EV general discussion

chanjy said:
Poverty Zoe owner here without a CCS port lol

Although I think the newer ones do have it.

I'd still be shocked if Tesla allowed a free for all on the superchargers. I'm sure there would be limits or conditions around use to avoid ******* off all the Tesla fanboys :D
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I don’t think Tesla took public money in the U.K. for their super charger network, I couldn’t say about anywhere else though. All their ‘destination chargers’ are free for anyone to use.

It’s not sure calling them fanboys is really fair though. There are huge numbers of owners who are not in the cult of Elon. Tesla owners ultimately paid for that network through buying a Tesla car so I could completely understand them being ****** off if they make them a free for all without ionity style differential pricing or some other restrictions.

[rant]Speaking of Ionity, they absolutely did get some of my tax money to pay for their chargers (hence the funded by the EU stickers all over them) and they still charge differential pricing to non-members which is flat out wrong IMO. It either wouldn’t have happened without taxpayer money in which case they shouldn’t discriminate based on private investment or it would have happened anyway and if they want to discriminate they should pay back the public money they took. [/rant]
 
Jonnycoupe said:
You must be tearing your hair out with the current updates to Electric Highway. Your chargers are literally being removed
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Haha the charging speed is so slow (and the car is so inefficient at motorway speeds) we have another car for long journeys.

But looking at consolidating into one longer range electric at the moment.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
You must be tearing your hair out with the current updates to Electric Highway. Your chargers are literally being removed
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This is exactly why I caution against buying a new leaf if you plan to keep it for any length of time. In the future you may find the network starting to regress, it will certainly cease to get better at some point.

40KW AC is disappearing and Chademo will be next in line, it will take longer but it’s likely to happen eventually. IMO of course.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
This is exactly why I caution against buying a new leaf if you plan to keep it for any length of time. In the future you may find the network starting to regress, it will certainly cease to get better at some point.

40KW AC is disappearing and Chademo will be next in line, it will take longer but it’s likely to happen eventually. IMO of course.
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It'll definitely happen and probably not too far away.

Nissan is going CCS too with the new Ariya so it'll be extinct as soon as the current gen Leaf ends production.
 
It almost seems weird that you can still buy a car with a Chademo plug on it in the UK, it's a bit like buying an HD-DVD long after BluRay was clearly declared the winner.

You do get the feeling it won't be long till it'll end up at the legal bare minimum to tick a box saying that a network supports Chademo, when in reality there'll be 1 broken Chademo plug in every 4th service station against swathes of CCS2 chargers.
 
‘were you mis-sold a Nissan Leaf? Apply here for compensation’

It doesn’t take much to see that potentially being a thing in the not too distant future.
 
Gridserve has stated they were going to a 1 in 6 ratio for CHadeMO (which is whats at Mollies Motel i used twice at Cribbs Causeway) but based on feed back are actually upping to 1 in 4, which is interesting.
 
doesn't matter during covid, but, another point there, maybe charging in europe, to wit

may10
The end of the CHAdeMO fast-charging standard is on the horizon in France. While a 2017-decree made CHAdeMO mandatory for DC-charging stations alongside CCS and Type 2 by the end of 2024, the government has now revised its plans.

The decree, published in its revised form earlier this month, ends the requirement to implement the Japanese standard. From now on, only CCS for DC charging and Type 2 for AC charging (22 kW) is considered mandatory for newly installed and replaced fast-charging stations in France
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The infrastructure here in Northern Ireland is pretty dire right now because the charging companies cannot charge a fee for charging and there is minimal investment. So we have 10 rapid chargers, none of which charge over 50kW and many of which are broken. The southwest of Northern Ireland is completely bereft of rapid chargers which is a joke. The story in the Republic of Ireland is different with 350kW Ionity chargers in lots of places but prices are 0.79c (Euros) per kW which is very expensive but still OK overall.

