Forum menu
Not sure about Tesla as I have never used them but I have used various other providers who do place a £20 pre authorised charge on your card then refund you whatever you don’t use. I have found it more common with chargers that you tap a bank card to use and less common on ones that use an app. I guess it stops people tapping then charging up only to find they have insufficient funds to cover it. Sometimes it has taken a few days to come back to me.
edit. Some chargers have a minimum fee too (say £5), I see this with charge place Scotland.
yes, they take a fixed amount, sometimes £10 sometimes £20 and it gets refunded within a day or 2.
Thanks guys
I'm about to take the plunge and get my first electric car. My current Hyndai Tuscon has been good but it's on a lease and will have to go back at the end of November. I've been looking around at what floats my boat and took a Ford Explorer out for a test drive, which ticked most of my boxes. These come in two trim levels, Select and Premium and there is an optional Driver Assistance Pack which includes HUD, 360 degree camera, etc. So I thought that Select with the DA Pack would be ideal. I then spotted that my work Salary Sacrafice scheme has a special offer on a Jaguar I Pace, slightly more /month than the Explorer so I'll be getting a Jag. No doubt I'll have loads of questions about charging but I'm looking forward to having a green stripe on my numberplate.
Re: Tesla chargers
I thought I would try a supercharger last week for my Ioniq (old shape). Frustratingly the Tesla CCS connector wouldn’t fit my car socket - Tesla seem to have an extra lip of material which catches on the little light above the charge socket. A combo of my car design but as this has never been an issue over 3 years and 70000 miles, I assume Tesla plugs are not quite the same as the CCS standard. Lesson learned and fortunately there were some great Fastened chargers round the corner. A little disappointed but be wary if trying them.
I'm certain I've tried all of the Tesla charging options on the open for all network with my old style Ioniq and one of the connectors needed inserting at an angle to fit. Could of been slightly worn out but I don't think it was the case.
It just needed another 5mm to make a connection and all would have been grand!
That is a known issue with one of the Supercharger variants and Ioniqs. However there may be other issues as I failed to get a couple of chargers to work at Fort William; according to some, one of the banks works with Ioniqs and one does not. I'm not sure if this also applies to other non-Tesla cars.
I encountered the fort William super charger issue with the Ioniq. 3 work 3 don't. Other cars didn't have an issue from what I saw. I think it was just the old chargers and maybe they will be updated with newer versions at some point? Seems a well used Tesla station.
I didnt notice anything different to be truthfull. Worked no problem on my Mercedes
I think it was just the old chargers and maybe they will be updated with newer versions at some point?
Here’s hoping they do, and also put longer cables on so that non Teslas aren’t taking up two bays.
There was a Merc and another right sided port car taking up 3 bays when I was there. The other 3 chargers were the ones that didn't work with the Ioniq. I returned to the chargers at 6 am for a session before the drive home.
I plugged a code reader into the Corsa e to try and find the fault related to the HVAC problem it has. The topdon reader did a pretty good job. It served to suggest that the right hand side fan motor wasn't working and another fault which I can't remember what it was.
The air conditioning compressor seemed to work. The reader showed the compressor working or at least increasing pressure.
Test of the day was spent cruising along in the Ioniq to Blackpool to check out the lights. Just under 5 miles/KW at slow motorway speeds.
That set of errors could easily be leaves or a foreign object in the system. I had a vibration from the fan on my second Ioniq, turned out to be a leaf in the fan. Try taking out the cabin filter and see if you can access the fan and check it turns.
Quick update on my experiences with my Mercedes EQA AMG 250 Premium Plus.
Yes i did get the refund from Tesla for using their supercharger. All happy days and i plan to use Tesla chargers as my main supply if i need to charge away from the home. Simple, quick and pretty good value for money. I am slowly building up a list of chargers for when i need them. I'm pretty consistent in my destinations so it will work for me well this way.
I read a few of the comments on here about the regen settings and decided to change from the intelligent setting to max recuperation. Now that i have the hang of it i hardly touch the brakes at all and it has definitely improved my efficiency. I turn it off on the motorway and put it back on intelligent setting.
Did a trip to Bolton & back yesterday. 240mls round trip. Had 13% battery left at the end which i was quite happy with and in general it is averaging 3.5mpkw and slowly increasing. For example my 8 mile journey to work and back averages 5mpkw so this will slowly improve my average.
