lol-lol

Plus more cars hitting the criteria to get the full EV grant of £3750 and battery packs continuing to get cheaper. Battery packs being made up in France, Germany abd Polabd as well as UK is helping companies tick the boxes for getting full grant.

The SMTT data shows the continued market for cars moving towards BEVs, MEVs and PHEVs.... PHEVs over 20k sales, BEVs over 39k and HEVs nearly 20k so nearly 80k cars with pure diesel and petrol down to just under 47%. Still to see the big discounts which normally come with BEVs later in the year to try and hit the one third of cars being EVs which is part of the mandate.

R5 is light and Scenic a bit more but not very heavy even for the 90 KWh battery version well under 2T kerb weight. Just down to how the makers chooses to do their BMS. Be nice to have an agreed consistency i reckon.

Interesting that the legacy car makers have so little eange after zero state of charge shown, tested Bjorn Nyland saw as little as 2 miles after 0% SoC which compared to Renaults and TESLAs doing tens of miles after 0% is a massive difference on how battery management is done and is very confusing for users.

Yes seems to be widespread give back from the big suppliers. Wind power production did not look huge ie over 10 GW but solar was similar. Thought wind would be twice or 3 times solar. Live Grid does not seem to quote what UK domestic customers and businesses feedin could be big, at least a GW would have thought and how cheap are the interconnector supply costs, fraction of a penny per KWh ?

Are prices softer since ME war started ? Hard to resist a bargain that is super comfortable especially if not horrendous on fuel. Still reminisce over my A4 with its 130 hp pdi engine. Filling it up and seeing nearly a 1000 miles on the range predictor. In the other hand with today and tomorrow's negative electricity prices I can stop at Gloucester services Farm shop services abd have more to spend on grub !

Odd when my old firm and other firms in the logistics firms are finding electric trucks superior in both cost and performance. At a guess I would say those efforts to make such specialist EV vehicles gave not had the technical development that cars, trucks and vans have had. Tesla commencing production of 50k Seminper year, Articulated trucks as the test have gone so well. BYD going ever bigger in all of their EV manufacturing classes. I am looking at going EV on motorcycle as well but torn on the choice. Fancy the Royal Enfield Flying Flea but its a little small for me but there are ever increasing choices out there and prices getting more affordable and the acceleration is good. Starting to think about what I could change the Scenic for as gave had that nearly 2 years and with the hew crop of EV cars the choice is even more difficult and great prices with more getting the full grant now.

Necessity is the mother of invention it is said. Moving from what most EV operators do ie charge up overnight on cheapish lecky, but this is being undermined as even Octopus are now charging more for Night time charging than before the government's 3.51 p per KWh reduction ie over 8.6 p per KWh for Octopus GO Night time rate. So I switched to Octopus Agile tariff which "tracks" costs, some ie up to 32 hours forward pricing given to consumers, predicting solar and wind production plus overlayed of nuclear base load of course. This price can be anywhere between minus 11 p per KWh on quite a few occasions, -19 p per KWh being the record I think, and is under 5 p per KWh about 12% of the time, weekend naturally being a likely time. So I am transitioning from fixed night time charge and home using to when ever it is cheapest which looks like being usually PM, up to 4 pm and weekend, BHs the probably times for cheap / free / negative electricity for EVs and home. Easier now I am retired.

I thing Agile tariff is available to all, no conditions, no need to prove having an EV !

The difference is a conundrum. If there are some who have invested in solar and batteries but not seeing a financial advantage might be keeping quite out of embaressment. I gather some solar installs are reckoned to take 10 or 15 years to repay but that was before the price of fuel went nuts 8 weeks ago so the maths are different now. Pace of change seems constant round these parts, one side they just got a BYD Atto 1 for one daughter and on the other they just got a model 3, side with the BYD theg are using a granny charger and a thick wired extension lead I made for them, wallbox installed to charge the 3. Neither those houses have solar but many other houses do in the street. With changes in fuel prices but also some of the incredibly cheap, even free electricity to charge cars and home many are catching on to vastly lowering their outgoings in some areas ie their transport and home running costs, meaning sone household can divert money to other aspects which are costing more, council tax etc.

Yes saw the plunge pricing at public chargers. Clearly lots of solar and wind at the moment. In my quiet cul-de-sac most houses have EVs and many cases have roof solar that I can see, plus some have batteries talking to the home owners.

