We are reviewing the car situation at home, the trusty passat estate is getting old and the electric calipers are due to fail at any point.
So the mrs want to down size (understandable as only does local short trips now) so that means i have to get the family estate.
Have been looking at the volvo v60 twin engine, decent desiel engine for towing the caravan but with electric mode with a range of 30 miles that should just cover my commute to work.

Anyone with experience of these? I dont need a big desiel engined car to trundle 12 miles to work but dont want to give up the caravan either.

Two thoughts, can it actually run on the electric motor? My boss had a similar audi and once it had done its party trick of silently gliding out of the car park it reverted to being a hybrid, albeit a very rapid one. In theory you could do a journey on the electric motor but you had to drive like a saint (under 50mph and no sudden acceleration).

Secondly, running a small battery from full to flat will kill it. Same reason Leaf’s range diminishes after a few years and Teslas are still at 80+% after half a million miles, the big tesla battery is barely fluctuating even on a long commute.

He reckoned in reality the battery indicator never went above 80% or below 40% unless he was sat “idleing” in the center of London.

Probably a nice car, but wont quite work as youre expecting.

but you had to drive like a saint normal person on an urban commute (under 50mph and no sudden acceleration).

Teslas are still at 80+% after half a million miles

How many Teslas have actually done half a million miles?

Are you looking at the T8? If so, I think that’s a turbo and supercharged 2.0 petrol with hybrid gubbins added. We’ve looked at this but it seems to struggle to hit 30mpg once the battery is depleted. If you can get a D60 with the D or B5 engine, probably worth a look, the v90 goes very well with the D5 powerplant and the new B5 should be more efficient.

I think the B5 is only available in the SUVs at the moment as they need the extra room under the floor for the electrical gubbins that the estates and saloons don’t have.

How many Teslas have actually done half a million miles?

Just googled it, “several” (quote from the first hit).

I’ll concede the actual numbers quoted in the first article on google is ~90% after 155,000 miles (and 77% after 330,000)s o probably more like 70%, if you’ll concede that your point has marginal relevance to the point I was making (that an electric car with a 30 mile range attempting to do 24 miles a day won’t do it for very long).

but you had to drive like a normal person on an urban commute (under 50mph and no sudden acceleration).

Only if there were no small hill or speed bumps.

As a fast car that would still do ~50mpg and near zero emissions around town it was a neat bit of engineering. But you couldn’t drive it as an electric car (it won’t really let you and you wouldn’t want to for the sake of the battery).

90% after 155,000 miles (and 77% after 330,000)s o probably more like 70%

If “several” Tesla’s have actually done 500 000 miles, what was the remaining battery capacity at that point? That would be much more useful than trying to extrapolate a non-linear trend based on cars that have done much lower mileage.

But you couldn’t drive it as an electric car (it won’t really let you and you wouldn’t want to for the sake of the battery).

The Volvo is advertised as having a Pure mode that lets you use it as a pure EV for short commutes. Either the Audi didn’t have this or your mate just couldn’t help but drive like a knobber. Just cause Audis are dickmobiles doesn’t mean other cars are too.

and the electric calipers are due to fail at any point

You do know they are under £25 each side for a new motor? Plus a half hour of labour.

If “several” Tesla’s have actually done 500 000 miles

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/tesla-electric-cars-surpass-300000-miles-in-shuttle-service/

– found this article i remember from the past.

of 7 – 6 teslas had had new battery packs under warrenty by 300000 miles. – it doesnt say when in the 300000 …. its impressive if its 250000 – less so if its 150000.

6 teslas had had new battery packs under warrenty by 300000 miles

So are there any documented cases of a Tesla battery surviving to half a million miles, or is that just fanboi fantasy stuff?

https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-record-mileage-900000-kilometers

even this ones on its second battery pack.

there was a finnish one on a half million on its original battery – noted by the exclaimation in the article that it was so.

So it’s not realistic to expect a Tesla to have 70% battery capacity at 500 000 miles?

hat would be much more useful than trying to extrapolate a non-linear trend

Which is it, it’s not Schrodingers battery. You can’s simultaneously argue that EV batteries are perfect yet dead.

Either:
Extrapolate from the evidence that bigger EV batteries degrade a lot slower than smaller ones (Tesla Vs Leaf).