So we're slowly getting round to buying a used EV. Contenders at the moment are the Ioniq 5, iX3 and Q4. I am edging toward the ioniq as it's a newer design and was built to be an EV rather than adapted like the BMW and audi, but it seems the ioniq has some major security flaws so it's easily nicked. Any views on pros and cons of those 3?
Are the flaws present on the Ioniq 5? I thought it was just the older Ioniq that came in hybrid form popular as taxis.
EDIT seems like it's any Hyundai/Kia from a certain era with a key that you have to turn to start - so my car and i5s are unaffected. I still keep my key in a pouch though.
EDIT2 apparently there's another attack which does include Ioniq 5s.
apparently there’s another attack which does include Ioniq 5s
Yes seems to be some sort of key emulator so not a relay or cloning exploit, they don't need any access to the original key to get in and drive off. I'm guessing a decent immobiliser should help but a) that's 500 quid I shouldn't have to spend and b) there's probably still consequences from a failed attempt.
But... Is it actually a local issue that's been magnified by the Internet (North London seems a hotspot)
I've been round in circles contemplating various different EVs over the past few months. If you look too deeply at any of them (and especially if you look on the owners forums) they all seem to have some issue that looks like an absolute deal-breaker. It's saved me a fortune so far 🙂
@thepurist Owner of a 2024 Q4 55 Sportback. Pretty sure it was built to be an EV? Has a completely flat floor, no drive train bit in the way.
Amazingly comfortable thing to drive. I’m very impressed with it. Previously had an AMG Merc GLC and a Cupra. Was going to keep the Cupra but the Audi is all I need. I kind of miss a quick car with the paddle gears, but not enough to have kept the Cupra.
If you haven’t done so I’d recommend a test drive. My friend has an i4, the M50 version. Its really nice, I prefer the Audi but I guess that’s because it’s mine!
Had my EV6 for a week now. It’s growing on me. A bit firmer and more stable in the corners than my GV60 but less plush and the software is less polished Bigger boot though. Otherwise it’s equally as good.
It’s black and gives me Batmobile vibes every time I look at it.
Far better than the hateful ID4 which I had as a temporary solution. Nice car but the software and stupid touchy buttons made me despise it more with each passing day.
Getting rid of the MG5 to replace with the outgoings EV6 model. Work have decided to supply an upgrade. Hopefully it will feel like one. Just hope the seat base comes out for chucking bikes in.
The rear seat base is removable in an EV6 but it’s fiddly and not really advisable as there is quite a lot of electrical connections and gubbins in and under it.
We’ve got an IX3 and it’s been a great car for the last couple of years. Range is ~ 240 in summer and 200 in winter. Comfortable and (I find it) good to drive.
It has a major flaw IMO which is that the radar sensor is very vulnerable to theft - ours and all the IX3s in our area have been stolen and the replacement cost is over 4k!
For this reason I’d probably not buy again
Must admit I dropped the Ioniq 5 from my (2nd hand) short list due to the Hyundai/Kia theft vulnerability issue. I also questioned whether the abundance of silvery plastic trim might look shabby in 6 years (sun light discoloration, scratches, paint chipping or whatever) and possibly also dated by then.
..
Thanks folks. Think I need to do some more legwork then decide which issues are deal breakers and which I can work around.
The adjustable headlight setting on my Enyaq appears to do nothing...lights are on, car is on and I can set the angle to 6 (lowest setting) and the lights don't drop when they are shining against the wall of the house. I then set it to 0 (highest setting) and again, no movement from the lights.
I've had a nosey under the bonnet and I can't really work out what I should be adjusting, but I'll have another look today as it appears to be a screw behind the light unit...so I'll give that a wiggle and see if it does anything manually.
They really are bad...on the motorway (so a relatively straight road), driving at 65mph, I can see 4 white line spacers ahead of me - which should be good except the gap between the white lines at 65mph is only just visible, so they are close together. It lights up the ground, but anything above the ground and it is just blackness. Full beam is great, but I can't drive round with that on permanently. You can't look ahead at where you are going as nothing is lit, so you are peering over the bonnet, which isn't great. It is just as bad at 45mph on a country road (that is NSL).
