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Just reporting back on the bike rack consumption, I did a 100 mile trip through Wales (fast A-road, a bit of motorway, some pottering through town) in my ID7 on Saturday and got 3.6 m/kWh with two bikes on a towball rack.
I haven't done the same journey sans bikes yet, but an educated guess suggests it knocked ~15% off the range. I'll likely be repeating the journey bike free at some point in the next couple of weeks, so will report back.
Same, i think it's one of the only cars around at the moment that looks like it's actually made a bit of an effort. I'd definitely have one.
Marmite then! It's not to my taste at all but I'm fully with you on the "bit of effort" thing.
Just reporting back on the bike rack consumption, I did a 100 mile trip through Wales (fast A-road, a bit of motorway, some pottering through town) in my ID7 on Saturday and got 3.6 m/kWh with two bikes on a towball rack.
I haven't done the same journey sans bikes yet, but an educated guess suggests it knocked ~15% off the range. I'll likely be repeating the journey bike free at some point in the next couple of weeks, so will report back.
Decent! Which model of id7 is that btw? I started scrolling back to see if you'd mentioned it and it taking 20s to load each page so I gave up.
I sat in an Inster whilst my ioniq was having its MOT and I liked it.
Front passenger seat folds forwards and flat so that was good. Boot and load space with seats folded seemed good.
The sliding rear seats gave lots of legroom for passengers compared to the Corsa e I have with a similar position for my driving position.
How'd do you go about choosing your EV charger?
The advice to choose a charger to fit with whatever tariff you want to use is good advice but it's not always straightforward. Like lots of things to do with EVs, the landscape is always changing.
For example, I signed up through my electricity supplier (OVO) to get a charger installed back in November. At that time they recommended an Ohme Home Pro, so that's what I selected. Luckily for me (as it turned out) the installer quit with no notice a week before my original install date (I guess they are in demand) and in the time between the original install date and the new one OVO had dropped support for Ohme! There was a bit of back and forth in the days leading up to the install and I eventually opted for an Indra Smart Lux charger (which seems to work very well) but if it hadn't been for the original installer quitting I'd now be stuck with an Ohme that I couldn't use with the OVO Charge Anytime tariff.
Still the interminable wait for the Ford eCourier Tourneo. They were showing the damn thing 2 years ago and you still can't order one. And when it finally comes out, a 44kWh battery is really going to limit something they are trying to market as a lifestyle activity vehicle.
Does seem an odd choice for a battery in a "lifestyle car". I guess that's really just a meaningless marketing term, but to me it would mean a car that you might use to access trailheads in remote parts of the country, miles from any charger.
Could be down to the delays. Maybe 44kwh sounded sensible when they first designed it and now they can't change. We've had a number of Suzuki ICE cars over the past 8 years. I like them and I like our local dealer, so was keeping an eye out for their electric offering. Again it seemed to be promised for years before it actually materialized and now it's hit the market it just looks poor next to the competition. Would have been fine a few years ago, but not now.
Or maybe Ford have just decided to buck the trend and go for smaller (lighter) batteries and better efficiency over pure range. The Puma also has a 43 kwh battery, which looks small compared with its competitors, but seems to offer good efficiency.
I'm still not sure where the market will go with range. There are those (more knowledgeable than me) who think 600+ mile range is going to be the norm quite soon, but I can't really see the logic. You can easily make an ICE car with over 600 miles of range. Doesn't even cost you much, but still most standard family cars have much lower range than that. With an EV the battery is always going to be a significant part of the overall cost. Personally, I don't think people really want a 600 mile range car as much as they want a lighter cheaper 300 mile range one. But I may well be wrong on that one. I'm sure 600 mile range cars will come and they will create a lot of media excitement. I also accept that there are people who really do want these. I just think the market for them is much smaller than people are assuming. Most people who say that an EV needs to have a 600 mile range are people who haven't actually lived with an EV for any length of time.
the current Ionic 6 is genuinely repulsive to look at, probably the ugliest mainstream car on sale
Someone in our village has an Ioniq 6. The styling isn't for me, but I can see what they are trying to do and it's not really ugly (in my eyes) just a bit different. Mind you, I went for an EV3 so I clearly have no taste 😀
Decent! Which model of id7 is that btw? I started scrolling back to see if you'd mentioned it and it taking 20s to load each page so I gave up.
It's a Pro S Tourer, so big battery but 2WD. It was a warm evening which I'm sure helped, but I was just 'driving' rather than trying to eke out the mileage. Suspect I'll be doing similar with a small motorcycle trailer in the not too distant future too, so will keep a tally.
I'm still not sure where the market will go with range.
