EV general discussion

dLockers said:
That was it - they were Apple Green chargers. And you are also correct in that the Gridserve had someone drawing juice hence why it didn't work. Where do you learn all this lol? The lady who was connected to the Gridserve didn't say a word as she sat in the car next to me watching countless people try.
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I just remember gridserve making a point about it when they installed them. It’s a shame the software on the charger itself doesn’t make that abundantly clear.

Your right about hardly anyone knowing about it because I was on a gridserve unit on Friday on the M20 and an EV6 owner was trying to use the other plug and then was waiting for me to get back.

There there was 6 ionity units round the corner they could have used if they really needed a charge (to be fair I didn’t know they were there until I was driving out). I only went on the gridserve units as they were both empty and it was an unplanned pee stop and was planning on using the super chargers at Folkestone but my bladder range wasn’t quite there!
 
dLockers said:
Exactly - whatever bill I end up with is still +7.99 for a fillet burger + 1 piece chicken.
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Now that's your problem there. What you needed was loaf of value white bread, slice of cheese and own brand marge and you've saved yourself 6 quid. Easy to get the bread board out and make up a sarni while waiting...
 
I had to help a lady out with a Gridserve unit that wouldn't charge her ID.3, the connector got stuck on the and locked in and she didn't realise that there was a manual cable release in the boot, on the right hand-side behind a flap. I swapped bays with her, and it worked fine on my vehicle and the ID.3 wouldn't charge on the other one that was just working with mine. It was a 1st Edition, and apparently she hand't been to VW to have the software updated since it was brand new! :eek:

She still had 35 miles showing, so I directed her to an Instavolt just off the M'way about 8 miles away and told her to get the car booked in for an update ASAP. She had only used public charging 3-4 times and never had any trouble in the past, so was very confused about it all, but said she would now RTFM and learn about her vehicle.

I do wonder how many 'issues' are people not reading a manual, or trying to operate a device without first reading the instructions etc. I mean I see it all the time given I work in the I.T. sector, but I think a lot of car owners are so used to just putting a fuel hose in the car which they never had to learn, and most other things would be solved by a mechanic so mostly irrelevant to them. In this instance I'd also think VW are partly to blame for not issuing a recall notice on cars that were shipped with buggy software in the first place.
 
gailjon said:
Now that's your problem there. What you needed was loaf of value white bread, slice of cheese and own brand marge and you've saved yourself 6 quid. Easy to get the bread board out and make up a sarni while waiting...
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Everyone banging on about the cost of living crisis and smug old me just needs to avoid takeaways tbh :o
 
Journey said:
I do wonder how many 'issues' are people not reading a manual, or trying to operate a device without first reading the instructions etc. I mean I see it all the time given I work in the I.T. sector, but I think a lot of car owners are so used to just putting a fuel hose in the car which they never had to learn, and most other things would be solved by a mechanic so mostly irrelevant to them. In this instance I'd also think VW are partly to blame for not issuing a recall notice on cars that were shipped with buggy software in the first place.
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Pretty much this. EVs add another layer of reasonable complexity and the ignorance will only get worse.

WRT the software update, aren't they available over-the-air? I'm pretty sure they are on the VW infotainment - I think, again, the wider issue is people thinking it's too complex or something the car should sort on its own, and so indefinitely ignore/postpone the update warnings.
 
squerble said:
WRT the software update, aren't they available over-the-air? I'm pretty sure they are on the VW infotainment - I think, again, the wider issue is people thinking it's too complex or something the car should sort on its own, and so indefinitely ignore/postpone the update warnings.
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Not on the original factory software, it needed an upgrade to get OTA, so it can't be done by the owner/user.
 
