I doubt there’s a current EV that doesn’t have ESP/traction control. I find that at least matches cars of old with a limited slip diff – and beats older generation 4 wheel drives unless they had diff locks. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with a current EV on Crossclimates in a whole variety of conditions.

Highest UV day of the year, let’s wear as little as allowed.

I’m often asked why I’m wearing a long-sleeved cycling jersey in Summer.

I don’t think it’s a matter of manufacturers’ honesty it’s just that the test protocols flatter some vehicles more than others. It’s the same with ICEs. Small not very powerful cars will be driven by users much as they are in the test. However something like a Jag will go through much of the test procedure just tickling the trottle, whereas owners will use more of the performance available and get lousy economy compared to the test results.

I have no complaints about the range/economy of any recent cars I’ve driven. Drive gently and smoothly within the speed limits and I get pretty much what is claimed for that type of road in the tests in Summer. Less in Winter whether ICE or EV. EV owners might find they clear out the garage so they can keep the car in it in Winter because starting with a warm car/battery makes a big difference – I have.

Did you get the sequence right, andy4d? DC chargers are often plug in then launch the charge before the car times out. With AC Type 2 very often the last thing you do is plug in the car – it’s often select which side of the charger first on either the charger or the app, then use RFID card or app to pay then plug in – but not always. They drive me nuts.

Yes, any car with a CCS socket can use the open superchargers,  download the app, enter your details and a card. The superchargers that are open to all cars will show up in red. When you arrive at the supercharger select the site in the app, plug in the car before you select the charger number then launch the charge. In the UK we used the superchargers in Bristol Park way, Solihull sevice center and Cambridge.

Have fun with the little car. It’ll probably need new tyres before long because the OEMs don’t last long – try high-load rated crossclimate+ ; they last longer, grip better on anything other than a perfectly dry hot road and make negligible difference to the range.

Debating whether to join the ski-mountaineering club again after a couple of years doing mainly X-C. All the gear but not sure I want to be teetering on my edges or hanging on an ice axe.

Snow has arrived late and melted early in the Pyrenees for several years now so we’ll probably do a Zoe trip to the Alps at some point. Somewhere around Bourg; Sainte Foy, Tigne or Peisey.

Gear? Apart from my collection of X-C skis the ones that got used most last year were some quite old, very short, very narrow, very light and very straight race touring skis. I’m hoping the conditions this year justify using something a little wider.

“Ovaltine”

I think that sums up where 20 years of STW has brought us. Thanks for the insight Matt.

We used to have cyanide canisters hanging about at WelshWater and had to pass the almond smell test before being alowed into treatment works. that was gas though.

In liquid form the first doors I’d knock on would be places offering case hardening of metal parts, steel working places, chemical workd… . It should be fairly easy to track the culprits down with a mix of sampling and paper trail.

The law suit is in France, the barister admits he hasn’t got a clue beyond UK law. The lady isn’t trans and the IOC is happy so there is no ambiguity, she’s a woman. The tweets are factually wrong and cyber bullying.

I disagreed with Mark’s stance and Hannahs piece which was about trans and flew in the face of what seems to me a fair compromise by the IOC and many federations.

In this case Imane has competed within the IOC framework and does not deserve the OTT abuse from Musk and JKR.

I think that in 20 years time ICEs and EVs will have similar issues with electronics, hardware and software because they are both dependant on it. Infact the EV is much simpler with fewer sensors and electro-mecanical parts to fail.

The most common older EVs are the Model S and Zoe. If you browse the small ads you’ll find they are both still supported by the manufacturers. Here in France some of the very oldest get advertised with new batteries – about 12 000e for an 85kWh Tesla and half that for a 40kWh Zoe according to the bills presented in the ads.

Independant any brand EV specialists are appearing in France. Where there’s money to be made people will get involved. I’m confident.

Anyone else go through their bookshelves looking for Harry Potter books to burn after reading the news this morning ?

Now I’m on the phone and she’s not looking over my shoulder. A model S Tesla, a 2016 with free supercharging for life and a knackered battery. 12 000e for a new battery so about 32 000e total ready to go. Every time I admire them when we’re using superchargers she bristles. :)

Ediit: our washing machine won that battle Matt. It just stops when it’s overloaded so I one day I said that I wouldn’t be the one emptying it and mopping up the mess if she did it again, she hasn’t.

I had a look at the ethics of buying EVs made in different countries and ended up putting all the Chinesse brands in last place. Musk may be a dick but I don’t see how you can reasonanly say a made in Berlin Tesla is ethically worse than any vehicle made In China.

I favour made in France/UK because I’m a national and dependant on the economic success of those countries. Then Europe, then USA, then Asia and last of all China. I’d rather see Musk make money than Xi.

Japanese EVs and the new Renault 5 allow selling back to the grid but the the tarif system here in France don’t make it worthwhile. Especially when you take into account the cost of the battery deterioration it wil cause.

It will allow going off-grid and using the car to store PV production in addition to the house battery. If you start getting low on leccy top up at a public charger. I only know one person who is off-grid and interested though.

Losing 15° and getting the garden watered without anything getting destroyed locally has been quite nice.

If you don’t get a spontaneous apology it’s pointless asking for one because it’ll be anything but sincere and thus worthless.

You think I’m going to type anything on a compter screen she’s reading whilst feigning watching a film… .

So genuinely cheap charging with minimal impact on the day rate. Say 8.5p including compensation for the day rate if your car charging is half your electricity use and you don’t use the cheap rate to save on anything else. Taking into account AC charging losses you can expect on a 7kW AC charge that’s about 10p/kWh for kWhs in the car. On that basis those claiming one tenth of the cost are actually getting a seventh of the cost – which is still very good and  more realistic, I still reckon a fifth with a genuinely comparable car. :)

That’s excellent, thepurist.

To clarify you talk about a peak evening rate. If that’s higher what is it?

EDF standard rate here is 25cents. With a dual tarif night is 16cents and day 30cents. Standing charge is higher and I’d pay a penalty as I’m also a PV producer. Not worth it when I’ve charged more away from home than at home this year. My car use would have to be over a third of my leccy bill for it to pay and it isn’t.

How much are your daytime and night rates, andy? And the standard non-variable rate from the same company?

Could people quoting the home charging cost factor in the extra they are paying for day time electricity and the extra standing charge please because if you do that it really isn’t 7.5p. Work out how much extra you paid for daytime on the last bill, add that to the night time EV bill, add the extra standing change then divide the total by the EV kWhs on the bill. That’ll give you the real cost per kWh for your EV charging.

No-one has taken on board the charging losses using the on-board charger which will be high. I added 10% for my calculation but in most cases home charging is AC and it is much worse than that. The Zoé loses about 10% for DC charging and AC much worse according to my back of envelope calculations especially if I charge when it’s 35°C and the heat pump runs a lot, I venture 20%. Anyhow:

https://go-e.com/en/magazine/ev-charging-losses

Again a Q5 is a gross fuel greedy thing and an i4 is a sleek performance thing. Apples and pears.

Let’s compare vaguely comparable things like my original Zoe and Clio comparison.

I’m into EVs, owned and used for seven years but I’m not into making misleading claims, comparing apples with pears or ignoring how crap the charge network is (Superchargers excepted). If you want future EV owners reading this to be satisfied when they buy they need honest advice based on real world experiences.

Yes EVs are great, just don’t expect free leccy, super cheap leccy, chargers to be easy to use or even work at all in many cases. Go in eyes open, don’t run the battery down to under 10% at the last charger for 50kms becuase sod’s law says it won’t work, and expect to have a phone full of apps if you venture far enough to need a public charger.

Well try driving both off road and get back to me. One is an off-road vehicle with off road capacity and the other isn’t.

A fairer comparison would be a diesel returning 50mpg.

I suggest that an Outlanlander isn’t a fair comparison with your current car, perchy, and an Audi E-Tron SUV would be more realisictic – that would rougly double your leccy consumption.

Picked up a can on the way to the pool and droped it into the bin. Not enough to need a sack around here.

As I walked around Amsterdam I tried to figure out why pretty much empty rubbish bins were surrounded by rubbish. Then I saw a down and out going through a bin full of rubbish hunting for 15cent bottles and scattering the rest of the rubbish around the bin.

EV costs us a tenth as much per mile as a diesel would do in everyday driving.

Enthusiastic as I am about EVs I like to see your sums on that.

Used locally my Zoe uses about 12kWh/100km. Add charging losses of 10% and that’s 13.2KWh/100km and with leccy at 25e cents/kWh that’s 3.3e/100km.

The equivalent diesel Clio uses around 4.5l/100km in similar driving. Diesel is 1.648e/l at the local service station so 7.42e/100km

So charging at home the EV is just under half price on a normal electricity tarif but if you charge a lot at home at night, a night tarif may be worth it (it isn’t for me, the corresponding day tarif is punitive and I don’t charge enough at home to make the higher standing charge and night tarif worthwhile). So lets look at night tarifs:

To be a tenth of the price electricty would have to be under 6 cents or under 5p/kWh in your money. Intelligent Octopus as promoted by members of this forum is 7.5p and that means paying more for your leccy in the day which may or may not be worth it depending on how much you charge at home.

Leave home and my experience in the UK seems typical: 45-83p/kWh if you hunt out the cheapest chargers on an app. So a tad cheaper than diesel at best but usually a bit more.

I reckon from a fifth of the price of diesel to double the cost of diesel depending on how and where you charge is more realistic.

TF1 news drove three cars three hundred and something kms across northern France yesterday. A plug-in petrol hybrid, an ID4 and a diesel. All had to respect speed limits. The verdict:

Diesel: fastest but most pollution and CO2

Hybrid: 10 minutes slower as driver was using the car’s ability to save fuel. Less pollution and CO2

Electric: 1h30 slower. One charge needed. First charger IECharge: the charger was dead, he phoned the help line and they confirmed it was dead. Second charger gave a 5h+ recharge time so he moved on (it’s not uncommon to find 22kW chargers that only give 7 or 150kW chargers that only give 25). Third charger was out of order. Fourth charger worked. No local pollution and least CO2

That’s fairly typical of what to expect in France at present apart from open-to-public Superchargers that just work. That’s why EVs are still marginal.

I worked on a campsite on plage de la Pampelone through a September and Octobre fixing mobile homes. Loved it. The walk around the coast from Pampelone to St Tropez if you’re a Bardot fan – spot the famous villa. Watch le Viager before you go and walk around there too.

I play my guitar in the local park. Early afternoon there are groups of young refugees hanging around with nothing better to do than chat and mess on their phones. They’re polite, articulate and unable to work in France for the first six months. Meanwhile there are labour shortages in local busineses.

I’d use lachainemeteo weather forecast and adapt my plans to that. It gives you 14 days of reasonably accurate forecast. You don’t want be in the south of France for a late Summer storm or the Alps with the cloud base at 800m.

Ideas.

camping le Cadoret at Fouras les Bains and paddle around the sites of naval battles.

Florac and paddle down the Tarn.

Gourette, walk up the Sanctus and ride the Aubisque, via ferrata.

St Jean de Luz. Paddle and swim.

Ainsa and rent a bike for day then paddle on the lake.

Saint Tropez. Just because. Paddle plage de la Pampelone famous for Bardot and a WW2 landing.

Really pleased to read that, Frank. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it too.

The open marathon last night one of the highlights for me, no idea who won, it didn’t matter, just lots of happy people taking part.

You specifically stated on the previous page you don’t want them to have an NI number, finefilly. Why not? And why shou they earn less as you state on this page. They are humans not subhumans to be underpaid, exploited and with none of the benefits NI gives.

I’d give them a  bank account an NI number, Finefilly. The only way to avoid exploitation in the black labour market.

A Palestinian flag in a demo seems fine as does a St Georges flag at a football match. Context is everything and outside of those contexts they’re both unnecessary provocation to somebody. Keep the flag in the bag till you get to the demo.

Watching German TV this morning. The British right wing thugs ain’t got nothing on the German ones being held at bay by the cops at the Frankfurt Christopher Street rally. The previous story was 500 attacks on refugees.

When it comes to Nazis Germany still does it “better” :(

No.

Why haven’t you been in Paris? A pretty much carbon free train trip away.

I went to London to watch the triathlon but I’ve been happy to watch all the others on TV.

The first one is grey so Teslas only, but the second one is red so any car, teaandbiscuits.

Have a look at the closed Argentina thread (closed becaue it turned into a Palestine thread), the Dianne Abbott thread, this thread, the immigration thread, Prince John. If you want to complete the profile check views on extinction rebellion, Angela Raynor, climatic change… . A short post in isolation doesn’t tell you much, added up they tell you more.

Edit: And he’s still at it, cherry picking crimes commited by (Muslim) immigrants to link.

Download the Tesla app and check if there are conveniently placed open-to-all Superchargers, teaandbiscuits (hte app is free and you only need to enter a credit card when yu want to charge – no point paying for a monthly subscription for a few charges). There are plenty of other chargers but except them to be slower, less reliable, more expensive and more complicated to use.

Look at it another way, Tenburner. You’ve been posting anti-Muslim bollocks on this site for years and you haven’t been banned yet. Farrage is still an MP. Lennon is in Cyprus rather than a jail. Putin’s bots are still deciding what too many Brits think.

“End of” says you ain’t going to do much thinking or listening whatever we type.