I will be calling the garage as I'm sure this can't be right.
Is this Kia theft issue all kias, or just certain models? Should I be worried about leaving bikes in the back? If I can get them in that is. EV6 has more hoot space than my outgoings MG5 in paper, but I'm yet to find out if it's as useable.
Yes EV6 seems to be vulnerable too - it's being referred to as Game Boy theft because the device they use apparently looks like a Nintendo. Reports are that it's an expensive bit of kit too at 15k or so, which means it's organised crime rather than opportunists.
Edit - reports that a London based group have been caught and sentenced, but that doesn't fix the vulnerability.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/keyless-car-theft-gang-london-nintendo-gameboy-b1185089.html
@dickbarton are they projector headlights with a cheaper halogen bulbs behind them? If so they will be useless, you can get drop in led replacements but have to swap them in/out for every mot
I’ve been round in circles contemplating various different EVs over the past few months. If you look too deeply at any of them (and especially if you look on the owners forums) they all seem to have some issue that looks like an absolute deal-breaker. It’s saved me a fortune so far ?
Agree. I've got too much time on my hands so as well as test driving I've spent hours looking at YouTube videos. My current car is a 2016 BMW 3.0 diesel which coupled to the 8 speed auto box is quite EV-like in driving experience apart from the regen. I've had Apple CarPlay retrofitted so I don't need any of the new tech like lane assist although adaptive cruise control is nice to have. The Genesis GV60 was nice to drive but a big price to pay for a nominal upgrade.
@5lab absolutely no idea, it is the second model from base so I didn't go for the fancy light options. Full beam is brilliant, dipped is just useless as they don't seem to provide any real length (or depth) of light.
Will do some more digging.
Do you not consider 15p a mile and toxic fumes sprayed everywhere a deal breaker?
Do you not consider 15p a mile and toxic fumes sprayed everywhere a deal breaker?
Being a pedant I think I'd argue that it can't be a deal breaker as you've already accepted the deal 🙂 I think I see what you are getting at though. Continuing to run your ICE car has downsides too.
I'm not sure about the cost one. I just worked out that my 20k a year of driving costs me around £3k in fuel at today's prices. Obviously electrons aren't free but with a general mix of home and fast charging I could indeed save around £2k a year in fuel costs by switching to an EV. But I doubt there are any newish EVs that would depreciate by less than that over the next few years, so it would still cost me to switch from my existing ICE car. Cars are the biggest wealth killer for most of us and we tend to spend far more on them than we strictly need to in order to meet our actual transport needs. If you do need to replace your car then there probably are cost advantages to replacing it with an EV (as long as you don't buy a new one) but if you don't then financially it will almost always work out cheaper to keep your current car on the road a bit longer.
So that leaves the environmental argument and I think I'd accept that one up to a point. If we accept that I really to need to drive 20k miles a year then it probably is better for the environment if I do that in an EV rather than an ICE car (depending a bit on what happens to my ICE car after I sell it I guess) but if I really cared about the environment I should probably be questioning whether I really do need to cover 20k miles a year in a metal box of any sort. I rather suspect that buying new shiny things isn't actually going to fix the problems that were caused by over-consumption in the first place.
But I doubt there are any newish EVs that would depreciate by less than that over the next few years, so it would still cost me to switch from my existing ICE car.
Well, perhaps yes, but there's a lot of scope for man-maths: I buy cars on credit, which a lot of people will howl at but I consider it as a DIY lease. And because I buy used, it's a lot cheaper than a lease deal. Your exposure is only the outstanding loan minus the resale cost and by buying more than about 3/4 years old and fortunately having decent credit I can usually keep pace for the first few years but after that I'm ahead. And of course at the end of the term the car is mine rather than having to be sent back. And I can 'end' any time I want by selling the car which you can't do with a lease.
So my car has a fixed cost per month, but because my wife commutes we have a fixed fuel cost per month. This is far cheaper with the EV. I've calculated that the savings are about 1/3 the loan payments when driving 7k per year at today's prices. If I were driving 20k a year, the car would have been basically free. When we first did this calculation petrol and diesel were sky high so the free-car point was about 15k a year. Now, this is based on our EV being pretty cheap (£12k) and extremely efficient (about 5 miles/kWh).
