wyx087

Where can I get the sticker, should be a cheap way of doing this. As long as it's legal?

I had the exact same problem with my 5-6 years old, factory AGM battery. Changed to a new AGM battery and problem is now gone. Initially I got a smart battery charger to trickle charge, it helped slightly in the fact it would stop the problem when driving after the trickle charge session. But if I left the car for a few days (hardwared dashcam auto powers off, so no 12v battery drain), I'd still hear the dashcam turn off jingle when S/S system restarts the engine. As said, unless your "good run" is necessary as form of transport. It may not work and turn out to be a waste of fuel + totally unnecessary damaging to environment. Same for turning off S/S. Best to have a trickle charger for the overtaxed 12v batteries in today's ICE cars. Despite having a new battery, I still stick it on the smart charger every few weeks to ensure it's always fully topped up. Stupid powertrain require tiresome solutions.

Yeah, I'd be very happy if I can get 30k out of any tyre. Even the expensive Micheline CC+ on my Skoda is now down to 4mm after 16k. (rear are still 7mm though) But Hankook are known for lasting higher mileage among mid-range brand. So I think their EV tyres are worth a shot.

What makes EV tires different, and why should you fit them. (ignore the constant talk of range concerns by the petrol head) I found it interesting there's so much difference differences between the tyres of same made and model (difference of EV vs regular).

Absolutely. It's a joke most places only advertise the total power, treating consumers like dumb dumb. Whereas max current at which voltage is more important. So many cars are advertised as 100kW or even 150kW whereas that's on 400v and relies on liquid cooled cable delivering super high current. I guess GridServe are using simpler thick cables and provides limited current to keep temperature in check.

Indeed, I'd expect Ioniq 5 to be on similar efficiency as Model Y. But looks like VAG ID4 (and sister cars) will be more efficient. It's a great EV in terms of tech and 800v future capability, but if efficiency isn't competitive, it won't be a good road-tripper until 800v chargers are common.

Great design for a single component doesn't make it a good EV. Sorry if it's too depth of an insight for you

That's a Ford, bad engineering and inefficiency is expected. It's probably the worst EV attempt right now. From the same guy, the tech inside is laughable:

There's more: https://thedriven.io/2021/08/18/im-thinking-of-replacing-my-ev-with-a-petrol-car-can-i-refuel-it-at-home/

Having seen old Leaf like mine sporting the green "flahes", I considered getting some, even Halfords does it: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/advice/green-number-plates.html But I'm too cheap to spend money on things that I get absolutely nothing in return.

"Generally speaking, your EV may use 12 to 15 percent more energy than what you add to your battery. " Source: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36062942/evs-explained-charging-losses/ More like 66kWh which is over 260 miles. Jokes aside, you've raised a very valid point that I've forgotten.

Home battery were never intended for this. EV's and home battery charge during off-peak night time, if not enough solar during the day. You effectively use 100% of your electricity either on solar or during the cheapest periods. For my house, I think a tiny 3-5kWh battery would be suffice for home use. Which is why I am looking forward to Vehicle-2-home, because we pretty much will always have at least 4kWh left in the tiny-battery Leaf. 4kWh is when low-battery-warning sounds. So any larger battery car will have no problem powering my house through the expensive period

Single phase charging at 7kW for 11 hours (eg. 8pm to 7am) gives 77 kWh. That can drive EV's around 300 miles. As long as combined miles of the household doesn't exceed 300 miles, there shouldn't be any problem powering all the cars' daily miles. There are already multi-chargers that intelligently load balance.

Wow. About 60% park on private land and 10% garage. That's around 70% of cars that can be BEV without extra infrastructure on public roads for their daily miles (eg. commuting, errants). I think on-road charging issue has been blown out of proportion. Let's get pass 50% of all car ownership to be electric first. Clearly the last few % will always be the hardest, it's better for the air quality and environment to concentrate on the mass adoption right now.

It is correct there's no neutral and towing one could damage the EV. This is because the motor is always connected, without control electronics, towing an EV will generate electric current from the motor and could damage the rest of power circuits if not countered or controlled in any way. But it is also okay to tow with the car switched-on (like the videos) and charge the EV this way. Extra load on the tow hooks and clutch of the towing vehicle though. For FWD EV's, it's absolutely fine to load the front onto a dolly and tow this way.

