@bensales

Yeah… Got em direct from Volvo, who seemed to be cheapest at the time… About £215

I imagine they knock a bit off the efficiency… Not sure how much, but I’m averaging about 38kwh/100miles with a mix of town and motorway driving over the colder weeks…

The last few days my efficiency has been better, since lowering it! I wonder if I’ve corrected a slight issue with maybe tracking being off?

DrP

Yes, thanks, I was looking at a Volvo dealer for them. I was hoping you had an idea on how much they lowered your efficiency by, as we have different cars. My worst case motorway in deepest winter is 30kWh/100mi, and currently about 25. If it’s another 10% or so, I’d leave them on, but if it doubles it, then I’d remove them between use. I know with actual bikes on, it’ll take a battering.

Much noise?

Lowering cars does improve aerodynamic efficiency in general. On Mercs with air suspension the car lowers itself once it detects you’re on a motorway.

@bensales

I’ve got the AWD beastie, so with ME getting 38/100 with bars on, I imagine you’ll only drop to something like 33/100 at worst.

And yup, a bit of a whistle. Obvs worse with a bike on..

DrP

Had a nice run up to Ingleton and back in the Corsa e today. The guess o meter was suggesting 4.6miles/KW at best until 70mph on the final motorway stretch took a few watts out of the battery so finished the 100 mile trip at around 4.2.

Not bad. Sounds like you’re enjoying it.

Very much so. It’s coming up to the first anniversary since purchase without any problems. Hoping that there isn’t a huge insurance hike when the renewal turns up over summer.

My insurance just went up 15%, but it’s not a huge amount overall so I’m not going to bother shopping around this time.

When we changed the Leaf for the Ioniq, I just changed the car on the policy and it stayed the same price – £850 or something.  The renewal quote from Esure was something like £520, other quotes are similar.

Made it even more Sveedish.

I know the Polestar ones are cheaper, but these are black 😎

I’ve got a rack to go on, but being a bit sad I want to see what the efficiency is like on a long drive first.

I’m sure Thule love ’em 🤣🤣🤣

DrP

I see what ewe did there 👍🏻

The Polestar is the most appealing of any electric car to my eyes, I just wish they did an estate version – that category seems to be missing totally with EVs, unless you go for a monstrously expensive Audi

Even the VW ID7 is more o a coupe rear than a proper estate, so if it wasn’t hideous, I still wouldn’t like it

BMW i5 is going to be available as a Touring – not cheap though.

Personally, I think the i4 is one of the best looking ones purely because it’s not trying hard to be something else.  In the right colours, it looks great, inside and out.

The biggy will be when BMW release the electric 3-series tourer based on the i4 platform. That will shift absolute bucketloads.

The Polestar is the most appealing of any electric car to my eyes

I have to say, to me it looks very old fashioned. Sorry 🙂

I agree that the Polestar looks great – not sure whether I prefer it or the i4 (I’ve got an i4 so there’s a bit of familiarity whereas the Polestar looks fresh and new each time I see one). They were both at the top of my wish list largely because they’re both hatchbacks which is about as close as you can get to an estate.

There are some MG estates – worth a look and yes the i5 will have an estate version.

I do hope that when they launch an electric 3 series they include an estate version.

For EVs in particular estate cars make a lot of sense as you get a fairly major range boost due the better aero compared to the SUV-alikes that are so common right now.

Quick question to the experts. Charged my car again last night to 80% via my charger as usual but when I got in this morning it was at 83% according to the car? Is this due to the warmer weather? Only had the car 2 months so still learning.

I have to say, to me it looks very old fashioned. Sorry 🙂

It looks like a Volvo. That’s what Volvos look like.

Apology accepted 👍🏻

Although it’s not as bad as the ungainly turd that is the Volvo C40. Which is thankful, given they’re basically the same car.

You owe the government 3%. Do it via PAYE.

DrP

It looks like a Volvo. That’s what Volvos look like.

No, their ICE cars look lovely, the Polestar is a completely different design language.

Charged my car again last night to 80% via my charger as usual but when I got in this morning it was at 83% according to the car?

Ohme?  Mine does that all the time. I think its just some sort of lag between car, Hyundai HQ, Ohme HQ and my charger, or a long polling interval, so it doesn’t stop in time.  Weirdly though it doesn’t seem to account for some sort of slowdown at the end so the charger will stop at 99%. It’s quite a palaver to get that last percent in, not that it matters much.

Yep it’s an OHME. No big deal, as it hadn’t happened before I was just wondering. Good to know it’s not just me then, thanks.

The capacity of my battery seems to vary, probably with temperature. This happens both when charging (charge to 80% and it later says 78 or 82%) and driving (park it at 52% and 2 hours later I come to drive home and it’s 49%)

The biggy will be when BMW release the electric 3-series tourer based on the i4 platform.

