The all things EV chat thread

[road2ruin]

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.

I got my wife a Kia Niro EV, she wasn't that fussed about what she wanted, just it had to be big enough of kid paraphernalia. It's been a good car and she likes it.

If you're looking at leasing you can get some really decent deals on https://www.leaseloco.com/ which is where we got hers from.

 

[road2ruin]

I've not driven an electric car long-term, but the battery drop-off in winter is high. I have heard from my colleagues it can be up to 30%.

My drop off due to heaters/AC is almost nothing.

The winter drop off is definitely a thing, I don't think 30% less range is out of the question. I think mine is definitely close to 25%.

 

[cliveb]

For additional context using EV drivers:

• Percentage of breakdowns:
  In the 12 months leading up to late 2024, "out of charge" incidents made up 1.85% of all EV breakdowns. The AA deals with about 5-6 out-of-charge vehicles per day, out of its 8,000 daily total breakdowns across all vehicle types.

Interesting that "out of charge" only makes up <2% of EV breakdowns.
What else is causing >98% of EV breakdowns?
Aren't they supposed to be much simpler than ICE cars with little to go wrong?
As a retired IT guy I can easily believe that software failures are probably responsible for the vast majority of problems.
The world is just too full of "smart " things that end up adding stress to our lives.

 

[Pin-seeker]

Close to 9k posts on cars that run on electric is mental

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Close to 9k posts on cars that run on electric is mental

To be fair, it's a huge change/potential change to something that is massively important to many people, the country even.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Interesting that "out of charge" only makes up <2% of EV breakdowns.
What else is causing >98% of EV breakdowns?
Aren't they supposed to be much simpler than ICE cars with little to go wrong?
As a retired IT guy I can easily believe that software failures are probably responsible for the vast majority of problems.
The world is just too full of "smart " things that end up adding stress to our lives.

Battery failure is high up as well as the technology as well

A friends ID4 kept having issues with it constantly losing power in the cab even when it was supposed to be fully charged

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Interesting that "out of charge" only makes up <2% of EV breakdowns.
What else is causing >98% of EV breakdowns?
Aren't they supposed to be much simpler than ICE cars with little to go wrong?
As a retired IT guy I can easily believe that software failures are probably responsible for the vast majority of problems.
The world is just too full of "smart " things that end up adding stress to our lives.

No idea I didn’t do that deep a dive and would like end up well down the rabbit hole if I tried to find those answers

 

[Ross61]

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

What does the fact he is a scratch player have to do about it.
If he was a high handicapper would his opinion be worthless?

 

[clubchamp98]

What does the fact he is a scratch player have to do about it.
If he was a high handicapper would his opinion be worthless?

Scratch players are better drivers obviously

 

[jim8flog]

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

Yes EVs also have a normal battery to keep the computers, central locking etc working.

Not sure how it is charged but probably part of normal on car regen charging.

 

[road2ruin]

Yes EVs also have a normal battery to keep the computers, central locking etc working.

Not sure how it is charged but probably part of normal on car regen charging.

Yep, the 12v battery is charged by the big one although Hyundai have run into some pretty ridiculous issues in that originally the software was set that as soon as the main battery dropped to below 30% it would stop charging the little battery. This meant that a lot of people who drove less miles were suffering with flat batteries. Fortunately Hyundai have seen sense and recently dropped that to 10%. Even then I don’t see how much charge the 12v would take away from the big battery!!

 

[Redtraveller]

What does the fact he is a scratch player have to do about it.
If he was a high handicapper would his opinion be worthless?

I’ve got the id4. It’s been brilliant so far. Nearly a year old now.

(3 handicap)

 

[larmen]

I’ve got the id4. It’s been brilliant so far. Nearly a year old now.

(3 handicap)

Ignoring the golf skills, what made you pick the ID4 over the other cars on the same platform?
Enyak & Q4 mainly, but more recent the Ford Explorer also started to share the same base.

 

[Redtraveller]

Ignoring the golf skills, what made you pick the ID4 over the other cars on the same platform?
Enyak & Q4 mainly, but more recent the Ford Explorer also started to share the same base.

Firstly it was a good deal so that had a big impact. But it’s a good size car front and back and the boot is massive. Has pretty much all the ‘tech’ I needed, probably a bit too much. It’s a nice smooth drive. I hadn’t had an EV or automatic previously so it was a change but it’s just so easy to drive.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

What does the fact he is a scratch player have to do about it.
If he was a high handicapper would his opinion be worthless?

It was meant in the same way as “work mate” - ie someone in our scratch team

 

[PhilTheFragger]

I would like to see a stat regarding the percentage of EV cars that break down, compared to the number EV cars on the road. And the same for ICE

It’s all very well saying that 2 % are “out of charge” the remaining 98% are whatever.
But if it turns out that only 0.5% of EV cars have a problem, but 5% of ICE cars do. Then it has some meaning

 

[srixon 1]

I had to use our electric van last week to collect something just under 100 miles away, and then return back to base. It’s a large E transit that was brand new about a year ago. Fully charged before I set off and it only has a range of 133 miles. 31 miles range left showing when I reached my destination. What a palaver trying to find a place to charge it before I could commence my return journey. I had to pay but the company will reimburse the cost. One hour to charge at a cost of £42.19. At work we have a mass of solar panels so I have no idea what the actual cost of charging is when charged at the work charging stations. However, £42 seems a bit much for a 100 mile journey. I can’t imagine many traders investing in one if they have to do a lot of mileage to visit customers.

 

[KenL]

The cost to charge cars at public places needs some regulation.
My mate was boasting it only cost a few pounds to charge his Tesla at home and he doesn’t have solar panels.

 

[adasko]

The cost to charge cars at public places needs some regulation.
My mate was boasting it only cost a few pounds to charge his Tesla at home and he doesn’t have solar panels.

Charging at home is must with electric car. My tesla did just over 65k in 3 years and total cost of electricity is under 1k and I don't have any solars

 

[jim8flog]

I had to use our electric van last week to collect something just under 100 miles away, and then return back to base. It’s a large E transit that was brand new about a year ago. Fully charged before I set off and it only has a range of 133 miles. 31 miles range left showing when I reached my destination. What a palaver trying to find a place to charge it before I could commence my return journey. I had to pay but the company will reimburse the cost. One hour to charge at a cost of £42.19. At work we have a mass of solar panels so I have no idea what the actual cost of charging is when charged at the work charging stations. However, £42 seems a bit much for a 100 mile journey. I can’t imagine many traders investing in one if they have to do a lot of mileage to visit customers.

That seems a little off, Ford quote a range of 196 miles full charged (68 KWH battery pack)

Assuming you used a fast charger approx 52kwh charged at around 80p per KWH but in theory it would do just short of twice the mileage you have done.
A diesel transit would need about £20 worth of fuel for 100 miles judging by what it says online

Also worth remembering that the electric version will avoid congestion zone charges.

The palaver is reduced by most EV drivers as they will normally have apps to tell them where chargers are.