The new era has begun ! At 1130, BST, my Octopus charge rate dropped to minus 0.86 p per KWh. Later today, 1330 to 1500 it will be minus 1.3P per KWh. Currently got the 5 and the Scenic on wall-box chargers so drawing about 11 KWs which will be about a pound paid back to me for the 70 KWh I put in to the cars, portable home batteries and heating the water for bath time ! So not free but actually paid for taking electricity in these negative and virtual zero cost slots. Octopus did the switch from GO tariff to Agile in an hour or so. See how it plays out, we seem to be in an unusual spell of both very sunny and windy weather but we are still couple of months away from summer solstice and then 2 months hopefully of plenty more of the same until the darker days of October to February are upon us but with the amount and size of wind farms being connected of the east coast hopefully lots more times when UK has too much electricity and suppliers will give it away for nothing or pay me to take it. Next puzzle is what extra battery to get to hold the cheap / free lecky and how to put from batteries to car although the 5 is effectively a home battery on wheels with its V2l capability ?

What / which bubble ? Octopus, and the other energy suppliers, want to make some, Octopus, or lots as in others, profit and even dual and tri-rate tariffs may not do that if users charge at peak cost times. Hence Agile and Tracker is the direction way Octopus users are being encouraged. If one is adaptable one can have ones electricity almost for free, bar standing charge, if one is adaptable to charge the EVs, batteries when the electricity generation prices falls to near zero or below zero. Half hourly prices are released by Octopus for the next day at around 5 pm and as prices go negative today at 1130 I will pop out before lunch abd plug in a couple of the EVs and leave them plugged in, or programmed ro accept charge, might be PM nap time, to shut off at 1600 when price returns to a positive value. Just a case of moving with the times !

Should get a parking ticket IMO.

A shocking email from Octopus a couple of hours ago. Night time rate ie when the EVs get charged up, was to rise to even more than it was before the government's 3.51 p per kwh was shaved off all tariffs on April 1st. Night time rate up to 8.6 p per KWh and Day time up to almost 30p per KWh. Stuff that. So only 30 days of really cheap night time charging before it all goes. Of course it is the Middle East war hiking gas prices that has done it. So got on to Octopus website and switched over to Octopus Agile with Dynamic pricing which follows the live cost of lecky. From 1130 to 1600 later today I am to be paid for charging two of my EVs. Now that is demand and supply market conditions in action ! This is what we want !

The State of Charge car display is not the actual state of charge of the battery but a level that the car manufacturer wants to tell you. True levels can be seen in Apps tapping in to the OBD port, Carscanner being a notable one. The car's Battery Management System is a better indicator than car's SoC % i reckon. So with my Scenic not even mentioning reduced performance to 11 miles past 0% SoC being shown is a better indicator and such messages are there to ensure the car is not damaged and results jn warranty claims. I might get my own battery report on the 5 and Scenic just before potential hand back and that will influence my decesion whether to keep either of the cars. I don't expect the rare occasional charging to 85,90,95 ir 100 % if running it down to 15,10,5 or 0% to have hurt the battery pack. More important not to leave the battery very highly charged or very low for days on end rather than dipping down or charging up high. Occasional full charge needed to carry out battery cell balancing operation.

Not in the Midlands area, I always gave a look who has stopped by the side of the road and it is virtually never an EV and therefore neatly always an ICE vehicle. I am looking at when the new Royal Enfield Flying Flea EV bike is coming to the UK and I can imagine those running out of juice.

Why crap if you know you can make that extra ten or twenty miles past 0% in a Renault, Nissan or TESLA and said yourself a whole heap of time and cost and get home earlier ?? As I said I would and could not do it in our Mini Cooper and don't think it would allow it but some marques do and hence another reason I am a Renault, Nissan, Dacia fan. Will look at the Mitsubishi Eclipse when arrives which seems to be from the Ariya / Scenic parts bin but presumably be 4 wheel drive and have yge same sub 0% ghat other Alliance cars do. It's there, use it to save money and time !

Indeed, just getting use to it as Scenic is first car I have had with it. Thought I would do a trip / power measure reset on the R5 journey with low battery and the energy consumption report leapt up to 9 miles per KWh. Thought that was on the high side of what was really possible and it did settle down to about 6.5 which I was still pleased with. Maybe there should ve consistency with battery reserve size. ICE cars sem to have about 1.5 gallons ie 7 litres which should take one about 60 miles. EV may or may not go a mile, ten, thirty miles beyond zero SoC and thank Byorn Nyland for doing hundred or probably thousands of hours of testing to show us EV users what to expect.

Just okd enough to remember the introduction of the 55 mph speed limit in the US in the 70s to preserve ftek stocks. Amazing that vehicles generally fave not improved that much that a new 55 mph limit is being discussed for this oil crisis. Some get it wrong that aero drag is a square ratio of drag to speed when it is in fact a cube ratio. Tyre hysterysis / drag is a square ratio. But travelling at 55 makes as much as a 20% to as much as 50% difference in some vehicles. Plus the aero assistance of a bit of drafting but just don't like to get too close, something like 20 -25m I think hs close enough.

