Electric cars

forgotmyname

ElefantEd said:

forgotmyname said:

Silly people who design Motorway services putting the chargers close to the entrance. M42 Hopwood? a year or so back.

Motorhome parked diagonal and a MK3 VW Golf that reeked from 20 feet away, must have had the munchies... Silly putting them
so close, they should have anticipated non EV cars parking there by people too lazy to walk an extra couple of feet.

I presume the location was to minimise the length of the extra cabling required, which is cheaper and reduces transmission losses. But they should enforce the "only EVs that are actually charging are allowed to park here" rule rather more assiduously.

What will they do stick a speculative invoice on the screen, they just need to come here and get some excellent help from the guys 7 girls
in the parking section.  They do excellent work.. Helped me several times with other peoples tickets.

Typical the only ticket I got, my reply was to laugh at them and they never responded. Not a single letter since. Picture showed my car dropping
people off in a drop off zone..  Reason for the ticket?   There was a big sign next to the car in their photo saying drop off.. That would have been
funny if it ever got to court.

gzoom

almillar said:

Sure, but you're looking at it the wrong way, trying to make an EV exactly the same as an ICE. 

Great summary, I have cheap, reliable, easy access charging at home, can anyone guess what charge state I keep my EV at daily?

People worry about range/charging for EVs, but when was the last time you woke up needed to drive 400 miles non stop with no prior warning or planning?

For some people they will need range and charging speeds similar to combustion cars. But for the vast majority of people any of the current EVs sold today have more than enough range. 

I keep our EV charged to around 50-60% daily, so about 100 miles of range. That's more than enough for me 360 days of the year .

almillar

There seem to be plenty of people in here that simply MUST have a 400 mile range and can't believe anyone can make do with less. They're edge users, but they think they're mainstream. If I had a Tesla I could keep it half full!

shinytop

almillar said:

shinytop said:

It's not the range though, it's the location of chargers and the time to charge.  I'd buy a 150-200 mile EV now if it were as easy an quick to charge as a petrol car is to fill.     

Sure, but you're looking at it the wrong way, trying to make an EV exactly the same as an ICE. That's why people seem obsessed with Hydrogen. Why do you want to drive somewhere and stand there for a couple of minutes holding a hose, and pay handsomely for it? Why not come back to a full car after parking it at work, the shops or the cinema or a meal out or something? In my experience (I currently run an EV and an ICE) that's more convenient. I have to do it more often than I want to, but that will change when the batteries get bigger. I find having to drive somewhere for my fuel much more inconvenient.

Not really because if I had an EV I'd charge it at home overnight so I'd always leave with full range.  Going out, shopping, etc., would be fine; it's the infrequent but regular long trips that would be a problem. A £25k 150 mile-range EV and a charger at most petrol stations that could give me 100 miles in 15 minutes would probably swing it for me.  I don't know as much about EVs as some here but I do expect that will happen reasonably soon.  As it is if I got an EV I'd realistically need an ICE too.    

DrEskimo

shinytop said:

almillar said:

shinytop said:

It's not the range though, it's the location of chargers and the time to charge.  I'd buy a 150-200 mile EV now if it were as easy an quick to charge as a petrol car is to fill.     

Sure, but you're looking at it the wrong way, trying to make an EV exactly the same as an ICE. That's why people seem obsessed with Hydrogen. Why do you want to drive somewhere and stand there for a couple of minutes holding a hose, and pay handsomely for it? Why not come back to a full car after parking it at work, the shops or the cinema or a meal out or something? In my experience (I currently run an EV and an ICE) that's more convenient. I have to do it more often than I want to, but that will change when the batteries get bigger. I find having to drive somewhere for my fuel much more inconvenient.

Not really because if I had an EV I'd charge it at home overnight so I'd always leave with full range.  Going out, shopping, etc., would be fine; it's the infrequent but regular long trips that would be a problem. A £25k 150 mile-range EV and a charger at most petrol stations that could give me 100 miles in 15 minutes would probably swing it for me.  I don't know as much about EVs as some here but I do expect that will happen reasonably soon.  As it is if I got an EV I'd realistically need an ICE too.    

e-208 or Corsa-e will do around 150 motorway miles and can charge at 100kW. Might be closer to 20-25mins if you can use a 100kW charger.

Could get the higher trim levels (GT and Elite Nav) around the £25k mark discounted.

New ZE50 Zoe will do more miles and is around the same price, but is capped at 50kW charging, so probably not going to be 15mins. More 25-30mins I think.

shinytop

DrEskimo said:

shinytop said:

almillar said:

shinytop said:

It's not the range though, it's the location of chargers and the time to charge.  I'd buy a 150-200 mile EV now if it were as easy an quick to charge as a petrol car is to fill.     

Sure, but you're looking at it the wrong way, trying to make an EV exactly the same as an ICE. That's why people seem obsessed with Hydrogen. Why do you want to drive somewhere and stand there for a couple of minutes holding a hose, and pay handsomely for it? Why not come back to a full car after parking it at work, the shops or the cinema or a meal out or something? In my experience (I currently run an EV and an ICE) that's more convenient. I have to do it more often than I want to, but that will change when the batteries get bigger. I find having to drive somewhere for my fuel much more inconvenient.

Not really because if I had an EV I'd charge it at home overnight so I'd always leave with full range.  Going out, shopping, etc., would be fine; it's the infrequent but regular long trips that would be a problem. A £25k 150 mile-range EV and a charger at most petrol stations that could give me 100 miles in 15 minutes would probably swing it for me.  I don't know as much about EVs as some here but I do expect that will happen reasonably soon.  As it is if I got an EV I'd realistically need an ICE too.    

e-208 or Corsa-e will do around 150 motorway miles and can charge at 100kW. Might be closer to 20-25mins if you can use a 100kW charger.

Could get the higher trim levels (GT and Elite Nav) around the £25k mark discounted.

New ZE50 Zoe will do more miles and is around the same price, but is capped at 50kW charging, so probably not going to be 15mins. More 25-30mins I think.

closer than I thought then.

Herzlos

almillar said:

There seem to be plenty of people in here that simply MUST have a 400 mile range and can't believe anyone can make do with less. They're edge users, but they think they're mainstream. If I had a Tesla I could keep it half full!

Exactly. For most people, a 100 mile range is all they'd need (and want to pay for), with the exception of maybe the annual summer holiday and a couple of day trips. Throw in some paranoia and I'm sure I'd be fine with a 200 mile range.

forgotmyname

I have had that 2am phone call though, last thing i want to be doing is worrying about the range and whether stopping for
20 minutes or 30 minutes will give enough topup range or whether thats time I cannot spare.

I did the same journey 4 times in 2 days. That is something an EV would struggle with. One of the downsides to family
that has spread its wings over the years and live all over the place.

almillar

shinytop said:

Not really because if I had an EV I'd charge it at home overnight so I'd always leave with full range.  Going out, shopping, etc., would be fine; it's the infrequent but regular long trips that would be a problem. A £25k 150 mile-range EV and a charger at most petrol stations that could give me 100 miles in 15 minutes would probably swing it for me.  I don't know as much about EVs as some here but I do expect that will happen reasonably soon.  As it is if I got an EV I'd realistically need an ICE too.    

Good - so there's a lot in the Pro column, and not much in the Con column. Infrequently, if you bought a car right now, you'd be waiting about 30-40 mins for that 100 mile charge, not 15 mins. Stop the car, plug it in, go and get a coffee. Come back and check you've got enough charge, and off you go. So what do you need an ICE for?! How much would that 15 min saving cost, running an extra car?

forgotmyname said:

I have had that 2am phone call though, last thing i want to be doing is worrying about the range and whether stopping for
20 minutes or 30 minutes will give enough topup range or whether thats time I cannot spare.
I did the same journey 4 times in 2 days. That is something an EV would struggle with. One of the downsides to family
that has spread its wings over the years and live all over the place.

So you keep your tank pretty full all the time? Plug your EV in at tea time and it'll be full at 2am.

Herzlos

It's a fairly valid point about the emergency calls - with an ICE you can refuel from any state pretty quickly but if you get home on 10% battery and get an emergency call 5 minutes later, you run the risk of needing to go out of your way and wait longer to refuel.

With longer ranged cars though and more ubiquitous fast charging, I think that risk shrinks. For multi-car households it's almost nil (as you'd all need to have an EV that's just arrived with a near empty battery).