EV Thread

[V8Granite]

Why can't the solution be outside of the car? Drive your ~200mile range BEV to the nearest railyard and park it in a chunnel style carriage ordered so that first off is at the front and so forth. Car is plugged in to charge the battery and allow uninterrupted listening to Smooth Jazz (other radio stations are available). You disembark 1-30 miles from your destination, go wherever you need to go and then board the train back.

Or do the same, but with a lorry towing 15-20 cars along the motorways. Possibly less efficient than the train but more flexible. The drop in speed is probably negated by the reduction in traffic meaning less slowdowns.

Agree slight changes to timings with customer (if traveling for work), but equally try to avoid traveling for work in the first place.

What you’re talking about there is public transport but carrying your own seat.

Dave!

[V8Granite]

You fuckers have taken the fun right out of my new purchase.

I think I'm going to knock it on the head until the market can supply:

1. 480 mile range
2. Space for at least 5 100kg people plus 2 dogs and 2 weeks of camping shit.
3. Charge stations every 25 miles able to charge to 100% quicker than my kids can pee.
4. Seats that provide 12 hour comfort.
5. High quality food and hydration preparation built in to the cup holders.

Come the nuclear winter, I will pity you as I drive past sipping a cool drink from my fridge as my dogs, sitting comfortably in the back, head tilt at why you didn’t bring your mobile home on the road with you

Dave!

[DeskJockey]

Why can't the solution be outside of the car? Drive your ~200mile range BEV to the nearest railyard and park it in a chunnel style carriage ordered so that first off is at the front and so forth. Car is plugged in to charge the battery and allow uninterrupted listening to Smooth Jazz (other radio stations are available). You disembark 1-30 miles from your destination, go wherever you need to go and then board the train back.

Or do the same, but with a lorry towing 15-20 cars along the motorways. Possibly less efficient than the train but more flexible. The drop in speed is probably negated by the reduction in traffic meaning less slowdowns.

Agree slight changes to timings with customer (if traveling for work), but equally try to avoid traveling for work in the first place.

What you’re talking about there is public transport but carrying your own seat.

Dave!

Pretty much. What an amazing concept!

[Mito Man]

The train wouldn’t work as it would always be delayed due to some problem and to rely on it for most trips would probably cost £50,000 a year and you would never be able to get anywhere on a weekend or bank holiday due to them carrying out maintenance. So yeah, there’s the flaw in that…

As for the lorry road trains don’t work here but most EVs seem happy enough sitting a metre behind on on the motorway, that’s probably as efficient as you can get.

[jamcg]

Either scalextrics style charging strips with an under car arm or some sort of wireless charger under the road could be a viable option, charge whilst driving

[nuttinnew]

I’ve done 350 miles straight in the i3 which was the genius of it. Switched on the range extender after 20 miles which kept the battery around 70% and just continued driving at 85 mph for vast amounts of it. Kept a 10l Jerry can in the frunk for convenience but the range extender would work indefinitely. Stopped off at friend and stayed the night in Sunderland, didn’t need to search for a charger or bother to ask them for electricity or suffer range anxiety or stop every 2 hours for 40 minutes.
Left next evening with battery around 50% and went straight back home with just fuel stops. And it still did over 50 mpg.

I wouldn’t bother doing that in a full EV as it is.

Was that starting with a full charge, and roughly how long did a tank full last? What sort of electric only range do you get?
An i3 seems a natural fit after the A2.

[Mito Man]

Yes it was always fully charged as the battery was so small. A tank only did 70 miles. Range is really affected by how you drive, especially as it’s not very aerodynamic. I could use up a full battery doing 30ish miles on the motorway but it did nearly it’s claimed range driving in London which was also about 70 miles.

I think it had a really smart battery in terms of not needing to be overly managed. You could leave it parked up for 10 days and it wouldn’t really lose more than a few miles of range. Park up a Tesla for 10 days with a half charged battery on a really hot or cold week and you’re calling the AA

[Carlos]

Yours is a 22kw Rex though ?

Theres a few videos on the tube of 33kw cars doing 120miles on the battery and 100 on the 9l Rex.

[Mito Man]

Yeah, it was the original model.

[Carlos]

So far so good. I picked it up lunchtime and drove 62 miles home of mostly motorway and the battery range is still showing 70 miles and the REx 90 miles as Mito suggested i found the Hold State of Charge option for the REx in the iDrive and used that for 10 miles just to make sure it all works, which it does

First impressions are that its surprisingly nippy at any interval between 0-80 mph and it feels huge inside from the drivers seat.

[Jobbo]

I’m hoping I can have a 500 litre tank for petrol at home in the future for the weekend toy.

Things will improve but it’s not nice when a solution to match your current vehicle is currently not available. This is before price gets put in which is also a big part of the equation.

Dave!

Good point - if I’m forced to have an air source heat pump instead of my oil boiler, I’ll have a 1500l tank available for petroleum products…

Carl, it’s a shame the Rex was discontinued. It’s the perfect way to get people into EVs.

[Simon]

Ditto the Vauxhall Ampera. A really good idea on drive that was killed off too quickly.,

[integrale_evo]

I was just thinking one would be perfect for my commute with the ability to cope with the odd unexpected or spur of the moment longer drive.

[V8Granite]

I was just thinking one would be perfect for my commute with the ability to cope with the odd unexpected or spur of the moment longer drive.

I’m afraid they won’t be allowed, all spur of the moment situations must be planned.

Dave!

[mik]

So “the network Isn’t quite there yet” was brought into stark focus today.

Had to go a fair distance to collect NewDug. Thought about taking the Evora, but - let’s be bold.

Outbound dream
Full charge before we left. Decided to take advantage of the new IONITY chargers on the way down. Arrived with about 50% charge. All chargers in use so we were “only” drawing about 250kw of the 350 theoretically available (that the e-tron can also take). We walked to the main services and got a sandwich and a cup of tea. Charge complete at 100% before we had finished sarnie 1 of 2 each. Seriously impressive.

Return fiasco
So that was the honeymoon.
Collected dog and needed juice. Audi nav recommend IONITY charge station - 10miles deviation from our route, but hey - they go so quickly - let’s do it. Arrived to find 6 chargers with cones in front of them, at what looked like an as-yet unopened site. Oh fuck. 30miles range left.

Got to a GeniePoint station with 24 miles left. Tried to “fast charge” at a fairly meh 50kW. No worky. Tried the one next to it. No worky. Fuck fuck. Tried the slow charger on it. Worky. Phew. But in 1hr we added 20miles range.

Enough to get us to a decent charger. Arrived at next place with 15miles range remaining. Charged at 50kW - no issues - added enough to take us back to the original IONITY site we used on the way down. Bingo.

Got back to IONITY. Charger available. Started chargeing fine - at 50 ish kw. What? Other cars (two other e-trons) were on others Charging at 4x the speed. Arse. They left and I thought “I’ll move to their chargers to get the electrons we need fast”. Mistake…..

I then fought with 2 chargers and after a good 20mins convinced our car and the charger to actually talk - pulled 160kw. Not a bad rate, but disappointing giving late evening and no other cars there…. Should have been double that.

So yeah - when it all works - the electric dream is a reality. When it doesn’t it is ball-achingly frustrating and adds feckin hours to your trip. More infrastructure needed!

[Simon]

"..... but you'd have stopped for a piss break anyway so your journey was about the same...."

[mik]

Had I pissed for 2hrs solid - yes.

[nuttinnew]

Well, you are knocking on...anyhoo, I'd go for better infrastructure before more, you wouldn't have benefited from more of the same.

[Carlos]

What's the range Mik ?

[mik]

E-Tron isn’t a range monster - 207miles when we left the house