Joining the electric car club

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,757
Quick update. The E-Tron has now done 15k miles and is a year old, so is being collected today for its first “service”. Though it’s actually called an inspection. I’m not actually sure what they do, other than charge me £300 and give it a clean. So let’s see what they say when they bring it back.

And after 15k miles, I can still say I’ve never run out of charge and never used a charger other than my one at home. Given that there is no petrol station on my daily commute to work, or in my local town where we shop, it’s a joy to charge at home as opposed to having the hassle of having to go 10 miles out of my way to refuel any of our ICE cars. So when it comes to convenience, and as daily vehicle, where I live, the EV wins hands down.
 
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Chrisb2015

Member
Messages
538
Good real world feedback Ewan. Aside from the obvious convenience you have mentioned, do you like the car itself? Would you recommend it?
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
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21,013
Quick update. The E-Tron has now done 12k miles and is a year old, so is being collected today for its first “service”. Though it’s actually called an inspection. I’m not actually sure what they do, other than charge me £300 and give it a clean. So let’s see what they say when they bring it back.

And after 12k miles, I can still say I’ve never run out of charge and never used a charger other than my one at home. Given that there is no petrol station on my daily commute to work, or in my local town where we shop, it’s a joy to charge at home as opposed to having the hassle of having to go 10 miles out of my way to refuel any of our ICE cars. So when it comes to convenience, and as daily vehicle, where I live, the EV wins hands down.
Ewan, you are the use case for EV!

(if one sets aside the fact that environmentally EVs don't do the job yet. At this rate, in 5-8 years you'll be overall kinder to the planet than the petrol equivalent.)
 

Wack61

Member
Messages
8,764
Ewan, you are the use case for EV!

(if one sets aside the fact that environmentally EVs don't do the job yet. At this rate, in 5-8 years you'll be overall kinder to the planet than the petrol equivalent.)

Would that include replacing it 3 X in that period , I suppose the plan is they get passed down the chain until somebody replaces a diesel focus with a Nissan leaf
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,700
Think it was on fb where I was reading about a guy who paid 20 something for a 2017 e class hybrid. The batteries are now toast and MB want 15k to replace them. He cannot drive the car with the fault either. WBAC priced the car at 12k so it is basically scrap. Not good and why I will not touch an ev yet.
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,757
Good real world feedback Ewan. Aside from the obvious convenience you have mentioned, do you like the car itself? Would you recommend it?
Very happy - it's good work horse, but smart as well. And it's been 100% faultless, unlike my business partners Jag I-Pace.
But if we didn't need the big hatch-back boot of the E-Tron, as an overall EV, I'd go for the Taycan (money allowing).

It's just been delivered back from its inspection, with nothing to report.
Oh, just realised it's done 15k miles, not 12k, so I've amended my earlier post.
 
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Tallman

Member
Messages
1,833
Just pulled the trigger on a young BMW i3 as a run around /school run car for Mrs Tall. Quite looking forward to taking it for a spin. This particular (red) one has a lot of the nice electronic goodies like adaptive cruise control and adaptive lights which are great driver assistance tools. Seems to have a decent range. Anyone on here with one of these?
 

doodlebug

Member
Messages
913
If anyone's thinking of going EV I do some work for here https://www.smarthomecharge.co.uk
Do you do installations? I had a Hypervolt installed and the installers didn't do a very neat job of the wiring. They used separate data cable and it looks very untidy. I'm trying to find someone who will redo it with buried EV-Ultra cable so any help or recommendations would be appreciated.
 

Nayf

Member
Messages
2,734
Do you do installations? I had a Hypervolt installed and the installers didn't do a very neat job of the wiring. They used separate data cable and it looks very untidy. I'm trying to find someone who will redo it with buried EV-Ultra cable so any help or recommendations would be appreciated.
I help out with editorial I'm afraid, but it's worth giving them a call.
 

Evo Cymru

Member
Messages
688
Just pulled the trigger on a young BMW i3 as a run around /school run car for Mrs Tall. Quite looking forward to taking it for a spin. This particular (red) one has a lot of the nice electronic goodies like adaptive cruise control and adaptive lights which are great driver assistance tools. Seems to have a decent range. Anyone on here with one of these?

Indeed wife is just coming to end of leasing one one for past 3 years. All in all very pleased with it - can be blown about a bit on the motorways and apparently bushes can be a bit rubbish (recycled rubber?) Tyres can pick up a lot of punctures and tyres are expensive (fortunately they were in the deal! ) Surprisingly good fun on a twisty road!
 

Bebs

Member
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3,274
Great news Ewan, clearly works for you.
I can’t do it, we do very little commuting and if we do it’s the Smart car to Tesco’s or the train station. All our longer journeys are pleasure runs or road trips to Denmark, Holland or France so I use the V8’s for that. Not prepared to sit and wait to do 600-800 miles on those trips.
Glad it’s working out for you though.
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,700
Bring back wind up windows I say, all this electric rubbish wont last long!

Dave
I still don't get why you need to have 2 x cameras as mirrors and screens when 2 bits of glass do the job just as well. And then to put them on an ev where you need all the electrickery you can muster to get as many miles as possible makes no sense to me tbh.
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,757
I agree Gary. That’s one of the options I didn’t spec on our E-Tron. I like normal mirrors.
But the theory behind them is that the cameras are tiny compared to traditional wing mirrors, so they reduce drag and increase overall efficiency.
 

mjheathcote

Centenary Club
Messages
9,033
Bring back wind up windows I say, all this electric rubbish wont last long!

Dave
It was always refreshing with my old S1 Elise. No electric anything, no central locking, windows, mirrors. No abs or brake servo. No power steering, No traction control or stability control. A car you really drove.
 

MAF260

Member
Messages
7,662
I agree Gary. That’s one of the options I didn’t spec on our E-Tron. I like normal mirrors.
But the theory behind them is that the cameras are tiny compared to traditional wing mirrors, so they reduce drag and increase overall efficiency.

How did you spec a pre-registered car?
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,757
Easy - we were offered a large a selection of pre-registered (Audi) vehicles and chose the one that fitted our preferred spec. This was quicker, and considerably cheaper, than actually having a brand new car built to the same spec.
 

MAF260

Member
Messages
7,662
Easy - we were offered a large a selection of pre-registered (Audi) vehicles and chose the one that fitted our preferred spec. This was quicker, and considerably cheaper, than actually having a brand new car built to the same spec.

That makes sense, a great way to get what you want without paying through the nose. Sadly I reckon those days are over given the lack of supply of new cars. I’ve been looking at replacing my Mrs 2 series for the past couple of months, but the lack of negotiation opportunities have made me decide to keep it a while longer. She mostly does shoes short trips so an EV might be the way to go.
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,700
I agree Gary. That’s one of the options I didn’t spec on our E-Tron. I like normal mirrors.
But the theory behind them is that the cameras are tiny compared to traditional wing mirrors, so they reduce drag and increase overall efficiency.
True enough. They need to make mirrors more aerodynamic as some just look like slabs of plastic bolted on as an after thought.