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Comment by davman | Hacker News Reader

Well I live in the UK, I've specced out a mid range Model S with a few optional extras so this comes in at £67000.

Lets assume by some miracle I manage to save up a £7000 deposit, this leaves me with some £60000 to find. At a quick google around its pretty hard to get car finance over £25000, but lets have a crack at it and try autotrader. They'll only let me borrow £50k over 60 months which gives me monthly payments of £958.

My monthly take home is £1800, so that leaves me with £852 to play with, my rent is £450 and my council tax is £101, so now we're down to £301 and I haven't paid for my utilities yet.

So an electric car in my lifetime (or at least one with a useful range like the Teslas) is a distant dream. At least until the Model 3.

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That's like saying "I badly want to own a car in my lifetime", then speccing out a brand new Range Rover (think Escalade if you're american) and deciding it's impossible.

The Vauxhall Ampera is £29k, you can get a used 2012 Chevy Volt from around £17k.

I'm not sure how the limited lifetime of batteries will affect the used car economy, but the kind of people who buys a brand new Model S generally aren't keen on driving 10 year old cars.

I briefly considered hybrids, but the question was concerning an 'electric car', and I don't really feel like hybrids fit the brief.

Like I said, this might all change with the Model 3, and I genuinely hope it does. I'm tired of driving petrol dependent cars, and I want my next new-car purchase to be fully electric.

How about that, I actually thought the Ampera was a full electric, but they've thrown in a small combustion engine. They hide it well in the specs, though.

Edit: You could always get a G-Wiz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REVAi

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/postcode/l331ze...

I need to do more research on the Leaf but yeah that is a close contender.

The Zoe is a problem. I love Renault cars, my Clio was my favourite thing in the world, but the Zoe has DRM in the battery which you have to rent from Renault for a fee based on your mileage, which as far as I could tell, worked out to more than I would pay in petrol.

I believe, although it may have been FUD, that if you go over the mileage you have pre-arranged with Renault, they will disable your battery remotely.

It seems like it would be FUD, as the capability to remotely disable the car (and dealing with the liability from doing that in a inconvenient or even dangerous place) seems rather expensive, when you might as well just check the milage when it's serviced (not servicing your new or new-ish car at an authorized dealership is a great way of slashing its resale value).

The reviews I've found claim they remotely disable your ability to recharge the battery if you go over the mileage you've paid for, so the car keeps going until the battery runs out and is no more at risk of dying at a dangerous time than if they hadn't disabled it.

Ah, that makes better sense, but that's probably not a remote capability, just a check on the milage in the charger.

Since that charger can be an electrical outlet with no internet connection, I think it has to be a remote capability.

Give it a few years, things are changing very fast. Useful electric cars will be affordable in 20 years for sure; Tesla seem to be aiming much sooner.

Anyway, even if nothing changes, in 20 years your £67K Model S will be on autotrader for £6K or less. You can pick up a 20 year Ferrari 456 GT for the price of a new Ford Focus and I'm sure they hold their value better than a Tesla will.

Are you working in IT?

Yes, I'm an entry-level SysAdmin

Work on improving your income. It's easy in IT, if you are willing to invest some hours in self-improvement and are willing to switch around jobs.

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