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"We love our electric car but it took 8 hours to do a 3 hour journey!"
They must be exceptionally patient and long-suffering people. I would have no love for a car that couldn't do a 3-hour journey (max. 200 miles) in one go, without having to take one's chances with public chargers (which seem to be rubbish unless you have a Tesla).
If we're going to be helpful on this forum, I think we should be suggesting to anyone considering buying an EV to think first about what is the longest return journey that they make regularly. The EV's range needs to cover that by a comfortable margin. And even that calculation assumes that one has a driveway and a home charger.
In my case it's a 200-mile round trip (Dorset to Berkshire) - and I don't want my car dictating to me whether I can use the heating and AC as well as lights and (in this winter most of the time) wipers.
Even with one of the better EVs like the Kia E-Niro, how much does its quoted range reduce on a cold, wet night?
Where I do see much more point in EVs is with cars the size of the Zoe downwards, used for short trips where there is another car in the household (or you only ever do short trips). Let's hope that the price of these can gradually come down to nearer to the petrol versions.
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We love our electric car but it took 8 hours to do a 3 hour journey! Setting off with a full battery. Why? App says chademo is working, get there, 10minutes waiting to speak to someone, only to find out it's been out of order 12 days but wasn't added to the app. Pretty much all the way down to the M42, charging points out of order..or not updated as working or not. Charging points we can't use like Tesla were even not working. Eventually we got to the slip rd to the services with z Chademo, literally 1/4 mile away & the power went & had to get recovered, only to find the MOTO service Chademo was out of order too! For 60 miles we searched for a working & fadt charger. THAT is NOT a good advertisement to go ekectric!
Just to provide a counterpoint from one of the many recent posts re electric cars...........
Couldn’t justify the cost of a Tesla myself for my journeys but have recently bought a 40kW Nissan Leaf and my experience is similar. I’ve a 45 mile round trip to work where I can charge cheaply on a rapid or at a local supermarket for free. Home domestic charger puts about 5% an hour into the leaf and tops up fully overnight if I need to, no need for a dedicated supply unless you want a quicker charge. I’ve a longer 200 mile round trip every couple of weeks and have no problem topping up, fast charge takes about 30 minutes which is about the length of time we stop for a break anyway. One of the things I was worried about before buying was charger availability, it’s only when you research that you realise there’s a lot more than you think. As with all things, it might not suit you but it did for me and works for what I need..
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In another EV thread, one of the videos i linked to the tester/youtuber was commenting about charging times and type of running and quite reasonably pointed out how cheap and convenient an electric car could be for typical normal distance commutes shopping etc, where you can top up whilst parked and of course again during the night at home, and we'd all agree that if this was the case and electricity reasonably priced/taxed (free public charging in Scotland for the time being it appears) then you can drive around really cheaply in one.
That method concerned me a little though, is there any detriment to the batteries by constantly topping up like this, because if you are supposed to run the battery low and let it charge fully to condition or help the battery to last many years, don't know but i imagine that is an ideal scenario, it could be just as annoying driving nowhere to flatten the battery fully as it is for people with the barely fit for purpose DPF regen method in cars where if a regen starts (possibly just as you arrive home after a long journey) and you luckily spotted the clues...because a warning lamp was considered too technical for their customers...insert face palm here...you have to drive nowhere to let it complete.
Are EV batteries capable of being topped up regularly without long tern degradation?
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The OP, Sammy1, is constantly on here posting Eeyore like doom/gloom stuff about EVs.
I seriously doubt the veracity of the tale.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 11/03/2020 at 11:31
I am on this forum to RECEIVE and give information relating to cars in general. I have no axe to grind on EVs and if I see something that might be of interest to others I will post it. If people don't communicate freely how can one make an informed decision. If I were to buy a EV I would want to be armed with as much info as possible.
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.... how cheap and convenient an electric car could be for typical normal distance commutes shopping etc, where you can top up whilst parked and of course again during the night at home, ....
I can't help wondering how easy it might be - while charging points are still pretty rare - for scallies to come along while you shop, unplug your car and plug in theirs ?
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I am on this forum to RECEIVE and give information relating to cars in general. I have no axe to grind on EVs and if I see something that might be of interest to others I will post it. If people don't communicate freely how can one make an informed decision. If I were to buy a EV I would want to be armed with as much info as possible.
That would be a fair enough comment if this new thread was telling us something new. It isn't.
The charging infrastructure in this country is poor.
We all know this, it has been gone over heaps of times before on heaps of different (but the same in content) threads. If there is something new to say fine, but do we need to be playing the same record over and over and over and over again?.
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<< If there is something new to say fine, but do we need to be playing the same record over and ... over again?. >>
We do that more than often enough when someone asks what 12-year-old totally reliable car to buy. And SLO usually comes up with an answer ... :-)
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The charging infrastructure in this country is poor.
