Forum menu
Our 62kwh leaf gets 3.8m/kWh on a speedy motorway journey no issue (75mph cruising). We’ve seen average ~4.1-4.3 on a few journeys. It’s really impressive, given its relative value.
I’ve had roof bars and a roof rack on the car since i got it a few months ago… and frequently have a bike on the roof..
I’m averaging 3.6m/kWh.. I reckon the roof racks lose maybe 5-10%..
DrP
After much technical wizardry* , we now have the 'virtual fuse' talking to the charger. So no chance of blowing the real one. Once I get my own monitors in the various fuse boards, I'll probably reduce the 'safe' space I've left to spare the fuse if everything is turned on. That was way harder than it should have been.
But I decided to ditch the app (ICS charger, it's okay nothing special) and use the OCPP protocol to talk to my Home Assistant instance. That works brilliantly. I'll plug the car in and get a screen shot later.
*changing one setting, rebooting it, trying again. UI clearly written in the 90s.
I’d like to see how far a 62Wh car would go…!😳
I withdraw the joke since I either misread or it has now been corrected…
Excuse the mis-labelling of KWH for Amps in the big gauge 😉 This is a direct feed from the charger. I have plans for some automations, once I've added the Octopus integration which shows real time tariff prices. So my plan is to make a live graph of charging costs. Man's got to have a hobby 😉
Lots of other ideas as well. Most of them pointless 😉
Well after a 15 month wait, my new Volvo XC40 Recharge company car is on its way to my house! Looking forward to the reduced BIK liability when compared to my outgoing diesel BMW.
My wife drives one and loves it!!
Wow - you can now get a 2 year old Corsa E with 200+ miles of range for less than £14k. With only 13k miles on it!
I recently bought a higher spec, lower mileage Corsa e for just under £17k. My other half is using it as her daily driver. Seems like a nice car. Drives fine for my leisurely/progressive style of driving. I went for the higher spec model as it had nicer headlights, better infotainment, heated seats and bigger wheels. Spending less money is always appealing though and maybe the cheaper car would have been sufficient.
The range at higher speeds is probably nearer 150 miles leaving a wise buffer margin at the lower end of the battery. Last weekend I covered 316 miles in it, starting on a 90% charge with a predicted range of around 175ish. We charged at York after 73 miles of driving to bring the battery back to 90% from just under 50%, then headed to the east coast, down to spurn point, back towards Hull where we had around 25% battery remaining. We did a short 20 minutes charge there, then headed to York again to bring the battery back to 90% in 30 minutes to get us back home.
I'm hoping it lasts several years till at least 2030 with no issues other than usual wear n tear. I'll report back nearer the time!
Yep I'm watching the price on those now daffy.
Finally getting back to the realms where they make sense again
<p style="text-align: right;"></p>
Last weekend I covered 316 miles in it, starting on a 90% charge with a predicted range of around 175ish. We charged at York after 73 miles of driving to bring the battery back to 90% from just under 50%, then headed to the east coast, down to spurn point, back towards Hull where we had around 25% battery remaining. We did a short 20 minutes charge there, then headed to York again to bring the battery back to 90% in 30 minutes to get us back home.
I guess this is what will be the sticking point for many switching to EV's - a trip which in an ICE would all be done on one tank of fuel, now requiring 3 charging stops, totalling over an hour of stopped time, that folks won't be used to..
True, but it's not the show-stopper some people seem to think.
The time spent stopped charging wasn't a big issue. It was a nice day/evening and the stops were combined with looking at a map, stretching the legs and having something to eat.
I have subsequently driven my old diesel car and whilst it was my go to car for longer distances and days out in the past, it won't be in the future as the electric car was a nicer car to drive.
^^^^ yep, I don't disagree, I am a convert and my EV is arriving next month. There is however a wide group of 'non believers' out there who will get continually hung up on 'fuel stops' 🙂
Yeah. It's quite nice to have a forced break sometimes!
So looking at those Corsa prices it's not outside the realms of possibility that someone like me could just about afford one when it's a year or two older but I have no clue about what I'd be getting myself into.
Hope I'm not being too dim but I've never considered an EV an option before - thought they were just for the affluent.
I park next to my house so can charge at home, but assume it's not just sticking a cable through my living room window and plugging it in next to the telly - so how much does home installation cost and can I just rip it all out and take it to my next house when I move (and is this a DIY job or pay someone again)?
For day to day charging there's no issue but I travel to Northern Scotland for leisure a lot and currently set off from Yorkshire, do 3-4 hours to Glasgow, pee and coffee stop, then 3-4 hours to Elgin, maybe 9 hours total. I know some folk have said this is dangerous but it's inside what my BIL does on HGV's day in day out- he says he sometimes has 15 hour days when he does 4.5 hour stints x 3 with breaks between.
How many stops would I need to do for a journey of this length and how long would they be? I know people are saying it's a non-issue but I don't really want to spend 2 or 3 hours total sat in the car freezing cold in midwinter to make the trip - are there fast chargers which can refill the battery in 20 minutes or so to allow me on my way and can I leave the heater on whilst it's charging so I don't freeze? - I assume from Ianc's comment that I'm actually worried for nothing and fuel stops are pretty speedy and infrequent so 4 hours fully laden to Glasgow is easily doable in modern EV's.
Also, I've googled where we normally stay and there are 2 chargers within 10 miles so would need to drive to one of them to 'fill-up'. Is there any other option?
It’s quite nice to have a forced break sometimes!
No it's not.
I drove up from Blackburn to Perth this morning (235 miles). Left with a full charge at the hotel. Stopped at Gretna Services on the Ionity charger for 20 mins, which was enough time to buy a coffee and stretch my legs. Back on the road and home in just over 4 hours.
I drove up from Blackburn to Perth this morning (235 miles). Left with a full charge at the hotel. Stopped at Gretna Services on the Ionity charger for 20 mins, which was enough time to buy a coffee and stretch my legs. Back on the road and home in just over 4 hours.
So for my run up to Elgin area the reality would be 3 sessions of driving with 2 stops being the most likely scenario - doesn't sound too bad.
How many stops would I need to do for a journey of this length and how long would they be?
https://abetterrouteplanner.com/
You can set this to either more shorter stops, or fewer longer ones. Or fastest time - because sometimes more stops is faster.
https://abetterrouteplanner.com/You can set this to either more shorter stops, or fewer longer ones. Or fastest time – because sometimes more stops is faster.
I wouldn't want to be messing about with apps and stuff, I just want to get in, look at the gauge to see how much 'juice' I have and drive until I need to recharge.
@dangerousbeans - it can be that - 3-prong plug in a standard wall socket and charge, but it will take many hours to charge up...unless you are on a proper cheap rate, then those hours will add to the cost massively.
I've now got end of July 2024 as my delivery date for the Enyaq...and got a quick alert on my phone that the Enyaq is being updated for 2024, so I'm assuming whatever changes are made to it (as long as it has a towball I'm not too fussed) will be included in whichever vehicle arrives for me. With any luck the update will also have an increase in range, but I'm not holding my breath.
@dangerousbeans – it can be that – 3-prong plug in a standard wall socket and charge, but it will take many hours to charge up…unless you are on a proper cheap rate, then those hours will add to the cost massively.
So it's cheaper to drive it somewhere and charge it?
If charging at home then is it still cheaper than petrol?
Depends what tariff you are on....
Depends what tariff you are on….
So I've been reading.
Seems like if I wanted to charge a car cheaply at home I'd have to get stuffed for having the heating on through the day in winter.
I've gone back to about page 85 of this thread and I'm thinking EV's may just be more than I can be bothered with at the moment what with fitting chargers, choosing tariffs, planning routes, alternative options for if chargers are broken, stopping for breaks I don't want to take.
No doubt the infrastructure will improve making it less of a technical exercise and that might be the time to go EV, but I'll be 64 in 2030 so ICE cars will probably see me out.
Can't be bothered to do something about burning stuff even when it's been pointed out that it's a really easy swap? No wonder the world is screwed.