Some larger or more premium cars will be available in two versions, but most 'normal' cars will be around 300 miles and the budget small cars 200.
I sat in an Inster whilst my ioniq was having its MOT and I liked it.
my wife picks hers up tomorrow, it seems a great wee car. We will then be a 2 EV car house, probably be fighting over the charger each night .
Some larger or more premium cars will be available in two versions, but most 'normal' cars will be around 300 miles and the budget small cars 200.
You may be right and as someone who has just bought a car with a 362 mile WLTP range that I hope to keep for a while I hope you are. But I'm resigned to the fact that my car might look obsolete in a few years if new EVs all have 600+ mile ranges. As I say, I can't really see it but I'm prepared to accept that it might happen.
In theory it doesn't really matter. As long as my car does what I need it to then it shouldn't matter if other cars are better. There have always been lots of cars on the road that are far better than whatever I'm driving as some people are just happy (and able) to spend much more on a car than I am.
I guess the nightmare scenario though is that everyone gets long range EVs that they only charge at home and the charging hubs I rely on for long journeys all shut down. Seems pretty unlikely though.
I note that five years ago (in 2020) you could already buy a car with a claimed range of 373 miles. Yet in 2025 manufacturers are still bringing new models to market with ranges a hundred miles less than that. So I guess they don't think that range is the main factor either.
All changed again for me now as the new sales engineer that was due to start, who I was giving my current car too, has pulled out of the job. So now rush on a new car for me now which is a shame.
Still getting a charger installed though for when it does happen.
Quite a nice video of Jonny Smith (who I really rate) buying and getting sorted a very high milage Tesla for a daily driver.
£5K for what was a £100K car in 2016, still on the free charging for life deal. Just the .....260K miles on the clock!
The encouraging thing being the battery still showing 76% health after all those miles. I'm sure that battery longevity varies from brand to brand but the idea of getting 260K miles out of one puts to bed rather the concept that knackered batteries will make 2nd hand EVs a non starter for mass adoption.
All changed again for me now as the new sales engineer that was due to start, who I was giving my current car too, has pulled out of the job. So now rush on a new car for me now which is a shame.
Look on the bright side, when you do get round to getting a new car there will be lots of newer and better EVs to choose from 😀
The Courier is basically a Puma with a brick shaped body - they are quoting a motorway range of 127miles in perfect conditions so it is going to be pretty dismal on a cold day with some load and a bit of battery degradation. I've no problem with changing behaviour for edge cases, but that kind of real range is going to eat into usefulness for a lot of everyday situations. There is a real gap in the market for small MPVs with a little more range than currently on offer (Kangoo is even worse for tiny battery). Berlingo is recently improved but still not there yet.
Quite a nice video of Jonny Smith (who I really rate)
I quite enjoyed that too and I do think that cheap second hand EVs with ~200 miles of range are going to be a real game changer for cheap motoring. There is still a lot of misinformation about batteries only lasting a few years and/or spontaneously combusting at the drop of a hat. But the reality is that a £5k EV with 100k on the clock is probably going to be a lot more reliable and a lot cheaper to run than a £5k ICE car of similar mileage.
My daughter recently passed her test. She learnt to drive in a manual car to give herself options, but she's love an automatic EV. Unfortunately at her budget that still means cars with ~80 miles of range on a good day, which doesn't really cut it in a rural village. Something around 150 (so a guaranteed 100 miles even in winter) would probably work. Still needs insurance companies to agree that repair costs aren't really any higher than an ICE car though or the premiums will still be a problem.
By the way, I watched a recent JayEmm video where he was ranting about BYD and the comments were all slagging off Jonny for some apparent misdemeanour that I couldn't quite understand.
All changed again for me now as the new sales engineer that was due to start, who I was giving my current car too, has pulled out of the job. So now rush on a new car for me now which is a shame.
Look on the bright side, when you do get round to getting a new car there will be lots of newer and better EVs to choose from 😀
Perhaps. I'm hoping it will still be in the next 1-2 months as my current car is due to be changed.
Just ordered a Kia EV6, delayed delivery until September as I need to get a charger installed and going on holiday. Looking at Ohme for a charger, any opinions?
Already with Octopus so will move to their EV tariff when everything is settled and I believe the Ohme charger is compatible.
Tethered cable or not with the charger? Thinking of going for an 8m tethered charger as it will reduce the cable run for the fixed wiring, it's already over 15m from the consumer unit. Will mean that the cable reaches either car if we get a second electric in the future. I assume EV's come with the charging cable and it's not an 'optional' extra?
Is the charger wired into the consumer unit, the Ohme survey keeps talking about the position of the meter. got a plastic consumer unit that 25 years old and I'd rather not have to upgrade that at the same time.
