The Electric Car Thread

any suggestions for a long time, I can see 2 weeks is long, how about a day, or 2 days ?

I would think it’s more “what percentage of the time” than a specific time, as when the battery is close to its full capacity it will gradually lose charge.

So – leaving it at full charge for 2 weeks in one go could cause a similar degradation to leaving it at full charge 14 times for 24 hours each time.

Of course there will be degradation to the charging process itself so it’s probably not a 1:1 correlation like above, but something like this.

A few months into RWD Model Y ownership here. Range has yet to be an issue but I’ll reserve judgement until after our French Alps trip this August. Ours rarely drops below 80% before we recharge (LFP battery). I can’t see the justification to spend the difference in payments for the LR or Performance variants, certainly for our use case (Lots of shorter urban journeys, with occasional 150mile round trips and very occasional longer trips).

Only downside I’m finding is the barge like turning circle means frequent comedy multipoint turns. Previous vehicles were like a London Taxi in comparison… A small niggle in the overall experience.

Only downside I’m finding is the barge like turning circle means frequent comedy multipoint turns

Slight exaggeration there but I know what you mean. There’s no reason for a RWD car to have such a large turning circle. I reckon Tesla use the steering rack from the AWD cars on the RWD to shave some costs.

A bit, the basement carpark at work is a lot tighter than it was 🙂

The Ioniq achieved 9.3miles/kWh on the way to work this morning. Over 11.5 miles. Eco+ usual hills and stopped at the odd set off traffic lights.

I don’t think I’ll get over 7m/kWh on the return leg. But that is what I’ll aim for.

What’s the perceived wisdom on leaving an EV unused for a period of time then? We go away for a month in September….

What’s the perceived wisdom on leaving an EV unused for a period of time then? We go away for a month in September….

Personally never had a problem .  As with an ICE , i’ve always made sure there is nothing left on that is draining the system. If anything ,its the 12V side of things that would let you down.  I’d just leave it at around 80% on the main battery.

I left mine at Manchester Airport for three weeks. Was 80% charge before I left the house to drive there. No idea what it was on, but it wasn’t such a drain that I needed to worry about the return trip (Liverpool via Chester to Manc airport)

Only thing that happened was after 2 weeks I got a message from the car saying “Key not in distance”. But I turned up with key in pocket and just drove away with no issues.

5.5m/kWh on the return leg. Up hill, more traffic and stop start.

As for leaving the car for weeks unused on a car park. The Corsa e didn’t have any issues after 2 weeks in winter. I’m almost certain the range was the same as the departure date. The key fob did have an issue with connecting to the car but I think that was more a case of the key fob battery being 3 years old. The brake discs needed a good scrubbing with a bit of heavy braking rather than using the regen to scrub the surface rust off.

Otherwise I’m going to use a 1% per day over estimation for the battery loss by the cars smart connectivity and alarm. So if I left the car for 21 days I’d make sure I had at least 50% so on return I should have 29% should the unlikely 1% loss occur.

In the Ioniq, it will run the electronics from the 12V battery but that is quite small so you can flatten it in a matter of weeks.  To deal with this there is a setting in the menus to have the 12V battery maintained from the main battery. I leave this on all the time. Last year when we went away for 2 weeks I’m pretty sure when we got back the traction battery was the same as when we left.

I’m not sure if that option is available in the eNiro. It’s actually the 12v battery that I was more worried about. I’ve read a number of stories online about them being knackered when left unused for any length of time.

There was a software update for Ioniq a while ago that automatically tops up the 12v from the traction battery. You can see it happen automatically when it puts a single flashing light on the dash.  Suspect that Niro has similar.

Molgrips – is that the setting in the dashboard menu? That was greyed out when the update came – its always live now.

That setting was there on my first Ioniq in 2021, I’m sure of it.  First thing I do in any car is go through every menu and setting to see what’s available 🙂

yep.  it was there. i think it still is, but can no longer be turned off.  I often see / hear it clunk in to keep the 12v topped up.

EDIT – thinking about this, it would have been a dealer firmware update that changed this. I had a number of these applied across 2022 when suffering 12v issues.

The 12v battery saver box was ticked when I searched the menus when I bought my Ioniq. When I updated the infotainment I checked that it was still ticked and it was.

Quick question for you all. Had the car 4 months and am getting 5-7km/kwh (3.5-4.5 m/kwh) on my daily commute with a heavy right foot. Never been on a motorway yet or driven the car any distance fully loaded. I have a looong trip in a couple of weeks that involves catching a ferry so currently planning the stops to charge etc. For those of you that have done a long trip with the car fully loaded how much range did you lose? My Born has a current range of 300km+ (57kw) so curious what it will actually do loaded on a motorway. Also thinking of keeping it charged between 10/20% and 80% as this seems the optimum for fast charging on the way, and I need to get to the ferry with a decent charge left for the other side so looking like 4stops on ABRP.

I did a 50 mile round trip to drop my wife and three others off at Manchester airport on Saturday. Didn’t seem to impact range/efficiency at all (25 miles there with them all in). I get 4.5-5km/KwH normally, and got 4.5 going there. Had the air con on too. Obviously not a huge journey length to fully answer your question. (I have a light right foot).

Ah just seen the motorway bit. Only done 1 motorway drive so far. I got 3.9 iirc, so a bit lower than my normal average.

I don’t lose any noticeable amount with a full car compared to solo. Not that I’ve noticed anyway.

20-80% is common sense. 20% is sensible for contingency, and above 80% it slows so much that you are better off in terms of travel time getting back on the road.  It doesn’t hurt to go over though, so if you’re enjoying lunch and the chargers aren’t busy then you can leave it to go higher.

My 55 mile each way commute is a mixture of A roads and dual carriageway (A5) or motorway (M1). Sticking to 70mph doesn’t seem to adversely affected the range. Same with a trip up the M40 to Birmingham, range used was pretty much the same as the distance.

Thanks, so looks like my speed rather than the weight might have the bigger impact. Motorway limit here is 120kmph and I used to sit at 125kmph if I am honest, which is about 78mph. Might need to add an extra 30 mins to the journey and sit at 110kmph (68mph), or do my usual and add an extra 30mins charging. Looking forward to seeing how I get on on my first big trip, wouldn’t really be caring too much if it wasn’t for the ferry.

A fully loaded EV car is less of a % jump in weight compared to an ice car?

So a 1200kg ice car with 400kg of passengers is a 30% increase with a greater loss in efficiency?

Whilst a 2000kg ev with 400kg of passengers is only a 20% increase with a less noticeable loss in efficiency?

I am not a mathematician 🙂

In a theoretical perfect world the extra weight makes no difference to an EV in a straight line as the extra energy used to accelerate it is returned when you slow down, unlike an ICE where it all ends up heating the atmosphere. IRL roads include bends and slopes and regen is not 100% efficient, but even so on a motorway speed may well make more of a difference to efficiency than extra weight.

Sort of related to EVs, may be getting a Phev but to take advantage I need to really set up the right tariff etc. No smart meter currently so obviously need that sorted. Looked at Octopus and British Gas (currently with) so far. I know BG have been hassling my better half for a while to get one fitted. Can anyone offer advice as to who is the better provider to go with (not just the 2 above) or is it the same installers who fit smart meters anyway?

Also is there still a long wait to have one fitted.

Thanks

I was doing som thinking today as I drove to Gatwick to pick up my OH….

I was actually going to arrive too early, so stuck in the LH lane behind the vans/worries doing about 60mph..

I left home with 90%, and IF I’d stuck to 70mph I’d have arrive with 73%.. but cruising at a slower speed meant I arrived with about 79%…

So it got me thinking…

CLEARLY the aim for any journey is to minimize travel time (probably… Obvs gonna wanna stop).. so there’s going to be an equation that involves (driving speed vs energy use) and (charge time vs charge %age)… I.e there will be an optimum “speed vs charge stop time vs minimal % SOC at destination….”..

Can I refill with leccy FASTER than I’d use it at 70mph compared to 60…

Sorry for rambling…had some wine!

DrP

ABRP lets you simulate this.  I haven’t verified its accuracy but for me, even with my slow charging, it was still quicker to drive at 70 than 58 (lorry speed).

I covered 90 miles in the Ioniq over hills and up the a65 to Ambleside. 5.9 miles/kWh. Just over 2 hours of driving in eco mode with the odd bit of normal.

Going to charge at the fuuse charging station outside Kendal on the return leg, 50p/kWh . I’ll add 10kwh which should get me home before plugging in on the 3 pin.

Cheap motoring..

@drP

My experience has been that (in my car) it charges much faster than the rate of use when driving, so driving slower to shorten a charging stop never makes sense.

The big driver for me is whether you can avoid a charging stop altogether – I.e. get back home with a few % left vs stop for a short charge. In those cases we’re talking about splash & dash type charges, so only a few minutes plugged in BUT there is a time taken to pull in to services etc, and you are then at risk of a queue.

When I used to have an ETron it was worth my while doing 55/60 with the lorries for a couple of hours which only cost another few minutes travel time vs doing 70 and having to stop which took around 20 or more if there was a queue.

