Our local VW specialist is certified by Nissan for battery changes/cell group replacements on the hybrid and electric cars.

Interesting, because that gives a new life to a worthless (before it becomes too known) leaf.

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?

This has Muxsan prices.

 

https://www.muxsan.com/English/products.html

 

 

48 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

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?

They mostly do hybrids (particularly those that get used as taxi), but they said they are verified by Nissan and I have no reason to doubt them.

 

They know VW are not there yet on electric and that electric cars need less servicing. As such they know they have to diversify to survive.

Real world from South to London & Back.   Except not all can just swap cars. 

 & some might just say give me a petrol or diesel and big enough.

 

44 pence a kWh would mean 50 kWh costs £22

and 3.1 miles a kWh would take you 155 miles.

 

25 pence a kWh x 50 = £12.50

50 pence a kWh x 50 = £25

69 pence a kWh x 50 = £34  to travel 155 miles.   

 

Compare with a diesel getting 52 mpg @ £6.90 a gallon costing £20.70

 

 

 

Edited 27 January, 20224 yr by roottoot

Took the Zoe down to South Wales over the last couple of days for work and going down, at 2C, I got what I expected which was to do the 93 miles to my target destination using half my battery so I did about 3.6 miles per kWh and was quite please and I use a granny lead to add another 20% of so back in to the battery. Did 20 miles down there and so set off for home with about 60% battery left and the range showing 114 miles left for the return 93 miles so should have 20 miles or so left at the end and about 10% battery.

 

Well I set off back to Worcester midday-ish and the temperature was up to around 10C and I managed about 4.5 miles per kWh so ended up with 55 miles and 20% still showing.  Very impressed with the Zoe's range but it does make a big difference every degree of ambient temperature.

 

Fill in my spreadsheet for business miles which I will use in my self assessment to claim 45p per mile of tax relief so super economically running using Octopus overnight electricity at 5p per kWh and some free to me kWh at work.  Happy days. 

 

I was watching this Top Gear video, for once fairly serious;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kIS4J0XUO0

It was fairly serious 9 years ago.  Some are still driving cars from then and now in 2022 some areas of the UK have no better infrastructure for charging. 

Gridserve steadily getting on with roll out........

 

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/

GRIDSERVE’s latest sites:

Electric Hubs
Currently in construction: 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).

 

• More than 150 x 350kW ultra high power chargers – capable of adding 100 miles of range in less than 10 minutes – ready to be deployed across the UK, with 11 GRIDSERVE Electric Hubs under construction at motorway sites, the first of more than 20 planned to open in early 2022
• Electric Forecourts®  Currently in construction: Norwich Electric Forecourt® (opening April 2022), Gatwick Electric Forecourt® –(opening Autumn 2022).

If only there was one good source of new charge points opening up we could get notified of in those specific areas we oft travel in !

 

@lol-lolCheers, you prompted me to check the Gridserve in Scotland.  I knew that IDEA Edinburgh had a CCS but i charge at the Straiton Park & Ride nearby but might have to use IKEA if i ever have to queue as i had too recently.

 

It was at Kinross & Stirling MOTO that i was not aware of now having CCS.  Only 1 charger though but again could be a default ones to use as the nearby CPS chargers are down now or if working will be down quite often.  Damn unreliable.

9 hours ago, lol-lol said:

If only there was one good source of new charge points opening up we could get notified of in those specific areas we oft travel in !

 

This community one looks to be updated regularly:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.7579127,-1.1755871,8.67z/data=!4m2!6m1!1s1otTlinrsR3oWlKaGIiXX8YorukkiS38V

 

I currently only need the South Mimms and London gateway chargers, both of which have been offline for months. 😥

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.

27 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

This community one looks to be updated regularly:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.7579127,-1.1755871,8.67z/data=!4m2!6m1!1s1otTlinrsR3oWlKaGIiXX8YorukkiS38V

 

I currently only need the South Mimms and London gateway chargers, both of which have been offline for months. 😥

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.

12 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

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.

Should be bare minimum these days!!

 

13 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

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!

I think the firmware update is coming "very soon". So they've decided to put the physical signs up to avoid re-working all the sites.

 

Gridserve directly replacing Ecotricity chargers is not good enough and waste of money IMO. The point of Gridserve is to be the future of rapid charging by having battery reserve at all sites so that you can usually get full power delivered regardless of grid connection restrictions.

I'd rather they don't power off old Ecotricity chargers, and concentrate on installing hubs.

