EV general discussion

I'm incredibly tempted by the model 3 given the price, albeit not ideal as my car doesn't go back for another few months (plus it's not actually the kind of car I was looking for so the boss may end up with the family car).

Drove one at the weekend, fairly impressed all round tbh. Doesn't feel remotely basic, albeit the lack of any buttons is initially a bit annoying as is lack of Android auto, offset by good in built nav. Nothing else at the same kind of monthly (either privately or through my company car scheme) really comes close. Equivalent cars, that is mostly prefer are all the equivalent of £150/month more making it very tempting.

That's exactly why I ended up ordering one. It's a nice place to sit but I do miss the lack of buttons and all things considered if I'd found an EV6 for the same money I'd have gone for that instead. The Tesla was just so much cheaper so ultimately won out.
 
How is over 10K a year nothing?
In the context of buying an EV, without home charging, to save on fuel costs at 200 miles a week any potential savings are practically nothing. I mean, we are talking in the realms of around a tenner a week.
 
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Depends a lot what kind of miles you are doing as well - known vs unknown roads as well as types of roads and traffic, etc. 10s of thousands of easy off-peak motorway miles is nothing compared to low thousands of busy traffic :(
 
In the context of buying an EV, without home charging, to save on fuel costs at 200 miles a week any potential savings are practically nothing. I mean, we are talking in the realms of around a tenner a week.
Exactly

Also claims of 5.5 from a tesla aren’t really helping the maths. Thats very unlikely based on my experience.
 
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In the context of buying an EV, without home charging, to save on fuel costs at 200 miles a week any potential savings are practically nothing. I mean, we are talking in the realms of around a tenner a week.

There’s 52 weeks a year and doing the maths that means £500 per year savings. It sounds insignificant until you realise most people drive all their adult life.

A friend is replacing her old car and she has £12k budget and usually keeps her cars for 8-10 years and does ~10k miles per year. I have been explaining that the EV ownership savings of £1000 - £1200 per year, would basically mean her car replacement every 8-10 years is free. Add to this her choice of vehicle has some net positive lifestyle benefits.
 
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To hit 3mpkWh in a Model 3 you'd be doing 100MPH everywhere at -15c :D

Realistically it's more like 10.5p per mile peak, and 6p off peak as an average across the year, this time of year as it is warming up and if you do a lot of 'round town' you'll see 5.5mpkWh or better. You've not actually said how many miles you do per week either, that will make a big difference to convenience.
Where are these numbers from ?
 
There’s 52 weeks a year and doing the maths that means £500 per year savings. It sounds insignificant until you realise most people drive all their adult life.
Depends how much you value your time really, given the context of the discussion is whether it's yet cost effective to get one with no home charging and doing all the charging at a local Tesla supercharger - if someone said they'd pay me £500 per year to spend half an hour every week sat at a Tesla charger, I don't think i'd be jumping at the opportunity.
 
Depends how much you value your time really, given the context of the discussion is whether it's yet cost effective to get one with no home charging and doing all the charging at a local Tesla supercharger - if someone said they'd pay me £500 per year to spend half an hour every week sat at a Tesla charger, I don't think i'd be jumping at the opportunity.

Your problem is you are doing the usual human trait of only thinking myopically (not meant as an insult). Others will see zero issue sitting in a Tesco car park for 30 minutes or longer while they watch their latest shows/tiktok/gaming/catch up on WhatsApp etc. Or if they maybe take the dog for a walk while the EV charges. If they weren’t doing it in their car they’d be doing it at home. Hell some people could see getting 30 minutes of peace as a bonus. :)
 
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Your problem is you are doing the usual human trait of only thinking myopically (not meant as an insult). Others will see zero issue sitting in a Tesco car park for 30 minutes or longer while they watch their latest shows/tiktok/gaming/catch up on WhatsApp etc. Or if they maybe take the dog for a walk while the EV charges. If they weren’t doing it in their car they’d be doing it at home. Hell some people could see getting 30 minutes of peace as a bonus. :)
That's why I say it depends how people value their time - if you love sitting in car parks watching TikTok and see that as a valuable use of your time then it sounds like an ideal scenario, sure.
 
That's why I say it depends how people value their time - if you love sitting in car parks watching TikTok and see that as a valuable use of your time then it sounds like an ideal scenario, sure.

Exactly, but to be so dismissive about it says more about you than you can imagine. ;)

Edit: I don’t do this because I have a drive and a home charger. But I know people who save way more than “a tenner a week” by working an 11kWh public charger session in to their lifestyle. This is cheaper still than one 30-40 minute rapid charge.

- Gym
- Shopping
- Walking the dog
- Catching up on social media
- Taking a kid to the park
- Watching their latest shows in peace
 
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Has the additional losses and time from rapid charging a cold battery been factored in?

If you plug in the car it will kick on the heat pump and rear motor (and front motor if fitted) to rapidly heat the battery.

Once it’s up to temperature, it will flip to max cooling.

Being realistic the battery is always going to be cold as you’ll not be coming off hours of driving before plugging in.

You are never going to hit the advertised charge time as it assumes a fully preconditioned battery. In winter it’s going to take a material amount of additional energy and more time to charge the car.

As for getting an EV to save (at best) £500 a year but only relying on public charging, that’s a no from me.

I’ve even got a bank of rapid chargers 5 mins walk from my house, I still wouldn’t even if they were 45p/kWh and not the 69p/kWh they actually are.

You are basically jumping from one volatile market to another. Particularly once you factor in charging you may have to do elsewhere which could wipe out a lot of that saving anyway. Likewise if you want/need a 100% charge, you are sat there for at least an hour.
 
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Has the additional losses and time from rapid charging a cold battery been factored in?

If you plug in the car it will kick on the heat pump and rear motor (and front motor if fitted) to rapidly heat the battery.

Once it’s up to temperature, it will flip to max cooling.

Being realistic the battery is always going to be cold as you’ll not be coming off hours of driving before plugging in.

You are never going to hit the advertised charge time as it assumes a fully preconditioned battery. In winter it’s going to take a material amount of additional energy and more time to charge the car.

As for getting an EV to save (at best) £500 a year but only relying on public charging, that’s a no from me.

I’ve even got a bank of rapid chargers 5 mins walk from my house, I still wouldn’t even if they were 45p/kWh and not the 69p/kWh they actually are.

You are basically jumping from one volatile market to another. Particularly once you factor in charging you may have to do elsewhere which could wipe out a lot of that saving anyway. Likewise if you want/need a 100% charge, you are sat there for at least an hour.
Indeed the fact it charges when asleep is a huge benefit, gets rid of petrol station trips. Relying on public is worse than a fuel station trip.
 
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Exactly, but to be so dismissive about it says more about you than you can imagine. ;)

Edit: I don’t do this because I have a drive and a home charger. But I know people who save way more than “a tenner a week” by working an 11kWh public charger session in to their lifestyle. This is cheaper still than one 30-40 minute rapid charge.

- Gym
- Shopping
- Walking the dog
- Catching up on social media
- Taking a kid to the park
- Watching their latest shows in peace
It’s real world experience. I’d need to sit in my car for 8h a week. How much are 11kw chargers in Ireland. They aren’t cheap here

It’s quite a change going from a 5min fill
 
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Has the additional losses and time from rapid charging a cold battery been factored in?

If you plug in the car it will kick on the heat pump and rear motor (and front motor if fitted) to rapidly heat the battery.

Once it’s up to temperature, it will flip to max cooling.

Being realistic the battery is always going to be cold as you’ll not be coming off hours of driving before plugging in.

You are never going to hit the advertised charge time as it assumes a fully preconditioned battery. In winter it’s going to take a material amount of additional energy and more time to charge the car.

As for getting an EV to save (at best) £500 a year but only relying on public charging, that’s a no from me.

I’ve even got a bank of rapid chargers 5 mins walk from my house, I still wouldn’t even if they were 45p/kWh and not the 69p/kWh they actually are.

You are basically jumping from one volatile market to another. Particularly once you factor in charging you may have to do elsewhere which could wipe out a lot of that saving anyway. Likewise if you want/need a 100% charge, you are sat there for at least an hour.

I’m not disputing it is almost pointless and I would always advise anyone considering an EV without home charging to reconsider. But there are people who do it because it “saves them money”. Like I said many work their lifestyle around 11kWh fast charging and that’s fine by me.
 
It’s real world experience. I’d need to sit in my car for 8h a week. How much are 11kw chargers in Ireland. They aren’t cheap here

It’s quite a change going from a 5min fill

No they aren’t cheap and the saving compared to petrol would be minimal. But some places such as gyms offer cheaper charging for members etc. So yes, in the large scheme of things someone doing this would need to be incredibly committed, but the savings over a number of years are there to be had.

Edit: The person I know who did this worked out they were saving about £50 per month on fuel costs at the time. Not significant but they much preferred how an EV drove.
 
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