1st Experience with Electric Car

[Widgetone]

Well, I've gone and stuck a bit of Green insulating tape over the EU section of my number plates on my trusty old diesel estate.
Feel ever so green as a result, hope its legal!!

 

[itsalwaysme]

Well, I've gone and stuck a bit of Green insulating tape over the EU section of my number plates on my trusty old diesel estate.
Feel ever so green as a result, hope its legal!!

Well it does need a battery to start it

 

[Robt]

So, popped into rugby services today at lunch time . The 20 electric chargers . Only 5 being used…. So it’s hardly amragedom yet

 

[Bald Rick]

So, popped into rugby services today at lunch time . The 20 electric chargers . Only 5 being used…. So it’s hardly amragedom yet

Other 15 were probably bust

 

[Robt]

Other 15 were probably bust

Not bust, looked a few fake busts amongst those filling up though…. #Itsateslathing

 

[kiwi pom]

Not really sure how the fact he prefers Arthur to Martha affects his subjective views on cars to be honest... He also "wrote" scripts for Mrs Browns boys.....

Clarkson also writes weekly in the ST- and as entertaining as his articles are, they're not always exclusively based on fact...


I can't quite understand how people get so emotive about EVs. I like my cars, and if someone likes a particular brand/type/style of car, that's their own taste etc- each to their own. It just happens that the most cost effective, and best value for money company car I can drive at the moment has an electric motor at each end, not a diesel burner- under the current tax regimes... That may well change at some point, and I'll be back in a diesel.

Yes there's been times when the charging has been an inconvenience, but in the main only where I've failed to plan. I've got home with zero remaining miles, as a result of a faulty charger, but I've also driven plenty of diesel cars on fumes in the past (once got 21 miles out of a diesel A3- who's dash told me I had zero miles remaining...)...


My EV is a company car, and a tool to enable me to do my job. It also happens to be great fun to drive, goes like stink, full of toys, practical, and costs me less than 5% in company car tax per month to a comparable diesel...

I typically do 40k miles a year- at an average of less than 40mph. That's roughly 40 full days, or 125 8 hour working days, per year sat in it.

That's a lot of miles. Do you find time to do any work?

 

[john 650]

That's a lot of miles. Do you find time to do any work?

a fair question. On reflection, I don't think it's work that gets neglected in the grand scheme of things...

It's too much time I know that.

Meanwhile Welsh government want to introduce a 20mph speed limit... Not sure who they think is going to be left to pay their wages soon....

 

[Widgetone]

Slightly silly Q, but if you drive an EV carefully, ie slowly or smoothly, is the range greatly improved as with ice vehicles. And does high ambient temperature reduce range as I understand cold weather does? I wonder if these factors are taken into account.

 

[Highland Mule]

Slightly silly Q, but if you drive an EV carefully, ie slowly or smoothly, is the range greatly improved as with ice vehicles. And does high ambient temperature reduce range as I understand cold weather does? I wonder if these factors are taken into account.

The range will indeed improve and for exactly the same reasons: increased speed = increased drag = energy wasted.
Batteries are getting better with temperature I believe - heat pumps and the likes are managing the battery performace by keeping the cells at best temperature. More likely the use of aircon will consume power than anything, just like with an ICE car (my diesel Volvo drops about 3mpg with it on).

 

[sjt01]

Slightly silly Q, but if you drive an EV carefully, ie slowly or smoothly, is the range greatly improved as with ice vehicles. And does high ambient temperature reduce range as I understand cold weather does? I wonder if these factors are taken into account.

High temperature favours EVs, battery temperatures are in the working range and warm tyres have less rolling resistance. Warm air is less dense than cold air, so lower air resistance.
When you drive an EV, because of the very accurate energy monitoring, you soon realise that driving at 65 rather than 70 saves a lot, and 70 rather than 75 saves even more. It is the same in ICE vehicles, but because of the poorer energy monitoring it is nowhere near so apparent.

 

[ollie989898]

High temperature favours EVs, battery temperatures are in the working range and warm tyres have less rolling resistance. Warm air is less dense than cold air, so lower air resistance.
When you drive an EV, because of the very accurate energy monitoring, you soon realise that driving at 65 rather than 70 saves a lot, and 70 rather than 75 saves even more. It is the same in ICE vehicles, but because of the poorer energy monitoring it is nowhere near so apparent.

I've noticed a lot more people driving at sub 70 speeds on dual carriageways now or slipping in behind the trucks. TBH I often do it when I'm tired on the way home from work, set the cruise control to 60 and then the radar just hitches on to the truck in front and I can cruise on buried in my own thoughts.

 

[Sid]

TikTok - Make Your Day

Interesting clip on EV v ICEV

How green is EV?

 

[Dave645]

TikTok - Make Your Day

Interesting clip on EV v ICEV

How green is EV?