5 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

Gridserve directly replacing Ecotricity chargers is not good enough and waste of money IMO. The point of Gridserve is to be the future of rapid charging by having battery reserve at all sites so that you can usually get full power delivered regardless of grid connection restrictions.

I'd rather they don't power off old Ecotricity chargers, and concentrate on installing hubs.

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.

36 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

Maz's map is really useful and he updates regularly. He announces updates via Twitter (@EpicWinningMaz). 

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

 

 

23 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

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.

That just me with a Chademo car talking, where old Ecotricity chargers has been very reliable.

 

Of course, it's a completely different story for CCS cars. So for vast majority of people, replacement can be considered a quick win.

 

But then, looking from Chademo car perspective again, newly installed 2 replacement chargers actually only have 1 Chademo vs 3 CCS plugs....... it's only an improvement when they install 6 chargers and thus 3 Chademo plugs.

 

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.

I message and Email ZapMap and Plugshare about new chargers, hubs or tariff changes.  Plugshare are better at coming back for more info and eventually maybe updating.  ZapMap are not so good.  There is one that I have told them about for over a year and still not on map.    They have replied on that.  They say Charge Place Scotland are not sharing information or cooperating.    This might be true.   CPS / SWARCO eventually after my last posts here and elsewhere sent to them on screen grabs updated the location of my local chargers on their App Map.  They also no no longer show the Broughty Ferry charge hub as 20 miles from where it actually is. 

 

I check in when charging at the Turnberry CPS charger that PlugShare just shows as 'coming soon' even though i have told them it is up and running since i am using it as are others.

ZapMap have totally ignored it as well as the AC Charger at Turnberry Golf Resort & Hotel. 

 

Turnberry Hotel 7kW chargers. 

£10 charge for Hotel Guests.   Bargain if you have a big battery car on them for maybe 10 hours or more.

 

Edited 30 January, 20224 yr by roottoot

23 hours ago, Luckypants said:

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.

 

If I understand it then some charger companies are still putting AC chargers out there as, of course, they are presumably easier to plug in being almost straight in to the 3 phase network and only needing measuring on the flow to the customer and not all this DC conversion at some cost, both capital and on-going losses so I see quite a few of the new chargers have CCS, Chademo and AC, hopefully at 22 kw, rarely at 43 kw I would suppose in the UK unlike Europe.

 

I have a later Zoe with both AC (22kw) and DC and if someone desperately needed a DC charge I, and I knew the DC worked whilst someone was using the DC on the same charger unit, I would step down and use the AC so they can charge as well.  I will only get 45 kw out of the DC whatever the spec of charge ie 100m 350 or whatever and one I have hit 80% charge I will be rapidly slowing down from the 44 to 30 and then 20 kW so charging over to the AC, if it it actually giving and wired in to actually give 22 kW, I would chop over to the AC.

 

Oft the problem seems to be is that there are so many cases of AC points saying they are 22 kw, or 43 kw, and they are actually only 7-8 kw.  I have seen AC charging post descibed as 11, 16, 22 and nearly all are actually 7- 8 kW.  We have 26 AC outlets recently fitted at the new Worcestershire Park Railway station described as 22 kw ones and everyone says they are actually 7 kw ones.  Now many may be not so switched on EV owners who actually only have 7 kw onboard chargers in their car so are never going to get 11,16, 22 or 43 despite what the charge post says put I do suspect that some post could handle the higher power but have only been wired in to one phase and not all three phases as the DC charger would have been.

 

No wonder EV owners generally try and charge up at home, work or friends with so many inaccuracies within the charging network.  Roll on those Gridserve purpose biuld station but I fear we are only going to see 2 or 3 built each year and the real answer looks to be the Tesla network being opened up to us non-Telsa drviers or to get a Tesla. The £43k RRP Standard Plus model 3 does not sound expensive when one can put up with the too digital interior and enjoy both its superior efficiency and the Tesla network and to be able to actually get somewhere over 225 miles in reasonable time compared to ones ICE vehicles.  

 

Edited 29 January, 20224 yr by lol-lol

Lots of people are getting 50 kW battery cars like i have.  Like Peugeot e-208 & others from Stellantis Group.

So the salespeople do not explain that the usable battery is 45 kW.

 

If you go on a 50 kW charger and you have some power in it and are going to charge to near full and sit an hour then you get 33 kWh of charge.

You will not get 40 kW of charge in in 60 minutes on a 50 kW charger no matter the weather / temperature or the battery temp.

