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Coilovers on a Nissan leaf?
Just...why?
It's a leaf.
The mind boggles.
Though, there is a Prius round near me with a massive spoiler on the back and a full body kit, lowered/massive wheels etc.
Most mainstream / budget car suspension is as cheap as they can get away with to give an acceptable ride and not fall apart in the warranty period. Coilovers aren't about slamming a car to the deck (the people that want that tend to go for air these days), but it lets you set heights exactly where you want them and adjust damping as you prefer.
You'd think a MTB forum would understand the value of higher quality adjustable suspension 🤷♂️
Just…why?
It’s a leaf.The mind boggles.
Same reason you replied here... just cos I guess!!
I like playing about with things TBH adn fancy fitting them myself.. I've always loved the JDM look ever since I saw a JDM Type R (see my photo above..)..red car, white rims... It could do with being about 30mm lower to look better, and the car feels a bit under damped/wallowy...plus a bit of a mid life crisis situation.. that's why! 😉
Oh..lower = better economy too
You’re dicking about with the suspension, I wouldn’t worry about tyre load ratings…
Meh..still important! It won't change the load situation!
DrP
It’s a leaf.
The mind boggles.
It's only a few bits of fibreglass away from:
Yeah, i think a few of the stickers might be carry over...
It’s only a few bits of fibreglass away from
ooh.. that's a target to aim for 😉
DrP
Went to the National Botanical Gardens in bad weather the other day and got poor economy. I was pretty sure of making it home anyway but I found there's a new charging station at Cross Hands on the A48 and since it's next to a Starbucks I parked up whilst I was getting a coffee derived beverage. In the time it took me to walk over and get drinks it had gained nearly 8kWh at a max rate of 32kW. My car only does 50 max and it was half full anyway. The station offered a max of 50kW but there were 8 stations I think.
A pretty cool experience until I calculated I'd been charged 79p/kWh. There's also an Ionity at McDonalds across the road but I doubt that would have been cheaper.
Has anyone considered the e-Berlingo/ rifter size vehicles? We are a 1 car family, with couple of kids and ideally want something bigger than our current hatchback to cover the usual family stuff of camping, bikes etc, but also be the daily drive. We test drove the MG 5 while back which just didn't really seem to live up to the estate label boot wise. e-Berlingo seems next size up. Avoiding SUVs, range not great but would cover most usage and assume efficiency would be naff due to size. Anyone got one or considered and gone against for any reasons? Thanks
We did. Seemed natural given we have had almost all over belingos over the years.
Range is pants. Quoted range is pants. The real world reviews are even worse. The shape is not conducive to good efficiency
We still have our diesel one.
You don't have to assume anything about efficiency, you can find out online. SUV shapes need not be bad in absolute terms, you can get 4 miles/kWh from an Ioniq 5 as far as I am aware, which is not half bad. More than an Berlingo I think? And overall range much better, don't Berlingos have small batteries?
Of course non SUV shapes will be better still but choice is currently very limited.
Neighbour has this week taken delivery of a Peugeot 2008. Nice car, but she is finding real life range about 150 miles and with a 50 mile round trip daily commute is charging it every other day..
Don’t think she researched it much. And her PodPoint charger, that was fitted a few months back, doesn’t work. We have an Easee one (though no EV yet !) and she is using that, with a full charge of the 50 kWh battery costing £15 (yes, she is paying for the juice used). Despite is costing about half to run as her previous petrol Merc, she hates having to plug it in so often.
you can get 4 miles/kWh from an Ioniq 5 as far as I am aware, which is not half bad. More than an Berlingo I think? And overall range much better, don’t Berlingos have small batteries
I'd hope you would it's about half the useful space of. A berlingo and therefor the shape is different.
Yes the Berlingo has a 50kw battery same as a Corsa - they focused on retaining the load space at the expense of range.
she hates having to plug it in so often.
well , she wants to get over that issue as soon as she can 😂
Sounds like an ideal candidate for an EV with that commute and the range. Tell her to get her kaput charger replaced with something that has a tethered cable. ( assuming hers isn’t already)
It’s very little effort to plug it in.
she hates having to plug it in so often.
Daft reason. Get home, plug in. It's that simple. Ours is plugged in nearly all the time.
Costing half as much as a diesel though, something wrong there. Ours is about a tenth the cost.
^^^ a 50kw battery costs about £15 to charge from close to flat at standard tariff of 30p. That goes about 150 miles. A tank of fuel is, say, £60 and gets maybe 300 miles plus in same stop start commuting use. Those are the person’s (not me) numbers, but they seem ok.
My diesel Audi does about 450 miles on a tank that costs about £90, so seems to equate. 30p is standard tariff with Scottish Power.
She’s not planning running her appliances at night to take advantage of off peak tariffs as had bad experience of such appliances going on fire while family asleep.
she hates having to plug it in so often.
🤷🏻♂️ if it’s just sat there anyway that doesn’t seem like a problem.
Yep, can’t disagree there. Conditioning and mindsets I guess. Probs not helped by her own house charger not working from the get go and needing to wait a few weeks till engineer will come and look at it - crappy service, all part of her lease deal through work I think.
Most generations and countries have had a "peoples Car". What have we got in the EV world and how much?
People's car is currently the Niro and in the future might be seen as one of the forthcoming ID2/Kia EV4 etc but honestly they will be too late. Once the second hand prices come down a bit more and all the 2020 ex lease Niros/Konas hit the auctions they will be the sensible choice.
For the Berlingo/Traveller etc, they really do seem like the only choice in that bracket but would be hard to live with. The 50kwh battery is only about 42 usable, and they use the same drive systems as all the other cars and vans, so m/kWh isn't great and the trip computer calculates range very badly. I have an E-Expert which is about 67kwh usable from what I can tell. If I drive carefully I can get 170m in summer.
Honestly go take a full day test drive in one, see what kind of milage you can get. Then go do the same in a Buzz if you can make the numbers work. I did 144 miles in my test drive Buzz, 3m/kWh, middle of winter starting -3deg.
150miles from 50kWh? Is that all? What’s she’s doing with it?
We get 120-150 (summer-winter) from 33kWh and that’s mixed fast-b, motorway and start stop.
I’d be expecting closer to 200 or 220 at this time of year.
But having looked at it - usable capacity is actually 46kWh and efficiency is really low - less than 3miles/kWh.
In short - pretty crap electric car.
at standard tariff of 30p
There's the problem. The longer your commute the better off you are on an EV tariff, provided you aren't using tons of power during the day. Our commute is 13 miles each way and even then the saving Vs diesel pays for the whole electricity bill.
^^ I don’t think it’s the problem, it’s the reality for many, self included, depending on lifestyle. 4 of us in the house, boys (20 and 16) out most of the day, wife works part time, I WFH probs 4 weeks out of 5 on average.
So in a typical 7am till 10pm period, there’ll be my computer, screens, Teams calls all day, youngest teenager gaming with big pc and twin screens after school, at least one cycle each of washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, probably 3 or 4 showers (all electric). Plus all the routine stuff, making meals, hoovering etc.
I woul imagine I’d need to be doing a lot of nighttime cheap rate car charging to make an EV tariff pay. There is no way we would run appliances like washers/dishwasher when family asleep, not worth the fire risk imo.
Did you do the calculations?
It was a clear benefit for us despite half the mileage, but the four of us aren't using anywhere near that much power. Just reading that fills me with anxiety!
Anyway. BMW i5 looks good, wonder if they'll do an estate.
Anyway. BMW i5 looks good, wonder if they’ll do an estate.
Yup.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/all-electric-bmw-i5-touring-confirmed-2024
molgrips
Full Member
Did you do the calculations?It was a clear benefit for us despite half the mileage, but the four of us aren’t using anywhere near that much power. Just reading that fills me with anxiety
haven’t calculated in any detail, just rough estimate. Yeah, our combined gas and electric without an EV is £480 a month 🙄
Yup
Great, if only there were a cat in hell's chance of being able to afford one 🙂
Yeah, our combined gas and electric without an EV is £480 a month 🙄
That's almost exactly our yearly bill including the electric car. That's with no gas and ignoring the PV.
The EV tarif would have increased the bill given the exhorbitant day time rate.
I saved about £20 per month on an EV tariff even before I got an ev car, and that was just simply by using dishwasher, washing machine and heating water at night. Yes I know there are some who say you shouldn’t do this but I find this strange - we have fire alarms throughout the house, I’d think leaving them on when out is much more of a risk. With 2 ev cars the saving compared to fuel is about £270 per month.
This is with 2 full time workers so we’re not in much during the day.
Good evening gents, is intelligent Octopus still the charging tariff of choice, I've only a hybrid so the 6 hours at reduced rate will be enough to fill it up and I'll on average do it 5 nights a week.
It is if you use enough power in your EV to offset the increased cost of normal electricity. If you're prepared to use your washing machine and dishwasher overnight, this may be the case for lower EV usage.
If you have a hybrid with a small battery it may not be worth it for you. You'll need a spreadsheet.
I'm tempted to dig mine out and put it online or make a website or something.
I’m tempted to dig mine out and put it online or make a website or something.
yes please !
Would be good if you could input different cars, then I can show my disparaging neighbours that my yet to arrive i4 is much more efficient than their Peugeot 2008 🤪. In a mates way of course, as they are dear friends but we do all like to rip the xxxx 😂
Bit of a (non) stealth ad. If anyone needs a home (7Kw) charger, get in touch. Especially if you're an electrician. Got a UK-built product. Reliable and easy to fit. PM me for more info. Thanks
Joined the EV club with a new MG 4. First impressions really positive - basically just jump in and go it's all very intuitive. The rapid acceleration is the main differece when driving vs normal ICE family hatchbacks. The infotainment thing seems pretty straightforward which seems like a gripe on other EVs.
With the i3s due to go back soon I've been looking out for new lease deals. On the work scheme the Audi Q4 E-Tron and Volvo C40 electric keep popping up at slightly less eye watering amounts than others. Anyone got either and care to comment?
I think the Audis are very inefficient no? Doesn't Drac get like 2.7m/kWh? For comparison our Hyundai is getting around double that now the weather's warmed up a bit, although it is a favourable drive. That's more than the official figures.
I had a Q4 E-Tron Quattro on order through work Tusker lease scheme, and swopped it to an i4 on closer research on the numbers. The real life range on the i4 is a lot higher than the Audi SUV. Lease cost wise they were within a tenner a month, both specced with leather and factory towbars.
Trip report:
Opted to take the EV to North Wales, to save money, avoid the miles on my own car, reduce environmental impact and to demonstrate to @SaxonRider how cool EVs are and how great the experience is... hah.
The place went (Pont Cyfyng) is about 170 miles from my house, official range of the car is 183 which is pretty realistic. There are three places to charge on on near the route, A470, and a big charging hub on the A5 at Rhug Farm Estate. So the plan was to visit one the stations on the way up - Llandrindod Wells, Newtown or Betws y Coed to put in 40 or so miles to make it to Rhug Farm on the way back.
We stopped at Llandrindod Wells and the charger was busy, but fortunately the guy came out and finished just in time so we put about 8kWh in at 79p/kWh. We didn't go to Newtown but the one in Betws was indeed busy as expected.
After doing the walk the Betws one was still busy, so we went to Rhug Farm. The cafe was closed, all chargers were free, but none were working. So I called the hotline and they triggered a free 5kWh from their side whilst I signed up for Instavolt. That worked, but whilst mooching the free leccy I realised that we could get to another Instavolt in Chirk that was at a MacDonalds (yay..) that one worked via Charge my Hyundai, it charged to 88% again at 79p whilst we ate and that got me home, just.
Total cost including away from home charging and home electricity was £33, Vs about £42 of diesel that would have been needed. So not way cheaper, due to paying so much at Instavolt. Spent about 2.5 hours not driving, but part of that was eating which we'd have done anyway, so I think it cost us 1h45 on top of 8hrs of actual driving, versus diesel. Very disappointed that Rhug Farm didn't work as that's a major location for North Wales. Also the first time I'd had a failure. Fortunately it didn't leave us stranded. Although they did answer the phone and we could probably have got it working eventually.
But in fairnes Mid Wales is probably the worst serviced part of the UK south of the Great Glen, and it's a short range car. And really, whilst I like driving the A470 the A5/A49 option is actually much better serviced with chargers by the time you get to Chirk, Oswestry and Shrewsbury.
Averaged 5.2m/kWh on the way up and 4.9 on the way back with slightly faster driving, slightly colder air and wet roads for part of it.
Bit shocked at the cost though. A longer trip with one more fill-up at that price would have made it more expensive than diesel.
Oh and I also didn't see it charge above 35kW despite not being particularly cold and starting from low numbers. Not sure why.
We stopped at Llandrindod Wells and the charger was busy, but fortunately the guy came out and finished just in time so we put about 8kWh in at 79p/kWh. We didn’t go to Newtown but the one in Betws was indeed busy as expected.
After doing the walk the Betws one was still busy, so we went to Rhug Farm. The cafe was closed, all chargers were free, but none were working. So I called the hotline and they triggered a free 5kWh from their side whilst I signed up for Instavolt. That worked, but whilst mooching the free leccy I realised that we could get to another Instavolt in Chirk that was at a MacDonalds (yay..) that one worked via Charge my Hyundai, it charged to 88% again at 79p whilst we ate and that got me home, just.
This seems to me to be why EV are not yet ready for prime time. Compare - "needed fuel so stopped at any one of a zillion petrol stations, and filled up in 10 minutes". I'd love to be wrong but it just looks like a massive pain.
Let me be clear this is a problem for Wales. Take a look at Zap Map.
And even then stations are going in very quickly.
Let me be clear this is a problem for Wales
It's also an issue north of Dundee tbh.
And the further north and west you go the worse it is.
It will get better but outside of urban centres it's painful right now.
It's a big problem in Wales, where I have my caravan. The guy on site that last year had a new Kia EV6 that said it was OK, he charged at home to get there and back, but didn't use the car from site (site power wouldn't support EV chanrging), is here with another brand new Kia, ICE car now, and bigger... FFS.
What are i3's with the extender like - could be tempted if my old 22 year old Nissan bike hauler decides to stop - it's not looking likely though!
I'm looking at really low use, as I bike to work, but need to go 150 mile return to my van if not using the other ICE cars, and use at the van for another 100 miles - little chance of charge here.
@tomd - we're testing one of those next week. To replace my wife's 8 year old Fabia. 90% of the journeys she does are less than 50 miles. She actually wants something smaller than the fabia (just room for dog(s)) but all the research we've done suggests the MG4 EV is the one to start with when you're testing. Neither of us have driven an EV before, so should be interesting.
I'll buy my Koraq once the PCP finishes next year. Absolutely no interest in buying a new ICE car and while we still need two cars, getting an electric which'll do about 70% of our journeys seems the way to go.