The Electric Car Thread

Finally* took delivery of our new Nissan Leaf last week.

NHS Lease scheme with salary sacrifice means it is only costing us around £128/month and that includes the servicing and insurance. 😲

Plus there is a free Chademo charger in a free car park about 200 metres from our house. So no need to pay for leccy either.

* (I say “finally” because it was originally due in February before Lockdown v1.0)

Plus there is a free Chademo charger in a free car park about 200 metres from our house. So no need to pay for leccy either.

yeah, I’ve got 5 free 50KW rapid chargers along my 15 mile commute. Haven’t used my home charger yet (apart from testing it and the odd novelty charge).

Was discussing it down the pub (when such things were permitted) and the non-electrically enlightened nearly choked on their pints when running costs and free charging were mentioned. 😀

We’ve tried out the 3-pin plug-in home charger. We’ve not got a proper charging unit put in yet because we’re getting the house rewired in the near(ish) future as part of an extension, so we’ll do it then.

Apart from Airedale Nana (which seems to be in the staff car park?) where are the other free ones you use?

Apart from Airedale Nana (which seems to be in the staff car park?) where are the other free ones you use?

The Airedale Hospital one is at the main Entrance (not A&E) it’s at a 10min short stay pickup/drop off area, in the corner. it sometimes gets blocked but often a person is sat in the car dropping off or picking up. There’s a little shop just inside the entrance as well.
There’s one in a car park in Silsden as well, but it’s yet to be connected. Keighley Leisure centre just off the main trunk road, Keighley Church Green(haven’t used that) and Bingley Train Station. There’s also Ilkley and Otley (I’ve used the Otley one a few times as my Mum lives there)
https://engie.geniecpms.com/PublicMap

My pod point has been activated this am. I have no intention on using it to charge except when absolutely necessary. Should save me around £100 a month in fuel cost even against the hybrid.

Plus there is a free Chademo charger in a free car park about 200 metres from our house. So no need to pay for leccy either.

So what’s to stop somebody hogging that space for extended periods? E.g. coming home from work on Friday, plugging in and just leaving the car blocking the charger until they leave for work on monday.

This might surprise you but the majority of EV users aren’t anti-social arses. The only cars I’ve had to get removed from charge points to be able to use the point have been ICEs. Berlin was an exception, lots of big Merc hybrids with full batteries on charge points with free parking but Mobility+ have just put a stop to that with punitive charges beyond 4 hours.

So what’s to stop somebody hogging that space for extended periods?

There are a couple of spaces. The cables reach both.
Plus it’s a small village here. If someone did that we’d soon know who they were 😀

But in places like the MetroCentre they have a large number of electric bays with chargers because they expect people to leave them plugged in while they shop.

So what’s to stop somebody hogging that space for extended periods? E.g. coming home from work on Friday, plugging in and just leaving the car blocking the charger until they leave for work on monday.

Very few people seem to take the lend, except for taxi drivers around here who will recharge after every call.

Well, I phoned Kia in Bristol and spoke to a very nice man who explained exactly what Edukator and simon_g said 🙂

Actually retro83’s question makes me wonder: can a charger automatically unlock the cable when the car is fully charged? Or can that only be done from inside the car itself?

The former option seems like it would be a good solution to cars overstaying, assuming there are other spaces that the cable will reach.

Well, I phoned Kia in Bristol and spoke to a very nice man who explained exactly what Edukator and simon_g said

This might be why a lot of longer term EVers seem to advocate displaying % charge of the battery rather than miles.

Surely the solution is easy?

Have a time based charge that progressively ramps up the longer they stay after recharge or 80%*?

*dependant on location/demand

Yea I think your right B.A.Nana I think you are better looking at the %

Really enjoy driving the Kia at the moment.

The Airedale Hospital one is at the main Entrance (not A&E) it’s at a 10min short stay pickup/drop off area, in the corner. it sometimes gets blocked but often a person is sat in the car dropping off or picking up. There’s a little shop just inside the entrance as well.
There’s one in a car park in Silsden as well, but it’s yet to be connected. Keighley Leisure centre just off the main trunk road, Keighley Church Green(haven’t used that) and Bingley Train Station. There’s also Ilkley and Otley (I’ve used the Otley one a few times as my Mum lives there)

Cheers mate. Still planning on Octopus with your code!

Have a time based charge that progressively ramps up the longer they stay after recharge or 80%*?

I’ll stick with free and wait for a slot thanks.

We got a Hyundai Kona Eletric a couple of months ago.

It’s been great so far! It’s not the fastest EV but it’s got a good punch in sport mode (far too much go for it’s skinny tyres to cope with in the wet).

Can tell it’s a petrol car that’s been converted to EV though, for instance the boot has nowhere for you to put a charge cable, they give you a bag that floats around in the boot?! Also looks really good from the front but not so much from other angles haha.

But having had fast BMs for the last decade I’m a total convert to EV, but I think I’d try and get a purpose built EV next time.

P.s. does anyone know why an EV still has a standard 12v battery? or is that because of the petrol -> EV conversion?

The 12v battery runs all the lower voltage stuff, so lights, central locking, wipers etc. It is also always connected. The high voltage “traction” battery in an EV is normally physically disconnected by a breaker switch when it is turned off, so one job of the 12v is to re-connect the big battery when you “start” the car. That’s why an EV won’t start if the 12v runs flat, and will need jump starting similar to an ICE car.
(as I understand it anyway.)

Even Tesla have 12v and they’re ground up EV.

hybrids won’t start without a 12v but I’m not sure about pure EV. 🧐

you can camp in a tesla all night with the heaters and screen on, I assume the car has an onboard charger from HV to 12v as I think the screen is 12v.

Arent Electric cars a bit like cheating ? 😉 😛

a bit like cheating

You mean “sexy and much more fun than the tired old wreck that smells a bit”? 😉

I’ll stick with free and wait for a slot thanks.

Yeah just so you know when the time comes your opinions about as valid as toast.

Up here they did almost exactly as suggested by the previous poster in city centre free charge points to stop folk using then to park all day meaning those in need of charge couldn’t get to them.

Looking to replace our yeti and I was going to lease a hybrid as approx 95% of our journeys would suit the crappy 20 mile range and the engine would be very handy for the 10 (or so) longer trips a year. Feels like I should really go all in and go EV.

So, 200 mile drive in a leaf. would you realistically be looking at a 30/40min rapid charge after 100 miles? Whats that cost? to charge up

Cost varies by provider and for some you pay a subscription. But say someone like Instavolt who just operate pay-as-you-go style contactless chargers with no membership etc, they charge 35p per kWh I believe. So a 30 minute charge on a standard 50kW rapid charger would give you 25kWh of charge which would be £8.75 assuming it charges at full whack. And say you do around 3.5 miles per KWh, that will have given you ~85 miles of added range.

(In reality as the battery gets fuller it slows down the charge, so you may not get a full 50kW rate for that time, especially on a Leaf which doesn’t like rapid chargers that much due to lack of active battery cooling.)

cheers ace. just what i needed to know

Whats that cost? to charge up

Varies greatly – as mentioned above my local charger is provided by the council and is FREE to use. And that isn’t as unusual as you’d think.

Just got the opportunity to get a Hyundai Kona on a mini lease. I thought it would be a good way of putting a toe in the e-mobility waters so I thought I’d give it a go. Car arrives next week. I intend to have a Pod Point 7kW home charger installed so once that’s fitted I reckon 99% of all charging will be done at home. I’ve registered with Zap Map and as I’ll be using the car for a few trips to Scotland I thought I’d get a Charge Scotland card (if England residents are allowed them). Anything else I should be doing like taking out a charging network subscription with any of the other providers or downloading their apps?

Same battery & drivetrain as my Soul uponthedowns. I’ve had zero need to do a long journey yet where i’m going to have to charge up to get back home.

Speaking to a work colleague yesterday and his 6 week old E Corsa has had to be picked up yesterday as it’s making a very strange unsettling noise.He said it was driving fine but sounded like it was going to blow up 🙂

mini lease?
do tell me more.

mini lease?
do tell me more.

My company is switching between company car providers and employees like me who’s vehicles needed replacing before we were set up with the new provider got put on so-called mini-leases with our old provider. Basically we get a new car until it has 10,000 miles or a year old then its replaced. Sounds great but I can’t order a car to my spec and I have to take what they’ve got in their mini-lease fleet. Fortunately this time in addition to stuff like Skoda Octavia’s, Golfs and Audi A4s they have a load of Hydundai Konas so I thought I’d give one a try. I was planning to get a plug in hybrid as my next permanent 4 year lease vehicle but if the Kona goes well I may well go for a BEV. Tesla Model Y would be ideal but I don’t think they’ll be in the country before I move to a new 4-year lease.

nice, let us know how you get on.

Doubt we’ll see the Model Y before 2022 but sounds like the ID4 and Skoda Enyaq will be here early/mid next year. Hoping so and that they appear on our company car list.

The only BEVs on the list at the moment are the Model 3 (too small) and the XC4O Recharge. Again think that might be too small with 3 kids but 4WD and 400bhp sounds tempting. Unnecessary, but tempting.

Anything else I should be doing like taking out a charging network subscription with any of the other providers or downloading their apps?

If you are already on ZapMap then just have a look what providers are most common in the areas you’ll be travelling.

ZapMap also have some useful stats on the market shares etc:
https://www.zap-map.com/statistics/#share

If anyone was thinking about the MG5 estate as a practical EV bike-lugger note that the permitted roof load is actually zero. Marketing info (which had showed a bike on the roof) have been changed. The roof rails on the higher spec one are apparently cosmetic only.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/no-roof-load.155387/

The roof rails on the higher spec one are apparently cosmetic only.

WTF???

That’s as daft as the BMW leccy we looked at where the salesperson casually mentioned that you couldn’t put anything heavy in the boot because the battery was under it. 😳

That’s why an EV won’t start if the 12v runs flat, and will need jump starting similar to an ICE car.
(as I understand it anyway.)

True. A significant amount of time is spent at work having to jump-start cars with flat batteries, and up until recently we had close on 3000 cars across our site and storage areas. It gets pretty tedious pretty quickly. The Teslas that come in are put on charge, as are any pure EV’s, (not that we get many of those yet) but hybrids just get put with everything else.
We did have a Toyota Mira in, but that went out on a transporter – they’re hydrogen fuel-cell tech, and it had 72 miles range left in the tank, and there’s no filling stations locally can handle that.

the XC4O Recharge.

Not a small car, we’ve got several, and the boss has one, I had to move one out of storage for a transporter on Monday, and they’re not dainty! Roughly the same length as an Octavia, at a guess, and a lot taller. Lovely to drive, I would guess an electric version would be pretty rapid, and quiet.
I read today that Toyota are bringing out a new EV with a solid-state battery – gives around 310 miles range, but can be charged in 10 minutes! Now that could be the game-changer.

@CountZero – how does the XC4O interior compare size wise to a Passat estate? Boot looks a bit pokey from the outside and also think the back seats likely to be smaller overall for three passengers. Need to get to a dealer for a look really

I’m still just amazed at GrahamS’ Leaf at such a daft cheap price – insurance and servicing means the cost of that Leaf is maybe £70 a month?

Personally I’m still struggling with car choice.  We wanted an SUV and the full electric Xc40 would be perfect but Crikey it’s not cheap.  With now only 9 years until diesel is gone, throwing 20k on 2nd hand diesel GLC in the interim seems a waste and that we’d be throwing a Merc away in 2030.

it feels to me that running our Kuga as bangernomics for a couple more years until new electric cars at cheaper prices become available, albeit a new DPF is on the horizon.  Feels environmentally counter intuitive to me.