EV Thread

[Rich B]

Yep, you can just walk to the nearest outlet and get a container of electricity.

No-one walks to the petrol station to get a gallon with a plastic can anymore, they just phone the AA same as you would if you had an EV.

i would walk if i was within a few miles - it would be far quicker than waiting for the AA. i’ve never run out before though, despite pushing my luck plenty of times. i think modern car gauges are far more accurate though hold a fair amount more reserve after the zero mark than the olden days.

[integrale_evo]

Yep, you can just walk to the nearest outlet and get a container of electricity.

No-one walks to the petrol station to get a gallon with a plastic can anymore, they just phone the AA same as you would if you had an EV.

I definitely would, instead of waiting hours for the aa etc to bother turning up.

[IanF]

But we actually pay attention.. white-good drivers wouldn’t even realise they were out of their power source until they start slowing down!

[integrale_evo]

Watched the carwow vid on mid size evs.

Pretty poor that all but one only achieved 80% of their claimed range on a pretty gentle motorway / a-road run (a polestar got 90%)

Really is about time they came up with a more realistic way of measuring it. Most IC cars will get close to their combined cycle mpg with sensible driving and you don’t have to drive without heating or lights to do it.

I still think it’s absolutely bonkers that some of them will lock up and become completely immobile if they do run out. You’d have though at the bare minimum they should have to come up with a recovery / tow option as soon as they stop due to a flat battery.

Its no different to ICE cars though. The published mpg wont be met in all driving and likewise with an EV you will get 110% of the range in certain circumstances.

On a gentle, normal driving run every car I’ve owned will match or exceed the the combined cycle mpg figures. The electric range figures seem to rely on a very specific set of driving and weather circumstances.

The mpg on my boring ice car has dropped by less than one mpg, or around 2% over the last few months which have had headlights, heated seats and climate control set to 22c every journey plus a few days letting it sit and idle to warm up and defrost.

[integrale_evo]

I had an auto CLK (back in 2000-2002! ) and its battery died on a RORO from Menorca to Barcelona.. took a call to Mercedes European recovery to get it in neutral and move the bloody thing. I then had to free wheel down the ramp with no assistance or steering really! New Battery and call out from Merc arrived less than an hour later, cost €80 inc battery! and off I went. (Always amazing how we managed before having constant access to t’internet.)

Point is, it’s not only elec cars that die with a dead battery, newer ones don’t even let you put them in neutral.

Well that seems pretty stupid too, maybe ncap should add it to their safety ratings that a broken car should at least be able to be pushed to the side of the road if it breaks down. See also electronic handbrakes which cannot be easily released.

Quite amusing seeing some of the cars being dragged out of the YouTube flood videos with the wheels locked up.

[Sundayjumper]

Matty posted about this just the other day - the ZF 8sp (or at least some versions of) if they have no power need you to get under the car, remove whatever undertrays are there, and physically turn a screw on the side of the gearbox to get it into neutral.

Hence situations like:

Quite amusing seeing some of the cars being dragged out of the YouTube flood videos with the wheels locked up.

[Barry]

EV or ICE, if you run out of go juice, its on you. Stupids buy both powertrains it seems. I don't often run my petrol down to the point the vehicle might conk out, neither do I take liberties with the EV. I agree that the WLTP method is laughable, but then again so is our willingness to overlook the fact ICE motors are wasting 60% of the energy converted as heat.

[Marv]

The little Honda 110 I’ve bought to tour Vietnam has a tiny little 3.7l fuel tank.

I’ve had a couple of times where I’ve been in the mountains and there’s been a big gap between fuel stations and I’ve been quite worried about running out of fuel

Don’t think it helps that it’s carb fed and going uphill makes the tank show up as close to empty, so it’s hard to tell how much is actually in the tank.

Fortunately you get small shops here who either have a bowser to dispense fuel, or they have petrol in coke bottles.

I’m not sure how good the quality of the fuel is, but it has got me out of a jam a few times!

Don’t really have this issue with my bikes back home, as they all have bigger tanks.

[mik]

The little Honda 110 I’ve bought to tour Vietnam has a tiny little 3.7l fuel tank.

Hang on, hang on. This sounds like another epic Marv adventure / road trip. Please more details please.

[nuttinnew]

Yes, (more) info needed! You can't just drop that - in the ev thread - and walk/ride away

[Rich B]

oooh, i did Vietnam (Ho Chi Min to Hanoi) years ago - i’d love to see your plans/photos. We booked a flight in and out and worked our way up organising as we went.

My favourite stop was a little tour we did to Hoa Lu (ancient capital) and a bike ride to Tam Coc (like Ha long bay, but inland). It’s not far from Hanoi and didn’t seem to be that popular/known as we hardly saw any other tourists (though this was 2011 i think).

[Matty]

Pretty poor that all but one only achieved 80% of their claimed range on a pretty gentle motorway / a-road run (a polestar got 90%)

Winter weather, so there's a good 20% of range gone right off the bat. Aren't EV's more efficient at lower speeds too, rather than A-Road/Motoway speeds?

Be interesting to see those figures in the summer, or warmer weather (they may have covered that in the video, I've not bothered to watch the whole thing).

[Carlos]

Yep. My i3s had a wltp range of 175miles but would do 210 when warm with sub 50mph average driving.

Hammer down the motorway at 90mph in winter and it's more like 120.

[Marv]

Re Vietnam, I’ll try to find the motivation to do a thread, I often struggle to write things without it seeming overly clunky these days!

I’m summary, I bought a bike in Hanoi, have been in the north on the Hai Giang loop and Sa Pa. Now on the Ho Chi Min Road down to Hoi An.

The pace is much, much slower than riding in Europe. But the slower pace is fine with me.

[Ascender]

I saw a Lotus Eletre up here last week which is the first one ever. It definitely has some road presence which isn't just down to its size, I think its styling is unique enough to make it stand out from a lot of the other similar stuff, but I do wonder who on earth is buying them given the cost and reliability issues.

Now it just makes me think of the YouTube video where the review car wouldn't start or move so they got the AA to recover it and the sound of cracking carbon fibre alloys as they dragged it across the driveway will live with me for some time.

[PaulJ]

I just read in CAR magazine that the electric Boxster/Cayman models with kick off around the 130k euro mark! This is good news for my savings as I now know I won't be splashing out on another new Porsche. Lots more money for a less interesting product? Don't think so.

[Simon]

The Mazda 6e looks fantastic to me.

[Beany]

I was quite into that till I saw it was another car with zero physical buttons other than wheel controls and stalks, at which point I tuned out.

[IanF]

I was quite into that till I saw it was another car with zero physical buttons other than wheel controls and stalks, at which point I tuned out.

I hear Ferrari is going back to all buttons (on the steering wheel at least!)

[Mito Man]

Looking at the comments on that Mazda its just a rebadged cheap Chinese EV. A Changan Shenlan SL03 apparently which has pretty mediocre reviews. The general problem with Mazda is they have good looking designs but don't have the budget to actually compete with the bigger manufacturers. Sad to see them totally give up and turn to rebadging Chinese shite.