Thinking of going for EV? Follow my journey

The journey from Dinosaur to Nuclear  

Like most people that have been driving for over 40 years I have driven a wide selection of cars, my first car was a Mk1 Ford Cortina, that was my dad’s car and I learned to drive in it, I even took my test in it. Over the years I must have driven dozens of cars and all without exception had one thing in common, they all used fossil fuel.

Fast forward 40 years and I can see things are changing. Concerns over the ever-growing amount of pollution, expensive servicing charges, fuel prices increasing, all of these are factors to consider when its time to change vehicles.

Well it just so happens that We have to change our car early 2023 (We have a mobility car)  and after much thought we decided to bite the bullet and go 100% electric. I did consider Hybrid but to me, and this is just my opinion so don’t flame me for that, but I can’t see the point of hybrids, most are self-charging and so still burn Dinosaur juice to work!

We looked around at a number of different cars and we had decided on a Vauxhall Mokka, just before we placed the order I had the idea of just showing the wife one more car first, (may have been a mistake!) . We visited the local Peugeot dealership a few miles from home. We went to look at the Peugeot e2008 SUV , I expected to rule it out right away as it was more expensive instead my wife fell in love with it, I have never seen her that interested in a car in the 35 years we have been together, needless to say we placed a order shortly after that.

That was the end of November 2022, we know that the car market is difficult at this time so was pleasantly surprised when they told us it would be ready for the beginning of March 2023.

Now the fun starts, ok so we are going electric, what do we need. Well first a charger, we ordered a charger from a company called Ohme, there are a number of reasons why we used them (more on that later). To have a charger fitted is not just a matter of buying it and getting your friendly electrician to fit it for you. That would be too easy! Before you can get it installed you have to have survey done, in our case it was a DIY survey that Is done online with you needing to take photos and videos of earth bonding points, fuse boxes, the electric meter and a video walk about of where the charger is to be fitted.

This caused a few problems, the photos showed the installer that we are on a ‘looped’ mains system that shares the incoming cable with a neighbour. That means the cable has a double loading on it for two houses. The extra load of an EV charger can cause problems with cabling so the local Distribution Network Operator (DNO) needs to approve the installation first. Well we were pleased that the DNO gave approval but with a couple of actions needed. The first was not a big problem, the mains incoming fuse needs to be upgraded to 100A , ok that’s fine. The second action was a big one. The houses in our street all have a looped supplies and the DNO want the house with an EV charger to be de-looped, that means digging up the road, pavement, next doors recently tarmacked drive and fitting new cable to their house, if they had been the one with the cable already wired to their house and then looped to us we would be the ones having the driveway dug up but that would be way to easy so that was never going to be the way it went.

Well we have spoken to the neighbour and they have been very good saying if it needs to be done so be it, it has the advantage that they can have a charger at a later date or even a replacement heat pump boiler, that needs the same de-looping too! We are hoping that they can dig up our side of the drive for the cable run and with luck that should happen (lets see in due course)

Anyway the charger is now booked for installation on the 9th of Jan 2023 and the de-looping will be after that date, I was pleased that at least the DNO agreed that this can be done retrospectively.

Oh by the way, why did we go for a Ohme charger? The first and main reason was that since we are on mobility we get a free charger and so have no choice in the charger or who install it. The charger is what they call a smart charger and can adjust its charge rate if the house current demand is high when its trying to charge and also can automatically charge when electricity is offered at a lower rate by our supplier (not all suppliers do this so check with yours)

Well that’s it for now lets see how things go… I will update when anything new comes along.

Update 5th Jan 2023

It’s the 5th January 2023, just had a contact with the dealership that are supplying the new car, all good. The car as been built and its now on its way to them, the original date of the 1st march is looking like it will be when we get the car. With all the problems with global shortages of parts that’s amazing really, almost to good to be true. Fingers crossed it will come to pass , we will see.

Update 13th Jan 2023

Well it’s the 13th Jan now, and this week we had our charger fitted. Nice and early two OVO energy electric vans turned up on the 9th and the two guys made a quick start on the job. The location for the charger was discussed with me and after a little more thought I decided to move it to nearer the garage on the side of the house. I originally had decided to have the charge further down the driveway as parking can be a problem when my neighbour parks near their garage door but when the fitters explained the cable route they would have to take I decided against the longer run. In the end they fitted me a charger with a longer tethered cable than standard (8m long rather than the standard 5m) this extra length made all the difference and the problem was solved. The installation still took over 4 hours to complete (and about 5 cups of tea each fitter!)  but I was very pleased with the result, a very neat job and they really took care doing it, I would recommend them to anyone. Since I don’t have the car yet they tested it with their van and the charger was putting out 7.1KW/hr so working just right. Now just waiting for the car.

That’s a different story, I have heard that there are problems at the ports now and it’s taking a lot longer for them to get cars out and on their way to the dealers. We still have nearly 7 weeks before the handover date so we will see.

