Mundane Moments

I can’t afford one and I’ve no idea if they’re any good or not, but the new VW electric campervan/minivan is something I could see myself getting in the future.

I’ll be running my diesel for quite a few years yet though.

I love the look of the new VW Camper and very much want one, and I think that in many ways it's an ideal candidate for an electric vehicle, but I fear it's going to be very in demand and very expensive.

I’d be interested in comparing the price of a shiny new VW camper with the amount of money I’ve sunk into renovating and keeping my 35-year-old Toyota camper van on the road.

I have thought about electrifying it.. but it would be very expensive and I am not yet convinced we know what the future looks like. Hopefully we will have a better idea when it becomes even harder to keep old ICE vehicles going. I had my carburettor refurbished last year and folk doing that are in such short supply that the place I used gets them mailed from all over Australia.. and the guy running the garage is struggling to find young mechanics/apprentices wanting to do that sort of work. There is certainly a risk that in the rush to move beyond ICE’s we will kill the ecosystem that maximises the lifespan of existing vehicles.. which is absolutely not a carbon win.

Your mistake is thinking this is all about a carbon win.

It's all about making money.

It surely is. Having sat down last night with the figures, it's clear that at the end of the four-year PCP deal on the table, we wouldn't be a huge amount away from the current list price - with a sizeable balloon payment or hand back the keys.

Mrs BW's view is she would sooner buy the car outright if there was some wiggle room on the price, in order to own some value in the car in four years time to part-ex on another. I'm very nervous about the prospect of owning an older, now-obsolete electric vehicle at that point, given how much the tech will have moved on, uncertainty over residual value or component parts. I can't see anyone who'd want to take it off our hands for anything other than peanuts.

Personally I would only lease an electric car at the moment given technology changes.

Are either of you in a position to be able to get one as a company car/through salary sacrifice?

I regularly look at this, but think I'm just going to buy another bike instead.

All this uncertainty over whatever's going to power our vehicles - coupled with the Government's rowback on the switch to electrification - is what's making people so nervous about moving away from their ICEs. My diesel is eight years old this year but it's only done about 63K, so I intend hanging on to it for some years to come.

They are very cheap as a company car option. Only 3% benefit in kind. No fuel benefit.

If salary sacrifice there is no BIK.

Unfortunately not. My view is this particular car should be leased or left alone given its age and the fact VW no longer make the model, but ultimately not my call. I can understand why Mrs BW is hesitant to pay around 80 per cent of the current list price over four years to effectively walk away at the end of the term with nothing to show for it.

My view is that leasing is probably the safest option, but understand it's a lot of money to spend on just having someone else's car on your drive for a few years. Just nature of PCP, I guess. The interest element is brutal. Like the casino, the dealer always wins.

I'm up against her having taken the Golf on a test drive yesterday and loved it.

As I said, cheaper, more convenient and more environmentally friendly to keep the old diesel running.

Like Charlie, my diesel is 8 years old this year. I'm keeping it healthy, intend to still be running it in ten years time.

Understand, but both our diesel cars are older than that. I've looked after mine as the main family vehicle so even at nearly 12 years old, it still runs well and I'd hope it will for some time yet.

Mrs BW's is 15 years old and showing its age - reckon it's worth £500 at best. Potentially needs a new clutch, but definitely requires a service and door seals replaced. More issues keep coming to light and we can't be chucking good money after bad - every car reaches that stage eventually. She also bought it in 2012 so feels like she's ready to drive something different.

I wondered why Exchange Walk had shut.

No wonder he died on the shitter.

A chum of mine runs a business that delivers EV charging point management systems. He has skin in the game obvs but I trust him because he has excellent taste in music. His views are, which seem to stack is:
Battery technology is rapidly improving leading to greater capacity and distance, battery life and rapidity of charging. Recycling techniques will also improve rapidly.
EV charging point roll out is rapid
Increasingly sustainable energy sources are coming on line.

These things seem to make sense, shit improves over time and where there is commercial demand, they improve rapidly
It is the future