Or:
Assume that volvo have built a completely revolutionary battery that wont degrade despite the discharge rate being about 10x higher (as it’s ~1/10th of the capacity) and being cycled >80% of it’s capacity 5 days a week.

The Audi will drive in electric mode, so will an i3, so probably will this Volvo. Right up until they reach the real world. Just because the Sweeds give out the nobel prize for physics, doesn’t mean they can bend its laws.

Audis are dickmobiles

Citation needed.

Starting to wonder if you drive an Audi…………

Citation needed.

Citation provided

So it’s not realistic to expect a Tesla to have 70% battery capacity at 500 000 miles?

Does it matter? Most people will do 10k a year then get a new car on PCP within 3 years to keep up with the neighbours.

It would take me 41 years to do 500,000 miles!

Most people will do 10k a year then get a new car on PCP within 3 years

Exactly, which means a plug-in hybrid with 30 mile range should be fine for daily commuting. So why are Tesla fanbois quoting made-up numbers about how Tesla batteries can run for 500 000 miles?

sounds perfect.

the world needs more disposable cars.

From what I read you can drive in pure ev mode below 50mph. If half a journey, or better one way could be just in ev mode it would help over a week. Main issue for my journey is slow crawling ques at roundabouts.

You do know they are under £25 each side for a new motor? Plus a half hour of labour.

Where’s that then? Mrs quoted £500, software to reset the calipers at home is over £100.

Edit: found them for £40 each. Software is ross-tech e brake software.

Daft Passat question – what electric callipers are these?

Handbrake?

Prob e-hand brake?

DrP

Ah – right.

you know, a brake for your e-hand… :/

DrP

(i think, actually, handbrake is one word!)

software to reset the calipers at home is over £100.

Sauce?
My independent garage has the electronic tool as most cars are electric parking brake now.
I guess I’m suggesting that if the Passat is still running, why change for fear of a sub £300 bill…?
That said, I get why sometime a car gets more hassle than it is worth.

Yes, caliper motors can be had for cheap and they work. £500 from VW, £30 from eBay. I have the software to do it but so should most garages and it really is an easy job. Should be an hour max. You could always buy the part yourself and bring it. I’m sure we can advise on the correct part.

Assume that volvo have built a completely revolutionary battery that wont degrade despite the discharge rate being about 10x higher

Not necessarily. Teslas doing 500k miles might have done lot of motorway, and 70mph will draw a lot more current than 35mph. I bet the Volvo doesn’t have ludicrous mode either.

Sure, higher current drain/batter capacity shortens life but I don’t think it’s linear.

If the shortish commute (with a diesel) worries you, what about a smaller petrol engine model ?
A (smallish) modern petrol engine will happily tow a caravan.
Faced with the same situation, lots of short local runs, we went with a 1.4 petrol Tiguan as a tow car. Happy to say it does as good a job as the diesel model. Economy is….ok, averages about 34-36 around town.
As much as I’d like an EV, the £15k+ price difference buys a heck of a lot of fuel….

How many Teslas have actually done half a million miles?

I read about one that had done getting on for that, and was exhibiting a charging issue so was checked out by Tesla. The problem was a software fault, which was sorted, but Tesla replaced the battery pack anyway.
The thing is, those packs will be recycled into home storage packs and other storage formats, the high-mileage Teslas like the one I read about are rental cars shuttling between LA and San Francisco, so long, steady runs, exactly like high-mileage, low stress IC engined cars.

A (smallish) modern petrol engine will happily tow a caravan.

Of course it will, but not in a small car, unless it’s one of those little folding ‘vans, the weight of the ‘van and the kerb weight of the car have to correspond, for fairly obvious reasons.

the high-mileage Teslas like the one I read about are rental cars shuttling between LA and San Francisco

It would be alot more relevent to the conversation if you brought the whole story though.

Those shuttles 6 of the 7 have had replacement batteries. The 7th was written off by a drunk.

Infact I might even have linked to those cars ab9ve and within there was a break down of other costs required to keep them on the road to 300k each. It wasn’t cheap and they them selves admitted that as normal shuttles got rid of their ic engines cars at 100k there was no comparison with IC