EV Discussion thread

Grumpy_chap

Martyn1981 said:

[Edit - re-reading it, I think I got it wrong, and you are saying it will be tolerated less (I read the issue will become less), so yep, same thought here. M.]

Yes, I may not have phrased my comment well, but that is what I meant.  Early adopters will have been willing to tolerate a greater level of inconvenience than the last to the party.

silvercar

Maybe I have been spoilt by the Tesla charging network, but I've just ordered an EV to replace our second car. A Leaf this time only 39kwH rather than the Telsa 75KwH, but as a second car we aren't planning on using it for long journeys. Have a home charger, so hopefully won't need to charge elsewhere very often. 

Martyn1981

silvercar said:

Maybe I have been spoilt by the Tesla charging network, but I've just ordered an EV to replace our second car. A Leaf this time only 39kwH rather than the Telsa 75KwH, but as a second car we aren't planning on using it for long journeys. Have a home charger, so hopefully won't need to charge elsewhere very often. 

Same situation for us, with a large batt, and a good charging network, the second car (if you need one) can be much more limited. Our IONIQ (28kWh) has a solid 130+ mile range, so no probs. Even a first gen Leaf or similar will do if you can work around the larger BEV. Also for PV (Apr-Sep) it's handy as there's twice the chance of being able to gobble up the spare leccy, and/or alternate use accordingly.

But flipping things around for a moment - any household who's second / third etc cars do less mileage, maybe young adults at home who can share the use of the 'primary' ICE car, then smaller range BEV's could, dare I say 'easily' displace those extra vehicles. Also, as we found with our first BEV a 70(ish) mile Leaf, it may have technically been a second car to the ICE Zafira, but it quickly assumed the majority of trips and mileage, as BEV's are so much nicer to drive. [Obviously wouldn't work if lots of longer trips are the norm.]

michaels

silvercar said:

Maybe I have been spoilt by the Tesla charging network, but I've just ordered an EV to replace our second car. A Leaf this time only 39kwH rather than the Telsa 75KwH, but as a second car we aren't planning on using it for long journeys. Have a home charger, so hopefully won't need to charge elsewhere very often. 

Welcome to the club. We bought a second leaf 24 to use as a battery and have now upgraded to a 40 thinking it will allow us to run the heat pump on overnight electricity and replace our big old 25mpg ice for longer trips too. Need to decide whether to sorn the ice for holiday use or just sell it. Reckon the leaf could do our main holiday trip on a single charge stop but is just a bit small for all our luggage.

When we first got our leaf 24 we did 10k miles a year and though that would split 4k ice, 6k EV. Soon we found we were doing 11 out of 13k in the leaf as so much more is within 40 miles range than you would imagine.

Grumpy_chap

michaels said:

When we first got our leaf 24 we did 10k miles a year and though that would split 4k ice, 6k EV. Soon we found we were doing 11 out of 13k in the leaf as so much more is within 40 miles range than you would imagine.

That sounds similar to my Brother's experience with the i3.  Swapped the second car for EV but they now like it so much that is the primary car and the ICE remains for very limited use.  

silvercar

At the at the moment, and long may it last, we have free charging somewhere local that we only pay £3 a day parking, so the Tesla will actually be cheaper to use than the Leaf. Our mileage split used to be 12/6. Then along came covid and working partly from home made it reduced to 8/6. Then I fell in love with the Tesla and it has become 12/2. Be interesting to see whether I prefer the Leaf.

Just deciding whether to get it as a company car with the net net figure will be around £330 a month all in or on PCP where the monthly charge will be the same but we will have to pay insurance and running costs. Bit of a gamble whether the extra is worth paying to have the option to purchase after 4 years. 

JKenH

silvercar said:

At the at the moment, and long may it last, we have free charging somewhere local that we only pay £3 a day parking, so the Tesla will actually be cheaper to use than the Leaf. Our mileage split used to be 12/6. Then along came covid and working partly from home made it reduced to 8/6. Then I fell in love with the Tesla and it has become 12/2. Be interesting to see whether I prefer the Leaf.

Just deciding whether to get it as a company car with the net net figure will be around £330 a month all in or on PCP where the monthly charge will be the same but we will have to pay insurance and running costs. Bit of a gamble whether the extra is worth paying to have the option to purchase after 4 years. 

Never driven a Tesla but I had a Leaf 40 Acenta for a short while then a Leaf n-Connecta and enjoyed both enormously, particularly the ride and e-Pedal. My son now has my Leaf and says using e-Pedal isn’t as efficient but if you are using it as a local run around, efficiency might not be an issue. It takes a bit of getting used to but I would certainly like something similar in my next EV. Ditto the 360 camera. 

@michaels how are you enjoying your Leaf 40?

JKenH

Lexus in development of a manual transmission for electric cars

No, it’s not April 1st. 

I have read stories recently that some drivers don’t like the anodyne experience of driving electric cars and are snapping up the few performance cars still left with manual transmissions. This idea appeals to those who want further engagement - even if it’s fake (a bit like generated engine sounds).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6367380/ev-discussion-thread/p59

Petriix

I find that I have to do pretend gear changes whenever I'm behind an ICE at the lights anyway. No matter how much I try to allow a gap to build in anticipation of each of their gear changes, I invariably have to ease off then reapply the power to match their 3 bursts of acceleration. I can't imagine why anyone would voluntarily experience such tedium. 

Grumpy_chap

JKenH said:

Lexus in development of a manual transmission for electric cars

I'm not sure why Lexus would bother developing a manual transmission for an electric car given their (and Toyota's) abject reluctance to actually develop a proper fully-EV range of vehicles.  They'll have this manual transmission but no EV's to fit that into.  Also an odd thing for Lexus to say is an important criteria for a car given all their hybrids are not (so far as I am aware) available with manual gearbox.  In fact, do Lexus even offer any cars with a manual transmission at present?

I am also rather confused as to why a manual transmission would be desirable or even appropriate for an EV.  

A conventional ICE is fitted with a gear box between the drive unit (engine) and the wheels, so there is a need to change gears and that gear-changing process can be manual or automatic.  There are alternatives that use CVT automatic gear boxes, but these are not the majority of ICE cars (though a lot of Toyota's, even those that are not hybrid).

As I understand it (with simplifications), though, an EV does not have a gear box in the same way as the electric motor is an inverter-driven variable speed drive and just runs faster or slower depending on the required wheel speed.  That means the motor can be direct-coupled to the drive.  That means that an EV motor is always at the optimum speed for the conditions.  Then, a "manual" EV would still have the same inverter-driven variable speed drive but instead of allowing that motor speed to vary continuously, to achieve "manual" would need the motor to have a range of set speeds that the motor operates at and a switch to select a higher set speed or a lower set speed.  Which would be introducing an inefficiency to the system where none needs to exist.  The result would be higher energy use, lower range in the EV compared to an EV that is just allowed to operate and take advantage of the full inverter-range.

Maybe my understanding is entirely wrong and someone will correct me.