wyx087

It's always been the case, from knowingly adding poison (lead) into petrol, to denying/creating doubt/creating sense of hopelessness about climate change. Never trust anything to do with fossil fuels, it's a dishonest industry at heart.

What lubricant is being used to spray on pretty much every hinge/latch/lock? Doesn't look like standard WD-40. Are cheapo £15 water content tester okay for brake fluid testing? That brake maintenance part is really useful and probably applies to all EV's. I've done some of it when replaced my front brake disk+pad about 3 years ago due to corrosion. Pollen filter I've done myself.

it's one of Tesla's major USP. If it's completely open, many wouldn't buy Tesla's. Holiday travel is the biggest reason people would drive cars long distance, so having that spare capacity to handle this is critical. Same as my situation, I can see many Model Y's being used for family trips during school holidays. So they better do more supercharger expanding over next couple of years if they even think about opening up the network.

Came across this 6+ charging hub map on SpeakEV, it's looking great: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=12QytLHg5wMXwb4dpDH9DXNI8OqhRFozp&ll=52.059425133883956%2C-0.8623111247889537&z=8

I think the problem you are seeing is due to people being lazy, as you said. People ignorantly think if it fits: it charges. I think what rootroot is trying to say, is that people are lazy and many drive around with ICE car mentality, where they'd rock up and find a hose to stick into their car. More importantly not carrying Type 2 cable. So they assume the provided Type 2 connector on rapid chargers is for them. But what they are doing is charging at 7kW and blocking the rapid charger parking space. Last Sunday, at packed Ikea car park, I did indeed see an A3 PHEV trying to find a plug on the Gridserve rapid chargers, and trying to plug CCS into their car, before reluctantly driving off. (I had window seat at the meatball restaurant) Sorry to say, I think rapid chargers should only have CCS and Chademo. Gridserve method is perfect: a single 22kW Type 2 nearby for legacy support of early Zoe's. DC rapid only chargers that can support simultaneous charging.

Look at how Ikea rapid chargers are abused due to 1-2 hours of dwell time. The goal of destination charger at these locations, where the car's owner is not available to move the vehicle, is more for adding a few miles. Think of it this way, for every £ spend on infrastructure, is it better to fully charge 1 vehicle? or to continuously feed miles into 6 vehicles? (50 kW can be split into two 22kW or six 7kW charging posts. Also remember 50kW DC rapid chargers are a lot more expensive to install than 7kW AC posts) It's very simple really: - Put rapid chargers at anywhere that will operate like petrol station, where the owner is actively monitoring and will move the vehicle on completion. Charging comes first here. - Put destination chargers at destinations where there is no expectation to move the vehicle. Owner wonders off and charging is secondary here. - If you are not able to charge or didn't charge enough at destination, fall back to rapid charging network en-route. This is why readily available hugely over-built rapid charging hubs are important on trunk roads. I'm not sure any supermarket/gym/garden centre visitor will drop what they are doing to move their EV........

Double charging on v2 superchargers is exactly as designed. I don't see any problem extending charging time by 10-20min. The key is it has been plugged in and it is charging. No need to sit in the car queue for the next available spot. Though mind you it will still be charging at around 50kW. Gridserve are now doing the same thing. I saw 2 CCS cars charging at the same time at Ikea last Sunday. They are sharing the capability of the charger and when one tapers the other one speeds up. Maximising the charger capability. But the physical charging spaces for Gridserve are sometimes not allocated correctly for 2 spaces per charger. Another benefit of Tesla cars is the ease of use across Europe. Want to drive to Italy? Just jump in and drive like every other car. No need to plan for charging and get the right apps/RFID/membership. Although perhaps European charging networks like a Ionity membership can achieve same thing? Ionity is certainly bigger in Europe.

CHADEMO does this (on completion of rapid charging) because the locking mechanism is controlled by the charger. I've been able to start my charge a handful of times this way. It was mostly at Ikea in early days when people plug in and dispensary inside the store for over an hour. There were every reason to plug in and charge to get £6 off but typical dwell time at Ikea is incompatible with concept of rapid charging. Totally agree with idle/overstay fees. People need to treat rapid chargers like petrol station pumps, DO NOT go far from the car, it's not a parking spot. But to be fair, rapids chargers also shouldn't be installed in hour-long car parks....... Need forecourt-styled setup like at Gridserve Braintree. Only car park that is suitable for rapid chargers is at services.

*glances at my VR gaming setup nervously* So when can I buy a suit? Anyway, I'm always the early adopter for tech related stuff, EV happens to be the most expensive item as it is a whole car. I would never be interested in cars, they are just things moving me from A to B.

