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We have an Andersen A2. Friend got the new A3 and very happy. It now smart integrates with octopus agile. If you’d like a discount referral code please message me.
I believe Ohme is fairly high on the list of charger points @wooksterbo
Hypervolt work well with Octopus Intelligent. Nice app, looks ok and you can turn the lights off. Choice of cable length too.
In other news I went to have a look at an EV9 yesterday. First observation was I’m not sure I could handle the actual dealer, they could not have given less of a sh*t. The car was outside, I waited 15 mins to get someone to talk to me to begin with. It was unlocked from inside the dealer and I was then ignored. After having a look round and through it I ended up leaving. Second observation was thats a car only a mother could love. Stunningly ugly, and with some really weird ‘functions’ – why do you want a calf leg rest for the driver? How on earth would you use it safely. Very odd. Its a very chintzy car and very massive, and very ugly.
I was meant to take one of these out for a test drive today, but i've got what feels like Covid , so im avoiding people for a bit . I 'll report back next week on my findings
Dealer was quite enthusiastic whilst showing me round the car in the showroom end of last week though. I think a lot of these places work on a kind of agency basis nowadays. If you want to be properly ignored , try a VW dealer 🙂
@revs1972 be interested to see what you think about it. I don’t think I could bare looking at it to be honest.
Seeing if I can get an EQE suv for a demo this weekend.
Ohme is working well for me, it integrated with Octopus Intelligent Go and the car, so all I need to to each day is plug the car in and it just sorts itself out magically in the background so I wake up to an 80% charged car each morning unless I've told it otherwise.
Ohme is working well for me
Same for me. The charger handles all the integration with intelligent octopus go, so it doesn't matter whether the car supports it or not (in my case the car doesn't support it)
All works fine, have a set a default charge to add 100% by 8am the next day, whenever I plug the car in, and in the car I have set a charge limit of 80%. So I just plug the car in and it's back at 80% the next morning, when I occasionally need 100% I just use the car app to increase the charge limit to 100%, I don't need to touch the ohme app.
"In other news I went to have a look at an EV9 yesterday."
I checked out an EV6 today. Absolutely fantastic car and the dealer was very good and attentive in most ways but it never ceases to amaze me how little they know about their products. I went to two dealerships (Kia and MG) and asked basic questions such as would it take a roofrack or towbar and the differences between various cars. Both started googling for the answer to the roofrack question - I said I wasn't interested in random info from a forum (LOL!), why couldn't they simply contact Kia/MG direct and get a definite answer? And the Kia dealer when asked the difference between two secondhand EV6 models he had on the forecourt proudly told me the external bodykit was different and seats had different stitching and colours like I couldn't see that but neglected to tell me one was RWD and the other was AWD which impacted just about every performance number there was including BHP, range and acceleration! Why is it when we buy really expensive things like houses and cars the people selling them are so clueless?
But the EV6 was perfect and now I'm spoiled cos I didn't want to spend that much..........but it actually looks like a car I want rather than a car I need.
To be fair the MG ZS Trophy wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it just felt tiny inside after the EV6 - the EV9 was just comically gigantic and yes, ugly as sin.
The EV3 was pretty awful looking as well
I have had my EV6 for 14 months and it really is a great car. Good size, comfortable, spacious and decent range.
Any questions you have, @winston just ask.
@dove1 I guess what I really want to know is if it has been reliable and if not, how have Kia been with the warranty.
Also what the range is in winter.
I really like the EV6 I agree!!
Re the dealer knowledge. This has always bugged me and tbh the sign of a half competent sales person is they know the product. What gets me is 1) they don’t have that many products to remember and 2) if they can’t remember why don’t they have little crib sheets?
Our VW e-Up came with a phone app to manage charging, turn on the heater while charging, etc. 3 years in I've had an email saying the contract for the app will run out and do I want to pay to renew it. To me, it's part of the car and the idea of paying to keep it just puts me off buying a VW - it's not the money, just their attitude to customers. I don't know how much it will cost to renew as their web shop has been down ever since I received the email. They say "use the in-car shop on the infotainment" but the e-Up doesn't have that, it's only on the IDs. It's a good car and I like it, but their IT and attitude to customers are terrible.
They’re all doing it. BMW seem to take it to next level which is installing hardware elements on all models for production line efficiency then only turning on the sw to enable it if you pay for that option or trim level. V wasteful from a component using earths resources perspective.
Our current lease is up and exploring EV for next car. But, live in a terraced street and no dedicated parking never mind off-street.
So key question is does the lack of home charging make an EV infeasible either practically or economically? Any thoughts, experiences, or ideas on how to make it feasible would be great.
They’re all doing it.
Kia, Hyundai and MG don't. Though I suspect MG collect a lot of data they shouldn't.
The legacy car makers need to up their game basically. 3 year warranties, expensive apps, hardware that needs to be activated, low levels of standard equipment, all this was just about sellable when the cars were better designed and more reliable but that just isn't the case any more, especially at the mid range part of the market.
Also what the range is in winter.
Range is always a tricky one. It depends on multiple factors that are difficult to predict in our wildly changeable climate. A better metric is efficiency.
My EV6 is currently averaging about 3.2 mile per kWh in the current conditions. (Wet and misty with temps hovering around freezing)
Based on the 77kwh usable battery this would give an extrapolated range of about 240-250.
Tomorrow could be dry and ten degrees warmer or maybe ten degrees colder and that extrapolated range would vary wildly.
In my previous car (GV60- based on the same platform)I measured it over a year and averaged 3.5 m/kwh and I expect the EV6 will be similar
In short, the range is always more than enough
I guess that's not too bad - my leaf has averaged 3.4 over 10 years! But it is a smaller car though I do drive it quickly and it always has roofbars on. The Tesla I borrowed off a mate for a few weeks a few years ago did over 4.0.
Have you got the AWD or the RWD?
Battery temps are a funny thing. They need to be reasonably warm to get the best range, but they don’t get that warm during normal use in cooler weather. They could be heated up artificially but the capacity you’d gain isn’t worth the energy you’d use heating it up.
Polestar (not sure on other manufacturers) preconditioning while tethered uses AC to heat the battery and cabin. I get about 8% range increase over cold start with 30 minute preheat. I do need to remember to plug in the cable though.
Have you got the AWD or the RWD?
RWD GT-line
Polestar (not sure on other manufacturers) preconditioning while tethered uses AC to heat the battery and cabin. I get about 8% range increase over cold start with 30 minute preheat. I do need to remember to plug in the cable though.
Less useful when you're on a smart tarriff, and though it's plugged in at 8am, there's no power in the cable!
DrP
This is why I let Octopus control the car and not the charger, though I suppose you could hit the bump charge button in the app if you know you need to precondition.
Less useful when you’re on a smart tarriff, and though it’s plugged in at 8am, there’s no power in the cable!
If you are on IOG with Ohme charger the pre conditioned by specific time gives 30 minutes at cheap rate on the schedule regardless of the time of day.
@dove1 I guess what I really want to know is if it has been reliable and if not, how have Kia been with the warranty.
Also what the range is in winter.
The car (GT Line S) has been 100% reliable in the time I’ve had it. Coming up to 12k miles and haven’t had a single problem.
My driving is a mix of short, commuting type journeys with two or three 200+ mile trips a month.
During the summer I was regularly getting over 300 miles from a full charge.
During last winter the range dropped to around 230 miles, but can vary quite a bit depending on how you use the heating.
Overall I have averaged about 3.1mi/kWh.
3 years in I’ve had an email saying the contract for the app will run out and do I want to pay to renew it. To me, it’s part of the car and the idea of paying to keep it just puts me off buying a VW – it’s not the money, just their attitude to customers.
