EV general discussion

[Jonnycoupe]

This basically, it’s a perfectly valid criticism of what is otherwise a very good car. Likewise if you don’t use it often for longer trips as most people will not, it’s not an issue.

You can get away with being inefficient if you can recharge quickly, the obvious example of that is the old etron which you’d argue is a direct iPace competitor.

When you have both a huge battery because of that inefficiency and relatively slow charging, it’s a problem. Particularly on a car that costs as much as an iPace did.

I don’t know how it fairs now with the various updates and refreshes but it was certainly the case when it launched.

It was THE car when it launched that’s the issue, the overtake needed a catch up that’s all. Which is what you see with Germans and the alternatives. Cell understanding and supply chain risk and warranty mitigation is far better understood.

Once thing is for sure, the battery degradation life will be best in class as it’s not being thrashed. UK temps tend to throttle the pleathera of “faster cars anyway” aswell only really a recent show of fast chargers. Most cars same 400V bottleneck for CCS anyway.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Depends where you are driving to enjoy your cars abilities

A 2.2 tonne SUV like the ipace has probably done its tyres by lunchtime though so you'd be going home anyway I suppose, which would go first tyres or battery what would be the trackday mpkw? 1-1.5 or better?

Probably on the road like most SUVs…

It can however do more laps of the Nurburgring on a battery than an F type fuel tank.

 

[lordrobs]

Has anyone got experience of pole mounting a charger at home? We've just moved and one of the things that occurred to me after we'd moved in is that the drive / house / garage layout isn't ideal for wall mounting a charger. Certainly not if you wanted to be able to charge either car without blocking another one it.

No plans to change to EV yet as my wife covers about 1k a year but our company cars often get changed on a whim so it is worth having a plan in the back of my mind should I be asked the question of ICE, HEV, PHEV or EV.

 

[Webster]

Well for me it is the single thing holding me back from a full time EV. I do 100 miles to site, sometimes stay over, do 20 miles a day then drive home 100 miles. There's no convenient way to fuel up.

Exactly this.

Currently driving a model s with free supercharging.

Took it to airport (filled it first to 220 miles(80%), checked there was a Tesla supercharger near - went to charge it, realised it has an older fitting and the charger I went to didn’t. Had to spend 1 hour charging it at a diff station as wanted to leave it with at least 90 miles in it.

By the time the valet had parked it and a week had gone by it was down to 43 miles, we then had to spend an hour slow charging it to be able to make it to a supercharging station we knew had the right connection.

It made our already long journey even more painful.. if I took my Petrol car it would have only done half a tank there and back without any fuss.

There are more and more fast chargers now but it’s a bit of a learning curve and the range just isn’t there yet IMO. Pulling into a charging station and having them all taken with 5/6 Teslas waiting leaves you with literally no option but to wait.

Driving it to work and back / smaller journeys it’s great. Anything more I would not recommend an EV for now.

 

[Journey]

Currently driving a model s with free supercharging

It isn't your car, or you didn't know you needed the CCS Combo 1 adapter?

 

[Webster]

It isn't your car, or you didn't know you needed the CCS Combo 1 adapter?

Looking after it / testing for 4 months to see how it is in everyday life.

I had bought the adapter but didn’t realise it had to be installed / coded - found that out at 3am on way to airport . Until then my only experience of charging it was on the Tesla super chargers where I live that have both styles.

It’s booked into Tesla for next week to get sorted.

 

[lordrobs]

Well for me it is the single thing holding me back from a full time EV. I do 100 miles to site, sometimes stay over, do 20 miles a day then drive home 100 miles. There's no convenient way to fuel up.

TBH I do struggle with how an EV will fit into my work routine. I can be anywhere in the UK for work. Overnight stays vary from the usual Premier Inn / Holiday Inn / Hamilton etc. or somewhere a bit more interesting if I happen to spot something on Hotels.com. 9 times out of 10 where I stay currently doesn't have an EV charger or they have a token effort one bay "first come, first to sit on the charger all night" type setup.

Customers sites generally don't have EV charging available. Again, maybe 10% of the places I visit do.

If I'm giving myself a leisurely travel day to get across the country stopping off for 40 minutes here and there to blast through a few emails it would be fine but more often than not my travel is setting off early and just stopping for wee/coffee stops and the same heading home. Time spent charging is going to just eat into my limited sleeping time / time at home so I really need to have the car doing that while I'm working or sleeping.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

The CCS update for a model S/X is a no brainer for how much it doesn’t cost - £250ish.

The CCS only super chargers shouldn’t show up in the nav unless you have had the CCS retrofit installed. When you navigate to a CCS charger it will tell you to make sure you have the adapter.

 

[Webster]

The CCS update for a model S/X is a no brainer for how much it doesn’t cost - £250ish.

The CCS only super chargers shouldn’t show up in the nav unless you have had the CCS retrofit installed. When you navigate to a CCS charger it will tell you to make sure you have the adapter.

Yeah I had no idea it needed to be fitted but arranged now.

I also had no idea not to park next to another Tesla ideally in the super chargers and to leave a bay free so you both charge at full speed. Just a learning curve

 

[EddScott]

I may have a little bit of an issue with my I Pace purchase.

