EV general discussion

bigmike20vt said:
i agree charging speed is not the ipaces strong suit..... but i get 60 - 70 kwh kind of rate up to 85%ish....... this for me is absolutely fine, i can do 200 miles, stop on a service station, grab a sandwich and a loo break and then am good to go for another 150 miles or so.

would i like it to be a bit faster? sure i guess, but i would much rather have loads more 100kw charge points so i can know i can reliably charge at the max my car can do without having to queue than i would having a super fast to charge car which i barely have enough time to go for a toilet stop before its full.

but again that is me. i may feel differently if i was reliant on public charging for more than a hand ful of times a year.
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Demon said:
Yep, whilst faster charging would always be welcome, if we stop for food or a coffee and stretch our legs, I'm usually rushing back early to grab the car once its hit 80% anyway.. if it was twice as fast, I'd hardly have time to queue for the inevitable mcLatte..
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This is why I'd love to try out an EV for work use for a few weeks. More often than not my trips back home I'm walking into a McDonalds ordering my coffee as I do so, quick wee then grab my coffee on the way back past, back in the car and I'm off. I don't really stop as such. Even if I'm grabbing something to eat I'll normally opt for a sandwich which gets eaten on the way back to the car. This is my choice obviously but if given the option of getting home half an hour earlier or sitting shoving a big mac in my face and perusing the vast collection of vent mount phone holders on offer I'll take the former. Maybe just a few extra minutes tagged on to my usual stops will be all that's required to get me where I need to be?

Things are completely different on leisure trips though where every 90 minute to 2 hours is interspersed with a 20 to 30 minute stop so that would never be an issue.

I'm keeping an eye on how things are shaping up with regards to destination chargers at the various hotels I stay at (in truth this is the real deciding factor for me) and where they are available at all it always seems like a token gesture with maybe 4 chargers in a 100+ space car park. BUT those chargers are rarely fully occupied... at the moment. Thankfully (I guess...) the talk of replacement cars has dried up so I'll be stuck with my ICE for a while yet.
 
lordrobs said:
Things are completely different on leisure trips though where every 90 minute to 2 hours is interspersed with a 20 to 30 minute stop so that would never be an issue.
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If your benchmark is 2 hours, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. My model 3 with it’s relatively small 60kwh battery will typically do 3.5-4 hours of real world motorway speed driving before running out of juice.

Could you empty the car in less time? Sure but realistically you aren’t doing >200 miles anywhere in the U.K. during normal daytime traffic these days in less than 3.5-4 hours.

20 mins charging gets you back on the road for at least another 2.5 hours, usually more like 3.
 
In principle, a charge that takes 30-40 minutes isn't a huge problem.

However, if you arrive and have to wait 20 mins for a charger in the first place, it can become an issue.

It's nice that Tesla have opened up a few of their super chargers to anyone, but the one I used was in a terrible place. No toilet, no bins, no food nearby etc. And it floods when it rains.
 
VincentHanna said:
In principle, a charge that takes 30-40 minutes isn't a huge problem.

However, if you arrive and have to wait 20 mins for a charger in the first place, it can become an issue.

It's nice that Tesla have opened up a few of their super chargers to anyone, but the one I used was in a terrible place. No toilet, no bins, no food nearby etc. And it floods when it rains.
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Haven't they opened up about 30 places now?
 
Yes, some are older V2 sites which are fine but not the best due to short stuff cables and power sharing 150kw between 2 stalls.

Some of them can get very busy because of how much cheaper they are compared the the local competition, Trafford centre being a good example of that. I think the new V4 site in Tottenham also gets busy with locals.

I’ve not no idea why you’d use the osprey site in the same car park as an open tesla supercharger in Banbury which is at least 15p+ cheaper.

Edit: According to the osprey app, some baller is at the moment!
VincentHanna said:
It was 15 originally, and about 30 now I believe.

But only the V4 does a very quick charge.
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V3 and V4 are functionally the same apart from the longer cable.
 
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Happy to be corrected, I didn't know that.

I've only used a Tesla supercharger at Wokingham a few times and it was a miserable little place so it might have made me a bit biased.

In contrast, the Gridserve dedicated charging places I've used were all great.
 
Same in France, after hours the Tesla locations are very odd plus you have to Leave the autoroute unlike the well served services with the various options such as last mile, Ionity and FastNed
 
lordrobs said:
I'm keeping an eye on how things are shaping up with regards to destination chargers at the various hotels I stay at (in truth this is the real deciding factor for me) and where they are available at all it always seems like a token gesture with maybe 4 chargers in a 100+ space car park. BUT those chargers are rarely fully occupied... at the moment. Thankfully (I guess...) the talk of replacement cars has dried up so I'll be stuck with my ICE for a while yet
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How many nights do you end up staying away a month/year? Curious since people like yourself collecting the real life knowledge of destination charging availability, e.g. your 4 in 100 comment, means if they are indeed full then clearly demand is there, roughly 920k from 35m are BEV's now, so 1 in 35, won't be long before we hit 1 in 25 which is 4 in 100 equivalent.
 
Journey said:
How many nights do you end up staying away a month/year? Curious since people like yourself collecting the real life knowledge of destination charging availability, e.g. your 4 in 100 comment, means if they are indeed full then clearly demand is there, roughly 920k from 35m are BEV's now, so 1 in 35, won't be long before we hit 1 in 25 which is 4 in 100 equivalent.
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And 8 in 200
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Yes, some are older V2 sites which are fine but not the best due to short stuff cables and power sharing 150kw between 2 stalls.

Some of them can get very busy because of how much cheaper they are compared the the local competition, Trafford centre being a good example of that. I think the new V4 site in Tottenham also gets busy with locals.

I’ve not no idea why you’d use the osprey site in the same car park as an open tesla supercharger in Banbury which is at least 15p+ cheaper.

Edit: According to the osprey app, some baller is at the moment!

V3 and V4 are functionally the same apart from the longer cable.
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Probably because most people use the inbuilt sat nav and that will only show their favoured chargers..

My VW when trying to find a convenient charging stop never shows the Super Chargers, it directs me to IONITY if it can.. It doesn't even know about half the new hubs (like the MFG charging hubs on the M6) and is completely stupid about charging..
 
Got a used EV Loan, so probably going to sell my 2019 Polo GTI+ for a 2020 onwards Hyundai Ionic 38KW. The man maths would mean I make considerable savings since I mainly just use the car to travel to work and back every day.
 
Demon said:
Probably because most people use the inbuilt sat nav and that will only show their favoured chargers..
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The two examples I have above are due to locals, they are both located well off the motorway. Tottenham gets busy with taxis and locals who don’t have driveways. It can be cheaper to charge there than on a public AC post which is disappointing to say the least.

The Manchester site gets mobbed with DPD vans constantly - even the non-tesla people wanting to charge are getting fed up with it! It seems the local depot has a bunch of electric vans but nowhere to charge them so the drivers are cycling them out every 40 mins. Absolutely bonkers.

Note to self, don’t buy an ex DPD electric van, it will have been rapid charged daily and the battery will probably be well abused.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The two examples I have above are due to locals, they are both located well off the motorway. Tottenham gets busy with taxis and locals who don’t have driveways. It can be cheaper to charge there than on a public AC post which is disappointing to say the least.

The Manchester site gets mobbed with DPD vans constantly - even the non-tesla people wanting to charge are getting fed up with it! It seems the local depot has a bunch of electric vans but nowhere to charge them so the drivers are cycling them out every 40 mins. Absolutely bonkers.

Note to self, don’t buy an ex DPD electric van, it will have been rapid charged daily and the battery will probably be well abused.
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I was more thinking about why anyone would use Osprey when cheaper chargers are next door.. :)

I'm always amazed seeing so many electric vans.. in the Lakes you often see them clogging up the few 50kw+ chargers.. the massive merc sprinter sized ones don't even fit in the spaces that well and one driver got trapped in his van when an iX pulled in beside him and left him no room.. He had to crawl out the window to release the charge cable.

And anecdotally, I saw 2 van drives just pull the charging cable from their van and throw it on the floor, jump in and scream off at full throttle.. I wondered which careless gits just do that since you often see broken housings..
 
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Demon said:
I was more thinking about why anyone would use Osprey when cheaper chargers are next door.. :)
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I guess it’s just people who don’t know the other chargers are open to all.

You also see it at Reading services, the tesla units are opposite the gridserve units. Tesla are open to all and cheaper but people choose to use the gridserve units.

The only advantage the Osprey and gridserve units have is they are 800v vs 400v on the Tesla’s but that’s only relevant to a few models of car at the moment.
 
Demon said:
Amateur ;) Embedding as media saves the ads:


Looks good, price is about right, like the interior, a good contender for the ID.3/Borne segment.
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I got a bit excited as this looked like the more compact replacement for my SR+ that Tesla are still a couple of years away from.

The price is right if you stick with the small battery single motor and no heat pump or pano roof. Basically the only option apart from the colour options amounts to the Ultra pack which bumps the price to £43K.

So I may as well just get the face lift Model 3 in Stealth Grey for £42K and it'll arrive about 8 months earlier!
 
SDK^ said:
A fully loaded GV70 does undercut the iX50, but then the iX has a bit more power and quite a lot more range.
Obviously a base spec iX50 will also need some options ticking, (as it's just an iX40 with more power and a larger battery), which widens the price gap further.

When I was ordering in April this year a BMW iX40 with £5k of options, was £120 a month cheaper than a base spec GV70, so it was a no brainier to go for the iX, which I was informed yesterday is being delivered to BMW in London W/C 4th December, so I should have it before Xmas :)

The ideal car would be a Polestar 3 - about the same cost an optioned up GV70, but with more range and a similar price to a base spec iX50, and the Launch Edition P3 doesn't need any options adding. Just a shame they delayed UK deliveries to Q4 2024 :(

The other downside on the GV70 for me- the main infotainment screen is too small [it's wide but not very tall]
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Yeah its the lease price which is skewed on the GV70. They are either factoring in appalling residuals or the discount to lease companies is none existent. Speccing up the Polestar 3 you can hit £100k. There is no way that should be the same monthly lease cost as a £73000 GV70 never mind cheaper.

But thats the leasing market for you. Sometimes its much cheaper to lease a more expensive car. I remember years ago when my partner got her 6 page lease car list from work to pick her car and the fully loaded v40 at £35k list price was the cheapest monthly lease car on list and £70 per month cheaper than a base BMW 118D
 
With all the talk of superchargers for non-Teslas I decided to take a look as I'm again off to Norfolk in a bit over a week...

Good to see way more options, the one in Cambridge looked decent but as I'll probably be travelling up/charging at a peak time it's actually cheaper, slightly, to just use Ionity at Baldock like last time. Works out as 63p/kWh at Tesla vs 61p/kWh using Electroverse (and a discount for Intelligent Octopus).

Off-peak though the Tesla is 54p/kWh so a much bigger difference.
 
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