EV Discussion thread

Martyn1981

MikeJXE said:

My Jag has start stop so no fuel burned either, also 1 peddle operation as it's auto

I wasn't knocking the EV 
I was just interested wether a situation like this had any effect on EV battery drain hence range 

No probs, it's fun finding out how things are changing. I haven't driven an auto (ICEV) for decades, so had no idea they could do one peddle driving too.

The point I made earlier about gears may not have made sense, so just to explain - an ICE (internal combustion engine) isn't strong enough at low revs to move a car, hence we need multiple gears to increase the torque. I don't know the ratios for your car, but I'd guess that 1st or 2nd will be about 5x higher than the top gear (overdrive) ratio, so lots more little 'suck squeeze bang blow's' going on in slow traffic.

For a BEV, because they have an electric motor, which produces max torque even from low rpms (technically zero, but that always seems confusing to me), they don't need gears, just a fixed reduction gear.* 

Just waffling on now, but if you're interested, then in an extreme situation where the car is stuck (say snowstorm) then a big battery will allow the cabin temp to be maintained. In fact some BEV's now offer this as a feature (Tesla call it camp mode, with an optional log fire burning away on the screen), so you can park your BEV, and sleep, whilst it maintains the cabin temp. No need to run an engine.

And as silly as it may sound to us Brits, in the US and Aus (and probably many other places) bush fires have been started by police cars that are parked on the side of the road (in dry grass) with engines running to keep the occupants cool. I think it's the catalytic converter that starts the fires, and these can escalate seriously, destroying large areas, as well as the cars themselves, sometimes.

[Bet you wish you'd never asked  ]


*Just to be confusing, you can have more than one gear, in fact the Porsche Taycan has two, to help allow it reach higher speeds, without the motor needing to spin as fast.

Grumpy_chap

So, this really feels silly as I am a proper grown up and not new to adulting but Mrs G-C and I are off shopping this afternoon and I am quite excited as I get to take the car and will do the first charge (hope it's easy).  At the retail destination there is free EV charge points, so if I can get to 90% charge while we are just doing the shopping that will be a real win (time and money).  You'd never get free petrol filled up while shopping.

My plan is that we charge to full 90% and that should be enough for the weekend trip to visit friends about 100 miles each way.  I feel confident I can do that without requiring a charge en-route.  I really hope my confidence is well-founded as I will have Mrs G-C plus Mummy G-C with me so they won't thank me if I get this wrong.  That said, both of them will want a break on the journey so I'll have the easy opportunity for splash-and-dash if that is required.  I still feel certain that charged today will take me there and back on Saturday with no issues.

silvercar

Grumpy_chap said:

So, this really feels silly as I am a proper grown up and not new to adulting but Mrs G-C and I are off shopping this afternoon and I am quite excited as I get to take the car and will do the first charge (hope it's easy).  At the retail destination there is free EV charge points, so if I can get to 90% charge while we are just doing the shopping that will be a real win (time and money).  You'd never get free petrol filled up while shopping.

My plan is that we charge to full 90% and that should be enough for the weekend trip to visit friends about 100 miles each way.  I feel confident I can do that without requiring a charge en-route.  I really hope my confidence is well-founded as I will have Mrs G-C plus Mummy G-C with me so they won't thank me if I get this wrong.  That said, both of them will want a break on the journey so I'll have the easy opportunity for splash-and-dash if that is required.  I still feel certain that charged today will take me there and back on Saturday with no issues.

If they are podpoint chargers, remember to confirm the charge on your app. Otherwise it stops charging after 15 minutes. Free chargers are often slow (max 11kwH on a non CCS in a Tesla, approx 50 miles per hour), so that suggests a long shop.

mrbuster

Most of the pod points I’ve used are 7kw and have to be paid for now interested to know what area there free

silvercar

mrbuster said:

Most of the pod points I’ve used are 7kw and have to be paid for now interested to know what area there free

I do the vast majority of my "home" charging at a local free podpoint charger. I have to pay for parking, but using it off peak it is by far the cheapest way of charging. Yesterday I paid £3.20 for 35kwH. At the weekend OH paid £4.20 for 70kwH.

