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EV general discussion

My weekly AliBaba mod for my Model 3 :cry:

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yeah (or is it @Yaayuh! :cry: ) also note your home's wiring. if it's a victorian home that's never been rewired in the last century i'd be cautious pulling a full continuous 10A
8A is probably safer for the longevity of your home's wiring
 
Granny leads, which to go for/avoid are they all pretty much the same?

Will only be used in emergency, and at a family member's house when I visit. Not needed one in 2 years of EV ownership.

Thought I'd ask before pulling the trigger on this: https://toughleads.co.uk/products/advanced-granny-chargers?variant=47812191224130
Looks good. Key thing you want is an in plug temperature sensor and that has one. Will throttle back or stop the charging if the socket gets too hot.
 
So, I think i'll stick with my i3 50 First Edition order for now. I sold my previous car a little too quickly (was expecting it to take a while as it was quite a niche car and the price reflected that, but the ad was on the owners group for all of 5 minutes before it sold).

This means I have two months before I take delivery of the i3, with one month to go before it goes into production. Being 100% new to the world of EV (and getting over the sense of betrayal I was feeling to those that know me who never thought I'd go electric!), this gave me two months to look at other options. At this stage I felt committed to going electric. The charger was installed yesterday.

With the eldest child now having his own car, the need for a large boot is no longer critical to requirements, though it's a nice to have. Range, however, is critical since part of my reasoning for going electric at this point and selling the Alpina (a move that has upset some), is that the range and infrastructure is suitable. (For me, personally, anyway.)

In the space of two weeks I've driven the MY26 BYD Seal, iX3 40, i4 eDrive 40 and the Enyaq vRS (also an MY26)

All this, in an effort to see what else was out there. I wasn't willing to consider other cars, not interested in KIA, MG, Mercedes, VW, etc.

Now, bear in mind that actually, it's impossible at this point in the UK, as the public, to test, sit in, or review in-depth, the i3. Dealers don't have them yet, the few recent walk arounds on youtube are just different dealers being invited down to BMW HQ for the one i3 that seems to be in the country. No driving reviews, no info on dimensions (especially the boot!), etc.

Hopefully in a few weeks time the dealer will have one (they don't know when exactly, but the hope is end of September).

The only competitors for me, are the Seal, and the iX3. The i4 interior isn't different enough from the Alpina (I had the G21 Touring) for me. When I choose to change cars, the next car needs to be very different, drivetrain aside.

The Enyaq was horrible. I was genuinely disappointed as I'd gone to test this in the hope it was going to change my mind. It was a vRS in Green and in my opinion, it looked great. Granted, it's an SUV and I wasn't specifically after one but lordy, that boot space! But driving it made me wonder what Enyaq the various reviewers out there were driving, because it seemed like I was driving something different (and not in a good way). It was wallowy, lacked confidence in the corners and the brakes were very much lacking that actual feeling of braking.

I think the benefit of testing the Enyaq and the iX3 in the same afternoon had shown me what the real differences were. Ok, the iX3 is, on paper, about £10-12k more, but to me, that would be worth it. Even in it's hobbled form with less range, power, the iX3 40 just felt better to drive. I'm not after the 40 though, if i did go for an SUV, it'd be the 50, and possibly slightly used, they are out there, since the 50 brand new now has silly lead times since BMW have prioritised getting the 40 out there, but the 50 has the range.

What did impress me was the Seal, and to be fair, since the designer came from the premium/luxury end of the German market, the Seal has benefitted from this. My concerns over the car itself is more in the resale, and how quickly BYD are likely to improve on the batteries that they are well known for. In the 3 years or so I'm likely to keep this, by then there'll be a flood of used BYD's, with old battery tech and a part of me feels like this will make it harder to move on when the time to change, comes, plus MY26 Seals still have 150kw charging and I would prefer to future proof my patience, with a higher rated charging capacity.

The i3, hopefully (I may very well be wrong), being next-gen, might have slightly better resalability.


So, now I just have to sit and wait.

Waiting is hard, I don't like it.
 
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Weird you liked the Seal but didn’t mention the not so great driving dynamics. I didn’t find it that good when I drove a friend’s as it felt vague, imprecise and lacked feedback. Not terrible but my 2023 Born drives better with better driver feedback (other than straight line performance) and handled corners much nicer. The Born VZ was a step up again.

Either way, enjoy the i3 when it comes.
 
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The dynamics were ok, not great, not terrible, just...ok. I guess I didn't mention them because there was nothing memorable about them. It was competent enough. I'd expect the Born to be better, it's a bit smaller?
 
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It's 2026, you'd have to dig pretty deep to find cars that drive crap nowadays. Some will be a but lardy, a bit top heavy, a bit less grippy etc. But the days of old crap Morris Marinas and Yugos are way behind us. Thankfully.
 
It's 2026, you'd have to dig pretty deep to find cars that drive crap nowadays. Some will be a but lardy, a bit top heavy, a bit less grippy etc. But the days of old crap Morris Marinas and Yugos are way behind us. Thankfully.

Just a touch of a strawman there maybe :)

Yes you are unlikely to get the old Morris Marina type handling on any modern car, but not all modern cars are created equal for handling.

Having said that the loaner Kona EV I had a few years back was pretty dire.
 
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