EV general discussion

[b0rn2sk8]

I didn’t write it above but I’ll be honest, its pretty Halfords if you know what I mean. It looks like something a boy racer would drive but goes no faster than a standard car, so typical boy racer really .

You are right that old hot hatches used to have 200hp but they were also very light be todays standards have none the things you want to make them safe. But that’s the exact point I was making, it’s barley warm by modern standards and normal hatches my gran would drive have the same power.

Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t need 400hp, 250-300 would be more the right ball park.

Perhaps I’m getting old but I’d never consider something like an old mk2 golf GTI ‘nice to drive’, unrefined, noisy and frankly the last place you want to be in a collision.

 

[sandys]

Looks out at car....stickers, spoiler, bodykit.....probably slower than your grans car .... oops, old boy racer here

I wasn't thinking that old but actually the Mk2 Golf is a pretty solid if a little slow machine (compared to my old GTE 16v of same era) more so recent i20N, Fiesta STs, RS Clios etc, even my little Abarth offers up more joy than these big isolation tanks that are all the rage, all quite safe, so if they can inject some of that verve, which I doubt anyone can now with the weight, but if anyone can I'd give Alpine/Renault a fair chance as they have been making cars that feel good for decades, it'd be Golden, a B road blast in one of those style of warm hatches is a superior experience to the one trick pony that is the typical electric ballistic missile to me, everyone has their own preferences though.

 

[chroniclard]

All depends on how it feels, power is not an important number really, if they can make it a fun city car you can enjoy on a b-road it'd be enough, used to be the fun hatches were all 160-200bhp (circa 160-170bhp/ton) some of these are still better to drive than these new 400+bhp monsters.

I like it personally but i'm old and look back fondly on these things.

EP3 Civic Type R I had was 200PS/1,205 kg/bugger all torque, in many ways it was more fun to drive than our current Golf R 320PS/1,465(not hugely heavier)/420NM. Though if both were sat in front of me brand new I wouldn't pick the Civic. Boy racer for life!

Someone will bring out a good hot hatch EV in the next couple of years.

 

[hillbilly2]

What's the general consciences with the ID3's , are they a viable option to be looking at?

 

[b0rn2sk8]

There is nothing ‘wrong’ with them IMO and they are priced in the right ballpark compared to the competition.

The biggest ‘issue’ is that the interior quality isn’t up to VWs previous standards such as the previous generation MK7 Golf. The other gripe people pick up in is the infotainment isn’t the best (much improved compared to launch mind) and the stupid Haptic Touch buttons on the steering wheel/window controls.

Have a look at the Cupar Born, it’s the same car in a different set of clothes. It’s a bit less generic looking and has more aggressive styling. They still have the stupid steering wheel buttons though.

Definitely worth a test drive, as is the Cupra.

 

[chroniclard]

You get used to the haptics quite quickly, though they are no substitute for proper buttons.

 

[sandys]

What's the general consciences with the ID3's , are they a viable option to be looking at?

Isn't that the expensive low quality version of the MG4

 

[rodenal]

As above there is nothing greatly wrong with the id3 as an overall package but it does look that little bit too cheap inside for me, albeit I'm sure you'd get over it pretty quickly.

I've got a Born on order which apparently is a little bit more available (mine ordered March, will allegedly arrive this year) and was just that little bit nicer inside, but for obvious reasons is otherwise pretty indistinguishable from the VW.

I would be seriously tempted by the mg4 at the moment and I also far preferred both the c40 and polestar 2 (though obviously more expensive and a little bigger) when I ordered mine, but the orders were closed for 2022 at that point and lead times into 2023 looked even worse than Cupra/vw. Absolute purchase price is less of a driver than monthly lease in my case as it's a company car

 

[chanjy]

You get used to the haptics quite quickly, though they are no substitute for proper buttons.

They are so annoying though, half the time you change the volume just putting your hands on the steering wheel because buttons are where the thumbs naturally land.

As above there is nothing greatly wrong with the id3 as an overall package but it does look that little bit too cheap inside for me, albeit I'm sure you'd get over it pretty quickly.

I've got a Born on order which apparently is a little bit more available (mine ordered March, will allegedly arrive this year) and was just that little bit nicer inside, but for obvious reasons is otherwise pretty indistinguishable from the VW.

I would be seriously tempted by the mg4 at the moment and I also far preferred both the c40 and polestar 2 (though obviously more expensive and a little bigger) when I ordered mine, but the orders were closed for 2022 at that point and lead times into 2023 looked even worse than Cupra/vw. Absolute purchase price is less of a driver than monthly lease in my case as it's a company car

We have a v1 Born now (picked up one in stock), it is lovely inside and much never than the id3 in our opinion.

