EV Thread

[Beany]

Longer term I can see some place specialising in battery swaps - once the architectures are better understood, in the same way some places specialise in fast clutch swaps.

The challenges are broadly similar, insomuch as everyone does it a bit differently but the 'moving parts' are broadly the same. And it'll still be pricey but better than having a fucked car.

I can't see it being the way forward for 'fast recharges' though - I suspect that higher battery voltages, better battery chemistry and better battery management systems will solve that problem for the most part.

[Mito Man]

This will be the death blow for endurance racing with nice noisy engines. If they figure out how to do a battery swap within the minimum pit stop time then it’s all over.

[jamcg]

This will be the death blow for endurance racing with nice noisy engines. If they figure out how to do a battery swap within the minimum pit stop time then it’s all over.

Imagine if a team did a haas special and didn’t tighten something up properly- instead of your wheel falling off your entire battery falls out at 180mph

[simon_g]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61310513

Be interesting to see if this catches on

It won’t.

Only viable where manufacturers run their own swap stations or deeply cooperate to agree how to do it. The stations are expensive, take up loads of space, need staffing and still need plenty of power to charge the swapped batteries - a bank of rapid chargers can probably get a better throughput of cars. Nio only have so many swaps done because most owners lease the battery and get a few swaps a month for free (while charging costs), for now Nio are eating the cost and burning through money at a hell of a rate.

Battery leasing has failed in Europe so I can’t see people clamouring to do it again just so they can do swaps.

[Carlos]

Nice to see Tesla opening up Superchargers to everyone at a few sites around the UK.

I've only had to charge once away from home in 7000 miles but more options are reassuring, particularly 99%+ reliable options

[Explosive Newt]

I'm trying to come up with how best to live with the Tesla if it indeed is to be delivered in June (a good couple of months before we are likely to move and enjoy off-street parking and the prospect of a home charger).

Charging at work seems the best way - there are usually a couple of spare points when I arrive in the morning, although I guess it will be more expensive in the long run.

There is a supercharger station just 5-10 minutes drive from work so periodically popping in for a burst of charge on the way home might be a reasonable idea. Or topping it off before needing a full charge for a long journey.

If I park the car in the side street next to our row of terraces and the next door neighbour is happy for us to run a cable across his back garden (there is a path which is shared between him, us and the other next doors) then I could in theory charge it at home with the granny charger. I know most people seem to recommend against this but as far as I can tell that is because it is slow rather than doing damage to the battery per se (?).
I was looking at https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev ... 4036060248 as a decent option.

[Carlos]

As long as it's a good quality granny that's fine but you'll only get 2.x kwh from a 3 pin plug.

Are there any free 22kwh chargers en route or nearby at lidl/tesco whilst you do a shop ?

[Broccers]

A mate had a taycan gts yesterday so we took it for a spin. Pretty rapid and handled pretty well for a 2 tonne beast.

[mik]

A mate had a taycan gts yesterday so we took it for a spin. Pretty rapid and handled pretty well for a 2 tonne beast.

More like 2.3 tonnes I think.

[Broccers]

A mate had a taycan gts yesterday so we took it for a spin. Pretty rapid and handled pretty well for a 2 tonne beast.

More like 2.3 tonnes I think.

It was teh wagon version too. There's a vid on my instagram stories of it taking off in the rain. Impressed. The colour was orrible.......

[Ascender]

A mate had a taycan gts yesterday so we took it for a spin. Pretty rapid and handled pretty well for a 2 tonne beast.

More like 2.3 tonnes I think.

It was teh wagon version too. There's a vid on my instagram stories of it taking off in the rain. Impressed. The colour was orrible.......

That has to be one of the worst-ever colours I've seen on a car! With some of the more "out there" colours you can kind of see why someone went with it to be different, or maybe it looked cool on the configurator... But that? Wow.

I do think I should drive one of these given the likely cost of the M3 wagon, just for comparison's sake.

[Jobbo]

I'd very much like a Taycan Cross or Sport Turismo but that has to be one of the worst-specced I've seen, at least in terms of visuals. Porsche are just about the only manufacturer who offer sufficient spec choices to be able to fuck it up these days, though, so we should be glad they at least give us that freedom.

I still don't think I'd buy one; it feels like we're still in the first generation of EVs and like computers and phones, holding out for longer gets you something much more advanced. The people I know who've had Taycans have all sold them (for good money, usually a profit) and don't seem to miss them.

[Broccers]

I agree they're not quite there yet. GTS interior is mega lovely tho

After using lots of miles up we plugged it in to a supermarket charger. Download app blah blah. Went for a drink and an hour later it had FIFTEEN miles more range. Now, this is down to the chargers, other, better ones are a choice if - they are near by or not in use.

It's being taken to london today - I said he was very brave as sounds a total fucking nightmare to me. We deduced his plan for a 991 gts while his 992 is built would be a more fun bet. The lack of noise or involvement just rules it out if you want to cling on to being young.

[Ascender]

Yes, that's the feeling I have from what I've read in passing, but just haven't researched it enough to know what the current view is and obviously where technology is concerned, its worth being cautious on the first-generation of anything. Feels like we're in v1 proper now if that make sense.

[Jobbo]

if you want to cling on to being young.

I gave that up years ago

Lovely interiors, I agree. Not sure how Porsche went from making pretty average interiors to really good ones quite so well - but again you can utterly fuck that up by speccing it badly.

[Carlos]

My mum had a similar colour 2dr Nova Saloon in 1983. I was 7 years old and even then i was thinking wtf

Many people really don't understand chargers and charging speeds and even after a year i still have occasionally gone to a forum for info that the charging site can't provide. Chargers need to be all RFID and contactless with consistent charging speed display and costs before most people will take up.

Although on a positive note there are many more Rapid chargers in Wales compared to a year ago and they are mostly Contactless Payment. A shite example is the Rapid in Tenby that's on the ground floor of a multi-storey carpark with no mobile signal for you to use the app !

[KevH18]

I agree they're not quite there yet. GTS interior is mega lovely tho

After using lots of miles up we plugged it in to a supermarket charger. Download app blah blah. Went for a drink and an hour later it had FIFTEEN miles more range. Now, this is down to the chargers, other, better ones are a choice if - they are near by or not in use.

It's being taken to london today - I said he was very brave as sounds a total fucking nightmare to me. We deduced his plan for a 991 gts while his 992 is built would be a more fun bet. The lack of noise or involvement just rules it out if you want to cling on to being young.

Supermarkets are normally just slow chargers, usually 22kw/h at the most but mostly only 7kw, same as at home, or 11kw. I'm guessing this was one was a 7kw charger if it only added that in an hour - probably around 2 - 2.5kw/mile if it's been driven properly.

At least a Taycan charge at up to 350kw/h. If you're lucky enough to live near or pass one, which comes back to the infrastructure needing to catch up.

[Jobbo]

At least a Taycan charge at up to 350kw/h. If you're lucky enough to live near or pass one, which comes back to the infrastructure needing to catch up.

Don't you need to spec the right options when you order new for them to charge that quickly? Which is just utterly stupid for an EV; they really ought to be sold with whatever is the best option as standard.

[simon_g]

We're into the "early majority" bit now on new car sales (about 14% BEV so far this year) on the Rogers' curve.

change adoption curve graph.jpg (79.54 KiB) Viewed 718 times

200+ mile EVs for people who can charge them at home are really easy to live with. Still a "it depends" if you can't. Holding out for something better is good up to a point - people buying now have missed the boat on the plug-in car grant, the home charger grant and some of the other early perks. The cars are better but I wouldn't expect a drastic drop in price any time soon. All cars have got expensive and batteries for EVs are competing with lots of other battery applications.

Had a relaxed 220 mile weekend in the Leaf, up to MK for the day then Santa Pod and home. Gave it a very quick boost (about 25 miles worth) on the unexpected hotel rapid while we were checking in but turns out didn't need to have bothered, had loads left when we got home.

Taycan has 350kW (800V) / 50kW (400V) DC charging and 7kW AC as standard. The silly thing is you have to spec quite a cheap option to get 150kW (400V) DC, which is the more common rapids you find. And if you really want 22kW AC then it's over a grand for that. Porsche should really just include the 150kW option with the car.

[KevH18]

At least a Taycan charge at up to 350kw/h. If you're lucky enough to live near or pass one, which comes back to the infrastructure needing to catch up.

Don't you need to spec the right options when you order new for them to charge that quickly? Which is just utterly stupid for an EV; they really ought to be sold with whatever is the best option as standard.

There's a £294 option to be able to charge at 150kw rather than 50kw at 400v, but it says it doesn't effect charging at 800v. Rate for 800v is 225kw for the standard battery, or 270kw for the performance one, according to AutoExpress.

Edit - Simon explaining it better than me.