lol-lol

Not really, it is just put a fire blanket on it, works really well, videos of this online.

My insurance went down from 1.3 Renault/Samsung Arkana, using the tce engine, used in many Mercedes as well, with 140 hp in this car's case, to the 170 hp Scenic which also has an RRP about 10k higher. Same as Arkana ie parked on the drive informed to insurance company, the very nice LV people. Certainly no concern there about two EVs parked on the drive and maybe two being simultaneously charged on the drive. Non issue.

Don't really come across this in most of England I think due to the higher population density and the higher propensity of firms such as Gridserve, Ionity and TESLA to name the top few but I am sure there are several other names that some would add to that list. Where many of us charge we actually can choose from a bank of chargers from say Gridserve or a bank of chargers from TESLA. Each will have several stalls available, their up time percentage seems to be well over 99% and the cost of TESLA at least not too bad and likely to come down lower as they look to destroy any competition in these locations which hopefully the Grdiserves, like at Braintree, Gatwick, Norwich and many of the English service stations will need to start competing as any drive though will see the TESLA Public chargers open to all are usually five time or more well attended than Gridserve. All 150 kw or more stations it seems and many to be uprated to 360 kws to cope with the ever increasing 800v architecture cars with charge times of around 15 minutes for a charge to take one well over 3 hours driving at UK NSL. Not sure I knew or would presume to know the solution for Scotland but I think I would have been much more tempted to pay the extra £4k asking price for the big battery Scenic with the 370 mile WLTP rather than settle for my 267 mile WLTP smaller battery but I am rarely more than ten miles from a bank of 8, 12, 16 high powered chargers with super high reliability.

Electricity should be getting so cheap that 20% of next to nothing is almost nothing. Like the small price rise on single tariff and day time dual rates if one is using most one's electricity at the night time rate, and that is staying at the same rate, a poultry 8.5p per kwh ie dropping in real terms, it would not be so bad. UK government could be creative as it has left the EU when you can only have one lower rate, 5% in uk case, a standard rate over 15% and then a super rate which uk never adopted. I would be quite happy to see a 10% rate on both home and public charging to even the playing field. It would hardly change my home bills but take 8p or so off public charger and be fairer to those you cannot charge at home.

Worcester is the same as there must be well over a hundred chargers dotted around the small city that Worcester is and another fifty within at mile radius such as at the Parkway whale weigh station. If I had any criticism I would like to see more capable of 150 kws, or above, so I can flash charge the Scenic and warm the traction battery on coolish days. Cheaper prices would be nice, more dynamic pricing, plunge pricing as it has become known when the wind blows, not the Raymond Briggs type wind blows just a healthy North Sea blow spinning up the turbines. At some point TESLA will really spike the market as they have in some cities like Manchester and offer prices close to home charging,certainly without the VAT. Let's hope Labour does what the Cons would not and align home and public charging Value Added Tax.

At 95% the LFP is apparently down to 0.5 C ie half the kws of the kwh figure of the battery. Think I would unplug at 95% and go. My 60/63/65 kwh Scenic is still at about 0.65 C at 95 to 98 % SoC, if prewarmed, so i might go to 98% before unplugging. This is where EVs are so different to ICE i reckon as you can be so precise rather than i will stick in half, three quarters or a full tank, though nice if we could do that in a minute or two rather than half an hour or so. I get bored easily so about ten minutes is about my limit and I would rather drive slower back on the road than twiddle my thumbs unless there is place to pick up a coffee and a sticky and have a Jimmy. Still so much to learn, it is not a way of life, yet, for those who are not happy to absorb the complexities.

I don't think the Gridserve chargers were free for credit card users on Xmas day, maybe only for App Users. So good Gridserve accepted Amex but negative for only allowing free charge to App users. Charging speed was a third to a half what I expected to. Very close to service station entrance was a plus whilst TESLA chargers were right down the far end of the car park ie about 300m away. Still don't know what charge I would get from the V4 TESLA chargers in tge Scenic but suspect it would be good ie 100 kws plus. No £20 held for a week on Gridserve like TESLA. Octoverse in combo with Ionity winning the experience comparison at the moment. Yet to spend over a £5 on the 5 to 7 kw chargers I have had, just quick 7 minute and less adds and then charge at home for 130 miles added during Octopus Go cheap tariff time. So pleased the 8.5p per kwh extends in to 2025.

Tried Gridserve yesterday and only got 45 kW which would have been fine if I was in the Zoe but I was in the Scenic with the battery only one third charged. Got worried that i had the issue which some Scenics have reported of not going over 50 kws. Mind put mostly at rest this morning when popped into Ionity bank of chargers at Mayor S.Wales, despite having just over 50% charge it went straight up to 80 kws and got 7 kwh very quickly. With prewarming and warmer times should see well over 100 kws from the right chargers. Happy Xmas and 2025 !!

Reuters report........ VW, who some say has failed to grasp the transition to EVs (though ID7 getting many plaudits) may now have a good plan between Management and Workers Council/Unions, hurray. ======================================================================================= VW reaches union deal to cut 35,000 German jobs after gruelling talks Deal sees job cuts and capacity reductions Unions hail deal that will keep factories open Latest round of talks has been ongoing since Monday VW seeks to cut costs as European market shrinks Chancellor, top shareholder welcome agreement HANOVER, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), opens new tab on Friday announced sweeping changes to its German operations, including more than 35,000 future job cuts and sharp capacity reductions in a last-gasp deal between Europe's top carmaker and unions to avert mass strikes. Union leaders hailed the agreement as a "Christmas miracle" after 70 hours of gruelling negotiations, the longest in the company's 87-year history. There would be no immediate site closures or layoffs, and VW appeared to have backed away from demanding 10% wage cuts. The deal avoiding costly strikes may also provide relief to investors after months of negotiations. Shares rose 2.4% in extended trade after the deal. They have lost 23% this year . Volkswagen has been in talks with union representatives since September over measures it called necessary for it to compete with cheaper Chinese rivals and handle lacklustre demand in Europe and slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles. Around 100,000 workers have already staged two separate strikes in the past month, the largest in Volkswagen's history, protesting against cost-cutting plans. "With the package of measures that has been agreed, the company has set a decisive course for its future in terms of costs, capacities and structures," Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said in a statement. "We are now back in a position to successfully shape our own destiny."

That is nearly it's maximum charge, it is only a 26 kwh battery so that is about 1.3 C ie charge rate divided by battery size. I cannot imagine the cooling is too clever. Cannot remember if it is air cooled or liquid cooled. A good 400 v battery can charge at just over 2C, 800 v seem to able to go over 3C and this seems to be the way EVs are going barring all but these very cheap ones.

Senna the Scenic & Zoe sitting there with 80% charge. Thinking of some light up sills maybe. Put together a survival kit, New Year snow it is reckoned over much of country !

I will be passing Frankley. Wanted to test my new cars charging speed but also first for me on Gridserve which is the company with the best coverage at service stations. Just a 10 or 15 minute charge probably but I am in Stoke, then Worcester then South Wales all in 2 days. What is better than 8.5p per kwh at home is free public charging ie cost to fill up and get up to 260 miles range either £5 or nothing. Still think the gentle charging is better for than battery so will not go below 7% or probably above 90% for the sake of being kind to the traction battery. Interesting to compared an EV to an ICE car in monthly running. Decent newish car is going to cost £400 a month upwards but other costs are tiny for the non mad performance EVs for energy, insurance, services and tyres i find.

In China where oil fuel demand is on a ever increasing slope downwards due to new EVs coming on to the market it will be interesting to see how fuel prices go. The UK looks like it will try and use VED to replace the lost £25B of income. I hear many car makers are raising ICE prices to discourage them being bought and make EVs look even better value. Interesting times ahead.

Not just half price as I heard but Free charging at Xmas Day. 60% Discount today the 23rd and 80% discount tomorrow. No competition response from diesel/petrol fuel station I hear yet.

One of my roles in HMCE was receiver of wreck which as the Crown legally empowered for the shore etc could be quite interesting. Though I seem to be mainly dealing with dead marine life and sorting out it's disposal. The UK offshore tens of thousands of square miles are massively rich in tidal and wind which should bring down Energy prices. Sooner Energy prices are decoupled from gas the better acknowledging the UK has passed from the gas/hydrocarbon age to the renewables age. Greg Jackson for Energy Zsar.

Scotland is the Energy nation of Britian if not Europe just logical. That is as long as the Atlantic Gulf stream does not switch off and drop its temperature by 20c on average and turn it in to a climate like Northern Quebec.

Still, being based in Aberdeen you must surely be pleased with that choice? We need to be wary of listening to too much right wing journalism else this talking down of Britian can become a self forefilling prophecy and we all lose.

One of sunak's last appearance in parliament was to be asked a direct question as to when/if he would aglin the inequity of VAT on public charging at 20% but home charging at 5%. He totally ignored the question. Typifies what the Cons stand for. I hope Labour will do something on VAT, preferably on everything with VAT. would be nice to back to 17.5%, then 15%, then 10% then 8%. More excise type duties perhaps to be more targets. More variable excise duty on fuel so to maintain prie around the £1.50 mark and link to inflation, some countries do this, Belgium did it for both EV and ICE acouple of years ago.... https://library.croneri.co.uk/wkus-gdn01-gdn01139924 Belgium Cuts Special Excise Duty On Fuel On March 19, 2022, the Belgian Government announced a cut to the special excise duty on diesel and petrol. The rate of tax is to be reduced by EUR175 per 1,000 litres including value-added tax, or EUR144.62 per 1,000 litres excluding VAT. The Government has established a mechanism under which the tax rate will returned gradually to its pre-existing level as fuel prices decline, or by September 30, 2022, whichever is sooner. The Government intends to provide fuel retailers with a partial refund of duty paid on existing stock, on request. Earlier, from March 1, 2022, the Belgian Government cut the value-added tax rate on electricity from 21 percent to six percent, for four months.

Bro actually lives at Castle Camp just outside, where Cambs, Essex and Suffolk meet, use to be an old RAF WW2 base, must be about the highest point in the tri-county area at around 500 feet above sea level. No gas in the village so modern house has a heat pump. Recently had an outage so I have pointed him towards so storage batteries like I have. Since my new boss is a Felixstowe person I can see me heading that way quite often, oh I do love the A14, not. At least there are very large EV charging stations ar Rugby and Cambridge services now. Presumably those few of us travelling on Xmas day the Gridiserve people decided to lower the price so drastically, their chargers are oft under utilised as EV drivers will use other chargers which are 20p a kWh cheaper. Imagine diesel/petrol driver having the chance to buy fuel 40p a litre cheaper. The price per kwh is more about recouping capital expenditure for the charging unit which from I have seen working with Source London which my old firm owned, the higher powered EV charger units are well north of £10k a peice. So the EV charger owner companies can drop the price to say 39p a kWh and still cover the cost of the lecky and more but feel the need to charge 79 or 85p per kwh in some cases to try and get beyond the price of the installation before average prices of public charging lecky is well below 50p a kWh as looks inevitable.

Many of us have to travel to see our remote family ie Haverhill, Gwent, stoke, one on Xmas day so might well take a ten minute splash and dash or zap and dash i suppose. Just one glass of something inoffensive then hit the spiced rum when I get home. Low cost, no pollution. I hear more evidence of the Atlantic warming current shutting down so better look out for some proper winter tyres and wheels.

Oh might pop in to the Frankley South Gridserve chargers as 39p a kwh sounds yummy and I still do not know what the Scenic 63 kwh will charge at, 130, 100 ish or what. Hope they take AmEx as TESLA did not, oddly. Wonder if the petrol stations are also doing half priced diesel/petrol ?

Moans about insurance costs for performance TESLAs seems to have died down but I suspect these 650 hp Hyundais, Kia etc are group 50 and costing thousands to insure. Along with much higher VED and insurance cost it looks like performance cars of all flavours will be pricey to run. Maybe we will get some after market tweakers providing "remapping" if that is possible for EVs, buy a cooking version and buy a remap to get another 50 or 100 kw or 100 Nm more torque but pay lower ved, no luxury tax and less insurance if naughty and don't tell insurance, not that I condone.

Any EVs aiming to be bought Q1/Q2 of next year and in the luxury cars tax band of over £40K RRP should get in registered in Q1, presumably March to get the new Reg but not the luxury car tax. Not sure TESLA fan boy Dave mentioned about all registered EV owners going on to the Reistation website and redoing their EV tax in March so they get the longest period on the £10 a year and then that goes long in to the period that all car VED taxes goes up to £190 for all cars irrespective of propulsion types, Evs included, more for luxury cars including EV register on or after 1st of April 2025. I do expect many EV RRPs to fall rapidly at this point, probably seeing a 10% or more further drop in EV prices. Firstly EV dealers will want to avoid their customers being hit with the £500 plus a year for several years. Many EVs, like the big battery Scenic Techno base version is prices at £41K but punters have been getting thousands off in discounts so Renault and other EV manufacturers will price now below £40k. Also the battery prices have been falling like a stone so should be easily possible for the manufacturers who currently price between £40k and say £46K. Those above £46k or so will probably need to bring their cheaper EV versions to the UK market ie slightly smaller battery packs, LFP rather than pure Lithium packs. Another nail in the coffin for Audi, BMW, Mercedes and VW IDs made in Germany will in currently economic model just may not be possible to get their cars landed in the UK at £40k. Golf production rumoured to be going the same way as the Beetle ie to Mexico, maybe VW etc need to move other of their car production lines to Eastern Europe to make them cheaper/affordable ?

🐙 GO night rate stays at 8.5 p per kwh, no price rise, horray !!! Day rate up a bit but I use/download most of my lecky during the night, two EV charging and portable solar generator batteries, so great news. Happy days, or rather happy Nights.

Interesting financial model for TESLA Public Supercharge EV chargers. Stopped at the excellent, for charging, Frankley services Southbound and thought I would give these supposedly marvellous TESLA V4 superchargers a go. Was only in the Zoe so best I was going to get was 46 kw from these 250 kw beasties. Plugged in nice and easy, Zoe charge point is on the nose so drove in rather than reversing of course. Flashed the Am Ex card on the contactless payment pad, no likey, hmm, so used the mastercard which it liked and after a few moments it started to charge. Screen very small compared to other chargers. Was getting my 4 miles a minute of so being added which is the best I probably could expect, only needed a handful of kWh as I was in a few miles of negative range to get to Worcester some 20 miles a way and I only had about 16 miles. Probably would have made it but thought test them out. Obviously preferable to the Gridserve chargers at 79p per kWh, could have gone on the 11 kW I suppose which charges 49 p per kWh. TESLA charge 59 p per kWh except at peak 4-8 pm when it charges 74 p per kWh. Six minutes later had plenty of charge ie showing over 40 miles so pressed the disconnect on the Zoe and returned the charging cable to its holder. Little screen said £2.33 of charge taken and I set on my merry way. Check online bank account next day and it shows a £20 pending TESLA charge, no problem and expected £17.67 to be returned in a couple of days. A week later the £20 disappears but no £2.33 charge replaces it. Weird. Did Elon just give me 4 kWh of lecky for free or can I expect the £2.33 to pop in sometime in the next days and weeks ? Will rock along there in the Scenic soon and see if I can get the 130 kW charging speed it is supposed to be able to get, might get around 34 kWh ie £20 worth, or maybe not as do not want to pass Elon a penny more than necessary as he might only go and give it to the Reform party. Cannot imagine getting a couple litres of fuel from a petrol station and them saying ahh, not worth charging for ? Good chargers though.