The EV Apocalypse

[RobYob]

Drove a Merc EQC, massively disappointing. It was on 20s so the terrible ride and road noise is partially understandable. The garbage performance, weird interior, crap seats and wind noise isn't.

[Mito Man]

I saw one last week, didn’t like it despite thinking it looked good in pics, something wrong about it which I can’t place my thumb on.

[Simon]

I saw one before Christmas just near home. I thought it looked alright.

Considering the interior is basically a mix of A and C classes I'm surprised you were disappointed.

[Barry]

With no ICE to drown out a lot of the white noise you do notice the wind noise and tyre hum a lot more it must be said. My Ioniq isn't too bad though.

[Mito Man]

I saw one before Christmas just near home. I thought it looked alright.

Considering the interior is basically a mix of A and C classes I'm surprised you were disappointed.

Probably because it costs a lot more than an A/C class?

[nuttinnew]

...a £400 loss for 2 1/2 years and 20k of motoring. Will take that.

Cheers,
Jon

A couple of thoughts on t'overall subject;

I'm not surprised current EV users like them. They had the choice and they fitted their use requirements, if they hadn't they'd've gone ICE.

New builds are going up across the land in their thousands, a good opportunity to promote EV usage that won't have been taken.

Range is (and will continue be) an issue for many not because of single journeys, but because they fill up at the supermarket when doing the weekly shop. If they can continue to do the same it'll make changing to an EV a non event for them, even before you consider those for whom home charging isn't possible. Park up, plug in, shop.

[Barry]

Destination charging is the way forward, at least until proper rapid charging just possible, the retailers need to start thinking ahead and getting the infrastructure in place though, people need to recognise the charging is there before they'll commit IMO.

[V8Granite]

I wonder what the cost will be though.

Supermarkets already have regular fuel wars, 10p off a litre when you spend £100 etc. I wonder if it will end up being spend £100 and then park and re-charge for free.

I’ve visions of people hanging about in supermarkets after the weekly shop. Will it now be tech needs and old people wasting time in the Sainsbury’s cafe?

Dave!

[Barry]

I wonder what the cost will be though.

Supermarkets already have regular fuel wars, 10p off a litre when you spend £100 etc. I wonder if it will end up being spend £100 and then park and re-charge for free.

I’ve visions of people hanging about in supermarkets after the weekly shop. Will it now be tech needs and old people wasting time in the Sainsbury’s cafe?

Dave!

Why would they need to hang around, the hour it takes to do the shop would be plenty time, assuming they have enough charging points to accommodate.

I'd encourage supermarkets to get solar on those vast buildings too, perfect place for it.

[V8Granite]

I doubt that they will install masses of fast chargers and I can guarantee that if they are getting free electricity then they will fully charge their cars.

I don’t see this as a bad thing in any way it will just change how we do things.

I know my parents used to wait till they were running on fumes before getting their 10p off a litre.

Agree on solar panelling on those kind of buildings, it’s the perfect set up for it.

Dave!

[Simon]

My local Tescos has about 350 parking spaces. There's no way there's local electricity infrastructure to that store to equip even half of those with chargers. And it's normally nearly full during a Friday.

[RobYob]

I saw one before Christmas just near home. I thought it looked alright.

Considering the interior is basically a mix of A and C classes I'm surprised you were disappointed.

Probably because it costs a lot more than an A/C class?

Exactly, I thought the A35 I drove last year was generally nice but when you get in a big Merc there's big Merc expectations regardless of it's motivation. The bronzed vents and shiny shiny plastic are very not big Merc to me.

Saw a Taycan close up but didn't get to drive it, very much liking it. Shame the Panamera couldn't have been similarly well styled.

[Mito Man]

The Costco in Hayes has maybe 30 chargers, all free to use for up to 3 hours for customers.

[V8Granite]

What kind of charger is that?

Are public chargers a minimum at all?

It’s something I’ve never even taken a glance at when out and about. We have 2 in the town but they are never used as they seem to have put them in a weird place and they are very close together.

