When are you going fully electric?
- Thread starter Ricochet J
- Start date
We did a 500 mile road trip around Northern Ireland in an I-Pace and didn’t touch a rapid charger once. Charged for a few hours at a hotel car park where we had a meal and a tour of the nearby tourist location. Or the next day we went on a 3 hour boat trip and I charged at an 11kWh AC charger in a local car park. Got another 1 hour top up at another AC charger while we had a pub lunch on the way home on the last day. Each time the car was over 50% SoC, but the chargers were there and available to use.
The car still had 45% SoC when we got home because I charged when it was available, not when it was needed. In those scenarios it pays to ABC (Always Be Charging).
There was absolutely zero “careful planning”. Yes I looked up local AC chargers to get an idea of location and if they were working. But that was a 2 minute google search. Hardly a chore.
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I count 8? Unless you're counting sites within 1/2 mile of each other. The average is also not a particularly useful metric - for almost half that distance (the 65 miles between Haverfordwest and Aberystwyth) there's only a single rapid (at Cardigan).
Which is fine if the places you want to visit/stay do offer charging - what if they don't?
Not going to argue with that, but sometimes it's unavoidable.
Outside of peak season, then great. I wouldn't want to rely on a site with only 1-2 chargers in the middle of summer though!
Did you stop at those particular hotel & pub because they were where you wanted to stop, or because they had a charger?
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We were staying in glamping pods with no way to charge on site. Not once did we self restrict our options to “must have a charger”. Each time it was my wife decided where and what we were doing and I looked up AC chargers nearby. The hotel we ate at happened to have an AC charger in their own car park. Plugged in despite having 70% SoC and left with well over 90% SoC. She booked a boat trip tour the next day and once again I just looked on Zapmap for nearest AC chargers. There were some in a local car park right across from the harbour. So again plugged in despite being at 70ish SoC again, we left with 100% SoC.
There was no need for careful planning, or for us to decide “we can’t do that because there is no nearby charger”. Nor did we restrict where we were staying to “must have destination chargers”.
On those kind of trips in poor charger coverage areas, ABC is the key and make the car work for you, not the other way around. Charge where and when possible with AC, even if you are already at decent SoC. Don’t pass up chargers it’s sitting free if you can help it. No major planning required.
There was no need for careful planning, or for us to decide “we can’t do that because there is no nearby charger”. Nor did we restrict where we were staying to “must have destination chargers”.
On those kind of trips in poor charger coverage areas, ABC is the key and make the car work for you, not the other way around. Charge where and when possible with AC, even if you are already at decent SoC. Don’t pass up chargers it’s sitting free if you can help it. No major planning required.
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Are your really asking this? If you want to convince yourself Elon Musk is not a complete knob, go ahead. But trying to make it sound like you need someone to provide “reasoning” that he isn’t demonstrably a total ****. lol, just el oh el
Got a good bite there……… 
Soldato
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i must admit these last few years i have lost a lot (most) of the respect i had for Musk.......... but that said, imo if i were to boycott every company who had a knob somewhere near the top of them......... i dont think i could buy much
for all the things Musk has said and done as a person, Tesla as a company (AFAIK) have done nothing as untoward as the VAG group did with the dieselgate scandal for instance.
obviously, its the buyers choice, but i would say it may be cutting someones nose off to spite their face if they were to boycott a tesla, IF that car otherwise would be the one which tick all the boxes for them.
Also.... if you go 2nd hand, so long as you dont buy from a tesla main dealer then i doubt they get much money from you anyway
for all the things Musk has said and done as a person, Tesla as a company (AFAIK) have done nothing as untoward as the VAG group did with the dieselgate scandal for instance.
obviously, its the buyers choice, but i would say it may be cutting someones nose off to spite their face if they were to boycott a tesla, IF that car otherwise would be the one which tick all the boxes for them.
Also.... if you go 2nd hand, so long as you dont buy from a tesla main dealer then i doubt they get much money from you anyway
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Fair enough - and yes, I do try to go with ABC.
To be honest we've never had an issue in the Niro (the Zoe was a different story!), although we try to go away out of peak season, and I've often felt like it was purely down to "luck" that the particular charger(s) we wanted were working/not full.
Maybe it's a non-issue these days and it's just in my head/a hangover from the early days of dealing with Ecotricity and the 50/50 chance that the single charger you really need would be working or not
Your experience is the same as mine. Though eventually I realised it wasn’t luck, but normal that there was always someplace to charge when I needed it. So eventually my charger anxiety was replaced by a more relaxed attitude to long range EV journeys. There are plenty of times a charger has not been free, but it has never left me stranded. I just moved on to the next one because I have rarely driven down to less than 35% before I need to stop for a break anyway.
It has to be new or Pre-reg as per HMRC below.It won’t meet your criteria for WLTP but it will do ~200 motorway miles in summer and rapid charge like a champion, even in winter. Used E-Tron 55 will be very practical and much more premium than a lot of the EVs you mentioned. Comes with adaptive air suspension as standard. They are also cheaper than similar aged Enyaq 80 and a much more premium and better equipped with a far superior infotainment system. It is not an efficient EV but still much cheaper than ICE when home charged.
2022 model, still under some warranty and ~20k miles. It’s a basic spec Technik (but still more kit than a standard Enyaq). No blind spot assist, or adaptive cruise control if that’s a problem.
