EV general discussion

[Tenzo]

So my first taste of the real life challenges of owning an EV at the moment.

Very short notice 250mile round trip needed and the car only had 60% charge - this was the first mistake, not charging for a few days as not planning a trip.

Journey there fine, stopped at an instavolt and no queue - quick 25 min charge while grabbed food and stretched legs. No drama. Arrive at destination, quick turnaround and head home.

The fun starts at the first bp pulse unit, 30 mins into journey. 150kwh unit only charges at 31kwh - switch to one next - same.

Top up a bit and drive to next unit about 40 miles on. Again it’s bp pulse and again, it’s broken, charging at an even slower rate. I try using a the pulse app, thinking they might be throttling the charge to guest users…nope. So again, sitting for an extended length of time at 1am with a very tired and grumpy family onboard.

Finally get enough charge to reach an ionity station, which works like a dream - 10 minutes charge and enough juice to reach home.

The car is fantastic but it seems like the infrastructure can be a bit flakey if you’re not in a Tesla. A 6 hour round trip ended up at nearly 7.5 hours as a result, not the end of the world, but at the time incredibly frustrating. (Some choice language on journey the **** electric car that’s **** and doesn’t work etc etc)

 

[Simon]

150kW is only peak, and is the goldilocks zone of battery charging with right SoC and temperature, some cars cant even take the max charge but i dont think you mentioned the car?

 

[jpaul]

EQC ... really you want to know what are the reasons why a charger might be down on power,
can it be a regular local grid supply issue, at peak times, so you should perpetually black mark that one ? or is it always charger hardware,s/w itself.
like for traffic diversions, I suppose you can find other people divert to alternatives too, creating queues there

 

[sovietspybob]

Hi all,

I am hoping to get a polestar 2 in the next 2-3 years… a couple of people have warned me about buying a preowned electric car as the batteries would have taken a battering and wouldn’t be running at 100% capacity due to age,

someone said to me that the Tesla model 3 battery normally starts deteriorating at 3 3 years and needs to be replaced by 10 years… is this a load of rubbish or is there some truth behind it ?

It's interesting there's so much misinformation out there, even now at the fairly early stages of EV adoption all the signs point to the battery outlasting the car it's in, much like the engines in cars these days.

Maybe people get confused as their mobile phone has a lithium battery and is done and dusted after 4 years and so apply the same logic to cars.

Based on Tesla battery packs you'd expect something like this, it should only get better as better battery chemistries come around.

There'll always be outliers where there is a fault in the battery, much like if your engine petrol exploded at 20,000 miles but they'll be covered by the almost universal 8 year battery warranty pretty much ever manufacture offers.

 

[Tenzo]

150kW is only peak, and is the goldilocks zone of battery charging with right SoC and temperature, some cars cant even take the max charge but i dont think you mentioned the car?

As jpaul said, it’s an EQC which as a relatively flat charging curve. At 20% I’d be expecting 105-108 as a charging rate. The ionity unit managed 107 later on the journey.

EQC ... really you want to know what are the reasons why a charger might be down on power,
can it be a regular local grid supply issue, at peak times, so you should perpetually black mark that one ? or is it always charger hardware,s/w itself.
like for traffic diversions, I suppose you can find other people divert to alternatives too, creating queues there

Not sure if the reason but it was c.12.30-1am so certainly off peak. Zap map points to issues at one of the units.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I doubt it would have been a grid issue.

Having been driven from 60% down to a low SOC and had a rapid earlier in that day suggests the battery shouldn’t have been too cold or too hot to take a decent charge rate, and it was relatively warm too.

But the two chargers having the same issue and then again at another location sort of implies the car may not have been handshaking with the charger correctly.

It may be worth a conversation with BP and Merc, either way one of the issues with faulty chargers/dodgy handshakes is people not actually reporting them. It’s all well and good putting a message on Zap Map but that isn’t going to get it fixed.

I remember Tesla having issues with dodgy handshakes and certain chargers when the Model 3 launched which the charger manufacturers had to deal with. That said the EQC has been out for awhile so that shouldn’t be an issue anymore.

