It’s been fun! We pay just over £250 monthly. We’ve never had car payments before, usually just an oldish car each. Hubby did used to have a company car until 2009 when they decided it cost too much to supply them. I feel that the cost of leasing is covered by the cost of running a normal car. We’ve driven to Scotland from Cambridgeshire, Northumbria and then Cumbria and Wales this year with no issues. For long journeys you would be charging at service stations probably- about as long to charge as going to the loo, having a bite to eat and stretching your legs 30/45 minutes. Some cars go further on a charge than others - we might go from 40kw to 65kw next time which would offer more mileage but it really hasn’t been a problem with all the miles we’ve done - over 10,000 since April! Also, think about a try out. A company called Once will lease a car monthly for about the same price maybe a bit more. We tried a Hyundai for a month before our Nissan was delivered. It came with 2 different cards for charging - I think Shell and BP..
Yes we can - except we will exceed the mileage we thought we’d do - no penalty for that but we will have to pay possibly £150/200 when we hand it back. There was also an option to lease for 3 years but as it’s our first time we thought 2 was enough 👍
LL, I bought the Boots one last year. I shared the contents with our daughter. This year I have an M&S one, so far I won't be sharing!
Trisha
My friend does Bodyshop so I bought the big one this year - I opened everything and have distributed the contents to family Christmas presents - it actually worked out cheaper than buying everything individually, plus I kept a few things for me 😄
Financially I think we’re probably a little better off - what we used to spend on petrol for two cars is now paying the lease. No real servicing or MOT, no gear box, catalytic converters or exhaust to drop off, it’s mainly a computer with windscreen wash 😁 the project we’re with have put us on 5p per kWh overnight so charging is pretty cheap, the charger and electrical upgrade were free. The range for our 40kw battery is about 150 miles which will take us to Brighton and back with 1 charge outside the house. It’s VERY quick off the traffic lights 😁 no way we could have bought one but I wouldn’t want to now anyway because it’s still fairly new technology and improvements will be rapid over the next 10 years 👍
We were very excited to join the EV club in April. We had been talking about it for a while and when I retired, we only needed one car anyway. We joined a project with Octopus Energy and Nissan Leaf where our excess energy from the car is transferred to the grid. In return, Octopus give us£30 a month off our electricity bill. The idea is that we charge the grid when its busy at 4-7 p.m. and we charge the car overnight during cheap rate.
We've got this car which we lease for 2 years, then we can decide what to try next.
Sad news about your friend LL, it must have been quite a shock!
For years we made our own cards - hubby used photos taken during the year or a special Christmasy one we'd taken. He's got bored with that now and I decided to not send cards and donate to the local charity I sew for instead. I feel so Environmentally Friendly now! 😃
Beckyboo, your train is lovely. Is an old loved Christmas train?
Trisha
We've had it a few years Trisha but its not old. We got it for the minded children. They used to take it in turns to open the drawer for the day and give everyone a chocolate. The white roof lifts off to store extra chocolates so that everyone can have one.