If you do enough miles then yeah you could break even on the outlay of the car, but it's going to make more sense if you want/need to change your car anyway. Our old commuter car was crashed so it needed a replacement, so we were looking at a fairly old ICE versus a quite nice EV for the same monthly outlay. Much as I would like to change the Merc for an EV that would be much more expensive because our requirements for that role dictate an expensive EV and the car does few miles so there is not much fuel cost to offset the purchase price.
Hi EV experts.
Without mentioning a specific car (to avoid the "recommend what you own" issue) would you be able to list the top five most important things you'd look for when buying your next EV.
Thanks.
would you be able to list the top five most important things you’d look for when buying your next EV.
In no particular order, and it's more than 5.
-range, not necessarily the highest, but range that is sufficient
-performance - I like a fast good handling car.
-charging speed, faster being better obvs
-interior - high quality, nice place to sit and I want buttons ideally.
-a car from a manufacturer that's going to be around in the UK market in 15 years time, I keep my cars a while, I don't lease, so need to know support will be there in the long term, so no byd et al for me at present .
-price - needs to be what I consider good value
- reliability needs to appear to be good.
Made in Europe with battery and cells made in Europe.
Not an SUV, something fairly small and light.
Range 400km+ CCS charging (pretty much universal these days)
Good local dealer with sensible pricing for servcing.
Easy to drive without having to faff with a touch screen for basis functions.
But above all point number 6: does Madame Edukator like driving it and is there a colour she likes.
EV specifics rather than more general considerations like aesthetics or practicality?
1. Charging curve. The Fastned website will show the charging curve for most EVs. The marketing blurb will trumpet about charging speed but often that’s a peak speed which isn’t maintained throughout the whole range of charging.
2. Efficiency.
3.Real world range as opposed to WLTP. A function of efficiency.
4. Decent software and a good remote app to start the climate control from bed.
5. Not particularly EV related but physical buttons or separate and dedicated controls for basic functions like climate control and volume. And a one click button to disable the Lane keeping assist.
6. A range of adjustable regenerative braking modes. Not just a B mode.
7. True 1 pedal driving.
8. A snow mode to control all that instant torque if it does get a bit slippery underfoot
to add to above, ease/compatibility for fitting bike racks on roof/towbar install
For me:
- 300 mile range since I want to tow. 250 if I didn't.
- Fast charging
- Nice interior
- Quiet and comfy
- Good battery management tech to avoid losing much range in winter
- Heat pump
- Available with smaller wheels and bigger tyres since stupid low profile tyres really hammer range.
stupid low profile tyres really hammer range
afaik that's only if the alloy wheel design is inefficient. A wider tyre will create more drag, but if that remains constant, less tyre/more wheel only has an aerodynamic effect
I think you'll find you've already got 8, Perchy.
I already have 1 to 7 as well.
I have chosen wisely.
…but the car is better at monitoring the grip and modulating the power to maintain the traction than even my god-like Surfmatt-esque skills can.
Sometimes computermabobs are superior to people in specific tasks.
I am disappointed nobody has mentioned 'ability to make the car make fart noises on command' yet.
list the top five most important things you’d look for when buying your next EV.
In no particular order
- Looks nice (important for all cars for me, TBH)
- Spaceous, and can carry roof racks
- Range >200miles - the odd occasion I go over this I'll be stopping anyway!
- Powerful and sporty to drive
- MUST have adaptive cruise control, great to have lane following.
And hopefully, when I'm after my next EV, they'll be self driving!
DrP
Defo lane centring (not lane keep) was on my list
Range >200miles – the odd occasion I go over this I’ll be stopping anyway!
I don't have an EV but mildly thinking about it. I was concerned about range [like everyone else probs] but realised that my longest regular trip is 110 miles and I rarely come back the same day.
So even with 240 mile range I could drive down one day, then pretty easily come back the next having added a bit more charge overnight - even at 3kWh!
I don't really need a >350 mile range.
I was explaining to MrsSb that, unlike right now, I could park the car at home with 50 miles left "in the tank" but the next morning it could be 150 miles (charger dependant). I usually only have about 70 miles range in the car now anyway!
thats exactly the mind shift that needed. its nice to have huge range but it very rarely needed.
faster charging is much more useful especially if paired with some smart nav that'll take you to it.
(and public charging keeps on getting better and better)
I was explaining to MrsSb that, unlike right now, I could park the car at home with 50 miles left “in the tank” but the next morning it could be 150 miles (charger dependant). I usually only have about 70 miles range in the car now anyway!
And i think this is kinda teh mentality switch you need to adopt to EV driving...
I did a 200 mile round trip to collect the OH and her daughter from Stanstead airport last weekend... Lovely cruise up there... Parked, waited, and picked them up, and lovely cruise back (with a McD's drive through on our laps!).
I left home with 100% (i normally only fill to 90%) got home with about 9%. Plugged in on teh drive, and was full again come the morning.
IF i was concerned, I could have added another 10-20% at the Airport in about 8 minutes via a rapid charger.
Too many people (without EV experience or mindset) think that you ALWAYS have to completely brim up the car. Which of course would take anything from an hour (at a rapid) to a day (via a 3 pin).... But you don't... If I thought my return journey would take me too close to empty, I'd have just added 8 min (or less) at the rapid charger next to the airport car park. really NOT an inconvenience..
And there's no issue rolling into your drive on 0% if you have a wall charger!
DrP
I'm just working through the "how much range do I actually need" question. I've looked at the longer round trips and single legs that I do semi regularly where I wouldn't want to require a stop to charge, then on bigger trips like heading from darn Sarf to the Lakes or Tweed valley where I'd prefer to only need to charge once en route rather than twice. That's giving me a figure of about 210 miles, so a WLTP of 250ish will be fine.
I've found range not to be a big deal in use, but planning for the amount of juice you have left at a remote destination needs some consideration if accomodation doesn't provide a charging option.
Another "range is not a problem". Amersham to Porthmadog and back in a day (dropping daughter off at the mountain railway) didn't do much planning, left at 100% with 230 miles range, stopped at Telford for a burger and top up, dropped daughter at Porthmadog, quick tea and top off at Tremadog, tea and top off at Birmingham and home. No more stops or time than my bladder required anyway,
I also commute 110 miles round trip twice a week. No issue at all, I just plug in at home the night before.
We did a 336mile trip (each way) in our 37kWh i3 recently. We stopped once in each direction to charge from 10-95% (the i3 maintains full charge rate upto this) and trickle charged at the destination for 10h. The charge stop extended our journey by 30mins in each direction as we’d have stopped, but probably not for as long.
It was hardly an inconvenience on a 6.5h journey and otherwise had zero impact on our trip.
It's worth noting (as others have) that in a 250 mile car you won't be 250 miles between stops on a long trip, more like 200. In our 200 mile car we were about 120-140 miles between stops on our Scotland trip. It's about 10.5 hours of pure driving according to Google, we did it in 14hrs, but of course we'd have had plenty of stops otherwise. Probably about 1.5hrs longer than we would have taken anyway but we only really spent about 30 mins actually waiting for charge - the rest of the time we were getting snacks/peeing etc. The more you stop the more coffee you buy so the more you need another stop 2hrs later 🙂
Corsa e heating problem update! Broken blower motor. Having it fixed at the local Vauxhall/Peugeot dealership for peace of mind/2yr warranty. Not my normal approach to these sort of things and if it fails beyond the warranty period I'll be resolving the problem myself. I asked if it was worth replacing the resistor at the same time to save on future labour costs and I was advised that any replacement of the resistor would be relatively easy to do. I think i'll have to skip a few pub trips and attempt to do some overtime to offset the cost of the repair. Paying for convenience this time. Crying eyes/winky eye emoji.
Yeah, that's cars for you 🙂 Glad it was a straightforward if time-consuming fix. Blower motors are buried behind the dash, and if it has to come out that's best done at the dealer if you don't want rattles down the line since they have whatever glues and clips etc are needed. It's doable yourself but a huge ball-ache.. I removed the entire dash on the Passat and I still wasn't quite at the motor itself. The biggest challenge was finding somewhere to put all the stuff I took out!
Blower motors…FFS, I am still haunted by my efforts to replace one in a Nissan note. I gave up and got a garage to do it. As Molgrips said above it is buried away and in a Note it means the whole dash has to come out! Whatever the garage are charging you it is money well spent IMO.
