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If anyone's curious about what it looks like working on an EV motor, here's a great post about someone's bearing replacement. If you don't have a FB account just click 'No' to signing in.
Picked up my Model Y RWD co. car on Thursday.
Last two journeys have been up and down the A2 with varying speeds between 55 and 70 ( probably tending more towards early 60’s) and over 18 miles I’ve been using 185 wh/mile or 5.4 mpkwh. A similar journey in my previous car, Merc A250e would have given 4 mpkwh at most, so I’m impressed.
I think yesterday and Thursday were ideal BEV temperatures though. Not cold and not warm enough for cabin cooling.
I have a 350 mile round trip to Nottingham coming up soon, so will be interesting to see how I get on.
Good start though. I’m impressed with those figures.
I’ll avoid the Skoda app as I suspect it is an extra rather than a requirement…
Beware, coz on BMW you won't get over the air updates for maps and software unless you have the app logged in.
VW group may be different, but I'd be checking.
Hopefully I can get that confirmed on Tuesday...good flag though, thanks.
The last couple of times I’ve done some motorway driving, over to Caldicot and back, the one thing that’s really struck me was that all the EV’s, from Nissan Leaf up to s****y BMW’s, Tesla’s, etc, were sitting at 70 or less, one very sporty looking Beemer was doing about 60, because I cruised past all of them at around 75.
Why would that be? Afraid of running out of juice ten miles shy of the next charging station?
Yes, I can tell EV’s from ICE’s.
Afraid of running out of juice
Not exactly. There is a difference between “afraid of running out of juice” and “slowing down a bit to improve range”.
There is also a “don’t need to prove anything” aspect to this. Having a car that can easily out accelerate almost any ICE car especially in a rolling situation there’s no perceived need to prove anything. Look at the number of fast ICE cars you see bumbling along as an example - plenty of fast Imprezas, Porsches etc also at 60/-65 ish.
It's also possible that they're using adaptive cruise control and haven't noticed that they've slowed down..it's not obvious when you don't hear the engine note drop. Just goes to show how unimportant speed is.
EVs are also nice places to be whilst cruising - a combination of the lack of engine droning away and easy power delivery means that it’s quite a bit more pleasant a place to be - chilling and listening to music, podcasts etc so bimbling along is more appealing. There is little difference in perceived speed to the driver. Also - once you’ve tried the “slowing down to 60/65 ish” approach you realise that (a) it does affect the actual journey time much at all and (b) it’s far less stressful than the perpetual faster / slower / stuck behind slowcoaches in the fast lane / speed off / get stuck behind the next one etc
Etc. after a while it becomes clear that’s it’s a nicer way to travel. See also my previous “nothing to prove” comment - the opposite of the tiny, beat up old cars doing what must be close to their top speed in their fast lane that must be somewhere between noisy and uncomfortable and terrifying
My Audi Q4 eTron was due 31st May. Got a phone call on Wednesday to say it’s now ready and will be delivered on Wednesday 27th March!! I haven’t installed the home changing kit yet.
Ive opted for a tethered Ohme and gone with Octopus Intelligent. Two week install time so I’ll need to charge using public chargers for the first week.
I’m also heading over to Anglesey for Easter, going to be interesting to see what the charging is like there. It’ll be at the in-laws overnight so I presume I can just plug into a 3 pin socket from the garage and charge it overnight. Any idea on rough cost for this? Father in law was an accountant and still counts every penny! He won’t be on any ev related tariff and the Q4 is 82kwh battery. So 10 hours plugged in to a non ev rate socket? Also roughly what % of the battery would 10 hours on a standard 3 pin socket return?
Any idea on rough cost for this? Father in law was an accountant and still counts every penny! He won’t be on any ev related tariff and the Q4 is 82kwh battery. So 10 hours plugged in to a non ev rate socket? Also roughly what % of the battery would 10 hours on a standard 3 pin socket return?
27p per kw on a regular tarrif.
3 pin plug will give you 2.3kw per hour
Does the car come with a 3 pin plug charger?
I think a 3 pin charges at 3kwh? So if his tariff is a pretty standard one at around 30p per kwh then I would estimate about £1 per hour of charging? At 4 miles per kwh thar gives you 120miles top up for your 10hrs
if you use an extension lead make sure it's unwound all the way.
Thanks guys. No, the Audi doesn’t come with the 3pin as standard. I assumed I need to buy one of these?
https://ev-extras.com/products/audi-q4-e-tron-ev-portable-charger-uk-3-pin-plug-5-7-or-10-metres
I’ve also been looking at public charging prices on ZapMap, damn expensive! 75p pKWh seems to be an average. Not that I’ll do a full charge, but that is £60. Exactly the same as I pay for my petrol car now but 150 miles less. I take it most people only use public charging when they really have to!??
I take it most people only use public charging when they really have to!??
