EV general discussion

SDK^ said:
Yep - it came from BCA @ Biscester

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Are you referring to my Polestar Facebook post?
The interior is the Charcoal option.

It's unlucky for those people with the factory deliveries shipped whilst the recall was announced, as they are all being held back for the upgrades.
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I am indeed!

I'm one of those lol...
 
Very nice :D - been looking at these or the TM3 - not decided but leaning towards the Tesla

Mrs is also picking up her CLA 250e today (I know its Hybrid) so can't wait to have a play with that :p
 
{SAS}TB said:
Very nice :D - been looking at these or the TM3 - not decided but leaning towards the Tesla

Mrs is also picking up her CLA 250e today (I know its Hybrid) so can't wait to have a play with that :p
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Same mental exhaust as the A class i assume with the exit under the middle of the car. :D
 
I’ve finally got my BMW 330e coming next after a long 9 month wait. Really looking forward to the EV aspect of it. I know it’s limited but I’m genuinely excited by it. It will be a steppingstone for me, in 3 years time the full EV market should have lots of choice enabling me to make the jump.
 
Ricochet J said:
We're moving toward an electric car market.

Overall, the number of electric vehicles on UK roads is still a tiny proportion of the total number of registered cars. Out of 26 million cars, around 37,500 are EV. So still a way to go.
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When am I going fully electric?

Simple answer - when I can afford to. They are still expensive, even second hand.

I'm not au fait with battery rental and pricing either as I've seen quite a few where you buy the car but then rent the battery, so you don't own the car as such.
 
As far as I'm aware, no current car has a battery rental option.

In the used market, it only exists on early Zoes & Leafs (Leaves?) because people weren't confident in battery tech and so renting it and knowing you had that extra warranty/replacement cover was for peace of mind.

You can also now buyout the battery lease on a Zoe (whether that makes financial sense is down to your circumstances).

To be honest, at the lower end of the used market, there isn't much/anything that's suitable for use in a single car household. A ~£6k Leaf (most likely a 24kw) is looking like a decent option if you have to commute <60 miles a day, but I wouldn't want one as my only car.

The cheapest option I'd consider as an only car would be a 41kw Zoe @ ~£11k but then you have the lease on top. A battery owned one is more like ~£15k, at which point I'd be looking at a 28kw Ioniq instead. Around the same price, less range on a charge, but faster charging and more efficient, so it balances out (and the Ioniq seems generally a better car, although I've never driven one personally).

If you do a decent mileage, electric can work out cheaper/on par with ICE, but if you don't then it's a good few years to go before it's worthwhile (which is exactly why I got rid of my Zoe, thanks to my mileage dropping to virtually nothing due to covid!)
 
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Haggisman said:
As far as I'm aware, no current car has a battery rental option.

In the used market, it only exists on early Zoes & Leafs (Leaves?) because people weren't confident in battery tech and so renting it and knowing you had that extra warranty/replacement cover was for peace of mind.

You can also now buyout the battery lease on a Zoe (whether that makes financial sense is down to your circumstances).
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Mostly Zoe's now on the 2nd hand market BUT if you are in China then yes you can buy a NIO without a battery and then rent a pack. They have many battery swap locations so you can change the pack size as required and it takes about 5 mins. Over here it was just to lower the entry cost due to early pack longevity fears.
 
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It also gets to the point that you might as well lease the whole car of your leasing the battery. It was all about the confidence and feels and made very little sense to do it even when they were new.

I agree with the above really, there isn’t anything in the used market other than an old Tesla Model S which you can realistically use as your only car. Even the. Your looking at north of £25k. They’ll be a few things coming off lease in the next year though like early Kona/Nero but the volumes were low so I expect used prices to hold up really well.
 
helpimcrap said:
When am I going fully electric?

Simple answer - when I can afford to. They are still expensive, even second hand.

I'm not au fait with battery rental and pricing either as I've seen quite a few where you buy the car but then rent the battery, so you don't own the car as such.
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You can get to a point where a used Model S does start to become cheaper than a vaguely equivalent normal larger commuter car such as a BMW x30d/Mercedes x350 (I run an E350) - you need to keep piling the miles on though, as it is the fuel duty which pays for the electric car.

The other issue for me is the risk of it failing. This is one that i struggle with. The car (a Model S) is totally unique in its drivetrain and I have absolutely no idea where i would even start with having a faulty one repaired. Unfortunately I think that the whole thing could well end in disaster, once the mileage really racked up on it, and unfortunately racking up huge mileage is the entire point in the thing.

Backdrop: I am absolutely not a risk averse person, i don't have any insurance or insured products in my life other than mandatory basic car insurance with a £1500 excess, and i run a couple of large used diesels out of warranty over significant mileages. The difference is though, that every garage can fix a diesel, and even in a worst case scenario where the car becomes too much to deal with, the investment in it is not great.
 
Jez said:
You can get to a point where a used Model S does start to become cheaper than a vaguely equivalent normal larger commuter car such as a BMW x30d/Mercedes x350 (I run an E350) - you need to keep piling the miles on though, as it is the fuel duty which pays for the electric car.

The other issue for me is the risk of it failing. This is one that i struggle with. The car (a Model S) is totally unique in its drivetrain and I have absolutely no idea where i would even start with having a faulty one repaired. Unfortunately I think that the whole thing could well end in disaster, once the mileage really racked up on it, and unfortunately racking up huge mileage is the entire point in the thing.

Backdrop: I am absolutely not a risk averse person, i don't have any insurance or insured products in my life other than mandatory basic car insurance with a £1500 excess, and i run a couple of large used diesels out of warranty over significant mileages. The difference is though, that every garage can fix a diesel, and even in a worst case scenario where the car becomes too much to deal with, the investment in it is not great.
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Agreed - I wouldn't want to run an expensive EV out of warranty at the moment.

As you say, any garage can fix an ICE (assuming it's not one of the majority of jobs you can do on your driveway with £50 of tools), and when they do go wrong it's usually a couple of hundred £ at most. Unlike with an EV where you could be looking at several £k worth of parts and needing a specialist garage set up for HV work
 
SDK^ said:
Hopefully in the future Polestar / Google adds an Amazon Music app.
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so you can't install an arbitrary app ? it has to be blessed., I'm a bit deceived.


On the id3 front (p2 is fine) some German analysis analysis on panel gap, couldn't figure out how to get google auto-translate subtitles working on the latter, which looks interesting

[Qualität Check] Der VW ID.3 enttäuscht bei der Qualität

News mit Schwunk #42: VW Wette / Tesla sucht Ingenieure / Stromschlag: Trump geht FakeNews bleiben
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQ611OeXZo

another interesting one, giving more background
22 nasty bugs in VW ID.3
 
Haggisman said:
Agreed - I wouldn't want to run an expensive EV out of warranty at the moment.

As you say, any garage can fix an ICE (assuming it's not one of the majority of jobs you can do on your driveway with £50 of tools), and when they do go wrong it's usually a couple of hundred £ at most. Unlike with an EV where you could be looking at several £k worth of parts and needing a specialist garage set up for HV work
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They can, but excluding electrics - of which modern day cars have just as much as an EV - there's also a lot more to break/wear out. I certainly haven't heard of any EV horror stories, especially since the battery and drive unit warranties are usually longer.
 
I think the issue is that the warranty will come to an end in the next year or two on something like an early model S. The drive unit is t too bad of you can get your hands on one but a battery fault will probably scrap the car. MCU failures are also scarily common and equally as scarily expensive to put right. That said the risk of a battery fault is very low in the grant scheme of things. A diesel of that sort of age and miles will be coming up on all sorts of expensive ‘wear items’ clutch, flywheel, turbos, injectors and EGR valves etc. which combined will cost several thousand £ if not as much as the car is worth if they all need doing over time.
 
Russinating said:
They can, but excluding electrics - of which modern day cars have just as much as an EV - there's also a lot more to break/wear out. I certainly haven't heard of any EV horror stories, especially since the battery and drive unit warranties are usually longer.
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Hence why I said out of warranty :)
 
Jez said:
You can get to a point where a used Model S does start to become cheaper than a vaguely equivalent normal larger commuter car such as a BMW x30d/Mercedes x350 (I run an E350) - you need to keep piling the miles on though, as it is the fuel duty which pays for the electric car.

The other issue for me is the risk of it failing. This is one that i struggle with. The car (a Model S) is totally unique in its drivetrain and I have absolutely no idea where i would even start with having a faulty one repaired. Unfortunately I think that the whole thing could well end in disaster, once the mileage really racked up on it, and unfortunately racking up huge mileage is the entire point in the thing.

Backdrop: I am absolutely not a risk averse person, i don't have any insurance or insured products in my life other than mandatory basic car insurance with a £1500 excess, and i run a couple of large used diesels out of warranty over significant mileages. The difference is though, that every garage can fix a diesel, and even in a worst case scenario where the car becomes too much to deal with, the investment in it is not great.
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I think you hit the nail on the head for me. I simply don't do enough miles to justify the cost - about 10000 miles a year tops. It costs me roughly £100 a month for tax and petrol. It owes me nothing and a 2001 1.4 Focus does 42mpg still. I simply don't have the money for the initial cost and, like you say, if they go wrong I'm stuck. At the moment I can mostly service and fix it myself.
In 11 years I've done about 95000 miles and it's cost me a driveshaft, fuel pump, suspension spring, power steering pump, brakes all round, tyres and fuel.
Apart from the fuel and fuel pump, it's all stuff I'd have to pay for and I suspect it would be expensive.
 
I took delivery of my Polestar 2 Finally on Tuesday. Let me share my notes on it from the facebook group i posted in

OK... here is my early review based on the last two days of ownership - i can't go to the shop for a coffee without finding some road somewhere to put the foot down. It has in my opinion been well worth the wait.
  • The Power is just incredible, instant delivery, it is like hitting a switch and the power just being there.
  • Car looks are great to my eye, others may disagree, mine is standard void, no extras
  • Internally, it's a really nice place to be - the modern infotainment system with Google Maps, Assistant etc is lightyears ahead of my 5 Series (2016 Model). Spotify for music has me playing exactly what I want when I want because I don't have to navigate annoying menus etc or use my phone
  • The seat fabric worries me slightly as I have a baby on the way, may be looking for some tips on how to keep them clean / product recommendations
  • Love the glass roof, never had one before, really cool
  • The main key(s) will never see my pocket, they are shocking - activity key only and looking into getting a second for the wife. App will be good but I'd still want something physical
  • Did i mention the power is incredible
  • Cup holder... bit of an awkward position for the way I rest my arm, not a deal breaker... also the second cup holder is within the centre storage... bit of a pain for the wife's drink!
  • The value for money. I have this on a company car lease for 4 years, the BIK rate makes the cost of "ownership" on this car possibly one of the best deals I have ever had. Add on free Charge Point network in Scotland and I could feasibly never pay for charging it ( i will charge at home for convenience)
  • My delivery experience was bordering on shambolic at times and took me escalating to the COO via twitter and email to get the right level of car and attention. To his credit, Edward at Customer Support was great, but severely limited in his scope to have impact.
  • Wireless phone charging, it works sometimes, sometimes with the phone in the same position it doesn't
  • The "Frunk" should be a proper door, not a space under the standard car bonnet opening with manual lever pull opener - it's very low tech for a high tech car.
 
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