 

[Tenzo]

I’ll definitely have a chat with both bp and Merc - good idea. Some constructive feedback might resolve a problem that was unknown etc

 

[Journey]

I’ll definitely have a chat with both bp and Merc - good idea. Some constructive feedback might resolve a problem that was unknown etc

Fella up the road from me has an EQC and he told me about a similar/same issue with BP where the charger would not deliver more then 100A to the car, he uses his for work and often does medium-long trips in it, it is frustrating especially as he gets free BP Pulse through his employer, but can't take full advantage so opts for Instavolt and Ionity. Problem has been reported to BP and MB more than once but no one wants to own up to being responsible.

 

[jpaul]

straw poll - BP pulse not far from me BP Astwick 150Kw comments indicate many people, various cars, get <50KW, and, complain about being robbed .
https://www.zap-map.com/pts/k5a2mvi/
https://www.plugshare.com/location/273072
- so I guess could/should do some pre-selection of chargers, before a trip; market segment for a meta availibility app.

 

[Psycho Ned]

I think the common consensus when it comes to (non Tesla) EV charging is Instavolt > * they're the only ones I look for and would go a little bit out of my way for one rather than taking my chances on the others. The other ones are all varying levels of average to bad!

 

[glenimp617]

I think the common consensus when it comes to (non Tesla) EV charging is Instavolt > * they're the only ones I look for and would go a little bit out of my way for one rather than taking my chances on the others. The other ones are all varying levels of average to bad!

Agreed

Did a full charge at an instavolt in under 45mins using one of their 125kw units. Absolute beast.

Even at 99% it was pulling 22.

Wouldn't usually go all the way to full but needed the range that day.

45mins soon goes when you nip to Costas for a coffee.

Still had some etron credits left so cost me nothing

 

[ICDP]

Agreed

Did a full charge at an instavolt in under 45mins using one of their 125kw units. Absolute beast.

Even at 99% it was pulling 22.

Wouldn't usually go all the way to full but needed the range that day.

45mins soon goes when you nip to Costas for a coffee.

Still had some etron credits left so cost me nothing

Northern Ireland is attrocious for rapid chargers and the only proper rapids are in the Republic of Ireland. Had a trip in my E-Tron 50 a few months back and stopped with 53% battery at an Ionity 350kW but my car topped out at 127kW. Had a quick lunch and Icecream with my 8 year old and 20 minutes later the car was at 100%.

I used my E-Tron card that had credit but was still charged £8.60. It seems that the E-Tron credit only applies to the UK. I did tell a guy at my local Audi dealer that maybe the N. Ireland customers should have their credit setup for use in the Republic of Ireland. The look I got told me he didn't give a crap.

 

[glenimp617]

Northern Ireland is attrocious for rapid chargers and the only proper rapids are in the Republic of Ireland. Had a trip in my E-Tron 50 a few months back and stopped with 53% battery at an Ionity 350kW but my car topped out at 127kW. Had a quick lunch and Icecream with my 8 year old and 20 minutes later the car was at 100%.

I used my E-Tron card that had credit but was still charged £8.60. It seems that the E-Tron credit only applies to the UK. I did tell a guy at my local Audi dealer that maybe the N. Ireland customers should have their credit setup for use in the Republic of Ireland. The look I got told me he didn't give a crap.

Audi customer service has been shocking. I'm going to enjoy the etron for one more year then it's going.

 

[Tenzo]

Fella up the road from me has an EQC and he told me about a similar/same issue with BP where the charger would not deliver more then 100A to the car, he uses his for work and often does medium-long trips in it, it is frustrating especially as he gets free BP Pulse through his employer, but can't take full advantage so opts for Instavolt and Ionity. Problem has been reported to BP and MB more than once but no one wants to own up to being responsible.

