Re the no stalks thing, didn’t mind that on the new 3

I hated them – why are they on the same side? And the lack of a hatch is a big downside to the I4 and Polestar, I’m not sure I’d get my bike in there unless it was dismantled.

Some folk love the Tesla vibe, I preferred the offerings from car people – Audi, BMW and Polestar/Volvo all feel like cars.

The tesla is an appliance.

You can fit a bike in without any trouble if you take the front wheel off. Mountain bike is probably easier because you can drop the seat post.

Bit of planning ahead needed if you fill the boot and then realise that you left something importing in the cavernous hole under the boot floor. The moral of the story is to store things like the charging cables in the froot.

On the driver assist stuff, I’m used to having nothing more than cruise and reversing sensors, so not something I’ve any real experience of.

Tesla have removed ultrasonic parking sensors now, it’s done purely by vision. Supposedly it’s as good as ultrasonics, but given the vision-based systems in mine had trouble seeing rain and activating the windscreen wipers, or saw shadows on the motorway and thought “LORRY” and panic braked on adaptive cruise, I’d be a tad reluctant to trust it.

Well, I am about 3 weeks with my first EV and it’s funny how your mindset changes.I have been charging the car at home and been making the most of my cheap tariff and managing to keep the car topped up from my daily driving for around €1.50 a night. Was popping toTescos this afternoon for a few bits so thought I would have a go at using a public charger for the first time. It wasn’t a long charge as I just wanted  to have a go and only got 16km added in the time I was shopping but I felt cheated at the €1.50 cost as this gets me 80km at home 🤣. Charging even gets you free parking so I avoided the €1 parking fee but still felt ripped off🤣. I have a work trip next week and it’s about 400km trip and the hotel has public Tesla chargers so will be able to top up quickly/easily…..but at about €25for the pleasure! Previously I would think nothing of sticking €50-€80 in diesel into my car, but now I feel ripped off if I need to pay anything over my €1.50 nightly charge. Is it just me who has become a tightwad?

Don’t get too hung up on the Supercharger network either

Are there still huge queues at those as they are cheaper and people will wait for hours to save a few quid?

Re not having mobile signal – when this happened to us (Amroth in Pembrokeshire) I swore a bit then discovered the charger had a WiFi hotspot. So it’s worth checking.  Presumably the charger needs its own internet connection so I presume they are offering that to you for the purpose of using it.

“ Is it just me who has become a tightwad?”

Nope. Same here. When using rapids I have to remind myself that’s it’s OK as it’s only a small part of the overall usage.

Are there still huge queues at those as they are cheaper and people will wait for hours to save a few quid?

I’ve not had that kind of experience since getting our first Tesla in 2018. The closest was a ~10 minute wait at peak time somewhere in Scotland on the way down south from Dundee back in 2021.

Maybe charging is a lot more popular these days? Great! Time to catch up on Netflix.

I’ve not got the luxury of a home charger, so relying on the public stuff – or the work chargers (which give me 4 hours free – which is rather nice – however, the car park is rammed so I can’t rely on it unless I visit in the evening – which I’m doing just now as I’ve a bit of work to do and may as well make use of the free charge!).

My very local charger is 45p per kW and it does 7.5Kw or 22Kw charges, so I’m happily using that and it seems to be about £19 to fully charge from about 31%. The local one to my partner is 69p – but the same network as the one next to me and I stupidly assumed it was the same price, so got stung for £29 to charge there.

I’m really liking the car – it is far too big for me, a decent size for 4 people to use and the range is rather poor – 224 miles – and I can watch that drop down as I drive around (if I could have afforded the larger capacity to get the 350-ish mile range, then I would have gone with that, but I couldn’t). I’m sure this thinking will change over next 4-8 weeks as I get used to how to run this and also find out how much this is costing me. It is still very new so I’m hoping I’m driving around more as it is a novelty.

I’ve also noticed that since this, I seem to be driving about 5mph below the speed limit in town (or 18mpg in a 20mph) and about 50-55mph on NSL roads – obviously trying to eek out as much distance as I can – getting about 3.5kW/mile, which I think is ok and I’m hoping that improves as it gets warmer.

Only had it a week and I’m converted to the idea of not needing fossil fuel to drive…I suspect in another 4-5 weeks I’ll get a shock when I find out how much I’ve actually spent on charging, but I’ll then (hopefully) adapt to that as well.

What do you have the heating set to? Slow queueing traffic on a 10 minute trip with the heating on 22C demolished the range in my Leaf, despite having a heat pump.  17C had far less impact and is still quite comfortable with a jumper on.

@molgrips – heated seats if you have them. They warm you, not the air volume of the car. Jumpers also good.

“Is it just me who has become a tightwad?”

