EV general discussion

cuke2u · 12 Feb 2026 at 17:58

Our first journey in the i4 away for a few days from it's charging home, granny. Have charged it up to 100%, took 20 hours from 14%, which gives an estimate of 248 miles based upon our last journey. Where we are driving to is only 80 miles away, then we're travelling into Lowestoft on one of those days which is a further 86 mile round trip. Where we are staying also has a granny charger, domestic rate, also so will top it back up to 100% before we come back
No range anxiety at all.

I've only done around 1000 miles since we got the car last June.

J1nxy · 12 Feb 2026 at 18:11

Well what an adventure in car ownership the last 6 weeks have been. From the original purchase and excitement of the Etron GT to its rejection due to the HV Battery failing only 17 days into ownership to the purchase of a Polestar 3 which didn't ever make it to me due to the charging system failing and it being stuck in the compound with no confidence in when the part might appear and how long it'd take to fit (was told maybe mid March...).

Today I collected a new CLA 250+ EQ Premium and so far so good, I have it, it drives, it hasn't blown up, stopped charging or thrown any errors, but I know its early days yet and from the last few weeks to say I'm a bit wary is an understatement..

Journey · 12 Feb 2026 at 19:41

J1nxy said:
Today I collected a new CLA 250+ EQ Premium and so far so good, I have it, it drives, it hasn't blown up, stopped charging or thrown any errors, but I know its early days yet and from the last few weeks to say I'm a bit wary is an understatement..

Did you get one of the new ones with the 400v DC charging convertor?

msmalls74 · 12 Feb 2026 at 19:48

Journey said:
Did you get one of the new ones with the 400v DC charging convertor?

I looked into this as I liked the drive, but was waiting for the shooting brake to hopefully give a bit more room for rear seat passengers. In the configuration for this version it is a £900 option for 400v charging, I assume it will be the same for the standard CLA.

jpaul · 12 Feb 2026 at 20:17

have you got the pan roof lighting leds ? kids will ove it - that capability was stoled from one of the GD posters who wanted a starry roofliner.

Buddy · 12 Feb 2026 at 20:19

Switched my insurance over to the BYD sealion. Annual is about the same. The excess though - £900 compulsory wow. I like LV so sticking with them (mid contract) but that excess is spicy. Bloke said this is standard for a high performance EV. Compare the market says otherwise (admiral). Granted not many choices provider wise.

J1nxy · 12 Feb 2026 at 20:55

Journey said:
Did you get one of the new ones with the 400v DC charging convertor?

No it was a stock car so no 400v option. But to be honest having checked and planned various routes with the range and the prevalance of high power chargers it didn't really bother me.

Jonnycoupe · 12 Feb 2026 at 21:07

Guess only issue is if you wanna use Tesla superchargers

J1nxy · 12 Feb 2026 at 21:30

Jonnycoupe said:
Guess only issue is if you wanna use Tesla superchargers

To be honest charging away from home is such a rare occurrence I'm not overly bothered as I'll just plan around what I can use, which appears to be quite a lot.

b0rn2sk8 · 12 Feb 2026 at 22:00

Jonnycoupe said:
Guess only issue is if you wanna use Tesla superchargers

This.

The remaining 400V chargers which are not Tesla you don't really want to use anyway as nearly all of them very old 50kw units.

bigmike20vt · 13 Feb 2026 at 09:12

just got my 1st ever car tax bill for my EV. I wouldn't mind, we do have to pay our way sooner or later but it does sting that old diesels are not getting clobbered like EVs are.
The government really are removing any incentives to buy 2nd hand EVs over a cheap as chips old diesel instead whilst still subsiding those who can afford new.
they are cowards imo... to scared to treat all old cars the same but just cherry picking EVs.

bigmike20vt · 13 Feb 2026 at 09:20

J1nxy said:
Well what an adventure in car ownership the last 6 weeks have been. From the original purchase and excitement of the Etron GT to its rejection due to the HV Battery failing only 17 days into ownership to the purchase of a Polestar 3 which didn't ever make it to me due to the charging system failing and it being stuck in the compound with no confidence in when the part might appear and how long it'd take to fit (was told maybe mid March...).

Today I collected a new CLA 250+ EQ Premium and so far so good, I have it, it drives, it hasn't blown up, stopped charging or thrown any errors, but I know its early days yet and from the last few weeks to say I'm a bit wary is an understatement..

that is some really bad luck you had. good on you for not giving up on EVs!

tom_e · 13 Feb 2026 at 09:24

Buddy said:
Switched my insurance over to the BYD sealion. Annual is about the same. The excess though - £900 compulsory wow. I like LV so sticking with them (mid contract) but that excess is spicy. Bloke said this is standard for a high performance EV. Compare the market says otherwise (admiral). Granted not many choices provider wise.