Well, I can leave a bad review and shake my fist in anger at every BP garage. It was just super frustrating as it was late, tired etc

 

[Ranger07]

Reading about all the charging woes on here makes me glad I opted for a M3LR. Had it about a year now and charge mostly at the free charger my work has provided but when I'm away from home the Tesla SC network is unreal, most of the time I'm getting 200KW+, it will take me from about 15% SOC to 80% in the time it takes to eat a MCDonalds.

People moan about the build quality too so I must have got lucky as mine has been flawless and with the performance upgrade it's stupidly fast too. All in all I would definitely buy another.

We need a new 7 seater next year when my wifes PCP expires, it's just a shame the X is so damn expensive or I would be ordering one. Might look at the ID Buzz when it gets released.

 

[ICDP]

Audi customer service has been shocking. I'm going to enjoy the etron for one more year then it's going.

I have to be honest, other than this their support and responses have been excellent for me. Really made me feel valued, with a loan car provided at short notice when my E-Tron went in for updates and a squeky B pillar (turned out to be the adjustable seat belt thing).

 

[booyaka]

Reading about all the charging woes on here makes me glad I opted for a M3LR. Had it about a year now and charge mostly at the free charger my work has provided but when I'm away from home the Tesla SC network is unreal, most of the time I'm getting 200KW+, it will take me from about 15% SOC to 80% in the time it takes to eat a MCDonalds.

People moan about the build quality too so I must have got lucky as mine has been flawless and with the performance upgrade it's stupidly fast too. All in all I would definitely buy another.

We need a new 7 seater next year when my wifes PCP expires, it's just a shame the X is so damn expensive or I would be ordering one. Might look at the ID Buzz when it gets released.

2 years with my SR+

couple of issues - both dealt with very well by Tesla. No charging issues, been plenty of 300 miles in a day drives, charging never been an issue anywhere in scotland so far.

Wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

 

[jpaul]

new model y autogefeul video, wooden dash inserts significantly soften the spartan feeling
chassis rigidity comments are interesting, I hadn't appreciate casting extent/size,
https://chargedevs.com/newswire/first-model-y-megacasting-produced-at-teslas-gigafactory-texas/ ->

Lots to recommend this, but there are two sides to every advance. I'd like to know how the 3 primary castings are joined, and what severity of collision makes my Model Y a total loss. (Since I am planning to buy my next EV next year, and it may very well be one of these Texas-made Model Ys.) And how one manages lower-severity repairs. (As I recall, the alloys for die-casting are rather limited in how much they can be straightened if bent.) And what all of this does to insurance rates.

 

[2blue4u]

If you had 350kW chargers at every service station then long journeys would be painless and you could stop for just 15 minutes and top up a decent amount. The Ioniq 5 would go from 20-80% and you'd be away again.

You don't need such chargers at 'every service station'. When the majority of EVs on the road have a range of 230-310 miles then away-from-home charging will be a fairly rare event. There's already enough 350kW chargers around to enable me to visit any part of the UK I would ever wish to visit with a single top-up.

 

[Obliter8]

Reading about all the charging woes on here makes me glad I opted for a M3LR. Had it about a year now and charge mostly at the free charger my work has provided but when I'm away from home the Tesla SC network is unreal, most of the time I'm getting 200KW+, it will take me from about 15% SOC to 80% in the time it takes to eat a MCDonalds.

People moan about the build quality too so I must have got lucky as mine has been flawless and with the performance upgrade it's stupidly fast too. All in all I would definitely buy another.

We need a new 7 seater next year when my wifes PCP expires, it's just a shame the X is so damn expensive or I would be ordering one. Might look at the ID Buzz when it gets released.

I find that people that mention the build quality tend not to be actual Tesla drivers. I also think that because of this rep, new owners do tend to go full ham on looking for faults. I previously never would have thought to look at panel gaps, yet alone measure them. Yet this is exactly what I have seen a lot of people say they are doing. They are far from perfect, but in my experience, they are no worse than any other car mfr. At least, the Model 3. I did have a friend that has had to have a whole nvidia unit on his S as they had soldered in a storage chip that was woefully under-provisioned because of the amount of data processed through the chips. But that same owner also had a battery upgrade for free, so swings and roundabouts.