EV and their range...

[Eddies]

South is over the road lol. They'll still need a fuel source for x amount of years so time will tell for both options either stick the arm in for electric or fuel. Guessing game for now.

 

[VinR]

Let's hope boris isn't on rms with all these ideas.

 

[Rocko]

South will be $50/L by then!

 

[gary1365]

South will be $50/L by then!

Nah it'll just be VRT on ICE cars

I was looking again at deal you can get a slow charger Zoe for £1614 down and £199 a month or the slightly more powerful fast charger one for £2479 down and £249 a month 6k miles a year. The lower price one has STEEL wheels I didn't know you could still get them I'd be near tempted to go look at a Zoe at that price if I wasn't about £1300 short on the deposit

 

[KevM]

The lower price one has STEEL wheels I didn't know you could still get them

See, thats the difference! At least Tesla put alloys under their plastic wheel trims!

 

[gary1365]

See, thats the difference! At least Tesla put alloys under their plastic wheel trims!

And I thought they were a highly technical aerodynamic drag reducing devices

 

[Rocko]

And I thought they were a highly technical aerodynamic drag reducing devices

They are, there is a measurable difference between having them on or not.

 

[gary1365]

They are, there is a measurable difference between having them on or not.

I read a couple of years ago about owners taking them off and loosing a little range.

 

[impact]

Whilst doing some digging for charging points in work came across this article of joy:

EV charging network: ‘A bit of a shambles’ - agendaNi

A 290 per cent increase in the number of electric vehicles registered in Northern Ireland in a single year is being jeopardised by a lack of investment in Northern Ireland’s ‘shambolic’ charging network. A representative body for the interests of EV drivers in Northern Ireland has told an...

www.agendani.com

TLDR:
NI has considerably lowest amount of charging points in UK.
The network here is run by ESB which is based down south
Councils haven't even applied for access to available UK funding for investment in infrastructure.
MLA's can agree jack all
Half the infrastructure that does exist is goosed and so old it can't be fixed
No clear leadership or strategy of how anything will be resolved or funded.
Only funding that's happening is actually EU funding

Apart from that all's sweet, will just have to keep running on fossil fuels that were formed in a time period half our politicians don't even believe existed.

 

[big_pete]

Even they do find a way to increase it, I still have a better car for daily duties for how they drive alone lol

 

[Lyons]

I got a Q3 plug in hybrid as a courtesy car today from Audi. Was quite surprised they still did a plug-in hybrid, I thought it was just either full EV or hybrid with likes a 20 mile electric range.

Anyway, when I got it the electric range was empty, so I called into Lidl for a couple of bits and noticed they had a charging point. Out of curiosity I thought I would have a go, so got the cable out of the boot and plugged it in. Sadly I noticed a “log in” button, so I abandoned it as I assumed I’d have to pay (I’ve since learnt this isn’t the case). Went to unplug the cable from the car and it would not release. Stood for the guts of 15 minutes like an eejit trying to work out how to remove it- unlocking the car, opening the drivers door etc. Eventually I gave up on google and thought I might have to unplug from the car before the charging point, so I reconnected at the other end and hey presto it released.

Great craic altogether.

Alas, I came in to the office after and it’s now charging like a good ‘un- for free.

 

[Mark Irwin]

Was it the easygo charging point or a small black box in Lidl? The easygo one needs a fob or perhaps an app to work and the black ones are supposed to be for workers only. Wife had a BMW X2 plug in hybrid and effective range was about 16 miles on electric. I had an Ampera and it would do 30 - 40 miles + so would be interested to know how much the Q3 does in the real world.

 

[Lyons]

It ended up running out of juice half a mile from home, so I got about 16.5 miles to the charge. And it was the most painful journey ever, driving super sensibly etc.

If you had an 8 mile commute and you could charge it at work, it would be perfect. Otherwise there is zero point. You wouldn’t need to enjoy driving either- wheel spin everywhere given it’s FWD, and in EV mode it was honestly noisier than my diesel A6.

 

[mk2driver]

View attachment 343600



It ended up running out of juice half a mile from home, so I got about 16.5 miles to the charge. And it was the most painful journey ever, driving super sensibly etc.

If you had an 8 mile commute and you could charge it at work, it would be perfect. Otherwise there is zero point. You wouldn’t need to enjoy driving either- wheel spin everywhere given it’s FWD, and in EV mode it was honestly noisier than my diesel A6.

That range is poor in comparison with competition but surely you can still see the point? Electricity is so much cheaper per mile than petrol so even if you do need the petrol engine to complete the journey it’s still going to be cheaper

 

[hutchy_belfast]

Seems like a lot of complication and weight to me for that kind of range. Worst of all worlds there.

 

[Lyons]

As said, I can really only see the point if your commute is 8 mile. Could you be assed charging at home for the sake of 16 miles?

You’d be a long time recouping the extra cost of the car in electricity.

 

[stevieturbo]

Part of the point of the hybrid though is for city work. Slow moving traffic might be considered more polluting, so if the majority of those stop starts and journeys can be done on battery, with the longer stuff with the engine, then that box is ticked.

But it really is a lot of weight and complexity for little real gain. Just a box ticking exercise for most.

Even worse are the hybrids that cannot recharge via the engine.

 

[Coog]

We would probably be the ideal hybrid target. Commute is roughly 6 miles per day across the city which doesn’t really do the ICEs much good as they’re only just warming up after 3 miles and then weekends could be a bit further use, maybe a run to family down the peninsula or cookstown or perhaps both which is where you need decent range. Other than that sort of useage profile I don’t really see the advantage of one tbh.

 

[Lyons]

Aye that’s the perfect criteria. But even still, at 16 miles a day it would really only be worth it if it was a company car. Are they not circa £4K more than the equivalent petrol?

 

[Mark Irwin]

Vauxhall Ampera was doing all of this 10 years ago (and much better) but was too early on the market and too expensive. Although research says most journeys are less than 30 miles I think you need a 30-50 mile range in a plug in hybrid to make it viable for most people. My E Golf is super quiet so strange that the Audi was so noisy in EV mode.

 

[stevieturbo]

Are they not making EV's noisier these days for pedestrian safety ?

 

[Mark Irwin]

Are they not making EV's noisier these days for pedestrian safety ?

Yeah but on some of them you can turn it off. Even when it is turned on with the E Golf it is barely noticable. Some of the Toyota's sound like an old gearbox on the way out.

 

[Boydie]

View attachment 343600



It ended up running out of juice half a mile from home, so I got about 16.5 miles to the charge. And it was the most painful journey ever, driving super sensibly etc.

If you had an 8 mile commute and you could charge it at work, it would be perfect. Otherwise there is zero point. You wouldn’t need to enjoy driving either- wheel spin everywhere given it’s FWD, and in EV mode it was honestly noisier than my diesel A6.

This is where a hybrid would be ideal for my wife - she only works 3 miles away, add in dropping kids to school/nursery maybe a 10 mile round trip - all be it no where to charge it for free but its been on my mind to possible change the guzzling Q5 to a hybrid

 

[Coog]

Could charge it at home. Assuming it gets similar consumption to our Etron and you use a tarrif for EVs your 10 miles would cost about 40p. Not to mention what damage a 10 mile daily round trip is doing to a diesel.

 

[Boydie]

I was just being tight and not wanting to charge it at home