Electric Cars: Nissan Leaf vs VW E-Golf
My opinion on electric vehicles we have in stock - Craig McCormick
I am the kind of guy who can turn on every light in the house, turn on/off the heating and watch the CCTV at home all from his mobile phone. I am a massive advocate of technology and I couldn’t wait until the electric cars became affordable and now my time has arrived.
We, as a business, had taken a step in the right direction by selling plenty of hybrids within the last 18 months and now we have taken the jump into all electric cars for stock. We always believe it is important to move now and be ahead of the game, so with that in mind, I had an electric charging pod installed at the house. I wish I had done it sooner as the more popular it becomes, the more the government grant diminishes. At the time the podpoint cost circa £850 less the £350 government grant but this expenditure is easily justified when you calculate the monthly savings and will pay for itself within months.
I took the Nissan Leaf home first and was pleasantly surprised with the drive but even more surprising was the tech kit inside. From the heating steering wheel to 360 cameras, the Leaf had it all and it definitely floated my boat on first impressions. I took the car with 80% charge and drove the car home from Auto Q a total of 7 miles in little to no traffic. I charged the car at home and it cost 37p, yes £0.37 to charge it to full charge which gave 113 miles range. That, in theory, would give me 18 round trips or 3 weeks of commute if I didn’t take the car anywhere else and that is unbelievably cheap motoring!
The leaf has a feature to automate the charging process for middle of the night for those on Economy 7 electricity tariff’s whereby the price of electricity is cheaper in the middle of the night. Taking this into consideration, you could fully the charge the Leaf for around £1.50 and could run the car for normal daily use for around about 10 days, therefore costing £4.50 for the month to run your car. You can then take into account no road tax, minimal BIK (benefit in kind) for company car users and all of a sudden electric cars become a current attractive proposition. The Nissan Leaf currently priced at £12,750 is every bit as affordable as any other used vehicle and comes with a host of benefits and I haven’t even mentioned the environment yet. I’m no eco warrior, although I do love to recycle, but you can’t help but feel like you’re doing your bit for the environment.
The drive of the Leaf was as you would expect – quiet and smooth and literally feels like a milk float. There is no noise, revving or sinister noises and the car just glides along the road, nearly as if it’s not real. It takes off quickly and smoothly and gets up to speed but it won’t stay ahead of the pack for too long. Its perfect for the city and `I thoroughly enjoyed the drive, the experience and the gadgets if the Nissan Leaf and would highly recommend it to anyone else looking to move to an electric car.
I was seriously looking forward to driving the E-Golf for the week after my street cred took a dip in the Nissan Leaf. I got in to drive the golf and in comparison, to the Leaf, there wasn’t that much tech inside, but it was a VW Golf. It looks like a Golf and has the build quality of the Golf and drives as nice as the Leaf but the range of the E-Golf at full charge was shy of 100 miles and some occasions a full charge was only reaching around 80 miles. A full charge on my normal tariff was in the region of £2.77 according to the pod-point app. Driving the car with the air conditioning or heating on dropped the range a further 10 miles and that’s without heating seats or steering wheel or 360 cameras.
The drive was unbelievably good, but I suffered from range anxiety and couldn’t help but continually watch the range gauge to see when, or if, I was likely to run out. Range anxiety is a common phobia in first time electric owners and apparently subsides after a few months of ownership.
The E-Golf is perfect for the young professional who lives in the suburbs and commutes to city centre. There is minimal cost to run the car, no congestion charges and short commutes in traffic lends to the longevity of the range and has no effect on the environment. It is a VW Golf so it will do your image no harm and is a great quality car for those not looking to splash out on a Tesla but take their first step into the electric world. It would also suit a two-car family where one car is used for commuting and the other is a more practical ICE car with the capacity to take longer journeys without prior planning required.
I can’t believe I am saying this, but I think the Nissan Leaf would be my preferred weapon of choice due to the higher spec, longer range and add into the bargain it was a newer car and considerably less in terms of cost. You can never rule a VW Golf out though because it’s a Golf.
I am happy to answer any questions on my experience of OLEV grants, home-charging and the driving experience so, if you have any, please do not hesitate to contact us on 02890732193 or [email protected]