EV general discussion

[silvagti]

Instant torque of an electric motor will surely make it feel very peppy!

Yeah, 0-60 in 8 seconds is pretty nippy. Plenty quick enough for most folk.

I guess there’s the Alpine version if you want more but I expect that will be priced close to £40k and I’m not convinced it offers enough beyond the Renault 5 to justify the extra cash. I wouldn’t blame anyone for buying the Alpine a290 though as it looks amazing!

 

[MrRockliffe]

Looking at the Cupra Born to replace the BMW 320d. Only just got it but my job has changed recently and my 100 mile trip twice a week has been eliminated. I’m now based almost exclusively at home and do a few short journeys


At £260 a month, is there anything better?



@Simon you’ve got one right? How are you getting on with it

 

[Stu999]

I guess there’s the Alpine version if you want more but I expect that will be priced close to £40k and I’m not convinced it offers enough beyond the Renault 5 to justify the extra cash.

Yeah, it’s only 220bhp IIRC, not a massive difference for that money.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Update on the KIA EV6 they test drove it and said all fine then they went to move it again and the mechanic got locked inside and they found 4 faults needing new parts from KIA , expect a couple of weeks wait we've been told.

I think what they meant is 'we don't know what's wrong with it so we are going to replace things until it starts working again.'

 

[Simon]

Looking at the Cupra Born to replace the BMW 320d. Only just got it but my job has changed recently and my 100 mile trip twice a week has been eliminated. I’m now based almost exclusively at home and do a few short journeys


At £260 a month, is there anything better?



@Simon you’ve got one right? How are you getting on with it

It’s a great car and bargain at that price. I can’t fault mine (V2 58kwh) Was in London today in it and driving in traffic with ACC is effortless. The best active cruise I’ve driven. 4.9m/kwh over 50miles since charging too. It handles well and has a bit more about it than most the generic EVs

20k miles and 19months. Hardly use my M3 now tbh.

Is that price a eboost?

 

[MrRockliffe]

It’s a great car and bargain at that price. I can’t fault mine (V2 58kwh) Was in London today in it and driving in traffic with ACC is effortless. The best active cruise I’ve driven. 4.9m/kwh over 50miles since charging too. It handles well and has a bit more about it than most the generic EVs

20k miles and 19months. Hardly use my M3 now tbh.

Is that price a eboost?

Yes, V3 e boost

 

[squerble]

Folks, Ive a question about Octopus intelligent, if a smart charge plan is created once the car is plugged in, does that mean those periods will all be at the cheaper rate? Car is at 40% and ive plugged it in and its give me slots from 23.00 to 06.30 and 7-7.30.

Quite shocked at the efficiency on the ID7, well shocked at the difference the temps make. It was cold this morning and i was struggling to get to 2.9m/kwh on the school run (15mile round trip), temps were 6c. This hit 3.7 on a trip to a 75miles trip across the M6 and A14 later in the morning. In the afternoon temps were 17c and i was getting 4.4 on the return trip, much of this was in 50mph average speed zones though.

Very impressed with the car so far, definately a good attempt by the boys from Wolfsburg

Does the/your ID.7 have a heat pump? If not, resistive heaters don’t half kill efficiency. I remember the energy screen on my Kona often saying it was pulling 3kW+ for the heater.

 

[Tinders]

No HP, couldn’t justify the 1k cost. Just did some basic calcs and I did 190 miles and efficiency was 3.9. I can live with that.

 

[Simon]

No HP, couldn’t justify the 1k cost. Just did some basic calcs and I did 190 miles and efficiency was 3.9. I can live with that.

Yeh pointless. When’s it’s mega cold they don’t really help either

 

[ICDP]

Does the/your ID.7 have a heat pump? If not, resistive heaters don’t half kill efficiency. I remember the energy screen on my Kona often saying it was pulling 3kW+ for the heater.

A heat pump is a nice to have but practically a waste of money here in the UK. That 3kWh is barely any more than a heat pump would use all things considered and once the car is warmed up it drops to lower levels. Both our EVs will show a 10 - 15 mile loss of range when I turn the heaters on. One has a heat pump and one doesn’t but the loss is almost identical.

For example literature will tell you a heat pump is 2 or 3 more efficient than resistive heaters. So people then assume that means their EV will go significantly further in winter, if it has a heat pump. What that actually means is that instead of using 3kWh to heat your car up, a heat pump will use 1 - 2kWh. So in winter that means over a long 3 hour journey you will save 3 or 4 kWh.

So at best here in the UK a heat pump will give about 10 - 15 extra miles of range if fitted. How often do you drive beyond the 100% SoC range in winter? Hell I can make up that range by slowing down 2mph on average.

Obviously there may be fringe cases where that extra 10 - 15 miles make a difference. But only you can decide if that is worth the extra £1k it costs on many EVs.

 

[msmalls74]

A heat pump is a waste of money here in the UK. That 3kWh is barely any more than a heat pump would use and once the car is warmed up it drops to lower levels. Both our EVs will show a 10 mile loss of range when I turn the heaters on. One has a heat pump and one doesn’t but the loss is almost identical.

For example literature will tell you a heat pump is 30% - 40% more efficient than resistive heaters. So people then assume that means their EV will go 30% further in winter, if it has a heat pump. What that actually means is that instead of using 3kWh to heat your car up, a heat pump will use 1.6 - 2kWh. So in winter that means over a long few hour journey you will save 3 or 4 kWh.

So at best a heat pump will give about 10 - 15 extra miles of range on most EVs fitted with them. How often do you drive beyond the 100% SoC range in winter? Hell I can make up that range by slowing down 2mph on average.

Obviously there may be fringe cases where that extra 10 - 15 miles make a difference. But only you can decide if that is worth the extra £1k it costs on many EVs.

I had a similar thought when getting my ioniq 5. A heatpump was a £900 option that increaed my monthly cost by more than it would save me using less energy for a few weeks a year. Plus with heated seats and steering wheel, I didn't use the heating much apart from morning defrosts etc.

 

[ICDP]

I had a similar thought when getting my ioniq 5. A heatpump was a £900 option that increaed my monthly cost by more than it would save me using less energy for a few weeks a year. Plus with heated seats and steering wheel, I didn't use the heating much apart from morning defrosts etc.

My experience with two EVs is:

C40 summer/winter range. ~250/190 (or about 25% drop)
I-Pace summer/winter range. ~270/220 (or about 18.5% drop)

The delta in winter is marginal at about 7%.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Tesla just ditched the Model Y standard range RWD in Europe.

We now get:
Long range RWD with 372 miles wltp at @ £47k
Long range AWD with 331 miles WLTP @ £52k
Performance at £60k

The old standard range car didn’t have the best range and it made the AWD car look like better value. It’s completely flipped the other way now and the one to buy is definitely the RWD.

It’s 5.7 to 60 so it’s more than fast enough. I’m not sure £5k is worth 1.1 off the 0-60 at the cost of ~30 miles of real range. The Performance never made sense to me given the price and limited changes to the car itself.

Looks like a small price cut to the Long range and it is still 0% APR on all models.

 

[jpaul]

Ed Milliband on r4today addressing the motor manufacturers new memo to govt
didn't say anything useful about their requested improvement of ev affordability to private market, just ranted on objective of increasing charging infrastructure and, tory's 2035, delaying uptake.

 

[squerble]

The old standard range car didn’t have the best range

For the most part, it makes little-to-no difference with how well established and integrated the charging network is. I've certainly never found myself needing the extra range even when making the journey from Liverpool to Margate and back, for example.

I believe this "new" long range RWD model also drops the LFP battery. Whether this is a sign of things to come or just eating up some stock of excess NMC batteries, I don't know.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

For the most part, it makes little-to-no difference with how well established and integrated the charging network is. I've certainly never found myself needing the extra range even when making the journey from Liverpool to Margate and back, for example.

I believe this "new" long range RWD model also drops the LFP battery. Whether this is a sign of things to come or just eating up some stock of excess NMC batteries, I don't know.

I don’t disagree that the RWD probably has enough range, I used to run a RWD 3 and it was never an issue. It just a sub 300 WLTP doesn’t look great on paper in a more competitive market.

I think it’s safe to conclude it’s dropped the LFP. I don’t think an LFP battery that size wouldn’t physically fit in the same space. Certainly not the cells they were using anyway.

Tariffs could potentially be a factor as the LFP packs would be sourced from CATL in China. Competition could be the other factor, rather than cutting the price, they have increased the range to make it more competitive and maintained the price.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

It is EU tarriff day aswell - i wonder if thats a reason to hold for now?

The European Union will today vote to make the temporary tariffs on Chinese manufacturers – including BYD, MG-owner SAIC and Lotus-, Polestar- and Volvo-parent Geely – permanent. Currently, SAIC is charged an extra 37.6% on the wholesale price of imported EVs on top of the 10% that it was already required to pay. BYD is charged an extra 17.4% while Geely is hit with an additional 19.9%.

 

[nam]

End of MG ?

who will survive after this

BBC News - Electric cars: EU hits China with tariffs in battle for sales - BBC News

Electric cars: EU hits China with tariffs in battle for sales

The vote risks sparking a trade war as the EU looks to protect its own car makers.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[b0rn2sk8]

End of MG ?

who will survive after this

BBC News - Electric cars: EU hits China with tariffs in battle for sales - BBC News

Electric cars: EU hits China with tariffs in battle for sales

The vote risks sparking a trade war as the EU looks to protect its own car makers.

www.bbc.co.uk

Last time I checked, due to an idiotic (sorry but it’s true…) vote in 2016, we are no longer in the EU.

MG (or SIAC - the group who own MG) will be fine, the EU isn’t make or break for their survival and can probably be price competitive with a Stelantis car anyway.

Edit: It’s not just the ‘budget’ end of the market - Geely own Volvo and Polestar and I think all Polestars are made in China at the moment. Not sure about Volvo.

 

[Jonnycoupe]