It's VAG group wide, we've just got a Skoda (ICE unfortunately) and I was very reticent to sign up for the account and app(s). Turns out it's 'free' for the first 3 years as well, but no indication of what follows on, and so far as I can see any functionality is being pissed about with in the background. I can look at stuff like locking and headlight status in the background. I can unlock the car remotely with my phone (if I really want) and flash lights when I lose it in a carpark...
It's s all pretty meh stuff currently and feels like they're just trying to coax you into an "ecosystem" but in an incredibly inept way, almost as if they're car manufacturers not a software company... Mostly because VAG know you'll have seen someone else's slicker Merc or Tesla and probably expect more 'tech' on new cars, especially in an EV, but it's being rolled out across all ranges (like it or not).
It could actually become a selling point in the not too distant future, someone selling a car without intrusive phone apps, updates and prompts on the infotainment screen every other week.
In fact take away the "infotainment system" again, just give me an old fashioned dumb DAB head unit with Bluetooth/AUX for my phone and I'll muddle by just fine. (I'll keep the heated seat though if that's OK).
/Aimless Rant over...
3 years in I’ve had an email saying the contract for the app will run out and do I want to pay to renew it. To me, it’s part of the car and the idea of paying to keep it just puts me off buying a VW – it’s not the money, just their attitude to customers.
Pretty sure all manufacturers do this. I had to pay to subscribe to the Nissan one to get all the features, and whilst you are meant to have to pay for Hyundai I think they haven't bothered to build the systems to actually bill people for it because people are only just coming out of the free 5 years now and they keep getting free extensions 🙂
Re preheating before leaving - normally I'm leaving the house outside of the cheap overnight tariff and driving within the range of the battery, so actually want to use the battery rather than the house AC supply to do the preheating (7p vs 26.7p / kw.hr). On the relatively rare occasions that I'll be driving beyond the range and hence be using public chargers at some stage then I'd rather use the house AC to do the preheating (26.7p vs 50-80p / kw.hr). It is possible to force it to do this one way or the other but is a manual intervention unless there's a trick I've not figured out yet.
Re paid subscription activations "BMW seem to take it to next level" - yep, I agree. My connected drive subscription is 3 years free - not sure what happens after than (i.e. what you actually lose by not coughing up or how much). I've got a 3 yr lease (company car) so any gap over the 3 yr point will be short enough it won't matter much. The next car will be on a 4 yr lease though so maybe more of an issue.
The two features that the car has that you have to pay for are auto dipping headlights (£200) and adaptive cruise control (£750!). Hardware is fully present including the buttons on the steering wheel for adaptive cruise "following distance" adjustment. No, I've not paid for either.
Hardware is fully present including the buttons on the steering wheel for adaptive cruise “following distance”
That would royally pee me off every time I got in the car and looked at the steering wheel, especially as its a properly useful feature unlike many other 'driving aids'.
That would royally pee me off
Yep, it does annoy me. Visually it's not noticeable, but if you accidentally press the buttons it brings up a "function acquirable" message in the centre console that you have to actively click to clear.
Yes it's annoying, but in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't stop me getting another BMW i4 when this lease is up as there's not another car out there with the same blend of long range, decent handling and a practical hatchback design yet (or will be avaiable to order in circa 18 months time when the current lease is up)
@dove1 the important question about the EV6 is can you get bikes in the back?
@onewheelgood Yes, you can.
Gravel bike just fits with both wheels on. MTB needs front wheel removing.
Cool, thanks.
Hardware is fully present including the buttons on the steering wheel for adaptive cruise “following distance”
These type of subscription services will get hacked/reverse engineered by back street garages at some point
These type of subscription services will get hacked/reverse engineered by back street garages at some point
Read Cory Doctorow's 'Unauthorized Bread'. It's a great story, and it's all about fighting back against the subscription model where you don't actually own anything.
Well I guess most people pay for their whole car on a subscription model anyway so what’s a few more buttons?