One has to remember the C rate for batteries. With most batteries, to get faster charge rate, you need bigger battery to charge the larger number of cells in parallel. So although I totally, whole heartedly agree 300+ miles with 60-70kWh is achievable and should be the target. I think it would compromise on low-end charging speed (shorter time at max charge speed) with today's battery knowledge and tech. I don't think battery weight is the main problem with efficiency. The biggest thing that affects EV range during real world use where range is a factor, aka high speed driving, is the aerodynamic drag. Weight becomes a big issue in situations where the speed is constantly changing, but unlike ICE cars, stop/go traffic does not kill EV's efficiency compared to high speed driving. So I think we need uglier cars that is laser focused on reducing drag at high speed.

Yes, ugly buggers. If it were for me only, I'd have gone LFP 3 and saved £12k or so. But it's replacing the Octavia as family long range car, so it needs the load carrying capability. Also with Dad near 70, and Mum doesn't drive much, longer trips on the road would be easier if we all go in 1 car. So rear size is important. Basically, I'm disappointed with Model 3, it's a downgrade from Octavia in interior space.

Meanwhile, I test drove Tesla 3 and Y at their showroom near Heathrow. Asked a couple questions relating to LFP battery, German built cars and 7 seater Y. This was in between the guy talking to other customers standing near the car, not a recording device in sight. A few days later I got a missed call and then an Email asking what I'm considering for next step and recalls that I would like a German built LFP battery 7 seater Model Y. Amazing how a not-commission-driven passionate sales team can do.

All EV have reduction gear. But same as many ICE car gearboxes, they say the reduction gear oil is for life of vehicle. Of course, it's beyond scope of this thread if we are only talking about manufacturer required service cost of new car up to 3 yo 36k miles. But often it's beneficial to change it. Bad things may happen to the gearbox if you are unlucky like this chap: https://www.speakev.com/threads/leaf-30-driveshaft-failure-update-no-its-the-gearbox.160142/page-9#post-3052659 Here is a video for changing reduction gear oil for Nissan Leaf and eNV200:

Out of interest, what did they put for the Tesla? According to Tesla, there is no service requirement, only on a as-needed basis. So only need to change cabin filter over the article quoted period (3 years?): https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/support/car-maintenance For my Leaf, back in 2017, EV servicing were £99 and £149 for minor (inspection) and major (brake fluid, cabin filter). Now they are asking £159 and £200+. I've been DIY the 2 things that actually needs doing every 2 years, and rely on MOT for safety inspections. The EV is still working great with 2.5 years out of manufacturer's service schedule.

Back to the chicken and egg problem, where we need more chargers installed everywhere before they make economical sense. Bjorn puts it best: ABC - Always Be Charging. Totally agree with charging in adverse weather, there need to be lounges and facilities (and shops, prime opportunity getting the foot traffic) near en-rout rapid chargers. I've said this soooo many times, a couple long rapids at random location is not good enough. Petrol stations are always built with shop/facility nearby.

Why specifically overnight? I don't feel this is necessary, I am okay with starting with a pre-conditioned car, same for everything else.

Your understanding is partially correct. Although you will be able to charge your car with a small amount of import from the grid. This limitation is due to some vehicle's onboard charger behave funny when dropped below certain speed, it is enforced by Zappi to ensure good compatibility. Zappi may be able to reduce this on a per-car basis but I don't think they are going to open that can of worms. Most EV chargers will not able to adopt charging speed based on solar production. On a cloudy day you have 1 kW excess, on a sunny day you should have more excess, and Zappi is said to be able to adjust to that. Be aware, kW (power) is different to kWh (energy). If are saying 1.2 kWh back to the grid is over a whole cloudy day, that means you are only really generating ~200 W excess power.

Not missing anything. Might be worth try to keep the charger out of sight. Ours is near front door behind a decorative bush. It's also where I've put my parcel box, for parcels. We also live in a closed road. Doesn't Anderdon charger have a cable channel for neatly tucking away the cable? For smart features, Zappi does have a better record of keeping things up to date. But I personally don't trust any of them, as with all my smart home integrations, I prefer locally controlled hardware so I'm not relying on a third party server.

