The Car Thread

[Kenny]

Drive to and from Stafford last night we had the miles per kwh at 3.8. So a good start from a 40+ mile journey

Sat Nav seems to have charging points well highlighted and 1 click and the route is added.

 

[Tredman]

Electroverse is superb for occasional charging. If you will do a lot of public charging look at an Elli sub - I use that and get sub 30p/KWh on rapid chargers.

 

[Tredman]

Drive to and from Stafford last night we had the miles per kwh at 3.8. So a good start from a 40+ mile journey

Sat Nav seems to have charging points well highlighted and 1 click and the route is added.

ABRP app is essential for long journey plannings. Makes it so simple.

 

[The Bear]

Electroverse is superb for occasional charging. If you will do a lot of public charging look at an Elli sub - I use that and get sub 30p/KWh on rapid chargers.

Bonnet is another EV charging amalgam that you can buy blocks of charging.

 

[Tredman]

Bonnet is another EV charging amalgam that you can buy blocks of charging.

Spit. Robbed me, among many others, of early rewards credit. Bunch of shysters.

Done nearly 2000 miles across Europe so far and used Elli every time bar twice, once when I used Electroverse and once when I lowered myself to giving Musk money.

 

[Kenny]

So, messsage from the good lady regarding her drive to work. Range was 260....all of a sudden it dropped to 49, messages popping up telling her she needs to charge the car....minute later back to 260

A common glitch in EV's or just this German bastard on the wind up?

 

[Tredman]

Never heard of that but generally pay attention to the percentage left. If it’s below 25% think of charging.

 

[Kenny]

Mon-Fri she will pop on the charger they have at work, so it will well charged each day. At 80% as that is what the stuff tells her to do for her daily driving and only up it to 100% if planning on long journeys. Presume that is something to help look after the battery or just bollocks and she should always do a full charge?

 

[The Bear]

I'd you have the option to change the range readout to percentage not miles, it greatly reduces any range anxiety.

 

[The Bear]

Mon-Fri she will pop on the charger they have at work, so it will well charged each day. At 80% as that is what the stuff tells her to do for her daily driving and only up it to 100% if planning on long journeys. Presume that is something to help look after the battery or just bollocks and she should always do a full charge?

Yes it helps with battery longeivity. You're not supposed to leave it at 100% for long periods. I always charge mine to 90%.

 

[Kenny]

I'd you have the option to change the range readout to percentage not miles, it greatly reduces any range anxiety.

Can see how much battery % is left, what the mileage is and the miles per kwh on the driver display

 

[Tredman]

Mon-Fri she will pop on the charger they have at work, so it will well charged each day. At 80% as that is what the stuff tells her to do for her daily driving and only up it to 100% if planning on long journeys. Presume that is something to help look after the battery or just bollocks and she should always do a full charge?

Not sure on that car. Mine doesn’t allow you to charge to full battery capacity so 100% isn’t really 100%.

For rapid charging don’t bother charging past 80% as it gets really slow. For anything else I just max it out.

 

[Kenny]

Setting on the car is at 80% then gives you an option to change that up to 100% and states "only advised for long journeys."

Will leave as it is as Mon-Fri it will essentially only drive from MD to the i54 site in Wolverhampton and back

 

[Alan]

Batteries these days are smart enough to manage their intake at capacities greater than 80% such that going to 100% is not the bad habit it used to be.

EDIT: Or in Kenny's case, they apparently leave it as a toggle for the user. Not the route I'd go, but c'est la vie...

 

[PuntsWolf]

Had to use a rapid charger for the first time at the weekend. Paying 0.69p a kW made me a bit angry but only put £7 in to get me home.

Are these other companies/apps you mention only good for regular users?

 

[PuntsWolf]

Wife got her new company car yesterday.

Audi Q4 e-Tron. Very good to drive and I will be leaving my car at home when I can to drive this one

So first time a full electric vehicle in our household. Got to sort out the issue of unlooping our electric supply until we can have a home charger put in but she will do her charging at work anyways, so no big issue

On range, what should you be looking for on the consumption of miles per kwh? Guessing somewhere between 3 and 4 to ensure decent range?

I’ve got the q4 etron 50 vorsprung. I average about 3.3

If you plonk it at 60 you can get around 4.2

 

[Tredman]

Had to use a rapid charger for the first time at the weekend. Paying 0.69p a kW made me a bit angry but only put £7 in to get me home.

Are these other companies/apps you mention only good for regular users?

Electroverse is probably best for casual use, gives you a small discount on a lot of chargers, bigger discount if you are an octopus customer.

 

[Carrotdude]

We got our first EV last week so this is all very useful info! Charging at home is fine as we’ve got a charger and the intelligent octopus tariff but we’re doing a long journey for the first time soon so trying to work out where I can charge. I don’t have a cable as my home one is tethered but am I right in thinking that the rapid chargers out and about have tethered cables?

 

[The Bear]

We got our first EV last week so this is all very useful info! Charging at home is fine as we’ve got a charger and the intelligent octopus tariff but we’re doing a long journey for the first time soon so trying to work out where I can charge. I don’t have a cable as my home one is tethered but am I right in thinking that the rapid chargers out and about have tethered cables?

As above, ZapMap and ABRP.

 

[Tredman]

We got our first EV last week so this is all very useful info! Charging at home is fine as we’ve got a charger and the intelligent octopus tariff but we’re doing a long journey for the first time soon so trying to work out where I can charge. I don’t have a cable as my home one is tethered but am I right in thinking that the rapid chargers out and about have tethered cables?

Yep, good to take a cable too though as you might chance a slower free charge.