EV Thread

[Rich B]

I think it's a Hyundai something. He's got a 3 week old baby and can't be arsed with journeys taking longer than they need to or risking being anywhere he can't up sticks and move on without hours of planning.

I don't blame him - we went camping in Dorset last week, filled the car before we went, didn't stop on the way there or back, did 400+ miles overall, had the car next to the tent in a field at all times without having to go off hunting for electricity then came back with 1/4 of a tank left.

[Barry]

One of the reasons I went for the Niro was the extra range over the previous Ioniq. Much as charging network is slowly improving, I just don't want the anxiety if I can avoid it.

I've done Cheshire to Newcastle and back, with just a single charge at the other end, painless enough. It can be done (although with children involved I fully get his reasoning).

[V8Granite]

He was also telling me about how many times people have parked in a charging bay, found out that the cable doesn't reach the side they need so just taken the one from the bay next door effectively blocking booth bays!

Awesome. I have used a couple where the tethered cable does seem stupidly short.

The thing is, if people want a fast charge then having a long cable is a safety nightmare. 150kw is a huge amount of energy to be going through a connection and people think it’s just a regular kettle lead and plug.


Dave

[V8Granite]

One of the reasons I went for the Niro was the extra range over the previous Ioniq. Much as charging network is slowly improving, I just don't want the anxiety if I can avoid it.

I've done Cheshire to Newcastle and back, with just a single charge at the other end, painless enough. It can be done (although with children involved I fully get his reasoning).

The Niro seems to make other EVs look quite in-efficient compared to it. As a tool it would be near the top of the about town car list.

So I see a lot of talk about 300 mile range etc. then a lot more about 10 - 80% charging so your useable range day to day is 210 for an efficient drive ?

That’s still far too low but for local stuff, as soon as they make one fun and cheap it will be a no brainier for us.

Dave!

[Rich B]

Yep, my work journey is a great distance for an EV, but I'm not going to run a second £30k+ car to reduce £15 a day petrol costs.

[mik]

He was also telling me about how many times people have parked in a charging bay, found out that the cable doesn't reach the side they need so just taken the one from the bay next door effectively blocking booth bays!

Awesome. I have used a couple where the tethered cable does seem stupidly short.

The thing is, if people want a fast charge then having a long cable is a safety nightmare. 150kw is a huge amount of energy to be going through a connection and people think it’s just a regular kettle lead and plug.


Dave

This is true, but you don’t therefore want someone hauling on it to try and stretch it the extra 3mm needed to actually plug the fooker in properly…

[V8Granite]

If it’s an armoured cable it should (I realise there is a fool to break every safety set up) but driving over it could be a huge issue.

I’m guessing the chargers have a very clever RCD when it plugs in etc.

Dave!

[Zonda_]

I believe I’ve mentioned it before but the XR eco warriors next door have an electric Renault van. I was chatting to them about it, it has a range of 50 miles and seems to take around 18 hours to charger via their Pod point.

[KevH18]

I believe I’ve mentioned it before but the XR eco warriors next door have an electric Renault van. I was chatting to them about it, it has a range of 50 miles and seems to take around 18 hours to charger via their Pod point.

Is that the range showing or the usage range? Either way, you're not getting far! I know you're in Teesside but not sure where, Zonda. But you'd struggle to get to Sunderland and back, definitely not get to Newcastle!

Wife's colleague has a Peugeot E-Traveller. Official range is 140 miles but it's more like 90 fully-laden. They travelled from Tynemouth to Norfolk on holiday and needed four good charges on the way down. Definitely thought 'fuck that' when I heard!

[mik]

I’m guessing the chargers have a very clever RCD when it plugs in etc.

Dave!

Yeah, there is a lot of clicking an whirring as the charger and vehicle do a handshake - charger won’t juice up until it receives a confirmation from the car that the charger cable is locked on, all the moons are aligned and it is ready to receive a charge.

[Zonda_]

I believe I’ve mentioned it before but the XR eco warriors next door have an electric Renault van. I was chatting to them about it, it has a range of 50 miles and seems to take around 18 hours to charger via their Pod point.

Is that the range showing or the usage range? Either way, you're not getting far! I know you're in Teesside but not sure where, Zonda. But you'd struggle to get to Sunderland and back, definitely not get to Newcastle!

