So, my wife has started to become interested in electric vehicles and, to be honest, I might be too.
We have a Ford Kuga, and we still have a car loan that runs until next year (£284 a month). I also spend approximately £280–£300 a month on petrol, so the car effectively costs me around £590 a month. Potentially, I could pay less than that for an EV instead; no more buying expensive petrol, much less maintenance, slightly higher insurance perhaps, but lower car tax.
I drive almost 60 miles a day commuting currently, and our longest regular journey is probably a round trip of around 200 miles to see our grandson, which is very doable in a modern electric car. So yeah, let’s look at it and see where it takes us.
After looking at salary sacrifice, we started leaning towards a personal lease instead. Octopus seem to have some good deals on EVs, and my wife particularly liked the Omoda E5 Noble. My only concern was the headroom, as I'm 6'2" and need the clearance!
Anyway, after a week of research, I had a ranked list of potential cars based on the specs.
| Rank | Vehicle | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | CUPRA Born V1 58 kWh + heat pump | 9.2 / 10 |
| 2nd | Leapmotor B05 67.1 kWh | 8.8 / 10 |
| 3rd | Renault Megane E-Tech EV60 | 8.6 / 10 |
| 4th | Leapmotor B10 67.1 kWh | 8.3 / 10 |
| 5th | Omoda E5 Noble MY25/26 | 7.8 / 10 |
| 6th | Kia EV4 Air Standard Range | 7.4 / 10 |
| 7th | BYD Dolphin Comfort / Design | 7.3 / 10 |
| 8th | Hyundai Kona Electric 65 kWh Advance | 6.9 / 10 |
| 9th | JAECOO E5 Luxury | 6.4 / 10 |
| 10th | MG S5 EV Long Range | 5.9 / 10 |
OK, so not everything this weekend went quite as expected. We went to the dealership mainly to see whether I could actually fit comfortably in an Omoda E5 Noble at 6'2" (I could, by the way). As it happens, though, my wife decided she didn't like the front grille. While we were there, the salesman mentioned plug-in hybrids.
On the same site was a Chery dealership, so we had a look there too. We didn't really like the look of the cars, so I asked ChatGPT whether a plug-in hybrid might actually suit the way we use a car. With a roughly 60-mile round-trip commute each day, the MG HS PHEV Trophy came up as a particularly interesting option.
Luckily, we were parked right next to an MG dealership.
Long story short, that morning we'd been absolutely certain we wanted an EV. A few hours later, we walked out of the dealership having bought an MG HS PHEV Trophy.
Since then I've looked at my route to work, the 60-mile round trip is based on a motorway route from Knottingley to Doncaster, using mainly A roads, there is a 38-mile a day route, I sense a little competitive driving against the MG HS PHEV 75-mile WLTP, lets see how I do.
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