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

We were supplied with two charge cables, one for rapid and one for the slower charge. There are four types of charge, probably can be seen on the ecotricity electric highway site I mentioned previously. 

Could not find any info on charger outputs on the ecotricity site. Well not without going further into it than I wanted. However the zap map sites says there are four charger types. See the photo below.  

I assume the one the Smart with the high capacity charge could make use of is the fast  at 7 - 22kW. However there is a rapid above this at 43 - 50kW. The mind boggles at that sort of charging capacity.😖

Wonder how long this free charge at the dealers will last as more EV are sold.

I think it might be just when the dealer is open. I might have to go elsewhere if it's late at night or on a Sunday. If no charging is available at such times, I might have to use the diesel powered Shogun to get back to Gatwick in the winter.

That's not what the salesman told me. He said it was guaranteed for 8 years. He didn't say anything about 52,000 miles.

The home address in Worthing is only 6 miles from Lancing, EasyT, so if the battery is low when I finish my shift and no charging available or only slow charge, I can simply drive the Smart to the house address and swap over to the diesel Shogun for the journey back to Gatwick. Then next day, during dealer opening times, I can swap over again to take the Smart to the dealer for charging.

Surely, going elsewhere will mean you'll have to pay for using a different charging point? It won't be "free", will it?

Using the Shogun will also add to your overall outgoings too?

Maybe you would have been better off going for a hybrid instead of a fully electric, although it's too late now, I presume?

Perhaps you should ask your dealer about when the charging points would be available to you?

I appreciate that all this is a way off yet but you might want to check with the dealer as to when they are open, just so you know beforehand?

In order to address pollution levels, the greatest need for EV is in areas of high density occupancy. Supplying charging points to multi-occupancy premises is going to be challenging, to say the least. Never mind uneven pavements, tripping over all those extension leads trailing all over the place will be tricky. 

Yes, they may charge at some charging points but the cost will be a lot less than buying petrol especially as this will only happen occasionally. Most of the charging will be done either at the dealership or through our own outfit.

Yes, it will still cost me money to buy diesel for the Shogun but again it will be a reduced amount of usage only on those occasions where there is no other option. Getting back from work to the Worthing club site should not require any additional battery charge.

I don't think Smart do hybrids, so it will have to be all electric.

Yes, I'll check with the dealer about charging times available when I get delivery of it. One month has gone since the order was placed so only two to five months to go now. 

Good idea, better to be aware of any charging issues beforehand. Some might say that you should have asked before buying one!

There are other makes besides Smart cars, I suppose?

I don't know if you did a lot of research before making your choice?