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The Electric Car Thread

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What @molgrips said, plus EDIT (thanks @iainc for correcting my generalisation)  regenerative braking in Tesla Model S, 3, X, and Y is reduced if you charge to >90% (or if it is darn cold). This effect may be different in other vehicles. If this affects your vehicle it makes driving electric a lot less fun as you’ll need to use the brake pedal to apply friction

edit. And as several have said, you don’t need to have a full charge most of the time. Especially if you charge at home. Why charge to the max if your driving will only use 15%?


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 10:39 am
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^^^ the regen braking on mine isn’t affected by battery charge level.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 10:40 am
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More and more EVs like Tesla Model Y RWD and Model 3 RWD and Standard MG EV4 have Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries which you are encouraged to charge to 100%


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 10:42 am
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^^^ the regen braking on mine isn’t affected by battery charge level.

So if the battery is fully charged, what happens to the excess electricity? I notice this a lot as I live at the top of a hill.

I once scared myself in the Zoe not long after we go it when the regen didn't kick in when I was expecting it.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:00 am
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if the battery is fully charged, what happens to the excess electricity? I notice this a lot as I live at the top of a hill.

good question, I have no idea !


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:02 am
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Question for those that have been through the charger point installations.

The wiring in to the mains, does it need to be pretty much wherever the fuse box is? Its quite a long way from the fuse box to where we can charge a car.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:09 am
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if the battery is fully charged

my guess would be that for those vehicles [edit] that have good regen when >90% charged [/edit] the battery is not fully charged. That while it says ‘100%’ there is some ‘spare’ capacity that can then accommodate the regen.

when we were testing various EVs a few years back the variability in regen braking between different models was wide. For example, Tesla - loads,  Jaguar IPace - not much. This may be an influence in some vehicles?


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:14 am
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does it need to be pretty much wherever the fuse box is

no. There are these ‘cable’ things that can transfer the electricity from the consumer unit to destinations around the property 😏

seriously, it doesn’t have to be very close. However, more than 5-10m and the cable costs will rise. And it is fat high current cable so not that cheap.

installers seem to favor installations as close as reasonably possible to the CU.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:17 am
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MG say the same as everyone else though on their website, which is 20-80% regularly??

Also looks like LFP are worse in cold weather and less energy dense so I guess there is a trade-off.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:22 am
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seriously, it doesn’t have to be very close. However, more than 5-10m and the cable costs will rise. And it is fat high current cable so not that cheap.

40m. tbh, this "cable" witchcraft your referring to. Was what i was querying about needing to go to the fuse box as I guessed just plugging into a 3 point wall socket wouldnt be ideal.
Im not even sure where wed run the cable, possibly mostly externally round the side of the house (from the front) along the garden wall to the parking spot at a guess. Internally would need a lot of mess making with a lot of century+ old features in the way. (Actually found part of the servants bell system the other day, the house IS NOT that big btw)


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:25 am
 DrP
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My leaf loses regn at 100% charge.

I suspect the excess electricity would shoot out the back as lightning sparks. A bit like tuned cars spitting flames.

I guess.

DrP


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:28 am
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Was what i was querying about needing to go to the fuse box as I guessed just plugging into a 3 point wall socket wouldnt be ideal.

you can’t plug a wall car charge point into a regular socket. You can use a wall socket to charge. But with an upper limit of 13A it’ll be s l o w. [edit] and for a long run you’ll need some substantial cable for the extension lead to avoid overheating [/edit]

a good installer will be able to do this neatly for you. It will likely cost a fair bit for a complex 40m run.

servant’s bells? Found a whole bunch of the pulleys and cables for those in various parts of our house too. Sadly no associated features like bells or pulls.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:37 am
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What would be sensible would be for a software fix to add the appropriate level of actual braking in when the battery is full so that the car behaves in the same way. I thought I read that Tesla was doing this but I’m not sure it happens at the moment.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:40 am
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a good installer will be able to do this neatly for you. It will likely cost a fair bit for a complex 40m run.

That was my conclusion, I just wanted to be wrong 😀

servant’s bells? Found a whole bunch of the pulleys and cables for those in various parts of our house too. Sadly no associated features like bells or pulls.