.
Yep,avoid public charging wherever possible, I think I've used public charger 3 times in 4000 miles since I got the car
Local hospital has chargers from charge place Scotland and they are 25p so I'll go there and take a half hour walk...
Yes. Public charging is for road trips. If you haven't got home charging then you've got an issue.
"Why would that be? Afraid of running out of juice ten miles shy of the next charging station?
Yes, I can tell EV’s from ICE’s."
When I had the i3, the range wasn't enough for an occasional journey I made. But stopping to charge would make the trip cost £50 rather than £8, without making it any quicker. So hypermiling made sense.
Wierdly, the Polestar seems to have less differential between 60 and 80. But I have discovered that it's much more relaxing in lanes 1 and 2 than avoiding the odd **** in lane 3.
True. We generally drop our average speed on the larger roads when we are doing longer journeys, but the route planning generally takes into account charging places where we can stop overnight. Fast chargers are ok (you get to take a break), but it's very much not as cheap as home charging and not good for the battery.
On a side note, I miss having the Niro when I am out in the van. The van is not loud to drive as such, but the Niro is so much more quiet and the power and torque is so much more friendly, I miss it. It got me thinking about roughly when EV vans will start coming onto the market second or third hand and when/if people will buy them to make day vans with. Will they even bother?
I reckon until the range is massively improved then vans aren't going to be that popular second or third hand in most cases...
I don't see long range vans being economically viable in the near future. The shape and size is inherently inefficient, you'd probably need a 150kwh+ battery to get a half decent range (the hummer has a 250kwh battery to deliver a 300 mile range).
Most companies buying new will just look at the total cost over 3 years, for short range (deliveries etc) an EV will make sense (additional purchasing cost offset by cheaper fueling/maintenance), but with an extra 75kwh of battery costing an extra £10k, I just don't see it working out. You don't want to be paying a driver to be sitting round for a couple of hours waiting for it to charge up either
@DickBarton, I think lots of the hospital charge points are only A/C charging (I think larbert is anyway) so dispite saying it’s a 22kw charger it will only charge at the cars onboard 11kw so you will not get much range for your half hour (and you may have to pay a connection charge too). Fine if you are visiting there and just topping up but not that great to use regularly for a decent charge. If you look on Zapmap for charge place Scotland and just select D/C chargers there are not as many choices. Our local town has a 22kw but it’s only A/C so I will go to the next town that has a 50kw D/C when I need to charge locally.
I’ve really enjoyed our i3 and so have decided to replace it with another one. This time a 42kWh version. Really impressed with it. It seems much more refined than our old car and the efficiency is REALLY impressive. It’s only a 37.6kWh usable capacity and we’re getting between 180 and 200 miles on a charge, so between 4.8 and 5.3m/kWh.
Thanks @andy4d, I'm a 10-minute walk from there so unless there is a lot of demand, it wouldn't be an issue if it was parked for a couple of hours...I'm hoping everyone new to everyone has the same daft questions and it isn't just me being a complete idiot (who didn't do any sensible research before ordering!).
Fast chargers are ok (you get to take a break), but it’s very much not as cheap as home charging and not good for the battery.
Rapid charging isn't a big deal on a modern car. Especially one that cools or heats the battery.
My neighbour has just got a Q4 e-tron as a company car, he has no idea about charging at all even though he has a home charger that probably came with the car. He didn't know you could get cheap overnight electricity despite being with Octopus already. He said he wouldn't want to take his car any further than Bristol (about 45 miles away) despite it having a 300 mile range. I think he's leaving it go to empty before charging, which means he's setting off with low percentages and hence worrying about range.
So, after seeing that Lexus deal earlier in the week (posted earlier ^^^^), I decided to order one (delivery won’t be until September when my current lease deal expires).
It’s my first electric and I know nothing about them so I have questions (granted I have plenty of time to get to grips with it all).
I have a drive so I can charge from home - are all chargers equal or are there some that are better than others?
My current tariff is 21.33p KWh (fixed until next March). Would I be better off paying early exit fees to switch to EDFs electric car tariff (we do around 8k a year).
Is there anything else I need to know?
are all chargers equal or are there some that are better than others?
Well, your basic cheap overnight tariff with Octopus is called Octopus Go and is 9p/kWh; but you can get 7.5p over a longer period overnight AND any time of the day when you schedule it* with, Intelligent Octopus Go. For this you need a car that supports smart charging OR a charger that does. Octopus support Ohme and Zappi. I've got Ohme and I can't see any reason not to get one, especially as Octopus give you a bit of a discount on them.
You can do the maths yourself to decide if it's worth it - the current day rate for Intelligent Octopus Go for me is 29p - but factor in that you may be able to schedule your washing machine/dishwasher/water heater overnight and save more that way.