On the cable side, having had an untethered one for 2 years, if doing again it’d be tethered, saves coiling up a wet cable and putting it in the car or garage.
Is the charger wired into the consumer unit, the Ohme survey keeps talking about the position of the meter. got a plastic consumer unit that 25 years old and I'd rather not have to upgrade that at the same time.
If your CU is 25yrs old I'd be looking to update it. Electrician who is fitting my Charger next week advised to get it done, given its 33yrs old the board is full I knew I'd have to do at some point.
Looking at Ohme for a charger, any opinions?
Already with Octopus so will move to their EV tariff when everything is settled and I believe the Ohme charger is compatible.
Ohme works with Octopus. At least for now. Nothing seems to be guaranteed in the EV world at the moment. It would mean that you couldn't switch to OVO charge anytime if you decided you wanted to though. Probably not a big deal though as most people seem to prefer intelligent Octopus anyway. My only slight concern would be that OVO have just dropped support for Ohme so is there a risk that Octopus might do the same soon? I don't think so. I don't know all the details but it looks as though the OVO decision was specific to their tariff, which only gives the cheap rate for EV charging (not the whole house) and does this through a rebate on your bill. I think it was down to Ohme not being able to report exactly how much charge went specifically to the car and an issue with people using solar to charge the car for free and then getting a rebate for that electricity as well despite it not coming from OVO in the first place.
Tethered cable or not with the charger?
Tethered is easier (don't have to keep getting your cable out of the car) but untethered is neater (no cable left lying around when you are not charging). In theory I could neatly wind my 8m cable around my Indra charger, but I know I'll never bother.
I assume EV's come with the charging cable and it's not an 'optional' extra?
All the newer ones I've seen do. There was a time when you might get a cable that went into a standard three pin plug instead (or as well in some cases) but they are pretty much dying out as an option as batteries get bigger.
Is the charger wired into the consumer unit, the Ohme survey keeps talking about the position of the meter. got a plastic consumer unit that 25 years old and I'd rather not have to upgrade that at the same time.
In my case the wiring goes from the smart meter to a small metal box (a CSU of some sort I guess) that was fitted next to the meter and then to the charger (which isn't actually a charger at all of course, but you know what I mean). The installer had to check something on my existing CSU but not sure what as the wiring doesn't connect to it at all.
Just ordered a Kia EV6, delayed delivery until September as I need to get a charger installed and going on holiday. Looking at Ohme for a charger, any opinions?
Already with Octopus so will move to their EV tariff when everything is settled and I believe the Ohme charger is compatible.
Tethered cable or not with the charger? Thinking of going for an 8m tethered charger as it will reduce the cable run for the fixed wiring, it's already over 15m from the consumer unit. Will mean that the cable reaches either car if we get a second electric in the future. I assume EV's come with the charging cable and it's not an 'optional' extra?
Is the charger wired into the consumer unit, the Ohme survey keeps talking about the position of the meter. got a plastic consumer unit that 25 years old and I'd rather not have to upgrade that at the same time.
I think most installers prefer to use a new separate dedicated consumer unit for the charger, so they are confident that the whole installation is good rather than relying on some ancient consumer unit.
That's how ours was fitted anyway.
Thinking of going for an 8m tethered charger as it will reduce the cable run for the fixed wiring, it's already over 15m from the consumer unit
I don't think it makes much difference, my fixed cable run is 45m from charger to consumer unit.
I'm only a few days into the EV experience, so I thought I've report on a few things that came as a surprise while they were fresh in my mind (in case they are of use to anyone else considering the switch). It's not all EV specific. Some is probably just down to coming from am 8 year old car to a newer one.
First, I'm surprised by just how different it all is. I've been driving for over 40 years now but it almost feels like going back to being a learner. There are so many aids and pieces of information being presented to you in various ways that it can be somewhat overwhelming. I think they could do with a "just turn everything off and let me drive" button 😀 The tech is great once you get the hang of it, but if you are coming from an older car you really need to introduce one new feature at a time.
Some of the issue is no doubt because I haven't driven an automatic in over 20 years (and that was on the other side of the road) and it may be easier if you are coming from an automatic and don't need to also re-wire your brain to stop you instinctively applying the clutch.
The smooth, quiet and effortless acceleration combined with the extra weight of the vehicle requires a fair bit of re-calibration and has led to a few hairy moments as I misjudge my speed going into a bend. After 40 years I just have an instinct for how fast I'm going but that instinct is now wrong.
I also need to get out of the habit of booting it out of every bend or roundabout. Accelerating gently just feels like I'm going at snails pace but the fact that I keep catching the car in front means that's probably not the case.
I'm still finding parking it a bit of a challenge as I keep misjudging where it is going. I think the issue there is that my old car had fixed guide lines for the reversing camera while this one has lines that move and I don't think I've adapted to that yet. In time I'm sure the 360 degree camera will prove useful but again, at first, it is just too much information and I find myself going old-school and just relying on my wing mirrors.
The lane centring combined with adaptive cruise control is amazing, but you need to remember that you still have to decide whether it is safe to enter the roundabout as the car will just follow the car in front. Obvious really but it can feel as though you are just a passenger at points.
On the driving aids I'm happy with the non-intrusive ones but not so happy with ones that try to overide choices I've made. A single button to deselect a set off pre-selected options I'd like (if you see what I mean).
After years in FWD rally cars I'm quite happy left foot braking so most of the time use the one-foot driving regen allows then at low speed or if I want more braking than regen use the left foot. This makes three point turns and going into reverse really fluid as my foot is aways on the brake so the car will cange from drive to reverse without moving my feet Before adopting the left foot forward-reverse was slow and clumsy.. The first Zoe was great, you could engage reverse whilst still going forward and vsa versa.
If you've never left foot braked before go karting or find a desetted road to try/practice.
Cheers, some helpful feed back. I know what roverpig means, 5ook awhile to get used to my current petrol Kia with all the assistance features, luckily the EV6 is pretty similar albeit a lot more powerful but I tend to bimble these days rather than boot it at every opportunity.
Ref the consumer unit, yes probably needs replacing but I'd rather wait until kitchen gets done which will probably be next year.
@Edukator as you may know, the Renault EVs have a button that does exactly that; sets all the aids to your personal preference. The EV3 doesn’t although it does at least have one button to turn off the lane keep assist, which is the one that annoys me most. There is another button to turn off the “over the speed limit” bong, which I thought I would turn off every time but actually tend to leave on at the moment. Partly because it is so easy to speed (so the warning is useful) and partly because I’ve turned the warning volume to its lowest level so I don’t find it that intrusive.
Think I need to train my left leg to stop going for the clutch before I try to teach it to brake, but I’ll give it a go sometime.
@ stumpyjon I think I just need to work on my bumbling skills 😀
@roverpig do you not have the annoying 'profile selection' screen when you start the car? I think that in my car that also changes some of the driving aid preferences.
I’ve not really played with the profiles yet. I have one set up but as it is the only one it just defaults to it when I start the car and I just ignore it. My wife isn’t keen to drive the car yet (too big for her liking and too much intrusive tech) but she’ll need to later in the week so we’ll probably set up a profile for her (if only so it connects to her phone not mine). At which point I guess I’ll have to click on my profile whenever I start the car 😩
There do seem to be some things you can set in the profile that don’t reset when you turn off the car. For example, I’ve set the volume for the bongs to zero, which isn’t actually off but is low enough not to be intrusive. It also doesn’t mute the media and since I’m normally listening to something I can barely hear the bongs.
This might be a bit niche but knowing the Niro is a popular EV (and suspect the EV3 will be the same)....and being in theory a biking forum read by people who strap stuff to the outside of cars, it might be relevant to others.
Just heard back from the Roof Box Company who are the go to people for roofrack knowledge - the Kia flush style roof rails are to all intents and purposes fake. You can't use roof bars that clamp to them, you have to use bars that bolt to the mount points hidden within them under very fiddly covers. That might be a none issue to a lot of folk that might only put the bars on once in a blue moon to go on holiday etc. But my plan was to put them on an off at least once a week to go paddling and not have them on the rest of the time making a noise and reducing the range. I've seen the video and using the bolting option looks a complete ballache and far too time consuming as a frequent weekly activity.
My error - should have done better research as one of the main reasons the Niro made it to the top of the (head rather than heart) wish list was the roof rails.
^^^ intersecting to read, I am getting a towbar fitted shortly on my EV3, as I already have the bike rack, however I did have a look at Roofbox and on the selector they seemed to be clamp on ones. I guess that might just be a generic thing though.
Thanks @convert. Not sure if the rails on the EV3 are the same but useful information. Fortunately I’m in the “might put the roof box on once a year to go on holiday” camp but I can see how this could be frustrating and a bit of a sneaky move from KIA
however I did have a look at Roofbox and on the selector they seemed to be clamp on ones.
Yes - just looked at the KIA official parts page for the EV3 and the OEM ones looks like they clamp and are described as 'easy to fit'. Another reason the EV3 is a step on from the Niro I fear 🙁
Presumably that means I can just use my existing roof bars that clamped to the roof rails on my old ICE car then? Sounds too good to be true 😀
I'd check.....very few roof bars work on both flush mount rails and raised roof rail types....so it would depend on the type your previous car had.
Thanks. There was no gap between the rail and the roof on my old (2017) Suzuki S-cross either, so I guess they were flush mount.
roverpig, if you search on roofbox they will show you the foot pack part number for both of the cars
This might be a bit niche but knowing the Niro is a popular EV (and suspect the EV3 will be the same)....and being in theory a biking forum read by people who strap stuff to the outside of cars, it might be relevant to others.
Just heard back from the Roof Box Company who are the go to people for roofrack knowledge - the Kia flush style roof rails are to all intents and purposes fake. You can't use roof bars that clamp to them, you have to use bars that bolt to the mount points hidden within them under very fiddly covers. That might be a none issue to a lot of folk that might only put the bars on once in a blue moon to go on holiday etc. But my plan was to put them on an off at least once a week to go paddling and not have them on the rest of the time making a noise and reducing the range. I've seen the video and using the bolting option looks a complete ballache and far too time consuming as a frequent weekly activity.
My error - should have done better research as one of the main reasons the Niro made it to the top of the (head rather than heart) wish list was the roof rails.
Thule Niro
Here's the Thule pictorial fitting guide
Tried poking at the tabs, but fearful of scratching or breaking it with mini screwdriver
Thanks. It looks as though, if I select the same bars, it gives me the same foot pack for both cars, which is good news.
While I'm typing, a few more random thoughts from an EV newbie. Not sure if these are of any use to anybody. Most normal people don't obsess about every little detail of course. But these are the things that I've found surprising so maybe somebody will find them useful.
Overall there is a bit of a "disconnected" feel, which takes a while to get used to. Again this might not be an issue if you are coming from a more modern, relatively premium automatic car, but coming from an older car it's quite noticeable. It doesn't drive badly (better than many by all accounts) but you just don't feel that connected. Not surprising I guess. There isn't really any direct connection between any of the inputs and outputs. It's all just position/motion sensors talking to a computer that then drives the car. You tell it what you want it to do and it works out how to do that (sometimes disagreeing with you on the way). I'm sure that's probably safer and it means it can do fancy things like apply the brake to just the inside wheels to help you round a corner if you go in a bit fast. But it takes away from that feel of actually driving. It's also quite well insulated which makes you feel a bit disconnected from your fellow road users too. I'm sure I'll get used to it and jumping back into an ICE car again may start to feel positively agricultural, but it takes a little while to adapt to 8 years of progress.
On the plus side, I spent a lot of time on various facebook user groups reading about the issues with all the cars I was considering. Lots of stuff about apps not connecting and charging failing plus endless faults, which can give the impression that these cars are nothing but trouble. Obviously it's very early days, but so far I've been impressed by how easy it has all been. The app always connects to the car (as long as I haven't parked it somewhere with no signal of course) and being able to turn on the climate control, seats, demister etc remotely still feels a bit sci-fi. Charging at home so far has just involved plugging it in and walking away. Somehow my OVO charge anytime app talks with the charger app and it is charged to the level I asked for by the time I asked for all at 7p/kwh (along with a whole load of notifications telling me when each block of charging started and finished, which I can no doubt turn off).
@bruneep Thanks
I think I'm going to get creative and remove the silly covers, preinstall and torque up the mounting bolts, then fashion up something to 3D print than covers/prettifies the exposed section that sits above the rail when not in use.
The mount points look way too close together for my use too - if II could, I'd slide them much further apart.
@roverpig, out of interest, are you on the Kia connect app or the new one ? I have a post going on the EV3 UK Owners FB about it..
@roverpig, out of interest, are you on the Kia connect app or the new one ? I have a post going on the EV3 UK Owners FB about it..
Ah that's you is it 😀 Yes, I've responded, but I'm on facebook under my real name rather than the daft pseudonym I chose on here many years ago (for reasons even I can't remember). I'm easy to find though as I'm the only one who is happy with the new app. Mainly because I never got used to the old one I expect.
At least using those fittings mean the roof bars remove in about 10 seconds even if you leave the fixpoint fitting kit on the roof.
No need for 3d printing: https://www.thule.com/en-gb/products-_-710750
I think I'm going to get creative and remove the silly covers, preinstall and torque up the mounting bolts, then fashion up something to 3D print than covers/prettifies the exposed section that sits above the rail when not in use.
Came here to say you can buy them from Thule but beaten to it.
Those Thule things look flipping huge - Once I've got everything in front of me I reckon I can do better.
But this attitude to life is why everything I do is so much hassle....