With the subscription you are paying for some things that are not normally purchased for life, such as a network connection and software updates (not just upgrades to make it work better, but map updates etc.) Of course you don't actually pay in cash for Google or Apple maps, but that is another issue.
I don't have a problem with this. I could update the maps on the Zoe via a USB stick without being subscribed, but doing it over the air is less faff. Also, it would not be a big deal not to have the Renault app connectivity, it would be price sensitive not a must-have. And as it happens we got a free extension to the services after they expired as Renault haven't got the paying for it bit sorted. I posted about that above, but reading some subsequent posts it seems like it is quite common for car manufacturers.
If you are on IOG with Ohme charger the pre conditioned by specific time gives 30 minutes at cheap rate on the schedule regardless of the time of day.
Oooh - i did NOT know this.
I have both those conditions! Will go and learn…
DrP
If you are on IOG with Ohme charger the pre conditioned by specific time gives 30 minutes at cheap rate on the schedule regardless of the time of day
I can't find anything about this in the IOG or Ohme sites, so might just try it and see what happens - the IOG bills are very detailed so it's quite possible to see what happened.
Does anyone have a link to where Octopus describe this at all?
I thought that the terms said any time the car is taking power you get cheap rate.
With the subscription you are paying for some things that are not normally purchased for life, such as a network connection and software updates
Yeah - just to be clear, with Hyundai, Nissan and probably most of them you're paying for the servers and network connections and data feed for a live service, not the BMW style disable you car's built in hardware unless you pay.
For example with Hyundai your app connects to a server which then talks to the car via a mobile signal - none of those things are free for Hyundai. You also get live traffic based satnav routing and live EV charger information, also likely not free for them.
Does anyone have a link to where Octopus describe this at all?
As @molgrips says it’s covered in T&C’s that all charging is on the low tariff when dynamic charging as IOG does all the scheduling . I also had this confirmed on the Octopus FB as it seemed to me you could game the precondition to run whole house at cheap rate so seemed a bit of a loophole.
Octopus do have a fair usage policy clause but I’ve not seen any reports of people being booted off the tariff yet.
I've done a bit of digging on the IOG Facebook group and it seems that preconditioning does not count as "smart" charging. So you might get lucky and get it to put you on the cheap rate at the time but you might not.
I'm going to give it a try tomorrow - will be leaving the house at 6:30 am so I'll set a departure time for then with preconditioning acrive and see what happens
Outside of preconditioning, yes you game the system to a degree by "accidentally" setting your car to be ready at a time in the middle of the day - it doesn't always activate smart charging but usually does. As said above there is a fair use policy.
^^^ good luck with that given the current impasse between IO and BMW charging 🙁
I’ve been on manual charging for past few weeks, BMW i4 FB groups suggest it’s getting sorted mid December tho, here’s hoping.
I’ve done a bit of digging on the IOG Facebook group and it seems that preconditioning does not count as “smart” charging
Preconditioning always is classed as smart charging with my setup, but this is maybe because my car doesn't talk to iog, it's all done via the charger.
Essentially whenever the car requests power it's classed as smart charging and is done at the 7 p rate.
Hardware is fully present including the buttons on the steering wheel for adaptive cruise “following distance” adjustment. No, I’ve not paid for either.
Not always, some of them remove the *very* expensive sensors (usually very easy to fit/modular). So depending on what sort of adaptive cruise you had the option of (and how good it is) there might just be a hole with a few capped off connectors behind the sensor plate/window.
Then again, some of the active safety offers around use exactly the same sensor stack, so it literally is a connect, click, update config. Only issue with hacking it is might brick your updates/online services, or they'll just un-update your config change on a fairly frequent basis. Like people who do DIY activation of matrix headlights in the US (they're not yet homologated for use).
