EV Owners Thread

[BoldonLad]

I drive more than one car and we're all slaves to muscle memory, so I very much dislike one car having differences to the other one. I honestly would be annoyed by one having the speedo in a weird place.

Thinking of my last 3 cars, the satnav screen has been difficult to view when exposed to direct sunshine. This problem doesn't affect instruments recessed in the binnacle.

Remind me, what is the benefit of removing the entire binnacle and relocating everything elsewhere? I don't get it.


Oh I've no doubt a Tesla Y would be an utter delight to drive, far exceeding the experience in my 15 plate ICE car.

But the price is wrong. I don't value the aspirational qualities of a Tesla, have no interest in bling, am not yet interested in any degree of self-driving technology. A car is just a tool to me, and I want the fundamentals of transport to be delivered competantly; the price should reflect that, not anything else.

I'm not even interested in a used Tesla, thanks to various other concerns. I buy cars for the long-term so am more discerning than lessees about longevity, reliability and build quality.

But market sector is likely the most important thing to me.
How else can I put it ? I favour a Pixel over an iphone, Prosecco over Champagne, Mid-range over high-end. Savings over debt. Sensible over bling.

VW is more my brand for a car but I don't know what their EVs are like. Am curious to know why you recommend Teslas so much when you drive an ID4 (or have you changed car?). Does the ID4 have shortcomings?

I pondered that. Only thing I could come up with was, perhaps, it is cheaper/easier when considering LH/RH drive models?

Edit: I see @PaleRider beat me too it!

 

[CXRAndy]

This is my old village today

 

[fossyant]

TBH JRL cars go up in flames more than any other combined. Took out two car parks so far.

 

[DRM]

It's like any vehicle, get water into the cabin, and it's likely a write off - engine/motor/battery aside. Cars aren't boats, many people don't understand this.

That's the trouble, it's too late when it's wet through, the other thing is if water gets into cables/connectors it can cause untold problems & weird faults on the canbus system in modern cars, regardless of how it's propelled, only way to cure it is replace wiring looms, & they really are a b*gger to get to the bottom of, never mind the cost to sort it

 

[CXRAndy]

Wife had to go out to collect daughter from airport school trip. She had to cross some flooded roads because our home become surrounded by ring of flooding.

We will see if it's knackered the car

 

[mustang1]

Ford Fiesta STs keep getting stolen round my way ? Think that’s 4 in the last month or so that I’m aware off?

Anyway digressing , they axed the Fiesta based on governments stance on the move to EVs by 2030. Is it Not something to do with emissions across their fleet ?

Edit . It would be appear that was not the only reason , people just don’t want a small car . SUVs rule the roost! Even small ones !

My MIL stopped her fiesta, left the door open and "popped" into the newsagents. Her car was stolen.

Then it was recovered.

A week later, she stopped at the same place, left the door open and "popped" into the (same) newsagent. Her car was stolen once again.

I think she would have done it again (and again) until someone told her she needed to learn a lesson out of these encounters.

 

[mustang1]

In short, yes - if compared to a Tesla.

The most notable things are that if you haven't got top spec you don't get the same level of trim as the Y or 3. No electric seats positioning, no seat memory, no electric tail lift.

Outside of not having what you might regard as things that should be standard in a £50k car, the secondary issue is the tech. Compared to Tesla it's just rubbish. The touch screen is slow and clunky and often takes several minutes to connect to Android Auto. When it has connected it's very sluggish. Just moving between menus is slow. It does have adaptive cruise control but it's light years away from Autopilot - it doesn't remember if there is a car in front if that car goes round a corner or over a hill and will just start accelerating. No niceties like Tesla Guardian, no built in dash cam recording even though there are front and rear facing cameras It does have auto-braking for crash avoidance and lane keeping over 40mpg.

Unlike Tesla, the OS is seldom updated. In a year of ownership we have had one minor update that added a Service App and 5 more games to the games app - not that the games app is great. The touch screen isn't good enough for proper games). The touch screen is also very small compared to rivals.