It’s always going to be interesting trying to make sense of so called facts, facts can always be messed with, is the factory making the EV using renewables, is the factory making ice cars using renewables, so many factors can effect carbon footprints, including the fact the petrol used in a car is not the whole of petrols carbon foot print, do we know if they included that or not? If they did great if they didn’t not so great.
So again facts can have a diffrent spin, is the carbon foot print the only benifit of EV’s to our environment, again no it’s not, I am sure city pollution is not made by nothing.
the final key is as the national grids around the world include more renewables, the cross over point can shift lower and lower.
The remaining fact that once we start to recycle battery packs at scale and more and more new packs have larger and larger % of recycled content that also lowers EV cars carbon base foot prints.
While a long way off at some point we may well not require newly mined battery materials. As the recovery rate even at this point is like 96%-98% of a pack. So while what that clip showed is valid, at some level it’s not a static calculation the further down the road we get the results will change. I also assume every car maker would have a different carbon foot print result, For each model of car, or factory.

 

[JP1]

I towed a caravan with an electric car and it was a DISASTER

SCHOOL’S out. Sun’s in the sky. Time for an August long weekender in the caravan at the seaside. Just one problem, though. I’m test-driving an electric car at the moment. With a big SUV with 280 mi…

www.thesun.ie

 

[john 650]

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[holwellcourtfarm]

I towed a caravan with an electric car and it was a DISASTER

SCHOOL’S out. Sun’s in the sky. Time for an August long weekender in the caravan at the seaside. Just one problem, though. I’m test-driving an electric car at the moment. With a big SUV with 280 mi…

www.thesun.ie

This, for those of us who tow even occasionally, is a BIG DEAL with EVS.

I like the idea of the Rivian (as I've said repeatedly ) but it's 400 mile range falls to about 180 with a decent trailer on the back according to some who are running them. That's a 90 mile return trip, not enough without charging and, as that piece you've shared says, try finding a charger to use when you've a 16 foot trailer attached. Oh, and I wouldn't dream of unhitching the trailer to charge in a motorway services unless I was then blocking it in as some to55er would pinch it in minutes.

All a real shame as the full torque EVs deliver from 0mph is ideal for a tow vehicle.

 

[john 650]

I towed a caravan with an electric car and it was a DISASTER

SCHOOL’S out. Sun’s in the sky. Time for an August long weekender in the caravan at the seaside. Just one problem, though. I’m test-driving an electric car at the moment. With a big SUV with 280 mi…

www.thesun.ie

Not read the link, as I don't want Sun cookies on my machine, but towing with an EV would only be a disaster if you failed to plan, or happened to be some hack who wanted to write an article to fit the narrative the paper's typical reader wanted to hear.... Just me being cynical perhaps....

 

[john 650]

This, for those of us who tow even occasionally, is a BIG DEAL with EVS.

I like the idea of the Rivian (as I've said repeatedly ) but it's 400 mile range falls to about 180 with a decent trailer on the back according to some who are running them. That's a 90 mile return trip, not enough without charging and, as that piece you've shared says, try finding a charger to use when you've a 16 foot trailer attached. Oh, and I wouldn't dream of unhitching the trailer to charge in a motorway services unless I was then blocking it in as some to55er would pinch it in minutes.

All a real shame as the full torque EVs deliver from 0mph is ideal for a tow vehicle.

Towed a number of times with mine- including a number of 200 mile round trips. One with 2t on the back.

I managed to charge without unhitching in two Motorway services- but that obviously won't always be the case. Services chargers tend to have more space around them than supermarket ones though.

Rivian ain't coming to the UK, but some of the tech will trickle down no doubt

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Rivian ain't coming to the UK, but some of the tech will trickle down no doubt

Shame really but they are just too heavy to fit the UK 7.5t limit for non LGV status.

The piece makes a really good point about comparing the Enyaq and VW ID4: the best thing about the Enyaq is that it doesn't try to differentiate itself from traditional cars by using touchscreens for everything and retains proper switches. I don't want touchscreens in a car. They force you to take your eyes off the road to use them whereas well designed physical switches can be used by feel.

Actually, I don't want all the integration and techy wizardry either but avoiding that is almost impossible now on new cars. I drove a hired car recently and hated the land departure warning which resisted the steering. At first I thought something was wrong with the car until I twigged that it didn't do it if I indicated first. This is all just something else to go wrong and takes away the old school pleasure of driving.

 

[DaveGrohl]

Shame really but they are just too heavy to fit the UK 7.5t limit for non LGV status.

The piece makes a really good point about comparing the Enyaq and VW ID4: the best thing about the Enyaq is that it doesn't try to differentiate itself from traditional cars by using touchscreens for everything and retains proper switches. I don't want touchscreens in a car. They force you to take your eyes off the road to use them whereas well designed physical switches can be used by feel.

Actually, I don't want all the integration and techy wizardry either but avoiding that is almost impossible now on new cars. I drove a hired car recently and hated the land departure warning which resisted the steering. At first I thought something was wrong with the car until I twigged that it didn't do it if I indicated first. This is all just something else to go wrong and takes away the old school pleasure of driving.

The user interface in cars is utterly insane these days. I’m in no doubt that a large percentage of accidents are caused by these touchscreens. We forbade people fiddling with their phones whilst driving but have introduced something that’s actually worse. Lunacy.