Anyone got a VW id7? Need to order new company car soon, coming from a Skoda Enyaq which has been great for the last 3 years and 55k. I'm hoping for more rear legroom and a bit more range more than anything else
RE preconditioning / IOG / Ohme…
This is the spiel from the Ohme website..
Finally, it’s important to note that Ohme will ignore your price cap setting if needed, to allow for cabin preconditioning before your ‘Ready by’ time. This therefore means<b> you may be charged more for preconditioning charging during your peak hours depending on your tariff.</b> For example, if the ‘Ready by’ time is set to 8:00am and cabin preconditioning set to 30 minutes, Ohme will schedule to begin charging again around 7:30am, even if the off-peak window of your tariff ends earlier than this. This is to make sure Ohme meets your cabin preconditioning requirements and keeps your battery topped up for when you need it.
Not sure if this applies to INTELLIGENT tariffs… I mean - If i wanted i can manually ‘BOOST’ charge at full rate. It feels like this is what preconditioning does - ‘opens’ up the charger even if outside the cheap tariff times…
However.. some people on the IOD Reddit have said they have only been charged 7.5pkWh… but it’s hard to know if, for <b>that</b> day, the cheap rate ran till (say) 11am…
Will see when I get my car back.. this 3 hour job and MOT on Monday is taking a wee bit longer!
DrP
whatgoesup
Full Member
Not always, some of themSorry – I was referring to my specific car (BMW i4) – the full hardware kit is definitely there including the front radar sensor, it’s just a case of stumping up £750.
yeah, seems crazy. I bought the auto full beam, but the £750 for adaptive cruise is a step too far on a 4 yr lease car.
Adaptive cruise is a 'extra' cost on my EQA too. Button and hardware all present but there is no way im paying for it to be activated. I have access to Mercedes Star machine so may ask one of the mechanics to have a see if they can do it for me. Unfortunately everything is now coded to the specific vehicle when doing updates (On the commercial range but im sure it will apply to the cars too) so its not just a case of plugging it in and selecting what you want to change. You have to apply to Germany for them to issue a new coding, send it through and then bring the vehicle in for it to be updated. You are paying for Germany to issue the new coding (vehicle specific) and for the dealership to then plug in and activate the code. Still a rip off but not all down to the dealership.
I dont understand the issue with the preheat/conditioning. Do you guys not have the option to put schedule together for entire weeks/months/years for what time you want the car ready for you, toasty warm and battery preconditioned? I have mine set for normal use and just override it for one off earlier starts. Uses about 2% of battery at most.
I am a few weeks into running a new Polestar 2 and it is generally a really good experience. Cup holders should be better but otherwise it is great.
unlike the bmw and Mercedes cases above they are throwing loads of extras at the standard build and if it helps I have turned the adaptive cruise control off ?. The lane assist unlike my Octavia hybrid does not try to kill me on country roads which is a bonus.
efficiency seems pretty good if I am reading the data right at 3.5m per KW. This has been in a good mix of frosty mornings, flooded roads and storms and motorway, country and urban routes.
Awaiting a charger fitting but I mostly charge at work but I did use Tebay and ChargePlace in Castle Douglas and both were hassle free
Finally - after 16 months! - we have a Smart Meter installed and working. Our charger is not on the Octopus list, but as I can use Home Assistant to interrogate the Mini IOT appliance that's getting rate updates every few minutes, I can - in theory - start and stop the charger based on thresholds I set up.
I'm rebuilding my whole automation setup over the break anyway, so this will be an interesting test.
Also test driving a Kia EV3 and a a MG Hybrid SUV thing early next year. Now we have cheap charging, I'll be moving away from ICE to full EV or at Hybrid. The MG will do 75 miles on electric and based on my spreadsheet I started last year to record journeys (I know, get a life etc..), that'd cover 80%+ of my journeys. Only one or two a month are over 50 miles...but they tend to be 200 or 300+
Not sure if this applies to INTELLIGENT tariffs
No. Ohme are not billing you. Their statement says you MAY be charged full rate. Octopus however say that all the energy that goes into your car is billed at cheap rate, as long as you have it on a schedule. They are the ones you should be asking, not Ohme.
if it helps I have turned the adaptive cruise control off ?
