The Electric Car Thread

9 pages and no mention of the tesla cybertruck?

9 pages and no mention of the tesla cybertruck?

Here you go then

9 pages and no mention of the tesla cybertruck?

Probably because it won’t ever come to Europe.

For all the towists out there the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 will tow 1600kg and it also comes with 13 amp plugs so you can plug in your hair curlers and espresso machines

https://insideevs.com/news/490113/hyundai-ioniq-5-tows-charges-stuff/

9 pages and no mention of the tesla cybertruck?

It was mentioned we all laughed and moved on.

Easy to laugh but they will sell a lot of Cybertrucks in the US. Largest selling vee-hickle in the US is?? So you compete in that space. Especially at the predicted price.

It’s also interesting as it shows where car manufacture is going? Large stamped body parts… and very large castings for the chassis. Saves you a lot of cash, and time, efficiency and allows Tesla to undercut other manufacturers. The Cybertruck is going to be a guinea pig/showcase for that, unless it appears on Model 2 first

Snort

I like that car though. £45k so still pricey but closer – you’d probably pay £35k for something like that in diesel, wouldn’t you? And the plugs would be great, especially for normal car camping. And a 4WD option too.

I wonder if towing would prematurely age your batteries in a significant way?

Bloody marvelous for charging eMTBs I reckon

I looked at the MG5 as it seemed like one of the few affordable EV estates. I especially liked this dumbfuckery :

MG5 EV is not permitted for use with roof bars. The rails fitted to MG5 EV Exclusive models are for decorative purposes only. Roof bars should not be fitted to this vehicle.

Apparently the EU version will be rated  for Towing and roof loads. See my post on previous page.

One can only imagine they’ll bring the same version to the UK

Apparently the EU version will be rated  for Towing and roof loads. See my post on previous page.

One can only imagine they’ll bring the same version to the UK

Oops, sorry, didn’t spot that.

Just noticed on the spec sheet that the EU version of the MG5 will come with MG Pilot and a 2.5kw external power supply.  Well worth waiting for that version to be available in the UK I’d reckon.

The only question left is: can you get three child seats in the back?  Hmm….

https://news.mgmotor.eu/press/mg-unveils-new-mg5-electric-worlds-first-all-electric-station-wagon/

Anyone got a Zoe. How’s it for tall (6 3 = me) and small (5 1 = Mrs OD) people. The seat isn’t height adjustable so I’m worried it would be a compromise that wouldn’t work for either of us

Obvs I’ll get a test drive before we buy but would be interested in any long term real world experiences

Zoe roofline is quite tall (higher than some SUV-crossover things) so bigger people are usually fine. It’s a bigger car than it can look in photos.

Seat is high though (battery pack underneath). Whenever I get in one I want to adjust the seat down but can’t.

Zoe is fine for small people.
I am 5’2″ on a good day and have been happily driving one for two years.
Can’t help with suitability for tall folk unfortunately.

Thanks – that’s reassuring- we’ll see if we can get a test drive

Have my first PHEV on order- very excited!

It can charge with a 3-pin or a tiny bit quicker with a 3.6 or 7kW. I’m happy sticking with 3-pin initially but long term will invest in a dedicated charger

Is there a ‘best’ charger? I figure I may as well go for 7kW non-tethered to future proof it, and I’d like to be able to control the time the charger turns on-off to align with whatever electric tariff I’m on.

Friend has a Rolec, which looks a bit cheap. Different friend has a PodPoint which looks pretty good

Go tethered unless you think you’ll want to charge an early Leaf or Outlander, or if you might want a long lead for your driveway arrangement.

“Best” is probably Andersen (particularly if you care about how it looks) and Zappi.

I have a tethered Pod Point unit. Been using it for a month with no problems so far. And in the last week they’ve introduced scheduled charging.

It ain’t pretty though. Mine is round the side of the house so isn’t easy to see.

EDIT: if you’re planning on using a 3 pin plug/socket it would be worth having your electrics checked out by a qualified electrician as there is a potential problem with wiring overheating due to the load.

I’m 6’2″ ish and absolutely fine in our Zoe. It’s surprisingly spacious in the passenger compartment.

Dunno about the CyberTruck, this thing is being developed in Germany, and is modular, so can be had in a variety of different formats; it also shows one neat trick that the Unimog can do – it’s ‘fly-by-wire’ so the steering wheel and instrument pod can be moved from one side to the other. I’d love the serious off-road version! It’s pretty clear where the idea came from styling-wise…

https://www.hotcars.com/the-ebussy-modular-ev-transforms-10-different-vehicles/

Is there a ‘best’ charger? I figure I may as well go for 7kW non-tethered to future proof it, and I’d like to be able to control the time the charger turns on-off to align with whatever electric tariff I’m on.

Type 2 will be the future for a very long time for domestic charging so you may as well go tethered for less faffage

Most modern EV can be programmed to charge at a certain time of the day and up to a set state of charge so you don’t need a smart charger. Just plug the car in and it will charge itself during your cheap tariff time.

Personally I went for a Pod Point simply because that’s what Kia/Hyundai recommend but any 7kw fast charger will do the job however make sure you get one that’s wifi enabled that can tell you how much juice you’ve used via an app.

It’s been a week since my VW ID3 Max was delivered. So far so great. I have a Myenergi Zappi installed and so far most of my charging has been from solar or from Lidl (free in Austria.) The car is so easy to drive and the internal space is impressive.

To get the car quickly I went with the Max version even though I wasn’t too worried about the toys. However I am enjoying the head up display and my kid loves the glass roof. Also travel assist is really nice when on major roads. So far the previously reported software issues have not surfaced, apart from the car taking a few days before it found 4G. Seems like this version of the software is much more stable.

What efficiency are you all getting?

