EV general discussion

AlSki said:
This ^

I have a Mini E. It should do a whole 145 miles on a full charge, but that's no fun.

So I do a quick trip to town and put it on charge.
I drive an hour (there & back) to see my daughter and put it on charge.
I nip to my parents and back (75 mins) and put it on charge.
I still haven't used more than 70% in one day.

Also, the one time my wife decided to jump in the Mini was also the one time I forgot to charge it, so sees only 30miles range. But, that would have been enough to do the 7 mile roundtrip 4 times....

Instead of asking this in a Petrol-like,
how many tanks to do the journey? how long to fill to max?

What if you think of it as
How many miles would I need in reserve when I get back to my house?
How long would the extra xxxx miles to charge?

So if you are doing 250 miles with a 220 mile range, and you want a spare 30 miles to avoid anxiety, can you add 50 miles of range in less time than
  • it takes to walk to the services loo and back?
  • less time than it takes to queue at the coffee shop?
For my car, a 0-80% high speed charge is supposed to be 38mins...so 10 mins queuing for Starbucks suddenly becomes a lot more rewarding.
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Here as a reply to headrat saying a EV doesn’t work for him as he does regularly 250mile journeys. So why he started talking about a mini who knows ?

I must admit I have no idea what point he was trying to make. I assume he said a mini makes Starbucks worth visiting or something
 
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Simon said:
Here as a reply to headrat saying a EV doesn’t work for him as he does regularly 250mile journeys. So why he started talking about a mini who knows ?

I must admit I have no idea what point he was trying to make. I assume he said a mini makes Starbucks worth visiting or something
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My take on the flow of this conversation was that a Mini EV was never proposed as a long range EV. So not sure why you suggested it was.

AlSki was agreeing with my point that efficiency is overblown (from a cost perspective) unless you do regular very long range trips. They gave a good example of their Mini EV being perfect for their regular short range trips but that it would not be suitable for longer trips.

AlSki then went on to address Headrat’s range anxiety by pointing out a 250 mile trip is doable in a 220 mile range EV, with a very short top up.
 
Bug One said:
More importantly, why would you drive to Venice and back. Just book a cheap flight.
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I did the same… kind of stopped at lake Garda for a week, Lausanne for a few days and Strasbourg on the way home.

Not more importantly at all…

b0rn2sk8 said:
That’s the point isn’t is?

Once you get into cars that have the capability of the new Polestar 2 or a Tesla, 200 miles or 2,300 miles is neither here nor there when compared to an ICE in the real world.

The limiting factor is no longer the car, it’s generally the human driving the car.
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Odd my trip was 2300 miles, not this guy you’ve quoted :p
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
I did the same… kind of stopped at lake Garda for a week, Lausanne for a few days and Strasbourg on the way home.
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Exactly this. It was 10 stops over 3 wks. Lovely trip.

ICDP said:
AlSki was agreeing with my point that efficiency is overblown (from a cost perspective) unless you do regular very long range trips. They gave a good example of their Mini EV being perfect for their regular short range trips but that it would not be suitable for longer trips.
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Also this, my driving might not be typical, but that's what I was trying to address. Everyone has this argument about range, but actually it doesn't matter for some of us.

Simon said:
So why he started talking about a mini who knows ?
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I was trying to ask, if your habits changed from fuel style, driving to near empty then filling up, to mobile phone style, always stepping into a fully charged car, what range do you actually need?
I picked the Mini because it is the most radical change in how I thought about the issue. When we got the wife's Cupra Born we went through all these same discussions, and in reality, they were the stepping stone that let me pick a car with an insanely tiny range.
 
Penfold101 said:
Well yes, you don’t charge an ICE car by definition…

Electric can’t match ICE for long range - everyone knows this. You also wouldn’t take a mini on a 2300 miles road trip unless you were an enthusiast…
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Don’t think you do 2300 mile trip unless you are enthusiast full stop regardless of the of fuel/car used.

I do know people who drive to Europe/Eastern Europe. They love driving and enjoy the benefit of stopping loads on the way and seeing all the places and works out cheaper than flying with the whole family in tow.

In those situations electric or ice cars won’t matter tbh. You will be stopping plenty - overnight or a couple days to charge up/fill up.
 
I cant believe we are still having the same arguments of EV vs ICE!

I think now that its fairly easily possible to charge a car to ~80% in 40 odd mins, the range question should go away. Even with my high mileage, i can make an EV work for me. The only thing holding me back is that when i have to charge on the road, it costs me too much, as the mileage rate set by HMRC is too low and doesnt recompence me. Ie one of my typical journeys to Scotland, will end up costing me £43 out of my own pocket, i could stomach that if i had the BIK savings, unfortunately the majority of EV's now have a fairly hefty personal contribution on our company car scheme. I think the cheap EV motoring via company car route has gone now, unless you go the uber cheap option ie MG4.

I would have no issue in having a I4,ID7,Ariya or P2 as my daily. Still cant stomach a Tesla or the korean offerings though :p
 
Bug One said:
More importantly, why would you drive to Venice and back. Just book a cheap flight.
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Problem with a plane is you can't drive it around when you get there :D I used to do Bristol to Sicily frequently, ~1800 miles, done over a ~30 hour trip, I'd be staying a few months here, a few months there, having your own vehicle is handy and cheap over those periods.
 
