EV Owners Thread

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icowden

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
There's quite a bit of rumbling bass road noise when driving on anything other than perfectly smooth surfaces, but I'm probably noticing that mostly because I'm not hearing an engine note.
There's no probably. That's a definite. If you ever have cause to drive on the south-west bit of the M25 which has a concrete surface you will think that the car is about to collapse at any moment due to the deafening sound from the concrete.
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
There's no probably. That's a definite. If you ever have cause to drive on the south-west bit of the M25 which has a concrete surface you will think that the car is about to collapse at any moment due to the deafening sound from the concrete.

We were there at the weekend jct 9-10. It’s an absolute travesty.
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
I miss the old concrete road surfaces. There used to be one outside my old school, but both have been removed and replaced, and it is the road surface that I miss. Why? The hum and rhythm of the gaps is just so comforting.

OK, I am a bit strange like that.
 
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icowden

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
I miss the old concrete road surfaces. There used to be one outside my old school, but both have been removed and replaced, and it is the road surface that I miss. Why? The hum and rhythm of the gaps is just so comforting.
OK, I am a bit strange like that.
Trust me, in an EV it ain't a hum...
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Tim, I was around at my daughter's house. I thought I would take some photos of the upgrades my electrician did to the meter box and connection to the garage .

The garage now has 50A supply with it's own consumer unit for Zappi and all electrics + provision of solar /battery storage.

He added an additional switch inside the meter box (upto date regs) and further outside MCB protecting the garage

You may also see the CT clamp hardwired back to the Zappi, to control excess demand

I pulled all the armoured cables between the buildings, which was a bloody struggle. Builder used wrong trunking (ribbed) with unnecessary bends and fencing contractor but weight of fence post just ontop.. Job would have been absolute doddle if they had let me lay proper underground trunking before they tarmacked the drive

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Legs

usually riding on Zwift...
Location
Staffordshire
Tim, I was around at my daughter's house. I thought I would take some photos of the upgrades my electrician did to the meter box and connection to the garage .

The garage now has 50A supply with it's own consumer unit for Zappi and all electrics + provision of solar /battery storage.

He added an additional switch inside the meter box (upto date regs) and further outside MCB protecting the garage

You may also see the CT clamp hardwired back to the Zappi, to control excess demand

I pulled all the armoured cables between the buildings, which was a bloody struggle. Builder used wrong trunking (ribbed) with unnecessary bends and fencing contractor but weight of fence post just ontop.. Job would have been absolute doddle if they had let me lay proper underground trunking before they tarmacked the drive
Thanks Andy, that's great to know what to expect. Looks like a tidy job in the end. :okay:
 

presta

Legendary Member
So the car industry has written to the government threatening to pull out of the UK unless they do something to stimulate electric car sales: HMG is fining them if they don't sell what the customers won't buy. Meanwhile, Ed Milliband admits that the main reason people won't buy electric is that they don't believe that they'll be able to find a working charger when they need one. It's interesting to wonder how Norway has done so much better than us, are they taking concerns about chargers more seriously?

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electric-car-sales-share?time=2013..latest&country=NOR~GBR
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-car-stocks-electric?country=NOR~GBR

It seems that 80% of the new chargers being installed are below 50kW anyway, which itself looks pretty poor against a petrol pump that will deliver 25MW.

GY-Bqx7XIAAurrQ?format=png&name=900x900.png


Perhaps they're incentivising the wrong thing, if chargers are the sticking point, incentivise them instead of the cars.
 
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icowden

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
It's interesting to wonder how Norway has done so much better than us, are they taking concerns about chargers more seriously?
No. They subsidise EVs and charge extra tax on ICE cars so that ICE cars cost more than EVs. The subsidy comes from selling oil however so there is a bit of sleight of hand going on...