It doesn't look like the dash has to be removed on the Corsa e. Glove box and a few other bits. My other half had managed without the blower for the past few weeks and fortunately the high pressure and mild weather had aided the situation. I need some decent wind power and negative Agile pricing to help towards the cost! Wind blowing from a face emoji!
Blower motors…FFS, I am still haunted by my efforts to replace one in a Nissan note. I gave up and got a garage to do it. As Molgrips said above it is buried away and in a Note it means the whole dash has to come out!
I simply didn’t have the money when the HVAC system on our Panda died. It was a complete PITA!
Well the Corsa e blower motor fix stalled on friday afternoon. The vauxhall dealership didn't have the replacement part in their stores after taking the old one out so the car is awaiting the new part to be fitted on monday...
Idiotic hatchet-job EV article in The Times today of the motoring journalist driving from Lands End to John o' Groats when the average UK driving journey is 8.4 miles and complaining about the charging infra. According to zapmap Ambleside has PodPoint x 8, Fuuse x 5, GeniePoint x 3 and a couple of single chargers but this is what he wrote:
Arriving in Ambleside we have 11 per cent left. At the hotel the receptionist almost laughs when we ask about EV charging. He suggests Booths in nearby Windermere. The Zapmap app, which lists charge points, is a lifesaver and shows a local car park with power, but we find the charger is broken. Eventually, we locate a slow charger at a hotel down the road, download an app to pay and pray the owners don’t mind that we’re not guests.
Also this, to which the reaction is no **** Sherlock:
“If you’re going over the Highlands into the wind, heavily laden and it’s cold, all those things have a huge effect on your range,” he says. “Range anxiety really does exist, especially if you’re not familiar with the route.”
It's time for the Zoe to go. Miss OTS is now sharing a car with Mrs OTS and the Zoe just doesn't have the range (70 miles without fast charging) for what she needs. The battery lease is a bit of a constraint, so I'm going to trade it in.
I'm looking at used small ish EV's in the 10-12k range for a 20 plate or newer.
Options seem to be another Zoe, some horrific MG thing or a Hyndai Ioniq (original version).
I'm swaying towards the Hyundai, but:
1. What else am I missing; and
2. Any thoughts on either the Zoe @Edukator or Hyundai @Molgrips
@Molgrips, I'd be particularly keen to hear about spec options to consider - am I right in thinking that a heat pump was an option?
TIA
edit - looks like a kia soul and e-golf might also be in the mix. And yes I know smallish is relative.
No Konas, Niros, big battery Leafs?
What else am I missing
We have a VW e-Up, like it. Nominal 160 mile range, I think we got 200 out of it on a warm summer day and 40-60mph A&B roads, more like 120miles at 70mph on motorways in winter. Ours is 2021, older than about 2020 have a smaller battery. I think there are also Seat and Skoda versions but they weren't selling them in 2021 (I assume they had been selling at loss so stopped when they met their quota for the brand)
What else am I missing
From a quick Autotrader search - loads. But most notable I'd say the E208 and Corsa-e. e-golf has a particularly tiddly battery.
Don't get a Leaf.
The Ioniq is outstanding VFM. I think that all UK 38kWh models came with them, but you can easily check if you can see under the bonnet, it's a load of metal pipes and valves etc very visible on the left hand side. There are only two versions - Premium and Premium SE. The latter gets you leather, ventilated seats (which are awesome), blind spot warnings, lane follow assist, parking beepers, heated rear seats, memory front seats, proper heated/cooled battery, satnav with live charger routing (that's very good) in fact it's an incredibly well specced car for the money. I love mine. You might pay more for a Kona but I think they're a bit more refined. Only downside of the Ioniq is slow charging speed when on a long trip, but I put up with that for the few times I do it.
when the average UK driving journey is 8.4 miles and complaining about the charging infra
The average journey has nothing to do with it. You want your car to be able to deal with the exceptional journeys as well.
Thaks @Molgrips
That's the info I wanted on the Ioniq. I did have a quick look at the Kona and I need to investigate more.
The local Renault garage also does Hyundai, so should manage to get something sorted.
I'll report back.
