lol-lol

Not a problem for those of us who are left handed and with oddly long arms, can almost scratch by knee without bend, nearly. Feel sorry for those lefties driving LHD car with trying to input instructions with their non dominant arm, must feel odd.

Just concerned for a fellow Briskodian's well being. I was shocked when the Zoe got no stars in EuroNCAP and spotted it was down to the new safety systems that really marked down one of my cars down. Just so we are all aware of the the facets of modern EuroNCAP and can make informed choices and what we drive and with whom in the car. I would not drive with my daughters or granddaughter in the Zoe when I have the Scenic on the drive. One daughter survived a major motorway pile up near you near at Woodall services, only the boot area was uncrumpled, soft tissues damage after being hit by a 32 tonne rigid truck and the a 7 series BMW. That was is a Mk 4 Clio which has good crash scores and I got her a replacement one of those as she and I was so impressed with it. Life is for living and being a motorcyclist, as well as a car driver, doing tens of thousand of miles a year, and fly quite a bit, I live with degrees of risk. (RIP David Lynch).

Might put more off TESLA model Y unless they produce or sell cheaper. Is the model Y only about 50k Euros in Euroland which is only £42k at current RoE. I will bet the 92 kwh Techno Scenic will drop below £40k in April and avoid the £2k luxury car tax.

Would a manufacturer sacrifice battery longevity just to get the fastest charging crown? More likely with a Chinese manufacturer than a European one ? EV increasingly got better battery cell cooling probably but very high charge rates likely to kill off cells ?

Actually two other factors in getting a high paid job as well as hard work and intelligence is sheer luck being in the right place at the right time and secondly, I suppose related to that point of being lucky in the industry one is in. My current job I replaced a guy who decided to start his own business. My niche of customs consultancy is rare so I wad able to name a good salary, take it or leave it. My predecessor went on to make £12m in 12 years so well done him. The other lucky occurrence was BREXIT which quadrupled the size of the customs declarations industry and has made my work area billions over the last 4 years. So luck and more luck as well as hard work and smarts. Not great for GB car makers all the tariff and export and mport issues but it's a bad wind that blows nobody some good. At least we have relatively low tariffs on cars whether from Europe or China. The only thing that annoys me is the right hand drive models are built after the first batch of left hand ones usually. Left is right and right is wrong but too late to change now I suppose.

Using the Scenic battery pack. the Filante......... S

Indeed. Passat, and by relationship the Superb, just rated as the best safe car by Thatcham. Let's hope these brands managed to survive. Latest is VW selling some of its factories to the Chinese such is their economic woe.

No intention of that, but those who have found their way in to higher paid jobs have done so with hard work and the blessing of a good brain. I have fought all my live for a meritocracy rather than one of privilege which has been a disease of the UK for far too long, Private schools, Masonic membership giving a lifetime of preferential treatment I despise.

Good to hear you back ! Any road up, on the car theme (Apparently EVs score a higher percentage of 5 star awards than ICE cars) https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/best/worst-euro-ncap-ratings/#:~:text=Suzuki Swift – three stars&text=But there's also no getting,Child Occupant%3A 65 per cent Suzuki Swift – three stars - According to Euro NCAP, this is the least safe car it tested in 2024 But there’s also no getting away from the fact that if you sort the 2024 test scores in order of rating, the Suzuki Swift has the lowest of the lot. Here are the Suzuki Swift’s individual safety scores: Adult Occupant: 67 per cent Child Occupant: 65 per cent Vulnerable Road Users: 76 per cent Safety Assist: 62 per cent It’s not the greatest looking set of stats, is it – especially the occupant scores. Judging by the Euro NCAP report, your legs are in for a hard time if you’re an adult, and there are far too many poor and marginal ratings in the child protection section for our liking. In addition, the eCall system doesn’t meet the test body’s standards. Hmm.

Privileged or hard working and intelligent?

Just to make the point not what I condone but a successful comedy by many measures......

When I got my Zoe there was government ie under the Con government, funding for both the car and a home charger. Whilst the Zoe is and was a highish spec I suspect Renault was working on a big margin by then. The RRP was a rather huge £34k for a B segment EV, even though it probably has the longest range of any B segment car at the time and better than some C or D segment EVs. The Con UK government subsidy was £2.5K from memory and £500 for the home charger so that only cost me £449 fitted to the house. I recall Renault gave me £5K further discount and I think the loca dealership gave me some more too so with all these discounts the Zoe cost me about £26K rather than £34k and then was put on a really good finance so has been costing me way less than £300 a month and bugger all running costs of course. Similar with the Scenic, no subsidies under the Labour government but a discount way more than normal dealer discount plus a £1k freebie 7.4 kw wall box plus loads of other goodies. Rumour circulating around the EV community is that the current Labour government is talking to the finance community about inderwring EV loans so they are low interest rates in close to inflation or inflation target ie 2 to 3% rather than subsidies. I am getting the Scenic PCP loan at 4.9% which is lower than my mortgage at 5% so not much room there. Just interested as to what the Renault 5 will cost per month for say 8k or 10k annual miles. Any trade in on the Zoe as a PCP early ie 6 months early return. Interest rates down a quarter percent for the EU area and companies like Renault, VAG etc will look at whether to take loans for UK sales as Uk loans or EU loans as EU interest rates ae quite a bit lower but there is always the exchange rate risk of course.

Here we are on page 358. I was working yesterday in Coventry at our massive cross docking station. A nice toodle for me ie 100 miles round trip in my EV. Two others I was meeting, one coming from Liverpool, the other from Felixstowe, both around 260 mile round trips I reckon and both people needed to blast across/down and be back ASAP for family reasons. Both also came in Renaults, a Capture and a Clio, both diesels. I cannot argue that at this moment in time that those diesels were the best tools/cars to do the job. It is late January, its coldish, they are probably driving at 70-ish, maybe pushing the NSL +10%+2 mph, one came flying past me once we got on the motorway, their cars are not new, they are in the middle of their careers and unlike me they have got better things to spend their money on that the latest car toys. Certainly brought it home to me others priorities and economics. EVs will get noticeably better and quickly but we have some way to go, maybe take until the end of the decade, before the choice of an EV becomes completely the default choice for the majority because of prices to acquire, the running costs and just the ability to to a long journey in the shortest time in a reasonably priced car. Still much work to do.

Trying to avoid TESLA superchargers due to Elon but when needs must. One used them once, took £20 for a few kWh, kept it for a week and then gave it all back. Where is the best place to filter where the V4 public supercharger places are ?

2% NI to add on to the 60%. The 60% only occurs, as the tax rate for the 100 to 125k per annum is 45% put the effects of reducing one's tax code from 1257 to zero incrementally between the 100k and the 125k has this effect of creating what calculates as 60% for the bit between 100k and 125k pa. What is usually done is to slice off a bit that would be subject to this ridiculous rate of tax and put it in to pension pot, up to 60k per annum, or develop some other tax avoidance strategy. Be interesting to see how tax codes change in 60 days time when so many tax rules change on VED, particularly for company car hybrids and codes go lower or negative. Minus 5k is the lowest code I have had.

With 2.8T debt got to do something, and that figure does not include unfunded ie from current account public service pensions.

But they do vary sometimes by factors of 2,3 or 4 as to how they perform. Both in charging on the lower part of the charging curve ie say 5% to 50% and how they perform in the 50% to 95%. Very important to do one's homework when acquiring and EV. Charging Curves available at places like EV knowledge exchange..... This is a good curve I reckon though battery chemistry is advancing at such a level that it will soon be surpassed no doubt (unless you have a Taycan and are MacMaster)....... https://evkx.net/models/renault/scenic/scenic_e-tech_electric/chargingcurve/

Indeed it slows down but the variety of charge rates, which we call the C rate ie ratio of kWs in relation to the kWh capacity of the battery does vary widely. Shortly after commencing charging ie around 10%, my Scenic 60 kwh nominal is charging at over 2 C. Even at 96% SoC it is charging at 0.8 C Some EV barely make 1 or 1.5 C at any point and are down to 0.2 C in the 80s or 90s % so a wide variety of charging rates out there.

When the car was dirty I would write 1.4 Skoda in the dirt on the back. Having a little ding dong with what was badged up as a 2 litre A3 and got passed him at around 130 and I think they were quite surprised. The Fabia VRS seem to hit a wall at around 130, even though one had the gearing headroom with the 7 speed dry twin clutch gearbox. The Octavia VRS, petrol ones not the fake diesel VRSs, was so different. Acceleration similar up to about 120 but the Octy did not hit an aero drag in my experience. Over 150 on the clock and still accelerating noticeably. One can see why the Octy was used for the 2 litre forced induction land speed record and getting 228 on a two way average was awesome and stood for a decade or more. Way different to my Scenic limited to 95 mph but I will live longer and so will my licence and freedom.