Exactly that, seem some proper old school mains wiring too (exposed cables, no longer live)


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:44 am
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old school mains wiring too (exposed cables, no longer live)

I was terrified when I found lengths of crumbly old rubberised cabling in floor voids, cellar, and lofts. Thankfully, like yours, none of it was live.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:46 am
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I would love to drive an ev down from Cervinia at 2000m down to Chatillon at 500m to see how much charge it would add. I guess there's some engineers or physicists on here that could do the maths?


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:46 am
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@oldtennisshoes you might be able to get an idea using the ‘a better route planner’ app or website? https://abetterrouteplanner.com maybe you’ll get different results for different vehicle types too?


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:48 am
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So if the battery is fully charged, what happens to the excess electricity?

My Prius and Ioniq just use the brake pedal as an indication of how quickly you want to slow down. They then use regen and supplement that with friction brakes as needed. So the effect of pressing the brake pedal is always the same. Generally you don't need to know the difference between friction and regen braking, unless you've got a BMW i3. Hyundai always behaves the same way regardless.

It may make a difference if you are trying to drive only on regen, with one-pedal, but that isn't really possible as you'd never be able to come to a complete stop. The Hyundai did allow you to drive on regen only but it wouldn't bring you to a stop so you still needed the pedal.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:52 am
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What would be sensible would be for a software fix to add the appropriate level of actual braking in when the battery is full to charge less so that the car behaves in the same way

Alternative option.

🤷🏻‍♂️ if this does happen with our 3 or Y due to some software update, charging all the way is something I’ve only felt the need to do a couple of times since 2018. ‘Filling up’ all the way just hasn’t been a thing.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:53 am
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Good thinking @prettygreenparrot I'll have a look at that now.

Well that's disappointing


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 11:54 am
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I would love to drive an ev down from Cervinia at 2000m down to Chatillon at 500m to see how much charge it would add.

The potential energy available for that trip in a car + passengers of 1700kg is 25MJ which is about 7kWh. You won't get it all back because of charging efficiency losses but also air and rolling resistance. So work out how far the trip is, the efficiency you'd expect from your car if it were flat at a comparable average speed, and subtract that.

EDIT 18 miles, at say 40mph, probably only needs 4kWh to overcome friction. So you could probably gain 3kWh at most if you weren't using friction brakes into hairpins etc. Maybe 2 including generation and charging losses.

@Edukator does stuff like this in his EV, he lives in the mountains.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 12:02 pm
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Potential energy is mass (kg) x gravitational acceleration (9.81m/s) x height differential (1500m). Ep = mas

Minus friction and generation losses plus the energy required to maintain a set speed (Ek = 0.5mv^2)

It's probably not that hard to figure out as its all fairly low level science l, you just need all the relevant data to begin with.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 12:04 pm
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Batteries are primarily damaged by heat, when you charge to near 100% the internal resistance increases and (especially when charging fast) they therefore get hot. Is my simplistic understanding. Generating the heat also wastes energy which costs money.

My car slows the charge significantly past 80% and even more dramatically past 90%.

It’s also a courtesy/efficiency thing on public chargers. You can sit at one for an hour and a half going from 50 to 100% or drive a bit further down the road and do 30 to 80% in 20 mins. Of course that doesn’t apply overnight on your drive. But it seems a good habit to get into generally, so long as you’ve got spare range. I don’t usually plug in at home unless ours is below 50% (we get about 25-30% overnight at cheap rate on the 3 pin plug).


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 12:24 pm
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My previous ETron behaved very differently at close to 100% - no regen so you had to use the brake pedal more than normal.

My current i4 feels exactly the same at 100% as it does at lower charge. I don’t know whether it’s actually regenning at 100% or whether it’s using the friction brakes to give the same response but either way it’s nice to have a car that behaves the same all the time.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 12:30 pm
 Alex
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Our MG4 doesn't do regen when we charge it to 100%. As my better half found out in an incident with a tractor as she set off down the road 😉

@piemonster - we had to run about 25-30m from the fusebox that's at the back of the house to the charger at the front. We ended up being able to use some cable (of the right grade/condition) inside the house rather than running outside. Really we had no option, as the outside run would have meant very big/very expensive cables with quite a bit of voltage drop.

Also our electrician really didn't want to run it over the roof for all sorts of reasons. Mostly, it looks rubbish. I did think we were going to be into removing carpets and drilling joists, but we got lucky with a cable that had been put in for the extension near where we needed to be.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 12:48 pm
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Batteries are primarily damaged by heat, when you charge to near 100% the internal resistance increases and (especially when charging fast) they therefore get hot.

They would get hot yes but cars communicate with chargers so they should actively reduce speed when the battery gets warm, which I think is what we see.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 12:51 pm
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40m. tbh, this “cable” witchcraft your referring to. Was what i was querying about needing to go to the fuse box as I guessed just plugging into a 3 point wall socket wouldnt be ideal.
Im not even sure where wed run the cable, possibly mostly externally round the side of the house (from the front) along the garden wall to the parking spot at a guess. Internally would need a lot of mess making with a lot of century+ old features in the way. (Actually found part of the servants bell system the other day, the house IS NOT that big btw)

Having had a number of quotes for my wall box recently, most companies quotes were for a max 10m of cable. Anything over that was charged extra. I used chargedEV who had an easy online survey. Someone then phoned me back on a video call and did a walk round my fuse box and proposed charger point to discuss best options.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 12:52 pm
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Just read that Leafs support V2G or V2H by virtue of having a ChaDemo plug.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 5:38 pm
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Thought that was only some 40 or 60kwh leafs? And then only if you were part of a trial?


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 5:48 pm
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Thanks @stingmered and @thecaptain


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 7:19 pm
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Thought that was only some 40 or 60kwh leafs? And then only if you were part of a trial?

I think it's technically possible, but it's not actually supported by energy companies. Not sure though so please prove me wrong.


 
Posted : 19/08/2023 9:46 pm
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Driving down from Avoriaz to Morzine I gained 4%. The way up took 8%. I found my general efficiency in the Alps to be better than on the Autoroutes.

The acceleration meant passing cyclists between the hairpins was much easier.


 
Posted : 20/08/2023 8:34 am
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I'm not sure if anyone's following the Arctic Race of Norway but they were saying (while the peleton were going through a 7 km long tunnel and thus no coverage of the bikes) that it's the first bike race where all the support vehicles are 100% electric.

Xpeng are the suppliers of the cars, apparently.  They had to bring some mobile chargers alone with them.  I'm assuming they weren't simply diesel generators but rather pre-charged battery packs.


 
Posted : 20/08/2023 4:25 pm
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it’s the first bike race where all the support vehicles are 100% electric.

About time. I've aften thought EVs would be great for race support. Must be a relief for the riders not having to suck in exhaust fumes. I guess the motorbikes are still ICE?


 
Posted : 20/08/2023 5:14 pm
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it’s the first bike race where all the support vehicles are 100% electric.

I'm not sure there'd be enough range for the team and neutral support cars carrying 8 bikes on longer tour and giro stages.


 
Posted : 21/08/2023 11:58 am
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All LEAF except the very earliest (2013 on, so for here it's the UK built ones) will do bidirectional charging - it's been in the CHAdeMO spec for very long time. It's just been very slow for the electricity network operators to get on board for trials.

As for 100% - it's absolutely fine to go to 100% if you're going to use the car again soon and bring it back down. It's just kinder to the battery to not leave it at very low or high states of charge for a long time.


 
Posted : 21/08/2023 1:37 pm
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I guess most evs have enough range for the stages themselves, but perhaps the transfers might be challenging.

I'd expect the biggest current problem would be the infrastructure. You'll have a large number of evs all needing charging at a new (often remote) stage finish each evening, at the same time.


 
Posted : 21/08/2023 1:39 pm
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I guess most evs have enough range for the stages themselves, but perhaps the transfers might be challenging.

I'd say not the ones with 8 bikes up top

I’d expect the biggest current problem would be the infrastructure. You’ll have a large number of evs all needing charging at a new (often remote) stage finish each evening, at the same time.