Might be an odd question, but why? I find it be one of the most useful features in the car!
And getting into a car with normal cruise is an exercise in "WTF!!!" every time the car doesn't begin to slow down with the traffic, or keeps on with the power in a corner (city driving, low speed in traffic)! I try to avoid using cruise if it *isn't* adaptive these days.
I bought the auto full beam
This was recently reduced to £160 - I could not see the value of it. If it was already on my car (mt last had it) and they offered £150 to turn it off I would take the cash. I am able to work the controls of my car effectively.
Preheating the car is cheap with Ohme and IOG. So I can warm the car and have a cheap shower at the same time. My 32 page bill breaks it down in half hour increments so I can see it drop.
Also test driving a Kia EV3 and a a MG Hybrid SUV thing early next year. Now we have cheap charging, I’ll be moving away from ICE to full EV or at Hybrid. The MG will do 75 miles on electric and based on my spreadsheet I started last year to record journeys (I know, get a life etc..), that’d cover 80%+ of my journeys. Only one or two a month are over 50 miles…but they tend to be 200 or 300+
I can't think why you would even entertain the idea of an MG Hybrid (or any Hybrid) with your use profile!
But having sat in both yesterday (well the EV version anyway) they are night and day apart and that's before you drive them. The MG ZS is tiny in the back and narrow all over, the EV3 is huge in comparison. But the driving experience is streets ahead anyway. Not surprising as its a lot more money but if you can afford it there is no comparison. Hybrids are going the way of the dodo - better to get an EREV, they won't be taxed as heavily and you still get the EV driving experience.
Right then gang. I have the chance to replace my A6 avant Quattro with an ev through work. The sheer saving makes it worth considering.
What I’m struggling with is proper equivalent cars with similar space and decent range. I do want four/all wheel drive and interior space.
Thoughts:
- Kia EV9 - less said the better
- new A6 e-tron, reports say its smaller inside than the current one, anyone seen?
- BMW i5 touring. No compromise on interior space but range a bit less good.
- Mercedes EQE SUV
- VW ID7 estate, anyone seen one?
What am I missing? It feels a little like these cars are all a bit bigger than the EV sweet spot
if it helps I have turned the adaptive cruise control off ?
Might be an odd question, but why?
I find it annoying. I live in Cumbria and travel up the M6 north to Glasgow and south to Manchester quite regularly. I keep good lane discipline so will move over to the left when the ten second gap applies. It is not a really busy stretch of motorway mostly so I am moving lanes frequently.
I find my it makes my speed erratic, I pull into the left hand lane after passing something then the radar latches onto a truck ahead and starts to slow me down when I want to close the gap a bit and overtake. I have tried playing with the distance setting but even on what I think is minimum it is cutting in very early. I think I pull out at sensible times and don't get too close in normal driving but this is too cautious. I then find that a car that stayed in the middle lane that I was travelling slight faster than catches up due to the slowing down and I cannot time the move into the middle lane.
In short it is just too annoying so I bang it into a constant 72/73 and use my brain instead.
I went out in the EV9 on a test drive earlier in the week.
It was a very easy car to drive, within a few minutes I was feeling comfortable with the width and the length (ooer). It was a very smooth drive and over the 45 minutes or so I had it, I did some motorway miles, A road and B road and city driving. The one pedal mode is very good. All the tech worked nicely, including the heads up display. I loved the blind spot cameras that appear as round circles on the dash when you need them too clearly showing what's next to you. Very clever. I was expecting a higher driving position given the size of the car, but it felt quite low down compared to my current vehicles. Space inside the cabin is massive. If I was to have one then I would go with the 6 seat configuration that lets you turn the 2nd row seats around 180 . With the rear seats down the load area is huge, but if you install the cover , then there is not a lot of height between the underside and top of the "boot floor". The ride is very conformable considering its springs rather than air suspension.