Even when doing a very long journey like driving to the south of France I think that the time saving would come from minimising the number of stops, not reducing the actual charge time.

wooksterboFull Member
Sort of related to EVs, may be getting a Phev but to take advantage I need to really set up the right tariff etc. No smart meter currently so obviously need that sorted. Looked at Octopus and British Gas (currently with) so far. I know BG have been hassling my better half for a while to get one fitted. Can anyone offer advice as to who is the better provider to go with (not just the 2 above) or is it the same installers who fit smart meters anyway?

If you’re getting a plug in hybrid I really wouldn’t bother with a dedicated chargepoint – at £1,000+ to get it fitted, it’s going to take a long time to pay for itself recharging a teeny tiny battery.  Standard Octopus is 22p a KW – I’d just use a 3 pin charger and plug that in.  When I was looking for my last company car one of the choices was the A250 hybrid which I was interested in for it’s low personal taxation – was coming out at about £75 a month in cost to me compared with my previous diesel auto which was costing me £200+ a month.  Ended up with a pure EV and the personal cost dropped to £27 a month.

Spotted a load of chargers I’d not seen before on the way back from parents (Jn6 M6 at the hotel) – Didn’t need them but looked on Zap map when home to see what they were (200kw) and they’re not on Zap Map….had this a few times recently and it’s shaken my faith in Zap Map. They were on electroverse app though. My method used to be filter zap map for high power, then check the various other apps for the lowest rate.

Good to see more and more chargers that make full use of the Ioniq 5’s fast charging ability.

Shame about the price….79-89p per KWh is ridiculous,

Standard Octopus is 22p a KW – I’d just use a 3 pin charger and plug that in.

Pretty sure we determined that you can still get cheap overnight leccy with a standard dumb charger – just not quite as cheap.

Question related to home chargers in anticipation of the arrival of my EV in September.

I am an Octopus customer so will look to take advantage of their IO plan.  I’m currently pondering home chargers (ideally I’d like to get fitted prior to, or soon after the arrival of the EV as the granny charger charge rate is very slow).  Pod Point seems to come out tops on most reviews, but Octopus has a partnership with Ohme with built in compatibility with IO.  Pricing seems pretty similar between units, so what is the sensible approach when deciding which to go with?

Ohme, because you get the smart/cheap charging with more cars (if not all cars).  Otherwise, without a smart charger you rely on the car to talk to Octopus directly to control charging, and they don’t support many cars.  I think Zappi is now also supported as a smart charger, but not sure.

Pretty sure we determined that you can still get cheap overnight leccy with a standard dumb charger – just not quite as cheap.

yep, absolutely, Otcopus go is 8.5p/kWh between 12.30 and 4.30am – just need a dumb charger and a timer…

.. if your car hasn’t got a built-in timer…

I’ll be getting a Tesla which is supported by Octopus, but would also like to make my life as simple as possible in terms of set up of charging, and benefit from the best available rates.  I’d also like to. future proof as much as possible so other EVs that may come to into the household can be charged if needed.

To clarify, by dumb charger, are people referring to 3 pin plugs?

To clarify, by dumb charger, are people referring to 3 pin plugs?

Possibly, or a wall charger that is not able to be programmed / interface with the grid (and/or service provider).

I’d also like to. future proof as much as possible so other EVs that may come to into the household can be charged if needed.

Ohme is the most future proof.

In terms of simplicity – to get the best rate you need to use scheduled charging. This means telling it when you want to leave each day.  For car commuters this works well enough of course – ours is set to 80% at 7.40am each weekday morning. But on weekends and during holidays we just have it set to 80% at 7am just to make sure it’s got enough to do our local errands or whatever. However if we know we want to go somewhere distant on a particular day we set it to charge to 100% the day before and it will oblige during the night.  This manual step can be avoided if you just have it charge to 100% all the time, but you may slightly reduce your battery’s longevity if you do.  You can of course manually override any schedule and max charge whenever you want, but that costs the full whack.

Does anyone know much about the Hive EV chargers that British Gas offer? Seems a good deal with “free” electricity for a year I think if you get the EV tarriff and Hive charger fitted. No idea if the charger is smart though or locks you in with BG only moving forward.

The RWD has no fog lights, and a slower max charge rate

Another RWD Model Y driver here. The slower charge rate for me hasn’t been an issue. I’ve used Superchargers, now, on ten separate occasions, over 4 months, and each time the car has been ready before me. On the last occasion I got perilously close to an overstay fine while I was still queuing for coffee (the chargers weren’t busy btw).

The Superchargers I’ve used have been Tesla only (not on purpose) and I’ve not had to queue at all, even though there have been people waiting at the regular public chargers. This will change I’m sure as there are a lot of public chargers appearing at a lot of the motorway service stations I’ve used.