EVs anyone?

[Loada]

Not-so-great things about EVs:

• Pedestrians/wildlife - they can't hear you, supermarket car parks in particular are accidents waiting to happen, full concentration required
• Public charging costs - totally-free charging days are over (apart from Nissan dealerships), small connect charges on most public units now plus on-demand charging

To the first point, do mfrs not fit some sort of noise making option for such situations? Animals are surely more prone to running into these things.
On the second, is that always the case? I notice most of the ASDA round here have charging at some of the parking spots. Saw a guy just plug in his EV, didn't see any method of payment etc just plugged a plug thing in.

1. Yep, they do (some EU directive?). The Leaf makes a low-pitched whistling noise (upto ~20mph) to warn pedestrians but it's not really much use, it's easily drowned out in real life and it's quite directional. There's a button on the dash that you can switch it off (for pure stealth mode) although you're just compounding the issue if you do.
2. I think most (all?) chargers now have a "connect" charge (~£1?) - when you swipe your card to activate the charger, it's charged to your account automatically? You have to swipe a card (that you've pre-registered) at all chargers - there's a bunch of different companies/cards that you need to carry (Ecotricity, Charge-Your-Car, Polar etc) and they're generally free although some do have a nominal annual charge of £10-20. I applied for the French/EU one recently and it was sent through the post the other day (free) - just another card you need if you're planning to drive around Europe.

[Firefox]

If I had an EV, I would like it to make the turbiney noise that the car in Knight Rider made. (That's the only thing about that car that still seems cool, apart from Bonnie of course.)

Even though I don't own an EV, it makes me cross that the EV charging spaces at Morrisons are always full of none-electric cars.

[(o)(o)]

Not-so-great things about EVs:

• Pedestrians/wildlife - they can't hear you, supermarket car parks in particular are accidents waiting to happen, full concentration required
• Public charging costs - totally-free charging days are over (apart from Nissan dealerships), small connect charges on most public units now plus on-demand charging

To the first point, do mfrs not fit some sort of noise making option for such situations? Animals are surely more prone to running into these things.
On the second, is that always the case? I notice most of the ASDA round here have charging at some of the parking spots. Saw a guy just plug in his EV, didn't see any method of payment etc just plugged a plug thing in.

1. Yep, they do (some EU directive?). The Leaf makes a low-pitched whistling noise (upto ~20mph) to warn pedestrians but it's not really much use, it's easily drowned out in real life and it's quite directional. There's a button on the dash that you can switch it off (for pure stealth mode) although you're just compounding the issue if you do.
2. I think most (all?) chargers now have a "connect" charge (~£1?) - when you swipe your card to activate the charger, it's charged to your account automatically? You have to swipe a card (that you've pre-registered) at all chargers - there's a bunch of different companies/cards that you need to carry (Ecotricity, Charge-Your-Car, Polar etc) and they're generally free although some do have a nominal annual charge of £10-20. I applied for the French/EU one recently and it was sent through the post the other day (free) - just another card you need if you're planning to drive around Europe.

I went reading yesterday, intersted in this topic.. Zoe would be perfect as a main car with my driving patterns
What I found is some owners saying peds (as they are known in Carmageddon) aren't so reactive to the warning sounds so you still have to be careful.. I don't know about the Leafs 'whistling noise' .. hope it doesn't sound like tinnitus.

I went to have a look at the bays on the net yesterday where I saw somebody just plug in.. these ones in a carpark next to an ASDA (dont know if it's ASDA carpark or council owned) seem to be totally free.. https://www.zap-map.com/pts/ox023dm/
They are rated at 3kW though, that's a "slow" charge? How long would it take I wonder if you had a Zoe and needed to extend your range by eg 15 miles

@Firefox.. Turns out there's a term for this.. being "ICE'd" .. Internal Combustion Engined 'd...
Have to agree, and at the same time I've seen bays which are not clearly marked
As the EV driver may be dependent on accessing a bay and presumably EV cars on the increase, I wonder if there shouldn't be some more enforceable way of preventing ICEing it seems like a real popular problem

[adam]

i have no idea how much a new zoe is, but the ones on autotrader seem about £5500 typically, i was concerned about there being so many, but if it's a case of people upgrading to get more battery life thats understandable, the batteries are leased anyway i think with renault, and it could well be that the batteries might get an update in future for more distance as the tech develops, it's not beyond the realms of possibility anyway

edit: looks like about £15-18000ish new, can get a 2015 one for £5500 plus £50 a month for the battery lease

[Whiteball]

When I looked the other day a Renualt dealer had a 2015 Zoe with 7000 on the clock for 5,995.
Was tempted but apparently already sold the same day to someone else.

[Yak]

Zoes can be had pretty cheap. Mine's a year old and it was £7500. The newer ones with the bigger battery cost a bit more but if you can deal with the lower range even the smaller battery ones are a very affordable way into EV. They are pretty well specced inside for that money too, mine's full of all kinds of nice gadgets and gizmos.

The downside is the Renault battery hire thing, but if you consider that getting a battery-owned Leaf of similar spec would likely cost you five grand more it's not too bad when you work it out. And if you do keep it long enough to need a new battery that's a few grand you won't have to pay when that happens.

So damn nice to drive though. Smooth and silent and I feel like I'm driving something out of Blade Runner (minus the flying, of course, alas).

[Kamineko]

Now you've got me thinking of the future cars from Demolition Man

[Yak]

The trouble can be finding them close by - EVs are still pretty rare in the overall car buying scheme of things, and my first hits when looking were all out at Cardiff range and beyond. I almost didn't bother checking out the dealership at Kidwelly, because Kidwelly is a tiny little town that the train doesn't even stop at unless you ask, but they had one coming in and as soon as I heard it was there I went to take a look, but once I did it was game over - these are how things will be, and it isn't perfect yet, but I can certainly live with that one now, is what I thought.

Big noisy farting cars will surely go the way of the CRT, rich people who want extreme performance just get a Tesla and go 0-60 in 2.3 seconds. Game over.

[Whiteball]

Last year I did less that 4,000 miles. Mostly before that was only 5-6,000

I just don't driver anywhere really but not sure if that is down to 'nowhere to go' or 'don't enjoy driving'. Maybe that would all change if I had a nicer/newer car/experience.

Not sure how cost effective the whole thing would be for me. Will have to go and do some research and calculations...

[adam]

i've been pondering whether increased ev takeup will mean more cars on the road generally, as people are freed from petrol cost constraints

[RiK]

i've been pondering whether increased ev takeup will mean more cars on the road generally, as people are freed from petrol cost constraints

I think for most people they'll need to dramatically increase the range without getting into Tesla pricing first..

I have a number of friends with EVs, including three now with Zoes, a couple of BMW i3s and two Teslas. Other than the Tesla owners, of the others all bar one are 'second' cars in the family as they just don't have the range to support all the motoring they need to do.

[(o)(o)]

[Loada]

Our leaf is our primary car - our second car is a 10 year old diesel Mondeo that we use for long distance trips only. The sooner I can get rid of that, the better so I'm looking at a Passat or golf GTE (phev) currently.

[adam]

i've been pondering whether increased ev takeup will mean more cars on the road generally, as people are freed from petrol cost constraints

I think for most people they'll need to dramatically increase the range without getting into Tesla pricing first..

I have a number of friends with EVs, including three now with Zoes, a couple of BMW i3s and two Teslas. Other than the Tesla owners, of the others all bar one are 'second' cars in the family as they just don't have the range to support all the motoring they need to do.

i'd been imagining a sort of subscription model for batteries where you get them rapidly changed over at a petrol station or dealership when they run out, logistical nightmare at the moment but with a physically smaller standardised battery wouldn't be so bad, would mean a collaboration between manufacturers - i think nissan and Renault collaborate already on some things, some other makers use zoe motors etc, or an open source car design

i'd imagine most places would prefer to sell cups of coffee and a 40 minute charge over buying battery swapping machines

[Yak]

Regarding range the latest iterations of the Leaf and Zoe both claim range in the area of 230-250 miles, which probably translates to a real world worst case of around 150 in the depths of winter, which I think would be fine for most people, and would result in maybe a couple of pitstops on really long journeys. Tesla are already up to 350ish I believe.

Range anxiety is definitely an issue that is holding back EV uptake but it does seem that improved battery tech will make that less of an issue in many more use cases. I do wish I'd been able to afford an even newer Zoe or Leaf with current gen batteries but I can get by for most of what I do without. There is talk that the batteries in older Zoes can be upgraded to the newer tech and benefit from the extended range and if that does become an option without costing the moon I'll look at it.

Continuing to really enjoy my Zoe . Bought a dashcam and I'm going to have it properly fitted because trailing cables and fag lighter plugs all up in my lovely new interior just aren't good enough