EV general discussion

[PermaChanged]

I'm fully intending to renew the extended warranty as it will be costly if it goes haywire!

It's a 2021 HSE with the sports seats and the fancy 22" rims with the carbon fibre inserts - and I couldn't be happier!

I don't have any range anxiety issues due to where I live, and can get about an 85% charge on our "cheap rate" electric hours of 20:30 - 06:30 - so costs me about £4 a week to run

 

[jpaul]

I went and had a look at one - nice enough inside (arguably nicer than the Capri which isn't miles away from the same monthly cost to me as the larger MG), big and has a massive, square boot.

both capri and explorer seem to be cheap ways to get into the latest efficient vag 550 drivetrain.2nd hand too, if you want a big SUV;
only saw my first explorer recently and thought - could I drive that down our double parked road; ford dealers more numerous than mg as well.

 

[m4rmite]

both capri and explorer seem to be cheap ways to get into the latest efficient vag 550 drivetrain.2nd hand too, if you want a big SUV;
only saw my first explorer recently and thought - could I drive that down our double parked road; ford dealers more numerous than mg as well.

Ford Explorer dimensions, boot space and similars

Ford Explorer dimensions with interior photos, boot space and measurements of length, width and height. Previous cars and similars in size.

www.automobiledimension.com

Car dimensions on here so it's an easy check .

 

[Firestar_3x]

Recently took an EX90 out for a test-drive, love the car however its even longer than our XC90 and i think that may be a problem for some places we drive / park i.e. Knutsford could be a nightmare, plus the battery range isn't even close to the recently released EX60.

Going to test an EX60 and then decide if i want to wait 2 / 3 years for a used one, buy a used EX90 soon or just stick with what we have.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

We stumbled on a pretty incredible quote on an Citroen C5 Aircross Max 97kwh, with 16k miles for £375pcm all inclusive. The equivalent Peugeot e5008 was working out at £538, so the Citroen is quite a bit cheaper for virtually the same car, minus the extra 2 seats that would have come in useful.

Not sure it'll be honoured by the leasing company yet though - the quote was saved from a few weeks ago. Re-doing the exact same details now comes back at over £600.

 

[VincentHanna]

We stumbled on a pretty incredible quote on an Citroen C5 Aircross Max 97kwh, with 16k miles for £375pcm all inclusive. The equivalent Peugeot e5008 was working out at £538, so the Citroen is quite a bit cheaper for virtually the same car, minus the extra 2 seats that would have come in useful.

Not sure it'll be honoured by the leasing company yet though - the quote was saved from a few weeks ago. Re-doing the exact same details now comes back at over £600.

The dealers might have been offering really low deals to finance compaies to hit some sales target before the end of the month. Happens a lot.

 

[Delta3D]

EV Chargers - Is there anything major to know?

Looking to get a Mini Electric Level 2, 32.6kWh battery with max charging rate 50kWh. Obviously 7.2kWh charger will be fine.

Charger grant annoyingly only applies to flats now it seems, or people with ON street parking? Odd.

Got an electrician friend who can install for me, and then will likely use Octopus for leccy supplier.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

EV Chargers - Is there anything major to know?

Looking to get a Mini Electric Level 2, 32.6kWh battery with max charging rate 50kWh. Obviously 7.2kWh charger will be fine.

Charger grant annoyingly only applies to flats now it seems, or people with ON street parking? Odd.

Got an electrician friend who can install for me, and then will likely use Octopus for leccy supplier.

Pick something that works with octopus intelligent go, is tethered (cable permanently attached) and has decent cable management (none of this loosely dealt it over the unit which just looks a mess).

That’s basically any of these: Hypervolt, Zappi or Anderson (posh). Hypervolt is probably the best value and least offensive looking of you don’t plump the extra £ for an Anderson at nearly twice the price.

If you have solar, make sure they wire it in a way in which any inverters with batteries attached can’t see the load from the EV charger.

 

[Journey]

Got an electrician friend who can install for me, and then will likely use Octopus for leccy supplier.

Ohme are generally a decent choice if you want Octopus compatibility for Intelligent Go, as it isn't car dependant only charger, you'll have to figure out how you want to manage the cable, if you care about looks.

 

[PermaChanged]

Pick something that works with octopus intelligent go, is tethered (cable permanently attached) and has decent cable management (none of this loosely dealt it over the unit which just looks a mess).

That’s basically any of these: Hypervolt, Zappi or Anderson (posh). Hypervolt is probably the best value and least offensive looking of you don’t plump the extra £ for an Anderson at nearly twice the price.

If you have solar, make sure they wire it in a way in which any inverters with batteries attached can’t see the load from the EV charger.

May I offer up that untethered/socketed looks cleaner, so I'd say that element is down to personal preference!

I've got a Masterplug socketed unit which uses the Monta charging software, very happy with it for my use case and the untethered nature leaves a cleaner aesthetic in my opinion - tempted by a socketed Andersen Quartz for an even cleaner look but that's a fair chunk of money https://andersen-ev.com/pages/andersen-quartz

 

[b0rn2sk8]

May I offer up that untethered/socketed looks cleaner, so I'd say that element is down to personal preference!

