Thanks, I'll bear that in mind. Charging starts at midnight and is usually done just before 7am, and then the car is usually used about midday or so (if we're both WFH)...but sometimes not until late afternoon when the missus goes to do horse chores and stuff. So it can be several hours sometimes.
EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
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I have to say with my Ohme charger being offline (and the Ohme support being terribly slow!) for 3 weeks using public chargers only would probably have tainted my view on EV's. The local motorway services are Ionity and there have been numerous times (probably 50% of visits) I've dropped in to charge and they've all been full with people waiting/queueing for chargers, the 11/22kw chargers on the local shopping centres work well, but the parking is limited to 2hrs max and some have an overstay charge for the charger e.g. stay hooked up for longer than 1hr and you get an additional charge of £10. Currently using a 3 pin charger limited to 10A which has been fine over the holiday period but will become problematic now i'm back into the office and all the kids clubs start back up.
Soldato
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It depends where you read, not leaving it at 100 can sometimes mean a couple of hours or some just less than roughly 24 hours, its just more stressful for the cells to sit there being full.
All batteries do have a top buffer though so 100% in the car will be less at the actual battery, it differs by each brand. so it might be 93% in reality. Others like Tesla don't really have much top buffer which is why their screen will tell them to drive pretty much immediately after charging to 100%
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I was quite happy with my range this AM, especially as the car reported the outside temperature of -8
I get somewhere between 25-32 in the summer, and it was reporting as low as 15 this AM, but it did the school run on electricity only, as it does every day
How are the full EVs fairing, compared to summer temps? Is it as severe as I see on my PHEV?
*edit* Also, I am not sure I could ever own a car without pre-heating ever again, I take it for granted so much, but when I jump in the Mrs' Corsa, I remember how lucky I am to have it!
I've an older EV. Winter hammers the range. But we have the heating cranked as we do lots of unscheduled short trips from cold. So there's never a chance for the EV to heat up. So it's 100% heating all the time. By the time you're turning off the heat your getting out of the car. Battery also stays cold as its never getting warm.
But we just throw it on the charger when back home. So it's never an issue.
We did a long trip last year and heating was less an issue as once you get to temp you turn it down. And driving on the motorway the battery heats up. So the drain from higher speed was offset by heating the battery in the cold.
Different in a newer EV with a heat pump and active heating or cooling on the battery. They are still effected but less so.
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Soldato
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PHEVS tend to have bigger buffers as they naturally
cycle more and don’t want to derate as SoC drops
cycle more and don’t want to derate as SoC drops
I said as much on Reddit today. The experience of an EV with home charging compared to without home charging is very different.
When I got my car I didn't have home charging for about 6-7 weeks. I have superchargers between my home and office and another set of super chargers maybe 10 minutes at most from my house. I thought I'd be fine with public charging. Wrong. It felt like a chore. It wasn't too bad when I had the free miles regardless of time but if I wanted to take advantage of the off-peak hours it makes you go out of your way compared to filling up with petrol in a minute or so.
The real boon with an EV/Home Charger is knowing you can always, if you wish, leave the house with a full charge. On your own terms. Then along with the cheap overnight rates it is a no brainer. If I had to rely on public charging entirely I'd be rueing my decision to get an EV within months
It's all about how you use the car and where you're located.
A van doesn't suit everyone, a 2 door city car doesn't suit everyone. Diesel doesn't suit everyone and neither with an EV.
Having a diesel 4x4 up a remote mountain is not an issue for pollution. Driving the kids to school in Central London completely unnecessary.
I didn't have home charging for 3 weeks. Tbh it wasn't an issue for us because we had another car. Also not doing big distance so a charge lasts a long time. Was a non issue for us.
In the couple of years we've had the EV the local public chargers within 1-2 miles have gone from about 5 to 25.
I still wouldn't get one without a home charger though. It makes no sense.
I've not had to use DC charging in anger on a long distance journey yet in the Polestar. I used it briefly in the fleeting Tesla ownership and that was fine. Polestar Charge keeps pushing the Tesla Supercharging and it's got me thinking whether this is the best way to charge on a long journey now, subscribe to Polestar Charge and I'm guessing it gives me better Tesla Supercharging costs also. The off peak prices are vastly cheaper than most others so why don't more people use them?
Home charging is so cheap...I always make sure my maths are correct as it seems like I'm cheating the system. Can charge at work also.
Home charging is so cheap...I always make sure my maths are correct as it seems like I'm cheating the system. Can charge at work also.
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Just looking at the final SMMT data for 2025 BEV registrations, and surprised to see the E-tron Q4 in 3rd and the Q6 in 4th place for the year! 5th place went to the Ford Explorer, and I have seen a lot of those on the road around the area here.
I’ve seen a lot of Q4s and explorers around recently.
I also spotted you can already pick up a used polestar 4 for £35k. Despite them being RWD and having minimal packs, that’s a lot of car for the money given it’s only a year old and has a >100kwh battery.
I’d pick one of those up over say a new model y standard any day of the week.
I also spotted you can already pick up a used polestar 4 for £35k. Despite them being RWD and having minimal packs, that’s a lot of car for the money given it’s only a year old and has a >100kwh battery.
I’d pick one of those up over say a new model y standard any day of the week.
My source must be completely out of whack because Audi didn't even make the top 10
EDIT - it was, now found the correct list
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So it's not all about whether you have the ability to charge at home then, like you mentioned and their comment about still not wanting to run an EV even if they did have the ability to charge at home is still valid?
And declaring that the experience was so unpleasant you'd never eat steak again, even if you had a nice sharp steak knife
Soldato
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-8... am not sure but I am in my 3rd year of EV ownership and the worst range I have ever had out of a full charge was 200miles.I was quite happy with my range this AM, especially as the car reported the outside temperature of -8
I get somewhere between 25-32 in the summer, and it was reporting as low as 15 this AM, but it did the school run on electricity only, as it does every day
How are the full EVs fairing, compared to summer temps? Is it as severe as I see on my PHEV?
*edit* Also, I am not sure I could ever own a car without pre-heating ever again, I take it for granted so much, but when I jump in the Mrs' Corsa, I remember how lucky I am to have it!
the best around 270 which is close to the general yardstick of expect to lose around 1/3 of range in winter compared to summer.
maybe with a beast from the east scenario I would expect to get around 170 miles.
I just put 4 Crossclimate 2s on my Born. I was caught out twice in a short period in Saturday morning with the old summer tyres that were about 3mm of tread. Once the car didn’t stop at a junction and another it would not get up a slight incline with compacted snow.
I had been trying to convince myself the summer tyres would be fine as I tend to use main roads that are well gritted. It turns out not so much and they were dangerous on even mildly snow covered roads. These are the original tyres I think that came with the car as I bought it used.
The CC2 tyres make a big difference and I always swore off pure summer tyres and opt for all season based on experience. They aren’t infallible of course but give so much more grip on typical UK snow conditions.
I would respectfully disagree that it’s misplaced justification. If you had asked any experienced and honest EV owner if they would recommend an EV with no home charging (or at minimum regular work charging), they would have told you not to do it.
Not quite, some would recommend finding someone on plugshare (or whatever it's called) and rolling the dice on them not moving house.
turbot also said that they still wouldn't have an EV if they did have home charging, so is that conclusion from 2 years of running one not valid either?
Soldato
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But the charging issue is only part of the story.... EV's are such a numb detatched driving experience, and the i4 is one of the best of that bunch. Based on a coupe, low slung, rear wheel drive .... but lugging 650kg of battery around, a Caterham with two people in it.