What this pricing model does though is improve the chances of finding available chargers. This is an issue that plagues Northern Ireland because you turn up to one of the only 10 rapid chargers in the North and some freeloading git is stuck on it with their EV to get the free electricity. Or people have their PHEV stuck on the free type 2 charger for 7-8 hours. In fact my experience as an EV driver is that the biggest problem for EV ownership, is other EV owners.

I assume the charging prices include a 20% VAT rate in the UK, so at least the Government aren't going to suddenly start adding more tax on top?

Just off the top of my head what needs to happen for the infrastructure UK wide is.

  • One card/app for ALL chargers
  • Fixed rates
  • No more locating chargers in backwater poorly lit car parks in some pokey wee hole
  • Plenty of proper rapid chargers at motorway service stations with multiple 8 car bays like we see in Scandinavia
  • Car companies to stop doing things on the cheap, why is a car stuck doing 7kW or 11kW at a 22kW type 2 CCS?
  • Why are we still seeing park and rides built with no EV destination chargers
  • New housing developments need to start including destination chargers at parking bays.
  • ICE cars parking in EV bays need to be ticketed
  • EVs parking longer than required need to be ticketed
  • Destination chargers at most places of work. Even waterproof sockets for standard plugs would be acceptable
 
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Personally, I don’t try and get too excited about concept cars. Even ones as ‘finished’ as this one. You know a bunch of stuff is going to be changed for the final version.

I doubt the doors will make it to the final version. While they look ‘cool’ anyone with a BMW i3 will tell you that they just fail if you actually need to use them.

The front looks nice but they need to get shot of that LIDAR, it completely ruins the roofline. I’m not sold on the back, no rear window just looks a bit odd. It looks like a mid engined super car but then you step back and realise it’s a big saloon. It’s also at disappointing.
 
I’m considering an EQA, anyone got one of those? Test drove one and it felt perfect. How much it costs to charge electric car using public points for example one just across the road is called Source Energy
 
I’d expect an EQA to be somewhere in the region of 3 miles per KWh but it depends on how it’s driven and temperature.

Public charging costs vary significantly, it often depends on the type of charger and who runs it. Check Zap Map to see all the points where you might need them and it will tell you who runs them and the cost. Costs range from free to 70p/kWh.

Is there any reason you can’t charge at home? It will be significantly cheaper to charge own supply than the public network and far more convenient. EV ‘economy 4/5/6/7’ style tariffs can give rates as low as 5.5p/kWh overnight.
 
Talking to someone who's not up on EV tech at all (neither am I really) and they were all set on getting a used, 1st gen Leaf, the 30kWh version. Is there anything they should be looking out for or aware of?
 
The state of health of the battery is the main point to check on a Leaf. If you do any research, it should be on this. There is loads of information on Google about what’s to expect at a given age and mileage. There will be some degradation but you want avoid a car with excessive degradation.

The leaf has a health indicator on the dash known as the ‘battery bars’, I don’t think they are linear though. You can use a wireless OBDII reader and the leaf spy app to get an accurate reading.

Otherwise check the condition of the friction brakes. A lot of EVs have issues with seized callipers through lack of use.

Check what AC charging connection it has. Most modern EVs have a ‘type 2’ plug but early leafs had a ‘j1772’ (type1?). Adaptors are readily available if needed but it’s better to have the right one installed in the first place.
 
clv101 said:
Talking to someone who's not up on EV tech at all (neither am I really) and they were all set on getting a used, 1st gen Leaf, the 30kWh version. Is there anything they should be looking out for or aware of?
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I would avoid, personally. It’s one of the few EVs which doesn’t have a cooling system for the battery so they tend to degrade more than others over time.

It also rapid charges using Chademo which is rapidly being phased out for CCS. Some sites now are entirely CCS (Ionity), and the motorway service station charging network is just in the process of drastically reducing their Chademo plug offerings in favour of more CCS.
 
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