Luckypants

I would say no, given it only makes a difference on longer journeys. The cabin heating circuit uses a PDC heater (basically an immersion heater) to get initial heat into the system and give instant heat just like the non-heat pump model. The magic happens when there is heat in the system to be 'pumped' after the PDC has done it's thing - so on a longer journey the benefits are felt. If you pre-heat the cabin before setting off, then your miles / kWh figures are definitely better than a non-heat pump model, but the initial heating still has to be powered either from the battery or mains, just those kWhs are not reflected in the miles / kWh figure.

As long as they have a working smart meter.

Agreed with respect to EVs. My point is that the argument over EV haves and have nots is moot until everyone has access to to 'cheap' electricity tariffs through working smart meters. Smart meters are the key to cheaper unit rate electricity and should be available to all so everyone can benefit. this is not an issue exclusive to EV drivers. The reason I put 'cheap' in quotes is that the standing charges for time of use tariffs are far from cheap.

The argument about haves and have-nots with regard to utilising cheap electricity are moot until everyone can have a working smart meter. There are large parts of the country that cannot have smart meters due to connectivity issues. The main reason for this is there is a private monopoly company set up by the Conservatives to control the smart meter network, known as Data Communications Company (DCC). DCC has a target of 98% coverage of population, whereas it should be 100% of the country for it to be an equal opportunity to all. DCC use O2 3G cellular in the south (south of Wigan-ish) and an O2 subsidiary running a long range radio system based on old TV masts for the North. We all know that old UHF TV didn't cover everywhere and if you have an O2 mobile you'll know there are plenty of places with no coverage. In addition, many smart meters already fitted have gone dumb with the 3G switch off or due to malfunction. Suppliers do not prioritise repairs as they are incentivised to replace old meters with smart meters. This 'post code lottery' makes any time of use tariffs only open to the smart meter 'haves', making cheap electricity unavailable to many. I'm hoping Ed Milliband will give DCC and suppliers a metaphorical kick in the gonads to rectify this and come up with a system for universal coverage. I'm sure you've worked out I am without a working smart meter

Thanks to George for reminding me of this thread though! Seems the ID.7 is a good big(ish) Estate with the ID.7's good efficiency. Shame about the price, but there have been some great lease deals....

What have BMW got to do with ID.7? Apart from some see the i5 Touring as a competitor.

They were just the same with the Enyaq, but ended up delaying the launch so as not to steal the ID.4's thunder. I couldn't wait any longer and got an ID.4....

Not a pop at you, but the inequity of those prices compared to mine - when i live just down the road from a bloody big windfarm and you live miles from any renewable cheap generation. You should pay more for your lecy than me, just down to 'transport costs'. I know Scotland feels aggrieved by this too. Your standing charge is 25% cheaper than mine! Night rate (23:30 - 05:30): 7p / kWh Day rate (05:30 - 23:30): 24.54p / kWh Standing charge: 64.97p / day

Kia EV3 road tests coming through...

The exact point I made at the start of the thread (albeit related to ID cars). In this case AC refers to AC current (on-board charger) rather than air conditioning which is the normal use of "AC" with respect to cars. I hope this fixes things permanently for you both.

When comparing I spotted ID.7 is 400mm longer than ID.4 and 10mm wider. Not much in the width but length difference is considerable. Given the ID.4 is already 300mm longer than my previous Karoq, you can see why I'd run out of space. Enyaq is slightly longer than the ID.4. Maybe the upcoming Elroq will be similar dimensions to a Karoq and be a more compact alternative.

Same here, but ID.7 is too big. Its longer and wider than my ID.4 so will struggle to fit on the drive and be more awkward on the lanes around here. After my car was hit by the bin lorry while on my drive, I like my cars to be tucked well onto the drive. However, when I played with the numbers, an ID.4 of similar spec to the ID.7 tourer was similar money on the lease and cheaper than my PCP from 2021. An Octavia/Golf sort of EV estate is really what I want. I tried the Astra and it was a bit pants inside but maybe that's because my ID.4 is nice....

Not a bad price if ready to move on a new car. My sister paid a grand more for a 6 month old one last year, so she's not going to be best pleased. Leasing prices are coming down, probably due to volume discounts by the manufacturers. Lease prices are looking more attractive than PCP presently. I could get an ID.7 tourer for £90 less than I was paying for the ID.4 PCP in 2021.

The great thing about Bjorn's tests are they are consistent. Always the same GPS speed over known routes. makes for easy comparison between cars. 1000km challenge is at 130kph for all cars, so favours cars with good aerodynamics and efficient motors. This is probably why Tesla always do well but the new ID.7 saloon also did well in the test for the same reasons.

Seen this?

Had to google Cairnryan ferry - its always been Stranraer to me.....

I'm liking that look from this angle. Like you say hopefully will look like this. Less of a Tonka toy look than KIA EV3. I would like it to be smaller and more efficient than my ID.4 without losing the space advantages of bespoke EV chassis.

What software level were you upgraded from/to? This sounds very much like a similar problem VW ID. cars have after upgrade to ID software V3.2. As the software in both cars is identical apart from the UI wrapper I'd wager it's the same fault. I had exactly the issue you describe on my ID.4. The issue on VW ID. cars is that as part of the update process, the on board charger needs to be re-booted manually. Some dealers forget to do this and cause this charging issue. The problem is that if the car goes to sleep (standby mode) while waiting for the AC charge to start, when your wall box charger asks to charge the car's on-board charger does not wake up and respond - hence "the Zappi displays "EV is preventing charging" message, The solution for ID cars is a) return to dealer for them to sort or b) pull the appropriate fuse for the on board charger controller - wait 2 mins - re-plug fuse-listen to the clicks as the OBC reboots and check its cured. Option b fixed mine. Google the issue and you should find a similar solution for the Enyaq. I'm not going to link to the ID solution in case the fuses are different layout / numbering. HTH

Thats been a decent series and has shown that used EVs are no more a gamble than a used ICE car in terms of needing major repairs, to my mind anyway. whenever someone says to me 'what about the battery failing?' I always counter with what about a blown engine or goosed gearbox on your ICE? Even old and therefore degraded batteries still have a range useful for day to day use, especially seeing as most commutes are less than 10 miles.

No argument here, EV works for some and not others. I believe the 'others' group will get smaller and smaller over time, while those worried about having EV foisted on them are rightly sceptics. This is why its important those of us with EVs tell the truth about running one, so people get facts not FUD.

The wiring for the charger runs from a small consumer unit that also supplies electric to a garden room and any other loads I do not want to be protected in future. That consumer unit is wired to the unprotected side of the Giv-Gateway. Initially, when the car was charging it did not take from solar / house battery as the load was not detected. The installer came back and moved a CT clamp so the unprotected load was detected when operating. The CT clamp is within the Giv-Gateway, so I cannot tell you what was done.

Telling it like it is, as do I. There's no point lying to folks about the realities of running an EV. My story is a good one (cheap, easy, no queues blah blah), his is not so good due to relying on public charging so much.

Correct. Where a battery is installed that is capable of providing power to the house circuits (as opposed to a single dedicated EPS circuit wired direct to the battery inverter) during a power cut a special piece of hardware is used to isolate the house circuits from the grid. Both Givenergy and Tesla call these Gateways. A gateway sits between the meter and consumer unit in my layman's eyes. Where it is a simple solar and/or battery system that has no power cut facilities, the inverter cuts power to the wiring (and so to the grid) when it fails to detect a mains voltage / frequency.

Power cuts are not that rare here, the village is at the end of a long piece of wire...... They can also last a while, so protecting the battery from the car draining it is a major concern. Properly managed 13.5kWh (full battery) will run the house for 2.5 days (longer if there is some solar) but that car would empty it in under two hours. I have it wired up such that in a power cut the charger is without power but when the grid is live, it can draw from the battery and / or solar if I want it to. The long power cuts are the reason V2H is of interest, if we get another Storm Arwen 4 day power cut being able to port power back to the house in the car battery would be amazing.