Depends on the EV. My Comfort Scenic is still wacking in charge at 80, 90 and 99% SoC and the new crop of LFP batteried vehicles still charging at above or around 50 kwh even in the upper percents of SoC. Just not the 125 kw or so lower down the SoC. If one is stopping for food and not just a wee wee and coffee then with some EVs no bother or waiting getting 50 kwh of charge and knocking on 200 miles and no waiting other than what one would do on any journey in respect of output and input to one's self as well as the EV.

Fabia Mk 2, I had a super fun VRS with the supercharger and turbo, you could get another 5 litres in beyond its 45 litre nominal capacity. Great for getting the impressive range of over 600 miles if careful. It needed at least 98 octane fuel. One just leaned the petrol pump nozzle on the little black button in the cars fuel tank neck and bobs your uncle over 10% more fuel tank volume. Good when you had that x pence per litre voucher off fuel. Cars don't seem to have them anymore and as you say only do this when starting that long journey. Fabia VRS did over 100 miles before fuel gauge even moved off full. Great memories except had to ditch the OE Conti tyres as the VRS would melt them after a few miles spirited driving, sorted when moved to pilot sport tyres. My boss has an EQC 400, nice for a jaunt but not good efficiency as based on ICE car and very heavy.

When filling at expensive motorway stations I would oft only put £20 or three quarters of a tank as not to reward those who set high prices. Would do that even if using a fuel card and therefore not my money, only the BIK tax. Filling ICE cars very full can damage the engines systems and Renault have carried warnings for years with the 3 click rule ie don't continue filling when it clicks the 3rd time. Carrying extra weight lowers mpg of course. Have worked out how much weight is added after EV charging. Seem to remember an electronic is about one two thousands the weight of a proton. I guess it might be a few grams ?

This time of year, no chance, think it has done about 200 but back in September it was doing 246 miles and still had 30 miles left on the range meter and as I said I have done 12 miles past zero and it did not even come up with the restricted performance until the last mile. All done on Motorways or dual carriageway but cruising mainly around the 60 mph mark. It is very much as I expected and how those you don't drive at or above the NSL as they will see much less than WLTP. The strategy for getting around the WLTP are well known. Get the small ie narrower tyre options, that is 19s 205s and not the 20 inch 235s. Have the rears at around 40 psi, brake using regen rather than sudden and harsh brake pedal usage. Speed has a cube relation to aero drag so settle for a mile a minute average. Look forward to warmer weather when range will be much better, about 15C seems to be the start of the sweet temp. One can help the battery achieve better in range temps ie charge as close to leaving on the journey. When the battery is cool but fully charged be gentle on slowing as regen will not top up a cold battery ie only 10 kws of regen works and not 30 or 40 kws when battery is warm. Proper for the tyres too of course. Stay relaxed and think about the driving process and where best to stop of one needs too considering battery temp, SoC, cost and reliability of public chargers if needed. It can be quite an enjoyable game like chess I find as well as cheap motoring, at least on the running cost if not the monthly PCP etc.

The Scenic 60 kwh version, actual reckoned to be 65 kwh, and i have run it right down and topped it up to 100% a few times though it is recommended to not go over 80% too often and I have done the over 200 mile journeys in the coldish weather. Stated average energy usage is 3.8 kwh bit been getting a bit less than that in the colder weather. Was getting over 4 miles per kwh back in September and seeing 275 miles range shown. Most Scenic owners went for the 87 kwh nominal battery, 92 kwh total and they have seen ranges from just under 300 miles to 350 from what I read on the Scenic websites. Plenty I think though the charge curve is a little disappointing as it takes quite a dive in charge rate as it hits 50% which my 60/65 kwh does not fall so drastically. As we move to summer it gets easier. Just neen more of the facilities like Braintree, Gatwick, Reading, Rugby, Stevenidge etc

The flip side is those of us receiving what appears handsome car allowances are increasingly paying ever larger tax bill as the fiscal drag started by the last government and continued by Labour as the UK is in such an economic black hole, £2,800,000,000,000 public debt so my on paper generous car allowance get taxed £3,600 to go and pay for people's pensions and the like. The home chargers we have we paid for, one way or another ie as part of the car package or as a separate payment, employing someone paying VAT on the install I think it was back then, not sure now but still about £1k cost. TESLA took an early lead and the new Juniper Model Y is probably awesome and maybe the best selling car in the world as it has been the last two years but I will not be getting one due to the Musk association. Yes we all want more and better public chargers but it is one of the most difficult tasks to perform due to the grid demands and timings. We need more Megapack and Powerwall type batteries, just an alternative to TESLA supplying please. We forget the mission sometimes, reduce CO2 so our children, grandchildren etc are not spending ever increasing parts of their income on climate change. e