Monthly Archives: May 2017

In Q1 2017 Renault ZOE Sales Were Up 57%, Looking For 40K By Year’s End

May 24, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Renault, ZOE, ZOE Z.E. 40Jo

Renault opens 2017 with an electric car sales surge, as the new ZOE is selling like proverbial hotcakes.

The first quarter of 2017 ended with some 9,220 ZOE sales, which is 57% more than year ago (around 5,900).

Most of the sales comes via France – 56% (5,191) where ZOE holds an astounding 70% of all electric passenger car registrations, and notes growth of 60% year-over-year.

“Against the backdrop of a particularly vibrant and rapidly growing (up 22.9%) electric passenger vehicle market, the ZOE with its increased range of 400km NEDC has seen its sales figures climb close to 60%, and it alone accounts for 70% of the market with 5,191 units registered.”

Sales also hit new high in March – around 3,800 (41% of the total first quarter), which gives us hopes that ZOE may be able to reach up to 40,000 sales for the year (in 2016 it was around 22,000)!

Source: Inside EVs

BMW i3 Shows What Nissan Leaf & Chevy Bolt Are Missing

May 24, 2017BMW, Electric Cars, i3, News, Reviews and CommentJo

The priority in the EV market right now is for cars to offer the best driving range around and this is why many manufacturers are pushing for 200 miles as the new bare minimum.

The latest Chevrolet Bolt is already capable of offering 238 miles of EV range and the next-gen Nissan Leaf promises something similar. BMW, on the other hand, seems unbothered by it because the i3 is still viewed as a success despite not able to keep up with rival EVs on the sales front.

For BMW, they are targeting a niche market that wants luxury and exclusivity. While the i3 may be far behind its rivals in terms of driving range, it does come with a couple of features that reflects well on BMW’s luxurious status.

One of the features which many are pleased for is the suicide doors. As how you can see in the picture above, the door layout is just so rare to come by these days that it automatically became the single most attractive feature on the i3.

Even those that have purchased the i3 cannot get bored of the suicide doors hence we are not expecting the feature to go away on the next-gen BMW i3.

Source: NSE Voice

BMW 530e iPerformance review: Come in from the cold – this is the plug-in hybrid worth scrapping

May 24, 2017330e PHEV, 530e PHEV, BMW, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

Drive a diesel car in London? Monster! Recent emissions revelations have turned you into an outcast. It doesn’t matter that you quite like your powerful diesel BMW 5 Series, and you’re not going to buy a bloody Prius – so what can you do?

Right on cue, BMW has launched a plug-in hybrid version of its astonishingly capable new 5 Series, called 530e iPerformance. The name’s a mouthful – we’ll stick with 530e – but the figures are jaw-dropping: more than 140 mpg, 46g/km CO2 and NOx emissions so minuscule, they don’t even come into it.

And, as if it couldn’t get any better, the government will give you £2,500 if you buy one, taking it down below £30k – not far shy of the best-selling BMW 520d.

BMW took us to its spotless and very Germanic Munich garage for a trial drive. While BMW’s reps were light on the details, we did learnt that the car, is in essence a 2.0-litre turbo petrol 5 Series hooked up with a BMW i3 electric motor and a battery with enough juice to do 31 miles on electric power only.

Once the battery is flat, the engine kicks in, as it does in the plug-in hybrid Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. There are several driving modes to give you different styles of eco-ness, including one that will fully charge the battery on the move. BMW’s done this with potential future city centre legislation in mind – if combustion engines are banned from certain areas, the 530e will still be allowed in.

Sensibly, you’ll just leave it in auto, and let the system work out what’s best. I did this and found the engine was off more than it was on, allowing me to cruise through Munich in silent, futuristic electric-assist serenity. It’s nothing like having a grunty old diesel clattering away: even a posh V8 5 Series isn’t this silent. And 0-62mph in 6.2secs is pretty fast, too; it’s a Tesla experience in an executive BMW.

2017 BMW i3 REx (94 Ah) — Modern-Day Sci-Fi

May 24, 2017BMW, Electric Cars, i3 94Ah, News, Reviews and CommentJo

Twenty years ago, if you had asked me what cars would be like in 2017, I’d probably tell you they’d be able capable of flight.

I always had this image in my head, as a child, that cars be able to just hover and fly around by the time I was old enough to drive. Maybe I watched too many sci-fi movies as a kid but that was always my vision. Fast forward to today and the automobile is a lot less sci-fi than I had previously imagined. Eight-year old me would be crushed. However, if there was ever a car that could get close to my childhood dreams, it’s the BMW i3 and I just spent a week indulging my inner child’s imagination.

Before we talk about that, let’s take a quick look at what’s new about the i3. BMW launched the i3 2013, as a 2014 model, and back then it was absolutely state-of-the-art. It had almost 100 miles of range, which was about standard for the time, but it was made almost entirely of carbon fiber and had looks like something from Minority Report, both inside and out. So it shocked the world and put BMW on the EV map.

