EV general discussion

[413x]

Not been to Cardiff since 2017 but quite an unlucky city for me regarding driving. In all my many years of driving, covering many many miles, I've only be ticketed for two driving offences. Both times in Cardiff and both times while there trying to find a client I was going to for the first time. Dunno if unlucky or the place is rigged to catch as many as possible, especially those who don't know the place well. Last time I accidently pulled into a bus lane that I couldn't get out of as it then curved off to the left and the other lane was for buses going in other direction. Looked up and there it was, a camera looking down on my silly mistake. Prior to that it was a gatso somewhere, back in 2005 I think.
I like the place but wouldn't be too excited to go back there again to meet a client

Its crazy now. It's probably great if you're a cyclist and live close. But as a car driver it is very anti car.

2 years ago it would take me 20 mins to get into town, parked and 1 pound for parking all day after 6. No traffic as it was straight in.

Now it's 30+ (traffic dependant) and 3 per hour 24 hours a day charging.

All the central car parks are on a new one way system so traffic gets thick. I've been waiting 30mins for the last half mile on busy day. So now I park out of city centre and walk in. But it's become a chore. After work you're talking 1.5 hours walking+car of travel time where before it was 50 mins. It's just not appealing to go to social events anymore unless it's worth it.

Here's an example... Old route.. Right now.

New route

 

[Tinders]

0.

This is what I would get with sal-sac work scheme for a model 3

No deposit, 5000 free charging (would probably be useless to me), 24 months, 5000 miles.

No thanks!
That's the price after sal-sac!

As a conventional company car, that would cost me a personal contribution of £150, which means no tax. That’s for a 3 year term at 25k miles. Tesla are not cheap. VW, Merc , Lexus and polestar seem to be the cars with deals.

 

[crazyDAJT]

This is what I would get with sal-sac work scheme for a model 3

No deposit, 5000 free charging (would probably be useless to me), 24 months, 5000 miles.

No thanks!
That's the price after sal-sac!

I take it you are not a 40% rate payer or the salary sacrificed takes you below the threshold. The SS only works if the full value is from the higher rate band. Otherwise it cheaper to lease one private.

 

[Homer-Simpson]

Had a test drive in the Ioniq 5N this morning, it is the first EV I have driven to raise a proper chuckle and I could barely even scratch the surface on a limited test drive, ignoring its size it’s a good fit for me, I like how it looks and its gimmicks like the sound generator, it sounds completely false when sat in it stationary, like something from grand turismo but once you are driving you just take its input as intended, it works well, as did the gear system, nice and responsive, you wouldn’t know it didn’t have a gearbox and engine, had ICE like delivery too with torque ramping up over the rev range, I liked that, handled quite well as far as I could tell, as a daily driver even in it is hardest sport plus suspension setting it rides lumps and bumps well, really is a lot to like here. Didn’t feel as heavy as its 2.3 tonne weight might suggest.

It’s not without its downsides

The UI is baffling, the salesman didn’t have a clue (I’m sure I’d figure it out eventually, after a training course ) the steering wheel obscures some.
You sit really high despite them lowering the seat for the N.
Did I mention it was big using something this size as personal city transport is a bit urrgh.
Zero steering feel (pretty standard it seems in modern cars ) very much a trust the grip thing
Its really strong money at £65k for what it feels like inside, it doesn’t give off a premium vibe to match.
It bings and bongs at everything, it’s going to need a big preflight checklist to turn stuff off and set it up so I can enjoy it.
It’s not going to be cheap to run EV, car indicated that I did 2miles per kw, I wasn’t even being a nutter, drive was a mix of cross town and motorway, so its not going to be a 278 miles car, be lucky to get more than half that. I don’t do many miles but this might even be low will need to see what owners get IRL.
A digital rearview mirror is not pleasant

Clearly shortages are no longer effecting things, or probably more likely no one is buying, I can be in one next week, just need to decide if I go this route and keep missus happy or go 2 seater ICE and put up with miss grumpy face who believes I should have 4 seats just in case.

Have you decided yet? Still waiting for my dealer to get in contact about a test drive. Started off with lots of comms and they gave me a big list of cars that are currently available and then radio silence. Not too sure if they are expecting people to buy without any type of test drive

 

[Spleen Sauce]

I asked our local dealership about the Ioniq 5N last week, apparently they’ve now sold the demo car and won’t be getting another due to ‘a lack of interest’. Which I find incredibly hard to believe.

 

[Journey]

I asked our local dealership about the Ioniq 5N last week, apparently they’ve now sold the demo car and won’t be getting another due to ‘a lack of interest’. Which I find incredibly hard to believe.

Issue with Hyundai is they are still between the old cheap and cheerful brand image, and the new more premium offerings that they've moved to with BEV's, so interest at dealers may not reflect interest in actual product.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I don’t find it hard to believe.

It’s an incredibly expensive Hyundai and your typical ‘N’ buyer is after an ICE hot hatch and not an BEV ‘sports SUV’.

I’m surprised Tesla sell as many Model Y performance as they do and it’s still only a small % of sales.

Split all the Ionic 5 N sales over all the individual dealers and they are probably only shifting a few year a year each. That probably isn’t worth keeping a demo car in every dealer for.

 

[sandys]

Have you decided yet? Still waiting for my dealer to get in contact about a test drive. Started off with lots of comms and they gave me a big list of cars that are currently available and then radio silence. Not too sure if they are expecting people to buy without any type of test drive

I think it comes with some special insurance requirements in the dealership as the salesman wasn't allowed to drive it on the road, I had to take it out

I'm torn, I like it, its fun and also its very sensible from an ownership perspective at least (I don't worry about deprecation) as someone who buys and drives cars till it dies, but its 65k for a Hyundai that despite its ability is not something that has the lust after thing, is a bit low rent etc, its a strong commitment for something that I reckon is just the start on the software side for EVs and other will take cues from and perhaps do even better in a nicer package.

That said it's still on my list because I did enjoy it, but I will likely remain ICE with something like an Emira which I could look at all day long and enjoy on a B road or track without too many concerns, course its slow in comparison but fast enough for me.

At a year old when its ~40-45k it'd be more palatable.

It'd be a great replacement for my XC60 if it towed.

 

[JustBen]

I take it you are not a 40% rate payer or the salary sacrificed takes you below the threshold. The SS only works if the full value is from the higher rate band. Otherwise it cheaper to lease one private.

might be the 2 years? I just checked and if i get a model 3 over 2 years with 15k miles over the 2 years its £576 a month and i'm in the 40% bracket.
£478 over 3 years.
Ours is through arval, i just find it's a tadge expensive to move me away from owning my own car more so the because the long range tesla's are a lot more a month. Probs be better off going to Tesla direct and paying their finance.

 

[Penfold101]

I asked our local dealership about the Ioniq 5N last week, apparently they’ve now sold the demo car and won’t be getting another due to ‘a lack of interest’. Which I find incredibly hard to believe.

It’s a bit of a beast…

 

[pc-guy]

I asked our local dealership about the Ioniq 5N last week, apparently they’ve now sold the demo car and won’t be getting another due to ‘a lack of interest’. Which I find incredibly hard to believe.

I don’t think average person is looking for a lambo equivalent of a Hyundai; the mind share just isn’t there.

Also people ain’t tipped to buy EV because of performance along. Most people switch for other reasons and the performance comes as added bonus.

 

[m4rmite]

It’s a bit of a beast…

It certainly makes the lambo look poor value for money, performance wise.
Or the 5n , exceptional value for money.

 

[OldKitMan]

Hi guys, well I am picking up an EV next week, can anyone tell me the battery percentage when to charge and be full at? In order to prolong the battery life?

Much appreciated

One thing to bear in mind is how the cells balance as well, they might only balance when it's completely full so you can end up with some range discrepancies if the cell voltages are all over the place.

DC charging slows down once it gets to about 80%
AC charging doesn't tend to slow down

Charging will continue a little even once the battery is at an indicated 100% as it's doing balancing

Personally, I tend to find that there will be a cheap rate on agile often enough for me to charge up to 100%, it makes sense to me to do that when I'm getting paid to charge the car or a few pence per kWh.

In terms of maximising miles per kWh you don't want to charge up to 100% as the regen can't work optimally, I find the regen works best once the battery is below 80% so 80% would be the best way to maximise range with regen but getting paid to charge or paying a few pence is always worth it.

 

[crazyDAJT]

might be the 2 years? I just checked and if i get a model 3 over 2 years with 15k miles over the 2 years its £576 a month and i'm in the 40% bracket.
£478 over 3 years.
Ours is through arval, i just find it's a tadge expensive to move me away from owning my own car more so the because the long range tesla's are a lot more a month. Probs be better off going to Tesla direct and paying their finance.

Missed the 2 years so sounds about right. The SS are only worth it if you are wanting a new car.

Won’t it be £0 upfront, inc insurance + maintenance?

Just looking on Tesla’s website and the 0% finance looks very close. But you would still have to insure it.

Do you need a Long Range? I couldn’t justify it and am so far happy with just geting a RWD.

 

[JustBen]

Missed the 2 years so sounds about right. The SS are only worth it if you are wanting a new car.

Won’t it be £0 upfront, inc insurance + maintenance?

Just looking on Tesla’s website and the 0% finance looks very close. But you would still have to insure it.

Do you need a Long Range? I couldn’t justify it and am so far happy with just geting a RWD.

Yeh the one at our work is 0 upfront, full insurance/tax all servicing, tyres and whatever else so its hassle free driving you're getting. My brother in law has a BMW IX1 through his scheme and i think regrets it. Finds charging hard work when going far.
Yeh the 0% deal looks alright, then there's always tesla approved used which look tempting.

Erm i'm not sure really around the long range aspect., longest journey i do is a bit over 300 miles once or twice a year. Mostly my driving is maybe 5-10 miles a day. If charging network was great then it wouldn't be a concern. I do have a charger on the house i'm moving into this week.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

What does your brother in law find difficult about charging away from home?

 

[pastymuncher]

It would appear that there is a backlog of orders for the Ohme Home Pro charger as my selected installer still hasn't recieved the one they ordered for me two weeks ago so I still don't have aa installation date. I am managing with the three pin charger ok for the time being plus I am on the Octopus Go tariff and get 5 hours at 8.5p per night but it would be good to get on the Intelligent Pro tariff.

I know my Leaf isn't a fast car by any standard but it's by far the quickest accelerating one that I have ever owned. On Friday I was driving through Rothes towards Elgin in Eco mode (yes I know I said I won't use it again but when I am stuck behind traffic I may as well) and was stuck behind a tractor. Out of Rothes there is a long uphill section on the A941 travelling towards Elgin and it's a great spot for overtaking slower vehicles si I got to my turn to pass the tractor turned off Eco mode and floored it just like I would have done on my B-Max. Holy crap, the car just took off and left me with a huge grin on my face. It may only have a top end around 90mph but what a way it get's there!! I also found out I have a forward parking camera as well as parking in Asda it came on for the first time. That's at least four cameras in this car. I am thinking it was a demonstrator originally due to the fact it has most of the available options. The only one it hasn't got is a spare wheel which is a first for me as I have never had a car without one so hopefully my 20+ year streak of not using a spare will continue. Damn, I love this car!!

 

[JustBen]

Lack of chargers and the time it takes to charge seem to be the biggest headache. He got the top spec IX1 which looking online does around 250 miles and you would assume less most of the time.
My brother has an VW ID3 and when he comes here (around 200 miles away) he just uses his old Peugeot estate. He's mentioned before if he could he would off just got a tesla for the easy charging

 

[Penfold101]

It would appear that there is a backlog of orders for the Ohme Home Pro charger as my selected installer still hasn't recieved the one they ordered for me two weeks ago so I still don't have aa installation date. I am managing with the three pin charger ok for the time being plus I am on the Octopus Go tariff and get 5 hours at 8.5p per night but it would be good to get on the Intelligent Pro tariff.

I know my Leaf isn't a fast car by any standard but it's by far the quickest accelerating one that I have ever owned. On Friday I was driving through Rothes towards Elgin in Eco mode (yes I know I said I won't use it again but when I am stuck behind traffic I may as well) and was stuck behind a tractor. Out of Rothes there is a long uphill section on the A941 travelling towards Elgin and it's a great spot for overtaking slower vehicles si I got to my turn to pass the tractor turned off Eco mode and floored it just like I would have done on my B-Max. Holy crap, the car just took off and left me with a huge grin on my face. It may only have a top end around 90mph but what a way it get's there!! I also found out I have a forward parking camera as well as parking in Asda it came on for the first time. That's at least four cameras in this car. I am thinking it was a demonstrator originally due to the fact it has most of the available options. The only one it hasn't got is a spare wheel which is a first for me as I have never had a car without one so hopefully my 20+ year streak of not using a spare will continue. Damn, I love this car!!

Unrelated - as someone who grew up in Elgin in the 90’s, I love being able to relate to all your posts…

As it happens, I was up there a year ago for a family get together and had a Polestar as a hire car. I went and bought one a week later!

 

[Journey]

Lack of chargers and the time it takes to charge seem to be the biggest headache. He got the top spec IX1 which looking online does around 250 miles and you would assume less most of the time.

iX1 does 135kW peak, which is pretty reasonable, especially if you consider it'll do 230-250 miles in this weather, so 180-200ish miles before needing to charge, which is 3 hours driving. 10-70% on an iX1 is around 25 mins as it does slow down, as it is a low voltage pack in the car.
Maybe he needs to learn the way his car behaves, as for charging locations, no idea where he is going so can't comment.