EV general discussion

Had my first longer drive from Brum to Cornwall and back, made it the 200 miles to reach the Tesla chargers in Lifton off the A30. I didn't really experience range anxiety as I had Waze telling me the actual miles to go and my car reporting battery level in percent and miles, I just kept an eye to make sure I had enough buffer. I wouldn't like to test it but I think I'd get another 10 miles at 0%. In the final mile to the charger got my first ever low battery warning at 8% (having charged to 95%), it worked out at 3.5 miles per kW. Back to Brum was higher, maybe 3.6 miles per kW. I think the wind helped blow my car home :) Got back with 15% remaining (has charged to 98% the final few % is really slow and not worth waiting for). Had some rain on the way there, no rain on the way back.

I set cruise control to 73mph (70/71 actual), it slows the car down all the way to a complete stop with the radar, omg best thing ever, completely changes the way you drive, don't have to worry about speed cameras for the most part. Also due to when I went not much traffic and spent most of the time just overtaking. Or can occasionally blast past a group of cars having an overtaking fight, floor it for like 30 secs and get past, then back to 70. Hills are nothing in an EV, on some of the hills ICE cars and lorries struggle and slow down on the way up usually go too fast on the way back down, with cruise control it just maintains the same speed regardless.

The police had to stop the whole of the A30 for a few mins due to a broken down ICE car (the ironing is delicious) in the middle of the right turn area, I was first in line, police turned off to let us go, I left everyone in the dust ;) and then the ones travelling faster that 70 caught up :p

There's also 2 new Tesla Superchargers sites open to non-Teslas in Solihull and Bristol btw.
 
Tinders said:
What PHEV do you have that gives 50 miles on pure EV. My 330e is just creeping up to 21 miles with the milder weather. Still worth it with the Octopus cheap tariff, esp for local driving.
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X5 50e PHEV does 63 miles on pure EV
 
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Paul2k12 said:
Excitedly wating for my new Volvo EX30 Twin Performance getting delivered on Thursday, will miss the Tesla M3LR its replacing but lease is up. Read a few issues about the software side of things however I'm sure this will be fixed with OTA updates. Anyone else got one?
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Yes and the software is quite entertaining!
Top tip: when you come to charge the car, particularly at home, you need to turn off and turn on the charging limiter then set the charging limit to 32A. You need to do this every time you charge. Volvo has confirmed this is a problem which will be fixed in an OTA update.
On the plus side, if you remember to do that, it does play nicely with Intelligent Octopus Go.
I suspect you'll get nothing like the range of the Tesla...
 
keyser van someone said:
Had my first longer drive from Brum to Cornwall and back, made it the 200 miles to reach the Tesla chargers in Lifton off the A30. I didn't really experience range anxiety as I had Waze telling me the actual miles to go and my car reporting battery level in percent and miles, I just kept an eye to make sure I had enough buffer. I wouldn't like to test it but I think I'd get another 10 miles at 0%. In the final mile to the charger got my first ever low battery warning at 8% (having charged to 95%), it worked out at 3.5 miles per kW. Back to Brum was higher, maybe 3.6 miles per kW. I think the wind helped blow my car home :) Got back with 15% remaining (has charged to 98% the final few % is really slow and not worth waiting for). Had some rain on the way there, no rain on the way back.

I set cruise control to 73mph (70/71 actual), it slows the car down all the way to a complete stop with the radar, omg best thing ever, completely changes the way you drive, don't have to worry about speed cameras for the most part. Also due to when I went not much traffic and spent most of the time just overtaking. Or can occasionally blast past a group of cars having an overtaking fight, floor it for like 30 secs and get past, then back to 70. Hills are nothing in an EV, on some of the hills ICE cars and lorries struggle and slow down on the way up usually go too fast on the way back down, with cruise control it just maintains the same speed regardless.

The police had to stop the whole of the A30 for a few mins due to a broken down ICE car (the ironing is delicious) in the middle of the right turn area, I was first in line, police turned off to let us go, I left everyone in the dust ;) and then the ones travelling faster that 70 caught up :p

There's also 2 new Tesla Superchargers sites open to non-Teslas in Solihull and Bristol btw.
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Quite an odd post but I'm glad you enjoyed your trip.
 
Tinders said:
What PHEV do you have that gives 50 miles on pure EV. My 330e is just creeping up to 21 miles with the milder weather. Still worth it with the Octopus cheap tariff, esp for local driving.
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our BMW i3 with range extender does winter weather 85 electric miles on mixed driving, summer driving probably close to 110. that is the medium sized 30kwh battery (27.5kwh usable) (which is the largest battery which offered the petrol engine in the UK at least).

if you get the S edition with wider wheels and slightly better performance you can maybe knock 10 miles off that range
 
Greebo said:
X5 50e PHEV does 63 miles on pure EV
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RobPot said:
Yes and the software is quite entertaining!
Top tip: when you come to charge the car, particularly at home, you need to turn off and turn on the charging limiter then set the charging limit to 32A. You need to do this every time you charge. Volvo has confirmed this is a problem which will be fixed in an OTA update.
On the plus side, if you remember to do that, it does play nicely with Intelligent Octopus Go.
I suspect you'll get nothing like the range of the Tesla...
Click to expand...
Cheers, I’m also on the delivery list…

Waiting for my Volvo ex30 TP too, 5-7month delivery ordered back in Feb. Lease is up so E-tron goes back around July.
Can’t wait
 
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keyser van someone said:
Hills are nothing in an EV, on some of the hills ICE cars and lorries struggle and slow down on the way up
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I have never owned a car that cannot travel up a hill on a dual carriageway at the speed limit. I doubt many people on here have.

Most of the things you describe are features of most modern cars of the last 20+ years, not electric cars. What did you drive previously?
 
[TW]Fox said:
I have never owned a car that cannot travel up a hill on a dual carriageway at the speed limit. I doubt many people on here have.

Most of the things you describe are features of most modern cars of the last 20+ years, not electric cars. What did you drive previously?
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i remember my parents 1.2l fuego not liking Porlock hill back in the day.

but admittedly that is an extreme example and in an old car (but it did have the rear window from a porsche so there was that :D )
 
I had a land rover Series III . You were lucky if you could get 70 downhill. :D

Above 50 and you thought you were re-entering earth's atmosphere
 
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Bug One said:
Is this the 25kw battery version? I'd bet good money it doesn't, 40-45 maybe.
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Well in the summer with my 45e I can get 52 miles so why wouldn't the newer model with a higher capacity battery give you 63?

Granted the reality is summer was normally around 45-47 and BMW claimed 50-54 miles on ev range with a usable capacity of 20.9kw from a 24kw battery on the 45e. The new 50e has a bigger usable capacity of 25.7Kw from a 29.5kw battery. A 23% increase in battery capacity.

Why if i am regularly getting 45-47 and best of 52 in my 45e, why shouldnt i expect the see a minimum of 55-57 miles with a maximum of 64 miles plus anything from the improvements in the aerodynamics and efficiency of the electric motors which BMW have claimed they have made?
 
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[TW]Fox said:
I have never owned a car that cannot travel up a hill on a dual carriageway at the speed limit. I doubt many people on here have.

Most of the things you describe are features of most modern cars of the last 20+ years, not electric cars. What did you drive previously?
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I guess it ultimately depends on how much power/torque you have and if that requires to to (manually) drop a cog (or two) or not.

Most smaller cars have tiny engines and a manual gear box, I can see why someone coming from an underpowered car and then jumping in an EV would notice the huge difference in performance going up a hill.

If you are used to driving around in a 3.0 6 cylinder diesel with an 8 speed automatic gear box, I can see why you probably wouldn’t.

Context is everything.
 
Greebo said:
Well in the summer with my 45e I can get 52 miles so why wouldn't the newer model with a higher capacity battery give you 63?

Granted the reality is summer was normally around 45-47 and BMW claimed 50-54 miles on ev range with a usable capacity of 20.9kw from a 24kw battery on the 45e. The new 50e has a bigger usable capacity of 25.7Kw from a 29.5kw battery. A 23% increase in battery capacity.

Why if i am regularly getting 45-47 and best of 52 in my 45e, why shouldnt i expect the see a minimum of 55-57 miles with a maximum of 64 miles plus anything from the improvements in the aerodynamics and efficiency of the electric motors which BMW have claimed they have made?
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Why, because I doubt a big heavy brick of a car with only 25kw battery capacity would get that far under real world conditions.

Is it this car? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEJO33oSxTM

My limited experience of EVs is that when a manufacturer quotes an 'Up to' figure - you should take at least 30% off of it to not be disappointed.

Jonnycoupe said:
Id bet good money its not a 25kw battery.
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Greebo said it's a ~30kwh battery. Maybe 63miles is possible with that much capacity.
 
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Greebo said:
Why if i am regularly getting 45-47 and best of 52 in my 45e, why shouldnt i expect the see a minimum of 55-57 miles with a maximum of 64 miles plus anything from the improvements in the aerodynamics and efficiency of the electric motors which BMW have claimed they have made?
Click to expand...

They've significantly upped the power of the motor, I doubt they have managed to make the motor that much more efficient to compensate so I'd imagine its going to pull more out of the battery to perform but your efficiency is great, if it was the same ballpark mpkw range that'd still be pretty good, loads of range.
 
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