They will release an electric 3 series on a new platform with new tech with a huge range and kick the crap out of everything around. (neue klasse)

The only problem is what to call it. The I3 is already taken.

The only problem is what to call it. The I3 is already taken.

It’ll be i3. The old one is discontinued now, and BMW aren’t going to break the naming convention they’re using across their whole range, given it’s their name to do what they like with.

Did a return trip from Hove to Yately today… warmer weather and whatever lowering it did, and I averaged 30kWh/100miles…

Noice!

DrP

That doesn’t sound all that efficient…?? Unless maybe the Polestar is even less so usually…

Quick question to the experts. Charged my car again last night to 80% via my charger as usual but when I got in this morning it was at 83% according to the car? Is this due to the warmer weather? Only had the car 2 months so still learning.

Unless it has a solar panel.  Yes.

That doesn’t sound all that efficient…?? Unless maybe the Polestar is even less so usually

Yup… Polestar aren’t famed for efficiency… The newest model IS better though..

Since purchase in jan, I’ve been averaging 38kWh/100miles…

DrP

We went to Ludlow and back today, and we took the slightly longer dual carriageway because it’s easier.  Even with 2/3 of the trip at 70mph we still got 5.0 miles per kWh or 20 kWh/100 miles 🙂

The app said 188 miles of range at 100% when it had finished charging, but the car said 181 when I started it. When I finished the trip I’d done 160 miles and I had 23 left.  After the first 30-40 miles the distance travelled plus the remaining range was 182-184 miles the whole time, so it was spot on. Impressive.

I nudged the Corsa e up to 4.7miles/KW this evening over a cumulative distance of 160 miles. Mostly wafting along between 30 and 60 and the occasional sport mode sprint 🤔.

We’ve decided to plan a trip to Germany at half term.  Leaning towards taking the EV – especially as kWhs seem to be really cheap in Europe.  On the other hand, keeping up with traffic at 130kph is going to hurt range, and the car doesn’t charge fast. It’s going to turn an 11hr trip into 14 or more hours – but we will probably still need an overnight stop anyway because we can’t rock up to accommodation at midnight.

We’re driving from the frozen North (Saddleworth) to Carnac via Portsmouth at HT. Looking forward to seeing how it works out, especially with bikes on the back!

First long drive with the roof bars on the Poledancer. No rack or bike, just bars.

80 miles of motorway on cruise at 70, with the rest urban crawl, hence the average speed shown. More than happy with just over 4miles/kWh. The bars on their own have made little difference. Increased wind noise, probably made more noticeable by the glass roof, but no whistling.

I have found out that Thule make caps for certain roof bar mounts. On my car, there are four little hatches on the roof, under which is a port that you screw the roof bar’s foot into.  It’s a bit of a faff.  It seems Thule have given you the option of removing the bar but leaving the bottom part of the foot in place, via hex bolts instead of the fiddly little posts. You still have to unlock the covers so it’s not really quick release, but it’s probably an improvement.  You can then get the plastic caps to cover up the part of the foot that is attached to the car.

This probably makes it easier to take the bars on and off. I will probably do this on camping trips etc and remove the feet entirely when I get home.

Mine are the Edge bar design, so the only way of removing the bars is to take the whole lot off.  As it is, with that level of range impact, I’ll just leave them on.

Ive copied this from the other thread as it seems relevant here

I wonder if we are about to see a tipping point for EVs in the UK?  a flood of cheap EVs will upend a lot of stuff, not least petrol stations……………….

Eventually they’ll have to start chasing the lower end of the new market. As soon as someone releases a small cheap EV they’ll all follow.

we havent really seen the impact of the chinese glut of EVs yet

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2024/05/04/belgium-s-ports-drowning-under-glut-of-chinese-electric-cars-some-are-parked-here-for-a-year-sometimes-a-year-and-a-half_6670373_19.html

but its coming very soon

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/14/vauxhall-peugeot-stellantis-chinese-ev-europe-leapmotor-biden

the EU is likely to impose provisional tariffs in July (tho not as high as s Bidens 100%)  and a final ruling in November- what will happen to the UK car market if the government doesnt will be interesting, prices could come down a lot (although I imagine UK manufactuers will be screaming for tariffs!)

although I imagine UK manufacturers will be screaming for tariffs!

Which UK manufacturers would those be?  The only one really left is JLR, and they’re not exactly playing in the same space.

18 months into EV ownership and it’s a dream 😀

Which UK manufacturers would those be?  The only one really left is JLR, and they’re not exactly playing in the same space.

fair point, it does seem like the UK have decided to just ditch its auto industry completely