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Electric cars

Very nice motor, my dear fellow. As an environmentally concious car user who has switched to an EV, how could anyone possibly object? Moreover, you have responsably chosen an estate(ish) shaped car instead of the hated full Range Rover sized SUV type, so I struggle to imagine anyone here would have a problem.

Additionally, you have picked a model with a sufficiently powerful engine allowing 0-60 mph in 5.4 sec. Another vital safety feature, that will come crucial should you ever spot in your rearview mirror whilst at a red lights a lorry with brakes failure approaching you at great speed :thumbs:
 
That's your new wankpanzer is it? I notice you've forked out the extra for them not to put badges on the arse. I gather from the charging point in picture 2 it's either a hybrid or an all leccy one


All electric, saving the planet over here. And it does have a badge, that’s what it comes with..?
 
All electric, saving the planet over here. And it does have a badge, that’s what it comes with..?
My A6 is a 2.0 diesel SR but it has no tail badges bar the Audi logo which I thought odd so I checked and for a cost you can/could have the badges left off (which surprised me) perhaps they no longer do this.
 
My A6 is a 2.0 diesel SR but it has no tail badges bar the Audi logo which I thought odd so I checked and for a cost you can/could have the badges left off (which surprised me) perhaps they no longer do this.


Don't think I saw that as an option, it just says Q8, but on each side there is a charging port where it says etron. tbh I don't really know much about this car, used to be right in to cars but kind of lost interest in them in recent years and now they mostly seem the same to me...
 
Can you switch it off if so wished, or is it hardwired to the headlights circuit?


No idea, there's so much shit on it that I've never come across before, the manual is nearly 400 pages, plus got to learn to charge the thing. Gonna pick up BB1 from uni at the weekend, a 400 round trip should get me more familiar with it and 200 of those will have a 19 year old computer whizz sat in the passenger seat, so she can sort all the crap out...
 
So, electric cars....

Drove it to Plymouth on Saturday, M4/M5 rather than A303. The car told me it couldn't do it on one charge and arranged for a place just north of Exeter to fill up. Would be the first time charging it away from home. It took me to a McDonald's with a charger, but both of them had cars on them, asked how long they'd be and turns out they had just arrived, so 60-90 minutes before I could even start. Got the app out and it sent me one junction further down the M5 to an industrial estate, to a charger whose payment machine was broken, now down to 12 miles left. Sent me to a service station off the M5, had 16 chargers, all taken with >20 cars waiting, hours...then to Ikea, payment machine broken, to Tesco, a crappy rubbish Pod-Point charger, would have taken 10 hours to charge it, fortunately it didn't work either. 8 miles left now. Then to a little country pub, big charger, but in the corner of the car park so you could only park to the right of it, it worked, cable was only 5' long so couldn't reach the charger port on the car, had to crab it in to the space sideways, blocking the other spaces, it worked...

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When I was blocking the spaces some local wanted to use it, but couldn't cos I was in the way, I was very apologetic, but explained I didn't know what the hell I was doing, he was cool and said he'd been to the big service station and it must be a crazy day as he'd never seen it full before in the 3 years he's had an EV. He also said he'd driven his to Andorra last year and had to factor in an additional 2 days for the charging. Then we got chatting about Plymouth university, where he's a lecturer in dentistry, had worse teeth than me and luxuriant nasal hair.

The machine in the picture got it from 8 miles to 70 in an hour and twenty mins, it is supposedly a 50kWh thing. The next morning I sneaked out early as had spied a charger and signed up to it, it's a 40kWh one, asked it to go from 12% to 100%, it did it in 50 mins and according to the app averaged 66kWh...a bit of a mystery that. This charge gave me the exact miles, to the sodding mile, to get home. The car suggested a stop in Andover, I accepted, again a McShits, but just round the corner was a pub with 4 big chargers, all empty and working, slammed it in there, had a steak and chips and made it home without incident.

Seems that for longer journeys you need to plan it in advance and allow quite a bit of extra time for charging, also don't wait until there's 20 miles left, plan to charge at 50 miles.