Update  17th Jan 2023

Just had a message from the dealership, the cars arrived with them! That was quick.  I have spoken to a number of others that have cars on order (not mobility I must say) and some have had orders placed over 9 months ago and still waiting for notification of a build date, others have been told their car is built but stuck at ports. The only difference I can see is that our car is the electric version and that comes from Spain and the others I have spoken to are petrol models from France, looks like they are giving preference to the electric models???

Our car is going into the workshop next week at the dealership to have its settings changed from metric to go old MPH etc. (that’s standard for all cars imported not just ours)

We cant have the car yet mind you, our contract handover date is the 1st March so still 7 weeks away ☹

Update 18th Jan 2023

Well I thought things were going to well, I just received a email from the dealership with the cars details, they gave me the VIN number of the car which is good and confirmed the model type, colour etc , all good BUT and its really only as small point if I am honest  they have given me the registration number. It’s a 72 plate ! at the time of writing this that would be the correct plate for a car registered today but since we have a 1st March handover it should be on a ‘23’ plate. Its not something to get worked up over but I must admit to liking a new car to have a reg number that is right for the time of year we take over the car, I also am thinking of buying this car at the end of the 3 year contract and although the plate will not effect the cost to me to buy the car if I decided to sell it at a later date then having the newer plate will add value to the car.I will contact the dealship to check on this.

Update 18th Jan 2023

Just had a reply to a email I sent to the dealership, seems that the admin team sent me the wrong details, our car had not been given a reg number yet! I got told that in a couple of weeks they will be sorting out the registration details and will then send me a list of registration numbers from the block they will have, we can choose which ever reg we want from the list. That’s better. Now just to wait for a few weeks. I don’t think I will have any more updates this month.

Update 3rd Feb 2023

No news yet to report…….  The dealer said they would call me in about 3 weeks to arrange the final details well that’s next week so lets see if that happens.

Update 9th Feb 2023

Well the dealer has been in touch, they gave us a choice of reg numbers, I looked down the list to see if my or my wifes initials would be there but no, one number stood out as it was radio related so I went for that one, the last 3 letters are VHF so that seemed appropriate . Now only 3 weeks to go now. Should be in touch with us again the week before the handover to arrange time etc. looking good so far but waiting for the BUT.

Update 22nd Feb 2023

Just had an email telling us the car will be ready to collect at 10am Wednesday the 1st March, so that should be it now. Still expect something will go wrong, it always seems to but so far I have been impressed with the dealership (Telford Motors). Glad we didn’t use the more local one to us as they didn’t seem interested and almost seemed t be putting us off ordering what we wanted.

I will update next week after we collect the car.

Update 2nd March 2023

Good News !

Collected the car yesterday. All good. Very happy with it and the great service from the dealership (Telford Motors, Peugeot) the cars all ready for us with the correct numberplate and 100% charged ready to go. They kept to their word all the way from order to delivery.  Done about 70 miles so far on the charge and still have about 70% battery power left , will be doing a test charge tonight. We have moved to Octopus Intelligent tariff which is 10p/KWH at night 10:30 to 5:30 and 41.17p unit outside of those hours so need to shift heavy usage to the off peak times, (washing machine, dishwasher, dryer etc) . works out to about £3.50 per week to power the car for our driving. Lets see how that goes. I will report back in a week or so and let you know.

If your thinking of joining Octopus Energy then if you use the link below to signup we both get £50 credit to our accounts

https://share.octopus.energy/fawn-liger-569

Update 20th March 2023

Ok so we have had the car nearly 3 weeks now and i have covered just under 600miles, more than i normally do, one trip was down the motorway about a 200 mile round trip. glad to say the car ran great, i stopped on the way down at about 80 miles to recharge at a public charger, that was easy to do but i had used less of my battery power than expected so didnt bother charging again later on the way home and still had about 25% of battery power when i got home, drove about 55-65mph .

We have  also charged at home a couple of times or so and its costing about £3 a week to charge it. My wife likes the car and finds it nice to drive too. so far so good, No problems or down sides yet to report. seem to be getting about 4.3miles per KW , the car has a 50KW/hr battery pack (but only about 45-46KW/hrs are useable as it keeps a little back to look after the battery) so thats just over 190miles range  which is at about temps around 10 degrees C at the momment. many told me you will get less but i think the must be driving the car with a heavy foot compaired to us. Will report again ina few months.

Update 19th April 2023

Just a update now its been 2 months living with the EV. All good, really like the car, so smooth to drive, got use to it much more now, one charge a week is plenty for us. we are ony doing 100-120 miles a week and so we still have 30% or more power left at the end of the week.   This will be my last post for a while, just not much more to say at the momment, if it keeps going like it is I am very happy with it. if you have any questions about moving to a EV happy to offer my limited help.

