Graham Butcher

That is way over complicated, they all need to get behind the simplest system, normal debit and credit cards, miles better.

@lol-lol I think you are talking more about the waitress than the coffee 😉

Yes I know about those Audi chargers, they won't use them because they will reduce parking space and force even more pressure on parking off site in adjoining fields which flood when it rains. Yes that crash was bad, Farnborough had a nasty one in 1952. My friend has done some commenting at RIAT in between his usual football commentaries.

When I go to these events, gates open normally at 8:00am and there will already be about a mile queue waiting for them to open, parking on the airfield and then going through security checking and being searched, and your camera equipment examined etc can also take up to an hour, through 4 separate gateways across the airfield, with up to around 5 queues at each security gate, can you gauge just how many people and cars turn up at these events. Then you have about 1 to 2 mile walking once past security to reach a decent spot on the crowd line for photography purposes. Flying starts at 10:00am and even when arriving at the gates about 7:00am after a 2-hour drive, you can still be clearing the security checks at 9:30. So is a 5;00am an early enough start for you? I already am an early bird in order to catch that worm Flying stops at about 5:30pm, and then you have to return to your car, and it can then take an hour or more to exit the airfield. So by the time you get on the road, rush hour traffic has gone, so you normally take the same 2-hour drive home. So I take a comfort break on the airfield and let the others fight their way out of the jams. Now if they could somehow set up about a thousand destination chargers on the airfield, then EV's could be charging while the show is on. Trying to get onto a charger on the way home, from the event is going to be difficult within a large radius of the event as many others will desperate to also charge. Until they can either greatly enhance the range from an EV, or the infrastructure is significantly expanded and enhanced, EVs will struggle. To give you a flavour of the size of these events, RIAT attracts over 200,000 spectators and these are only the officially counted one who brought tickets. There are many locations dotted around the edge of these airfields that become temporary camping sites and loads of people camp there and view through the fence, or just rock up, park on these campsites and view the display without going onto the airfield, so there could be many more thousands trying to get home.

That strategy when going to events like I go to, could mean that 10 minutes translates to over an hour longer gaining entry to the event.

Once again, you have misunderstood what I said. The charging stops being referred to were not because of the length of time they had been driving, more to do with the inability to charge on destination charger at the point of destination. They might be at work, or like me at a national event like an International Air Show watching an air show and then facing a drive which would be extended due to needing to charge. Therefore, there is absolutely no need to take a break. Where did the visiting young relatives come into the equation? I was referring to one's own children and the wife etc. 🙄

Simply because many drivers do not want to wait for a charge and maybe longer if there is a queue, they would much rather be at home with their loved ones.

There was mention of motorway services having slow chargers with reference to the discussions of the JOG to LE trips that YouTubers have recently done.

Reading more into it than what I said. They do make perfect sense for the type of driver I mentioned and make less sense for the longer distance driver, surely you can accept that as a fact. I never said that they are only suitable for people who wouldn't need to charge before getting home. For me that is not an option as I would rather spend more time with my family then hanging around waiting for a charge, as this is high quality time that will never come around again, especially so if you have a young family. It's easy to reflect later in life and regret not spending more time with them. I don't see what the extra HP has to do with the DVLA, its the insurance companies who would have the issue, DVLA are more worried about collecting the revenue on the car and ensuring it has a current MOT. No if the revenue on the car was based upon its HP rating then yes, they would not like it to have the upgrade with being declared and the proper tax paid.

Very true, it seems to happen more to thoroughbred cars like the Italian supercars more than others. I say seem for a good reason, as people who buy them second-hand are perhaps buying them as they fancy a really fast supercar at cheap prices. Whereas it is highly possible that the original owner was not so interested in its performance as it's status symbol perhaps? If that is true then the new owner might notice the lack of performance more?

Again, I agree with you but, again I feel that you are missing the point, this is not a one-off, its already on its third battery pack, so that's a one-off event that's occurred 3 times on the same vehicle WTF.

Totally agree with your point on this and I have always done so, but when at services, normally you would be there (unless not able to charge at home) because you were on route to somewhere, so that is where I would expect rapid charging to be the main stay of chargers, especially on routes such as motorways as nobody is going to drive to a motorway service point and charge their car on a slow charger especially when you have supplier imposed time limits for instance. Also destination chargers are not possible at every destination, even at work as many companies are not able to even provide parking spaces for their staff. This why I said you're missing the point. EV's make perfect sense for a lot of people if they can get to where they need to be, and back again comfortably, without needing to charge before getting home again. For many this is not the case.

Hmm, this one is a mystery then as many of you are saying that batteries are good for 100,000 plus miles, especially on Tesla's?

You're missing the point here, and I don't use Google maps as its a dog's breakfast to me and I don't use any route finder on my phone, prefer to use a dedicated sat nav designed specifically to do one job and do it well. If you're going on a long trip and need to get a recharge to either complete the trip, or to return home, then what are you advocating to use, an AC 7KW charger and take simply hours to do it? That would never meet with public acceptance and people would be hanging onto their ICE cars as long as they could, is that what you really want them to do? Destination chargers are also not the answer, as I have previously pointed out, many places I go to, it is impossible to have them, and if they wanted to have them, then thousands would be required at certain venues I go to once or twice a year when they hold open days to the public and then return to being a fully operational RAF base again.