Looks are very subjective, but i like it. I've currently got an ID buzz GTX on order , and i think i'll stick with that for now.
I have turned off adaptive cruise sometimes on open motorways, as if it's clear you want to be able to smoothly pull out rather than slow down. But on a busy motorway it's great, and in a queue or slow moving traffic it's amazing. Especially combined with the lane follow assist.
What am I missing?
You really don't need mega range. You think you do, at first, but you don't. If your employer is forcing you to drive 5 hours without a break then they're breaking the law.
Cheers @revs1972. I just don’t think I can get away with its looks, but it does sound competent.
Based on my experience with the BMW i4, out of your list I would be making a beeline for the BMW i5 touring. It's what I'd like next if it should be available on our company car scheme when it comes time to change.
4WD Seems quite a bit less important on an EV than ICE due to how much better traction control is and also the better weight distribution without an engine at one end unbalancing things. So depending on the reasons you want / need 4WD you could consider a 2WD which generally improved efficiency hence range a bit.
I just don’t think I can get away with its looks, but it does sound competent.
The matt blue helps , as do little things like the optional running boards.... but I think one would need to be brave to embrace it 😉
My son said it looked like a lego car 🙂
The i5 looks really good. Going to try and get a test drive
Polestar 3 or 4, Genesis GV70? All looking available a relatively good pricing on my scheme.
Just a comment on range - I was getting stressed about the decrease seen in winter weather, and of course thought about it all summer too in various driving and load conditions. Something this week clicked in my brain and I realised "why the hell am I worried about this?". Always charge at home, very infrequent journeys over 200miles, so it really is a non issue.
Weird how all the 'range anxiety' press and social media comments affected me. Load of old balls. Wonder who pays for the bots that spread that shit, along with 'shoulda kept my diesel!' bollocks.
Absolutely, in reality it just becomes a big non event!
The front of the I5 looks horrendous. The back 3/4 is fine. The interior feels cramped to me, but car reviewers seem to love it and admittedly I’m coming from an i3 which is very airy by comparison. The ID7 makes the I5 look like Kate Moss vs Katie Price. The white one I saw just looked like a marshmallow. Almost no lines to speak of on the front of it, just a load of shallow curves and bulging rounds bits.
I have tried playing with the distance setting but even on what I think is minimum it is cutting in very early.
FWIW It's actually measuring a time gap, not distance, i think the minimum is set at 1.1-1.2 seconds for a steady gap, starts ramping out torque earlier (obviously) and when it does that depends on your relative speeds. Unless you're about to run into the back of a tractor doing ~50mph less than you, then you might need the brakes.
I tend to start planning to pull out as soon as i get the icon for "target car" appearing and judge based on the relative speeds shown on the speedo (though i have the latest version of the Volvo DIM, i'm not sure what's shown on the PS2 these days).
I would look at a Polestar 4 my colleague has one they are really big inside but not silly looking like the EV9 and have some great tech. I went with the polestar 2 PPP on company scheme I dont need the space but the boot is massive. I would certainly look at the BMW but hate all current new styling of BMW EV's.
Thanks for that Mert I would say it is at least 10 seconds, as I say very early. I should maybe look at the manual again 🙂
Thanks @superscale20 the polestar definitely worth a look. I think the 3 is bigger than the 4? Will go check it out!
agree re comments on id7 styling. Marshmallow. Plus the interiors on VW seem fairly awful apart from the ID Buzz. Sadly the buzz has been ruled out by the boss
I've watched this thread with interest and there has been some really useful information and feedback throughout, so thanks. My turn for questions now.
My wife is slowly coming on board to consider replacing her ageing, failing car (2010 VX Meriva B). With an electric car as an option based on it's usage. Current car does c.6k miles PA, commuting 3days a week and then general local family runabout for our 3 growing kids. Our other car is a Tourneo minibus for longer trips/holidays/activities etc. (She used to cycle commute before someone chirps up, not an option now unfortunately).