Wife's colleague has a Peugeot E-Traveller. Official range is 140 miles but it's more like 90 fully-laden. They travelled from Tynemouth to Norfolk on holiday and needed four good charges on the way down. Definitely thought 'fuck that' when I heard!

It's utterly useless, I'm in Saltburn, I'd struggle to get to Hartlepool and back. They do regular trips to London for their protests so I'm assuming they go on the train which makes it even more pointless.

[Beany]

I think Jonny Smith, in his recent transit EV overview, made a point about most leccy vans being conspicuously low range.

You'd think with that flat load bay, there'd be ample opportunity to put a decent, wide, long battery pack in there, but I guess if they aren't making a custom BEV van platform then that's not the case.

Transit's WLTP range is between 166 or 196 miles depending on the wheelbase and roof size. Van tested is L3 H2. Load volume also varies between9.5 and 15.1 M3, with a max payload of 1758kg.

I expect that range drops a lot when fully laden, too.

[Mito Man]

A family friend is quite fond of the F150, so much so that he's ordered a lightning. Recently a review came out that it would only tow 80-90 miles whilst towing an enclosed 2.7 tonne trailer. Not an unrealistic load for a pick up and I'd say the enclosed trailer helps it if anything so its quite useless for that purpose. Anyway said family friend services and transports small boats across SE England so I really don't think this is suitable as he'll be sitting at chargers going nowhere all day

[integrale_evo]

If you stick a huge battery pack in it reduces the cargo carrying capacity. Not necessarily the size, but the weight.

Batteries have such poor energy density they simply don’t work for big heavy vehicles, it just ends up in a catch 22 situation.

Ev cars also have all sorts of tweaks and tricks to reduce rolling resistance and improve aero. There’s little you can do with a great big box on wheels.

[Barry]

One of the reasons I went for the Niro was the extra range over the previous Ioniq. Much as charging network is slowly improving, I just don't want the anxiety if I can avoid it.

I've done Cheshire to Newcastle and back, with just a single charge at the other end, painless enough. It can be done (although with children involved I fully get his reasoning).

The Niro seems to make other EVs look quite in-efficient compared to it. As a tool it would be near the top of the about town car list.

So I see a lot of talk about 300 mile range etc. then a lot more about 10 - 80% charging so your useable range day to day is 210 for an efficient drive ?

That’s still far too low but for local stuff, as soon as they make one fun and cheap it will be a no brainier for us.

Dave!

If you have home charging then you could have full range ready to go every morning, if so required - which is realistically 270 miles. Worrying about the 20-80% thing is pointless unless you intend keeping the car for years.

As for efficiency, I'm not trying to be overly efficient (altho I'm a smoooth driver anyway) and mine shows 4.1m/kwh avg at the moment, which is Tesla territory I think. Great runabout tbh, really like it over all.

[Broccers]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consu ... un-petrol/

Electric vehicles will be more expensive to run than petrol equivalents from October as the latest price cap hike punishes drivers for going green.

The unit cost of electricity will nearly double under new energy prices released yesterday, taking it up to 56p per kWh, up from 28p. Petrol prices have fallen in recent weeks and stand at £1.70 per litre, in comparison.

As a result, it will cost more to travel long distances in an electric car than a petrol one – even before factoring in higher purchase prices for greener vehicles.

The owner of a Jaguar i-PACE, an electric SUV, would spend £99 more to travel the same distance as a driver in the petrol equivalent, the Jaguar f-PACE, according to calculations by breakdown service, the RAC.

The petrol version can travel around 400 miles on a full tank of petrol, which would cost around £50. The electric model only has a range of 290 miles and would need multiple charges to travel 400 miles – this would cost £99 more after October’s electricity price hike.

[Mito Man]

The maths doesn’t sound right? £99 more + the £50 so £149 for 1 full battery plus I’d guess another charge to half way say 140kwh total - that’s over £1 per kWh

[Jobbo]

I don’t think a full tank of petrol in an F-Pace would be £50 60l would cost £102 at £1.70/litre and it would use 60l to do 400 miles at 30mpg.

[Mito Man]

Yeah I did think it was suspicious but I don’t know my Jag models well, got mixed up with the tiny E Pace but even that must have a bigger fuel tank

[Beany]

Is the i-Pace not also rather inefficient compared to, well, most normal EVs?