I was tempted to change to an MG4 but wife vetoed it lol

 

[Simon]

Today I went electric. Cupra born V2 58kWh, no options as it was a zenith order to allocate later. Ordered 22th June

Need to do more miles before full opinion but first quick drive was fine, just need to work out the menus and hope brakes get better !

On octopus go faster too for cheap motoring.

 

[rodenal]

I keep hoping for news that mine is at least in the build queue so I know it will be a month or so away but radio silence so far unfortunately!

On the plus side as more cars seem to be getting to people most seem to really like it (then again who orders a relatively expensive new car and declares that they hate it?)

R.e Octopus - I've been looking into the tariffs but I can't quite see how the increased day rate is not going to push my standard usage up by more than the cost of charging at the cheap evening rate when comparing current unit prices (expecting when /if the Oct cap comes a similar uplift is applied to Go, keeping in mind I do not currently have them as a supplier) - what am I doing wrong? Looks like I'd need to shift over a third of my usage to cheap times and I'm afraid I'm not up for doing midnight washings etc

 

[Simon]

Octopus go faster is the key. 21:30-01:30.

The negative of 39.84p peak is our weighed by the car being much more power hungry and dishwasher washing machine etc can go on later (depends on your lifestyle but it works for me)

 

[sandys]

I found that, only works if you are big mileage or have a home battery

 

[squerble]

Octopus go faster is the key. 21:30-01:30.

The negative of 39.84p peak is our weighed by the car being much more power hungry and dishwasher washing machine etc can go on later (depends on your lifestyle but it works for me)

I'd definitely prefer a later GO Faster window (and will request it once I've moved to GO). 0130-0630 would be ideal. Can run both the car charging and electric radiator in one room of the house, as well as run the washing machine late enough that it's finishing as we get out of bed and so can hang it up straight away, rather than letting it sit in the machine for an hour or two creasing up

 

[squerble]

I found that, only works if you are big mileage or have a home battery

I worked out the cutover for me is about 5500 miles worth of charging at home as the breakeven., however that's with no load shifting. If I can move about 20% (500kWh out of an estimated 2500kWh) to overnight, then that mileage drops to 2500. Certainly wouldn't call that big mileage but then your standard usage could be way higher than ours (2 people and a dog, no kids).

EDIT: Just to mention that's based on a yearly average of 4mi/kWh (which my car is quite likely to do slightly better than), and accounting for a 10% charging loss too.

 

[Simon]

Ah EV life. Where energy cost is more exciting than the cars themselves.

 

[funguST]

So we are thinking of getting a small electric car as our 2nd car (maybe something like an ID3 etc), just have a couple of questions if you dont mind. With regards to energy prices etc at the moment, do you have to move onto an electric car tariff? Or stay as is, if anyones is on one (i'm with EDF) could you share what you currently are charged at? The reason i'm asking as we are on a fixed rate until April next year and i suspect with the current crazy prices we'd be a lot worse off if we had to change the tariff.

Also do you get the grant to cover a chunk of the cost of a home charging point if you buy 2nd hand?

 

[chanjy]

So we are thinking of getting a small electric car as our 2nd car (maybe something like an ID3 etc), just have a couple of questions if you dont mind. With regards to energy prices etc at the moment, do you have to move onto an electric car tariff? Or stay as is, if anyones is on one (i'm with EDF) could you share what you currently are charged at? The reason i'm asking as we are on a fixed rate until April next year and i suspect with the current crazy prices we'd be a lot worse off if we had to change the tariff.

Also do you get the grant to cover a chunk of the cost of a home charging point if you buy 2nd hand?

Grant - no you wouldn't get it

Electricity prices - for a second car suspect you will be better off staying (but we can't tell you unless you tell us the £/kWh you are on at the moment)

 

[sandys]

No grants for normal installs anymore, so no reduced charging point unless you live in flats or something.

tariff questions will require you to do some maths for your usage and rates, everyone has different locks etc, so hard to answer, I'm paying 26p until late '24 so switching to anything puts me on a large day rate and my usage without an EV was 7500kw, I won't switch all usage to night time either, its not practical for us, so I'll stay put and use my standard tariff, but I don't do any mileage, since covid we do majority WFH, someone doing more mileage or low electric users might see a benefit from an EV tariff.

 

[Russinating]

I'd definitely prefer a later GO Faster window (and will request it once I've moved to GO). 0130-0630 would be ideal. Can run both the car charging and electric radiator in one room of the house, as well as run the washing machine late enough that it's finishing as we get out of bed and so can hang it up straight away, rather than letting it sit in the machine for an hour or two creasing up

Intelligent Octopus is 7.5p/kW from 11.30pm to 5.30am.

We're signing up now but having trouble with the charging check (the tariff is in beta), but as per now (Octopus Go), we'll charge our car, electric moped, and do washing/drying overnight with a timer to turn the plug off so the dryer doesn't stay on all the way through.