EV general discussion

I'm coming up to two weeks of Polestar 2 ownership with a mixture of free/cheap 3-pin and expensive fast charging to cover my 150 mile each way weekly journey home and the 10 mile each way commute to work. So far it's been working fine and I find that range anxiety isn't a thing, just the charging times if I'm not using the rapid chargers. I'm trying to keep the battery on at least 50% so I can get home in an emergency if I need to, either without stopping or making the minimum number of them.

It's definitely a change in how you approach driving, but so far I think it's workable so I'm in no rush to get the wall charger fitted at home.

 
jpaul said:
I guess I misrepresented article - didn't feel justified to paste it all since theoretically in a paywall - title even more click-batey German car companies suffer heavy electric shock
- the article is predominately about chinese ev's taking german market share.
which was reiterated on separate bbc interview this morning.
Click to expand...
I think the Chinese will be kicking a lot of asses to be honest..... I mean just Google all the Chinese EVs . most are not in the EU yet, and fewer still in the UK but I suspect they are coming.
combine that with the legacy makers being so slow to get with the times, I see a major balance of power switch in the coming years in the automotive industry.
 
Last edited:
bigmike20vt said:
I think the Chinese will be kicking a lot of asses to be honest..... I mean just Google all the Chinese EVs . most are not in the EU yet, and fewer still in the UK but I suspect they are coming.
combine that with the legacy makers being so slow to get with the times, I see a major balance of power switch in the coming years in the automotive industry.
Click to expand...
This is all based on nothing but my own opinion but...

Badge snobbery will keep them as a niche offering for a while. People site KIA and Hyundai as a model of how brands can go from either unheard of or undesirable to mass market but that wasn't an overnight process. Plus the likes of Dacia, who are now well established, have the potential to bring budget EV's into the mix. I'd be much more confident jumping in to a Dacia Spring than I would a "Wunhunglo XZ9" or whatever even if it is a few grand cheaper.

I think however, given time, the Chinese brands will be consolidated down to a more reasonable number, each taking a firm place in the market place. Once that happens I wouldn't want to be in the big boy seats at the likes of VAG, Ford etc. Stellantis is a good example of the way things are going to have to go for manufacturers to survive, either that or sign your brand away to Geely.
 
I love a bit of badge snobbery and long may it continue. I admit I own a "brand" now but I bought the ipace despite it being a Jag and not because of it.
I got bargain 2nd hand prices back in the day on my 2 fiat coupes and my nissan 350z.

I had mates at the same time with Alfa GTVs and one with a boxter. cost way more than my cars but I would genuinely not have swapped.

I can't remember the name (will edit in later as busy now) but I really wanted a Chinese EV that I saw on fully charged.. edit xpeng P7! . but they are not launching in the UK yet :(
 
Last edited:
jpaul said:
tell us something more interesting then - what did you average W/m on your european i-pace trip with higher french autoroute speeds.
e:and average Kwh price
Click to expand...

Haven’t worked it all out yet. 2300miles 388wh/mile. High average speed, great charging experience, relaxed and not tired. France electricity is cheap, FastNed slaughters superchargers V2 for speed. I assume this is due to the higher nominal voltage of IPACE to teslas. Ie Fast ned held 89kW @70% SoC, 4 hrs later Supercharger is only doing 45kW at same SoC. Ionity are great locations in France as you are off and back on rather than coming off the toll roads for the Supercharger dogging spots.

Doing the passes in a EV in the alps is great too due to the bidirectional power rather than a thirsty ICE climb and cooking your brakes on the way down. St Gottard a highlight. Parked in Tronchetto in Venice with destination charging so that was ideal. Didn’t use campsite 7kW as the 0.74 euro/kWh was a disgrace.
 
Last edited:
at least 3 other i-paces at Elveden Center PARC's this week. I am fortunate as I do not need to charge (only used 13% battery getting here) but around 100 destination charge points here as well. it also looks like the infrastructure is in place to more than double that in the future.

this is the kind of thing more places need. give people a real world 200 mile worst case scenario range as well as banks and banks of 7kw or 11kw destination chargepoints at all major places as well as a decent amount at all car parks and I think range anxiety can be put to bed. sadly we are a ways off that yet.
 
Uther said:
Pros / cons of a heatpump? Quite a few EV's don't seem to have them, are they more of an optional thing?
Click to expand...
I find it pretty shocking that this isn't just a baseline default for all EVs - seeing as it became standard equipment on all but the very cheapest versions of a Nissan Leaf 10 years ago. A car that cost £23k new.
 
bigmike20vt said:
at least 3 other i-paces at Elveden Center PARC's this week. I am fortunate as I do not need to charge (only used 13% battery getting here) but around 100 destination charge points here as well. it also looks like the infrastructure is in place to more than double that in the future.

this is the kind of thing more places need. give people a real world 200 mile worst case scenario range as well as banks and banks of 7kw or 11kw destination chargepoints at all major places as well as a decent amount at all car parks and I think range anxiety can be put to bed. sadly we are a ways off that yet.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how important destination chargers are. It's more of a nice to have - you wouldn't want to rely on one for your journey. I'd rather see motorway service stations with at lesat 30x 250kw+ chargers. So I know I'm able to stop and get fuel on a long journey - with the same level of confidence you'd expect with an ICE engine.
 
Bug One said:
I'm not sure how important destination chargers are. It's more of a nice to have - you wouldn't want to rely on one for your journey. I'd rather see motorway service stations with at lesat 30x 250kw+ chargers. So I know I'm able to stop and get fuel on a long journey - with the same level of confidence you'd expect with an ICE engine.
Click to expand...
7.5MW of charging capacity and still only serving 30 cars. I'm inclined to agree that destination charging at a more reasonable rate is a much more scalable proposition.
 
Bug One said:
I'm not sure how important destination chargers are. It's more of a nice to have - you wouldn't want to rely on one for your journey. I'd rather see motorway service stations with at lesat 30x 250kw+ chargers. So I know I'm able to stop and get fuel on a long journey - with the same level of confidence you'd expect with an ICE engine.
Click to expand...
we definitely need more fast chargers at service stations as well..... but for day to day useage I think being able to charge your car for a few hrs whilst at the gym or the cinema or having a Starbucks is at least as important as fast charging on the motorway.
(tho I would say anything over 100kw is a bit overkill..... or put it this way I would FAR prefer to see 10x75kwh chargepoints added to every motorway service station than 2x350kwh (on top of what is already there)

the beauty of these centerparcs ones however - or most of them, there are some you can over ride I think to charge asap) is that they only power up over night on off peak power which is fine for here (few people take the car out after they arrive so there is no rush to charge)
 
Last edited:
Given the choice of spending 10-30 mins at a rapid charger or charging your car while it’s parked and you are doing something else.

I know which I’d prefer - the destination charger.

But yeh a mixture of both is the way forward. It should be recognised that destination chargers reduce load on rapids and are orders of magnitude cheaper to deploy.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom