EV and advice from any users please!

Zep said:
It’s not being covered up, it’s has been publicised and promoted for several years.

The issue is that it’s probably going to be expensive, and it will be be for the relatively healed for their fancy cars (e.g. people like us).
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It would be a lot cheaper if they diverted all the tax savings EV’s are allowed and invested it in synthetic fuel.
 
It's ironic that China manufactures 64% of EVs, measured globally.

Wanna guess what % of Chinese energy comes from goal-fired power stations? OK, I'll tell you.



60%.


That's a lot of lovely clean EVs that have been produced using coal in a county which is now burning more coal to generate the energy needed to run AC in a country which is over-heating.
 
dickygrace said:
It would be a lot cheaper if they diverted all the tax savings EV’s are allowed and invested it in synthetic fuel.
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It might, but given that to produce 1kw of energy in the form of an E-fuel takes 2kw of electricity, plus you are then running it in an engine that is, at best, 35% efficient, it becomes the “there isn’t enough electricity” argument on steroids.

To deploy 1kw of energy to the road using E-fuel in a petrol car would take nearly 6 kw of electricity. To do the same in an electric car would take, well, approx. 1kw.

It isn’t a well kept secret, it’s a useful alternative for those that can afford it.
 
Charged the E-Tron last night and we have 229 miles of charge. In the coldest days of the winter it was down to 179. So the weather can make 50 miles of difference to the range. Which is more than I would have thought/expected.
 
Other news, we’ve have just agreed the order on the replacement for our E-Tron, which we are due to hand back in December/January.
We are then having the new Q4 E-Tron S-Line 40. It’s slightly smaller than our current version (at about the size of a Q5 as an ICE comparison) but plenty big enough. Better range and faster charging, as to be expected of a car 3 years younger. And as is the way with new cars these days, the build/wait time is about 6 months, hence ordering it now.
The biggest difference is the price though. It’s nearly a third less than our current E-Tron was (for similar spec), so the cost of EV’s is definitely coming down.
 
Interesting news on the depreciation on our current E-Tron. While being slow to depreciate over the first two years, this year it has fallen steeply. The figures the Audi chap shared with me showed that our car is now worth £11k less than Audi predicted when we bought it. Of course, it’s not an issue for me as we bought it on a 3 year lease with a GFV. But Audi are clearly taking a hit here.
 
Harry said:
I wasn’t sure if this should go into the news that makes you laugh section. A lot of the usual anti EV arguments are in the comments, some more extreme than others.

www.kentonline.co.uk

Inferno at Kent race circuit started in battery of electric car

A huge fire that erupted at a Kent circuit started in the battery of an electric race car while it was charging, organisers have revealed.
www.kentonline.co.uk www.kentonline.co.uk
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Yet more smoke and mirrors. While EV fires are harder to put out than ICE fires, research shows an EV is *less* likely to catch fire.
 
MikeyMaser said:
Yet more smoke and mirrors. While EV fires are harder to put out than ICE fires, research shows an EV is *less* likely to catch fire.
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I’d be interested to know if there’s a statistic on which catches fire most when no one in them and they’re parked. A fire that you can see and move away from is one thing. A fire in your garage whilst your sleeping, or underneath a bedroom window is another.
 
Alex72 said:
I’d be interested to know if there’s a statistic on which catches fire most when no one in them and they’re parked. A fire that you can see and move away from is one thing. A fire in your garage whilst your sleeping, or underneath a bedroom window is another.
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It’s doubtful, but if the thought process is that a ICE only catches fire when moving, it’s not the case. For example:

911uk.com - Porsche Forum : View topic - Alternator Fired

911UK.com - UK Porsche 911 Resource Site & forum, Porsche Specialist, Insurance, parts, sales
www.911uk.com
 
I've had two cars catch fire in my life...but both were 1970s crapboxes and this was in the late 80s/early 90s, and both were easily extinguished...
 
I recall that Peugeots, long before anyone thought of electric traction for cars, used to burst into flames for a pastime, even when they were stationary with the engine off.
I was worried when my mother in law bought one.
So it seems that bursting into flames unoccupied and stationary is not a new thing ushered in by EVs, Peugeot had it a decade or more ago.
 
Alan Surrey said:
I recall that Peugeots, long before anyone thought of electric traction for cars, used to burst into flames for a pastime, even when they were stationary with the engine off.
I was worried when my mother in law bought one.
So it seems that bursting into flames unoccupied and stationary is not a new thing ushered in by EVs, Peugeot had it a decade or more ago.
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EVs going for feature parity? ;)

C
 
Ewan said:
Interesting news on the depreciation on our current E-Tron. While being slow to depreciate over the first two years, this year it has fallen steeply. The figures the Audi chap shared with me showed that our car is now worth £11k less than Audi predicted when we bought it. Of course, it’s not an issue for me as we bought it on a 3 year lease with a GFV. But Audi are clearly taking a hit here.
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Win some lose some , i bought my i3 with my own cash, ill jist have to keep it until the motor or battery packs in ( least battery under warranty fpr a while.
On the plus side, aside from purchase cost the cost per mile over 10000 miles is 1.5p per mile. As is charged at home only at 7.5p per kwh at night
 
I've been driving the Mercedes EQE for ~2 months now, and have to say I'm quite pleased with it so far.
Here are my observations up until now
  • It's very comfortable and silent, even though mine doesn't have air suspension. (one of the upsides of having a heavy car, they're easy to set up to be comfortable)
  • Range has been quite close to theoretical numbers (~375 miles), given the current weather, with trips to the inlaws at ~850 miles from here going quite easily, helped by the fact that Germany is full of chargers
  • As a result of the above, even longer trips are OK, and the classic 'you start to travel differently' holds true: while we could do the long trip optimally using 5 stops (to maximize charging speed, not because the battery's capacity is limited), we noticed that we are having fewer, longer stops (calm lunches, afternoon stops for coffee) which makes the travelling more relaxed than it used to be (despite potentially costing us a bit more time in total)
    • We are very aware that the range might take a ~25% hit when temperatures go down, we'll just leave the night before and get a night in a B&B/hotel in on the way.
  • For long distance travel, the cost for charging (along motorways) is high enough to make the trip as expensive as it would be with diesel (mind you, that's with a company charging card, probably could do better with Ionity and the like and optimizing your choices around that).
  • Consumption is at around 17-19 kWh/100km so 3.3-3.7 miles per kWh, which includes a big majority of motorways so really close to stated numbers
  • Charging infrastructure is still rather different between countries, with Germany as stated above being impressive and France, Czech Republic and Poland being less so. You see however that these places are picking up. Can't say anything about Belgium as I rarely have to charge 'externally' here due to living here :)
  • We haven't faced a single case of having to wait to charge, even on busy holiday travel days, even in France
  • Driving fun is in fact no worse than other cars we've had as daily drivers. That is, they're obviously not Lotus Elan S1s, but for the daily driving, even the more twisty bits between our place and the main road have been enjoyable. I find a certain satisfaction in chucking a big heavy barge with a low center of gravity through them, and the suspension setup helps by being not wallowy at all IMHO. (though I admit that the BMW i4 I had for half a day was more 'fun', yet less comfortable)
Hope this gives some useful 'real life' insights...
 
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