By comparison, a month ago we took our petrol Seat Leon down to Plymouth with a full tank, then to Bigbury and back to Plymouth, ~90 minute round trip, then back home, fuel light came on near Andover, less than 5 minutes to fill the fucker up...
 
So, electric cars....

Drove it to Plymouth on Saturday, M4/M5 rather than A303. The car told me it couldn't do it on one charge and arranged for a place just north of Exeter to fill up. Would be the first time charging it away from home. It took me to a McDonald's with a charger, but both of them had cars on them, asked how long they'd be and turns out they had just arrived, so 60-90 minutes before I could even start. Got the app out and it sent me one junction further down the M5 to an industrial estate, to a charger whose payment machine was broken, now down to 12 miles left. Sent me to a service station off the M5, had 16 chargers, all taken with >20 cars waiting, hours...then to Ikea, payment machine broken, to Tesco, a crappy rubbish Pod-Point charger, would have taken 10 hours to charge it, fortunately it didn't work either. 8 miles left now. Then to a little country pub, big charger, but in the corner of the car park so you could only park to the right of it, it worked, cable was only 5' long so couldn't reach the charger port on the car, had to crab it in to the space sideways, blocking the other spaces, it worked...

View attachment 381845



When I was blocking the spaces some local wanted to use it, but couldn't cos I was in the way, I was very apologetic, but explained I didn't know what the hell I was doing, he was cool and said he'd been to the big service station and it must be a crazy day as he'd never seen it full before in the 3 years he's had an EV. He also said he'd driven his to Andorra last year and had to factor in an additional 2 days for the charging. Then we got chatting about Plymouth university, where he's a lecturer in dentistry, had worse teeth than me and luxuriant nasal hair.

The machine in the picture got it from 8 miles to 70 in an hour and twenty mins, it is supposedly a 50kWh thing. The next morning I sneaked out early as had spied a charger and signed up to it, it's a 40kWh one, asked it to go from 12% to 100%, it did it in 50 mins and according to the app averaged 66kWh...a bit of a mystery that. This charge gave me the exact miles, to the sodding mile, to get home. The car suggested a stop in Andover, I accepted, again a McShits, but just round the corner was a pub with 4 big chargers, all empty and working, slammed it in there, had a steak and chips and made it home without incident.

Seems that for longer journeys you need to plan it in advance and allow quite a bit of extra time for charging, also don't wait until there's 20 miles left, plan to charge at 50 miles.

By comparison, a month ago we took our petrol Seat Leon down to Plymouth with a full tank, then to Bigbury and back to Plymouth, ~90 minute round trip, then back home, fuel light came on near Andover, less than 5 minutes to fill the fucker up...
It's hard to see how it will all work if everyone has electric. Garages won't have the space on their forecourts, we'll have to have new garages that look more like car parks.

It has always seemed stupid to me to do it this way. They ought to agree a standard battery that you can swap in and out at a garage. I know there are lots of barriers to it but they shouldn't be insurmountable. There would be an automated rack of them at each garage that would bring the charged ones to the front and a derrick to help lift them in and out. Changeover time would be less than a petrol car. The price would be that you wouldn't 'own' a battery, I guess you'd pay a subscription, or the fractional cost of replacement would be added to the fee at each changeover. It requires a little bit more infrastructure altogether and a further shift away from thinking like a petrolhead, but all this waiting to charge bollocks on long journeys would be over.
 
It's hard to see how it will all work if everyone has electric. Garages won't have the space on their forecourts, we'll have to have new garages that look more like car parks.

It has always seemed stupid to me to do it this way. They ought to agree a standard battery that you can swap in and out at a garage. I know there are lots of barriers to it but they shouldn't be insurmountable. There would be an automated rack of them at each garage that would bring the charged ones to the front and a derrick to help lift them in and out. Changeover time would be less than a petrol car. The price would be that you wouldn't 'own' a battery, I guess you'd pay a subscription, or the fractional cost of replacement would be added to the fee at each changeover. It requires a little bit more infrastructure altogether and a further shift away from thinking like a petrolhead, but all this waiting to charge bollocks on long journeys would be over.


Always thought the same.

The service station on the M5 had 16 chargers, (plus a load of Tesla-only ones that were hardly being used :rolleyes:) and they are building a ton more right now, and yes, does look like a car park.

If the mythical solid state battery with 900 mile range appears then out and about charging will be a thing of the past. You will home charge, or for those that can't do that, the small chargers you see dotted about with no cables on them, they exist for folk who can't charge at home, so everyone will be able to get 900 miles in to it...
 
It's hard to see how it will all work if everyone has electric. Garages won't have the space on their forecourts, we'll have to have new garages that look more like car parks.

It has always seemed stupid to me to do it this way. They ought to agree a standard battery that you can swap in and out at a garage. I know there are lots of barriers to it but they shouldn't be insurmountable. There would be an automated rack of them at each garage that would bring the charged ones to the front and a derrick to help lift them in and out. Changeover time would be less than a petrol car. The price would be that you wouldn't 'own' a battery, I guess you'd pay a subscription, or the fractional cost of replacement would be added to the fee at each changeover. It requires a little bit more infrastructure altogether and a further shift away from thinking like a petrolhead, but all this waiting to charge bollocks on long journeys would be over.
It's a mindset thing. For over a hundred years everyone with a car just turned up at a filling station, filled up the tank and drove away.

Now, many owners of EVs won't need to even think about going to the filling station if they have a charger at home. They'll have plugged the car in when they got home (assuming it needs charging) and then unplugged it to drive off the next time.

Doing longer journeys when you need to top up along the way is going to be different. You won't necessarily think about finding a charging station (instead of a filling station) but instead, it'll be using the charger by the loos when you stop for a piss or using the charger by the cafe/pub/restaurant where you stop for food or the one at the supermarket where you stop to pick up some food/flowers/booze for your destination.

Other times, it's plugging it in at the supermarket when you do the weekly shop or at the carpark when you go to the cinema/theatre. Or using the on-street charger where you've parked your car.

In all these situations, you aren't waiting around for your car to charge, you're doing something more interesting or necessary whilst your car is charging.

Of course, the infrastructure needs to be in place for this to happen. As Bahnhof Strasse found there weren't enough chargers, not all of them worked or were old school slow chargers.
 
Interchangeable batteries is a complete non-starter. The battery packs weigh hundreds of kg so the only feasible place to package then in the vehicle is under the floor.
Pretty sure I read somewhere that it is happening already. EV charging without the wait: Battery swap stations open in Europe

Not sure how realistic it is mind.

I do agree there is probably a bit of a mindset change needed. I am coming from being a non driver and very used to having to be creative when wanting to go away. We stayed in a log cabin in Wales and it took 4 trains and a taxi at the other end to get there and back - it was quite fun, but I'd probably have driven given the choice as we had so much stuff with us to lug around. So the idea of stopping for an hour whilst I grab some food isn't that bad, and I quite like to stop when I am travelling for pleasure as I spend the rest of my life rushing around.

Banhoff's journey did seem a bit of a nightmare and I do appreciate why some people wouldn't fancy it, or it wouldn't be practical in some circumstances.
 
So, electric cars....

Drove it to Plymouth on Saturday, M4/M5 rather than A303. The car told me it couldn't do it on one charge and arranged for a place just north of Exeter to fill up. Would be the first time charging it away from home. It took me to a McDonald's with a charger, but both of them had cars on them, asked how long they'd be and turns out they had just arrived, so 60-90 minutes before I could even start. Got the app out and it sent me one junction further down the M5 to an industrial estate, to a charger whose payment machine was broken, now down to 12 miles left. Sent me to a service station off the M5, had 16 chargers, all taken with >20 cars waiting, hours...then to Ikea, payment machine broken, to Tesco, a crappy rubbish Pod-Point charger, would have taken 10 hours to charge it, fortunately it didn't work either. 8 miles left now. Then to a little country pub, big charger, but in the corner of the car park so you could only park to the right of it, it worked, cable was only 5' long so couldn't reach the charger port on the car, had to crab it in to the space sideways, blocking the other spaces, it worked...

View attachment 381845



When I was blocking the spaces some local wanted to use it, but couldn't cos I was in the way, I was very apologetic, but explained I didn't know what the hell I was doing, he was cool and said he'd been to the big service station and it must be a crazy day as he'd never seen it full before in the 3 years he's had an EV. He also said he'd driven his to Andorra last year and had to factor in an additional 2 days for the charging. Then we got chatting about Plymouth university, where he's a lecturer in dentistry, had worse teeth than me and luxuriant nasal hair.

The machine in the picture got it from 8 miles to 70 in an hour and twenty mins, it is supposedly a 50kWh thing. The next morning I sneaked out early as had spied a charger and signed up to it, it's a 40kWh one, asked it to go from 12% to 100%, it did it in 50 mins and according to the app averaged 66kWh...a bit of a mystery that. This charge gave me the exact miles, to the sodding mile, to get home. The car suggested a stop in Andover, I accepted, again a McShits, but just round the corner was a pub with 4 big chargers, all empty and working, slammed it in there, had a steak and chips and made it home without incident.

Seems that for longer journeys you need to plan it in advance and allow quite a bit of extra time for charging, also don't wait until there's 20 miles left, plan to charge at 50 miles.

By comparison, a month ago we took our petrol Seat Leon down to Plymouth with a full tank, then to Bigbury and back to Plymouth, ~90 minute round trip, then back home, fuel light came on near Andover, less than 5 minutes to fill the fucker up...
As someone who doesn't own an EV i think Leafster post is great and would add that it's much quicker to charge up to 80% then it is to go from 80 to 100%, so on longer trips where you're not taking breaks anyway you should aim for 80% charge for speed.

How you did it when you got steak and chips is the ideal way for it to work, refuel when you are stopping anyway, even if it's to go from 50% to 65% and you never really need to stop to refuel. Idealised world obviously but the longer ranges get the more often you'll be able to work it like this naturally.

I also don't think the infrastructure has caught up with the rapid rise in EV sales, as the person you met said it was the first time in 3 years they've seen them all in use. Broken machines aside I hope we'll see rapidly increasing installations over the next few years that would make it less likely you'd arrive somewhere to find an hour wait to refuel.
 
I can't see myself with an EV to be truthful since I only ever buy second hand (2 to 4 years old) cars it is going to be a bit until there is significant choice for me and I will probably quit driving around then. The Q's have bought their first hybrid with Mrs Q's Toyota Yaris in May. It's self-charging, charging the battery up as it drives along. The battery only holds enough charge for a couple of miles tops but it uses it in traffic rather than the engine.
According to Toyota's sales bumf it can do up to 82mpg but the salesman laughed at that and claimed 60-65mpg is a far more realistic figure (which is pretty good for a 1.5ltr engine). It has a very small fuel tank (only 36ltrs) which contributes to the feeling of it being economical to run.
 
So, electric cars....

Drove it to Plymouth on Saturday, M4/M5 rather than A303. The car told me it couldn't do it on one charge and arranged for a place just north of Exeter to fill up. Would be the first time charging it away from home. It took me to a McDonald's with a charger, but both of them had cars on them, asked how long they'd be and turns out they had just arrived, so 60-90 minutes before I could even start. Got the app out and it sent me one junction further down the M5 to an industrial estate, to a charger whose payment machine was broken, now down to 12 miles left. Sent me to a service station off the M5, had 16 chargers, all taken with >20 cars waiting, hours...then to Ikea, payment machine broken, to Tesco, a crappy rubbish Pod-Point charger, would have taken 10 hours to charge it, fortunately it didn't work either. 8 miles left now. Then to a little country pub, big charger, but in the corner of the car park so you could only park to the right of it, it worked, cable was only 5' long so couldn't reach the charger port on the car, had to crab it in to the space sideways, blocking the other spaces, it worked...

View attachment 381845



When I was blocking the spaces some local wanted to use it, but couldn't cos I was in the way, I was very apologetic, but explained I didn't know what the hell I was doing, he was cool and said he'd been to the big service station and it must be a crazy day as he'd never seen it full before in the 3 years he's had an EV. He also said he'd driven his to Andorra last year and had to factor in an additional 2 days for the charging. Then we got chatting about Plymouth university, where he's a lecturer in dentistry, had worse teeth than me and luxuriant nasal hair.

The machine in the picture got it from 8 miles to 70 in an hour and twenty mins, it is supposedly a 50kWh thing. The next morning I sneaked out early as had spied a charger and signed up to it, it's a 40kWh one, asked it to go from 12% to 100%, it did it in 50 mins and according to the app averaged 66kWh...a bit of a mystery that. This charge gave me the exact miles, to the sodding mile, to get home. The car suggested a stop in Andover, I accepted, again a McShits, but just round the corner was a pub with 4 big chargers, all empty and working, slammed it in there, had a steak and chips and made it home without incident.

Seems that for longer journeys you need to plan it in advance and allow quite a bit of extra time for charging, also don't wait until there's 20 miles left, plan to charge at 50 miles.

By comparison, a month ago we took our petrol Seat Leon down to Plymouth with a full tank, then to Bigbury and back to Plymouth, ~90 minute round trip, then back home, fuel light came on near Andover, less than 5 minutes to fill the fucker up...
Bloody hell. They don’t put this kind of real-world user experiences in the brochures…

I’m sure it’ll get better with time, but if I were in the market for a new or nearly new car right now, reading your ordeal would have put me off going for a fully electric car. More so as I don’t have a driveway to install a home charger in.
 
It’s almost as if battery powered cars are shit, solve nothing, and are a complete technological dead end.


Still, no emissions for >400 miles, apart from a spot of hyperventilating around Exeter. If we must have cars then EV is better than ICE, and this one has a tow bar so bike rack will be fitted, big boot for dog and MIL’s wheelchair, drives like a dream and lets the plebs know their place at a glance without me having to go and actually explain to them why I am a superior human being who does in fact own the road.
 
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Company I work for are trying to get me to accept a company electric van when my current diesel van gets swapped out. I'm not happy as I travel to visit work site locations which don't have charging facilities which are all over the north of England., Some of my sites are a round trip of over 200 miles so I'd be stuck trying to find a shopping centre or petrol station with vacant charging points and then I'd have to hang around waiting for it to charge adding at least an hour to my day just for going green. Where I live I can't have a charger as there isn't the infrastructure or convenient space without cables trailing across the pavement.
 
Bloody hell. They don’t put this kind of real-world user experiences in the brochures…

I’m sure it’ll get better with time, but if I were in the market for a new or nearly new car right now, reading your ordeal would have put me off going for a fully electric car. More so as I don’t have a driveway to install a home charger in.


It was a baptism of fire, surely will get easier as I get more used to it, but was a tense hour or so there…
 
The new Mercedes EQS does 470ish miles from one charge. Pretty much the same as my petrol car. Two massive batteries does the job.
 
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Got a weird mashup of a couple of things in my head James May's car history thingy where he explained abandoning the militarism post ww2 is what gave Japan and Germany the edge in terms of focus post ww2. And a brief history I heard a while back blaming ww1 on dreadnoughts ..which impacted on naval thinking with regards RN being stronger than next 2 Navies combined (Dreadnoughts meant (in theory - it actually lost all but the initial propaganda of Jutland) that Germany only had to keep up with Dreadnought production).

Also strongly believe its hydrogen moving forward
 
A good friend of mine has an electric car and I can tell you, her tales have put me off completely. No just the battery charging stress, but when the computer system in it goes wrong - if the car breaks down (as it happened to her), it's not that simple to fix. Not enough people know how. I see, and hope, this as part of the future Solar on Every Vehicle | Sono Motors ? Sadly they paused the solar panel car project, I think it was lack of funding, and are now trying to sell it.

But then the horror stories on how solar panels get manufactured in China are very depressing. EV production is also terrible for the environment. Shipping/Industry/air travel are not really being tackled by governments in the way they should be, because how are people going to keep on consuming without it??? We are power hungry in the West - are we prepared to give that up? I doubt it. (apologies if all this has already been mentioned, haven't read the whole thread)
 
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