The whole point is you’ve paid a big whack extra (compared to ICE) in order to have a battery that can use cheap energy. I certainly resent using a public charger where I’m paying more per mile (for a smallish EV) than my diesel van used to cost.

My car has been at 17 or maybe 17.5 – whatever the lowest setting is – all winter. It’s fine with a hot seat and steering wheel. The seat is too hot, actually – I wish there was a lower setting.

My clothing habits have changed since driving an EV, they’re similar to when I had an open top car. I dress for the weather outside and take nothing off when I get in the car. I then use the heater on the lowest setting that stops the screen misting/freezing.

I’ve just checked out the charge networks for a road trip this Summer. I checked out some of the UK chargers that were available rather than in use and got 79p to £1.40. Ouch.

Tesla have removed ultrasonic parking sensors now, it’s done purely by vision. Supposedly it’s as good as ultrasonics, but given the vision-based systems in mine had trouble seeing rain and activating the windscreen wipers, or saw shadows on the motorway and thought “LORRY” and panic braked on adaptive cruise, I’d be a tad reluctant to trust it.

Its not bad since they improved it from the initial embarassingly bad version but its not as good as the 360 degree camera view in the likes of a Nissan Leaf. Personally I use a combo of mirrors and rear view camera when parking my Model Y with the occasional glance at the park assist graphics.

Are there still huge queues at those as they are cheaper and people will wait for hours to save a few quid?

Have had to queue for a Supercharger twice in over a year of driving a Tesla all over the UK. Longest was 5 mins at Tebay Services on an August bank holiday Sunday at lunch time when everyone was piling in for their roast lunches.

My clothing habits have changed since driving an EV, they’re similar to when I had an open top car. I dress for the weather outside and take nothing off when I get in the car. I then use the heater on the lowest setting that stops the screen misting/freezing.

Those days are long over. Get yourself a decent EV and lose the hair shirt.

Just done a road trip up from Cheshire to Aberdeenshire in our 130,000 mile Model S. Was going to use the diesel estate but it sprung some Ad Blue failure and both mechanics I spoke to said “don’t think I’d take the risk if I were you”

Fully charged it gives a range of around 210 mile and it was 294 to destination. Travel up Good Friday. 3 stops with 10-15 minute waits at Charnock Richard and Abingdon to get on a charger. Empty at Dundee despite it being open to non Tesla. (Wanted more in the battery as not got a charger at my sisters)

Exacerbated by Gretna being closed and not being able to use the newer V3 superchargers as ours doesn’t have the CCS combo adaptor.

Biggest issue was the lack of a home charger staying with my sister. Able to plug in on the 3 pin plug and add 6 miles an hour!

Back on Easter Monday. Had a decent charge before leaving by visiting a slow cheap charger at nearby hotel so topped top at Dundee and then stopped at Abingdon for a long charge and late lunch before getting home with 9 miles left.

Overall on a regular trip I reckon it added about 1 hour 20 to the time we would normally have taken.  Ok its an older model and charges slower, can’t use the fastest chargers and did have a couple of waits on 1 of the busiest days for travelling but otherwise pretty smooth.

For our day to day needs it’s perfect and usually have other options for long drives but shows its possible to do.

Now have to decide if we do update to the CCS adaptor for £211 as the new superchargers are CCS only!

Those days are still here. There aren’t many cars that do better than the Zoé on Miles/kWh and the vast majority of charge points In France haven’t got any more powerful since I bought it. You still spend 10% less time charging on a long run without the heater on.

Those days are still here.

Well maybe in France. My vehicle doesn’t expend 10% of its power maintaining cabin temp but even if it did since I spend about 30 mins charging on a long run I’d be happy to spend 3 mins more on the charger so i don’t have to wear a coat and hat.

I don’t think we have the same idea of a long run. 🙂 A long run with 22kW A/C and 50kW DC chargers is hours of charging per day whatever the car. Anyone with e-tron levels of leccy consumption should take a good book or a musical instrument to play. I take a guitar even with the Zoé. Minimal heater and 96kmh max gets the most km per hour on the road.

A car needs 2-3kW to maintain the cabin at 22°C above ambient so with a heat pump with a COP of 2.5 at 0°C that’s 1kW. The Zoé is often around 10kW on roads other than autoroutes. Ski jacket or down jacket in Winter. 🙂

@molgrips, temp is set to 16.5c…

A car needs 2-3kW to maintain the cabin at 22°C above ambient

I’m sceptical it’s that much.  Admittedly mine isn’t set to 22C above ambient, but I’ve seen 18 or so, and the consumption of the heat pump on the Leaf when everything’s already warmed up was zero with a spike up to 500W or so every 5 ish seconds.  I suspect the blower fan used more than the heater overall.  However, that’s once everything was warmed up.  Whilst getting up to temperature it would chew 2.5kW of electrical power easily, hence my comment about slow queueing traffic and high heat on cold mornings.