When the salesman was talking about the finance, he said I could pay off the finance after a month or two so I still get the discount.

However, when I asked him today, should I pay it off after 1 or 2 payments, he tells me I can't do that. I didn't question at the time because I know of someone who did exactly this with a Toyota dealer who told her to do the same thing to get whatever discount they were applying at the time. Deposit has been paid and finance agreed so this is going to be fun if it turns out I'm locked in??

 

[FerretBoy]

I did that with my Golf, cancelled it during the cooling off period, or something along those lines. So immediately after getting the car.

 

[sandys]

Your contract should have all the details regarding early termination, time locks, penalties etc.

 

[DarrenM343]

I may have a little bit of an issue with my I Pace purchase.

When the salesman was talking about the finance, he said I could pay off the finance after a month or two so I still get the discount.

However, when I asked him today, should I pay it off after 1 or 2 payments, he tells me I can't do that. I didn't question at the time because I know of someone who did exactly this with a Toyota dealer who told her to do the same thing to get whatever discount they were applying at the time. Deposit has been paid and finance agreed so this is going to be fun if it turns out I'm locked in??

And you didn't make a big deal of it there and then? Doing that alone may have grabbed you a better deal.
You're not locked into anything if they lied to you, imo

 

[EddScott]

Your contract should have all the details regarding early termination, time locks, penalties etc.

I didn't get a copy of the contract.

I know, I'm a fool. The online finance agreeement didn't work for me so had to go back to the dealers for them to do it there. It was all a bit rushed and I didn't get any paperwork.

OK, they've come back to say I can pay it off early. I'm surprised the lad said no tbh, never heard anyone not being able to pay off early. They'll be some interest at least, I suspect.

 

[Spleen Sauce]

I didn't get a copy of the contract.

I know, I'm a fool. The online finance agreeement didn't work for me so had to go back to the dealers for them to do it there. It was all a bit rushed and I didn't get any paperwork.

OK, they've come back to say I can pay it off early. I'm surprised the lad said no tbh, never heard anyone not being able to pay off early. They'll be some interest at least, I suspect.

Pay it off in full within the cooling off period so you don’t start to accrue much in the way of daily interest, if any. I’ve done this multiple times now and kept the deposit contributions and the free servicing. The dealers really don’t like you doing it because they’ll lose the commission they make off the finance deal, and I know some are trying to write into the terms of the ‘free servicing if you PCP’ deal that you lose the servicing if you pay the finance off early (Volvo are now doing this based on what I’ve seen, for example) so it’s worth checking the small print.

 

[Fuzz]

nothing to do with my current Tesla but a previous car I bought new on finance, I paid it off even before the first payment was taken, I did this because I was led to believe the dealer only got a "cut" once I'd started paying the finance. Ended up making a private sale of my old car in time and thus had the funds to stick it to the dealer (I felt they had done me dirty with what they promised but didn't deliver.)
Didn't have a single issue doing this.

 

[Em3bbs]

Exactly this.


Driving it to work and back / smaller journeys it’s great. Anything more I would not recommend an EV for now.

So you wouldn't buy an EV, because of an issue that you could have easily avoided, and that wouldn't affect any EV manufactured for years now?

It's like me saying I wouldn't buy a petrol car because you can't get 2 star anywhere these days.

 

[Webster]

So you wouldn't buy an EV, because of an issue that you could have easily avoided, and that wouldn't affect any EV manufactured for years now?

It's like me saying I wouldn't buy a petrol car because you can't get 2 star anywhere these days.

The range just isn’t there yet, in my opinion.

I charged it to 80% which is the recommended for daily use, have done a few small trips since. Tomorrow I need to drive about 40 miles each way, I either need to detour to the charging station and charge, or take my other car.

I appreciate if I had an ev for more than a few months I would put a charger in which would negate this somewhat.

This is just my opinion and I do think it’s great for certain use case scenarios.

How quick do the newer EVs charge on a normal charging station bp pulse or whatever?

 

[Journey]

Has anyone got experience of pole mounting a charger at home?

Didn't see your query, but a lady who lives down the road for me has had a an older charger (rolec?) mounted on a rather nice looking stainless steel post/pole for years, I assume the reasoning was that you regularly see 3/4 cars on her pretty big drive, and she also has an electrical feed/socket for her caravan as well in the same place.

From a cost point of view I'd imagine the extra cost of running the cable either in some trunking or under your path/driveway could be expensive depending on how long the run is, or how neat you'd want it to look.

 

[Fuzz]

The range just isn’t there yet, in my opinion.

I charged it to 80% which is the recommended for daily use, have done a few small trips since. Tomorrow I need to drive about 40 miles each way, I either need to detour to the charging station and charge, or take my other car.

I appreciate if I had an ev for more than a few months I would put a charger in which would negate this somewhat.

This is just my opinion and I do think it’s great for certain use case scenarios.

How quick do the newer EVs charge on a normal charging station bp pulse or whatever?

Stopped at oxford services last saturday after going to preview a car for a mate, plugged in, walked to loo, washed hands, got in starbucks queue for coffee... phone goes off "charging nearly complete, avoid idle fees etc etc.