Well you have just said it all, not all EV drivers cover the UK in the fashion like you do, so they don't have the benefit of having the pre-visitation to get to know the "good" ones or have all the various APPs you mention, or indeed the time required to check them. Have you ever actually timed the amount of time it takes to check through those apps, it will be a lot longer than what you claim, and also assumes that you have a good connection, with many parts of the UK, that is not guaranteed, and many don't have a mobile. Also, it is not something you can while driving you need to pull over (if you can, can't do if on a motorway) and of course are not supposed to be using a handheld device while in the driving seat when the ignition might still be on. Then you further complicate things with all the various cards/APPs required and the required accounts required to access all the various chargers provided by various operators. What a performance just to effectively get refuelled, none of these are necessary with ICE, you may have a dedicated loyalty card, but that is not a major issue as the price per litre is not going to be anywhere near the differences of electric per KWh. Electric might well be the fuel of the future, and possibly be ultimately greener overall, but until there is regulation in place to make charging as easily accessible to all drivers with fairer prices and as plentiful as liquid fuel, drivers will remain cautious about the purchase of an electric car, and I think that governments are aware of this and hence the enforcements on makers and dealers to limit the supply of new ICE vehicles.

By the way, your English is much better than my French 👍

My 2013 Superb L&K 170TDI came with a AGM battery from factory and lasted 7 years before being replaced.

Huh, this a reason why the main stream media cannot be relied upon for factual information these days, you need to fact-check almost everything they report on. The reporter said Hinckley Point, Bristol when in fact it is actually closer to Bridgewater, 8 miles away as the crow flies compared to 30 miles to Bristol.

I just went back and checked on your original post and you did indeed state that both batteries are AGM, so this is where the confusion was introduced, I never checked the Varta details for the N70 as you clearly said that both the Bosch and the Varta were AGM. AGM batteries are designed to give you 3 times the life of a normal battery and the EFB is only designed to give you 2 times the life, so the AGM is the better option.

So is your battery a AGM or a EFB? What was the original battery fitted by the factory, that is the real question. If it was AGM then fitting a EFB might not be a good option as I suspect the charging characteristics will be different. For the record, I said AGM not EFB as that is what I believed you said your old battery was. Using the parts websites is as not as good as following the makers specified parts list, your dealer should be able to confirm the correct battery your car from the VIN for your car.

@RootedAll the incentives currently enjoyed by EV owners will be scrapped anytime now as the numbers grow, government will be forced to replace the lost revenue from ICE cars, both in terms of fuel duty and parking etc, so enjoy any savings while you can. I don't think that home charging will cheap for much longer as that is adding to financial shortfalls in government coffers so that is bound to be in crosshairs, especially as Sadiq Khan is claiming ICE is leading to 4000 Londoners loosing their lives to tailpipe emissions each year. Calculate that across the UK and many more people will be living longer and a drain on the public purse. Strikes me that whatever we do, we are locked into increased costs all round. 😉

Totally agree, as long as the Ah is 760A as claimed and the technology of both batteries is AGM, then it is OK. Now if it were a safety critical part I could understand the concern.

@RootedAll I'm trying to do is show that trying to pick holes in the charging strategy of Taycan man compared to the Polestar man is pointless. Also weather does have an impact, even rain will make a dent in a cars range, I can see it on my cars trip computer and I know EVs cannot defy the laws of physics. I'm not defending ICE v EV or anything else, just pointing out that conditions will vary. The only way is to use identical cars, identical route at the same time.

@Bap33 I enjoyed you're jockeying with the customer services Dept and it is an unfamiliar tale, I have heard similar before and this practise is becoming the norm these days I'm afraid to say. That being said, I don't know why you just keep the Varta battery that they sent you, it should have the same overall physical dimensions, the battery terminals should be in the same locations and be of the right type, i.e., square tabs and not round posts, the battery voltage is still going to be 12V, the type is still an AGM and the cranking capacity is still 760 amps. The differences is going to be more to do with the warranty, are they both subject to the warranty periods etc? If yes, then I'd remove old battery and just do a visual check to make sure that the dimensions are same, if so fit the battery and keep the extra savings in your pocket.

Well, traffic/weather conditions would make a difference on the effective range of each charge, and also the volume of cars visiting the chargers on different days could be miles apart in numbers both because of the day itself and also the time of day, and of course having more charging bays is better, but is not guaranteed to eliminate queueing, as those with local knowledge will levitate to those locations surely? As to why Taycan man went to those 2 stall locations, I can't tell you, I wasn't there so I'm as much in the dark as you are on that point. As to the infotainment systems on the Taycan, Zoe, Leaf etc, I have no idea on what they offer, but what I can tell you is that there are wide differences in what different manufactures build in to their systems, some look sound quality, others at the traffic system etc, but no one should ever believe that just because your car has it that other makes also have it. Maybe the Porsche has a similar thing for Porsche chargers only, I don't know, and neither do you. For instance, is your Tesla only actually showing certain locations, or does it show you every charger location and how many bays are there and how many are free, does it tell what type of chargers they are and how is that updated? Porsche being part of the VAG group may be falling foul of a similar situation to the same problem as many on this forum are suffering from, like the TMC service not functioning. There must be other Taycan owners out there who watch Taycan mans videos, surely they would be commenting on why was he not using that system if it exists on their cars?