Ferrij wrote: 7 Aug 2026, 2:30pm
Yesterday however i noticed an advert for the new UK built Nissan Leaf which not only looks quite stylish but is decently built ,robust and has a claimed range of 370+ miles. Even allowing for reduced range on motorways, it’s estimated to give 300 miles per full charge.
if you're new to this... that sounds like the WLTP range. It's best to think of that as a useful tool for comparisons rather than a "claim".
And you might want to keep the state of charge between 20% and 80% for most of the time rather than 0% and 100%.
We do Parkrun tourism from Penarth in South Wales, sometimes there and back the same day so 300 miles in one hit minimum. The run venues are sometimes quite remote so electric hook up would likely be at motorway services, and I’m too tight to pay the extortionately high rates at those. I can easily get 550 mile range from my A3 .
Any longer distances would involve stop over the night before to get there by 9am, which would be easily managed with electric
Ferrij wrote: 7 Aug 2026, 2:56pm
. The run venues are sometimes quite remote so electric hook up would likely be at motorway services, and I’m too tight to pay the extortionately high rates at those.
I think the thing is to just use those for a top up if required; for 3-400 miles you can still do most or all of it at home charging rates- and even the extortionate is comparable to petrol.
Ferrij wrote: 7 Aug 2026, 2:30pm
I’ve ignored electric cars for a few years now as we tend to do cross country drives rather than local in my car, so range has been an issue. Yesterday however i noticed an advert for the new UK built Nissan Leaf which not only looks quite stylish but is decently built ,robust and has a claimed range of 370+ miles. Even allowing for reduced range on motorways, it’s estimated to give 300 miles per full charge.
Electric seems to be moving forward at pace and is now a much more attractive proposition with this new Leaf, especially as it costs in mid spec trim, no more than a direct replacement for my current petrol A3.
Time to reconsider?
Well, you'd be supporting the British car industry. It looks like a good car, competitive with the competion. TBH, once you have driven electric, you won't want to go back - nicer and safer to drive. And you won't be polluting people's lungs (at least not as much).
UpWrong wrote: 8 Aug 2026, 1:34pm
Well, you'd be supporting the British car industry. It looks like a good car, competitive with the competion. TBH, once you have driven electric, you won't want to go back - nicer and safer to drive. And you won't be polluting people's lungs (at least not as much).
On the pollution ‘thing’ it’d be true to say that national grid re-charged BEV’s still have some associated fossil fuel pollution. However, unlike fossil fuelled cars, that pollution isn’t emitted at the point of use so with a BEV you’re not really polluting anyone’s lungs (‘cause any pollution emitted is emitted where there are few if any people) - the place of pollution emission has been moved to somewhere where it’s less important. Air quality in large Towns and Cities is usefully improved by using BEV’s, and reduced by using fossil fuel vehicles (which pollute in the immediate place of use) .
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
I saw a new R4 in the car park at work this week, It really caught my eye. Yes, it's a cross-over with roof rails so looks tall at first glance, accentuated by not being very long. The back-end looks like a Mini Countryman which is disappointing, but overall I really liked it. For an EV it's not too wide. It reminded me of my Skoda Roomster. If I was in the market for a relatively inexpensive, non-Chinese EV, it would certainly be on my short list.Priced from £23,445 with a 52Kwh battery as standard.Twice the capacity if not the range of the Twingo. But I'd wait for the more efficient model coming shortly.
Have done quite a lot of miles (far more than usual) in the EV6 in the last few weeks due to family circumstances.
Some reflections:
- cheap as chips to run (~2.5p/ mile on overnight domestic), and even for long journeys where some premium motorway charging is used far cheaper than petrol overall
- real range close to that claimed
- too many gizmos for my liking, hard to work some of them out (lane assist etc)
- most motorway services and other places too now have lots of available fast chargers, but they're often not as fast as claimed (80-150kw vs claimed up to 400kw), and are typically close to 10x as expensive as home charging.
- charging time not an issue - even 80kw gives you 320miles/hour charged.
- having a single bike on top knocks down range ~20%
- very nice to drive, smooth, quiet and very fast acceleration at all speeds - and we have the base model.
UpWrong wrote: 23 Aug 2026, 5:15pm
I saw a new R4 in the car park at work this week, It really caught my eye. Yes, it's a cross-over with roof rails so looks tall at first glance, accentuated by not being very long. The back-end looks like a Mini Countryman which is disappointing, but overall I really liked it. For an EV it's not too wide. It reminded me of my Skoda Roomster. If I was in the market for a relatively inexpensive, non-Chinese EV, it would certainly be on my short list.Priced from £23,445 with a 52Kwh battery as standard.Twice the capacity if not the range of the Twingo. But I'd wait for the more efficient model coming shortly.
We've had an R4 since Oct 2025 -we love it . I believe the latest version has the French-made LFP battery and slightly improved range. We currently get 4.3 miles / kWh. We dont use public charging much (in fact only done it 5x so far).
I agree entirely with Roubaixtuesday's comments about public chargers.