Since then, though, the i3’s charms have wained in the EV community. Other cars had surpassed the i3 in terms of electric range, such as the Chevy Bolt and updated Nissan Leaf. So BMW was forced to give its i3 an update of its own, bumping up its range to over the 100-mile mark, which seems to be the point where customers’ range anxiety becomes less of an issue. So BMW swapped the standard i3’s battery out for a larger, 94 Ah battery that packs a very solid 114 miles of total range. The Bavarians also added some new colors and “Worlds”, as well as some new options, such as a moonroof in North America (finally). And now, the BMW i3 is more competitive in its current market. Though, it still gets some flak for its range. But I’m here to tell you that none of that matters. At least not to eight-year old me.

Stepping into the i3 is an experience unlike anything else in the automotive world. Firstly, just look at it. Nothing else on the road looks even remotely as funky, futuristic or interesting as the i3. It looks like it’s from another world and my eight-year old self would go insane over it, especially in the new Protonic Blue paint color. I know this because kids love the i3. They point and jump around, trying to get their friends to notice what seems like a spaceship to them driving down the street. When it’s parked, people take pictures of it at all angles, regardless of if anyone’s inside of it. It’s a head-turner, like it or not.

Cheap Car Lease

May 23, 2017Blog, BMW, Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, FAQ, Hyundai, i3, i3 94Ah, IONIQ Electric, Leaf, Leaf 30kWh, Leasing a new car, Nissan, Renault, Sales, ZOE Z.E. 40Trevor Larkum

Cheap Car Lease

Many people are in the market for a cheap car lease, and that’s something we can help with. We source our cars from around the UK and have negotiated some great deals, so talk to us.

We provide all of our cars on a monthly contract so it’s much like a mobile phone tariff. These contracts take two different forms and it’s worth outlining them:

Personal Contract Hire (PCH) or Business Contract Hire (BCH). These are straight leases, also known as contract hire. Essentially they are a form of long term rental, and are becoming increasingly popular.
Personal Contract Purchase (PCP): this is like a lease. However it has the benefit that at the end of the lease you can choose to keep the car. This is done by making a large one-off or ‘balloon’ payment. A PCP is now the most popular way for people to buy their new car.

Cheap Car Lease – Electric Car

We specialise in selling electric cars. With an electric car you get a new car at a low monthly cost, and it’s also especially cheap to run. The technology of electric cars is developing very fast with new models coming out all the time with longer range and greater performance. Our advice, therefore, is always to expect that you will give the car back at the end of the contract. Then you can upgrade to a new and better model.

Most popular electric cars on cheap car leases (Image: Fuel Included)

Essentially you don’t want to be in a situation like someone paying off an iPhone 4 contract when everyone else is upgrading to an iPhone 8. That’s why for our purposes you can consider leases and PCP to be equivalent. They are just finance contracts where you get a new car with an initial upfront payment plus a regular monthly payment. The key thing is what the car is costing you per month.

The beauty of electric cars, of course, is that you can save a lot of money each month on fuel and road tax. This can virtually pay for the car, i.e. you can get a new car for free. It’s because of the low ‘fuel’ costs (i.e. charging with electricity) that many of our cars are offered with free charging. Specifically we provide the first 10,000 miles of charging at home for free. This, along with email and telephone support, is the Fuel Included service.

Cheap Car Lease – Saving Money

If you’d like us to work out how much money you can save with a cheap car lease on an electric car, try out the Fuel Included ‘total cost of ownership’ service.

If you just want to see how much an electric car would cost check out our most popular deals below. We provide both fully electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV):

Oil Majors Can No Longer Ignore The Electric Car Threat

May 23, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Oil, Peak OilJo

Many carmakers, and not just Tesla, have been developing electric vehicles, betting on the expected continuous rise of battery-powered cars in the future. Now it’s not only carmakers that predict that EVs will make up a substantial part of new vehicle sales in a decade or two—oil majors are admitting it too.

France’s Total SA expects EVs to account for up to 30 percent of new car sales by 2030, which could lead to oil-based fuel demand peak in the 2030s, Total’s Chief Energy Economist Joel Couse said at Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference earlier this week.

Couse reckons that after 2030, fuel demand “will flatten out” and “maybe even decline”, in what Colin McKerracher, head of advanced transport analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, described as the “most aggressive” projection by an oil major about the rise of EVs.

Other oil majors have their projections about peak oil demand as well, ranging anywhere from as early as the next decade, to nowhere in sight. At the same time, analysts believe that EV sales will only rise, but the pace will greatly depend on incentives and government policies. Meanwhile, many carmakers are preparing for the EV surge and entering the battery-powered car market.

France’s Total sees that growth as potentially leading to peak oil-based fuel demand in the 2030s. Other majors also have ideas about the impact of EVs on global oil demand.

Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said in March that oil demand could peak as early as in the next decade.

“We have to acknowledge that oil demand will peak, and it could already be in the next decade. It could happen. There are people who believe it will grow forever but I don’t subscribe to that,”

van Beurden told the CERAWeek energy forum, as quoted by The Telegraph.

BP, in its Energy Outlook 2017, said that an extra 100 million battery EVs could lower oil demand by around 1.4 million bpd. Still, the UK oil major sees oil demand peak in the mid-2040s, with many drivers to factor in, including global GDP growth, efficiency trends, and climate policy. According to BP, the penetration of the EVs will depend on how fast battery costs would continue to drop; the size and durability of government incentives; how conventional cars’ efficiency would improve; and how consumer preference towards EVs would shift.

Watch This Nissan Leaf Rally Car Display its Off-Road Chops

The madmen of Scotland-based Plug In Adventures, along with RML Group, have created a monster. It’s a formidable off-roader called the Nissan Leaf AT-EV (all-terrain electric vehicle) and it will be the first EV to do battle in the Mongol Rally this summer.

Plug In Adventures is a group of EV enthusiasts who like to do weird stuff with electric cars. They’ve teamed up with RML Group, a high-performance automotive engineering firm, to modify this Leaf into something Nissan probably never intended. Modifications for rally prep include Maxsport RB3 rally tires, braided brake lines, skid plates of sorts, a roof rack with a light bar, and mudflaps despite having fake mud graphics behind the wheels.

Nissan UK has made a demo video showing off what the Leaf AT-EV can do. It should be able to silence any naysayers of the little EV’s potential off-road when properly modified. Granted, it’s not quite rock crawling in Moab, but it’s still pretty impressive. See for yourself what this beast can do.

Chevron is first oil major to warn investors of risks from climate change lawsuits

May 23, 2017Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, OilJo

Big Oil’s lies about the existential risk posed by its product are now catching up with the industry and threatening profits.

For the first time, one of the major publicly owned fossil fuel companies admitted publicly to investors that climate change lawsuits poses a risk to risk to its profits.

You’re probably thinking that seems like an obvious admission. After all, 190 nations unanimously agreed in the December 2015 Paris climate deal to leave most fossil fuels in the ground because of the existential threat they pose to human civilization.

But this is Big Oil — the industry that has been denying or pretending to deny the existence of climate change for over half a century.

In the “risk factors” section of Chevron’s 2016 10-K financial performance report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — amid a discussion of how those pesky climate rules governments are enacting might hurt demand for its product — is this sentence:

“In addition, increasing attention to climate change risks has resulted in an increased possibility of governmental investigations and, potentially, private litigation against the company.”

Naomi Ages, Greenpeace USA’s climate liability project lead, said this is the first time a major oil company admitted that such investigations and private litigation were

“a material risk to the company and its shareholders.”

Red more: Think Progress

Electric Car Day – Focus on Renault ZOE

May 22, 2017Blog, Electric Cars, Leaf, Leaf 30kWh, Nissan, Renault, ZOE, ZOE Z.E. 40Trevor Larkum

We were very pleased to be able to show off a Renault ZOE at our test drive event recently. It’s one of the new longer range ZOEs with the larger 41kWh battery (where the previous version was just 22kWh) so it has nearly twice the range.

Renault ZOE at our test drive event in Milton Keynes (Image: J. Tisdall)

It was a very popular vehicle, with all available slots for test drives taken. The general opinion was very favourable – this is a lovely car. Plus having the longest range of any electric car on the market (bar the Tesla) certainly works in its favour.

Prices are here: Best Renault ZOE Z.E.40 Deals

Below is a brief video walkaround comparing the Nissan Leaf and the Renault ZOE.

Our thanks go to Paul Smith of Brayley Renault for bringing the ZOE to central Milton Keynes and for taking our customers out for test drives.

Electric Cars For Sale

May 22, 2017Blog, BMW, Buying a new car, Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, FAQ, Hyundai, i3, i3 94Ah, IONIQ Electric, Leaf, Renault, ZOE Z.E. 40Trevor Larkum

Electric Cars For Sale

If you’re looking to buy a new or used electric car then you’ve come to the right place. Electric cars are getting very popular very fast and we have lots of electric cars for sale from a wide range of manufacturers.

We are a leading independent broker with wide experience of electric cars so we are able to advise you about all the ones on the market and which ones would suit you best. We are based in Milton Keynes in the East Midlands and are able to supply electric cars throughout the UK.

In addition to pre-sales support we offer our special Fuel Included service with many of our deals. This provides ongoing telephone and email support as well as refunding the cost of your first 10,000 miles of charging.

Going Electric

If you don’t know whether an electric car would work for you economically then talk to us. We provide a ‘total cost of ownership‘ (TCO) service, for free, to help you calculate how much you might save by going electric compared to a fossil-fuelled car.

Just get in touch with us or fill in the form on our TCO page.

Widest Range of Electric Cars For Sale

We source electric cars from all the main manufacturers including BMW, Nissan, Renault, Volkswagen, Kia and Mitsubishi. We get good deals and pass them on to you.

By being independent we can advise you best on what would suit you – whether it’s price, long range, performance, looks or a combination of all these. We can also help with installing a charge point.

Prices and details for the offers on our most popular cars are below. We provide both fully electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV):