The all things EV chat thread

[Lucifer MorningStar]

The lad has a Hyundai Kona electric (they also have a Mazda CX5)
He says the Hyundai is nippy, but for comfort on long journeys prefers the CX5. For around town though, he says the Hyundai is fine.
Eldest daughter has a BMW iX, her husband a BMW i3. Before, she had an X5 and he an M3 and 5 series estate 4 ltr heavily modded. Both love the electric cars.
The wife has 2 work colleagues swapped back from EV to petrol hybrid.
That's all I can tell you.

Finally a sensible reply
I appreciate the input, Mrs M does literally an average of 12 miles a day total inc to and from work. Only time she goes over that is for her Netball matches even then furthest drives is 10 miles. So totally weekly mileage is 70miles at a push so it’s worth is looking at.

My son and DIL have one each .
They work locally but do rack up miles working for the NHS.
They love them, but asked to borrow my ice car for their holidays.
With four kids they can’t be waiting around to charge mid journey.

I think there good if you don’t do long journeys or have an ice car as well.

The main problem I see is getting it fixed if there’s a problem
My sons broke down and was off the road for four months because there was no parts for it.
It was a new Renault.

As Bob says “ if they suit there great” but they don’t suit everyone.!

As above Mrs M does 70miles a week at a push and currently uses my little toy Cooper WRX 2.0L it’s certainly not cost effective. I’m looking at getting rid of the toy as it’s not getting as much use now I’m playing golf again and we want to play more on weekends. So we’re looking at either a little EV for her that she can charge once maybe twice a week at a push or the other option she likes is a Fiat 500 hybrid as we had one in holiday in Spain a couple of years ago and she loved it and was very cost effective. Just weighing up the options as we will have my big car (Chelsea tractor) for everything else

 

[larmen]

Is the BMW i3 still a thing? Small EV with a unusual look.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Finally a sensible reply
I appreciate the input, Mrs M does literally an average of 12 miles a day total inc to and from work. Only time she goes over that is for her Netball matches even then furthest drives is 10 miles. So totally weekly mileage is 70miles at a push so it’s worth is looking at.

As above Mrs M does 70miles a week at a push and currently uses my little toy Cooper WRX 2.0L it’s certainly not cost effective. I’m looking at getting rid of the toy as it’s not getting as much use now I’m playing golf again and we want to play more on weekends. So we’re looking at either a little EV for her that she can charge once maybe twice a week at a push or the other option she likes is a Fiat 500 hybrid as we had one in holiday in Spain a couple of years ago and she loved it and was very cost effective. Just weighing up the options as we will have my big car (Chelsea tractor) for everything else

I would suggest a Yaris hybrid would be a good option. My wife had one for a while, and got about 70 mpg out of it. She just didnt like the gearbox.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Is the BMW i3 still a thing? Small EV with a unusual look.

Yes, theres plenty of used ones out there

 

[clubchamp98]

Finally a sensible reply
I appreciate the input, Mrs M does literally an average of 12 miles a day total inc to and from work. Only time she goes over that is for her Netball matches even then furthest drives is 10 miles. So totally weekly mileage is 70miles at a push so it’s worth is looking at.

As above Mrs M does 70miles a week at a push and currently uses my little toy Cooper WRX 2.0L it’s certainly not cost effective. I’m looking at getting rid of the toy as it’s not getting as much use now I’m playing golf again and we want to play more on weekends. So we’re looking at either a little EV for her that she can charge once maybe twice a week at a push or the other option she likes is a Fiat 500 hybrid as we had one in holiday in Spain a couple of years ago and she loved it and was very cost effective. Just weighing up the options as we will have my big car (Chelsea tractor) for everything else

My daughter had a Fiat 500
I hated driving it !
People looking at me thinking “poor lad driving that”! beware if she wants a lift somewhere

Sounds like EV would suit her.
The ice back up is perfect!

 

[GreiginFife]

Is the BMW i3 still a thing? Small EV with a unusual look.

Not new, no but there will be lots of used ones.

iX1 and i4 are the “entry level” models nowadays in SUV and coupe/saloon respectively.

