EV general discussion

bigmike20vt said:
going to look at an i3 tomorrow...... will be a nice partner on the drive along side the ipace :)
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Still the best EV there is. I'm not biased or anything :D , honest.
ICDP said:
We went fully electric in April after my wife got rid of her Audi Q2. We looked at hybrids just to utilise the home charger as the petrol costs were nuts. But I finally convinced her they were a solution looking for a problem (sorry I can’t be nice about them).

In the end we leased a Volvo C40 single motor BEV. A very nice car and a decent EV that is a more relaxed drive around towns than our I-Pace.
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I wouldn't say they're a solution looking for a problem, just more fitting to a particular use case. I'd consider one if I drove the kind of miles I used to drive as the charging infrastructure here is still lets say maturing. Take the RAV4 PHEV, it can do 40 miles on a charge which is enough for day to day usage and if you drive long distances fairly frequently, it has a total 600+mile range and no concerns about charging on the way to your destination. Very useful especially if travelling distances to destinations you're not used to.
 
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The main issue with a PHEV is you need to do A LOT of electric only miles to make up for the additional cost of the vehicle and there is much more nuance behind the ‘value’ calculation.

Don’t do enough shorter journeys, not worth it. Your average journey is long and your often on the ICE, not worth it. Tow a lot? Get a diesel. Need a big boot? Try again.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The main issue with a PHEV is you need to do A LOT of electric only miles to make up for the additional cost of the vehicle and there is much more nuance behind the ‘value’ calculation.

Don’t do enough shorter journeys, not worth it. Your average journey is long and your often on the ICE, not worth it. Tow a lot? Get a diesel. Need a big boot? Try again.
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Exactly. They have a very narrow use band and cost more for the privilege. I would just get a diesel or a petrol and save a lot of money.
 
Yep that is true, but there's something to be said about doing your bit for reducing local (town/city) emissions also, not focusing solely on cost. I'd never personally buy an ICE only car now, unless wanted a weekend toy(unlikely these days :)), but would consider a plug in hybrid if my use case supported the decision.
Hopefully in the next 5 to 10 years there will be no need for them however, as EV technology advances.
 
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There's not a lot of additional cost for a PHEV, a couple o grand, its an absolute bargain compared to finding an EV that can do what it can or even a diesel when yyou consider how much around town driving screws them.

The problem with your statement really is you need multiple cars to do all those things really well, I know I have done all those things with multiple cars, which all come with multiple costs, the PHEV does it all in one package. round town EV, distance driving, load lugging, boot space is fine also, I mean we do struggle with multiple wheel chairs and mob scooters sometimes but only a transit would really solve that. :D

As always you need to pick for your use case and the right set of sacrifices for you, you boys who travel up and down motorways clinging to fast chargers etc seem to have no vision for others peoples uses, me it is motorway avoidance when pulling the van, taking scenic routes to south of France etc, no care about charge points, lovely :) I mean who want to travel at 50mph on a boring motorway...
 
@DarrenM343 If your worried about the local emissions then get a full BEV.

The irony is that a full BEV and a PHEV have almost the same narrow bands of best value. You need to do plenty of miles but not very far in one go (you can go further on a BEV while staying on the ‘cheap’ fuel) and their costs are pretty similar.

@sandys perhaps a bit of an over exaggeration of the need to stick to motorways and clinging to charge points, the slower you go, the more range you get ;). Rural France also has a pretty decent network.

There is a certain amount of irony on the towing point though. PHEVs tend to have lower towing capacities, smaller fuel tanks and they drink fuel when towing compared to their diesel cousins, particularly something like a caravan. If you’ve ran out of battery power, the power and torque can also be lacklustre.

The above is obviously model dependent but lower emissions are absolutely at a compromise to stuff which may or may not be important to you. It’s definitely not a ‘best of both worlds’ situation.
 
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Have a nice 70 odd litre tank and the petrol does ok, matches, maybe even betters the old diesel but then its more modern and has better power and torque, so might not be a fair comparison, its low tow of 2250kg is a bit limiting, won't be doing a horse box but still enough to pull my car or a big hobby van.

On the consumption side its low but its towing and charging on constant AWD so you're never out of battery but low 20s is still fine, I mean thats 350 mile range whilst working that hard is more than plenty.
 