* What this means is that you tell it how much charge you want by what time, and it will ensure it's ready for you. This works at any time of day or night. The only time you have to pay full whack for your power is if you plug in and select instant charging. On top of that the overnight period 11.30pm - 5.30am is always at the low rate, for your whole house.
Question for the e car people
How often do you plug your car in to charge?
Every day regardless, or do you wait until you drain it to a certain point then plug it in?
We plug ours in when it gets to about 30% charge, and plug in on a Friday night regardless of state of charge just because we don't know what we might need over the weekend.
How often do you plug your car in to charge?
In a normal week, twice.
Tuesday morning for 3-4- hours and Friday afternoon for 3-4 hours. Charge at work almost exclusively and those times suit my schedule. Add about 40% charge each time.
I charge mine daily to 80%. I use about 25% a day and top it up by 20%each night as my cheap tariff is for 2hrs. On my days off when I don't use the car I still charge it to make up the shortfall and make the most of the cheap rates.
Strange tariff with only 2 hours cheap per night?
Every day regardless, or do you wait until you drain it to a certain point then plug it in?
I plug it whenever it's home (unless I know I'm going in and out a lot), which is what Octopus recommend. They want to be able to stick a bit of spare energy in your car whenever it's available - that's why they offer it cheaply. With an Ohme charger, we set a schedule in the charter that says we leave at 7.30am or whatever each weekday. Ohme will also turn on the heating/AC/defrost etc at that time.
@andylc I am in Ireland. I get 35c standard rate, 17c 11pm to 8am with 2am to 4am just 10c so I set it to charge 2am to 4am every night and only charge outside that if needed for a long trip etc.
‘How often do you plug your car in to charge?’
When it gets to around 50% at home, and on IO it starts sometime in the evening with a ‘100% ready by 0700’ command in the Octopus App.
It 6 months into a 4 yr leave so I’m not expecting any issues charging to 100% in the time I have the car. It is used daily, generally short miles. Today it’s done around 70 miles and good to see it back up at 4m/kWh now the weather is warmer. (BMW i4 40)
Full EV car get plugged in when it gets to about 30% or so. 4 hours cheap overnight at 7 kW gets it back up to c70/75%. This is weekly or so. If long journey then we just charge to 100%
New PHEV van - every other night - empty to full at 3.5kW charging takes 3.5 hours give or take. Get about 30 to 35 miles from a full charge if I'm careful. Pretty much enough for two days - mostly running on full electric so far, but it does need to run the petrol engine periodically so I'm not too zealous
Question for Tesla drivers - do they have blended regen and friction brakes, or is the pedal always friction?
Always friction.
That really sounds like a terrible design choice.
Works perfectly. The regen braking is strong and means you hardly ever need to actually use the brake pedals at all. If you want to stop quicker then just use the pedal for additional braking. No need for blending, most of the time it’s one pedal driving.
That really sounds like a terrible design choice
Seems like a good choice to me*
-simpler braking system, less to go wrong
-cheaper to build the cars.
-more consistent pedal feel. I hate the pedal feel of blended braking & when it transitions from regen to friction in the cars I have driven.
-no less efficient than blended braking, as long as the user understands they should not need to use the brake pedal much.
*I'm not a tesla owner.
*as long as you can reduce the regen on throttle pedal lift off in some menu somewhere for when you want to 'press on' for better control/balance of the car.
as long as the user understands
Fine for techie types. Most drivers don't care about any of that stuff and just want the car to work like they expect.
I hate the pedal feel of blended braking & when it transitions from regen to friction in the cars I have driven.
Out of three cars I've driven with regenerative braking you couldn't tell the difference so it's clearly possible. Maybe Tesla need to go and ask Hyundai or Nissan to license some of their IP.
The issue i've had with tesla's one pedal driving is when it can't regen, it gives you a bit of a surprise by not slowing down when you lift off the gas!
To my mind the car should always act the same regardless of whether the battery is cold/too full etc.
It still regens when in this mode, just doesn’t slow down quite as much, the difference is noticeable but not major. Still slows the car down more than our Renault Zoe or my Dad’s Kia even when they’re in high regen mode.
Plus fairly predictable as only really happens if you go down a pretty long downhill stretch when you’re already close to your maximum chosen charge level.
To my mind the car should always act the same regardless of whether the battery is cold/too full etc.
Hyundai nailed that too apparently.
BMW have this sorted. My i4 is impossible to tell the difference between regen and friction brakes - if you didn’t know regen was a thing you would just think it’s normal brakes. plus you can change it between almost no regen through to full one pedal driving or my favourite, adaptive regen. Adaptive is good enough that it acts as a kind of mild adaptive cruise control too.
Once you’ve got your preference set up, you can swap between it and one pedal driving with one flick of the drive selector switch / I use adaptive 90% of the time but switch to one pedal for city centre stop start driving on when in stop start traffic jams on the motorway.