I have a pod-point untethered from 2017. Cable locking feature is standard on all cars. All chargers will lock the cable when the other end is connected, this is also standard. You can see the way it locks, there are cut-outs on the outside of the Type 2 plug. The locking pins would insert into there to prevent removal. So I suspect damage would be either to the charger casing because that would be the weaker point, or saw off the cable itself, with accompany fireworks if the car is charging

I chose untethered because Leaf is Type 1 and newer cars are Type 2. No problem with theft because the charger is out of sight and I use a large pad-lock to lock the removable cable with the armoured feed cable. The cable is always attached, and I use it like a tethered unit. There are other goodies you can get with cables on untethered charger, such as a cable with Tesla's port opening / charge stopping button. When plugged in, the cable is lock-able to the car. Once plugged in, the charger should also lock the cable. So theft during use isn't a problem.

See, one like that, AKA EV version of petrol-station, need to be as ubiquitous as petrol stations to enable use-cases like Ms Elanore. It is possible with today's battery technology: go there for a quick top up like visiting petrol station, 10min to over 50%. Go home to slow charge while sleeping, to 100%. If all petrol stations, overnight, replaced half of their pump with rapid chargers (and battery for reduced grid load, like Gridserve). It would instantly solve the infrastructure problem and open up EV as an option for almost everyone. For second EV, or become NICE family (no internal combustion engine ), really really need a dependable infrastructure when away from home.

This is the current irony with EV's, in part due to the charging nature of the technology, in part due to the bad rapid charging infrastructure. It only really suites commuter with a rigid daily pattern. (+ driveway) Sad to say this with 5 years of EV ownership, despite more EV's on the road, it still isn't for everyone. It's even sadder and worrying to remember 2030 is under 8 years away. I saved soooo much money commuting 60 miles each day (pre-Covid) in a ~80 miles range cheap EV. Octy and Leaf costed same to buy and are similar age, but the running cost is vastly different.

Yes, very good point. I didn't think to check tyre pressure. I also wasn't sure how to do it on Tesla's recently updated v11 interface.... I'm also hopeful I can get Berlin built Model Y with 4680 battery towards end of the year or beginning of next year. The Skoda old boy still has plenty of life left, got a road trip to Edinburgh planned for summer.

7 seat option not being offered in UK for foreseeable future according to Tesla showroom person. But other than that, I've placed an order for mid-night silver Y AWD long range, with smaller 19inch aero wheels of course. But instead of June delivery, I've asked to be pushed back for Berlin factory ones. Hope is that they are better tuned for UK roads than MIC ones. The Model Y I test drove (back to back between 3 and Leaf) felt strange, more body roll than Leaf ("tossed about" as reviewer puts it), and doesn't deal pot holes as well as 3 or Leaf. Was going to wait to test drive German ones before placing order, but the recent Model 3 price increase spooked me. Tesla are known to honour the order price even after price increases.

LFP batteries, 4680 batteries. Solid state batteries, I agree. Problem with burning is that there always seem to be more harmful stuff discovered over the years. First, it was CO2, then particulate and NOx. If/when we find a way to observe the truth behind string theory, is there more bad stuff when we turn the "super" microscope towards the exhaust? Only way is to stop burning, stop using this ancient method to get thermal energy (whereas we actually wanted kinetic energy). I would argue batteries and electric motors have a loooong way to go for optimisation. Whereas ICE tech is already near fully optimised. Yes, combusting hydrogen is different for emissions control, but how much more efficiency can we gain from the same ICE method? Green hydrogen has already lost 50% of its source energy, ICE method for kinetic energy are generally only 20-40% efficient. There is of course valid use-case for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as range extender for EV's in the future (eg. those who still want <5min refuel). As said, the ease of mass storage would make it excellent for many applications: might be key for long haul flights, shipping industry or electricity supply across season cycles. As for PHEV, my problem with them is how they always fire up ICE when full power is demanded from kick-down. The parallel PHEV design often has a underpowered electric motor designed more for assisting the holy ICE. My ideal PHEV, same as hydrogen fuel cell EV above, is the BMW i3 REx. Enough battery for most journeys. Range extender for longer trips and fast refuel. Zero compromise on the EV driving experience with full sized EV motor and kick-down does not revert back to the "stone ages" 😜 Case in point: 2022 Range Rover PHEV: "141bhp electric motor and a 38kWh battery (with a usable capacity of 31kWh)" That's just tiny bit better than 2016 Nissan Leaf level EV parts, in a heavy Range Rover with total power of 500 bhp. That video in the post above at 14:48, did the guy try to steal the parking spot/charge point when the car is clearly going to reversing into it? I wouldn't trust such guy. Also, we cannot wait for 100% renewable electricity before adopting EV's. Unlike change of fuel, today's EV will be compatible with future's 100% green electricity supply. So why wait?