EV general discussion

DarrenM343 · 26 Oct 2021 at 10:07

jpaul said:
e-tron or mercedes eqs ? also has the rear wheel steer and purpose platform, but doesn't seem to have come out on top of the weight(and thus some handling) benefits that that should concur - how much more than the speeced out e-tron is it though.
rear wheel steer must be generally offsetting some of the weight on the handling front, for both.

was reading the i4 is 1000LB more than the model3 predominately through having kept the g20 chassis without the carbon benefits of the i3 or 5 series.- so 4 adults !

Yeah, bit of a shame that. I'd still rather have an i4 over a Mod 3 personally. Not sure on the exact weight difference as seems to vary reading around, I thought it was around 200kg, top end Mod3(performance) to i4 M50 comparison. The i4 platform, while dual purpose (ICE BEV), I'd imagine some thought about electrification went into the design of it.

oweneades · 29 Oct 2021 at 12:41

Received the initial sign off from our DNO (Western Power) today so my HyperVolt install can move on to the next stage

Just waiting on the installer now.

jpaul · 29 Oct 2021 at 12:49

hadn't read about the hertz model3 order 100K cars - is that a worldwide&uk engagement, big share price jump. (has anyone bought into id3 at same level)

weight/chassis BMW don't seem to have released details on future 3 series Neue Klasse architecture,
now watched all of musk/munro interview - with integrated battery/chassis discussion, shows Musks on the ball - some virtue signalling by Munro

Jonnycoupe · 29 Oct 2021 at 13:02

100k just US and 50k of them rented to Uber for their drivers to lease.

sparkymark75 · 29 Oct 2021 at 13:21

Jonnycoupe said:
100k just US and 50k of them rented to Uber for their drivers to lease.

Possibly more ordered too for the Uber deal.

Julia Chatterley on Twitter: ""Over the next 3 years, this could grow to 150,000 ....

Jonnycoupe · 29 Oct 2021 at 14:47

Yes but that’s conjecture.

SDK^ · 29 Oct 2021 at 15:07

The new Polestar 2 OTA update (P1.7) improves 10-80% charging speed by about 5 mins to 36 minutes. Probably better from a time perspective to stop at 70% if you're in a rush.
Also included in the update is pre-charge heating for the battery. The update now brings the Polestar 2 above the Tesla Model Y and 3 for charging speed and battery heating.

Old Curve on the top, new curve on the bottom

Jonnycoupe · 29 Oct 2021 at 15:19

That's a decent update, jealous.

I try to only really public charge below 50% now as its annoying otherwise over 100kW+ chargers

SDK^ · 29 Oct 2021 at 15:32

Jonnycoupe said:
I try to only really public charge below 50% now as its annoying otherwise over 100kW+ chargers

I drove to Stratford in London and back on Wednesday (~300 miles), to watch the Man City vs WestHam match at the London Stadium. Only needed to stop once for a quick charge top up whilst grabbing a break and some lunch at Beaconsfield Services. That traffic in London : 1.5 hours to travel 19 miles - uggghhhhh.

Know what you mean about charging when below 50%, it's so much quicker to do multi quick charging stops than one full one.

chanjy · 29 Oct 2021 at 15:40

SDK^ said:
The update now brings the Polestar 2 above the Tesla Model Y and 3 for charging speed and battery heating.

Only if you happen to drive past the unicorn ultra rapid chargers when your battery is low

Jonnycoupe · 29 Oct 2021 at 15:53

I stopped at MFG just off J27 M6 near Wigan on way back from Edinburgh at the weekend; 205 miles to that one then charged 8% back to 59% for the remaining 110miles or so. - 8 x 150kW charger at that location is awesome

DanTheMan · 29 Oct 2021 at 16:11

Jonnycoupe said:
I stopped at MFG just off J27 M6 near Wigan on way back from Edinburgh at the weekend; 205 miles to that one then charged 8% back to 59% for the remaining 110miles or so. - 8 x 150kW charger at that location is awesome

Can't say the same about the new ionity chargers at Skelton Lake near Leeds. 69p/kwh is pretty steep and only 3 out of the 6 chargers were working.

The MFG one is awesome as its always been quiet when I've been there. And they all worked!

SDK^ · 29 Oct 2021 at 16:12

chanjy said:
Only if you happen to drive past the unicorn ultra rapid chargers when your battery is low

I wouldn’t say a 150kW charger was in the ‘unicorn ultra’ category

DanTheMan said:
Can't say the same about the new ionity chargers at Skelton Lake near Leeds. 69p/kwh is pretty steep and only 3 out of the 6 chargers were working.

Ionity are the ‘Tesla like’ chargers for everyone who doesn’t own a Tesla. Some car makers have partnerships with Ionity meaning they only pay 30p/kWh. Keeps the riffraff away from them

Jonnycoupe · 29 Oct 2021 at 16:41

DanTheMan said:
Can't say the same about the new ionity chargers at Skelton Lake near Leeds. 69p/kwh is pretty steep and only 3 out of the 6 chargers were working.