It seems that 80% of the new chargers being installed are below 50kW anyway, which itself looks pretty poor against a petrol pump that will deliver 25MW.
Only if you insist on refusing to understand that you are comparing chalk and cheese. It's like comparing a rotary dial Bakelite telephone with a smartphone. They are both able to perform the function of a phone, but they are vastly different technologies. You don't *need* to be able to recharge an EV in 2 minutes because that use case is so incredibly small. It's a tiny outlier compared to normal use.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
So the car industry has written to the government threatening to pull out of the UK unless they do something to stimulate electric car sales: HMG is fining them if they don't sell what the customers won't buy. Meanwhile, Ed Milliband admits that the main reason people won't buy electric is that they don't believe that they'll be able to find a working charger when they need one. It's interesting to wonder how Norway has done so much better than us, are they taking concerns about chargers more seriously?

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electric-car-sales-share?time=2013..latest&country=NOR~GBR
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-car-stocks-electric?country=NOR~GBR

It seems that 80% of the new chargers being installed are below 50kW anyway, which itself looks pretty poor against a petrol pump that will deliver 25MW.

View attachment 747828

Perhaps they're incentivising the wrong thing, if chargers are the sticking point, incentivise them instead of the cars.
The growth of charging stations is booming. When you understand that for the majority of EV owners, charging at home on 7kW will give a full charge in the morning. You don't need to have as many charge points as petrol stations. There are actually more EV charge points that petrol stations in the UK.

I only charged 4 times at supercharger this calendar year.

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My wife whose car is used far more than mine has charged less than dozen times for the year

1000015870.jpg
 

markemark

Über Member
About 3 times in the last 2 years have I had to go and get my EV charged. I went to a Shell garage the other day for nostalgia as I missed paying £2 for a Mars bar. My car is always charged wherever I am staying and the odd time it needs topping up I just charge it when parked by choosing the right parking. I cannot imagine how much time and effort I've saved by not getting my car filled up anymore. And add to that it now costs me around £6 to 'fill it up' at home which is 99% of the time.
 

figbat

Slippery scientist
I have NEVER charged my current car away from home (18 months, about 16,000 miles). The previous one I did a handful of times in 2 years.

Yes, I’m ’lucky’ to be able to install a charger at home.
 
Not charged my EV away from home in over a year and we do 12-13,000 miles a year in it. AND it's got a small battery.
There's an Instavolt charger a short walk from home by a cafe. Sitting in the sun having a coffee yesterday and watching a couple of range rover hybrids charging up. How big are their electric batteries ? Does it even make financial sense to charge at 85p per kwh compared to using petrol ?
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
I don't see the necessity for hybrids to charge when out and about, except for the reason that they have literally run out of petrol or diesel. Most hybrids, are either fully self charging or those with a charge port can recharge whilst driving. It does add to less fuel efficiency, but I doubt it's more costly than using an 85p/kW rapid charger.
 

dicko

Guru
Location
Derbyshire
If everyone has an EV then there is going to be needed a complete re wiring of the whole electrical supply network. I have just installed a Tesla battery which draws 5.4 kWh on cheap rate electric every night between 2 and 5am. I had to notify the electrical supply board (East Midlands Electricity) that I have installed one which is true for every new EV charging pod installed.
The reason being that they guesstimate every home in your street draws 2kWh (cooking Christmas dinner as an example) so when the street charges their EVs you could have many chargers drawing 7 kWh which is going to heat the supply wiring somewhat. Standby for roadworks on a mammoth scale.
 
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icowden

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
Not charged my EV away from home in over a year and we do 12-13,000 miles a year in it. AND it's got a small battery.
There's an Instavolt charger a short walk from home by a cafe. Sitting in the sun having a coffee yesterday and watching a couple of range rover hybrids charging up. How big are their electric batteries ? Does it even make financial sense to charge at 85p per kwh compared to using petrol ?

If they were the new ones apparently they have a 38kwh battery (50 miles range). It probably makes as much sense as buying one of those things for £50k in the first place.
 
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