Electric Vehicle Frequently Asked Questions | West Way Nissan
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Electric Vehicle FAQs

All You Need To Know About Electric Vehicles


As the general public has become more aware of the environment, they are now starting to look for ways to help reduce pollution. Along with the Government pushing the issue as well as general awareness of the electric vehicle industry is booming and is only going to get bigger. More and more people are interested in using electric cars or vans on a day to day basis. But there are a lot of questions that people need answering about making the move to electric. Here at West Way we have you covered, we thought it was only right as one of the biggest stockists of the Nissan LEAF and Nissan Townstar EV van to help answer anything and everything regarding electric vehicles.
2022 Nissan LEAF

How long does it take to charge an electric car?

This all depends on the size of the battery and the speed of the charging point. Charging can take anywhere between 30-minutes and 12-hours. A typical electric car with a 60kWh battery would take 8-hours to fully charge the car’s battery from empty to full when using a 7kWh charging point.

The majority of electric car drivers never charge their battery from empty. They normally top up the batteries' power regularly, speeding up the charging process. This would mean hooking up the battery through the day when parked at work or a shopping centre or charging your car overnight. Most electric cars can be charged within 35-minutes with a 50kWh charging point to provide a range of up to 100-miles.

If the battery is bigger and the charging point you're using is slower, naturally it will take more time to charge your car's battery. 

Charging your electric car

One of the easiest ways to charge your car is at home. It’s fast, convenient and is considerably cheaper than petrol or diesel. With the Nissan LEAF and ARIYA ranges, the average driver need only charge a couple of times a week. There are lots of home installers out there, but we like to work with two of the best - E.ON Drive and Pod Point. Join us and the journey to cheaper motoring.

You can now simplify going electric by getting your electric vehicle, home charger and standard home installation all for one single monthly payment as part of a finance offer.

Contact us to find out more.

Electric car charging points installation

We would advise you to always enlist a professional to install your home charging point. The reason we give this advice, to install a level-2 charging point that uses 240 volts. You need the correct circuit breaker installed to your home’s circuit board. You will then need to run a newly installed 4-strand cable to your chosen charging location to connect to your charging pod. If you don’t understand any of what we’ve said here, please have a professional to install your charging point at home.


Zap Map

Free Electric charging points 

There are many free EV charging points available around the UK. To find where these free charging points are you need to take a look at Zap-Map Live (available as an app or as a desktop version).

Make sure to ‘filter’ your results by ‘Payment’ and apply the ‘£ Free to Use’ filter. This will give you a map of the UK full of free EV charging points in the UK. It is worth noting that the majority of fast and rapid chargers will require payment.

How much does it cost to charge an electric car?

There is no one answer that covers this question. It all depends on if you charge your EV at home, work or use a public charging station. We will base our answer on a typical electric car that uses a 60kWh battery, with a range of 200-miles. For the electricity rate, we will use a UK average of 14p per kWh charge to show you what your EV car could cost to charge.

Home Charging: Full charge at home costs £8.40

Work Charging: Full charge can be obtained for free, as many employers will install a workplace charging point.

Rapid Charging Point: normally you wouldn’t use a rapid charging point to charge your battery to full. EV drivers would normally use these charging points on the motorway at the service stations. This is where you’ll place your EV on charge and go grab a coffee or some lunch. An average cost would be £6.50 for 30-minutes that will provide your battery with a 100-mile range.

Motability electric cars

Yes, you are able to use the Motability Scheme to run an electric car. There are 9 plug-in vehicles available on the Motability Scheme. The Nissan LEAF was the first 100% electric vehicle to be part of the Motability Scheme, offering zero-emission motoring.

To claim your Motability Scheme make sure to check out which cars are available on the Motability Scheme search tool (select the correct ‘fuel type’). Have a chat with your local car dealership, West Way Nissan dealers offer a dedicated Motability specialist to assist with all your questions.


What is the cost of running an electric car?

Is it cheaper to run an electric car compared to a Petrol or Diesel car? Let us breakdown a typical costing of a typical EV car vs Petrol/Diesel car.

Cost

Electric = £28,995

Petrol/Diesel = £26,045

Fuel

Electric = 5p per mile

Petrol/Diesel = 19p per mile

Tax or Road Fund Licence

Electric = £0

Petrol/Diesel = £150-250

Servicing

Electric = £322

Petrol/Diesel = £528

All costs are approximates. Servicing costs are based on 3 years ownership.

Company car tax on electric cars

Electric cars attract much lower rates of Benefit in Kind (BiK) company car tax. See a breakdown for BiK rates for electric cars for 2022-2023.

  • 0 g/km - 2%

  • 1-50 g/km (electric range >130-miles) - 2%

  • 1-50 g/km (electric range 70 - 129 miles) - 5%

  • 1-50 g/km (electric range 40 - 69-miles) - 8%

  • 1-50 g/km (electric range 30 - 39-miles) - 12%

  • 1-50 g/km (electric range <30-miles) - 14%

In comparison, the Benefit in Kind rate for a Qashqai Acenta for 2022-2023 is 36%. 

Do electric cars have gears?

The quick answer is NO, electric cars do not have gears.

The full answer is that electric vehicles do not have a traditional multi-speed gearbox like the well-known petrol or diesel gearbox where you will have a minimum of 5 gears to select through. EV vehicles only have a single gear that provides impressively quick acceleration.

Electric car charging points near me

There are several ways to find the nearest charging point to you.

Google: just add a query ‘electric charging point near me?’. You will be presented with a map of results.

In-Car Navigation: your in-car navigation will have the option to show only electric charging points when you are on the move.

Zap-Map: this company offers an app for Android and iOS and a desktop version. They log every new charging point added anywhere in the UK. So it's very handy when travelling.
UK-charging-locations-for-electric-cars

What are the benefits of driving an electric car?

There are several benefits when comparing EVs against your standard combustion engines (petrol and diesel).

  1. You are helping the environment by reducing your CO2 contributions.

  2. Electric cars are faster in acceleration

  3. Cheaper to run as it's cheaper to charge a battery than to fill up at the pump. Plus servicing is cheaper as EV cars have fewer moving parts.

  4. No more visiting fuel stations. Just charge your battery when you’re not using your vehicle at your convenience

  5. Electric cars will soon be the same price as buying a combustion engine car as the government pushes to reduce emissions.


How long do electric car batteries last?

When buying a new electric car you are more than likely going to receive a battery warranty with your car package. These are normally for 8-years or up to 100,000-miles, whichever comes first.

Currently, there are no actual facts to prove the length of a batteries life span as the technology is so new. We have seen a few high mileage electric cars that haven’t really suffered a small amount of degradation.

What is the cost of charging electric car at public station UK?

You are normally looking at charging points in public locations been free of charge. However, if you need to use a rapid charging point at say a service station on the motorway there is a charge. On average you are looking at a cost of around £6.50 for a half-hour charge.

Cost to charge electric car calculator

There are many different calculators online that will help you figure out the cost of charging an electric car. Take a look at Zap-map, it is one of the best car charging calculators available online right now. Below is the link:

Zap-Map: Public Charging Calculator for EVs


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