Just had my first ‘full’ bill from IO go since switching/smart charger etc…

In a month we used (at the cheap rate) 700kWh, which cost just over 50 quid….

The average unit cost for the house was 13.8p/kWh…. (Standard rate is about 31p/kWh)

That’s bonkers and it honestly feels like I’m being paid to drive the car (as charging it switched the whole house over to cheap rates..)..

DrP

Wisely Automotive did a comparison on heat pump vs no heat pump for the I3 and found it made not a jot of difference on power consumption for journeys under an hour.  2.5kW is what the i3 draws to run the heater, but I don’t know what it drops to once that’s up to temperature, but my guess is that if you’re still drawing cold air from outside and the car itself is cold, it’ll still be quite high.

Just dropped the ICE into the garage for its annual service, that’s going to cost me £300.  The difference between that and the EV’s next service pays for a year of fuel for the EV.

Nice Dr P. Was hoping for similar experience regarding lower bills…..but I’m struggling to get everything working together!
My Ohme Home Pro Charger has an app, electricity provider is intelligent octopus and has an app, my Audi has an app.
None of the apps are set to charge as soon as the car is plugged in…but it does. Octopus Energy is set to be ready for 0630. The My Audi app I think is the problem….this I set a timer in to say 80% by 0600. Ohme I have similar settings. I have read the instructions and know I should just be using ohme, but I don’t know how to disaccioate the My Audi app from my charger/car (I don’t really want to disaccoiate it from the car). I really don’t want to delete the My Audi account.
GOt home last night and plugged the car in, instantly started charging and at 67p pkwh. Paused this and tried to work out what was going on. I can’t be waiting up until Midnight to start my charging every evening!

Hmm…

I’m kinda lucky in the sense that neither my polestar or leaf ‘speak’ to the charger… So all timing etc is done via the ohme=IO, rather than the car.

(This means the ohme thinks the car is ALWAYS at 0% when you plug it in, which then makes it panic it won’t meet your charge time, and starts charging earlier at the lower rate).

I would, erm, completely remove any charge timers from the car..

There’s a good walkthrough on the IO site in how to link..

Basically, you don’t have any set timers, and once ohme is linked with IO, it’ll smart charge (or not) depending on the grid capacity.

Basically, I just always plug the car in, but it’s not always charging…

DrP

Nice Dr P. Was hoping for similar experience regarding lower bills…..but I’m struggling to get everything working together!

Just connect the ohme pro to intelligent octopus and don’t bother trying to integrate the car to the charger, or the car to io.

Then set up a daily schedule on the ohme charger  for it to add 100% by whatever time in the morning you normally head out.

I’m seeing similar numbers to drp for io, around 13.5p per kwh

Re heater usage, the merc uses 7kw for heating when cold, it has 2 x ptc heaters and one heat pump.

Yeah I’ve removed all timers from all my apps….but the My Audi app just creates one. Renove it again and it comes back. I am sending the update to the car from the app to say no timer and it comes back sucessful. But 10 minutes later and the car is charging again at peak rate.
Looking at the My Audi app now, there is the weird timer showing (always one week away). But I don’t think the app is set to use it, I can select Start Timer Mode and it would then use the timer that has been automatically created by the app.
The Ohme app is set to Avoid Peak Charging (no timers are set). IO is currently saying a charging plan will be made shortly after I plug in, which I would expect.
I think this is the correct settings and will try it again tonight. I still think it will just automatically start charging again though.

Once I get through the quirks I’m sure I’ll really enjoy the car. I’m also struggling with the blowers, I set the temperature to 22 degress (was cold and wet this morning)…they just don’t let much warm air come through the blowers. Its a mere trickle. Again I think this is me not knowing the correct settings to use.

Just to add, I have my Ohme set to Intelligent Octopus Flux Import (No idea what the Flux Import is but that was the only option I had)
In my Ohme app this shows at 22.0p/kwh off-peak and 29.60 p/kwh peak. Octopus energy app was showing my Intelligent Octopus tariff as 7.5 p/kwh off peak and 28.12 p/kwh peak.

I do think its the My Audi app that is taking control, going to keep playing with it tonight, I may even delete my account from the My Audi App.

The Ohme app is set to Avoid Peak Charging

Don’t select that – as per instructions.

Just to add, I have my Ohme set to Intelligent Octopus Flux Import (No idea what the Flux Import is but that was the only option I had)

That’s wrong.

But 10 minutes later and the car is charging again at peak rate.