Similar to mine and my wife's. I just buy excess insurance for £30 just in case.

bigmike20vt · 13 Feb 2026 at 09:26

Buddy said:
Switched my insurance over to the BYD sealion. Annual is about the same. The excess though - £900 compulsory wow. I like LV so sticking with them (mid contract) but that excess is spicy. Bloke said this is standard for a high performance EV. Compare the market says otherwise (admiral). Granted not many choices provider wise.

I am with admiral.
for a 2 car family for us no other company came close. I think the excess on our i3 is £150 and the ipace £250 but don't hold me to that.
by putting myself as primary driver in the ipace and my wife as primary on the i3, even tho it's 1 policy for both of us on both cars we still get our own NCB as well.

rodenal · 13 Feb 2026 at 09:38

Quite interested in how you get on with the CLA as I'm hoping to get a proper look at a GLB EV when they arrive. Also looking at the "new" RZ which is suspiciously good value on our current co car scheme along with the usual MEB derived larger cars including the hideously ugly (but relatively cheap) Capri

VincentHanna · 13 Feb 2026 at 11:06

b0rn2sk8 said:
This.

The remaining 400V chargers which are not Tesla you don't really want to use anyway as nearly all of them very old 50kw units.

I don't know - There's a lot of 150kw chargers still around as well.

But with decent planning you can avoid them. Hopefully that becomes less of an issue as time goes by.

Buddy · 13 Feb 2026 at 11:09

bigmike20vt said:
I am with admiral.
for a 2 car family for us no other company came close. I think the excess on our i3 is £150 and the ipace £250 but don't hold me to that.
by putting myself as primary driver in the ipace and my wife as primary on the i3, even tho it's 1 policy for both of us on both cars we still get our own NCB as well.

I may well switch over to them come August when my current contract expires. I like LV as generally they tend not do increase your premiums much year to year. I've been with Admiral in the past and you typically have to do the back and forth "I'm leaving" dance at the end of each year as they've doubled your premiums for no reason.

b0rn2sk8 · 13 Feb 2026 at 11:15

VincentHanna said:
I don't know - There's a lot of 150kw chargers still around as well.

But with decent planning you can avoid them. Hopefully that becomes less of an issue as time goes by.

Those 150kw units will nearly all be 800V capable.

Outside of Tesla, Instavolt probably had the biggest network of 400V only units. They’ve replaced the vast majority of them now with 120kw - 175kw units which are 800V capable.

There will still be a few kicking around though.

Even the 60kw units gridserve have at legacy installations are 800V capable.

Outside of this CPS (or what ever they are called these days) had a big network of old 50kw units. There are still a fair amount of legacy Osprey, BP and other smaller networks with single or dual 50kw installs knocking about.

That said, they are setting lesser in number every week.

J1nxy · 13 Feb 2026 at 11:28

VincentHanna said:
I don't know - There's a lot of 150kw chargers still around as well.

But with decent planning you can avoid them. Hopefully that becomes less of an issue as time goes by.

I had a long play with various planners and also the MB app and to be honest the issue is vastly overstated. Every route I've planned, long or short has chargers that I can use along it. Heading down into Southwest along the coast and inland there are chargers I can use all along the route in double digit quantities, but the car has a 400+ range which opens up the list even more when you plan properly, as that's an awful lot of options you can use when you can top up quickly. Don't forget the 11KW/22KW AC are also there, which while taking a bit longer add a lot of range into a car thats as efficient as this appears to be.

I think whilst it could have been avoided its not anywhere near as big an issue as its being made out to be.

chanjy · 13 Feb 2026 at 13:46

J1nxy said:
I had a long play with various planners and also the MB app and to be honest the issue is vastly overstated. Every route I've planned, long or short has chargers that I can use along it. Heading down into Southwest along the coast and inland there are chargers I can use all along the route in double digit quantities, but the car has a 400+ range which opens up the list even more when you plan properly, as that's an awful lot of options you can use when you can top up quickly. Don't forget the 11KW/22KW AC are also there, which while taking a bit longer add a lot of range into a car thats as efficient as this appears to be.

I think whilst it could have been avoided its not anywhere near as big an issue as its being made out to be.

You should have absolutely no problems at all tbh