There are still some out there if you know where to look.

thevilla

JKenH said:

A couple of stories from Fleet News on the subject of EV accident repair costs (from Thatcham Research) and maintenance/servicing costs.

Electric vehicle repair costs revealed versus ICE equivalent

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2023/07/05/electric-vehicle-repair-costs-revealed-versus-ice-equivalent

Tyre wear rate of electric company cars ‘changes’ SMR spend

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2023/05/02/tyre-wear-rates-of-electric-vehicle-company-cars-changes-smr-spend

Interesting insights into fleet management.

My personal experience of tyres was to replace the front tyres on our Leaf at 16k.  This was similar, if I remember correctly to our previous Focus.  The Leaf isn't the heaviest though.

The fire risk mitigation seems ott to me and with LFP is probably unnecessary.

Repairs will become cheaper as more BEVs mean more qualified technicians with the experience to know how to handle batteries safely.  Just a temporary glitch for now hopefully.

JKenH

Basically Chinese EV manufacturers have reached an agreement not to undercut each other by slashing prices. Many see this as forming a cartel, much like OPEC. This action prompted by the Chinese government to protect the Chinese car industry is not in the consumer’s interest. Tesla, I suspect, (if they want to carry in manufacturing and selling cars in China) would have had little option but to sign up.

Over a dozen EV automakers, including Tesla and NIO pledge to avoid further price wars in China

Here’s an excerpt from the commitment letter posted by CnEVPost:

First, we will abide by the rules and regulations of the industry, regulate marketing activities, maintain a fair competition order, and not disrupt the fair competition order of the market with abnormal prices.

https://electrek.co/2023/07/06/ev-automakers-tesla-nio-pledge-avoid-price-wars-china/

Grumpy_chap

silvercar said:

If they are podpoint chargers

mrbuster said:

Most of the pod points I’ve used are 7kw and have to be paid for now interested to know what area there free

silvercar said:

I do the vast majority of my "home" charging at a local free podpoint charger. 

An interesting aside as a couple of you mentioned Pod Point, I saw Pod Point filming a new advert just opposite my house yesterday evening...

Anyway, I thought I would feed back on the free charge while shopping experience. 
They were BP Pulse chargers operating at 7.5 kW and free for up to two hours after which they switch off.  Maximum charge, therefore, around 15 kWh.
We charged through our shop and the charger says 6.14 kWh while the car says 5 kWh. 
That's an apparent loss of a little over 20% but I am not sure how accurate the car reports the charge.  It may only show "complete" kWh so "5" might mean "just five" or "nearly six".  On a small charge that variance is a significant change in the percentage.

The upshot of all this is that I will have to use my own electricity via the granny charger at home tomorrow to get ready for the journey on Saturday.  In theory, the car is showing sufficient range at present (68% or 234 miles) but it would be completely daft to chance that for a 200ish + mile round trip.

A nice bonus of opening the packs of cables in the boot was that I saw there are a set of rear mud-flaps supplied.  It is a bit naff that these weren't fitted as part of the PDI like the front ones, but there's another job for me tomorrow.

EDIT: another plus was I had not been able to get the traffic aware cruise control distance back setting to work as I expected.  There was another driver with a TM3 at the charging point who was kind enough to explain when I asked. 

EDIT 2:  That 6 or so kWh is around £2.50 value so similar I suppose to how some supermarkets have the offers of a discount on petrol if buying £xx shopping.

silvercar

I know that the Tesla super chargers only report whole kWH, so maybe these are the same.

Check that those mud flaps are actually rear mud flaps and not extensions to the front mud flaps. If you do fit them, some people on the Facebook groups report that they need trimming 20mm for use on British roads due to humps etc

Grumpy_chap

silvercar said:

Check that those mud flaps are actually rear mud flaps and not extensions to the front mud flaps. 

Well, that was a good spot.
I went out to fit the rear mud flaps this afternoon and it turns out they are, indeed, longer mud flaps that can be swapped out with the fitted front mud flaps if desired.  
While the fitted front mud flaps are rather shorter than they could be, the swap out set are rather too long (as you noted).

No rear mud flaps have been supplied.
I probably won't buy any as an after-market accessory.