Yeah that's going to be a headache.


 
Posted : 21/08/2023 3:52 pm
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Xpeng are the suppliers of the cars, apparently. They had to bring some mobile chargers alone with them. I’m assuming they weren’t simply diesel generators but rather pre-charged battery packs.

That's quite an assumption. My money would be on some diesel generators being in the truck as a backup just in case.


 
Posted : 21/08/2023 4:31 pm
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What would be sensible would be for a software fix to add the appropriate level of actual braking in when the battery is full so that the car behaves in the same way. I thought I read that Tesla was doing this but I’m not sure it happens at the moment.

Lots of cars have it. Brake Blending. Arbitrates between all deceleration requests and then sends a signal to the most suitable device to slow the car down, brakes or regen. Some cars have a very simple system which just asks "available y/n" others can split accurately by individual device capacity. So you could have all 4 discs and both motors braking at the same time in some cases. It's also not easy to do well, so a lot of companies just don't bother.

They would get hot yes but cars communicate with chargers so they should actively reduce speed when the battery gets warm, which I think is what we see.

The box on the wall isn't actually a charger, the charger is in the car, the charger does the controlling. But other than that, precisely.

so though it says 100% on the screens it’s more like 90 something, to ensure battery life is optimised.

It's more like 97-98% of the batteries actual capacity reports as 100% to the driver, just to give a little breathing room for errors, climatic conditions/heating/cooling etc So not enough to actually protect the battery.


 
Posted : 21/08/2023 4:49 pm
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It’s more like 97-98% of the batteries actual capacity reports as 100% to the driver

I think that varies, perhaps by battery chemistry but also perhaps by the desire of the manufacturer to fluff up their range numbers. Some people have calculated based on the battery voltage reported on OBD2 and the known characteristics of the chemistry and come up with estimates that put the 100% reported capacity of a Leaf to be near 80% of what you would achieve in a lab. That sounds like a bit of a big margin though.

It’s also not easy to do well, so a lot of companies just don’t bother.

Yeah it's something that reviewers pick up on - wether or not you can feel the transition between regen and friction.


 
Posted : 21/08/2023 6:22 pm
 DrJ
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Test drove an MG EV4 yesterday and was favourably impressed so it may be appearing in our driveway soon.

Dumb question - as I mentioned previously we have an old charger that was there when we moved in. It has a tethered Type 1 cable. While we wait for a new charge point to be installed, can I use an adapter to charge the car via the Type 2 socket? Will I die? And more importantly, will the battery die?


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 10:27 am
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Xpeng are the suppliers of the cars, apparently. They had to bring some mobile chargers alone with them. I’m assuming they weren’t simply diesel generators but rather pre-charged battery packs.

Same issue everytime there is a high number of EV chargers, the grid simply can't support it locally. There are a 1mw containerised battery storage units, but you've still got to charge it.

Doesn't have to be Diesel though, there are more an more options appearing: HVO (the easiest to get hold of), glycerin (Formula E) and then there are dual fuel options becoming available (hydrogen port injection).

Any big event will bring in temporary power, at many venues there simply isn't the power available and the amount of cost (£ and co2) it makes more sense to bring in the right amount, plus it can be pretty peaky along with the penalties for power outage.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 10:51 am
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Would be useful for an event where some punters need a quick top up, but for something like the TdF when you have hundreds of vehicles all on empty, it might be too much. A generator powered by biofuel could work, but then you'd need a lot of fuel too. Not sure how much.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 2:00 pm
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 It has a tethered Type 1 cable. While we wait for a new charge point to be installed, can I use an adapter to charge the car via the Type 2 socket? Will I die? And more importantly, will the battery die?

No problem I have been using an adapter for 18 months Type 1 - Type 2. V well made, doesn't get hot or wobble.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 2:14 pm
 DrJ
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@pedlad - many thanks for the link (and reassurance :-). )


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 2:18 pm
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Bit more about the moveable charging stations used for the race:

https://kempower.com/arctic-race-of-norway-2022-kempower/

Looks like they were transported by EV and the power itself originated as hydroelectric power.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 2:36 pm
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Looks like they were transported by EV and the power itself originated as hydroelectric power.