Other downside for the Ioniq is the special coolant service at 4 years/40k. Only dealers can do it and it needs special coolant. It's £500-odd quid which is shocking when your other services are £70/£140. However at those prices you are still only averaging £200/year which is pretty cheap for a main dealer; it just seems expensive when your last one was £70! It has to be done to keep the battery warranty, and for good reason - there were issues with coolant crystallising in the channels that cool the battery, so they recalled them to fit special low-crystallisation coolant and changed the service schedule.
You want your car to be able to deal with the exceptional journeys as well.
Not really. Or you'll end up with a 7 seater pick up for those times you want to take 4 disabled grannies to the hospital and pick up a tonne of gravel and drop off a fridge freezer on the way home... The vast majority of people *never ever* do exceptional journeys. And if they do, they *should* plan ahead. Like we used to 30 years ago when some areas still didn't have 24 hour petrol stations.
Christ, my last few cars have all been large family estates and i've *still* needed to rent or borrow to cover exceptional journeys.
Or you’ll end up with a 7 seater pick up for those times you want to take 4 disabled grannies to the hospital and pick up a tonne of gravel and drop off a fridge freezer on the way home
I should clarify - when I say exceptional, I mean things out of the ordinary that you still do. For example, occasionally I might drive to Scotland; several times a year I'll drive to North Wales. Those are regular, but they are much further than my wife's weekly commute. I want my car to enable me to do those things even though they are not my regular average trip. I do occasionally drive my parents places so I do choose a car that has decent space in the back.
If/when I come to move my kid to university or something then I'll hire something.
I'm willing to bet you regularly do journeys that are many times your average daily drive. I don't think it's a normal distribution.
On the subject of kids moving universities I thought I might need to drive mine plus some stuff to Tromso (and get myself back) in a hurry a couple years ago, and by far the cheapest way was to rent a Model X with free super charging. It summed up as circa half the cost of an ICE car. Luckily he got a flight as it's still the best part of 5000kms driving
i3 is a great option for a small EV second car. Would want one with car play though.
I’m willing to bet you regularly do journeys that are many times your average daily drive. I don’t think it’s a normal distribution.
I'm so far off the end of the normal distribution it's almost funny. So no i don't. The number of times a year i drive further than my average daily drive is very limited. e.g. the seaside, the nearest airport, the nearest (3) bike parks, the nearest massive IKEA, two wildlife parks, almost the entire family etc are all similar distance to or closer than my daily commute. Only thing i drive further for is if i take the caravan somewhere. And even that is usually only around double my daily drive (to our favourite location, which is also a bike park, and has a lakeside beach).
Long live WFH. 😀
(I also knew exactly what you meant, but with these things you've got to be specific or you get a car brained drivist all over the semantics.)
And FWIW, the majority of people never do exceptional journeys, or for some, even slightly long ones. There are many many cars in circulation that won't do much more than 100 km a day for the entire time they are owned by someone. Or once a year they'll drive to Auntie Janet and Uncle Fred. Looking at the data, i sometimes wonder why something like 15% of the population even own a car. (OK, yeah i know. It's because they're nice to have, convenient, public transport in a huge number of places is dire, car rental in some markets is (almost) robbery and so on.)
Just had an eBerlingo Multispace XL overnight as a courtesy car. Very interesting and practical, but for the price feels a bit basic and range wasn't great - 166 miles showing at 100% charge which quickly disappeared, and a 2 degree commute with gentle driving, minimal heating and a short hop of 60mph motorway managed to use 44 miles range to cover 20 miles. I didn't have a charge cable, and I'd have struggled to make it home / back if I'd needed to keep it a second night. Brake blending was a bit snatchy, but hope things might be improved on the facelift model with 3 regen settings and reports of more usable battery capacity.
I was hoping I'd be totally sold on it, but for the time being we'll wait to try some of the interesting things on the horizon in the next year or two:
Kia PV5 (specs suggest it will be a spacious van on a Berlingo footprint)
Ford eCourier Tourneo
Renault 4 Fourgonette (if it gets the rumoured boxy back end then it might not be good for aero....)
Maybe the next Berlingo (as they appear roughly every 10 years) and the new "made in France" Stellantis batteries about to come in the Peugeot 5008.
Any of the resident Hyundai / Kia fans tried an EV3 yet?