The car starts showing that it is charging at 212 mph, then 186, the 112, then 88 and the 39 mph and then maybe 8 mph.

 

If you go on a 7kw AC charger it shows as the charging speed is 21-26 mph.       In an hour you get 6.6 kW of a charge.   

That means if you are going to be getting 21 miles added range the car is getting 3.1 miles per kWh and to get 26 miles it will be the car going 3.9 mile per kWh. 

 

.........................

Not really impressed by this guy or some of his information or opinions.  

 

The eUp!Mii Electric CitigoiV is a great small / city EV though and it is pathetic that the VW Group has not got a replacement small EV ready to go into production. 

Or at least kept making new Citigo iV's available in the UK.

 

 

 

 

Peugeot e-208 range probably in the low 200's is if you are going downhill a lot of the time in one.

Talking WLTP / Manufacturers figures is just stupid now.

They actually just need to spend 4 hours and drive 200 miles or 6 hours and drive 300 miles in 'True 300 mile Family EV's'.

PUT THE FAMILY IN AND NOT A SINGLE PARENT FAMILY WITH 1 TODDLER.

 

Edited 29 January, 20224 yr by roottoot

5 hours ago, roottoot said:

Lots of people are getting 50 kW battery cars like i have.  Like Peugeot e-208 & others from Stellantis Group.

So the salespeople do not explain that the usable battery is 45 kW.

If you go on a 50 kW charger and you have some power in it and are going to charge to near full and sit an hour then you get 33 kWh of charge. You will not get 40 kW of charge in in 60 minutes on a 50 kW charger no matter the weather / temperature or the battery temp.  The car starts showing that it is charging at 212 mph, then 186, the 112, then 88 and the 39 mph and then maybe 8 mph.

If you go on a 7kw AC charger it shows as the charging speed is 21-26 mph.       In an hour you get 6.6 kW of a charge.   

That means if you are going to be getting 21 miles added range the car is getting 3.1 miles per kWh and to get 26 miles it will be the car going 3.9 mile per kWh. 

.........................

Not really impressed by this guy or some of his information or opinions.  

The eUp!Mii Electric CitigoiV is a great small / city EV though and it is pathetic that the VW Group has not got a replacement small EV ready to go into production.   Or at least kept making new Citigo iV's available in the UK.

Peugeot e-208 range probably in the low 200's is if you are going downhill a lot of the time in one.

Talking WLTP / Manufacturers figures is just stupid now.

They actually just need to spend 4 hours and drive 200 miles or 6 hours and drive 300 miles in 'True 300 mile Family EV's'.

PUT THE FAMILY IN AND NOT A SINGLE PARENT FAMILY WITH 1 TODDLER.

 

Renault went the other way, called the latest model of the Zoe, 3rd iteration, the ZE50 implying  50 kWh battery but the blurb says it is actually 52 kWh.  Dig deeper and one can find it is actually closer to a 55 kWh battery, or actually 54.6 kWh one can find out in some of the more technical blurb.  Clearly on the time internal it takes to charge to 100%, watching how each percent is completed and I gather from the way it behaves when it show 0 % battery but keep going for a bit clearly there is a kWh or so not visible or reported both at the top end and bottom end of the reported percentage by the car's dash.

 

The Zoe oft seems to be the weapon of choice for hypermiling challenges ie how far can one can on a single charge, 424 miles was a result for the ZE 50 Zoe during last summer or 474 miles if fitted with Enso tyres which must be pretty special to give an addition more than 10% miles.

 

Good to see the e-corsa and family have been given a boost for this year with a better heat pump set up...

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/corsa/356874/vauxhall-adds-range-corsa-e-and-mokka-e-2022-update

 

We clearly need better tyres more suited to EVs.  We can bump our tyres up to the 40 PSI plus to help fuel consumption, Teslas seem to run at 45 psi which must be part of their hypermiling success in addition to all the fine tech and aero shape of course.    

 

Edited 29 January, 20224 yr by lol-lol

We will see the truth of the Stellantis group and any real world range increase when they are out.

 

*** Cold weather like near or below freezing the EV Drivers might well want All Weather / Winter Tyres on, 

so if they really care about improving range then show the figure with All Weather / Winter tyres fitted not some more impressive range giving ECO tyres that might not even get you to an EV charger let along parked into one. that has not been cleared of snow, as i had to charge at last year. Maybe will again in the next few weeks.***

 

I charged earlier to 100% and have done 4 miles since and the car is sitting showing 95%. 

That was 4 miles without AC on, heater at 18*oC, no heated seat or steering wheel as it was 11*oC outside.