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You could get a higher spec model with adaptive cruise control if you compromise on age and mileage. I had the Technik and it was a great SUV with decent range and great rapid charging.
Meaning of 'unused and not second hand'
New cars are ‘unused and not second hand’. You should accept a car is unused and not second hand even if it has been driven a limited number of miles for the purposes of testing, delivery, test driven by a potential purchaser, or used as a demonstration car.The fact that such cars (or cars that have not been driven at all) may have been pre-registered to a dealer does not prevent you from treating them as 'unused and not second hand.'
I had an Etron when I worked for Audi 3 years ago. It was fine but never an £80k car and it's range is sub 200 miles. That was back in the day when they charged me £90/month
which unfortunately didn't make up for the misery working there.An E-Tron sub 200 miles must have been a 50. I had an 50 and it was decently premium considering the cost a battery adds to a car. Poor efficiency though and the best range I ever saw was 180 miles.
I also had a 55 for a number of weeks and it was averaging 250 miles on combined journeys.
I also had a 55 for a number of weeks and it was averaging 250 miles on combined journeys.
Lots of interesting points of views in this thread in regards to the locations and viability of long tourist style trips around rural locations in this thread, which has been an eye opener for me. I guess the simple fact is that we're definitely getting closer to the point where it makes sense for more and more people to switch to EVs.
On a side note I've heard a few people say that certain manufacturers are scaling back ev production due to the infrastructure in certain countries not keeping up. I haven't got the figures to back this up but hopefully governments get their ass in gear to help things along. This ofcorse needs to be coupled with the electricity being produced by environmentally friendly sources, but that's a whole different can of worms which I don't fancy opening
On a side note I've heard a few people say that certain manufacturers are scaling back ev production due to the infrastructure in certain countries not keeping up. I haven't got the figures to back this up but hopefully governments get their ass in gear to help things along. This ofcorse needs to be coupled with the electricity being produced by environmentally friendly sources, but that's a whole different can of worms which I don't fancy opening
Lots of interesting points of views in this thread in regards to the locations and viability of long tourist style trips around rural locations in this thread, which has been an eye opener for me. I guess the simple fact is that we're definitely getting closer to the point where it makes sense for more and more people to switch to EVs.
On a side note I've heard a few people say that certain manufacturers are scaling back ev production due to the infrastructure in certain countries not keeping up. I haven't got the figures to back this up but hopefully governments get their ass in gear to help things along. This ofcorse needs to be coupled with the electricity being produced by environmentally friendly sources, but that's a whole different can of worms which I don't fancy opening
It think a lot of this was due to the pandemic throwing a spanner in the works both economically and at a social level.
Incidentally, I admit my 500+ mile road trip on nothing but AC was planned beforehand. But I didn’t have to use my “plans” at all. My original plan was to park the car overnight at an AC charger 10 minutes walk from the Glamping site. Plan B was that there was a rapid charger 15 minutes drive I could use in emergency. These plans turned out to be unnecessary as there were plenty of AC chargers near the places my wife decided we should go
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It was the 55 quattro I had. Tbf I only went 2/3 longer journeys but I wouldn't have been confident stretching it over c200 miles. I only had it for a few months and not through the winter. I'll bow to your knowledge but it can't be on the list regardless.
No problems, just clarifying for other folks reading. When I got the 55 loaner, the range showed 205 miles at 100%. Over the three weeks I had it that GoM was showing 250 miles.
The nice thing is there are lots of options now. It pains me to say it (I have an irrational hatred of all things Nissan), but what about an Araya?
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It's not a bad shout on the Nissan but I think it's less dog friendly due to the design of the rear which is less SUV and more coupe. I have a German Shepherd with big ears!!
Soldato
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when do you need it by? the Kia EV3 i think is going to be a hell of a popular car, when you comibine its price with the range it will offer and practicality.
Everytime I walk past a tesla I wonder if the owner wishes Musk would keep quieti must admit these last few years i have lost a lot (most) of the respect i had for Musk.......... but that said, imo if i were to boycott every company who had a knob somewhere near the top of them......... i dont think i could buy much
I'm not sure the boot is big enough but will check it out. The EV5 would be a better fit but no sign of it arriving in the UK yet.
No real rush on this - I have until the end of the tax year in March 25.
i must admit these last few years i have lost a lot (most) of the respect i had for Musk.......... but that said, imo if i were to boycott every company who had a knob somewhere near the top of them......... i dont think i could buy much
for all the things Musk has said and done as a person, Tesla as a company (AFAIK) have done nothing as untoward as the VAG group did with the dieselgate scandal for instance.
obviously, its the buyers choice, but i would say it may be cutting someones nose off to spite their face if they were to boycott a tesla, IF that car otherwise would be the one which tick all the boxes for them.
Also.... if you go 2nd hand, so long as you dont buy from a tesla main dealer then i doubt they get much money from you anyway
The problem with Musk is he is a lot more public in his knobishness. I know some other CEOs or executives are knobs, they just aren’t filling social media and even the media with their odious nonsense. I started off with some admiration and it slowly dropped to disdain over the years.
I would not consider a Tesla because his political and social views do not align with mine. It helps that the few times I tried one on a test drive, I didn’t like them as cars. Great EV and terrible car. Obviously I would never judge a driver as having the same views. That would be illogical… but those Nissan drivers, I pity them
The second hand one is a good point.
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