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Increasing numbers of people want to drive an electric car to save on fuel costs and emissions (and because EVs are better to drive than petrol or diesel cars!). However new EVs are expensive to buy, and although leasing is a solution for some people, not everyone wants the long-term commitment of leasing. There’s also the issue of long wait times for new cars, including EVs.
So if you want to drive an EV now, and you don’t want to buy or lease, how do you do this? One option is to use an EV subscription service such as Onto, the UK’s leading electric car subscription service.
We wanted to see if we could get hold of a new EV without long wait times, and without a long-term commitment, so we turned to Onto. The process was easy. To book an EV you just need to go to the Onto website choose a car, provide some personal details, and you could be driving an EV in a matter of days – with no deposit needed. Everything is done digitally (ie. efficiently).
Onto’s EV subscriptions have a minimum one-month time period, and after that you can choose to continue with the vehicle, change the vehicle, or stop the subscription. The subscriptions are all-inclusive, meaning that they include the car, insurance, charging, breakdown cover, maintenance and servicing, and road tax.
EVs that are available from Onto include the following models:
Audi e-tron
Audi Q4 40 e-tron
Citroen e-C4
Fiat 500 Electric
Hyundai IONIQ
Hyundai Kona
Jaguar I-PACE
Peugeot e-208
Peugeot e-2008
Renault ZOE
Tesla Model 3
Vauxhall Corsa-e
Vauxhall Mokka-e
Volkswagen ID.3
Volkswagen ID.4
All the above EVs are great cars, but as Onto recently took delivery of 600 Peugeot EVs – 300 Peugeot e-208s, and 300 Peugeot e-2008s – we opted for the e-2008, which was delivered in just a week or so. The entire process to get a new EV was a great way to replace an old petrol or diesel car.
So what is Onto’s Peugeot e-2008 like? The headline is that it’s great fun to drive. There’s a small steering wheel, which means that the car feels very responsive when cornering. And although this is a small SUV, it has a low centre of gravity thanks to the battery being in the floor, and the suspension generally delivers a good balance of ride quality and body control; both of these things help avoid the vehicle leaning over when cornering – a common feature of petrol and diesel SUVs. And of course you’ve got the instant responses of the electric powertrain, which are even sharper in Sport mode.
The e-2008 looks great on the outside, especially with the bright blue colour of our Onto GT-trim car, and the interior features a futuristic ‘3D’ driver’s instrument display. Because it’s an SUV (albeit a compact one), it has a practical, family-friendly body style, and the raised ride height is helpful when negotiating undulating country roads – ie. the sort of environments where Green Car Guide spends most of its time. Overall, a brilliant EV!