 

[bobmac]

Your cage has definitely been rattled by someone hasn’t it going by the pettiness of some replies

I'm just tired of the same BS arguments churned out year after year.
At the moment, the ideal situation is if you don't do many miles a week and you can charge at home, they are perfect, but if you need more range occasionally, have a second ICE car as a back up or borrow one. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford that

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

I would suggest a Yaris hybrid would be a good option. My wife had one for a while, and got about 70 mpg out of it. She just didnt like the gearbox.

I quite like the look of the smaller Toyota hybrids but she’s not keen though I could work on that seeing as it’s my car we’re selling to assist funding it for her though she’ll likely win that argument

My daughter had a Fiat 500
I hated driving it !
People looking at me thinking “poor lad driving that”! beware if she wants a lift somewhere

Sounds like EV would suit her.
The ice back up is perfect!

My oldest daughter had one as well she loved!
I feel like a hairdresser driving it
She loved the little hybrid one we had in Spain and it was excellent on economy and to be fair she is the only person in the car 95% of the time so lifts isn’t and issue

Anytime we’re home together I do all the driving anyway and she becomes a passenger princess oblivious to anything in the world around her
But the mileage is why we’re considering the EV for her.

 

[GreiginFife]

I quite like the look of the smaller Toyota hybrids but she’s not keen though I could work on that seeing as it’s my car we’re selling to assist funding it for her though she’ll likely win that argument

My oldest daughter had one as well she loved!
I feel like a hairdresser driving it
She loved the little hybrid one we had in Spain and it was excellent on economy and to be fair she is the only person in the car 95% of the time so lifts isn’t and issue

Anytime we’re home together I do all the driving anyway and she becomes a passenger princess oblivious to anything in the world around her
But the mileage is why we’re considering the EV for her.

Fiat 500 is up there with the stupidest designs in history. To change a front lower arm you need to dismantle pretty much the whole front end as some bright spark decided inside the crash bar arm would be a great place for lower arm bolt to live.

Mate’s daughter has one and he always brings it to me for maintenance as he knows how much I love working on it

 

[Lord Tyrion]

@Lucifer MorningStar a rep we deal with has a VW i4. Good sized family car, she has had it for 2 years. Really likes how it drives, but ...... after a full charge the range states 320 miles. In reality she has never topped 180. She was quite precise about this, partly because her firm has two key offices, one at 170 miles, the other 190 miles away. She has tested it repeatedly. She has the pro model, the longer range battery.

As you may have heard from other reviews, the moment you use the heating, the Aircon, radio, lights etc the range drops heavily and doesn't get near the promised figure.

The question is, is that an issue for you? Are your journeys short, are they longer? Something to think about.

 

[Neilds]

I'm just tired of the same BS arguments churned out year after year.
At the moment, the ideal situation is if you don't do many miles a week and you can charge at home, they are perfect, but if you need more range occasionally, have a second ICE car as a back up or borrow one. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford that

Unfortunately both sides in the argument are entrenched with the same view every time. And I count the likes of yourself in this. If you had accepted/said “ yes, ev’s can run out of charge, same as ice” then we could have saved 3 pages of pointless nonsense. Your comment about them not suiting everyone was too late and got lost.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

I'm just tired of the same BS arguments churned out year after year.
At the moment, the ideal situation is if you don't do many miles a week and you can charge at home, they are perfect, but if you need more range occasionally, have a second ICE car as a back up or borrow one. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford that

Think that’s the issue - you didn’t read what was being posted by people

Two posters highlighted issue that they had with EV cars breaking down

The chat moved on to multiple types of cars having issues with electronics including ICE cars and you then got yourself entrenched in some nonsense about an incident being a hoax and someone deliberately causing issues with an EV car - embarrassing

People have had issue with their EV car that’s caused them a lot of issues and those potential issues can also cause issues with ICE cars because of the over reliance on technology in them

 

[cliveb]

As you may have heard from other reviews, the moment you use the heating, the Aircon, radio, lights etc the range drops heavily and doesn't get near the promised figure.

I've always been perplexed by this.

An EV travelling at 60 mph will use in the region of 15kWh in an hour.
Does it really take a significant fraction of that to run a heater?
A low tech fan heater running full pelt only uses 1kWh per hour. Surely that would be enough to keep a car warm? LED lights and radios consume very little power.

This big range loss seems illogical. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that I can't understand why.