Journey said:
I had to help a lady out with a Gridserve unit that wouldn't charge her ID.3, the connector got stuck on the and locked in and she didn't realise that there was a manual cable release in the boot, on the right hand-side behind a flap. I swapped bays with her, and it worked fine on my vehicle and the ID.3 wouldn't charge on the other one that was just working with mine. It was a 1st Edition, and apparently she hand't been to VW to have the software updated since it was brand new! :eek:

She still had 35 miles showing, so I directed her to an Instavolt just off the M'way about 8 miles away and told her to get the car booked in for an update ASAP. She had only used public charging 3-4 times and never had any trouble in the past, so was very confused about it all, but said she would now RTFM and learn about her vehicle.

I do wonder how many 'issues' are people not reading a manual, or trying to operate a device without first reading the instructions etc. I mean I see it all the time given I work in the I.T. sector, but I think a lot of car owners are so used to just putting a fuel hose in the car which they never had to learn, and most other things would be solved by a mechanic so mostly irrelevant to them. In this instance I'd also think VW are partly to blame for not issuing a recall notice on cars that were shipped with buggy software in the first place.
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I'm sorry but no. Not at all. These cars are bought like Bosch washing machines are bought. Tesla have this model just right - you shouldn't have to waste your time getting software updates and being caught out because the system is so complicated.

We literally burn old dinosaurs with zero friction and a seamless process globally.

Your IT comment is "more lol" because it is the same thing. Why shouldn't end users have a good experience? If they need to be IT literate it talks more about how your IT department is poorly functioning.
 
It's the typical release it quick fix, it later mentality that has penetrated everything now because the internet exists, it's not a good one, leads to half baked crap being released with no where near enough testing, clearly a VW fail though releasing something that couldn't even be fixed OTA initial.
 
having googled id3 plug - yes it seemed dirt was the main plug issue irrespective of any s/w updates. (silicon grease needed)

rodenal said:
Eqv £880 on mine, tend to find anything in short supply or particularly popular rockets up to funny money until the next quota comes around

E Space £480
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I hadn't appreciated what these are , but 120mile range seemed limited family duty ? OK for it's delivery van incarnation though.
 
dLockers said:
Had my first pretty miserable EV experience today. My fault entirely, though. I was doing a 100 mile round trip today. I had planned to charge the car on 3-pin Thursday but then got my dates wrong and needed my E43 to do a 200 mile round trip. Thursday was chaos (single parenting / M1 chaos / trying to get my kid at 1715 - had to break a few guideline laws :D ) so I only managed to get the Pug plugged in on Friday evening. Ended up just charging over night to get me to about 176 miles on the range estimate.

I thought I was quids in but have now confirmed Waze is often garbage with its initial distance estimate (try it yourself - until you click "navigate" it seems to be just roughly right). This was way off - I was actually doing a 150 mile round trip with only 176 on the range.

I left the "event" I was at to go to a Tesco about 10 miles away and plugged in. I didn't realise how slow even the 7kW chargers are. It probably could have "done me" but I was worried the range estimate was just pure make belief and wanted more than a 10 mile insurance policy. Gave up and decided to risk it: range estimate 76 miles; Waze said 73 miles to destination.

Ended up bottling it a bit up the M1 with range showing <20 miles. 2 chargers later at South Mimms (all broken) I managed to get on a fast charger. And wow, these things are epic. But such an annoying "arse about face" day because of the EV. All in all, 76 miles took me 3 hours versus the regular hr and a half/ hr and 40.

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edit: it peaked at almost 100kW hour IIRC.
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Just had the bill for this - it was about 35 quid....or at least half what the E43 would have cost I guess :D
 
On reflection this is the first time my wife has ever paid for fuel, ever - so I'm still quids in no matter what the kwH charge was.
 
dLockers said:
Just had the bill for this - it was about 35 quid....or at least half what the E43 would have cost I guess :D
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£35 for 76 miles? that sounds awefully expensive; 40MPG car can cover that in 2 gallons thats just over 9litres of diesel even takign £2/L thats £18

using public chargers atm is about the same if not slightly more than driving ICE cars. 54kWH with 3miles/kWH efficiency on motorway thats 168miles thats about £33 wiht diesel cars or £30 with petrol.

for a long trip always home charge to the full and thats the only way of saving money over ICE atm
 
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