EVs anyone?

[Misfit]

Eeeek. Suppose its not different to a fossil fuelled beastie breaking down... Although I do worry about the way modern cars are going with tech....

You own a ridiculous Alfa, you have to be accepting of breakdowns...

[matt303]

I've started with the search for the next EV seeing as the current lease is up at the end of the year, was not sure what to do, lease costs have gone up out of my budget so it's between a used Zoe ZE40 and the MG eZS.

Although a bit big for us the MG eZS is looking very good on paper and having inspected a couple of petrol versions of the car the build quality is way above what we expected, I'd say better than my Zoe was, price wise there's nothing to touch it and it even seems it'll be in reasonably plentiful supply unlike some other EVs that have a 12 month waiting list.

[Cloudane]

Sort of thing I bet my dad would like eventually, second hand. He's big on MG and tentatively interested in EVs when range and infrastructure improve. (Whether he'll still by driving by the time they do, we'll see, I hope so)

Still waiting on my Zoe. As I thought, it's a PEC repair - new rectifier component ordered, long job to fit it. Meanwhile various arses and elbows are out of touch at Renault and currently my hire car which is normally just automatically extended, is a week late and counting, with it being my credit card likely to take the massive hit in late return fees and everyone except Enterprise denying all knowledge that I even *have* the courtesy hire car. Assist say talk to Customer Services, Customer Services say talk to your dealer, dealer says talk to Customer Services. They then told me to tell the hire company (Enterprise) to talk to some Renault Fleet number, and Enterprise told me basically to fuck off as it's not their job to ring around (tell me about it!!) and to go back to Customer Services. Their wording was more diplomatic but I know what they meant. The common denominator in all the "you should talk to..."s has currently been left with the task of sorting this mess out and says not to worry (tell that to my credit card!)

There is still time for them to turn things around and even get me recommending them again (I am sometimes accused of having the patience of a saint), but with this constant onslaught of errors and disappointments my "opinion over time graph" can currently be extrapolated to "never buy another Renault" and beyond in the not too distant future.

[matt303]

Reliability has always been the main issue with the Zoe, well that and a higher than normal leakage current making it very fussy about earthing and being prone to throwing BCI errors (some cars seem to never BCI others a lot). Even more disappointing is that in all the years of making the Zoe and even a complete motor/electronics revision they never seemed to get on top of the problems.

I had a chat to my lease company and extending the lease on the Soul EV isn't an issue and only about £16 a month more, so waiting for real world feedback on the MG eZS and more details Peugeot e208 is probably the sensible thing to do.

[Cloudane]

Indeed it's a bit embarrassing on the EV and Zoe groups seeing so many pictures of Zoes on flatbeds!

The earthing issue was largely resolved in a software update which made them a lot less fussy, but like with the BMS update I think you probably need to say exactly the right things for it to come up on their solutions database and be authorised. For some reason these things which should really just all be done during servicing, are instead left until the customer complains, which I don't think helps the reputation any.

But yeah I have the newer Renault motor and seemingly their charging gubbins is just as unreliable as the Continental's. Maybe one day I'd get the newer CCS one but would want to see what reliability is like first.

On the hire car issue, at least that's been resolved now. Still waiting on the repair though. Awaiting (more?) parts, the service staff couldn't give me even a rough ETA so for all I know it could be days it could be weeks it could be months

[Cloudane]

Back now!

In fairness it was apparently quite a rare fault (but a known one with a solution number). These things are sent to try us. I think it only did it to ruin my birthday, naughty Zoe. Hope that's the end of my troubles for a while!

[matt303]

Anyone going to Fully Charged Live?

We'll be there on the Friday, last years was great although a bit chaotic on the Saturday when more people than they expected turned up and all the food was gone by about 1:30

[Cloudane]

It's 225 miles away which in a 22kWh 22kW charging Zoe sounds like an adventure, but probably not one I can be arsed with to be honest

There's a beer festival I have my eye on that weekend anyway

[matt303]

Around 250 miles per day was my limit when I had a 22kW charging Zoe and those days were done around Ireland where it takes a long time to run up 250 miles.

Silverstone is about a 120 mile round trip so just doable in our 30kWh Soul EV without a charge, last year we got home with 16 miles left but we did have a 15mins on a 7kW post while having a comfort break on the way down.

[(o)(o)]

$1200 EV :

https://www.electrive.com/2020/06/11/a-little-changli-drives-just-fine-for-around-1200-usd/

[Cloudane]

Playbus!

[venusian]

It's basically an old 's person mobility scooter isn't it? That sort of thing should be future of city transport IMO.

[(o)(o)]

[defsdoor]

As we stand no chance of affording the electric car I would like, my wife has just got a Kia e-Niro.

We looked at a few - the one she actually wanted was a VW ID3 but there's too many problem with them and availability sucks. We test drove a Kona and the Niro and the Niro is better equipped for a cheaper price and the interior is rather nice.

I love it - it's the most enjoyable driving I've done in years.

[Cloudane]

Once you go zap you never go back. Touch wood, my Zoe has been great since her teething troubles.

Wouldn't mind an upgrade sometime as 22kW shows its limitations at times but yeah.... lots of demand, prices not going down. Last I saw mine was worth about the same as when I got it 2.5 years ago!