In the case of Norway, all their electrical generation is hydroelectric. If you're charging off a grid that includes fossil fuel generation, your EV is being charged by burning fossil fuels.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 3:10 pm
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If you’re charging off a grid that includes fossil fuel generation, your EV is being charged by burning fossil fuels.

Thing is, whilst that sounds bad, it isn’t necessarily.

An EV is around four times more efficient than an ICE vehicle. So using a diesel generator to charge an EV, you could roughly have four EVs being charged enough to do the same range each as a single diesel car from the same amount of diesel.

So yes, it’s still burning fossil fuels, but it’s making vastly better use of them.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 3:14 pm
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Another EV rental for the girlfriend, this time a new Leaf. What in all that's holy, is the idea behind a pedal parking brake? Just leave it be ffs! And that drive mode knob on the console, what a terrible terrible thing it is to use. I wish car makers would be clever in the right areas. To sit in it felt a bit dated and a bit cheap. She much preferred the Corsa in the way it drove. She did mention as default, the regen braking was much stronger than in the Corsa. I assume that could be changed. Left for Warrington again this morning, lets see what the range damage is on her return.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 3:17 pm
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In the case of Norway, all their electrical generation is hydroelectric. If you’re charging off a grid that includes fossil fuel generation, your EV is being charged by burning fossil fuels.

Sure, but I think someone earlier was saying they must have been using diesel or some other liquid fuel generator directly.

In this case they were able to power 127 cars using 18 mobile chargers (plus whatever local charging infrastructure was already in place) without using any liquid fuels generators.

But yeah, it would be quite a scale-up to go from the Arctic Tour to the Tour de France.  Especially if they are going to insist on having the end of one stage and the start of the next hundreds of kilometers away from each other.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 3:18 pm
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What in all that’s holy, is the idea behind a pedal parking brake?

Those have been around since forever in automotive terms, not least when cars had bench seats and column mounted gear shifters. My Prius had one, I think most or all Mercs do. It frees up a lot of space in the centre console so you can put your cup holders and storage in there. It takes a day or two to get used to it then it's no issue.

The drive select knob - again that's common. Why have a big clunky lever when you don't need it to operate anything mechanical?  Now we're freed from that design limitation there are all sorts of options. I've had a dash mounted knob that works like the Leaf one on the Prius; our Hyundai had simple buttons (that was bad because you had no feedback they'd engaged, and my wife thought she'd pressed D but hadn't and rolled backwards clipping a wingmirror); the Merc has a little steering wheel mounted one like an indicator, which I really like.  I think BMWs and Jags have a rotary knob.

To sit in it felt a bit dated and a bit cheap.

Hmm, I think mine is fairly plush, but then I came from the Hyundai which was not.  I've no complaints there.  It was certainly the plushest of the cheaper EVs I've tried by some distance.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 3:49 pm
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Now we’re freed from that design limitation there are all sorts of options. I’ve had a dash mounted knob that works like the Leaf one on the Prius; our Hyundai had simple buttons (that was bad because you had no feedback they’d engaged, and my wife thought she’d pressed D but hadn’t and rolled backwards clipping a wingmirror); the Merc has a little steering wheel mounted one like an indicator, which I really like. I think BMWs and Jags have a rotary knob.

My car has a rotating, illuminated crystal ball for a gear selector. It’s simultaneously the most pointless and the most awesome thing ever.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 3:58 pm
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An EV is around four times more efficient than an ICE vehicle.

Not if it's powered from a fossil fuel powered generator. A thermal power station will only have thermal efficiency of 50% tops, probably much lower. Then the electricity has to be used to charge the battery, which will lose 10% or so. Then the battery has to be discharged to power the electric motor. So, if you look at how much of the energy value of the fuel is delivered to the wheels of the car, an EV is probably going to be twice as efficient, not four times.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:03 pm
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I don't mind the Corsa e drive selector thingamajig. It works ok and is like a gear stick. I sometimes think that pushing it forward should put the car into drive but it doesn't, I need to pull it back to go forwards and push forward to go back 😭


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:05 pm
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What in all that’s holy, is the idea behind a pedal parking brake?

As well as freeing up space in the center console, your leg is much stronger than your arm. For people who aren't very strong, it's easier to crank on a parking brake with your leg than your arm.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:08 pm
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molgrips

Those have been around since forever in automotive terms, not least when cars had bench seats and column mounted gear shifters. My Prius had one, I think most or all Mercs do. It frees up a lot of space in the centre console so you can put your cup holders and storage in there. It takes a day or two to get used to it then it’s no issue.

I think they are probably OK in automatic cars, but a PITA in a manual.
When I worked in Germany, one of the pool cars was a Merc C-Class with a manual gearbox. I was there for 6 months and probably drove that car once a fortnight.
I used to hate driving it. It gave me proper anxiety, every time we had to stop on a hill.
Footbrake to a stop
Clutch-in while stopping
Into neutral
Keep right foot on brake
Check car is really in neutral.
Take left foot off clutch & depress parking brake with clutch foot.
Gingerly lift foot off pedal, remembering it's not the clutch
Breath sigh of relief.
Lights are changing......mild panic rises.
Left foot on clutch
Into gear
Biting point
Fumble around for stupid brake release lever on the dashboard

And woe betide being in stop start-traffic on any kind of hill because you couldn't just yank on the handbrake as you would if it was in the correct place.

Bleurgh. Stupid thing.
Also if you pressed the parking brake too hard with your foot (we're talking one ratchet click too far, here), it was almost impossible to pull the parking brake release lever. Which was fun while being beeped at in the middle of Munich when the lights had changed and we couldn't move.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:11 pm
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Didn't your Merc have auto-hold? Mine (a 2013) does by default. It doesn't keep you still on the flat but if you are on any kind of slope it applies the brakes for you until you move off.  I assumed they added that feature specifically for manual cars because they removed the hand brake.  Perhaps yours was broken or someone had disabled it.

PS Hi Perchy


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:15 pm
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An EV is around four times more efficient than an ICE vehicle. So using a diesel generator to charge an EV, you could roughly have four EVs being charged enough to do the same range each as a single diesel car from the same amount of diesel.

Say what 🤣 you do realise that a diesel generator is just a much larger diesel engine than in a car don't you?

Edit - sorry not necessarily much larger, can be smaller, the same size or larger - it's just the ones I work with are generally much larger so I was forgetting about the little ones.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:21 pm
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A diesel generator will be more efficient than the one in your car though - a bit.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:23 pm
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Agreed, maybe 40% instead of 30% but the statement I quoted is pure bollox.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:26 pm
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molgrips

Didn’t your Merc have auto-hold?

In 1999? Nope. It didn't.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:36 pm
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Agreed, maybe 40% not 30% but the statement I quoted is pure bollox.

Yes. For an EV charged with a fossil fuel powered generator to be 4x as efficient as an ICE car, it would basically have to be 100% efficient. That would mean that the generating plant would not emit any hot exhaust or require any cooling system, and that the battery and motor in the EV never give off any waste heat.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:37 pm
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A diesel generator will be more efficient than the one in your car though – a bit.

That will depend a lot on the generator. A cheap portable backyard generator, probably not compared to a hybrid ICE car. An enormous industrial generator will be much more efficient but you won't be hauling one of those around following a bike race.


 
Posted : 23/08/2023 4:41 pm
 cb
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Anyone have any experience with living with a Beamer ix40?  I've got the green light for a new car at work (I've had 14 years out the Mondeo so got my money's worth) and it makes no sense to me to buy a hybrid from a tax perspective.  Lease costs over two years are also much higher for hybrids it seems than full electric.

Trouble I'm having is finding anything big enough and some deals on the iX40 are tempting.  Reviews suggest range ain't the best but if anyone has a longer term view?  Unfortunately iX50/iX60 are not happening...


 
Posted : 26/08/2023 7:05 pm
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A diesel generator will be more efficient than the one in your car though – a bit.

Actually, it will be a lot more efficient, as it will (should) be running at it's most efficient point on the load/speed map whereas the car engine mostly runs at really low load factors. One of the reasons that hybrids are more efficient then pure ICEs.


 
Posted : 27/08/2023 12:43 pm
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I was looking into home chargers, but it just occurred to me, do I also need a smart meter to get  the cheap tariffs?

I know the chargers have SIM cards so assume they can be monitored by the electricity supplier but will that work ok with the billing for home non EV use if you have a dumb meter and manually send the readings every month?


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 12:35 am
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You will need a smart meter. Which is a bit irritating for me as Octopus are currently saying they won't install one due to my location not being covered by the network.


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 12:40 am
molgrips reacted
 5lab
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you won’t be hauling one of those around following a bike race

I don't think you'd need to either. A car with a 200 mile range at 50mph would require half the energy to do 200 miles at 25mph. You'd only have to charge every 3 days, even with bikes on the roof


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 12:54 am
 tomd
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I was looking into home chargers, but it just occurred to me, do I also need a smart meter to get  the cheap tariffs?

I know the chargers have SIM cards so assume they can be monitored by the electricity supplier but will that work ok with the billing for home non EV use if you have a dumb meter and manually send the readings every month?

Yes unless you have an old economy 7 meter (the one that has a day and night reading)? That can give you a lower ovenight rate but still not as low as the smart tariffs.

E.g. we m0ved from Octopus' e7 tariff when we got our smart meter. The overnight e7 rate is currently 16.4p and the smart tariff is 7.5p.


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 7:05 am
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A car with a 200 mile range at 50mph would require half the energy to do 200 miles at 25mph

No. You'd do a quarter the work against air resistance, but half against rolling resistance and you'd still have to cover the fixed costs of AC and the car systems so probably like 30% or something.


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 7:51 am
 DrP
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Mega moan... The super cheap Podpoint chargers (14p/kWh) in the lidl carpark down the road have been REMOVED from the public Podpoint charging system, ffs....

Oh all 4 are still there.. 🙄

But no longer available for public use... Apparently (a friend heard from a friend etc) they're for Lidl staff use only now... WTAF....

4 chargers. Wasted.

Effing step back in the whole idea, if you ask me...

DrP


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 8:01 am
lesshaste reacted
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You’d do the same work against rolling resistance (to a reasonable approximation). Half the power (due to half the speed) but for twice as long.


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 8:28 am
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Oh yes. Maths fail.


 
Posted : 29/08/2023 8:39 am
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Does anyone have experience of using charge place Scotland chargers without the RFID card? I've signed up, registered a bank account for a direct debit but won't have time to get a card prior to using the network. Can I charge using the phone app assuming I have a phone signal?

Thanks in advance.


 
Posted : 31/08/2023 11:24 pm
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Can I charge using the phone app assuming I have a phone signal?

Yes, I’ve used it a few times. Even in Torridon where there was no phone signal, but the nearby bar had Wi-Fi.

Sadly, most if not all chargers you now have to pay for.


 
Posted : 31/08/2023 11:50 pm
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Thanks for the reply.

Looking at the app there seems to be a few free 22kw chargers around the Ayrshire area where I might be heading soon.

Should be ok to go for a walk whilst the car tops itself up.


 
Posted : 01/09/2023 12:11 am
 5lab
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You’d do the same work against rolling resistance (to a reasonable approximation). Half the power (due to half the speed) but for twice as long.

Its a quarter of the power but for twice as long, so half the aero load overall. Rolling resistance is lower at lower speeds, but admittedly not halfed, they seem to have their windows down so no Aircon needed.

It's hard to do the maths exactly but charging every 3 days seems like a reasonable stab


 
Posted : 01/09/2023 1:26 am
 tomd
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Does anyone have experience of using charge place Scotland chargers without the RFID card? I’ve signed up, registered a bank account for a direct debit but won’t have time to get a card prior to using the network. Can I charge using the phone app assuming I have a phone signal?

Thanks in advance.

I've had no issues with the newer chargers on the network using the app but IME some of the older ones struggle to work via the app. e.g. The ones on the east side of my village are older and you need the RFID and the newer ones on the other side work via app or RFID. Mostly you should be OK but RFID is definitely the more solid option


 
Posted : 01/09/2023 6:47 am
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