Pro's and con's for buying an electric vehicle

In the years when I was a young salesman in Yorkshire I hated getting into a cold car first thing in the morning, so I kept a paraffin powered greenhouse heater on the front passenger floor. Warm seat and little if any ice or snow to clear.

No matter how much research anyone does it still takes the same amount of energy to heat a seat, whether it comes from diesel, battery or paraffin. We used to measure it in British Thermal Units which were defined as the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water through one degree farenheit. I can see a lot of flat batteries on electric vehicles in the future when the weather is like it has been for the last 10 days in Scotland.

No matter how much research anyone does it still takes the same amount of energy to heat a seat, whether it comes from diesel, battery or paraffin. We used to measure it in British Thermal Units which were defined as the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water through one degree farenheit. I can see a lot of flat batteries on electric vehicles in the future when the weather is like it has been for the last 10 days in Scotland.

I noticed in my reading that the diagnostics in these EV's are fairly comprehensive. It will let you know the result of turning on your heated seat or air con on your range. So you will know if you have enough juice to get home. If not you always have the option of freezing, or roasting and getting a few more miles. It will even offer more eco modes to make you go further on the available power. I presume heat from the electric motor, will only require a small fan to distribute it. So should have little effect  on range.

Well over a century of research has been spent on producing electric motors (and batteries) that do not heat up in normal use. I suspect the heating in electric vehicles will come from an electric element somewhere . . .

Well ok, we've just travelled up and down the M5 today, torrential rain and bad driving conditions, heating on etc etc. We switched the rex on at the start of the return motorway run to boost the battery and keep the drive levels up, no problems. Remember the re-gen braking works every time you ease off the accelerator, several battery miles can continually be gained this way.

If you buy an EV on a PCP that's a debt, cariadon but unlike a credit card, it's not a variable debt. It's a debt that ultimately gets paid off over a period of time, usually 3 years or 4 years. 

The first three years pay off depreciation. 

the re-gen braking works every time you ease off the accelerator

So no chance of free wheeling downhill to save power.

Just checked the trade in price of our 3 year old Yaris. It has cost about £8000 in depreciation. It will loose another £6000 /£7000 or so over the next 10 years. Unless one has money to burn, it makes replacing relatively new vehicles a very expensive exercise in my view. Unless you do the sort of annual mileage one of my sons does, and those are leased.

Where do you get the "idea"that the debt gets paid off?it just carries over to the next EV unless you pay off the remainder,of the price or give up wanting another car

We looked at pcp in depth when we bought our EV and decided to fund it ourselves, it was a pre-reg so the depreciation is slightly different and we did part ex. At least we have a certain amount of value in it if we decide not to keep it. Car finance is a minefield for the unwary, we certainly couldn't justify the pcp payments even if we saved on fuel. The salesman tried to push the idea that with monthly payments we could hang onto our savings for something else which when analysed was just sales talk with the prospect of a commission. Hope that makes sense?

I realise deals are different so it's up to individuals to get the best for themselves.