I generally agree but it means getting out and putting away your cable every day. If you are going to be disciplined enough to do that then yeh go for it but otherwise, just get a tethered unit.

Almost all of the untethered chargers I see in the wild have the cable attached and draped over the unit when the car isn’t plugged in. Talk about defeating the object.

I've got a Masterplug socketed unit which uses the Monta charging software, very happy with it for my use case and the untethered nature leaves a cleaner aesthetic in my opinion - tempted by a socketed Andersen Quartz for an even cleaner look but that's a fair chunk of money https://andersen-ev.com/pages/andersen-quartz

The masterplug isn’t compatible with IOG so it’s not something I’d recommend for someone looking to sign up to an octopus EV tariff.

The Anderson is compatible and is rather nice but I refer to my point about the cable above.

 

[tom_e]

I've never used an untethered charger but I have had a similar thing when I used to commute by motorbike, on the face of it throwing a cover on and off when you leave/get home doesn't seem like a big thing but it quickly becomes a pain when you just want to get going/the weather is crap/get home late/etc.

Obviously less of an issue if you just need to charge once a week or similar.

 

[Mr Jack]

EV Chargers - Is there anything major to know?

Looking to get a Mini Electric Level 2, 32.6kWh battery with max charging rate 50kWh. Obviously 7.2kWh charger will be fine.

If you have an existing ordinary plug socket in a convenient location you'll probably get away with using that just fine without needing to get a charger installed.

 

[kristmace]

There must be quite a few Intelligent Octopus Go users on here.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed the ridiculous short charges that we've been having now for well over six months? Mind you, the only way you'd know is if you had HA tracking it, or perhaps look at the charger data, so most won't notice it.

Plugged in last night around 22:30, first charge happend at 02:01, it lasted 3 minutes and 23 seconds, it delivered 370 Wh, the next charge was at 03:00, it lasted 2 minutes and 38 seconds, it delivered even less energy, just 268 Wh! The next charge after that commenced at 03:31 and lasted 86 minutes.

This is not new, its been going on since prior to May last year, there is a thread on the Octopus forums with over 600 replies, and pretty much nothing from Octopus, these short charges can't be good for the EVSE or the cars. There are often short gaps as well between consecutive charges, both the short charges and the gaps are regular occurrences.

That's strange. I've not really checked mine... I have an 80% target for 6.30am and it's always ready.

 

[kristmace]

Any Polestar owners on here. Already starting to eye up my next EV and wondering what owners opinions are.

 

[Penfold101]

Any Polestar owners on here. Already starting to eye up my next EV and wondering what owners opinions are.

Had one for two years - it’s basically a Volvo in drag and I had no issues with it. Averaged about 250 miles in summer and closer to 200 in winter, built in google maps was excellent and good support through the Volvo dealerships.

The cabin is a bit cramped with the high centre console but it didn’t bother me - definitely worth taking one for a decent drive first to make sure you fit in it ok and don’t feel squashed.

Get one with the pilot pack for adaptive cruise (easiest way to tell is to look for fog lights) but I didnt find anything in the plus pack that was worth shelling out for (heated steering wheel, panoramic roof etc)

Also, the standard suspension is solid - even worse on the 20” rims. Find a bumpy road on your drive and see what you think!

 

[chanjy]

Any Polestar owners on here. Already starting to eye up my next EV and wondering what owners opinions are.

Doesn't it depend on what model you're considering?

The newer ones have had a few software bugs from every review i have read, but they are good looking cars (non-owner though)

 

[Penfold101]

Just to add, mine was the Long Range Single Motor.

My mate has one which is the dual motor Performance Pack with software upgrade to 500bhp - fast, but made me feel ill every time he accelerated…

 

[Logsi]

I have a Polestar 2 Performance. Was fully specced at the time it was released just before the refresh with B&W audio and updated IHU which I'm looking to retrofit at some point when dealers are more aware if the upgrade. Was bought with 150 miles on the clock and ex-demo with a considerable amount of money off. I wanted a Tesla Model 3 Performance but was hard finding one without any damage and this came up. The car is nice, Ohlins suspension is brilliant and Brembo brakes also fantastic. I find the driving experience fine, one peddle driving very good and the general dynamics better than other EV's I've driven. It's a shame there is no wireless CarPlay but grabbed a small otto cast which sorts that issue out. The software is showing its age and think the new IHU may speed things up. The pixel headlights are brilliant, better than the M135i ones I had before this.

Main issue I have is range. WLTP is 350 or thereabouts and whilst I realise this is unrealistic in real world the car says 160 miles at 80%. The car is set to dynamic so is pessimistic with its range. Will see what happens in the summer as 300 miles will be very welcome.

I do like the thought of a Polestar 4 but the 2 is already quite a large car with little cabin room. It's not thrilling but doesn't do anything badly.

 

[tamzzy]

Main issue I have is range. WLTP is 350 or thereabouts and whilst I realise this is unrealistic in real world the car says 160 miles at 80%.

when i was looking at EVs this was my beef with the pre-refresh polestar 2 as well, the battery/motor setup was terribly inefficient compared to the model 3
i believe the refresh polestar 2 is on par with the model 3, but i did not want to spend that much