Tinders said:
I cant believe we are still having the same arguments of EV vs ICE!

I think now that its fairly easily possible to charge a car to ~80% in 40 odd mins, the range question should go away.
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Unfortunately the "will the charger I need be working/available?" problem means it can still be a pain having to use public chargers, and so having long enough range to complete your journey without having to do so is still of significant benefit.
 
Tinders said:
I cant believe we are still having the same arguments of EV vs ICE!

I think now that its fairly easily possible to charge a car to ~80% in 40 odd mins, the range question should go away.
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Possible doing all the heavy lifting here. Until there are fast chargers as ubiquitous and reliable as petrol stations, there is still a major problem.

I'm having to start doing a 120 mile round trip commute from Jan, I would love to get an EV, and nearly did, but decided I don't want the stress. I live in a terrace with no-offstreet parking. No charging at work. I'd be 100% reliant on 8 BP pulse chargers at the village hall, of which only 2 spaces are EV only, and half of them are out of order frequently.

Ended up reluctantly buying a diesel beater that I'll run for another 5 years and maybe we'll be closer to a position where it's practical to run an EV without home charging. Maybe with these incompetent ****s out of government next year we might get some co-ordinated national action to sort things out.
 
Got home from a 100 mile trip at midnight on Saturday - temps below freezing, motorway most of the way... Range to zero on the GoM as I pulled into the drive - 3 ...

I won't lie I was a little nervous in the last 10 miles or so :D
 
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Sinbad2000 said:
Got home from a 100 mile trip at midnight on Saturday - temps below freezing, motorway most of the way... Range to zero on the GoM as I pulled into the drive - 3 ...

I won't lie I was a little nervous in the last 10 miles or so :D
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I’ve watched most of the range tests Carwow does - there’s usually a good few miles available after the zero range because batteries are weird and people are idiots who will always try to push things past their limits… :D
 
Penfold101 said:
I’ve watched most of the range tests Carwow does - there’s usually a good few miles available after the zero range because batteries are weird and people are idiots who will always try to push things past their limits… :D
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Not in winter there isn’t. Plus often they will go into turtle mode which makes it hard to stay on a motorway or go up hills.
 
Tinders said:
I cant believe we are still having the same arguments of EV vs ICE!

I think now that its fairly easily possible to charge a car to ~80% in 40 odd mins, the range question should go away. Even with my high mileage, i can make an EV work for me. The only thing holding me back is that when i have to charge on the road, it costs me too much, as the mileage rate set by HMRC is too low and doesnt recompence me. Ie one of my typical journeys to Scotland, will end up costing me £43 out of my own pocket, i could stomach that if i had the BIK savings, unfortunately the majority of EV's now have a fairly hefty personal contribution on our company car scheme. I think the cheap EV motoring via company car route has gone now, unless you go the uber cheap option ie MG4.

I would have no issue in having a I4,ID7,Ariya or P2 as my daily. Still cant stomach a Tesla or the korean offerings though :p
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Time is money.
 
Penfold101 said:
Let’s not pretend I never did the same thing in my diesel cars, especially the tank on my Insignia that I got 915 miles out of…
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Indeed. once I actually ran out of fuel pulling into a petrol station and it spluttered and engine stopped but luckily i had enough momentum to coast up to a fuel pump. If there had been somebody on it, I would have been pushing the car a few yards.

Only once have i totally messed up and ran out of fuel a good mile short of the petrol station. Won;t ever do that again.
 
Greebo said:
Indeed. once I actually ran out of fuel pulling into a petrol station and it spluttered and engine stopped but luckily i had enough momentum to coast up to a fuel pump. If there had been somebody on it, I would have been pushing the car a few yards.

Only once have i totally messed up and ran out of fuel a good mile short of the petrol station. Won;t ever do that again.
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I’ve had my light flashing, range at zero and the needle bending round the stop when I pulled into a petrol station - at least, where my (out of date) sat nav said there was one…
 
I’ve pulled into the drive on 0% before having knowingly driven past a bunch of rapid chargers while thinking ‘nah it’s peeing it down, I’ll make it’.

The power limit hasn’t kicked in yet so I probably had 20 miles left in it despite it showing 0% on the dash for at least a mile from home.
 
Tinders said:
I think now that its fairly easily possible to charge a car to ~80% in 40 odd mins, the range question should go away. Even with my high mileage, i can make an EV work for me. The only thing holding me back is that when i have to charge on the road, it costs me too much, as the mileage rate set by HMRC is too low and doesnt recompence me. Ie one of my typical journeys to Scotland, will end up costing me £43 out of my own pocket, i could stomach that if i had the BIK savings, unfortunately the majority of EV's now have a fairly hefty personal contribution on our company car scheme. I think the cheap EV motoring via company car route has gone now, unless you go the uber cheap option ie MG4.

I would have no issue in having a I4,ID7,Ariya or P2 as my daily. Still cant stomach a Tesla or the korean offerings though
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company may need to recognise that EV's would work for their employees and find more competitive leases -
neighbour who works for water company basically said everyone had to have one .... and, that becomes part of their green credentials (leaks aside)
 
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