Indeed. Pleasantly surprised how many miles than caf predicts when one goes in to ultra efficient mode. Was in South Wales in the R5, granddaughter loves the iridescent yellow 5 but literally had no apparent margin, thought about doing the A road route home but wanted to see how my 40 kwh R5 performed getting down to 0% SoC. First few miles did not look good but a few miles sat cruising behind a truck doing 55 mph and soon there was a buffer restored. Upped the speed to the National Limit but still could not get the down to 0% SoC on that journey. If have found range anxiety not an issue in 5 years except on one journey back from Felixstowe to Worcester. Even then the Scenic did 11 mikes past 0% SoC bring shown before limited performance warning came up. Mini Cooper might be different as 0% might mean 0% ! Mini and R5 boot is tiny but Scenic is 550 litre. Good to see the Polo e, Raval and Epiq have really good boots abd rear seat space. Think they will be good sellers.

For those planning to live in their current house for many years to come they are choosing the path to go big on solar on the roof and batteries. I am planning to move in a year or so therefore want all my solar generation and batteries portable so I can take them with me. Boils down to what deal and personal finances on the monthly payments and also taking into consideration energy running cost, insurance and servicing. Monthly payment is usually the biggy and stands out as the annoying one. Renault 5 deal felt good as it was on a 0% finance deal and the option to buy I think it going to be attractive at the end of the PCP. Energy running costs are now negligible and I find servicing about half to a third of the cost of my previous ICE cars and my insurance is low and gone down again this year. My Scenic monthly is quite high and I am considering what to do with that in terms of partly paying off the PCP or trying to trade it in if I can get a good price now EVs are in greater demand with the ongoing fuel crisis for ICE cars. I could get a new Scenic for about £100 a month less than I am paying due to Renault lowering their prices and the fact the Scenic, like the 5, gets the bigger £3,750 discount, battery packs now being built in Poland or France, on new buys which will effect second hand residuals of course. My bank, Lloyds, sent me an email saying they could see I was paying Renault finance each month and could offer me a cheap load but it was only 5.7% when Renault did me 4.9% so not tempting. So EV running costs continue to go down and if one does go down either of the two routes to generate and store one's own electricity and use that then it is an option to further insulate one's self from price hikes in energy and fuel going down the track. I choose to continue to develop my "portable" battery storage and portable solar arrays. Could even take portable batteries in the car as Bjorn Nyland does when he does his zero miles test ie run it until completely out of juice, or actually BMS says no more. He is using a pair of 2 KWh Ecoflow units but this area is improving all the time and I think portable units with 3 KWh + output and 4 KWh storage are coming out so carry 8 KWh will become easy. Looking like Q3 energy prices wont be too bad which is a relief and keeps the EV running costs way down, as Elvis would say.

I think there are some that are still on a single rate tariff. If you worked night suppose you would have a problem. We have 3 EVs for a 2 person household and with GO the two smaller batteried EVs can get a full charge, almost, during the 5 hours of cheap charging but my Scenic would take almost 2 nights to charge from empty to full. Just chatting to someone down my avenue and he gad the 87 / 92 kwh Scenic so he would take two and a half nights to fully charge. Think I would try and get 3 phase if I had a really large batteried car or another solution, batteries, full roof solar or the like.

Absolutely. Biggest one for me is me and other EV owners buying the super cheap electricity to charge our cars ie Night time when electricity is so cheap as because others don't or can't buy it at this time. Phrased by some that we are doing something underhand. It is simply buying whrn it is commercially cheap and using it when we need it ie that next day time or in the following days. This is fired back at us as if we are have a whole bunch of silver spoons ! The one distinguishing factor i find with EV owners is that gave thought through the matter of transportation choices !

Everybody had some biased of course. I have listened to thd first couple of minutes of several of his videos before evaluating they are tosh. I don't know how the paying for viewed YouTube videos are but I want to avoid supporting such videos. There is a grain of truth in them. A registration is not necessarily a sale. But the SMMT data, Autotrader, the Car Dealership magazine and other reputable outlets tell the story of EV growth. Residuals can appear shocking but then this is not really due to undiserability but mostly down to cheaper battery packs and increased grants meaning new prices are cheaper and this depresses second hand prices. Early indications that second hand EVs are recently in higher demand as it becomes clearer EVs can be run in terms of fuel at about a tenth the cost of ICE vehicle. If you can summarise and point out any good points he makes but i will not full watch any his video which appear drivel to me.