Update 29th Aug 2023

Six months into ownership of the e2008 EV . Now have expereince of it in Snow and 35deg (C)  weather. Its a great car!

when its cold weather we got about 150 miles range before we charged, now its about 20DegC we get about 200 before we NEED to recharge, we do charge once a week at home (sometimes once every two weeks) but thats only a top up. The price of engery has come down now and the Plan we are on as reduced its prices a lot, day time 29.33p KW/hr and night time when we charge its 7.5p KW/hr, in a months time it may be coming down again. We were spending £100-£120 a month on fuel but now about £8-£10 per month, a big saving! 
Currently, having just checked today we are getting 5 miles/KW thats very good and i always drive in sports mode. that brings me to the one and only thing i dont like with the car. The power,or lack off.
On paper it has 134BHP which should be plenty, 99% of the time it is. My gripe is at roundabouts when you need to pull out quick i find the car is a little slow to get going, the first second or two its doesnt pick up as fast as i think it should, i have trie dother e2008's and they have been the same BUT just before we had ours the car  design was changed to have a different gear ratio to improve its range. this change has reduce the pickup speed i  feel sure. I Will be looking at a different cars still EV's) i think next time just for this 'feature'. other than that issue its a really good car and a pleasure to drive (but not at busy roundabouts!) . If your thinking of going down the EV route then dont be scared of it and go and take some test drives.

i may leave it another 6 months now before i update this again so lets see whatthose six months make me think. see you around March 2024.

1st April 2024

Doesnt time pass quickly. its been just over a year now living with the EV and still very happy with  the choice. no problems with the fact its a EV rather than a petrol car. still very smooth and nice to drive. But finding  that there would be better choices of EV for us now, a year ago the choice was limited (we have a Mobility car so can only choose a car on their list) now the list of EV's is much bigger and some very nice cars on the list that I would look at if buying right now, we still have this car for 2 more years and thats fine, its a really nice car but we would like a little bigger Boot, and a little more space inside, the range by current standards is on the low side of average as is the power of the engine. cars like the Kona, ID.4, &  e3008 (i like this one) give over 300miles range  about 100 more than our car, and have bigger boots with more space. (and a lot more power!) I will update this blog in about 6 months or so as there isnt much more to say, if the car keeps going as it is then i would recormend it if the price was right, no fuss just plug it i once a week and it drives great, just check the boot and space are ok for you, our car would be just over £42K if you paid cash for it.  Stay safe   Paul

19th June 2024

Well here we start again, due to some changes with the mobility scheme we have decided that having a car though that scheme isnt for us anymore, that means the e2008 is going back. Its been a good car and i can say its been a pleasure to drive,  like before i said that it could do with a little more range and a little more power, other than that it was great. so what are we going to do now?

well in two days time i collect a new car, this one is ours,not part of a scheme but just a outright purchase, now we are talking about paying for this out of my back pocket so things change a little. we still want a electric but need to cut our cloth to suit the fabric so to speak so we have had a good look around to see what is best value.  we wanted somthing with low miles and not very old. in the end we went for a MG4 Trophy long range, its 5 months old and only done 871 miles, its a main dealers demonstrator, its over £10K cheaper than a new one, i cant justify £10K difference for 871 miles.

the MG4 has better range 270miles vs 211miles of the e2008 and a lot more power 203BHP vs 134BHP of the e2008.

the MG4 is also £10K cheaper than the e2008 when new to!  and the big thing for me is the 7 year warrenty . lets see what we think of this one. I will report back after a month or two with outr first thoughts.  Bye for now

26th Sept 2024

Well we have had the MG4 for nearly 3 months, done about 2000miles in it over this time.  so a little update is due.
Too start with i wasnt so sure about the MG4 and started to think, " have i done the right thing" , the e2008 looks more upmarket (well the inside looks do) , and if i am honest  it also cuts the road noise out better than the MG too, the software  is also better ( the Lane keep assist is one many complain about on the MG and yes its stronger than the e2008 it isnt that bad and didnt cause me a problem) . Now after a few more months i am really liking the MG, the power is much better than the e2008, you can pull out of a junctions and not worry about it, the range well the e2008 wasnt bad in summer but winter down to around 150miles. we went away a couple of weeks ago inthe MG and drove 225 miles , after that we still had a indicated 48miles of range left which was impressive, the range meter seems to be much more accurate than the e2008 too. lets see what winter brings as regards range as the MG doesnt have a heat pump and the e2008 did. lets see if it make any real diference inthe UK. in fact just off to the Newark Showground for the Hamfest so charged to 100% and expect to get there and back with some spare range left. (200mile round trip in the rain! ) will update later when back home.

Update 13/10/24  :- well, been to Newark (there and back with around 50miles left ) and then this weekend to Brean Sand and Glastonbury , i can confirm the range  seems to be around 250 miles real world, temp over the last trip was around 12-13deg C so lets see what the winter does to that range.