The MFG one is awesome as its always been quiet when I've been there. And they all worked!

The eON ones just up near Preston sound okay too, Sniff and Smith podcast Richard Porter was on about them in a trip in a Taycan, only two though!

As for Ionity:
Same at Gretna on the way up, app showing 2/4 free (i think that what it meant anyway) but got there 4 bays full and a car waiting, loads on their phones i guess trying to start, i went back around to the Ecotricity unit. Just before a Corsa and an etron turned up - the etron didn't speak or anything with family just plugged into the other charger AC socket and sat waiting! I suggested the Corsa waiting for me and the etron might be a while so, he wasnt desperate so carried on. Had to get to Edinburgh for a booking at The Ivy and it was the first time i had the 'this is bloody stupid' situation.

Didnt care for cost, but Ionity is poor, I can use chargepoint app (its actually a card in my apple Wallet for) for 58p anyway. Fast chargers etc but never seems to have the speed and reliability to get decent car through put.

McPhee · 31 Oct 2021 at 01:41

Interesting piece on a new Chinese brand trying to break the UK market:

I'll admit, I quite like that. Except the boot. Massive deal-breaker that. Given there's enough room for Johnny to sit comfortably in the back (with room to spare), I'm surprised they didn't sit the rear seats further forward.

Also, the GT model is hideous.

uncle_rufus · 31 Oct 2021 at 10:16

Well was this close to starting the process of leasing an id3 and then decided to have a look on ZapMap to try and get a feel for what one of the longer journeys we sometimes do to visit family would be like (just imagining planning it out)... There's basically hardly any chargers anywhere huh? Especially if you filter to only ones that are 50kWh + above, I can just imagine the faff involved trying to find a working and free charger. Now thinking this next lease might just be another petrol car and see how things are looking in another 2-4 years. Am I missing something? Do ZapMap not actually show all chargers or is there some other secret I'm not aware of?

An electric would be incredible at home for commuting, for sure, but it just doesn't seem viable for long journeys yet (without a lot of hassle - depending on your tolerance for hassle, which if you have e.g. a young baby is going to be pretty low!)

Journey · 31 Oct 2021 at 10:21

uncle_rufus said:
Well was this close to starting the process of leasing an id3 and then decided to have a look on ZapMap to try and get a feel for what one of the longer journeys we sometimes do to visit family would be like (just imagining planning it out)... There's basically hardly any chargers anywhere huh? Especially if you filter to only ones that are 50kWh + above, I can just imagine the faff involved trying to find a working and free charger. Now thinking this next lease might just be another petrol car and see how things are looking in another 2-4 years. Am I missing something? Do ZapMap not actually show all chargers or is there some other secret I'm not aware of?

An electric would be incredible at home for commuting, for sure, but it just doesn't seem viable for long journeys yet (without a lot of hassle - depending on your tolerance for hassle, which if you have e.g. a young baby is going to be pretty low!)

Any chance you could tell us the nearest town to town journey of what you were planning? Also what is the distance, and your normal journey time to complete the same trip currently?

uncle_rufus · 31 Oct 2021 at 11:17

Journey said:
Any chance you could tell us the nearest town to town journey of what you were planning? Also what is the distance, and your normal journey time to complete the same trip currently?

Mid-Devon to Surrey via either the A303 (which is considerably shorter in terms of miles - ~152mi) or the M5 + M4 (which is longer but has better services - ~184mi) - usually talking sort of 3 hours or so for either route (although now with a baby would no longer be able to make it in one-shot as we often do now, giving a good opportunity to stop + charge whilst feeding and addressing to the small person)

To my mind the obvious plan for this route would be to set off at 100% charge and accept the longer M5 + M4 option as that allows for a roughly midway stop at one of the Ionity stations in Chippenham, to get back to 80% which would be more than enough to complete the journey. But when we get to our destination the number of chargers locally is absolutely woeful - I kind of assumed that the South East would be quite well kitted out - apparently not! Don't really want to have to traipse all around to get charge for the way back (considered the Ionity off the M25 near Leatherhead, but a bit out of the way), or alternatively there seem to be a handful of slower rapid chargers at e.g. Reading Ikea where I guess we could stop as we set off for the return journey

Our other common route would be from Mid-Devon further up north to Liverpool or Doncaster area, which I've not thought about in as much detail but a quick glance at Zap Map suggests a dearth of Ionity stations along the M5 + M6 north route...

Not trying to be overly negative as frankly I really want to go with an id3 for what I'm sure will be the greatly reduced running costs for 80%+ of our usage but I just don't think we can deal with it turning every longer journey into a potential nightmare!

steve5424 · 31 Oct 2021 at 11:22

Don't limit your search to just 50Kw chargers then.

DanTheMan · 31 Oct 2021 at 11:23

Amesbury, Andover and Wincanton seem to all have 50kw chargers along the A303. Without knowing whereabouts in Surrey, it's hard to know what's around your destination though.