It's really not difficult to use an EV. That said they aren't the silver bullet, the best option is no car at all. But that's probably a step too far for most with the current "system", particularly in the UK.
dangerousbeans, also worth noting that there is a huge variation in achievable real life range between EV’s.
That Corsa mentioned earlier is good for I think 150 real life miles, a BMW i4 is 300 plus, so with the latter your stops on the journey you mention could be same as they are now. However the cost of said i4 puts it into the realms of accessibility mainly to those on higher rate tax and salary sacrifice lease schemes through work.
Can’t be bothered to do something about burning stuff even when it’s been pointed out that it’s a really easy swap? No wonder the world is screwed.
It’s really not difficult to use an EV. That said they aren’t the silver bullet, the best option is no car at all. But that’s probably a step too far for most with the current “system”, particularly in the UK.
Except it's not easy for me, I do apologise. Every answer from folk on here seems to make it even harder than I imagined to use an EV.
Obviously I'm not as clever as you in understanding this stuff, nor as eco friendly what with my going to Scotland on my holidays - I suppose you only travel local which is laudable, but I would like to see my friends sometimes.
I knew I shouldn't have bothered asking for advice on here.
That Corsa mentioned earlier is good for I think 150 real life miles, a BMW i4 is 300 plus, so with the latter your stops on the journey you mention could be same as they are now. However the cost of said i4 puts it into the realms of accessibility mainly to those on higher rate tax and salary sacrifice lease schemes through work.
Yeah, I don't think community nursing staff get enough for i4's.
150 miles - wow.
Not someone who can really afford thousands to travel abroad for my leisure/hobby time I have to slum it in Scotland. 150 miles range would be a bit of a pain (or very very easy according to Sam).
It's 1.5p a mile for me if I charge at home versus 15p a mile if I were driving diesel.
On longer trips, it's about equivalent.
It is worth checking out where you plan to charge on a journey, especially if you're going to less populated area. My car will pop up and say 'you're getting low on power, your nearest chargers are here and here would you like me to direct you to one?' but being me, I like to check out where to stop for the best coffee etc. If you are making regular trips to the same place you'd soon figure out where to go. On the motorway network you can stop at any services, but there's a risk that the chargers might be occupied so you may decide to press on to the next one if you can.
Planning is usually just a case of checking out the map and deciding to stop at X and Y, unless you are taking the A470 from Cardiff to North Wales which I think is the west trip in the UK for EV charging.
For cheaper cars I would recommend a Hyundai Ioniq EV (not the Ioniq 5) with the 38kWh battery. It is very economical and the range does not drop much in winter. It is good for 170-200 real life miles, in bad and good weather respectively.
For cheaper cars I would recommend a Hyundai Ioniq EV (not the Ioniq 5) with the 38kWh battery. It is very economical and the range does not drop much in winter. It is good for 170-200 real life miles, in bad and good weather respectively.
They look OK but I'd be lucky to stretch to a 28kWh let alone a 38kWh.
Sitting working out where you may, or may not, get charged seems like a pain to be honest and the idea of running out gives me the willies.
I have never come close. Just charge up at 40%, don't wait until 10%. Or even, just charge up whenever you want to stop anyway. You don't randomly run out. You know how much you have left so you don't just keep driving watching it go down to zero. You stop at say 50% and if it's busy you make a choice if you want to wait or charge later. If you get to the next one and you're on 20% then you'll just choose to wait.
Or don't get the car. Infrastructure is improving all the time, so give it a few years. Cars will be cheaper then too.
PS when I was in Aviemore last summer there was a 28kWh Ioniq on Dutch plates in the camp site.
I have never come close. Just charge up at 40%, don’t wait until 10%. Or even, just charge up whenever you want to stop anyway. You don’t randomly run out. You know how much you have left so you don’t just keep driving watching it go down to zero. You stop at say 50% and if it’s busy you make a choice if you want to wait or charge later. If you get to the next one and you’re on 20% then you’ll just choose to wait.
PS when I was in Aviemore last summer there was a 28kWh Ioniq on Dutch plates in the camp site.
Using you strategy with a real world 130 to 140 mile range for the Ioniq28 (according to Google), that's roughly stopping every 50-60 minutes to recharge at Motorway speeds - half his travelling time must have been sat still.
Even me going to Aviemore from Yorkshire would require 7 stops.
@dangerousbeans not sure where you stay near Elgin but on the ChargePlace Scotland app there are 18 chargers in the area between Forres and Elgin. I’m sure you’d be near one at some point.
IONITY fast charger at Perth and Tesla Supercharger open to all in Aviemore. For coffee stop charges on way up if the car can handle fast charges.
Not saying EV would be best for you but it’s not as hard as you think it is
My main issue, documented earlier in the thread was the A470. Very few chargers on the way, and those that there are are singles, so could be occupied. On the way back I solved it by going a different way, and the chargers were every 30-40 miles. Charged up whilst having dinner at MacDs in Oswestry, it was done before we were. Then drove past about 8 chargers on the way home I didn't need.
Even me going to Aviemore from Yorkshire would require 7 stops.
Yeah not recommending a 28kWh car 🙂
Something else to consider is that driving at say 65mph or even 60 might get you to your destination faster in some cases. I slowed down on the last 40 miles of a trip once because I knew it would mean I didn't have to stop and it got me home faster all in.
Except it’s not easy for me, I do apologise. Every answer from folk on here seems to make it even harder than I imagined to use an EV.
Obviously I’m not as clever as you in understanding this stuff, nor as eco friendly what with my going to Scotland on my holidays – I suppose you only travel local which is laudable, but I would like to see my friends sometimes.
I knew I shouldn’t have bothered asking for advice on here.
From the SE of England I drive to Scottish boarders annually and Wales several times a year. This year I've also driven to Italy and Germany. Working out where chargers are on an app is easier than posting on an internet forum.
Apologies if I sounded harsh on doing something to save the planet, but continuing to burn fossil fuels hiding behind the excuse of "I can't be bothered" I find hard to deal with. EVs are coming down so fast in price that even the "it's too expensive" line is starting to sound like excuse not a reason (especially if you are already changing your car). I urge you to consider it, presumably you are curious by posting on this thread?
@dangerousbeans not sure where you stay near Elgin but on the ChargePlace Scotland app there are 18 chargers in the area between Forres and Elgin. I’m sure you’d be near one at some point.
IONITY fast charger at Perth and Tesla Supercharger open to all in Aviemore. For coffee stop charges on way up if the car can handle fast charges.Not saying EV would be best for you but it’s not as hard as you think it is
Thanks.
Usually Burghead so not too far to get charged once we get up there.
Usually Burghead
50kW and a 22kw at of all places the cemetery, at a reasonable 30p/kw.
I urge you to consider it, presumably you are curious by posting on this thread?
I am.
Looking at something like that Ioniq28 that Molgrips mentions seems to be approaching the range of my pricing if I take something with high mileage and an average range of 115 miles according to the Electric Vehicle Database.
I'll need to have a charger fitted to the house which looks to be about a grand, have smart meters fitted, change to an EV tariff and accept more expensive daytime heating bills; the car should be great at home except for long work days in cold weather - not sure the NHS will be happy with me sat charging on their time, we're not even supposed to fill up in working hours.
It's longer journeys that I'm struggling to get my head around, stopping hourly for a 30 minute charge on 50kWh chargers, possibly more frequently in cold weather (quoted range is 85 miles for cold highway driving).
I can't imagine driving to Italy stopping every hour; it must have taken you ages.
Some of the chargers in Scotland seem to be slower (7kWh?) so 4 hours charging per hour of driving- Eek.
50kW and a 22kw at of all places the cemetery, at a reasonable 30p/kw.
When I googled it an app called Zapmap brought up that one but it says Zero devices and Zero connectors.
Did you use a different app?
How do you know which apps are accurate?
Do you have a work base? Most NHS premises here have a couple of charge points. All the pool cars at my wife’s work are electric and there are 4 charging spaces.
EV tariffs are all different. Mine is a flat rate for all usage with credits applied the following month if I schedule the smart charger to do its own thing when the grid is at low load. All I do is plug it in when I get home, tell the app what charge I want and by when and it does the rest. Does rely on a smart meter and specific couple of charger though.
7kw public chargers are the same power as most home ones, so designed for car sitting overnight at work/public buildings. As you say, not much use for a quick top up.
If I were you, I’d be waiting another couple of years before newer cars with bigger batteries start to filter down the second hand market. I wouldn’t have gone electric if all I had the choice of were smaller batteries options. For me a 200 mile range was a minimum.
That is a conundrum I agree. Regularly driving long distance in Scotland with a small battery and slow charging is a more difficult proposition.
Definitely don't want to be going near 7kw chargers unless you have made a mistake or it's an overnight stop. Anything that can do over 100kw charging means that's it's a coffee stop at most to get charged to 80%. What's interesting is that you also ideally arrive at your destination low on charge then you can charge overnight while sleeping, so the mind set is different to drive/fill-up/repeat that you'd do with an ICE cat.
I'm fortunate my car charges really fast, so Italy was 5 stops. Basically every 2 / 2.5hrs, which I do anyway. By the time I'd had a toilet break and grabbed a drink it was ready to go again. I think it took around 45 minutes longer to get to Chamonix than when we last did it in a petrol car. And that's over a whole day, so almost unnoticeable.
I think it's fine for certain use cases just to be better in an ICE overall. My i3 is 150-180 in summer, about 20% less in really cold weather. The Polestar is arriving in a few weeks 🙂 And that'll be about 50% more range, but less economical than the i3.
I'll be going from sw wiltshire to argyll in the summer. No way I'd consider doing it in the i3, but I would think about it in the new car at least (picking up en route so have choices). Last time I did that trip was over 10 hours and I stopped for about 15 minutes overall. But I've bloody loved chilling at 56 in the i3 when hypermiling that, so slow and steady might be the way forward.
Do you have a work base? Most NHS premises here have a couple of charge points. All the pool cars at my wife’s work are electric and there are 4 charging spaces.
We do but we are a satellite base on another Trusts site with a small carpark of our own - no chargers.
Plus most of us start our journeys from home to first visits rather than driving to base then setting off from there and usually finish our last visit then straight home - they class us as finishing work as soon as we leave the last patients house if we don't return to base to end our shift.
That saves me the commute in the morning which, for the 8 miles, can be an hour to Dewsbury and it seems pointless to drive to base when I've finished just to clock out.
Obviously costs me in expenses as they deduct the 16 miles from my mileage claim every day as they argue if they didn't give us the perk of starting and finishing at home then we would have to do the mileage to get to and from work.
That is a conundrum I agree. Regularly driving long distance in Scotland with a small battery and slow charging is a more difficult proposition.
If I were you, I’d be waiting another couple of years before newer cars with bigger batteries start to filter down the second hand market
This is my thinking.
The Polestar is arriving in a few weeks
I'd never even heard of Polestars before today. Out of touch? Me? Nah?
And looking at the prices I could afford a steering wheel.
They do look nice though.
Obviously costs me in expenses as they deduct the 16 miles from my mileage claim every day as they argue if they didn’t give us the perk of starting and finishing at home then we would have to do the mileage to get to and from work.
This is typical interpretation of the HMRC guidance on mileage.
For example back in the day if I needed to travel to a distant site rather than my usual office the distance from office to home was deducted from the outward and return distance. It seems a reasonable measure. And seems an incentive to reduce commuting distance and use low emission/low cost transport.
For day to day charging there’s no issue but I travel to Northern Scotland for leisure a lot
Bottom line is that your long journeys may be a little less convenient, with longer and more frequent stops.
But set that against the fact that you'll be paying about 4p per mile on fuel for all the local stuff, year round.
Plus the road tax and (maybe) city ULEZ zone stuff if applicable...
Only you can decide if the trade-offs are worth it.
Personally, I'm delighted with our new EV, the remaining issue is how easily we can transport bikes and tandems. Nominal range is 280 miles but based on our driving we are getting comfortably over 300, though it will be less with bikes on the car. As importantly, it's lovely to drive. Then again, a new petrol car would be too, my previous wheels have always been bangernomics.