Same experience with public chargers here. Yesterday, I drove 30 miles, the Leaf at 50% in mild summer weather should comfortably do the 30 miles with a few percentage to spare, it had 55% when we set off, so at least 10% when get back. Got there with 30% remaining, I thought "it's plenty" and didn't queue for the sole rapid at Morrisons. On return, wind and rain picked up and percentage dropped quickly. I was forced to visit a rapid charger, this is where the fun began: 1. Two Ecotricity rapids, both were not available on their app. Electric Highway is being upgraded after recent buy-out, so this is to be expected. 2. Detour off route and visited the Shell recharge, single charger, guy in a old Renault van says he needs 40min more. 3. Shell recharge a few miles further, contactless doesn't work, charger isn't on their app. Phoned and helpline lady said use another app, the app couldn't let me proceed to start a charge. Thankfully the helpline was active during Sunday and the lady remotely started a free session for me. So I visited grand total of 4 charging locations, 5 chargers, only the last one wasn't occupied or broken, but still unable to provide a charge as advertised. I just charged for 10min, only needed a tiny bit to get home, but was home 1 hour later than expected and my son was cranky from being hungry and close to his nap time. EV as second local runabout makes a lot of sense, allowing you to do high percentage of your miles on electric and save loads of money. But EV as only car and rely on the public charging network? Now is still too early. For England, at very least wait until GridServe have finished upgrading all Electric Highway chargers and there's more than a handful of rapid charging hub forecourts. Single chargers are totally unreliable and unacceptable just 9 years away from 2030.

A good EV, this means different things to different people. To me, who already have EV for local runabout and looking to replace the roadtrip Octavia, it means having access to good charging network and able to quickly cover long distances efficiently. So I look at an EV specialist reviewer's data for his extensive 1000km challenge (the 1000km tab) . One that may have expensive problems? EV specific manufacturer warranty generally go for 8 years. So you only need to worry about whether the vehicle you are looking at is a lemon in the general car sense. Although for second hand buying, check the brakes, if driven gently, the brakes are used so little it might corrode. The EV powertrain is mostly maintenance free and problem free for the lifetime of vehicle. Some may require coolant change or reduction gear oil change on similar interval as ICE timing belts. So even when buying old, there's less of a chance to get a lemon because it hasn't been serviced properly. Another thing is I would prefer NOT buying showroom cars. All the Leaf's I've see at Nissan dealers (while using their free charger or servicing) are kept at <10% battery charge, similar to how they store ICE cars. But problem is, Li-on battery prefer to be stored at around 50% for longevity.

Just to add, my Leaf costs about the same as my Octavia, both in insurance and cost to purchase. Leaf is 1 year younger. For servicing, Leaf handbook just says need to change brake fluid and pollen filter. So I DIY'd them myself and I've never spent a penny servicing the Leaf at any garage (after PCP free servicing deal ran out a few years ago).

Great example of experience taking a software driven computer-on-wheels to a traditional fossil engine dealer. The receptionist or the person giving your coffee won't know jack all. They are only there to look sleek. As with all main dealers, they feel the need to jack up the price to employ those people so you don't get to speak to the technical people in the know. Then the technicians have their hands tied to follow service manuals, and in this case, software update instructions. Unless manufacturer publish changelist like software releases, no one in the dealership (or anywhere) will know what has changed. They prefer you treat your car as a blackbox and physically visit them everytime there's a fault, wasting your time and money. I hate main dealers.....

Isn't the official range WLTP? The one that is a hair more useful than NEDC but still allows PHEV to get 666 MPG rating and doesn't reflect real power drain on electric cars. Shocker that these manufacturer influenced test doesn't hold up in the real world. I think for EV's, only real metric to measure its capability is to drive 1000km. (see 1000km tab) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6ucyFGKWuSQzvI8lMzvvWJHrBS82echMVJH37kwgjE/edit#gid=15442336 Or only rate EV's based on its 70mph range, this is the worst case range and one that only really matters for EV's.

The first-gen podpoint I have on my wall got a recent update, and I can now set coarse charging time through the app and their server will enable/disable the charger roughly according to those times. So with chargers like these, you could enable it overnight while you are most likely plugged in. (I personally dislike cloud-based smart home, it's unnecessary and slower than local hub-based control. I'm still using the in-car timer) Yes, true smart chargers like OpenEVSE will allow you total control.