Things I do like over the Tesla - I think it looks nicer as a car. The headlights are fantastic and the seats are more comfortable. You also get a rear shelf which is handy. It is a more traditional car - VW haven't tried to do clever things - for example the power socket is just where the fuel cap would be on an ICE VW - even uses the same "fuel cap" flap.

I think the worst thing about an ID4/5 is it's not built from the ground up to be an all-electric vehicle somit has the package deficiencies of an ICE car. To compensate and to wow the consumer, lots of lights and big alloys and things like that are added.

If I wanted a non-tesla, I would either spend more and get a BMW/Merc or spend less and get an ID3. Ps, haven't Seat got an ID3 equivalent these days, probably a bit cheaper than ID3?

 

[mustang1]

Of far more importance, the plural of EV is EVs, and the plural of Tesla is Teslas.

No apostrophes needed.

Thank you.

Many thank's for that.

 

[mustang1]

Audio controls on the steering wheel are great when driving in a relatively straight line (ie out on the open road) but they're not useable in low speed manoevring situations, as you can't rely on muscle memory to instinctively know where they are; they might be the other side of the wheel, upside down!

BUt no-one NEEDS audio controls, so it's not a problem.

PRoviding clear indications is far mre important, both for courtesy to other road users, and for their safety.
And for their sanity, aren't you annoyed any sometimes endangered becausae someone has failed to indicate, or has indicated incorrectly?
So my heart sank when I read the VW patent application earlier this year, which proposed a stalkess indicator, using buttons on the steering wheel instead.

I wasn't aware anyone had actually implemented the idea yet. I'd like to hear real world experiences of it,hopefully Tesla have a better version than VW proposed, but I think it's a poor idea.

VW patent? I thought Ferrari already had indicators as buttons on the wheel.

 

[mustang1]

A Telsa EV owner who was caught in a heavy downpour of rain in Edinburgh recently related the following tale of 'misery'.
His Telsa wouldn't start, he was recovered by the Telsa recovery service and was subsequently handed a bill for £17,000 for repairs apparently due to water ingress in the main battery compartment, something which is not covered by the Telsa warranty. He kicked off about it.
As I said, his words.
Observations / comments Telsa owners - ?

I do not believe his words. There just seems to be so much more to this half-story imho.

 

[mustang1]

The radio is warning EV owners not to drive in heavy rain or thro floodwaters

I actually switch my radio off and retract the antenna lest I get electrocuted.

 

[mustang1]

They're scare mongering.

Exactly. Click bait. Makes you listen to the radio for a bit longer, hopefully until the next advert comes on.

 

[mustang1]

Greatest hits radio, the warning comes from Leicestershire fire and rescue keep away from flood water
repeated every hour since 10am and they mentioned EVs and batteries

I'm gonna speculate here. I think the radio guys phrase the sentence in such a way that it makes one think that if you have an EV then you must stay out of the floods. But they might say something like "stay out of floods because they are super dangerous. If you have a car, be really careful, especially if you have an EV."

But that's quite different from saying "people with EVs should stay out of flood water due to electric shocks but other cars are ok to proceed with caution."

The first sentence makes an inference whereas the second sentence explicitly states without a doubt what must be done.

 

[cougie uk]

My MIL stopped her fiesta, left the door open and "popped" into the newsagents. Her car was stolen.

Then it was recovered.

A week later, she stopped at the same place, left the door open and "popped" into the (same) newsagent. Her car was stolen once again.

I think she would have done it again (and again) until someone told her she needed to learn a lesson out of these encounters.

There is a Fiesta in the floodwaters a mile away from here - half submerged. Is you MIL out and about tonight ?

 

[Jameshow]

I think the worst thing about an ID4/5 is it's not built from the ground up to be an all-electric vehicle somit has the package deficiencies of an ICE car. To compensate and to wow the consumer, lots of lights and big alloys and things like that are added.

If I wanted a non-tesla, I would either spend more and get a BMW/Merc or spend less and get an ID3. Ps, haven't Seat got an ID3 equivalent these days, probably a bit cheaper than ID3?

Tend to be a generation behind. Skoda seem to be less behind tbh.