With Intelligent Octopus Go, all the energy going to your car is charged at low rate, regardless of what time of day it is.  It will schedule cheap power whenever there is a surplus and your car needs it – that’s the ‘intelligent’ part.  Additionally, your whole house is guaranteed to be at the low rate during the off-peak period regardless, even if your car isn’t charging.

***heated seats if you have them. They warm you, not the air volume of the car.***

The car I’m getting later this year (Lexus Rz) has infrared heaters mounted below the steering column and in a similar position the front passenger seat area so they heat the person rather than the car.

@w00dster

The Facebook group “Ohme integration with Intelligent Octopus Go” is a very useful resource. If there’s an issue with the Audi app I’m sure they will have come across it. There’s a setup guide somewhere in that group which might even fix the issue if you go through it. As molgrips says above you basically have to turn off all the stuff that you think sounds correct in the Ohme app eg. “avoid charging at peak times” and let Octopus have complete control.

The Facebook group “Ohme integration with Intelligent Octopus Go” is a very useful resource.

This. It’s a life-saver. But be sure to read the pinned posts before you ask a question 🙂

@w00dster

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/AhtyHBo26xHZPTov/

@davy90

“anyone moved from Tesla to another EV brand? Be interested in thoughts.,”

Yes, and back again
A 2019 Model 3 SR for 2+ yrs, to VW ID3 for 2+ yrs, back to a Model 3 SR

ID3
+Pos. ID3 was a hatch back, spacious inside and the matrix headlights were awesome
-Neg. ID3 infotainment system drove me mad to the point where I didn’t want another, average performance, ok to drive but nothing special, lane keep was annoying, the single software update it had in the 2 years involved VW keeping the car for 3 days.

Model 3
+Pos. M3 infotainment is awesome, speaker system is great, fantastic performance, nice to drive, you can alter lots of stuff, I like the simple layout in the cab, regular over the air updates, my tesla service guy has been brilliant, I’ve found parts to be reasonable (2 new key cards £39, new front passenger window glass fitted by Tesla outside my house £271 autoglass wanted £600) , lane centering is much better than lane keep, useful front boot, comfortable drivers seat – driver profile remembers your seat position and you can set up easy entry,
-Neg. M3 auto full beam and auto wipers don’t work very well, Elon Musk, it’s not a hatchback but I do manage to get 2 bikes in, expensive to insure, the suspension is probably a little bit too stiff on the older M3s.

When I was returning the ID3 and looking at what to buy next, I seriously considered the Polestar 2 as it’s a lovely looking car and a hatch. What put me off was that it isn’t a ground up EV and the cabin felt quite small (I banged my knee on the steering wheel a few times, getting in). Also I wasn’t sure what the android infotainment system would be like whereas I knew the tesla system from previously having one.

@andylc

My first month on Agile Octopus. Figure excludes daily standing charge. I don’t know if it’s excluding or including 5% vat, but 510kwh @ £50 so approx 9.80p/kwh

Also I wasn’t sure what the android infotainment system would be like whereas I knew the tesla system from previously having one.

Fyi…it’s great!

I’ve an android phone, and though it doesn’t link within the car (doesn’t need to) you can send routes etc via Google maps on the phone “to the car”…

Also, as it has its own network connection, Spotify etc are all phone free too…

DrP

M3 auto full beam and auto wipers don’t work very well,

My Model Y has just received the OTA which enables matrix headlights. Haven’t had a chance to try it yet but initial reports from other Tesla drivers are encouraging. As for the wipers my car must be special because I’ve never had a problem with them.

@B.A.Nana cheers.

Decision has been made, actions deferred to post upcoming hols and next problem is moving on current car and campervan…

My first month on Agile Octopus.

Might be a good weekend coming up – I’m going to try and beat my 24hr usage record of 102kWh (that cost me 50p)!!

My matrix headlight update came in last night.

I’ve seen videos of them working and they seem to be very good. (RSymons RSEV on YouTube)

Still not sure about the wipers. I do find auto is a bit hit and miss, but can be worked around using the stalk and steering wheel buttons (not ideal).

@davy90
I’d also reiterate what Bensales said about the supercharger network, it’s not as big deal as it was 4+ years ago and will continue to be less so. I suppose what is still good is the Tesla ‘plug and charge’ makes it all a bit nicer.

Something I forgot to mention is the Tesla app is very comprehensive, with lots of features, I think the VW app basically just turned the heating on remotely and you could see the state of charge and locate it.

Possibly a negative of the Tesla might be service call out is all done thru the app. People who want to actually speak to a human, might not like it. I wasn’t keen on the idea to start off, but after using it a few times I’m now happier (all my service call outs have not been problems with the car as such, so please don’t think that they might be unreliable)