We all know this, it has been gone over heaps of times before on heaps of different (but the same in content) threads. If there is something new to say fine, but do we need to be playing the same record over and over and over and over again?.
Poor! I would say almost non existent. 8 hours to make a 3 hour journey. I didn't realise things were that bad. Chargers not working and charger suppliers failing to provide a service is all news to me. If this has been on here before then I must have missed it
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.... how cheap and convenient an electric car could be for typical normal distance commutes shopping etc, where you can top up whilst parked and of course again during the night at home, ....
I can't help wondering how easy it might be - while charging points are still pretty rare - for scallies to come along while you shop, unplug your car and plug in theirs ?
Fairly easy to steal the cable though which I would think is more valuable to a thief
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<< If there is something new to say fine, but do we need to be playing the same record over and ... over again?. >>
We do that more than often enough when someone asks what 12-year-old totally reliable car to buy. And SLO usually comes up with an answer ... :-)
If SLO was starting a thread himself at random every now and again to tell us ull, "buy a Honda Civic/Toyota Auris/Mazda 3/Ford Focus", then it would be a relevant comparison. But he isn't, and it certainly isn't his fault that folk are frequently asking questions for which the above (as repetitive as it is) are the sensible choices.
If folk don't want an electric car, fine, that is their choice, don't buy one. But as far as i can see, pretty much all EV threads are downing them and have been started by members who don't want one. So why start the thread then?. Its almost like these threads have been started so the respective OP's can just down them in general, or justify why they don't like electric cars and want other forum members to agree.
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<< as far as i can see, pretty much all EV threads are downing them and have been started by members who don't want one. So why start the thread then? >>
As I'm sure you realise, BBD, the usual reason will be that the posters have not bothered to see whether someone else has already started a thread ?
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If folk don't want an electric car, fine, that is their choice, don't buy one. But as far as i can see, pretty much all EV threads are downing them and have been started by members who don't want one. So why start the thread then?. Its almost like these threads have been started so the respective OP's can just down them in general, or justify why they don't like electric cars and want other forum members to agree.
Couldn't agree more. It's usually just to convince themselves that they don't want an electric car/it's not viable. Tell us something new - it's still in it's infancy, what do you expect. Have the same conversation in ten/twenty years time and see where we are. The old threads will be either highly amusing for their negativity or a sickening "I told you so".
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The cables on recent EVs lock in place when in use, doesn't make them impossible to steal but you can't just unplug and walk away with them. Just waiting for the first story of someone at the shallower end of the gene pool cutting through one and electrocuting themselves....
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The cables on recent EVs lock in place when in use, doesn't make them impossible to steal but you can't just unplug and walk away with them. Just waiting for the first story of someone at the shallower end of the gene pool cutting through one and electrocuting themselves....
I'm not thinking about stealing the cable; as charging points are still fairly rare and charging takes some time, someone in a hurry will simply connect their car instead of yours ?
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I'm not thinking about stealing the cable; as charging points are still fairly rare and charging takes some time, someone in a hurry will simply connect their car instead of yours ?
Indeed, the behaviour of some elements fighting over a cheap chinese telly in a black friday sale you can only wonder what they might be like over a 4 or 12 hour queue for a recharge,
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Even if you're talking about the recharging situation the cable still locks in place. So far in 2 months I've had to wait once for about 10 minutes for another car to finish, charging points are more common than I thought they were until I looked into it before buying, several maps available but the one below is very useful:-
www.zap-map.com/live/
The original post here appears to be a tale of woe at the extreme end of the scale. The biggest routine hassle people seem to encounter I've seen so far is ICE powered cars parked in electric car charging bays, presumably because they appear to be free and people can't be a***d to walk a few yards more, and plug in hybrids taking up spaces for longer periods than they need to in car parks where electric cars can park free when charging, presumably because people are too tight fisted to pay out a couple of quid for parking. Places like hospitals and town centre car parks suffer from this worst. Some charger units heavily surcharge if you stay for excessive periods in these circumstances.
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... people are too tight fisted to pay out a couple of quid for parking. Places like hospitals and town centre car parks suffer from this worst.
Faced with that choice I think most people would decide to save two quid. Some will even drive out of their way to find fuel at 2p less per litre, thereby saving £1 for a fill-up, some of which they use doing the extra miles.
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... people are too tight fisted to pay out a couple of quid for parking. Places like hospitals and town centre car parks suffer from this worst.
Faced with that choice I think most people would decide to save two quid. Some will even drive out of their way to find fuel at 2p less per litre, thereby saving £1 for a fill-up, some of which they use doing the extra miles.
That's true, never ceases to amaze me what people will do to save a pound or two on fuel and then drive off at warp factor 9 and burn off all the savings in pointless overtaking to get to a destination a few minutes earlier than they otherwise would!
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