EV general discussion

Journey said:
You short on cash this Christmas, looking for a The Sun or The Daily Fail to buy your story from you - I can see the headline now "Electric car strands family just miles from destination, ruining their child's Christmas nativity!" :cry:
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......Causing travel chaos for miles around and delaying millions reaching their Christmas holiday breaks :p

Seriously - we laugh, but just wait for Friday when the Gretna Green Tesla charger queue click-bait starts again :rolleyes:
 
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bigmike20vt said:
it isnt something i ever want to test in mine, however did it totally die and that was your lot, or were you able to then start the car and move it a few hundred metres to get it somewhere safe?.

i would have been having kittens once i got to single digits, and further more had my wife been with me she would have been beating the snot out of me!.

once the car was in single digits was it fairly accurate or did the last 10 miles range plummet in way less than 10 miles?

final question....
can you push an EV to get it into a charging point? because if not i could imagine actually getting the charge point "hose" (cable) to the car could be a proper ball ache.
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All good questions.

I think it lasted about 1 mile after getting to zero, yep everything shut down and it basically got slower and slower, I managed to get onto a grass verge but it wasn't ideal (hence the Police came to ensure I didn't get rear-ended, even the hazards stopped which I did think was a bit rubbish!

After getting to about 10 miles, when only 3 miles from home, it dropped of a cliff if absolutely didn't give me 10 miles of range!

Very much a 'lessons learned', recovery guys said it happens 'all the time', mainly caused by people getting to a charger to find it 'out of order' and then not enough range to get to the next.

The recovery guy was super helpful and we managed to get the car pointed frontwards onto some fast chargers very close to home, while we'd managed to get it into neutral I wouldn't fancy pushing it!

Once the car has gone completely flat you have to open the doors with the emergency key (the Police helped us Google that one), you also need to get a charge on the 12v otherwise you can't get the car into neutral, apparently you can cause damage to the electric motors if you try and move the car 'in gear'.
 
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HEADRAT said:
After getting to about 10 miles, when only 3 miles from home, it dropped of a cliff if absolutely didn't give me 10 miles of range!
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Damn, that must be a bit annoying. I've got low in the Nissan before - but it's always got as far as it said it would. As paltry as the distances are, the guessometer has never dropped off a cliff like that.
 
HEADRAT said:
All good questions.

I think it lasted about 1 mile after getting to zero, yep everything shut down and it basically got slower and slower, I managed to get onto a grass verge but it wasn't ideal (hence the Police came to ensure I didn't get rear-ended, even the hazards stopped which I did think was a bit rubbish!

After getting to about 10 miles, when only 3 miles from home, it dropped of a cliff if absolutely didn't give me 10 miles of range!

Very much a 'lessons learned', recovery guys said it happens 'all the time', mainly caused by people getting to a charger to find it 'out of order' and then not enough range to get to the next.

The recovery guy was super helpful and we managed to get the car pointed frontwards onto some fast chargers very close to home, while we'd managed to get it into neutral I wouldn't fancy pushing it!

Once the car has gone completely flat you have to open the doors with the emergency key (the Police helped us Google that one), you also need to get a charge on the 12v otherwise you can't get the car into neutral, apparently you can cause damage to the electric motors if you try and move the car 'in gear'.
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wow that is good to know....... ok then mental note.... 15 miles is my new zero!. really once it gets to 10 miles and below you would think the car would be really REALLY conservative on the range not the other way around.

better to say 10 miles and have 15 than say 10 and only have 5!.
 
running batteries low when it’s cold is always extra risky. Only need one module to drop voltage and the BMS will crap itself
 
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Bug One said:
Have you done a full 100% charge recently? I wonder if the pack was slightly unbalanced.
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Yeah did 100% on Friday as was doing a long trip on Saturday

Haggisman said:
Wow, that's pretty dangerous - surely they would run off the standard 12v battery rather than the EV battery?!
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Yeah I think I'm going to get Jag have a look in the new year, the 12v seems to die as well as the hazards only seemed to last for about 1 hour, I presume they must run off 12v

bigmike20vt said:
better to say 10 miles and have 15 than say 10 and only have 5!.
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Yeah my thoughts exactly, I definitely wouldn't have risked it but I was so close to home!
 
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bigmike20vt said:
better to say 10 miles and have 15 than say 10 and only have 5!.
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It is worrying, could be potentially the pack isn't well balanced though. I've had no issues going down to 0%, a few times, but the pack is balanced regularly to ensure that not going to see any issues like that. Have the ODB dongle in the car and Car Scanner/EVNotify apps on phone as well, so handy if you need to check sanity vs the in car display.
 
HEADRAT said:
Yeah did 100% on Friday as was doing a long trip on Saturday



Yeah I think I'm going to get Jag have a look in the new year, the 12v seems to die as well as the hazards only seemed to last for about 1 hour, I presume they must run off 12v


Yeah my thoughts exactly, I definitely wouldn't have risked it but I was so close to home!
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My guess is the 12v would probably usually be topped up from the main HV battery but as that was on zero it was probably not allowed to maintain what's left in the HV battery, so the 12v went flat.
 
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Haggisman said:
Wow, that's pretty dangerous - surely they would run off the standard 12v battery rather than the EV battery?!
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The 12V battery in many EVs is tiny and modern cars when ‘on’ draw a lot of power compared to days gone by. When the high voltage battery runs out of juice, it shuts down the DC-DC converter that keeps the 12V topped up.

If you do run out of charge it’s a good idea to pop the bonnet (particularly if it’s electronic!) and drop the drivers window if your car has electronic door releases or frameless windows before the 12V runs out.

I’ve not tested it but from what I have seen, you’d get anything from 15-45 mins of LV in my car once the HV shuts down.
 
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'it’s a good idea to pop the bonnet (particularly if it’s electronic!) and drop the drivers window if your car has electronic door releases or frameless windows before the 12V runs out.'

This is a great suggestion
 
Closest I ever got to empty was 2% on the French autoroute and that was plenty low enough for me lol

Good to know Jag Assist got there quickly enough although I’d be red faced about having to get the police out too :D
 
Simon said:
running batteries low when it’s cold is always extra risky. Only need one module to drop voltage and the BMS will crap itself
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Yep

If you are at 5% or something I recommend you don't stop. As the batteries cool you could end up not being able to carry on from where you left off with the same SOC
 
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Got to say that unless I was doing continual 0-60 blasts I'd be absolutely fuming that any car didn't get you the 3 miles home when it was showing 10 miles of range. That is ridiculous and hopefully it was caused by a fault that Jag can rectify.

Also pretty crazy that there isn't enough 12v capacity to flash the LED hazards. I'd expect those to be able to run for hours on the sniff of a few mAh.
 
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I bought an eTron 55 S Line sportback today. I've not intentionally been looking to switch to electric but the current offer from Audi and the low PCP prices made me do it. 70 plate in glacier white with sound and comfort packs. 2.5k down and £360 a month over 24 months. Will probably pick it up at the end of the week.
Hoping this will fit into my lifestyle as most of my journeys are short, with a weekly trip to central London. The only long journeys planned are an annual holiday to Europe, but the network is so good over there I'm not worried.
Will hand the car back at the end because the GFV is ridiculous. The car is £36k with a GFV OF 31k.
 
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