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ICDP said:
Exactly. They have a very narrow use band and cost more for the privilege. I would just get a diesel or a petrol and save a lot of money.
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As somebody who drives a PHEV (for the last 3 yeas) I feel they only exist for company car’s where the company is too cheep to go EV only.

3 years ago I wanted to get into an EV but they where out of the budget. Most people don’t bother to charge them.

I have averaged 60-70 mpg, but I am very aggressive with charging and EV usage.

I would not buy one as the additional cost and wight is counter productive.

If I was buying I would get an EV (new or 2-3 years old) or buy and old cheep diesel.

As a company car EV is the only thing that makes sense now. My company has also changed it policy so it’s EV only now.
 
I partially agree, the PHEV is a tax fiddle for the company car driver. If you dont do many miles then EV is the way forward. Im finding theres not a great total cost difference for having a PHEV or EV now. For EV the tax is less, but the personal contribution is higher, and its the opposite for a PHEV. For some, you are out of pocket from a mileage point of view with an EV, i certainly am, as for some of my regular trips i would have to charge whilst out on the road. Some of the newer PHEVs will have a 70 miles range, which is getting better.

I need to weigh up the different EV tariffs, as my maths, shows me to be £10 worse off with EV (assuming charging a tesla at a tesla SC'er and none EV tariff), on one of my regular trips for work. Where as with PHEV, I make a quid. :p (That would cover my fuel and my charge at home).

I use a lot of gas/electricity through out the day, so any pointers to an tariff that doesnt penalise daytime usage will be useful :)
 
Ovo charge any time 7p, no impact on domestic rate but it’s only your EV charging with is 7p, everything else is your normal rate.

I’m on octopus intelligent which is 31p / 7.5p 11:30-5:30 (all power not just the EV) and I’m averaged 18p/kWh last month.

I’ve not got solar or or home batteries or anything like that. You’d have to have a really low milage or have very high domestic usage to find it costs you more than the price cap.

The only thing we do differently compared to having a flat rate is put the dish washer and washing machine on overnight where possible. By my calculations you don’t need to shift much into the cheap octopus period for it to work out better than OVO. You also get ‘bonus’ cheap slots on octopus when the winds blowing, should be good over the next few days!
 
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I've switched to EON Next Drive,
midnight to 7am 9.05ppkwh
7am till midnight 10.95ppkwh
51.394p standing charge

As i am a 50/50 usage house/car then i save using this tariff as it's all electricity midnight till 7am.
Get the washing machine/dishwasher on and jump in the shower(if you have them) for 9.05ppkwh as well.
 
EON Next Drive was the tariff I was looking at next with the intention of loading up car/battery and running the house off the cheap rate though the peak rate is not 10.9, 32. something my way at least and 58 something stding charge
 
m4rmite said:
I've switched to EON Next Drive,
midnight to 7am 9.05ppkwh
7am till midnight 10.95ppkwh
51.394p standing charge

As i am a 50/50 usage house/car then i save using this tariff as it's all electricity midnight till 7am.
Get the washing machine/dishwasher on and jump in the shower(if you have them) for 9.05ppkwh as well.
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Coming up as 33.79p for me in daytime. 10.95 must be a mistake surely…

Octopus tracker is 17-20p/kWh at the moment all day so don’t think an EV tariff is worth the ballache for me
 
Good to see more competition on EV tarriffs!

In other news, had an SMS off Tesla:
Tesla Update - Congratulations, we've received your Model Y order. Your order reference is RNxxxxxxxxxx. Prepare for your Model Y delivery at ts.la/companycar-driversGB
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And I see this week, their inventory is rammed with MYLRs, where as last week, pretty much none..
 
pc-guy said:
Should have said if it is the voyager probes :D

Those are electric.
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Technically they haven't had an engine since leaving orbit in the 70's - they do have cold gas thrusters for orientation and stabilisation, but no actual engine to increase or decrease speed (apart from the planets...). Also, they're nuclear powered, which would be cool but also slightly dangerous and very 1950's.

Now, if I could run my car on an Ion Engine it would be the most efficient vehicle out there, it would just take me months to get to work...
 
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