I'd like to buy something 2-3years old, with less than 30k miles as we aim to keep for at least 5years and enjoy a bit of warranty. Don't want something big (have van for that), but will need to be able to comfortably seat 5 (incl 2 teenagers in a couple of years). We can get a charger installed (assume c. £1k?) as have a driveway and modern electrics. We are already with octopus energy for access to EV tariffs.
We don't want to lease, prefer to buy and have an asset. Although my wife asking about ID Buzz's did prompt the discussion. We will probably take a loan to retain cash.
Looking at what's available with 150miles+ range (long range not a huge concern for our use case) for around £10-12k ignoring superminis (Mii, E-Up, 500E etc). Options look to be:
- Hyundai Ioniq (original not 5). Good range, 5yr warranty. Not sat inside one but seems a decent size. Efficiency looks high. Seem to have good residuals.
- Hyundai Kona (smaller battery) - A few available in the price range, warranty as above. Big inside. Again, efficiency looks good?
-VX Corsa E - Already discounted this I think as not very big inside, having driven ICE version for work.
- Pug E-208 - Same as Corsa above (same car)?
- Renault Zoe - Can't gauge how big interior is, but battery lease costs seem prohibitive? Plus the 0* NCAP (I know it's not an unsafe car but it can't help insurance costs).
- MG MG5 & ZS - not sure that we need something this big? Reviews suggest they are quite 'cheap' in terms of quality. Not that this is a huge concern it will have a hard life.
Tech/gizmos seem to be fairly consistent across models? All we really want would be heated seats and android auto. Although the ability to preheat/cool would be a bonus.
I'd appreciate thoughts and advice from the collective, any options I've missed? What are people's experiences of insurance for the above models (are the EV horror stories true)?
The one thing I need to look at properly is whether the low mileage the car will do makes the higher purchase cost of an EV worth it (Corsa as an example ICE vs EV). As the charger install cost would pay for 18 months of petrol alone.
Too late to edit - I forgot the Nissan Leaf from the list above. Size looks good but is it relatively old tech even at 2022+ (no heat pump, poor battery temp management, slow charging etc)?
@snownrock we have a leaf tekna plus as our second car. With the 60kwh battery you get a reliable 150 miles even in cold weather. They’re a lot of car for the money and very reliable in our experience. Worth considering.
Thanks Northernremedy.
Does the later leaf have better battery longevity (less degredation) than the earlier versions? As I said we'll be planning on keeping it a while so don't want something 10yrs old that will only do 50miles.
My Leaf is 10 years old. Its the 24kwh version and now its got 90,000 on the clock - its been driven like its stolen for all those miles, been serviced twice and most of the time it has roofbars and a bike rack on it. Its had 500 quid spent on front coils plus droplinks and many many tyres (they eat tyres) and that's absolutely it.
I bought it a year old ex demo with 4,000 miles on it for 11k!
10 years ago heated seats, heated steering wheel, remote heating and cooling, 8 speaker bose stereo with subwoofer were what you got on top line mercs and Audi's
Originally its range was 80 miles. Last week it did 70 miles on a charge.
Best car ever.
EDIT Forgot also wheelbearings x 2 @ 250 a time but that really is it.
@snowrock similar requirement to you, we’ve just upgraded a 15 plate Zoe to a 21 plate Hyundai Kona and are pretty happy with it. It has all the toys, decent range was relatively cheap and is a nice place to be. My e-Tron has barely moved since we got it.
@northernremedy and @davosaurusrex I’ve had an id7 tourer for a couple of months now. It’s absolutely huge in the back and pretty comfortable to be in. Going in our first long (4 hours vs 2 hours) drive today but I expect it will be as pleasant as all the other driving. At the minute I’d choose one again without question.