EV general discussion

It’s no different to queuing at the barbers or a bar. You take note of who is already waiting and slot in when the last person who was there before you takes their turn.

That said, I’ve only ever queued once and it was pretty painless given I was first and the queue formed behind me.
 
Last edited:
Hedge said:
I hope there is some kind of cutoff point on public chargers where it stops some old codger plugging in for hours chasing the last 20%. :)
Click to expand...
There isn't, but you won't find it an issue honestly

Only ever had congestion at motorway services so try and avoid the smaller sites and aim for a big hub (6-12+ chargers)
 
Ive publicly charged 10-12 times since getting the car in October, ive not had to wait once tbf. I tend to go to larger chargers, Tesla and Ionity. I went to france in the october hols, and didnt have any waits there either.
 
Queued once. It was a pain as the next available charger turned out to be broken. Back to the back of the queue!
 
On a positive note, the Model Y is proving to be stellar in the colder weather compared to our ID.3 (non heat pump)

Last couple of days (mileage is round trip)
-4.5C / 13.4 Miles / Urban (30-50mph) = 3.52m/kwh
3C / 78 Miles / Motorway (70-75mph) = 3.58m/kwh (one way we did 70, the other 75)
3C / 10.5 Miles / Urban (30- 50) = 4.07m/kwh

Our ID.3 was quite poor in winter at times,, the shorter journeys above would be 2.5-2.8 m/kWh


chanjy said:
That last one is sensible, given it's on the tourist route to Devon/Cornwall haha bet there's plenty of trailers/caravans going past
Click to expand...
That part of south devon is well served:

- 16 at Buckfastleigh (A38)
- 8 At Kennford (A38)
- 64 at Exeter Services. (Just a few miles after A38 blends to M5)
- Grid serve got planning 2 years ago for 32 in Plymouth.

Nice it's getting so many.. compared to the Lake District which is almost entirely barren of any real hubs, everyone fighting over the limited number in booths super markets and the odd 1 or 2 fast chargers dotted around that are largely broken..
 
Demon said:
Nice it's getting so many.. compared to the Lake District which is almost entirely barren of any real hubs, everyone fighting over the limited number in booths super markets and the odd 1 or 2 fast chargers dotted around that are largely broken..
Click to expand...
This really needs to change imo, there are so many postcode lotteries in this country where purely based on where you live depends on if your schools or doctors or dentists are functional or not.

if the government is serious about getting everyone, even those who cant home charge, off fossil fuel powered cars then the ability to charge your car cant become another one.

I also dont think this is something to "let the markets decide" because if that is the way they go then there will be little incentive to install chargers where they wont make a decent profit.... where as there needs to be service everywhere not just where there is money to be made.
 
Last edited:
Im not convinced somewhere like the lakes needs a load of rapid charging hubs.

The typical tourist profile tends to be:
You tend to either go there and stay for a few days which is best handled with type 2 charging.

Or you are passing by up the M6 which is best handled via motorway service areas.

Rural areas tend to have a the highest percentage of housing with off street parking for those who live there.

Yes there needs to be some rapid chargers but as I say I’m not convinced they really need a large number of big hubs, not that they have the grid for that in any case.

The charging providers all know this and are building accordingly.
 
Demon said:
On a positive note, the Model Y is proving to be stellar in the colder weather compared to our ID.3 (non heat pump)

Last couple of days (mileage is round trip)
-4.5C / 13.4 Miles / Urban (30-50mph) = 3.52m/kwh
3C / 78 Miles / Motorway (70-75mph) = 3.58m/kwh (one way we did 70, the other 75)
3C / 10.5 Miles / Urban (30- 50) = 4.07m/kwh

Our ID.3 was quite poor in winter at times,, the shorter journeys above would be 2.5-2.8 m/kWh
Click to expand...

Had the worst range with the ID7 on Saturday, started from home with a pre heated car and 98% and a round trip to Liverpool, meant i got home with 8%, that would mean a range of 215-220 (2.8 m/kwh) from full to empty. It was below zero most of the way and for once i managed to do 70+ all of the way on the autobahn. Still i expected worse, so not all bad, and plenty of options to charge along the way if i needed.
 
Demon said:
Nice it's getting so many.. compared to the Lake District which is almost entirely barren of any real hubs, everyone fighting over the limited number in booths super markets and the odd 1 or 2 fast chargers dotted around that are largely broken..
Click to expand...

I was about to post saying that Osprey site seems a bit redundant given the large number of rapids at Exeter, and wouldn't it be better if they were farther south... but having had a quick look on Zap-Map, it seems there's been significant improvement in the area since I was last down there 18 months ago :)

You're right about the Lake District though, we stayed up in Keswick last October (so hardly peak season), and even then, it was very much hit and miss as to whether we could charge on one of the 3 working chargers at Booths (not ideal when you arrive with ~20 miles worth of charge left and you're staying 5 miles away from the charger! :p)

b0rn2sk8 said:
The typical tourist profile tends to be:
You tend to either go there and stay for a few days which is best handled with type 2 charging.
Click to expand...

That depends entirely where the type 2 charging is though. It's fine if you're staying at a hotel/holiday let which has a charger, or in a town which has a good number of public chargers.

If that's not the case then do you really want to be restricted to visiting somewhere you can charge (if you're lucky), or having to spend several hours of your holiday waiting for the car to charge?
 
Last edited:
I was not saying there is enough type 2 charging installed already. But in principle the primary charging solution for a holiday destination is type 2 charging.

Ideally that’s at your accommodation but there should also be decent provision in all the public car parks. As you say, you don’t want to be waiting around at chargers for the car to charge, to putting provision where cars are normally parked for long periods is the way forward.

It also doesn’t make financial sense to install a load of big rapid charging hubs that no one will use out of season.

The lakes are not exactly big and daily milage isn’t massive so you don’t need a high ratio of chargers to vehicles either.

I’ve been to the lakes in decent years, I charged at my accommodation on a couple of evenings and that was that. No drama, no waiting and the only rapid charger I needed to use was on the motorway to get there as it’s a 5-6 hour drive to get there.
 
I’ve gone to Cornwall loads, never had an Airbnb with charging just topped up out and about with DC.

Why are you trying to push your opinion as fact when your holiday is shed dragging?

Edit: I guess this is why I don’t mind paying a bit more for public chargers if during busy periods it generates enough for the operaters to maintain the operation of the site during quieter times for the benefit of all.
 
Last edited:
Who said anything about towing…?

Just because my opinion and experience is different to yours it doesn’t make it wrong.

Perhaps if you spent less time making snide comments about other posters, the conversation might be more meaningful.
 
I do both, dont have an opinion either way. Just trying to open your eyes to other people. Who said anything about towing in an EV? You really just asked that ?

Thats the problem with shed dragger, they get emosh about holidays - but then id be angry if i had to poop in a cupboard. Dont confuse snide with value - seems to be your favourite word this week. 100% happy to up my game if you love the attention? Nasher got unblocked and promoted since his recent career advice.
 
I made zero reference to towing in my post, that’s all your assumption.

Likewise just because someone owns a caravan, doesn’t mean every time they leave the house they have their metal tent in convoy.

Funny really as it’s also the first time I’ve used snide this week, give it time it’s only Monday.
 
I doubt my car will tow an airstream or could I justify the price.

It’s a GRP-insulation-GRP sandwich so yes plastic and metal for structural elements. Wood is just used in the interior cabinetry on most mainstream stuff these days.
 
I remember the CNC paths for my first job after uni. A short job at Avondale caravans before they went bust doing the interior cut patterns and plumbing layouts. Just doing the same to JLR now hey @Nasher ? :p
 
SexyGreyFox said:
My best mate is a caravanner and he's looked into EVs, he's now give up after looking at this - https://www.baileyofbristol.co.uk/n...tow-caravans-the-7-best-ev-tow-cars-for-2024/
His caravan is a Bailey Barcelona which isn't even on that list because of it's size.
Click to expand...
I think you would need something like an ioniq 9 to tow one of the larger caravans.

my mate has a van pretty much as big as you can get in the uk, and he ended up having to buy a new car for it (an ICE car). his tesla model y would not come close (not legally..... i am sure technically it would do it!).
 
Last edited:
Lake district - possibly more economic, given their seasonality (more so than cornwall?), to have existing petrol stations wired up each with a few 50kw chargers, rather than infrastructure/grid for larger hubs,
maybe they are not dropping much in price yet like home-chargers&heat-pumps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom