Luckypants

There is one at the bottom of our road to the village. I agree it looks a bit meh..... but I think it appeals to some. A bit marmite, especially in the non-descript grey. A very good EV though and the interior looks nice, so if you're sat inside maybe its a case of 'who cares'?

Who has the heating on max? Heating is expensive, I often see 7kW consumption when the car is cold and heating goes on max but I'd never run it flat out like that for 10 miles. When up to temp, the heating does not use very much to maintain temp. Battery heating on the MEB is expensive too, which tries to heat the battery to 13C from the get go, but driving at 70 should mean the battery doesn't need heating. So battery heating and passenger heating can result in 11kW of use before even moving the car and makes short journeys in the cold very inefficient. Even at that, we get around 2.2 mi/kwh on wifey's commute and this improves if we charge just before setting off and pre-heat from the mains. VW are promising to do something about the battery heating drain in winter with a software update in the spring. EDIT: I get better consumption figures than this at 60 and 70 with heating on and would get a lot more with heating off. I suspect there is other factors at play here affecting the range he is getting. (Remember Enyaq is more aerodynamic than ID.4, so he should do better)

Further to my post about charging hubs, the Swansea Gridserve charging hub went live over the weekend. Six 350kW CCS chargers and the 350kW Chademo plus the existing 3 60kW and 2 type 2 22kW chargers. Looks like Wetherby will be next to come online.

When I got my VW card, 46p at Ionity seemed expensive but as prices have risen due to the 'energy shock' it seems more reasonable for rapid charging. Gridserve 39p, Osprey 40p, Instavolt 45p, VW Ionity price 46p. Never needed to use any rapid charge in anger yet, but hope to do so in a couple of weeks with a trip to the Borders.

Agreed. Another example would be the VW e-Up! The original car came with an 18 kWh battery and was good for 80-100 miles, ideal for a city commuter. A few years later improved battery tech meant they could fit 34 kWh battery for the same space and weight. Suddenly you have a car good for 160 to 200 miles and up is a viable car for longer journeys. This is what improved battery tech should lead to in my opinion, good range in small packages. Less weight and materials leading to improved efficiency and thus improved range. Alongside improved charging speeds, this will make long distance travel viable in quite modestly priced EVs.

My view is that increased power density will lead to lighter and more efficient cars. If the batteries are physically smaller, smaller cars become practical. I think 300-400 miles of range is plenty and making the car's smaller, lighter and so more efficient will be the way things go. If they can get 5 miles/kWh efficiency then 50-80 kWh batteries are all that's needed.

Gridserve are now building out some charging hubs in addition to the upgraded chargers and the electric forecourts. They have Norwich coming online in March I believe and Gatwick will be online by the end of the year. They have 6 hubs in build right now, to be similar to the Rugby set up. These hubs are at Swansea (Moto), Heston West (Moto), Severn View (Moto), Wetherby (Moto), Burton in Kendall (Moto), Exeter (Moto), Woolley Edge North (Moto), Woolley Edge South (Moto), Thurrock (Moto), Leigh Delamere Westbound (Moto), Reading West (Moto). I know for sure that Swansea, Severn view and Wetherby are actually in build as I've seen them. For your trip to down the M5, there are two MFG hubs in Bristol and Gridserve will build / are building a hub at Cornwall Services. The list above comes from Gridserve's website https://www.gridserve.com/2021/12/09/biggest-motorway-ev-charging-upgrade-in-uk-history-underway-with-11-new-ultra-high-power-electric-hubs-in-construction-plus-world-first-electric-forecourt-at-gatwick-airport/ Osprey, MFG and Instavolt are building hubs also either at MSAs or adjacent to the motorway. For instance the MFG hub next to the M6 at Crow Orchard. Also some places are getting a lot of attention, Banbury now has two charging hubs, one from Instavolt and one from Osprey. Oxford are currently building Europe's most powerful charging hub with Fastned. York City council are building two hubs on its ring road park and ride schemes with fast chargers and a couple of rapids, similar to the Falkirk charging hub set up. There is a lot going on in the charging arena right now, so its not as bad as you think. I only found out today that there are 4 chargers installed on the A55 near me waiting for the grid connection to be upgraded - a mini-hub but no power. The more I learn about this, the less straightforward it seems.

@wyx087 London Gateway getting an upgrade too

for the £55k price tag for an AWD model, the Model Y will take some beating. I do know folk who have taken advantage of high re-sale prices to sell VW ID.4 out for a Model Y, deliveries start in March. This is a Tesla plus often overlooked, they don't have massive lead times. Personally I've heard that Model Y has harsh suspension so would like to try one before commenting further. My ID.4 (and Enyaq I tried) has good ride for our potted Welsh roads.

HTH

Man, that was a load of arty *******s

Yes the VW ID family and other MEB cars do heat the battery at low temps. It is scary the amount of electricity used if both cabin heater and battery heater are running - I have seen 11kW draw while stationary! So power use on a cold commute of under 20 miles is pretty horrendous and the source of much ire from the ID community. VW are aware and claim it will be fixed in a major software update in the spring (too late to test this year!). It makes the car expensive as a commuting tool in winter. My cost for January has averaged 8.8p/mile while summer is more like 6p/mile. VW have stated there will be a service campaign in spring to upgrade a couple of components to make them updatable over the air and replace the 12V batteries with a different type to fix an issue with some cars going flat. At this time V2.4 of the MEB software will be installed to handle the updated bits. Then "shortly" after this V3.0 of the software will be sent out over the air to allegedly fix a bunch of the known issues. (At least this is my understanding of how this will go) So presently bad ju-ju in the cold, but kudos to VW as they seem to be spending quite a bit to get it fixed.

Apologies, I tend to forget Chademo as I'm looking as a CCS owner. Yes, Gridserve (and everyone else to be fair) have reduced access to Chademo plugs. The same has been levelled at them over AC only cars such as earlier Zoes. They are in a unique position here replacing and upgrading a legacy network - they have to maintain a service.

and on checking Twitter, Maz has new upgrades to report.

Well I don't quite agree. Replacing the unreliable Ecotricity chargers is a quick win, providing the same level of charging facility but more reliably can be done rapidly - over 100 service areas done in 6 months is good going. To build hubs needs planning permissions, new grid connections, agreement of the land owner and so on - all of which take time. I think we are seeing the ramp up in chargers now just with the sheer number of hubs Gridserve intend to build. I'm sure getting the chargers at the two locations you need working is better than you waiting 12 months for a hub to be built there? https://www.gridserve.com/2021/12/09/biggest-motorway-ev-charging-upgrade-in-uk-history-underway-with-11-new-ultra-high-power-electric-hubs-in-construction-plus-world-first-electric-forecourt-at-gatwick-airport/ As an aside on the Welcome Break pause in the roll-out, I think this was caused by the Competition and Markets Authority's look at UK charging at MSAs. Gridserve has given an assurance it will not enforce and exclusivity deal it has to avoid an full on investigation. rumour has it the Welcome Break will use this to install it's own branded chargers IN ADDITION to anything Gridserve do. Instavolt are also moving onto MSAs through it's tie up with Costa. Its coming and I think by the end of this year things will be much improved.

There have been a few posts about the MEB based VW ID. Buzz small van / people carrier, but its now been seen out and about testing, so I think its worth a thread all of it's own. Spyshots of exterior and interior here:- https://electrek.co/2022/01/27/leaked-peek-inside-the-new-vw-id-buzz-before-youre-supposed-to/ Video of it in Norway from Bjorn Nyland

Maz's map is really useful and he updates regularly. He announces updates via Twitter (@EpicWinningMaz). South Mimms and London Gateway are both Welcome Break MSAs, so the upgrade has been delayed. The out of service chargers are the old Ecotricity Electric Highway chargers, not run by Gridserve. Hopefully these will happen soon for you now Gridserve and Welcome Break have ironed out whatever was holding up the charger upgrades.

Gridserve have had a lot of stick when the upgraded charger roll-out stalled in September. There seems to have been an issue with Welcome Break MSAs giving permission for the upgrade. This seems to have been resolved now and the upgrades are going well. The hubs they are sintalling will be a boon, but these needs to be everywhere. With the sales of EVs on the increase, queueing at chargers is becoming a real issue so multiple chargers on motorways and trunk routes are needed. MFG EV Power seem to have the right idea, not messing about installing one or two chargers - they build a minimum 6 chargers at each new site. Gridserve still have some issues with their chargers that all need to be aware of:- First, there are two DC charge heads on each unit that should allow two cars to charge simultaneously, but they don't. The ABB chargers need a software update to implement this, but all signage indicate its possible. What happens now is, if I'm charging and someone else starts a charge on the other DC head, it stops my charge! Second, the chargers state 120kW charger but this is only true for 800V cars (e.g Taycan, EV6). Most cars are 400V and will only get 60kW max. This is further compounded by the fact the upgraded chargers are using the grid connection of the old charger it replaced, which does not always provide the power needed for 60kW - let alone 120kW! Gridserve have copped flak for this but until they install a new hub at the MSA I doubt this will change. Having said this is a problem with Gridserve chargers they are not the only ones with this issue. The MFG 175kW chargers are the same, only 175kW for 800V cars and 90kW for 400V cars - there is a small sticker on the charger that explains this though. Things are improving, but there is a long way to go before non-Tesla chargers match the Tesla Supercharger experience.

Best get an order in toute suite then. The Zwickau factory is flat out.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, not able to get a working smart meter in rural North Wales. My MP is trying (and failing) to get help / sense from the ministry that says 99.5% of UK covered.....

So what are you saying? That an independent VW specialist is now authorised by Nissan to fix batteries on Leaf's and Nissan hybrid cars? Using new parts I assume from Nissan?

Well I don't entirely agree. At 23p / kWh my ID.4 is costing roughly the same as my previous Karoq 2.0TDi. This is helped by free charging at supermarkets, but only 10kWh most weeks. If comparing apples to apples in this class of car, the costs are similar. However, smaller EVs that should be cheaper are not, so a petrol car makes more sense financially.

Using the charger schedule on my Wallbox is what I need to do on my ID.4. Same software = same problem.

Pretty sure Instavolt use Tritium and Osprey will be using the latest Tritium model at some of their new charging hubs.

Where is "down the road" or will that blow your cover?