Did my first long trip yesterday, from Cardiff to Eton in the Ioniq. Got 4.7m/kWh on the way down and 4.1 on the way up. That was through some pretty heavy rain at times though and a bit of a crosswind from the south.

Found a charging point near the event which worked a treat. On the way home, due to the lower efficiency (it was down to 3.8 at one point) I thought I’d have to stop and top up. But then I realised that if I simply slowed down a bit I would probably make it and it would cost me less time (and money) than stopping. I got home with 9% and 18 miles on the display.

What irritated me hugely though was that the remaining distance seems to be the charge left multiplied by the long term average or even the official range, which is stupid because the remaining range doesn’t increase when you slow down, it just goes down more slowly. FFS that is very useless. Unless it somehow learns and improves with time.

Also the EV charging point search feature on the built-in Satnav seems completely unaware of the type of charger. It listed a Tesla supercharger as the nearest at one point. Worse than useless.

The efficiency of the ioniq is astonishing. Coming from our old Zoe with a slightly smaller battery it is mad that the ioniq will go quite a bit further, especially at high speeds. We got 5.1mpkwh from Pembrokeshire to Shropshire a few weekends ago; the Zoe would have done that at about 4mpkwh and require a short stop to charge.

The outward journey on the same route was 4.1mpkwh; it was colder and an awful lot wetter then. We did stop for a ten minute charge; the Zoe would have needed a lot longer.

The efficiency of the ioniq is astonishing.

They say that, but mine wasn’t superb. However a) it is new and b) it was filthy weather. Hoping it’ll loosen up a bit and the battery will improve.

We got 5.1mpkwh from Pembrokeshire to Shropshire a few weekends ago

Mostly A roads presumably? Was that cross-country or M4?

The 50kW charger seems to be an annoyance for some – even older Ioniqs with the smaller. battery charge quicker.

Molgrips the efficiency you got is absolutely fine. Anything between 4 and 5 miles per kWh is on the high side for EVs. Even the latest Hyundais and Teslas which are known for their high efficiency aren’t getting any better which makes me think 4-5 miles per kWh is about the best you can get from an electric drivetrain without extreme lightweighting and aero.

You are right about the chargepoint function in Hyundai satnav being useless as the Kona I used to have was useless too and the e-Niro’s isn’t any better.

@uponthedowns how did you find the boot on the Kona? Could you get a bike in there without too much hassle? There are some good deals around on them and I might be able to justify the move to an EV.

About to order an Enyaq Sportline as next company car. Was going to get an ID4 Max but decided it wasn’t worth £600 a year net upgrade cost to borrow a few extra toys during the lease. Would have liked the pano roof though, especially as they have given the Sportline a black headlining to go with the black interior, has an air of death about it

My main concern is Race Blue or Arctic Silver? First World problems eh.

how did you find the boot on the Kona? Could you get a bike in there without too much hassle? There are some good deals around on them and I might be able to justify the move to an EV.

I never tried to fit a bike in it but it does have a small boot (only 374 litres) which is one of the reasons we’ve changed to a Kia e-Niro which has a 451 litre boot and makes packing when you don’t want to flatten the back seats much easier plus Mrs uponthedowns was complaining she was having to use the back seats for the weekly shop. Our large dog is thanking us for the extra space. The Kona is a good car but the e-Niro is better in just about every way.

Our old Zoé 40 averaged 12kWh/100km. The new Zoé 50 around 12.5kWh/100km (about 5 miles per kWh). No motorways on our common jouneys and traffic/speed limits means an average speed of 40 something kmh most times I look. New Zoé has an irritating habit of losing it’s trip memory so I don’t get a long term smoothed average.

They say that, but mine wasn’t superb. However a) it is new and b) it was filthy weather.

Weather plays a large part; to get around 4mpkwh in awful weather was still far beyond our Zoe, which would normally do about 3.5 at motorway speeds in decent weather.

Our route to South Wales was mostly A road; M54/A5 to Shrewsbury then Welshpool, Llandrindod Wells, Carmarthen then a bit further. Some of it very hilly, which hit the consumption, but a lot of it was perfect for getting decent efficiency.

how did you find the boot on the Kona?

Tried one yesterday and took a tape measure. With the seat set up for me, 5’10, you had about 1.3m from the inside of the boot to the back of the driver’s seat. The narrow point is 1m across. It’s basically the same size as our 11 reg fiesta in that regard, although the load area is a slightly flatter shape.

The Niro is maybe 30cm longer and 10cm wider, much more forgiving on that narrow point and a better shape.

Soul is somewhere in between

Cool, sounds like I should be able to get a bike in with both wheels off, Niro might be just front out.

My take was the kona would take a bike, but it’s not a car I would choose if I was doing it regularly. In fact it’s put us off it.

Niro has more of a mini-estate feel to the back space. I really like it, just not sure we can justify the cost

I’ve got a race van for most of the biking, this is a work/local run around/one person biking car. The Niro is the most practical but it’s about £80/month more on the lease deals.

I had my road bike and tri kit in the back of the Ioniq, bags of room with the seat down. I think you’d easily get a modern MTB in there with the wheels off.

2.9m/KWH is the best I’ve had so far, not really surprising a an e-tron worse than the Ionq as it dwarfs. That’s an impressive efficiency though, the car will learn your driving style based on recent journeys so will become more accurate or at least most do.

Two 27.5 Mtbs and camping gear go in the Zoé wheels out and rear seat back out, so you’ll have no trouble with the Ioniq, Molgrips.

Aye, we’re a two MTBer household. The Kona would probably do otherwise. That second bike really makes you need more space.

The ioniq looked a fair bit better for space but not sure about the range for us. It’s on the list though. Molgrips, might ask you some more questions in future if you don’t mind!