miles range x 5p = £15 so kind of cost neutral .Lots of caveats regarding tariffs etc I get that but business miles aside I suppose the limited private mileage I do would be cheaper which would be a benefit personally
Just been through the same and have plumped for an MG4 which should get delivered in a couple of months. Excellent value and it's a work deal so saving a fortune.
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New Company Car Advise on 09:27 - Feb 6 with 2559 views
New Company Car Advise on 08:43 - Feb 6 by Metal_Hacker
Yep it is a slightly one sided story in terms of the charger and installation to be fair , very annoying
As for claiming £'s back , we have the standard 5p per miles ( business miles) allowance
I'm told in short it takes approx £15 to fully charge an electric car offering again , approx 300 miles range x 5p = £15 so kind of cost neutral .Lots of caveats regarding tariffs etc I get that but business miles aside I suppose the limited private mileage I do would be cheaper which would be a benefit personally
One thing to be mindful of on “range” is watch some videos on actual real world range of some of these cars vs what is claimed, lots of factors here to take into account, again the YouTube link I posted they often do real world range test & charge test comparisons.
Id also urge caution on going for a dual motor/AWD version of a model as whilst it will give you more power it will also reduce your range and with that extra power comes the temptation to use it, thus reducing range further.
Also worth taking a look at a forum such as https://www.speakev.com/ you’ll find individual forums on car models where you’ll find more detailed info on some of the issues that people find with specific models, there’s also general pages on charging, charging networks and home chargers
New Company Car Advise on 09:27 - Feb 6 by Ely_Blue
One thing to be mindful of on “range” is watch some videos on actual real world range of some of these cars vs what is claimed, lots of factors here to take into account, again the YouTube link I posted they often do real world range test & charge test comparisons.
Id also urge caution on going for a dual motor/AWD version of a model as whilst it will give you more power it will also reduce your range and with that extra power comes the temptation to use it, thus reducing range further.
Also worth taking a look at a forum such as https://www.speakev.com/ you’ll find individual forums on car models where you’ll find more detailed info on some of the issues that people find with specific models, there’s also general pages on charging, charging networks and home chargers
SpeakEV and ZapMap are 2 very good resources and I'd recommend both. Although it's worth noting that google maps/android auto is getting a lot better. Especially with integration. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years time google makes zapmap redundant. I'm guessing that you've already tapped in to these resources means you're fully committed to the EV revolution!
Also I completely forgot the BIK earlier. I bought my car myself so I don't get the BIK and focus on fuel costs.
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New Company Car Advise on 11:28 - Feb 6 with 2403 views
New Company Car Advise on 11:16 - Feb 6 by Kievthegreat
SpeakEV and ZapMap are 2 very good resources and I'd recommend both. Although it's worth noting that google maps/android auto is getting a lot better. Especially with integration. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years time google makes zapmap redundant. I'm guessing that you've already tapped in to these resources means you're fully committed to the EV revolution!
Also I completely forgot the BIK earlier. I bought my car myself so I don't get the BIK and focus on fuel costs.
Yep I’m fully signed up to the EV revolution, I figure that even if I have to use only expensive public chargers and it costs as much to “fuel up” as my current ICE car then I’m onto a winner to the tune of £300 a month or £4k a year in tax.
I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to researching stuff before I sign up and that’s what I’ve done here, by the time the car arrives in December I’ll be an expert on all the pitfalls etc and where the best/most reliable charging sources are, I’m at the point of when I do long journeys now I check the EV charging options on the trip and every time I stop
New Company Car Advise on 11:28 - Feb 6 by Ely_Blue
Yep I’m fully signed up to the EV revolution, I figure that even if I have to use only expensive public chargers and it costs as much to “fuel up” as my current ICE car then I’m onto a winner to the tune of £300 a month or £4k a year in tax.
I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to researching stuff before I sign up and that’s what I’ve done here, by the time the car arrives in December I’ll be an expert on all the pitfalls etc and where the best/most reliable charging sources are, I’m at the point of when I do long journeys now I check the EV charging options on the trip and every time I stop
I have also just now emailed our HR guy to see if there any recommendations that the business suggest as it's their initiative to embrace the use of electric/hybrid vehicles
I would suggest that the UK based part of the company have nothing to send out which could be considered advisory but it'll be interesting to see
Seemingly a lot of huge companies making lots of noise about how green they are and their intended goals moving forward in the public domain but likewise internally very little noise to it's employees
New Company Car Advise on 12:37 - Feb 6 by Metal_Hacker
I have also just now emailed our HR guy to see if there any recommendations that the business suggest as it's their initiative to embrace the use of electric/hybrid vehicles
I would suggest that the UK based part of the company have nothing to send out which could be considered advisory but it'll be interesting to see
Seemingly a lot of huge companies making lots of noise about how green they are and their intended goals moving forward in the public domain but likewise internally very little noise to it's employees
Our (large Irish food) company has huge sustainability goals and ambitions, when first started looking into my new car I was looking at the online portal for Lex and there were no EVs available at my banding level for cars, they have/are changing to Arval and when I was sent the list from them there were circa 100+ EV options on the list, it’s almost like someone was listening when I was grumbling to myself and to anyone else who would listen in my team, still far too many diesels on the list though!
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