Dave!

[Barry]

My local Tescos has about 350 parking spaces. There's no way there's local electricity infrastructure to that store to equip even half of those with chargers. And it's normally nearly full during a Friday.

Does every single customer queue for fuel now? If not, why would that change with electric?

And adding slow 7kw chargers to every spot wouldn't be too hard, you only need to graze for a top up, while you shop, this fixation with having to fully charge every time is a distraction people need to get past.

[V8Granite]

My local Tescos has about 350 parking spaces. There's no way there's local electricity infrastructure to that store to equip even half of those with chargers. And it's normally nearly full during a Friday.

Does every single customer queue for fuel now? If not, why would that change with electric?

And adding slow 7kw chargers to every spot wouldn't be too hard, you only need to graze for a top up, while you shop, this fixation with having to fully charge every time is a distraction people need to get past.

I agree but it’s not a simple thing to change in people. I run down to about 50 mile range and then re-fill as I know I can easily put another 400 miles of range into the tank. That’s 400 miles of freedom and changing circumstances.

Now I’ve not had to need that many times in my life, that extra 50 miles but I still do it regardless. I have 3 fuel stations within 5 miles of my house and 1 within 200 metres of it.

Look at what happened in the fuel crisis, when people knew they couldn’t have a full tank whenever they wanted people panicked and it was all a bit of a mess.

Once those without a means of charging at home can fill their tank/ battery with as little drama and time wasting as filling at a petrol station I think the worries about range etc will be completely forgotten.

It’ll be interesting to see how they tackle it but I think whoever gets it right first will be onto a financial winner.

Dave!

[Barry]

Agree, the perception of need Vs the realty are what needs to change in people. It'll improve as/when EV take up improves, and market forces kick in harder. Chicken and egg situation.

[JonMad]

I just spotted our local Tesco has now installed a couple of EV charging spaces, but about 200 other parking spaces. I suppose the numbers will grow eventually (they can expand them along one edge of the car park) and they will be self-enforced, like the parent/child or disabled spaces.

I'm only ever in the supermarket for a few mins at a time though. The days of doing an hour long shop are long gone - anything big is done online and most times I'm in late at night where I can whizz round in a few minutes.

I wondered about an EV for our half-term family holiday. 210 miles to Devon, park up for 4 days and go nowhere near the car, 210 miles home. One tank of fuel, no stopping en route there or back. Filled up in 5 mins when I got home (cost £69). The hotel we stayed at had a charging point or two so if I had an EV with, say 250 miles range, I could have done the same and just picked a point over those few days to use the hotel charging point.

[dinny_g]

There will NEVER be a charging station in every car parking spot so solving the issue of cars hogging the charge point beyond the end of when their car is charged is fundamental to the success of batteries for transport.

There are several Sticks that can be used - Start very punitive parking charges from the point the car is charged to when it's moved to encourage the driver to free up the space. Have public charging cost very much more than private charging so you'll only want to top up to get home, rather do a full charge at the public space. However, you want to encourage adoption, not discourage.

I quite like an idea I saw a while back which is tied to L4 Autonomy. Say you're going to Tesco's. You leave your Semi-autonomous car in the charge park, select how much charge you want and head off to do your shopping. an AI system works out the correct order to charge the cars and communicates with each car in turn to come forward for charge. when your car is charged, it parks itself up in a free spot in the main carpark and send your phone a confirmation that you're charged and the location where your car's been left. The size of the park is dependant on the use of the facility. Parks at sports grounds could be smaller as you have, in an American sport, several hours to charge all the cars. Parks in Shopping centres need to have bigger capacity as the weekly shop typically takes an hour etc.

I'll see if I can find the animation - very clever idea IMO

[Swervin_Mervin]

Agree, the perception of need Vs the realty are what needs to change in people. It'll improve as/when EV take up improves, and market forces kick in harder. Chicken and egg situation.

The silly thing is, it's not really any different to a phone. Most people manage that on a day to day basis.