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

@Lucifer MorningStar a rep we deal with has a VW i4. Good sized family car, she has had it for 2 years. Really likes how it drives, but ...... after a full charge the range states 320 miles. In reality she has never topped 180. She was quite precise about this, partly because her firm has two key offices, one at 170 miles, the other 190 miles away. She has tested it repeatedly. She has the pro model, the longer range battery.

As you may have heard from other reviews, the moment you use the heating, the Aircon, radio, lights etc the range drops heavily and doesn't get near the promised figure.

The question is, is that an issue for you? Are your journeys short, are they longer? Something to think about.

We’re looking at it as purely a commuter car for Mrs M she does a maximum of 70miles a week. So from that perspective it works out, her drive to work takes 6 mins, 10mins on a bad day. An EV would never work for me as my main car I do way to many miles which is why I have essentially a Chelsea tractor for comfort space to put everything in and ease of motorway driving.

It doesn’t need to be as big as the VW i4 something smaller is perfect as she’s literally using my little fin car buts it’s not economical for those journeys. We’re going to look over the next couple of weeks but I think we’ll be seriously considering a small hybrid as well just need to weigh the options.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I've always been perplexed by this.

An EV travelling at 60 mph will use in the region of 15kWh in an hour.
Does it really take a significant fraction of that to run a heater?
A low tech fan heater running full pelt only uses 1kWh per hour. Surely that would be enough to keep a car warm? LED lights and radios consume very little power.

This big range loss seems illogical. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that I can't understand why.

Couldn't agree more but it seems to be mentioned over and over. Maybe it's nonsense and it has stuck, maybe not. Something causes a major drop in in claimed range and real range though, that is not fantasy. I know that ICE cars also do not meet their claimed range but the drop off is nowhere near as significant.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

We’re looking at it as purely a commuter car for Mrs M she does a maximum of 70miles a week. So from that perspective it works out, her drive to work takes 6 mins, 10mins on a bad day. An EV would never work for me as my main car I do way to many miles which is why I have essentially a Chelsea tractor for comfort space to put everything in and ease of motorway driving.

It doesn’t need to be as big as the VW i4 something smaller is perfect as she’s literally using my little fin car buts it’s not economical for those journeys. We’re going to look over the next couple of weeks but I think we’ll be seriously considering a small hybrid as well just need to weigh the options.

A regular playing partner has just swapped his X5 and his wife’s X1 for a ix3 for him and an ix2 for his wife - both very much not fans of EV’s but love the cars

They have had issues with charging though and their charger has had to be replaced twice

A fellow scratch player has an id4 and he says it’s the worst car he has had and lots of problems, swapped for a Tesla

 

[Robster59]

Couldn't agree more but it seems to be mentioned over and over. Maybe it's nonsense and it has stuck, maybe not. Something causes a major drop in in claimed range and real range though, that is not fantasy. I know that ICE cars also do not meet their claimed range but the drop off is nowhere near as significant.

A lot of our sales team now have electric vehicles due to the tax breaks, and to a person they have all said that the range they get is significantly lower than the specification. I was chatting to one of our Scottish guys last week and in the winter the drop-off is quite substantial. I have a plug-in hybrid and depending on the temperature, the range once charged can drop off by 30% in winter compared to that in the summer. EV's have their place, and they are great as city cars but they do have their limitations at present. Buit for long journeys I prefer my car as I can do 600 miles on a tank on a steady run. I still have to stop for natural breaks but those are short stops and only add minutes to my journey.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Couldn't agree more but it seems to be mentioned over and over. Maybe it's nonsense and it has stuck, maybe not. Something causes a major drop in in claimed range and real range though, that is not fantasy. I know that ICE cars also do not meet their claimed range but the drop off is nowhere near as significant.

Do EVs not have a seperate battery to power all the extras ?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Do EVs not have a seperate battery to power all the extras ?

No idea. If that is the case, why the massive range drop off?

I'm not trying to be clever, I genuinely don't know and it would be interesting to know why it happens to such a degree.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

No idea. If that is the case, why the massive range drop off?

I'm not trying to be clever, I genuinely don't know and it would be interesting to know why it happens to such a degree.

I also can’t understand why the drop off would be that significant when using some heaters and a sat nav - it can’t be drawing that much power

And also how much is the drop off in the winter , are the lithium batteries that exposed ?