EV general discussion

MrRockliffe said:
Another example - there are no rear window switches. There’s a touch button, right by the front switches, which changes front/rear mode.


You inevitably press it each time you’re trying to put the window up/down.
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For reference, it looks like this (Cupra Tavascan). It's quite silly, I'll give my feedback on it when I get mine.

ik09WfB.png
 
lordrobs said:
Did those users have private fuel provided under their company car agreement though?

@b0rn2sk8 I do agree with you apart from on the point that people got PHEVs with no intention of charging them.

Those with private fuel sure but if people had the ability to charge and it would save them money, why wouldn't they?
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Whether private fuel is included or not isn’t super relevant, it’s who is paying for the fuel. Most ‘proper’ company car drivers have fuel cards and repay private miles.

If the company is paying for the fuel and repaying private miles, which was the case generally, there is zero reason to charge them.

If the individual was buying the fuel and claiming business miles, then there is an incentive to charge it as it will reduce costs.

Edit: when I say ‘proper’ company car drivers, what I mean is not all those who are now participating in SS schemes for what is effectively their private car with limited business use.
 
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Yaayuh! said:
For reference, it looks like this (Cupra Tavascan). It's quite silly, I'll give my feedback on it when I get mine.

ik09WfB.png
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All the reviews of the VW group cars that have it mention that it is annoying.

Personally wouldn't let it put me off, but I can see why people are frustrated by it when the 4 switch system has been fine for so many years.
 
As said. You soon get used to it anyway. If you hold the button for 3 seconds it’s flashes and either switch then controls all 4 windows too.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
Whether private fuel is included or not isn’t super relevant, it’s who is paying for the fuel. Most ‘proper’ company car drivers have fuel cards and repay private miles.

If the company is paying for the fuel and repaying private miles, which was the case generally, there is zero reason to charge them.

If the individual was buying the fuel and claiming business miles, then there is an incentive to charge it as it will reduce costs.

Edit: when I say ‘proper’ company car drivers, what I mean is not all those who are now participating in SS schemes for what is effectively their private car with limited business use.
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Got you, and yes you are absolutely correct.

I forget that I can pick and choose between putting all my fuel on my company card and paying back private or paying upfront myself and reclaiming business miles.

Stupid of me to forget that because it's number one on my to-do list once they change my car - swap to paying for my own fuel and reclaiming at the HMRC rate.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
When you get a BEV you’ll be doing that calculation all over again to weigh up which is best depending on how much public charging you do.
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Already done that :D

As it stands, based on my previous 10 work trips when I did the calculations, and according to ABRPs figures I'd be £22.09 out of pocket per trip on average claiming business miles at the advisory rate. Can't remember what variant of Enyaq I used for the numbers though.

Therefore I'd opt to pay the advisory rate for my private miles!

It'll be at least another 3 years before that is even a consideration again though and with vehicle ranges increasing all the time the sums could come out quite different.
 
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Completed my trip to Cornwall and back this week in the ID4.
Charged at Exeter services on the way down to allow us to make the 286 mile journey. Loads of chargers with even more Gridserve ones being installed, shame the Tesla ones are not available for other manufacturers as well as there were a few cars waiting about.
Got to the caravan site and dropped a bit of a result, 11kw chargers at 34p/kw (which whilst not cheap, certainly cheaper than the services)
On the way back today, again stopped at Exeter with around 70% charge left to top up to 90% to allow no further charge stops and got back to Derby with 16% charge left.
Due to the amount of traffic ended up stopping at Michaelwood for a quick loo break and they had 6 chargers there (4 free at the time I was there)
Overall GOM efficiency showing as 3.8 m/kwh which I didn't think was too bad with a full car (3 of us, plus pooch) and a boot full of gear.
 
Ive had a nice little tour of northern France over the last week or so. Very impressed with the charging network over there, loads of ultra fast chargers, and in the main cheaper than the UK. As it was my 1st proper long trip with the family i was a bit nervous, so i probably 'over charged' along the way. Car was as accurate as ABRP for the charging stops, I didn't have any issues with any of the charge points, i used Tesla,Electra, Ionity and a local one. One point to note if using the electroverse card, it can be dearer than using the the chargers own app, for eg the charge point in the village (that didnt come up on zapmap annoyingly) was 0.49c on electroverse and 0.3c on the ecocharge77. Oddly enough I see more EV's in the UK than Northern France

Efficiency wasn't as good as i hoped, over ~1000 miles it was 3.5m/kwh, not bad considering it was with 5 people and filled to the gills with luggage, but i expected a little better. on my own ive been getting 4.2. From a cost pov Ive probably spent the same as i would have done in my old PHEV.

ID7 was a joy to drive, comfort levels were spot on(as good as a volvo), software/hmi were perfect, nice bonus that it has satellite radio as-well as DAB. in one of EV ownership all my qualms have been quashed! VW have finally got it right with the ID7.
 
Tinders said:
I didn't have any issues with any of the charge points, i used Tesla,Electra, Ionity and a local one.
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had you temporarily signed up to the tesla membership to get cheap kwhs ? had the impression that might be a eu sweet spot.
Were you on autoroutes at 80mph ? might contribute to efficiency you saw.
 
Not a sweet spot at all, the superchargers ain’t on the auto route. Ionity passport is a far slicker approach for France and Switzerland in my experience.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Not a sweet spot at all, the superchargers ain’t on the auto route. Ionity passport is a far slicker approach for France and Switzerland in my experience.
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Yep, most of them are away from the major routes, might only be a few miles but it all adds up. I came off route and tried to find one but couldnt see it and ended up at another one. I did think about the ionity pass, but was a bit nervous about limiting myself to one set of chargers. But having done the trip, range anxiety is really not a thing if you do your research or you leave it to the car to sort out the charge stops.

My only slight criticism is that they dont seem sign post some chargers very well. There was a tesla bank of chargers behind a supermarket in one of the towns we visited, no signage on how to get there from the supermarket entrance, but thats probably more of a me problem :p
 
I cant see the image but I assume you are talking about Octopus Intelligent Go.
It is always cheap between 23:30 and 05:30 AND another other slots it schedules outside of these times.

You do need to note that the schedule is dynamic and can change regularly.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
I cant see the image but I assume you are talking about Octopus Intelligent Go.
It is always cheap between 23:30 and 05:30 AND another other slots it schedules outside of these times.

You do need to note that the schedule is dynamic and can change regularly.
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Not sure why you can't see image.

The schedule is:
18:20-18:30
18:30-21:00
21:00-21:30
01:30-02:00
03:00-06:30
07:00-08:00

I wasnt sure why it's missed out some of the fixed overnight cheap time.
 
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danlightbulb said:
Not sure why you can't see image.

The schedule is:
18:20-18:30
18:30-21:00
21:00-21:30
01:30-02:00
03:00-06:30
07:00-08:00

I wasnt sure why it's missed out some of the fixed overnight cheap time.
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They monitor 30 grid parameters and pick the relevant times to charge the car.

Likewise, just because it says 21:00-21:30 doesn't mean it will charge for that whole period. I've had a 30 min slot where they charged the car for a few seconds and added 500wh of power to my car.
 
jpaul said:
had you temporarily signed up to the tesla membership to get cheap kwhs ? had the impression that might be a eu sweet spot.
Were you on autoroutes at 80mph ? might contribute to efficiency you saw.
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Good point, I was doing 130kmh in France.
 
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