Inside a lot of the cars you can specify charging speed (at least the efficient ones worth buying: Koreans, Tesla). I know latest podpoint installs will detect current draw on the mains input and adjust its output accordingly. Might be worth getting one of this generic one for now, then a truly smart one like OpenEVSE when moving to 2 cars? Then the "dumb" one will throttle back when you command the smart one to start charging at reduced current. That's what I plan to do. Currently have a dumb early 7kW podpoint. I have Home Assistant running everything, including automations to take advantage of excess solar power. When I get a second EV, I'd like a charger that will integrate into Home Assistant and allow me total control through automations. I wouldn't worry about people stealing electricity. First, they have to know it's there, then they have to park there for significant amount of time to steal meaningful amount. Just turn off the breakers when going on lengthy holiday.

Charger grant info: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-guidance-electric-vehicle-homecharge-scheme The chargers used to be under £200 with the grant, I got my "upgraded 7kW" installed for £99 while Nissan provided for 3.6kW. Now as more people want EV and they demand smart functionalities, the cost for charger install have gone up significantly. For EV grant itself, I think the on-the-road price you see at dealers will include the grant price. Also be careful of dealers advertising "£3000 off" when they are actually advertising the grand money taken off with just £500 of in reality.

The OLEV home charge point applies to all cars purchased, from second hand to the most expensive EV. It's the EV purchase grant that has been restricted to £35k. Yes, it's stupid that we are in 2021, 10 years after first mass produced car with rapid charging capability (Nissan Leaf), we still have to carefully plan the journey. So many places have just a single charger and so many of those charger are unreliable. But for motorway/A road services, a few months ago, GridServe have just started to change that. Having the ability to charge at home, I don't think I've ever felt range anxiety in our in winter 60 miles Leaf. Unlike ICE cars, getting stuck in slow moving traffic doesn't increase consumption. Just a quick glance at distance and we can set off every morning knowing exactly how much range the car will have left on returning. Driving EV, I've only ever experienced one anxiety: charger anxiety. Whether the charger I'm driving approaching is available, working and connected to its network. To be honest, if I had a 200 miles range (that's over 3 hours motorway driving, we usually rest every 2 hours) car that can access Tesla level charging network (6-12 stalls per location, high up-time), I don't think there's any reason to drive ICE or hydrogen cars at all. Sure, on the odd days we go somewhere 150 miles away, 300 miles return trip, we will need to stop for a charge on the way home. But 90% other times I'd be charging at home. As long as I don't have charger anxiety for that 10%.

This is only really needed if everyone drives 200 miles every day. The average commuting distance is something like 35 miles IIRC? That means a 1-2 hours top-up every day, easily manageable for the whole neighbourhood, where it is likely to have been provisioned for at least 3kW load (mid-match kettle) from every house. Today's OLEV grant approved chargers all will automatically load-balance the EV charging against home electrical uses. They also all must be "smart" perhaps for the same reasons you've stated. Totally! Hydrogen has its places for much larger applications, where size constraint won't hamper its efficiency. It's just, passenger cars doesn't really make sense to feed the already low efficiently produced green-hydrogen into very the tiny low efficient hydrogen fuel-cell. It simply doesn't make sense to turn 1kWh of energy that could have powered a very capable and convenient car 4 miles, into a less capable and not as convenient car that can only drive 2 miles. We, as a species, has already wasted enough energy........ Guess you are on mobile? it's in the nameplate. I drive the family Skoda Octavia when wife wants to drive her Nissan Leaf. Otherwise I drive the Leaf. Octy is for long distance or boot size required. Leaf covers the other 80+% of our daily uses. The second hand Leaf was very cheap to buy, no more expensive than a Yaris hybrid or similar aged Golf. But since 2017, where demand for EV have picked up, EV prices, even for used, is higher than comparable fossil cars. However, one has to remember the vastly cheaper running cost of EV's. You can effectively spend 2/3 of your fossil fuel cost on EV's, wasn't this the reason many people man-maths justified for diesel? Many people lease or PCP their car, so this means prices are actually comparable between a £200pm Golf vs a £250 pm ID3.