 

I will drive 0.7 miles tomorrow and plug in at Tesco and see how many kW it takes in.

 

Funnily this week out of the blue the Maintenance Info reappeared on my phone saying 'Service Incomplete' from the last time it was in.

It added trips / miles that the car had not showed at the time of doing them and i now can start the heater / AC from my phone again while away from the car.

Then the biggie is that the Locations is where the car is and not as it has been since it went wrong, where my phone is. 

 

 

 

9th February 2021.   

Crappy ECO / Summer tyres would be Ditch Finders and the Heat Pump upgrade of little use for short journeys.

Edited 29 January, 20224 yr by roottoot

@lol-lol The figure now with cold nights is as i had seen in the past. 

 

 So 5kW required to recharge for having driven less than 5 miles over a 24 hour period with the car parked about 23 1/4 hours of that,

some of that on a charger.

50 minutes to recharge on a 7kW AC charger.

 

If @ Home Charging at 21 pence a kWh we are talking £1.05.   (Lots better obviously with a lower tariff...)

 So a bit cheaper than a Petrol of Diesel doing 6 cold start journeys under 1 mile. 

 

7 days and 36 miles covered would maybe be around £7.

If using petrol and getting 36 mpg with a petrol doing these cold start short journeys maybe £6.60.

 

Edited 30 January, 20224 yr by roottoot

1 hour ago, roottoot said:

@lol-lol The figure now with cold nights is as i had seen in the past. 

 So 5kW required to recharge for having driven less than 5 miles over a 24 hour period with the car parked about 23 1/4 hours of that,

some of that on a charger.

50 minutes to recharge on a 7kW AC charger.

If @ Home Charging at 21 pence a kWh we are talking £1.05.   (Lots better obviously with a lower tariff...)

 So a bit cheaper than a Petrol of Diesel doing 6 cold start journeys under 1 mile. 

7 days and 36 miles covered would maybe be around £7.

If using petrol and getting 36 mpg with a petrol doing these cold start short journeys maybe £6.60.

 

To me it must be that charging that last few percent is a much less efficient process.  I suspect that there may be several factors adding to the apparent higher losses on charging that last few percent.  Firstly it take much more time per percent in that 95 to 100% zone compared to say 75% to 80%.  I have read that this is largely down to slight differences in individual cells and the system "wasting" power on some cells that will not take any more power whilst others will take so more and of course that charging applied to cells that will not take any more manifests in damaging local heat which damages that/those cells.  Also the onboard AC to DC electrical parts will have a hysteresis loss which is present every second and if it is taking several minutes to tick over that last percent I think it is mainly due to these types of issues.

I think the Renault system is typically French in the 100% is probably anywhere between an actual 98% and 103% and the Zoe's system takes a protective and gentle actions in charging that last few percent and it does the same with the rapid charging DC.  The Zoe does not allow more than 124 Amps on the DC charging circuits which is particularly slow compared to smaller capacities batteries which are clearly allowing 150Amps or more.  In other lithium battery applications than cars I cannot remember seeing any situation where zero to full is achievable in less than an hour and typically it is about an hour and a half and this is to maintain and allow a life time of a couple of thousand charges rather than only a few hundred charges which can be the case is over fast charges are allowed.

Think I will avoid charging much over 90% as a continuing policy.  Over 90% the Zoe's aggressive regen cannot add the 30 kw throughput that it can below 90% state of charge.  If I take it easy, travel at the double nickel 55 on those A roads and bits of motorway and if the temperature is not too close to zero I should be able to get 4 to 4.5 kW per mile and have my 170 mile range without dipping below 10%. Interesting comment by mega Youtuber "Battery life" that the ID3, and presumably the rest of the VW family, that his ID 3 annoyingly heats the battery pack if it starts at less the 7C and brings it up to at least 13C with its 6 kw heater.  He reckons this is often not the right thing to do and is costing him 50 Euros a year unnecessarily.   Zoe is only self heating, except in Scandinavian countries, with air cooling if it gets up to the 45C which can make charging on very hot summer days a relatively slow process.  Overall impressed with the Zoe energy management but not had and -5C to -10C temperatures to really test it.  

 

With the Zoe (ZE50) the big issue at the moment is the recent EuroNCAP and the head airbag performance which is leading to some owners asking Renault to take them back.  I am not so worried as I sit right back and my head would hit the B pillar rather than the window but we would still like the airbag fixed!

 

Edited 30 January, 20224 yr by lol-lol